Manchester City sell-out whilst Arsenal publish Premier League squad list

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Morning!

One step closer to proper football returning.

I have lost count of how often I have moaned about this early international break. In fact, one of the first blogs I wrote on SheWore.com was an international rant. Oddly enough, we played Scotland in a meaningless friendly back then as well!

The good news is that it sounds like all Arsenal players have returned from international duty unharmed. And the silver lining to the break is Gabriel Jesus has got another 2 weeks training under his belt, and just over half an hour of senior game time.

Will he be ready to start v Everton on Sunday? I would not be surprised if he plays the first 60 minutes.

Everton, of course, was supposed to be Saturday.

It was originally selected for late afternoon kick off time by the TV companies, but always had an asterix against it. That asterix was due to Newcastle v Brentford being selected for the 4:30pm Sunday kick off.

The TV companies knew before they selected that game that it might have to move if Newcastle were drawn to play in the Champions League on Tuesday. There plan was to swap it for the Arsenal fixture if that happened. And it did.

Once again, a game changed with 2 weeks notice, two fingers to both Arsenal and Brentford fans.

I am not really sure why the TV companies did not look at the impending Champions League draw and think ” let’s be fair to fans, have all Saturday kick offs for the Champions League teams that weekend”.

They could have easily originally scheduled Newcastle to host Brentford on the Saturday 12:30pm kick off, and then the Wolves v Liverpool fixture on that late Sunday kick off.

Instead, they once more showed they do not care about the match going fans they argued they defended during the European Super League debacle.

I can not wait to hear Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher’s condescending tone as they congratulate both sets of London fans making the journey” despite late changes and no trains home”, ignoring the fact that it was their employers decision as to why those late changes needed to be made.

One interesting story that caught my eye last night was Man City sell out of all available tickets for every Premier League home game this season.

When I saw the headline I thought “bollocks have they. Tickets are sold throughout the season on a game by game basis. Then Iread the article (hint to everyone, read an article before you comment. You will stop looking as stupid on Facebook).

The Blues changed up their ticketing policy this summer after consulting with fan group City Matters, making the majority of tickets for every game available at the same time. In doing this, the intention was to remove the pressure that people previously had of needing to be online on the morning when each individual game went on sale.

Arsenal have their well publicised ticketing issues this season, and whilst selling all tickets in one go will not solve any of our problems, it is an interesting change.

On one hand, the scrap for tickets can become a blood bath. Multiple browsers open, setting alarm, scheduling meetings at work that don’t exist and so on.

In the past I have missed out on away tickets just because when my “window” came up, the thought slipped my mind to buy tickets.

Selling in a single block at the start of the season would mean that you only have one date to remember. Whether it still resulted in a scrap for tickets on that day you will have to ask City fans (all 6 of them).

The flip side is many people choose not to have a season ticket because they do not want to commit to an event that is 6 months down the line. They like being able to buy a ticket 2 months in advance when they will be more aware of their availability.

Likewise, many can not afford to spunk £1000 on a single day. Their decision to try and buy tickets might strive from how much cash they have in their pocket on the day the tickets come available. And the answer is not “just put it on a credit card.”

I think there is an underestimation of those that leave hand to month, pay cheque to pay cheque. Especially those paid weekly or who might be on temporary contracts.

It is wrong to expect people to get into debt to go football.

I would like to hear from City fans as to whether the change in ticketing policy has been a good one or not. I am sure other clubs are watching them and might go down the same road if it proves popular….

Finally, our Premier League squad was named yesterday.

Following the Champions League squad announcement earlier in the week, we knew there would not be any surprised.

Edu has done a great job slimming the squad down (by hook or by crook) and ensuring that we were not in a position where we had to leave players unregistered.

We have named a full 25 man squad, including Jurrien Timber.

That means if we do want to sign anyone in January, someone will have to be de-registered.

James Hillson, Cedric Soares  and Mohamed Elneny seem the most likely candidates.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos

Arsenal fans will just need to get used to Bukayo Saka having a huge workload

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During international breaks, you always get the comments about Gareth Southgate “overplaying” Bukayo Saka. Personally I have no issue with it.

This accusation has also been directed towards Mikel Arteta previously.

In October last, Arteta spoke brilliantly about Saka’s work load:

“Look at the top players in the world, they play 70 matches and every three days and make the difference and win the game.

“You want to be at the top, you have to be able to do that. If we start to put something different in the minds of our young players I think we are making a huge mistake because then it’s one yes, one no, now I don’t play, on astroturf I don’t play, I don’t want that.

“I want them to be ruthless every three days. They are going to be knocking on my door, [saying] ‘I want to play, I want to win the game.’”

He added: “There is not a fitness coach in the world who is going to tell me that they cannot do it because I’ve seen it. 72 games, score 50 goals. The players don’t score 50 goals if they play 38 games in the season, it’s impossible.”

Arteta is aluding to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. And that if Saka wants to get near to these guys level, he has to have the desire to play every game he can.

Wayne Rooney and Cesc Fabregas were similar.

All 4 had career spanning 15+ years, and played a combined 3,692 games for club and country.

Saka has just turned 22 and has played 217 for Arsenal and England.

At 24, Kylian Mbappe has already played 375 games. Vinicius Junior is already north of 300 and is only a year older than Saka.

Haaland, 23 years old, is at 284 games.

If Saka wants to be considered as one of the best players of his generation, he needs to be playing the games, and maintaing the level.

Others around his age were playing 50-60 games a season, so Saka should be expected to play at the same level. And Arsenal fans will need to get used to it.

Jack Grealish, who pulled out of this England squad, will never be talked about as a modern great. He is not one of the best in the world.

Saka could become one of the greatest players of his generation and one of England (and Arsenal’s) all time best players.

Playing every possible available minute for club and country is just want all to players do.

Keenos

Stewart Robson: Sold by Graham, Sacked by Wenger, Banned from the Arsenal

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When talking on ESPN over the weekend, ex-Arsenal player Stewart Robson spoke about Kai Havertz:

“He [Havertz] has gone to Arsenal and the Arsenal fans don’t want him in the side. They are booing him, at the moment. They don’t want him in the team. They can’t understand why Arteta is playing the system that he is playing to fit Havertz into it. He is struggling at Arsenal, at the moment.”

These are absolute lies from a very bitter man.

At no point in the Emirates has Havertz name been met with boos.

Yes, there have been a couple of grumblings of miscontent, but no more than someone like Robert Pires had in his early days.

Robson seems to be mixing up social media with what actually goes on in the stadium.

Now Robson has been a very bitter man for a long time when it comes to Arsenal, and during Arsene Wenger’s tenure he became a rent-a-quote gobshite criticising the bluc at any opportunity he had. He became the go to man whenever the media wanted to write a negative story on Arsenal and looked to get a quote from a former player to liven it up.

He used to do Adrian Clarke’s job, presenting pre and post-match analysis of the game for Arsenal Media. In around 2013 Robson was sacked for his “wild rants”.

Not long after, Arsenal legend Bob Wilson had his say on what went on:

“This is a guy who worked for this club up to a few weeks ago, doing the pre-match stuff on the opposition, who then went to a newspaper, without naming anybody who had given him the so-called facts about him [Arsene Wenger] being a dictator,” Wilson told the BBC.   “Today, he’s been on every half hour on Radio Five Live, and this is a guy who obviously is a bitter guy because he’s no longer got a role or any employment here.”

There are countless Redit threads discussing why Robson is so bitter towards Arsenal going way to back 2015. The main rumour being that he wanted to become Wenger’s assistant back in 2012, but Wenger opted for Steve Bould instead.

He could do with Arsenal being a “banter club” again. The worse we perform, the more relevant he becomes.

Robson spent the 2010s making a lot of money spreading negativity about Arsenal in the media. Let’s leave him in the last decade.

In other news, Arsenal named their Champions League squad yesterday.

Gighly rated youngster Lino Sousa was included, as was goal keeper James Hilson. The only high profile exclusion was Jurrien Timber.

Timber is out until the new year, so it made little sense to include him. Expect him to be added to the squad if we make it through our tough group.

Sousa is a player that excites me.

In him and Reuell Walters we have two fantastic, young full backs that have been learning the inverted roll from a young age. A bit like Rico Lewis at Manchester City, expect them both to be able to easily slot into the position if called upon.

Walters did not need to be named in the squad due to his age. Sousa had to be included because he has not been at Arsenal long enough having only joined last summer.

Both have a huge future at Arsenal, and in Sousa’s case I can understand why we did not buy someone to replace Kieran Tierney.

We anmed our full compliment of 25, with Cedric Soares also included.

I can not see the Portuguese fullback getting any game time, but if you have a spare slot you might as well fill it!

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Keenos