Future of Arsenal target linked to Chelsea star

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Declan Rice is a Chelsea boy.

Born in Kingston upon Thames, a Borough in both London and Surrey, he joined the Chelsea academy as a seven-year-old. Already at the club was a Mason Mount.

Mount and Rice “hit it off straight away” and remained really close as they went through the age groups. At 14, Rice was released and quickly joined West Ham.

The expectation for some time is the Rice would likely end up back at Chelsea.

Since making his debut for the Hammers in 2017, he has become a World Class defensive midfielder. Up there with the likes of Thomas Partey, Casemiro and Rodri.

Rice still lives on the Surrey / London borders and is a member of the Kingswood Golf Club. The club is around 11 miles from Chelsea’s Cobham Academy.

Going back to his boyhood club, to play with his best mate, a stones throw from where he lives. It looked the perfect move for Rice. But that has potentailly been soured with what is happening with Mount.

Mount is currently in contract dispute with Chelsea.

His current deal ends in 2024, and Mount was reportedly hoping to treble his wages to £240,000 a week; similar to what Reece James is reportadly on

The Englishman is not in Chelsea’s top 20 highest earners, despite being named their Player of the Year in 2020/21 and 2021/22 – the last two seasons. Mount rejected an offer of around £200,000 per week back in November.

With a bloated 33-man squad, Chelsea will need to get rid of some players in the summer. With his contract dispute, Mount could be one of those to leave. There will be no shortage of suitors with both Arsenal and Liverpool considering a move.

Despite signing Enzo Fernandez, Chelsea still need midfielders. And that requirement will become more crucial if Mount leaves. Rice will still be on their shortlist.

From Declan Rice’s point of view, playing with Mount again was a huge reason to return to Chelsea. With things turning sour, his boyhood club may no longer be as attractive.

Would you join an employer who had recently treated your best poorly, leaving them to leave? Probably not.

With everything considered, Arsenal look to be in pole position in the race for Rice. And what is happening with Mount only strengthens our opinion.

Finaly thought: Should we also chase Mason Mount?

Keenos

Mikel Arteta now 9th longest serving manager in the top 4 divisions of English football

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Morning to the crazy English Premier League!

Graham Potter became the 12th Premier League manager sacked. His removal as Chelsea manager came just a few hours after Brendan Rodgers became the 11th. Crazy times!

11 sides in the Premier League have changed their manager this season – 10 by choice and Brighton due to Potter taking the Chelsea job.

The turnover has created the mind blown fact that Mikel Arteta is now the 4th longest serving Premier League manager. And equally as crazy, he is the 9th longest serving manager in the top 4 divisions of English football

All those Chelsea fans that celebrated their “great new owners” are now realising why the rest of us were laughing at them.

They were blinded by the millions spent by the new Todd Boehly regeime, ignoring that it was a scattergun approach with no real strategy. For a time, is just seemed they were chasing players purely because Arsenal or Manchester City were getting linked with them.

Close to £600m spent, £323 in January, to be 11th. Who would thought spending big on a load of players who were untried at the highest level would come back and bite them.

What sums up their fans is that they were extatic over signing Piree-Emerick Aubameyang, sharing videos of the Gabonese forward dancing with his family in his garden with a Chelsea shirt. It really showed that they were more interested in mocking Arsenal than realising the poo business their own club were doing.

Their fans boasted about how they were spending so much, praising the genius Boehly for working withing FFP through giving players such long contracts. Now they are miserable. Angry that they have given so many average players 8 year contracts.

What is also crazy is Boehly got rid of Thomas Tuchel, a world class manager who is a serial winner, and replaced him with a fella who was managing in Norway a few seasons ago.

10 days ago, Bayern Munich acted quickly to remove Julian Nagelsmann and replace him with Tuchel. They were fearful of Tottenham being linked despite Conte still being in the hotseat at Spurs.

Tuchel’s first game in charge of Bayern was a 4–2 home win against his old club Borussia Dortmund which saw Munich go top of the league.

Two days after Tuchel joined Munich, Tottenham sacked Conte.

Nagelsmann immediatly became Spurs fans favourite for the job. And is it those links with Nagelsmann that saw Chelsea sack Potter?

The young German will surely end up at Chelsea. He ticks a lot of the boxes that any club will want, especially those looking for a “project manager”.

And that probably leaves Tottenham with Graham Potter. Or potentially the recently “left by mutual consent” Brendan Rodgers.

Meanwhile, we have stuck with a panic buy deadline day signing from Everton in charge…

Have a good Tuesday!

Keenos

No Saka No Problems

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In hindsight, Bukayo Saka coming down with a bug might be very benificial to our title chances.

He was suprisingly left on the bench for Leeds having been ill on the Friday. Saturday morning rumours of a stomach bug in the Arsenal camp turned out not to be an April Fools.

Despite missing the best right winger in the world, we cruised to victory over Leeds. And whilst Saka did come off the bench to make a 30 minute cameo, the rest woould have done him the world of good.

Saka had started every Premier League game this season prior to Leeds. He also started both matches for England in the international break. His enforced absence Saturday will mean he would have played just 30 minutes football over a two week period.

I am not concerned by how much football Saka is playing. World class players rarely miss a game. But a small break will always do a player good.

The way we played even without Saka was extremely impressive; and shows that we have plenty of fire power.

Erling Haaland is runaway top scorer in the Premier League with 28 goals. That is 15 more than our top league scorer – Gabriel Martinelli. Manchester City also have the player with the most assists – Kevin de Bruyne.

Despite City having arguably the best centre forward in world football and the best creative midfielder, they have only scored one more goal than us.

Whilst City are very reliant on the goals of Haaland and assists of de Bruyne, Arsenal’s strength is our multi-pronged attack.

Saka has obviously been the main man this season, with 13 goals and 10 assists in all competitions. Equal on goals to Saka is Martinelli, whilst Martin Odegaard is equal on assists.

Having just returned from injury, Gabriel Jesus scored his 6th and 7th goals of the season against Leeds. In his absence, Eddie Nketiah has been able to accumulate 9 goals and an assist.

Leandro Trossard got another assist at the weekend taking his tally to 7 since joining The Arsenal. No player in English football has created more than him since he joined us, and only Saka and de Bruyne have more than 7 assists ALL SEASON.

And then you have Granit Xhaka with just the 7 goals and 5 assists.

Arteta’s attacking philosphy is all about overloads and versatility. It is Total Football. Our 4th on Saturday sums up the way Arteta wants us to attack.

Saka drew Leeds players across on the left, played a quick ball inside to Odergaard who in turn swung in a quality ball into the box. Clean through to cushion a header in was not the centre forward, but Grant Xhaka.

Four goals on Saturday, 6 different men involved in scoring or creating – Jesus (2), Ben White and Xhaka were assisted by Martinelli, Trossard and Odegaard.

Whilst we might not have the “big name” of Haaland or de Bruyne, our multi-pronged attack makes us nearly impossible to defend against.

We attack down down the right, down the laeft, through the middle. Any one of 5 can score. Any one of 5 can get the assist.

And then as we saw on Saturday, and whilst Jesus was off injured, the men ready to step in when an injury arises also provide quality.

Our best front 5 is:

Jesus
Martinelli Xhaka Odegaard Saka

Then on the bench we have:

Nketiah
Trossard ESR Vieira Nelson

We are so unpredictable in attack due to the versatility of our attackers. Nketiah is the only one of the 10 that can not play in multiple positions.

Jesus drifts left, creating space for Martinelli to come inside. Trossard drops deep giving Xhaka the space to run into. Saka comes inside and we see Odegaard runnign the wing. It is chaos!

Manchester City have the leagues top scorer, but Haaland is their olny player in the top 10. We have 2 in the top 10. de Bruyne is also their only player in the top 10 of assits. We have 3 in the top 10.

Throughout the season, there has been a feeling that if you can stop Haaland, you stop City. He has scored 40% of their goals. And that was perhaps highlighted against Liverpool.

Haaland was out injured, Julian Alvarez came in, they score 4, with 4 different goal scorers.

Arsenal are the most exciting attacking team in world football right now. And it is even more exciting when you realise how young they all are.

Jesus turns 26 today, whilst Saka and Martinelli are just 21. Odegaard is an old man at 24, and it is easy to forget that Smith Rowe and Vieira are both just 22.

Saka’s enforced break should mean he is ready and firing to go next Sunday against Liverpool. Win that an I might start to dream.

Keenos