Players linked with transfers away highlight The Arsenal are back

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“Mikel Arteta lined up by Barcelona”
“Real Madrid to launch fresh transfer bid for Arsenal star Jesus”
“Man City ‘monitoring’ Arsenal star Bukayo Saka”
“Liverpool send Gabriel Martinelli transfer message”
“Paris Saint-Germain ‘keeping an eye on Arsenal’s William Saliba'”

It is a testiment to Arsenal’s return as a force in England that our top players are getting linked to Europe’s elite and rich.

Arsenal are a 2nd tier club when it comes to the transfer food chain. Always have done, always will be.

Top tier are the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester United Manchester City and Chelsea. The latter two due to their financial power.

We sit in the 2nd Tier alongside Liverpool,Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and PSG (who have the money but do not really have the pull).

Below us in Tier 3 is the likes of Napoli, Tottenham, RB Liepzig, Sevilla, Ajax, Newcastle (with their new found riches), Roma, and whoever else is top 4 or 6 in Spain at the time.

Whether you like it or not, we have never really “eaten from the top table”.

Those in the top tier tend to be able to attract players from every tier below them. Tier 2 get the scraps who Tier 1 no longer want (think Gabriel Jesus, Alexis SAnchez, Mesut Ozil), and buy the best from below them.

Tier 3 buy the tier 2 “rejects” and the best from those below, and so on.

Even when Arsenal were invincible, winning league titles for fun and making Champions League semi-finals and finals, our players were still linked with moves away.

Thierry Henry (to Barcelona) and Patrick Vieira (to Real Madrid) were two transfer sagas that occured every summer for 4 or 5 years during the early 00s.

And topping the league did not stop Real Madrid coming in for Nicolas Anelka and Barcelona signing Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit.

As we fell off our perch, players were picked off left right and centre from those above and around us.

Ashley Cole went to Chelsea, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri and Kolo Toure to Man City. Cesc Fabregas, Alex Hleb and Alex Song went Barcelona whilst Robin van Persie went to Manchester United.

These were players we did not want to sell, but those clubs from the top table manufactured moves to buy.

In exchange, we got William Gallas, Mikel Silvestre, Danny Welbeck, Petr Cech, David Luiz, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Willian.

The top tier buy who they want, when they want, and cast off their rejects to clubs below them.

Yes, we signed Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona and Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, but both of these were deemed surplus to requirements. It is the same for Martin Odergaard, Gabriel Jesus and Alex Zinchenko.

When Barcelona sold us Sanchez, they had just signed Luis Suarez to go with Lionel Messi and Neymar. The Chilean was 2nd string.

And when Manchester United came in for Sanchez, they got their man despite us not wanting to sell. And in exchange we got Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a player they no longer wanted to keep.

Likewise Real Madrid decided Ozil was expandable having signed Isco and Gareth Bale.

Through in Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel di Maria and Luca Modric, Madrid no longer needed Ozil.

But for a while, our players have not been linked with these “big moves” top Europe’s Elite.

In fact, for many of our players, we struggled to find a buyer.

The likes of Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis were paid to leave. Whilst Alexandre Lacazette, Hector Bellerin, Luiz, Willian, Sead Kolasinac, Calum Chambers and Welbeck left for nothing.

And when we did get a fee, it was not really anything to shout about. We were just glad to get the likes of Matteo Guendouzi, Davis Ospina, Laurent Koscielny, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Lucas TorreiraCarl Jenkinson, Joel Campbell and Lucas Perez off the books.

Finding someone willing to spend any sort of money was hard enough – let alone big money.

It was only really with Joe Willock, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alex Iwobi and Emiliano Martinez that we were in a strong negotiating position with.

Decent players who were no longer needed by us, but were could enough to command a decent fee.

So I am delighted when I see our players linked with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juvenus. Or Manchester City and Manchester United again.

And it is not because I want to sell them.

It shows that we have players that would interest other top teams. Whom they would pay big money to secure.

Whilst they are at Arsenal, they are putting in fantastic performances that our rivals take note.

And if (and more likely when) they do leave, we can command top dollar for them to re-invest.

And as the saying goes, a rising lifts all boats.

If your top end players are garnering interest (and big money) from rivals, than those at the next level also see their price naturally rise.

We saw that with Liverpool when they got decent transfer fees for average players just because they were seen at the time as being a successful club.

I do not fear losing the players we have.

We are now in a similar situation as 2007-ish where we have some exciting young talent. It is now important that we continue to build on them so that they can win the trophies they desire whilst in North London.

If we do not win trophies, then it is only natural that they seek success (and huge contracts) elsewhere.

In the late 00s & early 10s, the likes of Clichy, Song, Fabregas, van Persie and more left and became key components to title winning teams. Had they stayed at Arsenal another couple of years they might have led us to glory. But our board (and mangement) at the time were unable to match their ambition.

You match the ambition of Saliba, Saka & Martinelli, they will not join PSG, Man City or Real Madrid. You fail to match their ambition and they will be out the door.

Our players being linked away is just another sign that we are back!

Keenos

Arsenal bounce back from worst week of the season in style

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After our worst week of the season, we needed to bounce back and make a statement.

The media, opposing fans and Arsenal-incels had spent the last few days out from under their rocks.

“Burn Out Central” they cried after the defeat away to PSV.

We needed to make a statement and did.

5-0 did not flatter us. It could have been more as we returned to the top of the table.

This was arguably Mikel Arteta’s strongest Arsenal XI, with Ben White at right back making another claim that he should be on the plane to Qatar.

We were fantastic and showed no cobwebs from the Thursday loss to PSV.

When you look across the Premier League, you can see how European football is affecting clubs.

Chelsea were thrashed by Brighton, Liverpool lost at home to Leeds United.

Tottenham got away with it at Bournemouth, whilst Manchester City were below pair in victory against Leicester City. Manchester United also scrapped a 1-0 against West Ham.

The Hammers, meanwhile, sit just 3 points off the relegation zone.

It has been a tough October for all of these teams, each of whom played 9 games.

And the games continue to come thick and fast – with all those sides having another 4 games before the break for the World Cup in 2 weeks time.

That will be 13 games in 6 weeks. A huge workload even for a squad with the size and depth of Manchester City

It is why I was not calling crisis after the draw to Southampton.

With 7 wins from 9 games, I would be surprised if any team across Europe’s top 5 leagues won more games in October.

In the Premier League, only Newcastle got more points than Arsenal in October; and they played a game more.

Over the month, we have 4 more points than Spurs, 3 more than Man U and 6 more than Liverpool. Yet it was only Arsenal that came in for huge criticism following a single draw.

Despite winning 5-0, some still moaned. Gabriel Jesus didn’t score and Bukayo Saka was “mismanaged”. Fact these people still find something to moan about despite us being top of the league says a lot about them.

Zurich at home on Thursday should see a similar result to Sunday.

The team will be interesting with Chelsea a noon kick off Sunday, and Arsenal needing to win to top the group.

Zurich will be up for it, there won’t against Bodo/Glimt last weeks means they still have a chance of dropping into the Europa Conference.

Arteta would have hoped we would wrap the group up last week, but it didn’t happen, so expect a fairy strong team on Thursday, especially in defence.

Enjoy your day and we will discuss the team for Zurich later in the week.

We are too the league.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 5 – 0 Nottingham Forest

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Arsenal (1) 5 Nottingham Forest (0) 0

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 30th October 2022. Kick-off time: 2.00pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Reiss Nelson, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Karl Hein.

Scorers: Gabriel Martinelli (4 mins), Reiss Nelson (49, 52 mins), Thomas Partey (57 mins), Martin Ødegaard (78 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 69%

Referee: Simon Hooper

Assistant Referees: Adrian Holmes, James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: Thomas Bramall

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR: Andre Marriner; AVAR Darren Cann

Attendance: 60,263

However, it should be noted that today’s game against the East Midlanders is our ninth first-class match this month; of the previous eight, victories were chalked up in six, and of the remaining two games, one was a draw, and the other a defeat. Playing nine matches in thirty days (which works out one every 3.33 days) is an incredible strain for everyone associated with the club, and at the time of writing, we are in second place in the Premiership, just a mere point behind Manchester City and top of Group A in the Europa League, both of which are incredible achievements for Arsenal Football Club. Who would have thought such an amazing thing to be possible for Mikel Arteta and the boys this time last year . . .

Before this afternoon’s match, our medical team will assess Marquinhos (who has been ill), and fellow defender Gabriel, who limped off the pitch at the end of last Thursday’s defeat by PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, Oleksandr Zinchenko may well be fit enough to make an appearance, whilst Emile Smith-Rowe and Mohamed Elneny are still not recovered enough to be considered for the team at the Emirates today, sadly. Finally, our best wishes for a speedy recovery go to our on-loan defender Pablo Marí, who faces two months out of the game following surgery after an appalling stabbing incident in a shopping centre in Milan last Thursday evening. 

We completely showed our intent right from the kick-off, with the visitors being pushed back into their half and not looking too organised at this point in the game. After just four minutes, we opened the scoring when Bukayo Saka was found on the right hand side of the penalty area by Gabriel Martinelli. The England forward cut inside and curled a superb cross into the centre of the penalty area for Gabriel Martinelli to head the ball into the back of the net. A couple of minutes later, we carelessly gave the ball away on the edge of our own penalty area and it fell easily to Remo Freuler to fire a shot straight at Aaron Ramsdale, who gathered the ball easily. Almost immediately, we came back at the visitors, and both Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard were unlucky not to score, and the resulting corner also saw Takehiro Tomiyasu attempting to get on the scoresheet, but his volley flew over the bar. After just a quarter of an hour, the match was looking to be completely one-sided, with the Forest defence having trouble containing our forwards, particularly Bukayo Saka, who was simply doing what he liked with their defence; unfortunately he was the victim of a bad foul by Renan Lodi a little earlier, and went off for some treatment which was a concern. Gabriel Martinelli had a great shot, which steered goalwards and was cleared literally off the goal-line by Renan Lodi. The mood in the stadium is that it is felt that it is merely a matter of time before we get our second goal, and just before the half hour mark, taking no chances, Mikel Arteta substituted Bukayo Saka for Reiss Nelson as a precautionary measure, which is a very good thing, especially with the World Cup on the horizon. Morgan Gibbs-White fouled Reiss Nelson on the edge of the penalty area, and although Martin Ødegaard’s subsequent free-kick bounced off the Forest wall, we are constantly knocking on the door looking for that elusive second goal. After a poor Jesse Lingard shot that went wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s post, we continued our pressure on the visitor’s goal with Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Ødegaard causing havoc in the Forest penalty area constantly. A hopeful Gabriel Jesus shot went over the bar, and although the visitors came back at us with a couple of half decent efforts, our defenders were not too unduly worried by them. After a Forest free-kick, Granit Xhaka received treatment after a sliding tackle by Morgan Gibbs-White that went wrong, and almost immediately afterwards, referee Simon Hooper blew the whistle for half-time.

Just after the restart, a long throw from Thomas Partey which dropped nicely and was turned on by Granit Xhaka which looked good, but he was too close to Serge Aurier, who cleared the ball messily. A minute later, our substitute Reiss Nelson, was found in the box by Gabriel Jesus, but although his first shot was saved, the ball fell straight back at the midfielder’s feet and he made no mistake in hitting the back of the net a second time; and three minutes later, Reiss Nelson grabbed his second of the game (and Arsenal’s third) when he poked the ball into the far corner from an excellent Gabriel Jesus slotted ball into the Forest penalty area from the right. The game slowed down a bit when the visitors made a substitution, but normal service was resumed when Reiss Nelson passed the ball to Thomas Partey, who hit an absolute screamer which bent superbly into the top corner of the net for our fourth goal of the afternoon. Shortly afterwards, Gabriel Martinelli and Takehiro Tomiyasu were substituted for Fabio Vieira and Cédric Soares, and almost immediately, Fabio Vieira was found at the back post by a deep cross, but he lost concentration and mis-hit his shot, which was a shame. We kept on coming forward, with Gabriel Jesus constantly shooting on goal; one of his best efforts wa a close range shot that was somehow saved by Dean Henderson, and it has to be said that the visitors are looking somewhat jaded now, which is not a surprise, given the second half that they have had at the Emirates. With fourteen minutes of the match remaining, Mikel Arteta took the chance to rest more players when Kieran Tierney and Eddie Nketiah came on for Granit Xhaka and William Saliba, and four minutes later, our captain Martin Ødegaard scored our fifth goal of the afternoon when he received a pass from Gabriel Jesus, and sinply slotted the ball into the top corner of the net. A superb goal. As we entered the final minutes of the match, game management appears to be the order of the day as far as we are concerned, and we almost scored a sixth goal when Ben White glanced a header, from a corner over to Gabriel Jesus who was a yard out and ready to stroke it into the net, but however, Forest defender Steve Cook did enough to put him off and they both watched the ball go off for a goal-kick. An excellent Gabriel Jesus shot was blocked before Thomas Partey fired it way over the bar and into the crowd. A minute into injury time, it was looking like Reiss Nelson was going to bag a hat-trick today, but after carrying the ball into a congested penalty area, he was unable to get a shot away and the visitors easily cleared the ball; literally seconds later, referee Simon Hooper blew the whistle signifying the end of the match, much to our happiness, and the relief of the visitors. 

Today’s performance by the boys was exceptional, as we bounced back from Thursday’s defeat to PSV Eindhoven with the correct attitude. Reiss Nelson, who came on as an early substitute, scored a brace of goals along with an assist, which was fabulous for him, whilst Thomas Partey conducted everything in the midfield area. It was a shame that Gabriel Jesus did not get on the scoresheet, but the goals must come soon, as he is getting himself into the correct postions to score, it is just one of those things, that’s all. Everything clicked today, everything went well, and most importantly, we returned to the top of the Premiership tonight. Our next Premiership match is an away fixture next Sunday against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which should be a cracker!

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: FC Zürich at the Emirates on Thursday, 3rd November at 8.00pm (Europa League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon