The g/a merchants are still piping up about Saka’s “slow” start to the season.
Obsessed by goals and assists, they seem to be unable to see beyond these to establish how a player has influenced a game.
The criticism gets to a point where you actually have to wonder whether these fellas watch the game. Or do they just check the goal scorers at full time.
Against Aston Villa, Saka missed a golden chance; it came at him fast, on the half volley and weaker foot. But he still should have finished it. And it is that moment that his detractors seemed to focus on.
Yet Saka was electric against Aston Villa. Always a threat. Always committing opponents. Always trying to make something happen. And that was shown in his WhoScored rating – the websites algorithm had Saka as the 2nd best player on the pitch (behind Gabriel Martinelli).
Now whether you beleive algorithm driven ratings like WhoScored is another debate.
They are based on lots of different statistics being filtered in to come up with a rating. In comparison to the “eye test” most news outlets use where a journalist gives his rating.
The eye test always leads to journalistic bias – often over-scoring players the journo liked and under-scoring players they did not. It also leads to players get high scores for single moments (Harry Kane could have a stinker for 89 minutes, score a goal, then get given MOTM).
Meanwhile algorithm scores are objective. But they are also flawed if a player “games the system” – an example is a player that gets 100 passes at 100% pass completion could get a high rating even though those passes were 5-yard sideways and backwards.
So against Villa, WhoScored had Saka as the 2nd Arsenal best player on the pitch. Considering many claim he has had a slow start, how do they rank him in the opening 5 games:
It is interesting that the WhoScored ratings actually agree with my eye test (as someone who has been home and away this season).
It shows a slow start but a gradual improvement as the season has progressed; each game his rating has gone up and each game he has been a more influential player than the game before.
This is his toughest season to date as he is no longer a “young player with potential.” Opponents see him as a huge threat and that leads him to being double and tripple marked.
But that frees up space on the other side of the pitch – and space that Martinelli is taking advantage of.
With 3 goals in his opening 5 games, Martinelli has been our best player this season.
At some point opponents are going to see him as the threat he is. That will lead them to marking him more aggressively; which in turn will free uo more space on our right hand side.
With such a balanced attack, teams do not know which side to overload defensively. And that is a good place to be.
Whilst Saka might not be getting the headlines (although he did get the assist for the winner on Wednesday), he is returning to his best. Expect him to get double figures in goals again.
With the transfer window padlocked up until Christmas, it is time for a little review of the Arsenal squad.
Now I have seen some on social media claim that “Arsenal have a paper thin squad” after missing out on Douglas Luiz and deciding not to pursue Youri Tielemans.
I must point at that these fans are mainly the Arsenal-incels that I have describe previously.
They spent Friday posting up picture of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. They hate that William Saliba is still at Arsenal. They spend more time supporting Matteo Guendouzi (and Nuno Tavares) in Marseille than they do Arsenal.
Despite us being top with a 100% record, they have moaned about Ben White, about Martin Odergaard, and lately about Bukayo Saka.
Largely, their viewpoint can be ignored because they take a position to be negative no matter what the situation is. It is all about hits, clicks, RTs and attention.
It gets to a point where you have to feel sorry for them.
Their “online negative persona” will transfer into real life and they will end up very unhappy people.
But how does Arsenal’s squad actually look?
Goalkeepers (3)
Aaron Ramsdale Matt Turner Karl Hein
It feels like we have returned back to the “old school” method of squad building with our goalkeeper.
Rather than trying to accomodate two international keepers – utilising one in the Premier League and one in Europe – we have a clear first and second choice.
I expect Ramsdale to play every Premier League & FA Cup game. Turner will come in for the League Cup and might get the group stages of the Europa League. But expect Ramsdale to come in as cup games become more important – no more playing the 2nd choice keeper in a final.
Hein ticks the boxes of not requiring registration which would free up spots elsewhere (if required).
Summary: Turner might be a drop off from Leno, but I would be surprised if he plays 10 games this season. More than happy.
Defenders (8)
Takehiro Tomiyasu Cedric Soares Ben White Gabriel William Saliba Rob Holding Kieran Tierney Oleksandr Zinchenko
Jose Mourinho always spoke about having two quality players for every position.
Now we are not Manchester City so can not afford to have £50million centre backs sitting on the bench.
At right back, we have 3 solid options in Tomiyasu, Soares and White.
Some might question why Soares is still with the club (the same people who moan that the squad is too thin!) but it is due to the potential of Brooke Norton-Cuffy.
Excpect BNC tp prove himself in the Championship as being as good – if not better – than Djed Spence last season. No point spending big money on right back cover when you have a potential £20million teenager out on loan getting experience.
Centre back excites me.
Whilst some were arguing over who starts between White, Gabrial and Saliba, I was just delighted that we have 3 top class central defenders.
Yo udo not see Manchester City fans arguing over Laporte, Stones, Dias and Ake. Or Liverpool fans with VvD, Ibrahima Konaté and Joel Matip.
With 50+ games to play, we need 3 quality defenders. We now have that. And in Rob Holding we have a 4th solid option who should allow us to rest 2 in the Europa League.
Left back we have improved dramatically with Olexsandr Zinchenko coming in for Nuno Tavares. Real competitionm for places there.
Summary: Arguably the best defensive options since the invincibles.
Midfield (6)
Thomas Partey Mohamed Elneny Granit Xhaka Albert Sambi Lokonga Martin Odergaard Fabio Vieira
Like in defence, we have 2 players for every midfield spot.
The elephant in the room is that Partey and Elneny are both out injured. Should we have addressed this in the summer?
This is where I take a leaf out of Jurgen Klopp’s book – you should only be buying players to cover an injury if they were a player you wanted prior to their injury. You should not be bringing in a player on a 5-year deal to cover a player out injured for 6 weeks.
At the moment – with the pair out injured – we do look a little short. However, Lokonga played well as the deepest midfielder against Fulham and we also have the option of Zinchenko there (if he is not required at left back).
Moving forward, it made little sense to sign Youri Tielemans this summer whilst Xhaka is at the club – we blogged on this a few times.
Xhaka has shown himself to be undroppable, and is covered by Lokonga, Zinchenko and Vieira.
On the other side, we have signed some class creativity to cover Odergaard.
One of our issues last season is we did not have adequete cover for our star players (Odergaard and Saka) which led them to be over played.
Signing Vieira has resolved this for Odergaard.
Summary: It might feel like now, but Partey will only be out for 3-4 weeks and we have plenty of cover for him. With Elneny longer term out, we could have covered him in the summer window but were right not to over pay. Expect someone to join in January.
Forwards (6)
Gabriel Jesus Eddie Nketiah Bukayo Saka Marquinhos Gabriel Martinelli Emile Smith Rowe
If we are short anywhere, it is in the worward line.
Martinelli, Jesus and Saka is top class, but the drop off to ESR, Nketiah and Marquinhos is too large.
Arteta expects his front line to work hard – pressing, harassing and closing down. But over the course of the season this will take its toll and if workload is not managed properly will lead to their explosiveness diminishing.
What we needed was another top class winger to give us 3 options outwide (like we have at centre back) so we could rest and rotate Saka and Martinelli.
I am also unsure if Nketiah is the top class cover for Jesus – although we have seen with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham in recent years that “2nd choice striker” is not an easy position to recruit for. And can be expensive.
What we needed was that 3rd top class winger which would have allowed Martinelli to be an option through the middle.
ESR had a great season last year and needs to back it up, whilst no one really knows anything about Marquinhos. I would be surprised if he would be ready to replace Saka in case of long term injury – but I have been wrong before.
Fabio Vieira is an option outwide, but it gets too a point where we have too many players covering too many positions.
Summary: We are one short out wide.
Overall Summary
We have a 23 man “senior squad” – Two players for every position and a 3rd choice keeper.
Due to the ages of some of the players, we will only have 18 registered in the A list for the Premier League; so there was plenty of space to rectuit had we wanted too.
How does a 23 man senior squad compare with our Big 6 rivals?
Liverpool – 27 Manchester United – 27 Tottenham – 26 Chelsea – 25 Arsenal – 23 Manchester City – 23
Alongside Manchester City, we do have the smallest squad of the top 6. But these figures can be missleading.
Manchester United’s 27 man squad includes the likes of Phil Jones, Brandon Williams and Axel Tuanzebe. they are only still with the club because no-one else wanted them – even on loan.
Whilst Tottenham’s squad is boosted by Bryan Gill (who they tried to get rid of on deadline day) and Harvey White (who?). They also have 3 right backs (Matt Doherty, Emerson Royal, Djed Spence).
Chelsea had a 23 man squad going into deadline day and secured Denis Zakaria and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang late Thursday evening.
The reality is, Liverpool aside, every club has a core group of around 18 senior outfield players that they will rely upon throughout the season. The rest of their squads are players they do not really want – but could not sell.
For the first time in a long time we have a squad where everyone is wanted. Everyone will get game time. We are not carrying everyone.
Yes, I think we needed a winger. And we could have signed another central midfielder. But if the primary targets were not available (especially in midfield) then we are better waiting for January to get them than spending big on temporary cover.
Will our squad be good enough to challenge for the title? Manchester City look imperious.
Will it be enough to be Top 3? I think so.
Now it just depends whether those incels move their goalposts to continue moaning…
And that concludes the 20th English summer transfer window.
Sometimes I think back to the 90s when “transfer deadline day” was sometime in March.
The transfer window reveloutionised the game – and is one of the changes in the modern game that I agree with.
Personally I would go further and have the transfer window shut on the eve of the first day of the season (this was trialled a couple of years ago). I would also not have a January transfer window.
You name your squad before the season starts and that is your lot for the season.
This year Mikel Arteta spoke about Arsenal being able to work under a different strategy from previous seasons.
Instead of having to sell to buy (to free up squad place rather than because we needed money), Edu and his team were able to recruit the players they needed without the fear of having too large of a squad.
Edu’s team have worked hard in the last 18 months to cut the squad down and the reward was that this summer we could get our business done early.
And this season more than any, those clubs who got their business done early have been rewarded.
Most people are saying that Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham have done the best business this summer. All 3 clubs got the bulk of their business done in June and July.
We secured Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos, Matt Turner, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko all before the end of July. £115million spent.
At the time, £45m for Jesus and £30m for Zinchenko and Vieira did feel huge. But what has gone on since in the Premier League has been crazy!
When you look at what Manchester United spent on Antony, Casemiro and Lisandro Martínez (over £200m combined) and Chelsea on Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella and Raheem Sterling (£180m+) and others on the likes of Darwin Nunez, Alexander Isak and Richarlison, you can really see how good Arsenal’s (early) business was.
Jesus is clearly the best attacker our of Antony, Sterling, Nunez, Isak and Richarlison. Whilst the likes of Martinez, Fofana and Cucurella would not get in the Arsenal team ahead of the returning William Saliba and new signing Zinchenko.
For the first time in a long time, it has felt like we were being pro-active rather than reactive. We could do this due to not having a squad filled with deadwood.
We had a plan of what players we wanted to sign and went out and got them.
When players (Martinez, Raphinha) prices rose above what we were willing to pay, we stepped away and targeted others.
Whilst some Arsenal fans might have woken this morning with a tinge of disappointment that we did not sign Douglas Luiz, there is no need to go OTT.
Us targetting a defensive midfielder this window was only due to theinjuries of Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny. It is not something we planned for.
And it ended up not being too dissimilar with what happened with Dusan Vlahovic in January.
In January the possibility of a deal rose with Vlahovic and we decided to go for it. After the deal fell through we made the decision to not sign a striker.
We did not go out and panic-buy Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Isak. We knew Jesus was coming free for the summer and kept our powder dry.
Yes, it might have cost us top 4, but DCL or Isak did not exactly have good seasons so who knows what impact they would have made.
And that is the stance we have made in midfield.
In the closing days of the window, Douglas Luiz sort of became available. He was a long term target of the club so we tried our luck. But as he was not a key target we did not want to break the bank securing him
On deadline day a couple of bids were rejected so we walked away.
In January we will re-explore our options – I am thinking either Danilo from Palmieras or back in for Douglas Luiz who will probably be even cheaper.
We still need to work on selling players – just over £20million in fees received despite Guendouzi, Torreira, Leno, Mavropanos, Lacazette, Pepe, Tavares, Mari, Maitland-Niles and Bellerin all at new clubs. But this will come as we now have more control over the wage structure.
Hopefully we have learned how important it is to get deals done early, and this summer is replicated moving forward!
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 