Loan deal opens door to Arsenal starlet permenant exit

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With players coming back from injury, Ethan Nwaneri was not even on the Arsenal bench last night.

Some will use Nwaneri’s lack of minutes this season as a way to bash Mikel Arteta, but what it shows is the strength in depth of our squad right now.

Yesterday was the first game of the season when Arteta had every one of this attacking options available.

Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyokeres, Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard started. Gabriel Jesus and Noni Madueke came off the bench with Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Eberechi Eze not seeing any game time.

That is 9 players ahead of Nwaneri in the pecking order, and no one with a brain could make a case for him getting int the squad ahead of any of them.

The question is what do we do with Nwaneri in the second half of the season? Do we keep him around “just in case”, or is it now time for him to go out on loan?

Nwaneri turns 19 in March. He has shown he is Preier League ready. A lot of mid-lower PL sides would go for him, and he would start for them. Rumours right now are that Bournemouth are leading the way as they look for a quick replacement for Antoine Semenyo.

The only issue I see is what happens in 6 months? Those same 9 names wil still be ahead of him, and I can only really see Gabriel Jesus leaving us in the summer, which doesn’t really open a spot for Nwaneri. Every player has his price…

In the first half yesterday, the ball was in play for just 24 minutes.

Aston Villa spent more than 17 minutes taking goal kicks, free kicks, throw ins, etc.

This is the way Unai Emery teams play, and why he suits smaller clubs such as Aston Villa. Looking to take time out of the game at every opportunity is not something you can get away with at a top club.

As for Emi Martinez, he is simply a cry baby. Wastes tom at every opportunity, then berates ball boys when they don’t get him the ball back quick enough. An average goal keeper who has lived off a couple of exceptional moments. Yesterday’s headless at the final whistle shows that whilst he enjoys giving it, he can not take it.

Keenos

Should Arsenal’s unconvincing form be a concern?

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I am reading a lot right now about Arsenal’s unconvincing wins.

The last 3 Premier League games have been won by a single goal. But the key is 9 points from 9 games. We are now also 5 wins in 5 in all competitions.

Last season we drew 14 games in the Premier League. We dropped 21 points after leading games. 8 of which were dropped at home. Being unable to hold onto a lead was the reason we did not win the league.

I look at games such as against Everton, Brighton and Wolves and think “last year we would have draw or lost those games”. This year we are winning. And that is shown in the fact that we are 10 points better off this season than last in the “corresponding games”.

Liverpool last seas  won 9 out of 38 games by a single goal. Their ability to come behind to take the lead and hold on to win was why they won the league.

I have never known a fan base to be so negative after 5 wins in a row. It used to be said that a sign of champions was winning whilst not being out of 2nd gear. 

Yet for Arsenal we are being criticised for winning whilst not getting out of 2nd gear, and being top of the league despite the injury issues we have had in his season.

I am just glad that most of the negative nancies gave up their season tickets, and now just sit online or phoning up TalkSport to share their special brand.

Today we face Aston Villa who, after a very slo start, are the form team in Europe.

Smaller clubs with players with no egos certainly suits Unai Emery. Whilst some will say “Arsenal made a mistake getting rid”, he has shown throughout his career that he doesn’t not have the mental aptitude to handle the pressure at a top club, or deal with top players. The likes of Aston Villa suits him and good luck to him. I always liked him (he was my favourite to replace Arsene Wenger even before he went to PSG)

UTA

Keenos

Is Arsenal striker measly goal output a concern?

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Before we signed him, there were plenty of question marks around Viktor Gyokeres, with the biggest red flag being that at 27, he had only really had a decent 2-years in the Championship followed by a fruitful 2-years in Portugal.

The step up from the Portuguese league to the Premier League is huge, just ask Darwin Nunez. So no-one should really be too surprised of Gyorekes’ gol scoring struggles.

But where I am hopeful is that Gyorekes’ atttude is spot on. He is clearly working hard in training to adapt his game to Arsenal, to improve. And his attitude on the pitch is if someone who recognises that he can not just be a goal scorer.

The way he presses and run the channels both pushes defences backwards and creates space for others. It is no surprise that when he goes off, opponents defenders seem to have more time on the ball, can push up 10 yards which means the entire team has more attacking threat.

When you look around the Premier League, the lack of top strikers is frightening, Erling Haaand apart.

Igor Thiago is second on the scoring charts with 11, but if you watch Brentford you will see the Brazilian contributes nothing if he is not scoring goals.

Hugo Etikite (8 PL goals) is clearly a raw talent and is developing well, but he would have been huge risk in the summer of been signed as our first choice striker. Especially at his fee for his previous output.

Nick Woltermade has started wel at Newcastle with 7 PL goals. But he is very one dimensional. He reminds me of Peter Crouch that he will score 10-15 PL goals a season regardless of who he plays for.

Tha you come onto Joao Pedro with 6 Premier League goals. That is just one more tha Gyokeres. This is the Brazilian’s 4th year is a Premier League striker.

Meanwhile, Alexander Isak’s injury issues have continued. I can not tell you how pleased I was that we missed out on this one.

So we went for Gyokeres, and of the PL new boys he looks no worse than them. No better either. And he was the cheapest.

Calvert-Lewin, Mateta and Welbeck have all had spells of goal scoring form, but thESR are not the sort of profile we should have rem looking at.

The only other name is Ollie Watkins. But before his double against Chelsea he had just 3 PL goals. Now he has 5. The same as Gyokeres.

I am confident that the goals will come for Viktor. We just need to ensure us, the fans, stay positive so that he keeps his head up.

And with Gabriel Jesus back and Kai Havertz imminent return, we now have different options to ace different defences.

Keenos