Arsenal set for busy week of sales

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This could be the week we start to see Arsenal make big moves in the transfer market.

So far, the business Arsenal have done has been quietly efficient.

Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari have both had their loan deals made permanent, whilst Willian was also recruited on a free – 3 experienced campaigners.

The club also re-loaned Dani Ceballos and signed Gabriel Magalhaes.

On first impressions, Willian has added some busyness and creativity in the final 3rd, whilst Gabriel put in a commanding performance at centre back.

But Arsenal need to sell.

We still have 18 non-home grown players in the first team squad – and 32 players in it.

This means Arsenal need to sell before they buy, both to bring down the non-home grown quota and to reduce the squad size generally.

Emiliano Martinez will be the first out of the door. His transfer to Aston Villa is all but done (and will probably be completed by the time we hit publish!).

Martinez does not solve the squad problems however, before:

  • He will need to be replaced and;
  • He is home grown

Arsenal have been linked with both David Raya of Brentford and Runar Alex Runarsson from Dijon. Interestingly both keepers have previously worked with Inaki Cana; Arsenal’s goalkeeping coach.

Raya would be the preference as he is home grown having joined Blackburn at 17. Having a non-home grown 2nd choice goalkeeper feels like a waste of a slot, especially as we already have one too many.

This week should also be the week when Lucas Torreira and Sokratis make their moves to Italy.

The 3 players (Torreira, Martinez & Sokratis) should raise close to £50million between them. By the time Arsenal use some of the money to buy a new keeper, it should leave the club with at least £40million cash surplus to make moves.

Sokratis and Torreira leaving will also give Arsenal 1 non-home grown slot – although this could get taken up by Runarsson if he joins.

If we do see a home grown keeper join, expect Arsenal to quickly reinvest those funds into a new midfielder – my gut says Houssem Aouar rather than Thomas Partey.

Further signings will then depend on further departures.

Talk about Edouard from Celtic intensified over the weekend, but you can only see him coming in if Alex Lacazette is sold.

Likewise Thomas Partey.

With Matteo Guendouzi back in first team training, there is a school of thought that he will return to Mikel Arteta’s plans.

He has a friendship with Aouar which could be good for both players, and he would play a similar role to Partey on the right side of a midfield 3 – given the role to drive the ball forward at his feet.

With Granit Xhaka, Dani Ceballos, Guendouzi, Aouar (potentially), Elneny and Joe Willock, it makes most sense that Partey would replace Matteo.

The 3 likely out this week will not be the only ones to leave Arsenal.

That will still leave Arsenal with a 30 man first team squad once we have signed a replacement goal keeper.

The club will still expect to move on Sead Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi and Calum Chambers. That would drop us down to a 27 man squad, and also get us within the non-home grown player limit. 27 is a number Arteta could cope with.

It is going to be a busy week…

Keenos

Mikel Arteta’s Tactical Fluid Arsenal

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Morning all.

Cracking opening weekend of football that was.

Weather was great, beers were drunk, and football was won.

Arsenal were simply superb as they brushed away Fulham with ease.

We are perhaps beginning to see Mikel Arteta’s game plan; and it is perhaps best describe by saying “tactical fluidity”.

We seemed to be lining up 343, but very rarely did players find themselves in that position.

Rob Holding and Gabriel were almost playing like back 2, whilst Kieran Tierney seemed to spend more time on the left wing than in central defence.

On the right hand side, Hector Bellerin rarely defended, and Willian was rarely got chal on his boots.

Alexandre Lacazette dropped deep so often that he almost made it a midfield 3 between Granit Xhaka and Mo Elneny.

And then we have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the left hand side and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

Where exactly Maitland-Niles was playing, no one knows. He was left wing, striker, inside Aubameyang, outside Aubameyang. Fulham could not cope.

Whilst we played with a lot of tactical freedom, it was not chaos. This was not Arsenal players not know where they were supposed to be. Every player seemed to know exactly where to stand, when to make the run, who to pass too.

We did it against Manchester City in the FA Cup, against Liverpool in the Community Shield and again on Saturday against Fulham.

Play a few risky passes in our right back position, drawing the opponents in, the opposing winger, full back and central midfielder. That in turn pulls the opponents across to our right hand side.

Then BANG! A quick break down the right before a cross field ball to Aubameyang who is standing on the left flank, unmarked, due to the left back tucking in to cover as the team drifted left.

That gives Aubameyang the time to bring the ball down, and drive into the middle at pace. Goal.

It is clearly a trap that Arteta has set up. Draw the opponents in before breaking at speed.

It is so hard to defend against because if teams do not drift left to cover players trying to press Arsenal in the corner, Arsenal would then have the freedom of the right hand side to attack (A quick ball from Bellerin over the winger and full back, down the right flank to Nicolas Pepe or Willian would see him clean through on the right).

The only way to really defend against the play is to not get drawn in. Do not try and press Bellerin and Holding in that right hand corner. But that in turn allows Arsenal to easily bring the ball out.

When you compare Arsenal’s game to Tottenham, you can see the difference between having a young, forward thinking manager and a tactical dinosaur.

It was not just that Arsenal won and Spurs lost, but the manner in which both played.

Tottenham were easily the worst team I saw play over the weekend – and Jose Mourinho is already being overly critical of his own players.

It could fall apart for Spurs quickly this season. Could a relegation battle ensue?

Anyway, this week will be a big one for Arsenal. Expect plenty of sales.

Keenos

Martinez just another Manninger?

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Let me tell you a story.

Arsenal’s first choice goalkeeper got injured. In came a replacement who went on to equal the club record of 6 clean sheets in a row. He played 7 league games and was named Premier League Player of the Month.

He also played 5 games in Arsenal’s run to the FA Cup final.

But come the end of the season, it was old Big Hands between the sticks for the final against Newcastle.

The goalkeeper was Alex Manninger. The season was 1997/98.

Austrian Manninger played a key part in Arsenal’s double winning seasons, but his 7 league appearances, 6 clean sheets and Player of the Month award were not enough to get him a Premiership winners medal. Arsenal had to apply for special dispensation for him to get one.

There were no questions the next season as to who would start as number one. David Seaman.

Manninger would deputise for Seaman for the next three seasons, making 64 appearances in total.

In 2001 he would be loaned out to Fiorentina as Arsenal signed Richard Wright in the search of David Seaman’s replacement.

Manninger would go on to sign for 9 different clubs following his loan move to Fiorentina. A career that took him from Juventus to Espanyol, Liverpool to Bologna.

Only once – for 2 seasons for Siena in Serie A – would he be number one goal keeper.

The story of Manninger is one to be told alongside Emi Martinez.

The Argentine had a break through season last year.

Taking advantage of Bernd Leno to perform to a high standard for 9 Premier League games. Leno was unable to return to fitness for the FA Cup final so it was Martinez who remained in goal.

Like with David Seaman, Bernd Leno has been a consistent performer for a long time.

Nearly 300 games in the top flight in England and Germany, he has played over 400 domestic games. Only Manuel Nueur has stopped him being a regular for Germany.

Meanwhile Martinez has been at Arsenal for a decade.

Loaned out to Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Wolves, Getafe and Reading.

He was fairly average at them all until that final half season at Reading where he stepped up. That encouraged Arsenal to keep him as understudy to Leno following the retirement of Petr Cech.

9 Premier League games as football returned from is suspension saw him play 23 games in total for the club in 2019/20. A single season accounting for 23% of his lifetime appearances (101 in total).

That is not 101 appearances for Arsenal, but 101 appearances through his career. Not a huge amount for a 28 year old.

Having got the taste of first team football, Martinez got the hunger for more.

With 2 years left on his contract, he has seemingly made it clear to the Arsenal management that he will only sign a new deal if he is guaranteed 1st team football. A guarantee that Arsenal are unable to provide.

Like deciding to sell David Seaman to keep Alex Manninger off the back of 7 Premier League games, it would be a huge risk for Arsenal to dump Bernd Leno for Martinez off the back of 9 Premier League games. Not only would it be a huge risk, but it would also be a stupid one.

The career of Manninger has shown that you can have a great spell at a club, before disappearing into obscurity.

Over the years Arsenal have had other Manninger’s.

Stuart Taylor got numerous chances, and was highly rated by Bob Wilson , but that did not stop Arsenal signing the experienced Jens Lehmann following the retirement of David Seaman.

Manuel Almunia and Lukas Fabianski also had their spells where they looked very good at times.

In the early part of the 2021/13 season, Vito Mannone came in for the injured Wojech Szczesny and Fabianksi for a spell of 9 Premier League games.

He kept a clean sheet at Anfield and kept Arsenal in the game during a 1-1 draw against Manchester City. When Szczesny was fit, he returned to the first team.

Szczesny went on to join Roma, before becoming Juventus’s number 1. Mannone joined Sunderland, before signing for Reading. He has since played a bit of MLS for Minnesota and was last seen in the Danish Superliga for Esbjerg.

Moving up North to Manchester and Man U.

In 2011/12 Anders Lindegaard came in for the injured David de Gea and performed well for 8  league games, keeping 6 clean sheets. Sir Alex Ferguson stuck with his best keeper and de Gea soon returned.

Lindegaard’s career then took him from Man U to WBA, Preston North End, Burnley and Helsingborg. He was unable to establish himself as number 1 anywhere.

A goalkeeper can have a good spell. A period of 8 or 10 games where he saves everything.

Over the years we have seen the likes of , Kasper Schmeichel, Rob Green and Jussi Jaaskelainen have fantastic spells. But no top team picked them up after their good spells.

A purple patch can happen for goalkeepers. But a run of 9 or 10 good games does not then make them a top keeper.

From Manninger to Lindegaard, we have seen the likes of Emi Martinez before.

Ultimately, clubs should always stick to their senior, consistent number 1 performer. Form is temporary class in permanent.

Leno has performed to a high level for Arsenal for 2 seasons. He has easily been one of the top 5 keepers since he came to England. This comes on the back of an extensive career in Germany.

You do not get rid of someone like Leno just because another keeper has had a decent 2 or 3 months.

Just like you do not get rid of David Seaman just because Alex Manninger kept 6 clean sheets in the row.

Keenos