Alexandre Lacazette, Mohamed Elneny, Nacho Monreal, Craig David & Tony Pullis

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Alexandre Lacazette

Been a few years since we have had a player who is so lively in the box. Such quick feet, alert, always moving forward, always looking to score a goal.

We have had some brilliant striker sin recent years, all with their own unique abilities, Olivier Giroud – strong as an Ox; Robin van Persie – clinical shot; Thierry Henry – all round genius. But we have not had someone like Alexandre Lacazette since the days of Ian Wright.

He is a livewire. Have to wonder why we did not sign him a couple of years ago.

Mohamed Elneny

Have to wonder if he had cost £30m or name was Jack Wilshire, people would be demanding him to be starting week in week out.

He out shone Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey and is a solid, hard working central midfielder, who can play. Last night his performance reminded me of Ray Parlour in the middle of the park. All action. All hair.

In the limited game time he has played this season, he has outperformed Xhaka. The same go’s for last season too.

I know 90 minute metrics often favour players coming on in the closing stages, but with Xhaka in poor form, Elneny surely deserves a start against Brighton?

Nacho Monreal

The first time I saw Nacho Monreal play on the left of a 3, I knew he would excel in that position.

For your wide centre backs, you need players who can both perform at centre back, as well as cover the wider areas. Monreal, naturally a left back, does a solid job of this. And last night, those who moan all the time about players playing out of position would have finally realised that just because a position is where a player has played the majority of his career, it does not mean that is his position for the future.

At 31, and with Saed Kolasinac coming in, Morneal might have feared his career at Arsenal was over. Instead of complaining, pushing for a move to Spain, he knuckled down and has learnt the position.

With his contract set to run out in 2019, Arsenal need to start negotiating now to extend that by a couple of years. He still has a big part to play in Arsenal’s future.

Arsenal pull a Craig David at home

Started the season against Leicester on a Friday,
Then played Bournemouth on a Saturday,
Klon invaded Islington on a Thursday,
Doncaster in the Carabao Cup on a Wednesday,
And we beat West Brom on a Monday,
Host Brighton at noon on a Sunday,
And then play Norwich on a Tuesday.

OK, I should probably stick to my day job as I am clearly not a lyrical genius, but Arsenal’s first 7 home games of the season are all on a different day of the week. I wonder if that has ever happened before. Maybe a question for the Arsenal History Boys.

Tony Pullis

You’re a knob mate. You are a grown man and you wear baseball caps. You are scumbag who got caught out lying when attempting to defraud Crystal Palace. How does it feel to be £3.77m poorer?

Keenos

10 reasons why Arsenal will beat WBA & Starting XI

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  1. Arsenal are on a 6 game winning run at home against WBA. This stretches back to September 2010
  2. That defeat in 2010 was the only time WBA had beaten Arsenal in North London since 1983
  3. Arsenal are on a 4 game unbeaten run
  4. Meanwhile WBA have not won in 4
  5. Arsenal are unbeaten at home since March 17th 2017
  6. Alexis Sanchez played 90 minutes on Wednesday, he is likely to start
  7. Mesut Ozil is also back in first team training
  8. This means Arsenal could put out their strongest XI for the first time this season
  9. Arsenal are 4/11 home favourites heading into their game against West Brom according to Sports Betting Dime
  10. Tony Pulis is a hat wearing mug

Predicted starting XI:

Cech

Koscileny Mustafi Monreal

Bellerin Xhaka Ramsey Kolasinac

Sanchez Ozil

Lacazette

Too early to judge Premier League table

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You can not win the league in the first 10 games, but you can certainly lose it.

Over the years, too much has been read into sides poor starts. Likewise sides have had lightening starts and been crowned champions before the first international break.

Experience shows us that you should really ignore the league table, probably until after that magic 10th game of the season.

Last season was a perfect illustration of this.

Manchester City won their first 6 games of the season. With Pep Guardiola in charge, the Premier League champions crown was already being put on the bald Spaniards head.

The lost their 7th game, before drawing their 8th and 9th. On matchday 11, Chelsea went top of the league, having been as low as 8th 6 games in (the day they lost 3-0 to The Arsenal). They would be the immovable object at the top of the league for the rest of the season.

Manchester City ended up finishing 3rd. 15 points behind the champions.

Already this season we have seen fans and the media ignore the 10 game rule when analysing the season.

Upon beating Arsenal 4-0, Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions by the media. Their fans started to crow about how this year, it was there year.

It was almost forgotten that on the opening day of the season, they drew 3-3 at Watford. A side who Manchester City stuck 6 past at the weekend.

Liverpool were champions. It was written.

A 5-0 defeat to Manchester City, and a poor performance in a 1-1 draw against Burnley has quickly bought them back to earth. The Premier League 2017/18 champions elect slipped from 2nd to 8th. They were being crowned champions when they were 2nd!

They are 5 points behind Manchester City, and just a single point ahead of Arsenal. That crisis ridden team.

At the same time as Liverpool were winning the league, Paul Pogba was being put forward as a guaranteed winner of the PFA Player of the Year. He is now out for at least 12 weeks with a hamstring injury. Well done son!

Since Liverpool’s demise, from champions to 8th in the space of 2 games, the talk now is that the 2 Manchester clubs are going to run away with it. That the title is certain to go to Manchester.

They have been getting excited over Manchester City’s start to the season. 4 wins a 1 draw in the opening 5 games. It is a run of results that is worse than last season. They won the first 6 games remember!

Likewise, Mourinho is leading the Jose Revolution at Manchester United. He always wins the league in his 2nd season. United are currently second on alphabetical order in the league. Both sides have a 3 point lead on Chelsea. 5 on Liverpool and Spurs, and 6 on Arsenal.

But we are just 5 games in, and looking at who each side has played, both Manchester clubs have had the easiest starts.

Manchester United have thus far played (and beaten) West Ham (H), Swansea (A), Leicester (H) and Everton (H). Their only dropped points coming away to Stoke.

It has not exactly been a hard start to the season for Man U. There fans would have been deeply disappointed if they had of dropped any points to the sides they beat. They have also played 3 home games against 2 away.

There comfortable start to the season continues with games at Southampton and then at home to Crystal Palace.

Manchester City have only had a marginally harder start to the season.

They have played Liverpool, but it was at home. There 3 away games were against Brighton, Bournemouth and Watford – 3 sides who are expected to fight relegation. Whilst they dropped points at home to Everton. A disaster of a result taking into account the Blue Noses horrendous start to the season (they have had an incredibly tough start though.)

Tottenham have also had a relatively easy start to the season. Newcastle (A), Burnley (H) and Swansea (H) are 3 games you would have expected them to pick up a full house. 9 points. Instead they won just 5.

Everton away is a toughie on paper, but they are struggling, whilst Chelsea at home could have gone either way. It is not as easy a start as the Manchester clubs, but dropping points at home to Burnley and Swansea will hit them hard as the season go’s on.

Liverpool and Chelsea’s start to the season has been near identical.

Both have played 3 home games and 2 away. Both played Arsenal at home. Both played another top side away (Man City v Liverpool, Spurs v Chelsea). The other games they played – Chelsea: Burnley (H), Everton (H), Leicester (A); Liverpool: Watford (A), Crystal Palace (H), Burnley (H), really are games you would have suspected them to have got 9 from 9.

Arsenal have easily had the hardest start to the season, and results went as expected. Losing away to Stoke City and Liverpool, and grabbing a draw against Chelsea. They beat Leicester and Bournemouth at home – expected victories.

Over the next 5 games, we will see the table take shape.

Arsenal have 5 comfortable fixtures. Any less than 15/15 will be an underachievement.

The Gunners had a tough start to the season, but it is way to early to crown someone as champions yet. Lets see the state of the league at the end of October before judging too much

Keenos