Tag Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal snub Ozil whilst he makes return to action

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Morning all (at least it is still morning when I started writing!)

Later than usual blog from me on a Sunday. I took the advantage of being on part-time furlough to spend some time with family in Suffolk.

Cracking weekend for this to be fair. Bought a sofa. Got a great deal on it as the sofa shop I bought it from had a sale on.

Yesterday was all about Mesut Ozil’s return in an Arsenal shirt as we lost 3-2 in a friendly at home to Aston Villa.

Never read too much into friends results. Clubs use games for different reasons and teams can be at different stages of development prior to the start of pre-season.

Some saw the return of Ozil as redemption. That he has returned to Mikel Arteta’s plans for the new season.

But then we have the photo from our friends over at The Arsenal History – a great source of reading material written by a couple of lads who really know their stuff. Readdresses many a myth about Arsenal’s history. I digress.

So that photo taken by Andy Kelly.

In the Armoury printing area, there are two notable omissions on the wall.

Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi.

Hector Bellerin is on it twice, as is Bukayo Saka. Out-on-loan Kostadinos Mavropanos is also on the wall. And the likes of Sokratis, Lucas Torreira and Rob Holding. All of whom are likely to leave the club this week.

But no Matteo Guendouzi or Mesut Ozil.

So on one hand Arsenal are not advertising the 2 ostracised players names and numbers, and then on the other Mesut Ozil was involved in the friendly against Aston Villa.

Read into this what you will.

Late Friday night Arsenal confirmed Dani Ceballos’ return to the club on loan. A good deal.

This time round Arsenal are paying no loan fee, but the Spaniards full wages.

When you consider last season we were paying 50% of Henrik Mkhitaryan’s £180k wages whilst out on loan to Roma, Arsenal will be financially up across the 2 deals.

Ceballos is the 2nd piece in the Arteta 3 man midfield jigsaw. The first being Granit Xhaka.

Expect at least one more signing in the middle of the park to go the other side of Xhaka. Hopefully Thomas Partey who will provide a physical presence in the middle and defensive cover on the right hand side of the pitch.

That defensive cover could be important if we play Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right back in a back 4.

Partey performed well at right back for Atlético Madrid against Arsenal a few years back.

It would be an exciting attacking option for Arsenal to have AMN pushing forward and Nicolas Pepe cutting inside, with Partey dropping deeper and wider to cover them.

We might even get a 2nd new central midfielder (someone more creative such as Houssem Aouar) to give us 4 senior options for 3 places. Will give Arteta the choice to go more attacking, or more defensive depending on the opponent.

So remember, season ticket holders. If you wish to go to games this season, renew now and ballot registrations are open.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Keenos

Bellerin, Torriera, Holding OUT, Gabriel, Partey, Aouar IN – Just how could Arteta’s squad look?

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So in the last week I have been playing about with the Arsenal squad.

We are going to see some popular players leave the club, from Hector Bellerin to Rob Holding, Lucas Torreira to Matteo Guendouzi.

Sales will be used to sign players that improve the squad, albeit not like for like – ie the sale of Bellerin will not necessarily finance a new right back.

Mikel Arteta, Edu and the transfer team can see the bigger picture. They know what money we need to raise to make the signings we need, and what the squad will look like.

Somewhere in London Colney will be a white board with names written on it.

That white board will have Arsenal’s current squad listed, and beside each player will have an “ideal replacement”. This what Arsenal are targeting when building the 2020/21 squad.

I imagine the white board will look something like this:

All this leads to a fairly basic question. Which squad is stronger?

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1301068572639334401

Keenos

Nearly every Arsenal player “up for sale”

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Hector Bellerin is Arsenal’s best right back.

He is amongst the best full backs in Europe, which is highlighted by the fact that Champions League finalists PSG are in pole position for him, with Bayern Munich and Juventus sniffing behind.

You do not gain that quality of suitors if you are a poor player.

Mikel Arteta rates Bellerin. He likes him as a player and as a person. He would not want to lose him. But sometimes circumstance contrive and an exit you do not really want to happen, happens.

What the Hector Bellerin situation shows is what we knew earlier this season. That nearly every Arsenal player has their price, and would be up for sale if that price is met.

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1293095089217179648

Excluding new signings (including Pablo Mari, Cedric Soares and Willian Saliba), there are only 5 unsellable players in the Arsenal squad:

Kieran Tierney
Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang
Nicolas Pepe
Bukayo Saka
Gabriel Martinelli

Outside of those 5, Arsenal have been willing to listen to offers for any other player this summer. Including Hector Bellerin.

Whilst Bellerin is a top right back, he can be improved on. And eve if we decide to go with Cedric Soares and Aisnley Maitland-Niles as the options at right back, he raises key funds to improve the side in positions that are more influential than right back.

The news about Bellerin was accompanied by pundits saying “for the right price” and like with many other Arsenal players, it will come down to money.

“The right price” at the moment seems to be whatever cash is still needed to fund moves for Thomas Partey and / or Houssem Aouar. That pair would cost the club around £90million.

The Arsenal XI would be weaker with Maitland-Niles at right back over Bellerin. But would be stronger with Partey in a midfield 3 alongside Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos.

Arteta then needs to decide whether signing Partey strengthens the team more than selling Bellerin weakens it. I feel the answer is yes.

Looking forward to a team without Bellerin, Arsenal would probably be relying on Maitland-Niles as first choice right back. He is suspect defensively.

Maitland-Niles is more sorted to the 343 that Arteta has played recently.

If Mikel sticks to that formation, Maitland-Niles will be an upgrade on Bellerin at right wing back, due to his superior attacking.

However if Partey joins, Arteta will likely switch to 433. That will put pressure on Maitland-Niles defensively.

However a midfield 3 rather than a 2 (in a 4231) will provide Maitland-Niles with extra cover in defence.

The right hand side of that midfield 3 (likely to be Partey) plays a bit wider than they would in a midfield 2. This allows them to drift wide to help out the full defensively, knowing they still have their 2 midfield team mates inside.

Partey would provide Mialtnad-Niles with extra defensive assistance.

Liverpool won the league with a right back that can not defend in Trent Alexander-Arnold.

They did this by overloading their right hand side with attacking play, and having Jordan Henderson drift right to cover the full-back.

Teams would be reluctant to attack Liverpool knowing that they had Mo Salah and Alexander-Arnold coming the other way. And when they did attack they often found Henderson or Fabinho as an extra man on the right hand side.

So at Arsenal in a 433, Arsenal would overload the right hand side with Pepe and Maitland-Niles as an attacking double act. And then would have Partey drift across to to reinforce the flank defensively.

In games where we might want extra defensive cover, the option would be there to play Cedric Soares instead of Maitland-Niles.

We will only be able to truly judge the squad Arteta is building once the window is shut.

Arsenal will have to sell a few popular players – the likes of Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette and Rob Holding – to finance improving the squad over all.

Looking forward to 2020/21, if we sold Bellerin, Holding, Chambers, Sokratis, Guendouzi, Torreira, Lacazette& Chambers, whilst gained Cedric, Gabriel, Saliba, Mari, Partey, Aouar and Willian, the first XI and squad will undoubtedly be stronger than 2019/20.

You need to break a few eggs to make an omelete.

Keenos