Tag Archives: Arsenal

4 points from Tottenhem away

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King of Brazil

It always baffled me the way some fans did not take to Gabriel straight away. I feel in love on day one, and it was clear that he was the beast of a central defender we had missed for years.

Yet some fans did not rate him. They labelled him a liability. an accident waiting to happen.

Since he has joined us, he has never let us down and is a monster of a central defender. Yes, he has committed errors that led to goals, but every defender has that. If you only rate players who have never made a mistake, then the players you rate will be zero.

Gabriel and William Saliba compliment each other perfectly.

Whilst Saliba is slicker, and more aesthetically pleasing, Gabriel is the bully, the more physical one, and the leader of defence.

They are the best central defensive partnership in world football.

Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling

Winning 1-nil, on came Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling. the expectation would have been that they use their pace upfront to provide a threat on the counter attack. Instead the pair read the game situation and put in 15 minutes of brilliant defensive work.

When Ethan Nwaneri came on for Bukayo Saka, we risks losing a bit defensively. Both Jesus and Sterling recognised this and immediately dropped deeper, with the young Englishman often then our highest player on the pitch. This protected Nwaneri who is still developing physically and defensively.

Whilst that meant Jesus and Sterling did little to influence the game in an attacking sense, the pair, alongside Kai Havertz, created a pressing trio that sat in front of Jorginho and Thomas Partey making us impenetrable.

Ethan Nwaneri

Our lack of attacking signings caused some concern for fans this summer. But many of them had forgotten about Ethan Nwaneri.

It is two years since Nwaneri became the youngest ever player in the Premier League, coming on against Brentford in September 2022. Since then, Arsenal have taken their time with his development, allowing him to continue to grow both physically and mentality.

Now 17, he is ready to make an impact this season.

Nwaneri’s cameo against Spurs was no fear. He did not hide and looked to get on the ball at every opportunity. His first thought was always “forward” and he relived the pressure a couple of times with his youthful energy.

This season he will play the duel role of covering Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, and the result with be Fabio Vieira departing next summer.

We have an exciting player on our hands. We just need to continue being careful with him.

Cobra Kai

I feel very vindicated.

Throughout the summer, when we were not close to signing a striker, I kept making the point: Anyone that come sin must be a better option than Kai Havertz.

And being better than Havertz is not just his goal scoring exploits. It is also his work rate, his versatility, movement and ability to create for others. Yes, he might not be an out and out goal scorer like Erling Haaland, but he has much more to his game than just goals.

After the Spurs game he looked exhausted. He had not stopped running for 90 minutes and covered every blade of grass.

When Odegaard and Havertz play together, they take it in turns to be the “first presser”, with the other sitting in behind getting a breather. With a deeper central midfield, no Odegaard or Declan Rice, the onus fell on Havertz and he did not dissapoint.

He was central, deep, wide and worked from box to box, whilst still providing an attacking threat. His height also gave David Raya an outlet when we wanted to go longer – and he won over 50% of his aerial duels.

Kai is simply a brilliant all-round centre forward.

Keenos

Who is Arsenal’s greatest uncapped player?

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It’s that time of year again. Club football has disappeared as quickly as it came back. Two weeks of International friendlies, two weeks into the start of the new season.

A portion of the squad have jetted out to their respective national sides, with Mikel Arteta and co crossing their fingers for no major injuries to deal with once said teammates return. The remaining players left at London Colney would have continued to work away in a reduced group.

Mikel himself is no stranger to this feeling even as a player. It’s well documented how despite his classy, composed style of play he never received a call up for the Spanish National Team – but that’s life competing against Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Alonso, Fabregas, Cazorla and co unfortunately!



Still, a lack of national team caps does not make a bad player. After all, John Lukic, Nigel Winterburn, Steve Bould, Rocky Rocastle, Alan Sunderland, Michael Thomas, Paul Davis, George Armstrong, Ray Parlour and Kevin Campbell – all players with thousands of Arsenal matches and memories under their belts combined, only accumulated a total of 31 England caps between all 10 of them.

So what I am curious about is which Arsenal players you personally believe should have collected many more international callups? Which players did you see excel at club level or thought had that type of potential but were always shunned for whatever reason at national team level?

One player staying in London during this interval is Gabriel Martinelli.

His most standout season in 2022/23 which saw him contribute to a combined 21 goals and assists helped secure him a consistent place in the Brazilian National Team squad. But as time has ticked by and his end product numbers have dropped, so has Gabi been from the most recent Brazil squad named by Dorival JĂşnior.

We really are now reaching that point of a crossroads for Martinelli’s Arsenal career.

With patchy returns on the pitch and Trossard and Sterling providing stronger competition than he’s ever had for a starting berth, will the Brazilian end up outlasting the older Trossard and the on-loan Sterling and push on at 23 years old, or will his game time dry up as the season goes on and leave him in the wilderness? Questions to be asked and questions for Gabi to answer in the next 8 months that could well shape his future at the club in general.

Aside from the aforementioned topics, the days are ticking down until the next installment of us against them. So would you give Raheem a first start away in a north London derby? What’s been your personal favourite NLD memory? And what would be your celebration if you bagged a 90th minute winner against them lot? Creative ideas for the celebs are most encouraged.

Nick

Why are Premier League set to investigate Chido Obi Martin deal?

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Chido Obi-Martin is on the verge of joining Manchester United.

The 16-year-old, who was nowhere near ready for the Arsenal first team opted to take a step down to Manchester United in the quest of fast tracking his journey to first team football, even if it means playing at a lower level.

As we blogged last week, Arsenal are better off without the youngster, whom is clearly being used by his handlers to make a quick buck at the detriment of his career.

The deal is subject to the Premier League 5 step investigation – or five-step review process as it is also known).

This process is nothing unique. It is an investigatory review that every transfer involving an academy player between two Category One academies goes through.

Before any academy player can be registered, the transfer must go through the review, which takes around 25 days to be completed. But what is the five-step review process?

Following Southampton receiving a suspended sentence back in 2022 for contacting academy players without permission, The Athletic outlined what is involved in the process:

Step 1: The new club submits a signed registration form to the Premier League.

Step 2: The Premier League appoints an independent third party (usually a law firm) to conduct “exit interviews” with the player, parents and both clubs. However, further interviews or requests for information are also permitted.

Step 3: The two clubs involved in the agreement, including the player’s parents, are required to sign a declaration that no financial or value-in-kind inducements have been utilised as a part of the move (including contra deals).

Step 4: Through the independent third party, a report is then produced for the Premier League’s board, coming up with a recommendation regarding the club’s application to register the player.

Step 5: The Premier League’s board can either approve or reject the registration application. They also have the autonomy to take disciplinary against the club if they were found to breach their youth development rules.

So what does this all mean?

Well firstly, absolutely nothing if the review finds Manchester United did nothing wrong in their recruitment of Chido Obi Martin.

If it is found that they have breached the rules, the player will still sign for Man U but they could face sanctions.

The Athletic article continues: Everton for example, were handed a two-year academy ban in November 2018 and a fine of ÂŁ500,000 ($608,000) for offering incentives to a player and his family.

In 2017, Manchester City were fined ÂŁ300,000 ($365,000) and also banned from signing academy players for two years after the Premier League found evidence of contact between City staff and family members. Incidentally, in that same month, Liverpool were deemed to have breached similar rules when offering inducements to a Stoke City player and subsequently banned from recruiting in the academy for 12 months. They were also fined ÂŁ100,000 ($122,000).

Keenos