Tag Archives: Arsenal

Match Preview: Sheffield United vs Arsenal

Leave a reply

After what seems like an eternity, the Gunners return to action following the conclusion of the international break as they travel to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United in the Premier League.

Alexandre Lacazette faces a late fitness test after recovering from an ankle injury that has kept him out for the last month.

Kieran Tierney looks set to make his first Premier League appearance for Arsenal since his summer move from Celtic.

Meanwhile, fellow full-back Hector Bellerin could also make his first league appearance of the 2019/20 campaign following a long-term injury that has kept him out since January.

For Sheffield United, Ollie McBurnie, David McGoldrick and John Fleck are all doubts after sustaining injuries on international duty.

In what will be a tough test of Arsenal’s mettle, given the team’s dismal away record in the league, Unai Emery’s men know that a win will take them into third place, above Chelsea and Leicester and only one point behind second-placed Manchester City.

It will be intriguing to see how Arsenal set up, given Emery’s preference towards starting club captain Granit Xhaka.

The form of Matteo Guendouzi makes his almost undroppable, meaning there will probably be no room to accommodate Lucas Torreira in a 4-3-3.

The most advanced midfield spot is likely to be filled by Dani Ceballos, though Emery did say over the international break that Mesut Özil has a chance of forcing his way into the starting squad again after improved effort in training.

With the aforementioned Bellerin and Tierney playing as full-backs, Rob Holding is another who has recently recovered from injury.

Holding could partner David Luiz in central defence, though Emery could be tempted to give the nod to Calum Chambers, who has impressed with his performances so far this season.

In attack, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will hope to register his 50th Arsenal goal, in what would only be his 75th game for the club.

Alongside him, Nicolas Pepe will hope to add to his own goal tally after only scoring once in eight league matches, whilst the exciting young prospect of Bukayo Saka is capable of causing plenty of problems down the left flank with his pace and trickery.

Prediction: Sheffield United 1-2 Arsenal

Zac

Mesut Ozil, I just don’t think you understand….

8 Replies

Mesut Ozil is arguably the biggest enigma we have had at The Arsenal – He is Brilliant, Magical, Inspiring, Frustrating, Lazy, World Class and opinion dividing all in one – I don’t think I have ever seen a player that has split the opinion of a fan base more than Mesut Ozil.

213 assists in 579 career club appearances, 65 goal involvements in 92 aps for Germany. He has been the top provider in Germany, Spain, England, a World Cup, Euros and the Champions League – that tells you all you need to know about his strengths. On his day he is arguably the best number 10 world football, the most creative footballer in the planet. This has been back up by Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Joachim Low who made him integral parts of their team.

Many of Mesuts current and ex-team mates and say he is the best player they have played with technically; BUT the question that has always been asked about Mesut “Does he want it enough?” “Does he really care?” “Does he work hard enough?”

I guess as Arsenal fans a lot of people would say no to those 3 questions. Yet Ozil was an integral part of ending Arsenals 9 year trophy drought – he went on to win 3 FA Cups with Arsenal in 4 years.

Ozil joined Arsenal in 2013 following a promise he gave Arsene Wenger prior to joining Real Madrid 3 years earlier.

On the 31st January 2018 Mesut signed a new 3 year contract with Arsenal for £350,000 per week – this was the same time we lost Alexis Sanchez.

Sanchez was unbelievable for Arsenal at the time and was a huge blow to lose him to Manchester United. Mesut could have easily followed suit, but he didn’t he signed a new deal to stay at the club that he felt was his home – he has always paid a huge respect to the Arsenal fans that have always stuck by him.

When Unai Emery joined Arsenal he made Mesut Ozil one of his 5 captains but at the same time challenged Mesut by insisting he had to improve his work rate.

Ozil was reminded that he was no different to any other player in the squad and if he didn’t do what was asked of him he would not play.

That is fair enough – you have to adapt and as an Arsenal fan for over 30 years all I have ever wanted to see is a player give 100% for the shirt – especially if you are earning £350k a week!

Mesut managed 5 goals and 2 assists in 24 games in the Premier League in the 2018-19 season is this enough to justify his huge new contract? By far the biggest contract we have given to a player.

Some fans argued that we should have got rid of Mesut and given that kind of contract to Aaron Ramsey and kept him – I could see the logic in that.

Rambo is an Arsenal man with over 10 years under his belt for the club.

When struggling for game time under Unai Emery, when he did play you could see what he offered – 110% work rate and was hugely influential in getting us to the Europa League final which he missed due to injury!

Mesut I feel has always been a player that needs to feel completely free and have 100% confidence in him to really perform.

He clearly doesn’t have that under Unai Emery.

This season be has played only 1 game in the Premier League and has been left out of the last 3 match day squads. You can see that something is not right.

Rumours that he doesn’t fully apply himself training; that he has a tendency to call in sick on a regular basis circulate.

Is Unai making an example of Mesut? He famously had a similar power struggle at PSG with Neymar which clearly was won by Neymar; but is history repeating itself with Mesut? Unai Emery seems very reluctant to give Mesut the chance to redeem himself.

Why would you sign Mesut? To create goal scoring opportunities for his teammates and chip in with goals – that’s his strengths and that’s what he has been better than anyone else at for over a decade.

You certainly don’t sign someone like Mesut to track back and tackle. But is this where football has changed? Defending starts from the front and no matter who you are; you work hard, you press. Liverpool the perfect example of defending from the front.

Body language has never been Ozil’s best friend. Even when he is covering more distance than any other player, putting a shift in, he still looks lethargic.

Ozil has perhaps found himself as the victim of Arsenal’s defensive frailties.

The side is so shaky at the back with not enough cover from midfield, Emery has had to sacrifice the playmaker who can coast defensively to bring in someone harder working like Dani Ceballos.

But Ozil is still the best playmaker at the club and with Pepe, Lacazette and Aubameyang up top; if given the chance I struggle to see how we wouldn’t be more prolific. Perhaps the best form of defence is attack?

He was recently again voted in as one of the 5 captains but more importantly this was voted for by the players – does this tell us something we don’t know?

After a rare recent interview with The Athletic; Mesut has reaffirmed his love for the club:

“I have a contract until the summer of 2021 and I will be staying until then. When I signed the new deal, I thought about it very carefully and said it was one of the most important decisions of my footballing career.

I didn’t want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal and the club wanted me to do the same. You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away and I’m not going to. I’m here until at least 2021.

I said that Arsene Wenger was a big factor in me joining Arsenal — and he was — but ultimately I signed for the club. Even when Arsene announced he was leaving, I wanted to stay because I love playing for Arsenal and that’s why I’ve been here for six years.

I’m proud to be an Arsenal player, a fan and I’m happy here. Whenever people see me in the street I always say, ‘This is my home’. I’m going nowhere.”

Ozil has always done the PR stuff well. It is why he is a huge brand in his own right.

In his interview he said all the right things. It then actions speak louder than words.

Mesut Ozil clearly loves London – he clearly feels at home and when he is on it he is one of the most enjoyable players to watch playing this beautiful game – but where does he go from here? He is 31 now and his contract runs out in the summer of 2021.

It is difficult to see both Mesut Ozil and Unai Emery still being at the club come the summer of 2021 – but will either of them be here? If so who do you think?

One thing is for sure –Mesut Ozil at his best he has been an absolute joy to watch in the famous red and white and for me I won’t forget his best bits!

“We’ve got Ozil, Messsssssut Ozil” “I just don’t think you understand” But is he Unai’s man?

Kind regards,

Paul

Has Gabriel Martinelli ended Eddie Nketiah’s career at Arsenal

6 Replies

When Arsenal agreed the deal to take then 17-year-old Gabriel Martinelli, I was concerned that it would send a negative message it would send to the academy.

The worry was that we had a lot of good young attacking talent in our academy and U23s. From Eddie Nketiah, Tyreece John-Jules, Folarin Balogun to Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka on the wings.

At the time I felt that if Martinelli was being signed to go into the academy squad rather than the 1st team squad, it would be a blow for talented teenagers who had been at the club since primary school days.

My opinion was simple. If Martinelli was to join, it would be to be in and around the 1st team. It was only worthwhile signing him if he was already better than every single one of those aforementioned players.

A decision was made in the summer to send Nketiah on loan.

At 20-years-old, he had spent a few years already playing U23 football and it was clearly a level below him. Even at international youth level, he looks too good for his age group.

The problem he faced was that at Arsenal he had Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette ahead of him. Two world class strikers.

Nketiah needed game time and with Arsenal playing 1 up top, that would have been restrictive – even in the League Cup and Europa League where Unai Emery would have gone with whichever one of his two top strikers was playing second fiddle to the other.

So Nketiah was too good for age group football, yet not quite good enough to get regular minutes in Arsenal’s first team. A loan deal made complete sense.

Off to Leeds United Nketiah went where he has been in good form; already scoring 4 goals this season. However he has yet to make a league start for 2nd in the table for Leeds.

The original plan would have been that Nketiah’s loan deal would be his chance to shine.

A good season at Leeds and he would return to the club a man. 21-years-old and ready to push Aubameyang and Lacazzete. Position himself as a genuine option when 30-year-old Aubameyang’s legs go and he leaves for China or America (it will happen within 2 seasons).

But what has happened whilst he Nketiah has been on loan is he has had to watch on as Arsenal’s new young Brazilian has quickly established himself as a fans favourite.

The situation at Arsenal changed quickly.

An injury to Lacazette left Emery with just the one senior striker. This resulted in him having to look at which teenager would lead the line in the Europa League and League Cup.

Aubameyang started the 1st Europa League game against Eintracht Frankfurt, with Martinelli on the bench. But the young Brazilian was given his chance against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup – scoring twice.

That performance was enough to convince Emery that it was not worth risking Aubameyang in Europe. That Martinelli would be his man for mid-week.

Against Standard Liege Martinelli doubled his goal tally for Arsenal to 4 for the season, adding an exquisite assist in the process. He had arrived.

At this point it is important to point out the importance of not over hyping him.

I have seen some already labelling him the next Carlos Tevez. But he is 18-years-old with two good performances against Nottingham Forest and Standard Leige. We should not be putting him in the starting line-up for Premier League teams yet.

With the performances of Martinelli, it is easy to forget that he is only just 18-years-old. It is that which makes him so exciting.

Time is on his side. There is no need to rush he progression. He will still be a teenager in 2021!

What has impressed about Martinelli the most is his all-round game.

His has shown so far that he can score poacher’s goals, headers and wonder strikes. He has a high work rate, putting pressure on defenders, and is capable of getting involved in the build up play. He could become a complete striker.

Meanwhile Nketiah is a little bit more of a simple striker. He is a finisher, like Ian Wright. He will score goals, a lot of goals. But he will not contribute much else to the team. In modern football, can you really afford to have a striker who is only a goal scorer? Not sure.

The problem Nketiah now faces is that Martinelli is likely to get 6-10 starts this season in the Europa League, League Cup and FA Cup.

If Martinelli continues his current level of performance, and Nketiah does not go and bang in 20+ Championship goals, the Englishman will return to North London behind in the pecking order.

That would leave a 21-year-old Nketiah as 4th choice striker at Arsenal – a team that play one up top. And one of the players ahead of him is 2 years younger, the other 2 will be world class performers.

So role forward 12 months, Aubameyang and Lacazette are combining in Arsenal’s 1st XI and Martinelli is on the bench in the Premier League, starting in the lesser competitions. Where does that leave Nketiah?

At 21-years-old he could still play for the U23 team. But following a season on loan to a top Championship side, that will be a step back.

Another loan deal could be an option, but if at 21 he is not yet ready, and with a (then) 19-year-old ahead of him, a loan deal will be very different to this season. It will not be a case of “you are a young player, go out on loan, perform and next season you will be part of 1st team plans” as 2021/22 Martinelli will still be ahead of him. And just 20.

The other problem Nketiah faces is those other players coming up from behind.

Arsenal have a pair of 18-year-old strikers in Tyreece John-Jules and Folarian Balogun who are next on the Hale End production line.

Next summer Edu will have to decide whether it is worthwhile continuing to develop a Nketiah, or start concentrating on those who are younger.

In the same way arsenal’s focus went from Benik Afobe to Chuba Akpom, then from Akpom to eddie Nketiah; next summer might become a time where a decision is made to let Nketiah go and introduce John-Jules and Balogun to 1st team training, pre-season tours and cup appearances.

Arsenal could well decide to cash in on Nketiah,

Liverpool have done well recently moving on the likes of Dominic Solanke, Kevin Stewart, Jerome Sinclair and Jordon Ibe. Those 4 raised nearly £46million after the Champions League winners decided that they did not have the quality for the highest level.

If Arsenal did decide to sell Nketiah, there would be plenty of Premier League interest.

Would it be unrealistic for Arsenal to command a fee northwards of £20million for him? I would imagine if Leeds did get promoted, they would be very interested in making his loan deal permanent.

So bids for £20m+ for Nketiah come in. He is 4th choice striker and we have teenagers chomping at the bit to get ahead of him. The time might be up for the youngster.

Keenos