Tag Archives: Arsenal

Bayern Munich, Ben White, North London Forever and more

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Bayern Munich

Hello my old friend, we meet again.

It was always going to happen wasn’t it? In yesterday’s blog, Bayern Munich were my 2nd least favourite potential opponent. Only Manchester City below them. So we go and get Munich, and then if we beat them it is Manchester City.

Even though they were my least attracted trip abroad, the flights and hotels are already booked.

As always, airline prices jumped straight after the draw, and we are paying £230 return via Brussels. Go the week later and you can get return flights direct to Munich for just £61…

It is probably the worst Munich team in decades, but they are still a danger.

10 points behind Bayer Leverkusen, it is unlikely that they will win the Bundesliga. I would not be surprised if they rest players in the league and go all out for the Champions League.

Ben White

Two bits of Benjamin White news in the last few days.

The first was his new contract. Well deserved. The second was the news that he was making himself unavailable for England selection.

On the contract, the way White continually rises to the challenge shows what sort of player he is.

Signed a central defender, he was shifted across to right back to cover the injured Takehiro Tomiyasu. He never complained and just got his head down and did what Mikel Arteta demanded of him. When the Tomi returned, the Japenese right back did not walk straight back into the first team.

Then this summer we signed Jurrien Timber. White has since taken his game to another level which shows he is the sort of player that is not scared of competition.

White is one of the leaders of the team and, unlike Tomiyasu, his fitness can be relied upon – incredibly he has never missed a game through injury for The Arsenal.

And all this brings into light the issues with England.

Arteta and his coaches will be much more demanding of White than Southgate and his goons. If White has risen to the challenge of Arteta, and our manager backs him, then you have to ask what actually happened on that England camp.

I also find the criticism of White to be a little odd.

One of the loudest critics has been Stan Collymore. The woman-beater pitches himself as a mental health advocate, yet has spent the last 48 hours piling on Ben White for his decision.

The other biggest critics are Liverpool fans. You know them fellas that spout “Scouse not English”. You would think they would back as player deciding not to play for England. But instead the accuse him of letting their country down. It just shows they are a fanbase with zero morals. But that is nothing new.

At the end of the day, it is Ben White’s career. If he decides that he does not want to play for England than that is his choice.

North London Forever

Love this from Gabriel Jesus…

Fixture congestion

I saw an article yesterday about how “European football has thrown Arsenal’s fixtures into chaos”.

The article began by mentioning that the Aston Villa game would now be moved from Saturday to Sunday due to them now playing in Europe on Thursday. This game always had an * against it for this reason, so it is not like this is something the club knew nothing about.

It is the norm for teams playing on Thursday to have their games moved to the Sunday. A real non-story.

But the article continued pointing out that we have to re-arrange the Chelsea game, and potentially the Wolves game, and how this will create end of season conjestion.

Liverpool and Manchester City are both in the exact same position in terms of potentially re-arranging league games due to the FA Cup. And in-fact they will have more congestion than us if they remain in the completion. Likewise Liverpool will have every Saturday game after their Europa League matches moved to Sunday. Yet it is only Arsenal who get the negative press over fixture chaos and congestion.

It just shows again that Arsenal are the most newsworthy club in the world, whilst no one really cares about Liverpool on Manchester City….

Enjoy your Saturday.

Keenos

The Arsenal peaking at the right time

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Morning! Hope you all haven’t missed me too much.

Just over a week ago I returned from 10-days in Egypt and bought something back with my that has seen over a stone in weight loss in that time. Some will say that is not a bad thing for me! The stomach bug hit me for 6 and completely drained my energy.

Today is the first morning I have woken up and not had a bowel movement that resembles the Niagra Falls. Sorry to all those tucking into a Friday morning bacon roll!

Sadly the illness led me to miss the Sheffield United victory (and could not even get out of bed to watch it on TV) and I have also sold my Brentford ticket. Hopefully this is now the recovery and not a false dawn!

This blog was never supposed to be a daily one. I only ever really wrote when I fancied it. But in the last year and a half, it had become something I was doing each and every day. The last 3 couple of days with no blog broke a daily writing streak of more than 500 days!

That Sheffield United victory seems a lifetime ago right now.

I remember writing to some mockery back end of last year that Mikel Arteta was ‘negative splitting’ his season. That we were holding back in the first half of the season deliberately to ensure that we had more energy for the final kick.

This is something you see distance runners and swimmers do. They will try and complete the second half of the race quicker than the first half, taking advantage of others who might have put too much energy into the first half of the race.

It is something Manchester City under Pep Guardiola have always done so well. Done just enough to get through games in the first half of the season before being unbeatable in the second.

Last season was the perfect example of how a team that has a better 2nd half of the season will usually finish ahead of a team who start fast and has a good first half.

Now some will argue that “we have left too much to do” and started out drive to the finish line too late. I really do not think being 2 points off top after 27 games is leaving ourselves with too much to do.

Yes, these fans will point to Fulham (both games), West Ham and other fixtures, but football is not perfect. If you say “Arsenal should have won those games” then you also have to concede that Liverpool and Manchester City “should” have won games they did not. The issue with fans at times is that they expect their own team to be perfect all the time, but do not hold the same bar of expectation to others.

On to Brentford tomorrow. A late kick off and a game I was really looking forward too. Instead I will be watching it from the comfort of my sofa, hopefully having kept down the last 48 hours food!

Have a good Friday.

Keenos

Raya proving Arteta right in battle for Arsenal number 1

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The recruitment of David Raya by Arsenal has been one of the most talked about transfers in decades.

Popular Aaron Ramsdale was cast aside in mid-August as Raya joined from Brentford on-loan. The result was a never ending stream of criticism from journalists, pundits and many Arsenal fans.

6 months on and Raya now looks very settled in an Arsenal jersey, and any negative comments surrounding why we signed him should be gone – although every now and again a lazy pundit likes to mention him again.

We conceded a shocker of a goal against Liverpool and this lead to those lazy pundits to repeat their misguided rhetoric.

Karen Carney, one of a new breed of pundits who are just not fit for purpose, said “the goalkeeper needs to communicate better, he can see it all, he’s under no pressure, and that’s where we question is he the right goalkeeper because he doesn’t have that commanding presence.”

Firstly, the goal was clearly not his fault.

William Saliba failed to take control of the situation and expected his keeper to come out for the ball. In leaving it for Raya, the Frenchman did not work hard enough to keep Luis Diaz behind him. The result was the calamity of an own goal for Gabriel.

I have watched the goal numerous times and fail to see how any blame goes on Raya. As a central defender, you should always be thinking “if in doubt, kick it out”.

It is clear that Raya did not call for the ball – you can see in his body language and way he did not fly out for the ball. It was Saliba’s decision that it would be “keepers” rather than Raya’s. A defender should not be making that decision for the keeper.

One thing that has impressed me with Raya is his command of the area.

When we signed him, I spoke to a Brentford fan and he informed me that Raya’s aerial prowess was one of his best attributes. He would come out in a crowded box and catch the ball under extreme pressure. Handling in the air was exceptional.

Early in his career, Raya had a couple of bloopers (Chelsea) where he was arguably in the wrong position for a cross. At the time I questioned whether this was his issue, or an issue with coaching. Since that day he has looked imperious in the air.

Only 3 players have caught the ball from more crosses this season than Raya. In comparison, he has punched the ball clea just 4 times (16th in the Premier League). So I am not really sure what Carney is going on about when she says Raya does not have a “commanding presence.”

A lot of the love for Ramsdale was over his character. He is a decent keeper who is good enough for a top 6 team. Raya has that little bit extra that could lead him to being a title winning keeper.

Take the quick throw outs as an example.

Over the years we have seen Ederson and Alisson turn defence into attack with their quick and accurate distribution (whether by feet or throwing). It is a great asset to have for a keeper in a top team as you can launch an attack with opponents having players up the field and before defenders have got back into their low block.

Raya was involved in a lot of goals for Brentford with his distribution, and I am sure this is one reason we signed him.

Having settled in the team, we are now seeing the impact of Raya. Everytime he gets the ball Gabriel Martinelli is sprinting into that space left by a full back. We have already scored once this season and against Liverpool we were unlucky not to score another.

What is interesting when watching Raya is he does not just pump it forward every time. He looks for that quick throw out and if it is not on he is happy taking a few steps back. For me this is the difference between him and Ramsdale.

Ramsdale was neither accurate enough in his distribution, or calm enough to realise the opportunity had gone. He would often just launch the ball forward, needlessly losing us possesion.

As Raya has settled, his distribution is much improved.

It was always going to take a while for him to get used to passing out to Gabriel, William Saliba, Declan Rice, etc. Understanding where they would be positioned and how they wanted the ball delivered makes all the difference when trying to draw the opponent out close to our goal ahead of launching an attack to get throug the press.

When he first joined, Raya was having to get his head up and look where he was playign the ball. This would lose vital split-seconds. Now he is playing those passes on instinct, knowing his teammate will arrive into the space he is passing into.

For me it is now a no-brainer. Raya is available for £27million in the summer and it is a move we have to make. Meanwhile, we should be looking to cash in on Ramsdale for £40million or more. Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Brighton and Newcastle look the likely destinations.

A £13million (or more) difference between the two fees will add extra to our transfer kitty this summer. Although that would likely be eaten up as we buy a new number two (someone who is happy to sit on the bench and whose dad won’t go on every podcast going).

Have a good Thursdsay.

Keenos