Tag Archives: Manchester City

Arsenal fans need to “have a little patience”

7 Replies

Manchester City were not going to become a bad team over the summer.

Likewise, after just 8 weeks with his players, Unai Emery was never going to turn us into world beaters.

City broke the Premier League points record in 2018/19, and anyone who watched them demolish Chelsea in the Community Shield would have known they had lost none of their superiority over the rest of the Premier League.

At half time, a chap in front of my in the queue for a beer said “why are we letting a team come to our ground and dominate us”. It showed a lack of respect for City, who will probably dominate all 38 league games this season.

Whilst City might have been without Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, they were still able to put out the world must expensively assembled defence with Kyle Walker costing more than our entire back back 5.

They also added Riyad Mahrez to a collection of brilliant forward players. Leroy Sane spent the entire game warming up – showing he is missed more by his country than his club.

It has to be remembered it too Pep Guardiola 12 months and £500m to build last years Premier League champions, so anyone who expected Emery to turn Arsenal into a side that could compete with City after 8 months and £70million spent perhaps needed to get a reality check.

The game was not a complete disaster, result withstanding, however their were some valid concerns.

Petr Cech was at fault for the first goal and nearly put a 2nd into his own net. I am not really sure why he started above Bernd Leno.

Another to have a predictably poor game was Granit Xhaka, who also had an average World Cup for Switzerland.

Matteo Guendouzi was fantastic, bar a silly error that nearly cost a goal. And Xhaka has to be worried about both the Frenchman’s ability and that if Lucas Torreira. It would not be a surprise to see both move ahead of the Swiss player as the season go’s on.

It was an error strewn game from Arsenal’s point of view, but you could see the players trying hard to play the game in the new managers vision.

We as fans need to give Emery the time to build the club.

Look at Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool; who is starting his 4th season in the Premier League. Liverpool finished 4th last season, their highest finish under the German. He is yet to win anything in England.

Spurs are the same under Mauricio Pochettino. He is also trophyless.

These managers are still being given the benefit of the doubt behind Manchester City.

I did not expect us to turn big champions overnight. Even competing for the title against a City side who won the league by 20 points last season is a big ask.

Playing against City in his opening game, we were never really going to see how Emery has changed the club.

Up next is Chelsea…

Keenos

Premier League Top 6: Signings so far

3 Replies

The Transfer window shuts in less than 2 weeks time on Thursday 9th August.

This year, Premier League clubs have voted to shut the window for incoming players before the season starts, however players can still leave to Spain, France, Italy, Germany, etc.

With a little under 2 weeks to go, on a boring Saturday morning, shall we have a little look at the transfer dealings of the top 6:

Arsenal have done the most business, which should be expected considering they finished at the bottom of the pile last season.

Whilst Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City & Manchester United have all spent big on singular players, Arsenal have spread their spending across 5 players, bringing in a mixture of youth and experience.

The biggest spenders of the summer have been Liverpool with over £160million spent. It should kill off all the defending of Liverpool that they do not spend as much as those above them.

The majority of their cash has come from the sale of Coutinho in January. Keita and Fabinho coming in has to be offset by Oxlade-Chamberlain being out for 12 months and Emre Can leaving on a free.

For me, their best signing is Shaqiri. He is a brilliant back up player and game changing substitute. A steal at just £13m.

I do not really understand Manchester City‘s transfer dealings. It probably shows that they have more money than sense.

They already have Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Bernado Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and Davild Silva who can play play in the 3 attacking positions behind Sergio Aguero or Gabriel Jesus. Spending £60m on Riyad Mahrez just seems excessive.

I guess the thing with Manchester City is having won the league by 19 points, losing just two games, any big money signing could have been deemed “excessive.”

It feels a bit like Chelsea ~2007 when their squad was so strong that they ended up buying players just to stop rivals signing them.

Fred could turn out to be the player that Manchester United need to get the best out of Paul Pogba. Pairing him with Nemanja Matic and the Frenchman looks like a solid central midfield.

£19million for a left back who has played not much more first team football than me seems silly, but the proof will be in the pudding.

Chelsea‘s business could be about who leaves rather than who comes in. The money seems to have dried up for the club, and they seemed to wasted a lot of time and money on removing Antonio Conte and getting in Maurizio Sarri.

Taking into account that they finished 5th, just 7 points above Arsenal, you would expect them to have bought a lot more than a central midfielder. How much money have they wasted on central midfielders since signing N’Golo Kante and letting Matic leave (Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Barkley, Jorginho)?

With the futures of Eden Hazard, Willian and Thibaut Courtois in the air, it feels like they are waiting to see who leaves before bringing anyone in. It could be a deadline day dash for them.

As for Tottenham, they have bought no one. In this game, you stand still you actually go backwards. With Arsenal and Liverpool bringing in a lot of quality players, they could quickly find themselves struggling next season.

Clearly the £1bn stadium is impacting their transfer dealings. They have signed their key players to new contracts, but their over reliance on Harry Kane, Cristian Erickson and Dele Alli remains.

I would not be surprised if they do not actually sign anyone.

What I will find interesting next year is the progress of the 4 defensive midfielders Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool signed.

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1022429711832625152

Keenos

Arsenal’s Messy Numbers, Cristiano Ronaldo & Riyad Mahrez, and Jean Michael Seri

1 Reply

Messy Numbers

Lucas Torreira finally joined Arsenal yesterday and took the number 11 shirt. This caused a lot of fuss from traditionalists who dream of the days when players wore 1-11.

11 was always associated with a winger. We then have Bernd Leno, our number 1 for next season set to wear number 19.

Mohamed Elneny, who is unlikely to start, has the number 4 shirt, whilst Granit Xhaka, who is likely to start, wears 34.

And the less said about Joe Willock wearing 69 the better. Grow up son.

I guess at least it is not William Gallas wearing the sacred number 10. That is now on the shoulder of Mesut Ozil.

And we have a proper full back wearing number 2 in Hector Bellerin. It always looked odd with Aboue Diaby in that shift.

If Cech go’s, maybe Leno will move to number 1?

I just do not like it.

Cristiano Ronaldo & Riyad Mahrez

Yesterday Juventus sign Real Madrid forward for Cristiano Ronaldo for £99.2m.

Prior to the deal, the record transfer fee for a 33 year old was when Manchester City spent £16m on Claudio Bravo.

I can see why Ronaldo has moved; he is guaranteed winning the Serie A at least once with Juventus which will put him into an exclusive group of players who have won the league in England, Italy and Spain.

With his recent tax case, Ronaldo is set for a huge windfall in the later end of his career. €120,000,000 over 4 Years is the reported salary.

Some will say that he will earn that back for Juventus in shirt sales, but that is a fallacy as Juventus do not get a percentage of global shirt sales – they only profit o nwhat they sell in their own shop.

It just seems odd for Juventus to be spending that much on a 33 year old.

As for Riyad Mahrez, whilst the £60m is not a huge sum in this day and age – and he is probably worth it – it is incredible that Manchester City have spent the same on one player as Arsenal have on 4

What is even more incredible is that Manchester City already have Raheem Sterling (£44m), Bernard Silva (£43m) and Leroy Sane (£37m) in their squad. They have broken their transfer record on a player who probably will not start week in week out for them.

The signing also continues Pep Guardiola’s incredible spending since joining Manchester City.

Jean Michael Seri

The deal taking Jean Michael Seri from Nice to Fulham is an odd one.

After being linked with both Arsenal and Chelsea for the last 24 months for over £30m, to then join Fulham for reportedly half that just feels strange.

It reminds me of in days gone past when Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez joined West Ham out of no-where.

Why was he so cheap and why did he join Fulham?

My guess is that the interest from Arsenal and Chelsea disappeared. Neither club wanting to spend on a soon-too-be 27 year old whose hype is perhaps well above his ability.

Seri has been compared a lot to N’Golo Kante, but the feeling was always that this was because he was short, African and played in France; rather than him actually being similar to the Frenchman . Kante was also just 24 when he came to the Premier League.

You have to think his agent has forced through the move, knowing that time is running down for his client to make a big money move to the Premier League. That he had to go now to secure that big signing on percentage.

It will be interesting to see if Seri lives up to the hype in England, or if he justifies why Arsenal and Chelsea decided not to go for him.

Keenos