Morning! Bit of a late blog today and for once it is not because I had a session yesterday!
New Year, New Me, and all of that bollocks. I was up early, smashed a gym session, put a load of washing on and the goat curry in the slow cooker. This is now a coffee and writing break before I am back on it with cleaning!
There was plenty to be taken from yesterday’s pre-FA Cup press conference.
The comments regurgitated the most were about our January transfers was Mikel Arteta said “that is a possibility” that we might not bdo any business at all.
I am not sure why some felt this was such big news. Of course it is a possiblity that we might not do any business. If the right players are not available at the right place, we should not do any business. Buying for the sake of buying leaves you withj Lucas Perez and takes money out of next summers transfer kitty.
Better to buy no one, then buy someone who in 6-month is deadwood.
Arteta also spoke on Oleksandr Zinchenko’s injury saying “he is progressing well. We have another training session tomorrow and we will evaluate whether he is available or not to play and start the game.”
At worst, Zinchenko will be back for Crystal Palace, afterwhich we have 3 more games league games until Takehiro Tomiyasu is back from the Asian Cup. Any left back that comes in will have to be a better option than the Japanese full back, and I am not sure that sort of quality player will be available in January.
Arteta backed up my view by saying “first of all focus on the players that we have.”
“As for the rest, there is no actual news” was Arteta’s response to the rest of the walking wounded, although he did then go on to talk about Thomas Partey’s omission from the Ghana national team calling it “common sense” that he had not been selected. He would go on to explain that Partey was not yet back in first team training so “it didn’t make a lot of sense for him to be involved.”
Finally, for those getting their knickers in a twist over our current form, the Boss outlined the situation brilliantly saying:
“Until Christmas Day we were top of the league. Six days later, we are fourth, so you can be very tempted to look at things with a microscope or with a telescope and look a little bit further and with a little bit more perspective.
“My job big time is to look through the telescope and have perspective and analyse things in the proper way, and not get affected by one performance. Not the result, one performance.”
We live in such a reactionary “fast food” world fuelled by social media where after 2 or 3 bad games, fans and pundits begin to ask questions and demand changes.
You do not build a successful team for the long term by continually changing tactics, playing personnel and manager everytime you have half a dozen poor games. As our match reporter Steve says, you stick with the winners and Arteta and this squad of players have shown plenty in the last 18 months as to why we need to stick with them.
Liverpool have gone through the same with Jurgen Klopp over the years. Last year there were calls for him to be sacked and Mohamed Salah to be cashed in on. They are now top of the table and Salah sits top of the combined goals and assists charts.
The likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus might be going through a tough spell, but you do not just dump them due to this. That is not how you build a great team.
Bit game tomorrow as the FA Cup is probably our most realistic chance for a trophy this season.
Nearly time for Christmas! Last day at work for most of us. Hats off to all those who will be working over the next 7-days – your retail and hospitality workers, delivery drivers, etc. These unsung heroes do not get the credit they deserve whilst we are all sitting enjoying a few days or weeks off.
Yesterday there were two bits of news that sort of connect – February TV games announced and the new European Super League proposal.
Three of our February Premier League fixtures have been moved:
Liverpool at home will now Sunday, 4 February , 4.30pm kick-off.
West Ham United away has been moved to a Sunday, 11 February, kicking off at 2pm.
Lastly, Newcastle United at the Emirates will be at 8pm on Saturday, 24 February 24.
Now from an Arsenal fans point of view, I am relieved ,sort of.
The long away trip to Burnley remains at 3pm and West Ham at 2pm on a Sunday is decent. The Newcastle game is the only one at an awkward kick off time – but it is a lot worse for Newcastle fans.
And that is my main issue. Kick off times affect all traveling fans – both those traveling from Newcastle and those Arsenal fans that commute in. 8pm on a Saturday is just designed for greed to maximise overseas TV revenue. The 8pm kick off is basically to satisfy our little cousins across the pond.
The last train back for Newcastle fans from London is at 21:00 – just as the second half is kicking off. There is a slightly later (and much longer) train that leaves London at 22:05 and involves a change. This will get them back to Newcastle at 3:20; and they would need to leave at half time to get to Kings Cross in time.
All the bluster from Sky Sports, BT (now TNT) and the Premier League about how they were “standing up for match going fans” back in 2021 when the European Super League last reared its ugly head was just posturing. Neville, Carragher, et al have always turned a blind eye to how match going fans are treated by the company they work for (and yes, I know this game is on TNT. Sky would have a 10pm kick off if they were allowed).
The TV companies do not care about match going fans. They only care about profits.
It will be interesting to see their response to the latest European Super League proposals – also announced yesterday.
My bet is they come out and say “fans have already made it clear that they do not want the European Super League”, ignoring the fact that we have also all made it clear previously that we do not want games with no trains home.
The revamped Super League is as posterous as the one proposed back in 2021.
The investment group behind it have this time attempted to make it seem “more inclusive” by having “promotion and relegation” and including a women’s competition.
The promotion and relegation aspect makes it appear that it will create a “fair opportunity” for teams to qualify, with 20 teams in the “Blue League” (the bottom of pyramid) getting relegated. But this is not the case.
Just 2 out of 16 teams in the “Star League” get relegated to the “Gold League”, and only 2 teams from that leafgue drop down into the bottom Blue League.
So whilst with the Champions League, you could, in theory, have 32 different teams in it each year, you can only have 2 different teams in the Star League from the previous year. It is clearly a ploy to protect the interests of those in the Star League by protecting them with a very low chance of relegation. The turnover of teams will be at the bottom end.
You will also only be promoted into the Blue League if a team from your domestic league gets relegated.
So Aston Villa this season could finish top 4. That will see them qualify for the Champions League. But finishing top 4 would not see them qualify for the European Super League unless an English team finishes in the bottom reaches of the Blue League, which will be highly unlikely.
The criticism of the previous European Super League was it was a closed shop. This incarnation allows others into the basement of the shop, but the big boys are still playing with each other upstairs.
A22 (the investment group behind the European Super League) have also tried to bribe fans by saying “fans would also be able to watch live matches for free on a new digital streaming platform.”
Most fans will see through this and know it will be temporary until they have “bought the market”. It is basically like the “one-year free trail” The Athletic gave out (and many other companies), and then once they decide the free period is over the prices are hiked up.
And even if it was free for life, I would not want it. And it just highlights again that the European Super League is for the TV fans, not the match going fans.
A simply solution for the Premier League, FA, UEFA and FIFA is to make it very clear:
Clubs – If you enter the European Super League, you are excluded from all domestic, UEFA and FIFA competitions.
Players – If you play for a team in the European Super League, you are banned from representing your country.
This will throw the European Super League into chaos as they are trying to “work with domestic leagues” by having promotion and relegation from domestic leagues. If those teams involved no longer play in domestic competition, it will get stale quickly.
At the time of writing, teams are already distancing themselves from the European Super League – Manchester United and Atletico Madrid the two biggest, as well as the Bundesliga as a collective.
Considering PSG refused to get involved in the last version, and English teams would likely be unable to participate under if new legislation is passed in 2024, the potential available particpating teams is quickly shrinking.
Real Madrid and Barcelona will allows push for it. The pair have overspent their way to glory in the last 30 years and are now paying for it. They are both poorly run clubs who in the past have relied on “state aid” to balance their books.
Juventus are another team who are pushing for the European Super League. Juventus were considered to be the leading club in the 2006 Serie A match fixing scandal, alongside AC Milan (another Italian club pushing for the formation of the Super League).
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan all blame the Premier League for their huge debt. The reality is they all owe so much because their spending went unregulated and they backed that their countries will bail them out
Reasons for the European Super League, part 2: the 12 clubs have £5.6 bln of debt, per UEFA’s definition of financial debt (£3.5 bln) and transfer debt (£2.1 bln). Moreover, almost all of the financial debt has come from banks (£3.3 bln), compared to only £0.2 bln from owners. pic.twitter.com/Ck6YUp0Fbg
(note: most of the Premier League sides debt in the table above is associated with stadium and training ground redevelopments, whilst the European sides is mainly money owed in transfers and due to overpaying wages for decades. Debt not secured against an asset.)
Decades of mismanagement and corruption is now catching up with a lot of teams on the continent. It is their fault they are all in such a bad financial situation, not the fault of the Premier League.
If Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona continue to push for the Super League, they will probably find themselves joined by Russian and Turkish teams, maybe Portuguese, as well as others from Eastern Europe. Will there really be any interest in 16 teams playing each other if it excludes English, French and German (I imagine the Dutch will also side with their fellow Central Europeans)? No.
Yes, the Champions League would suffer, but the domestic leagues would thrive in the absence of a top teams in Serie A and La Liga no longer playing each other. These leagues would very quickly die off.
The European Super League is clearly a bad idea. The only silver lining is it sounds like UEFA are scrapping their plans for a revamped Champions League.
My final thought is back in England, and a comment I made earlier.
Sky, TNT Sports, the Premier League do not stick up for match going fans. They only care for their own interests. And having Newcastle fans travel to London for an 8pm Saturday kick off highlights this!
Another away game today, and this feels like yet another big weekend in the title race.
We are heading to Leicester for our first 3pm away game of the season. Meanwhile Man City face Bournemouth on the south-coast in the late afternoon/early evening kick off.
It feels like one of those weekends where all 6 results are a strong possibility, and I would not be too surprised if one of us or City drop points.
Leicester got smashed last time out against Manchester United, but they could have been 2 or 3-nil up before they went behind.
They have some fantastic forward thinking players, and a double creative threat in midfield in James Maddison and Youri Tielemans. Leicester will carve out chances today.
It is just whether Arsenal can hold out and defend when they have their spell on top. We will get plenty of chances to score ourselves.
Only Bournemouth have conceded more than Leicester this season. The Foxes have outscored 5th place Newcastle with 36 goals in 23 games.
A threat going forward, but very poor in defence.
I have seen a few people complaining that “it is 2023 and we can not watch The Arsenal on TV”.
“Our next 3 games are not televised. Why do I pay so much for my subscriptions”.
Two of those three games are at home. If you have decided to be a TV fan rather than match going, then that is your decision.
This is the first 3pm away game of the season. And just our 3rd 3pm Saturday match this year.
The other two were Leicester and Brentford at home. Bournemouth at home next Saturday is also 3pm Saturday. And I am loving it.
I think TV fans do not quite realise how games not being at 3pm can affect match going fans.
The early starts, the late finishes. Scrapping for trains for away games. We battle on. So I am sorry if we have 5 or 6 games a season at 3pm on a Saturday which means you can not watch your favourite television show.
How about turn the radio on? I am part of a generation that grew up with hardly any football on TV. And very few houses had Sky. Listening to 5 Live or Capital Gold was my childhood.
Football is not a TV show.
Other news is that Bukayo Saka is apparently very close to signing his new long term deal.
🚨 Arsenal have an agreement in principle on a new contract for Bukayo Saka. Long-term deal for 21yo England international attacker not signed + may take some time to complete, but now in place. Fantastic news for #AFC@TheAthleticFC after @SamiMokbel81_DMhttps://t.co/cCjpgD29Ut
I do take this with a pinch of salt as I remember the same journalists writing similar stories about 4 months ago.
Saka will sign, I am sure of that. He (and his people) are just ensuring he gets what he is worth.
Last summer, you would perhaps have offered him around £150k a week. He has now kicked on again and is our most important player.
Saka is our top scorer in the league, and 7th top scorer overall. And with 8 assists, only Kevin de Buryne has more.
17 goals + assists, split almost equally between goals and assists, only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have more goals and assists in the Premier League this season.
He is the biggest goal scoring and creative threat in the Premier League (Marcus Rashford might out score him, but he does not create much).
Arsenal’s strength this season has been we have mutiple attacking threats across the front line – Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus. Opponents do not know where the goals or assists will come from. But one man is now rising above the others and that is Saka.
He is now well worth the £200k a week he will sign. Hopefully it will be a 5 year deal with an option of a 6th.
Saka is still just 21 and that deal will see him spend many of his best years at the club. Having started so young, you have to think his peak years will be 22-27 rather than 25-30.
It is not just Saka the player that is important, but also Saka the person. He gets what it means to play for The Arsenal.
Take it one game at a time, but it is hard not to think that by this time next week we could be back to 5 points clear.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 