A chronologically sequenced descriptions of key moments from this weekend’s Arsenal match (away at Liverpool, Sunday August 31, 2025) seems to me a joyless exercise in futility, not so much because we lost away to our title rivals – it is well-known that losing the odd game or three has historically been proven inevitable even for the most swashbuckling winners of the English Premier League, with only one notable exception that remains an exception for a reason – in a match lacking key moments or any great degree of quality, but mostly due to the fact that the patient readers of this blog must all have either seen the match live at the stadium or at their home, or have seen the recorded version, or at least the highlights, and I confess that I cannot think of any novel enough approach to represent the temporal unfolding of (non)events that in any shape or form can even complement those visual experiences, let alone enrich them.
Instead, I choose to express my opinion about this match. Not just the match itself, but the narrative about it, and what it means for Arsenal’s season, and our transfer window expenditure, and then all the meta-narratives about those narratives. And the meta-narratives about those meta-narratives, turning it back on a self-referential loop of incessant back-and-forth, back-and-forth, forever and forever…
I kid. I won’t do any such things. One, I don’t have the time. Two, I am not a media expert paid to generate a torrent of content. I will try to keep this short, present some opinions and theories that though they won’t quite meet Popper’s falsifiability requirements for being scientific, would aim to be data-driven whenever possible.
Let me start with a sequence of results: D 2-2; W 1-0; D 1-1; W 5-1; W 2-1; W 2-0; D 1-1; D 2-2; D 2-2; W 1-0; W 3-1; L 1-4; D 2-2; L 1-3; W 3-2; W 2-0; W 1-0; W 3-2; W 3-1; L 1-3 .
These are Arsenal’s PL results across 24-25 and 23-24 seasons, reverse chronologically ordered, against the other five clubs of the “traditional” top six.
24-25: W5 D5, total points= 20/25. 23-24: W6 D1 L3, total points = 19/25.
I distinctly remember a time in the near past when despite playing superb football – albeit not consistently enough – against other “big” clubs (I think that distinction is not as pronounced nowadays as it used to be, especially in terms of the potential outcome of any given match) this same table would look despairing worse from Arsenal’s perspectives. And there used to be such almighty clamour about various myriad real or perceived limitations.
If anyone is trying to suggest that those days were better, given that once in a while we would come back with a thrilling victory in a goal-fest in games that would have such a uniquely intense and cathartic feel to them that consistently recapturing those one-off exercises in instinctive excellence would prove a task just psychologically challenging, they do not have Arsenal’s best interests in mind. And I am sure that the real Arsenal fans are not falling for that.
Now, looking at that fixture once the PL calendar was released, my predicted starting line-up would have had Saka playing the right-sided attacking role, Ødegaard orchestrating his unique interpretation of the right-sided number 8 (I myself, for my selfish aesthetic reasons want to see him playing a more typical creative 10, at least sometimes, and maybe with Zubimendi as the fulcrum that is a direction that this team can also evolve towards, at least as an option, but all that for another time), Kai Havertz playing his false 9, dropping back and linking up, rather than Viktor Gyökeres (I think he will turn out to be a very important player for us, especially in the kind of matches where his unique skillset and relentlessness would be differentiating, but that too is for another time), and under no circumstances would William Saliba not be playing for less than 5 minutes.
We started this match without the first three, and lost Wilo in the fourth minute or so. If we were to do a thought experiment, and imagine the inverse, I don’t think our opponents would have had a chance to survive what would have come their way. Anfield factor or not.
Despite all the injury related absences we didn’t panic, we mostly played the game we went to play (it is a different matter that some fans do not like that plan, more about that later here), and even when they were inevitably on a bit of ascendancy in front of their bloodthirsty home crowd, the composure and discipline were noticeable. Our defence was never really breached – there was a goal ruled out correctly for a very clear offside, and a few long distance attempts – except for that one moment of true excellence (I think it is admissible if a Liverpool supporter were to call it a moment of genius) that decided the result.
Could our wall have done better for the free-kick? Unlikely given the extraordinary dip in the delivery. Could David Raya have done better? Somewhat iffy though he has been, especially with his passing since the season started (there was another hair-raising example today when he passed straight to an onrushing Van Dijk), I don’t think Raya can be faulted for failing to palm the ball away given how precisely in the top corner the ball arrived. It really was an unstoppable free-kick, resembling more the kind of exaggerated trajectories favoured and liberally used by football cartoonists and less actual free-kicks we see from even the best in the business.
Other than the goal conceded to a singularly unique free-kick, the fact that our defence was mostly unruffled was not accidental, or not because Liverpool’s expensively assembled (I know, I know) and talent-rich front four all decided to have a bad day. It was because Arsenal, as a team, are great at defending. Great at defending with great individual defenders, and a nuanced and well-drilled understanding of how to manage transitions and defend spaces.
Mo Salah had his first and only shot of the game in the 73rd minute, a 0.04 xG attempt cleared by Calafiori. Ekitiké had only one attempted shot at goal and one solitary touch in the Arsenal penalty area before being replaced in the 80th minute by Chiesa.
Mosquera, deputising for Saliba, exuded calm in possession, demonstrated speed of thought, first-rate anticipation, and clean tackling abilities, moving with graceful simplicity both with and without the ball. He is not quite Wiliam Saliba, but he is an excellent player to call upon whenever needed, and even when not needed just to give Wilo and/or big Gabriel some rest.
Calafiori, from a defensive perspective, had his best game for us, keeping Mo Salah quiet for almost the entirety of the match. Aided by the selfless work-rate and discipline of the ever diligent Gabriel Martinelli. His first choice starting position is likely to be taken over by Eze or Madueke in the very near future, but I refuse to give up on him and I am not as convinced as many that he has personally stalled. His performance going forward today didn’t substantiate my faith in him, but his defensive contribution was excellent.
Martin Zubimendi, until he got tired in the second half, in tandem with Declan Rice, patrolled the midfield and controlled the tempo, mixing quick feet, even quicker match reading, and a physical intensity in challenges that underline why Arsenal have prioritized his signing for more than a year now. Even when we lost the initiative in the second half – after controlling the game, in possession and tempo in the first half – his ability to anticipate passes and movements were key in maintaining our defensive discipline.
This cannot be the entirety of the picture, I hear some say, especially given that Liverpool did actually win the match. And if we played well defensively, their defence must have performed even better, which was unlikely coming into the match given they have conceded goals against lesser teams and looked susceptible against quality attacks. Ergo, the Arsenal attack has underperformed. Isn’t that so?
A single word answer to that question is ‘yes’, we didn’t create a lot of meaningful goalscoring opportunities or trouble their goalkeeper too much. And like all Arsenal fans who grew up in the Wenger era, expansive football, to this scribe also the caginess sometimes feels, intuitively and while watching the match, more of a limitation that can be improved rather than a deliberate tactical choice to improve the chance of winning a particular type of match, say Liverpool away at Anfield.
However, the overall match statistics clarify that while that desire for that famous “handbrake off” (Wengerism) approach burnt into the neural hardware of our football watching brains would always remain so, the current approach of Arteta and his team has some foundational strengths to it.
Possession: Liverpool 53% Arsenal 47%
xG: Liverpool 0.45 Arsenal 0.55
Shots: Liverpool 9 Arsenal 11
Shots on target: Liverpool 3 Arsenal 1
Corners: Liverpool 3 Arsenal 8
So, even though we played a tactically attritional and defence-first football – and I suspect that even in the presence of Saka and Ødegaard our tactical approach would not have been too different – and Liverpool didn’t do so (naturally, they never play defensive or result-oriented football, they always entertain, and go into every match trying to win by three goals or more, their players don’t waste time and do not try to hang onto an 1-0 result, of course not, etc.), the statistical differences are marginal, including some in our favour. We had earned eight corners, and a majority of them from the side where Saka or Ødegaard would have delivered in-swingers, the kind from which, say, a Gabriel or Timber or Calafiori are more dangerous, compared to the out-swingers that Rice took.
A few things we could have and should have done better in terms of our offensive play: try to release Madueke more often down our right side, especially as a counter attacking option; try to support Gyökeres by threading more balls onto his path as he ran the channels relentlessly throughout the match, or by delivering crosses and cut-backs; bring on Eze a bit earlier to allow him to create some chances; and maybe (this would be contentious, and I myself am not entirely sure) start Nwaneri ahead of Merino in the right-side eight role. Zubimendi-Rice-Merino lacked incisive final-third passing, and there is only so much the ball carrying abilities of Rice can achieve to compensate for that.
Madueke was our most threatening forward player, he was purposeful, direct and came the closest to creating a telling moment in the opposition box. I was encouraged by what I saw from Gyökeres in terms of movements and positioning, he kept the central defenders focused on him, and helped to get Madueke in a few one-on-one positions. Both of them need some time on the practice ground to build mutual understanding with the rest of the team. Eze looked exactly like the player we know he is, and while I think the timing of his substitution made logical sense, ten odd extra minutes from him may also have made a difference.
Our results against Liverpool since the 2022-23 season have demonstrated two teams matching up to each other with always a small margin deciding the match in those cases the matches didn’t end up in draw: (h) 3-2, (a) 2-2, (a) 1-1, (h) 3-1, (h) 2-2, (a) 2-2, (a) 0-1.
We have had a mini undefeated run going on against Liverpool. When two teams are so closely matched, that kind of run doesn’t last for too long, as, sooner or later, a very fine marginal difference is all that it takes. This was one such occasion. The match unveiled no big new secrets, didn’t define either team’s seasons, and didn’t create any unsurmountable gaps.
However, it did affirm an essential and positive development for Arsenal, the kind of development that was much needed – we now have a deeper and more balanced squad that can much better withstand injuries to key players, the kind of injuries we suffered so much from last season.
Here is to an injury free international break, quick return of Saka, Wilo and Kai after that, and the continuous evolution and growth of the Arsenal team as it peaks in the second half of the season.
Brilliant! Absolutely concur with that.
Spot on, Dr F. A victory of rational analysis over the knee jerk rant I have seen pretty much everywhere in the media this morning. Thank you.
Wonderful and thoughtful read, Dr F. A 164-word opening sentence promised as much :). I had no problem with Arteta going to Anfield with a game plan intended to blunt what was the PL’s most potent attack last season and is arguably stronger this. I would have considered it a dereliction of duty if he had not. I doubt that there would have been much wringing of hands among the faithful if we had come away with the draw that had long looked likely in a tight, tactical struggle between two exceptionally strong sides until a late world-class free kick.
A really excellent commentary. I agree with all of it. We are all naturally sad at losing but, as your title says, shit happens. Arnie Slot summed it up by saying that if that game was played 10 times,8 would be drawn, Liverpool would win 1 and Arsenal would win 1.
I am encouraged that most Arsenal fans seem to have taken this defeat in a similar fashion to our esteemed writer. Most pundits of course, are relentlessly pursuing an agenda which is aimed at trying to undermine our club and the Manager. Fuck ‘em.
Dr F
An excellent , thoughtful and considered reaction to a game which has prompted hysterical reactions from ‘ experts ‘ and Gooners alike . According to them we should have flown at Liverpool despite our absences and been more positive. The resulting 3-0 defeat would have seen Arteta crucified
Your point about Nwaneri was good and I was much encouraged by the performances of Mosquera and Madueke . I only part company on Martinelli who has lost his attacking mojo despite his willingness to work back
Slot’s comments underline how they view Arsenal . With Isak and Guehi it will be incredibly hard to catch them but we gave the best squad Arsenal have probably ever had
Thanks Dr F., excellent piece. Some genius pointed out today that we won’t win the league playing like that, ignoring the blindingly obvious point that we don’t play like that every week as we don’t play Liverpool away every week.
In other news it seems Reiss will go to Brentford, best of luck to him there as
I think it may be a long hard season for Brentford.
Curious to see if Liverpool can get Guehi, Isak looks a done deal at this point.
Hope not!
A magnificent opening paragraph preceded an extremely thoughtful summary of the state of affairs at Anfield post match day three. I’m very much in harmony with every opinion you expressed therein and even Popper himself must feel completely falsifiabled (if not completely discumknockerated if perchance he was a scouser) by your content so thoughtfully presented.
I had thought before the game started that we might see both MO and EE around 60 minutes but admit to being a little surprised when both did eventually emerge from the dugout. I would have liked an earlier intro but I didn’t expect that free kick. He won’t score another of these this season.
Mosquera is as close to Saliba as any other centre back in the Prem based on everything I’ve seen of him.
C100@4: I hadn’t seen that quote from Slot, but it is on the money.
Well done, Dr.F!
This current submission exceeded your usual standard for fulsome reportage.
What a fantastic summary of the game and our current morass.
UTA!
LMBD.
Outward on deadline day:
Zinchenko loaned to Forest
Kiwior loaned to Porto
Vieira loaned to Hamburg
Sambi Lokonga sold to Hamburg (undisclosed sum)
Nelson loaned to Brentford
Nygaard loaned to Brabrand
Inward:
Hincapie on loan from Bayer Leverkusen
Decks cleared. Now for squad development.
And to recap the remainder of our business this window:
Inward
Arrizabalaga and Madueke bought from Chelsea
Eze bought from Crystal Palace
Gyokeres bought from Sporting Lisbon
Mosquera bought from Valencia
Norgaard bought from Brentford
Zubimendi bought from Real Sociedad
Outward
Karl Hein loaned to Werder Bremen
Jorginho, out of contract (signed for Flamengo)
Marquinhos sold to Cruzeiro
Partey, out of contract (signed for Villarreal)
Nuno Tavares sold to Lazio
Tierney, out of contract (signed for Celtic)
Tomiyasu released
Busy boy, Berta.
Ben Sheaf, formerly of this parish (seven minutes of first-team football spread across a Carabao Cup and a Europa League game), has gone Hollywood, joining Wrexham.
Thanks Ned, seems we got the deals done that we wanted.
Been a hell of a summer, in a good way I mean.
Talking of formerly of this parish, Alexis Sanchez moved
from Udinese (again) to join Sevilla. I thought he had
retired but apparently he’s a mere lad compared to HFB.
Thanks Dr F, that is brilliant review of where the club stands at this moment in time, I concur with every word you espouse. This narrowest of defeats, rather than derail our season after just 3 matches, it should incentivise even further the determination to be holding silverware at season’s end.
As Ned states above our new(ish) sporting director has done his job brilliantly with all the incomings and outgoings- he can take a well earned holiday now.
Thanks Dr F – thoughtful and comprehensive – and a 164 word opening sentence !
There’s been some criticism of the sales side of our summer business and it is true that Chelsea have raised more in loan fees for Jackson’s move to Bayern than we have for all our outgoings combined. However, we have to learn to bite the bullet and sell players before everyone knows we have no use for them and are desperate to get rid of them.
Selling when they’ve lost their place in the team, are getting close to thirty, are on very high wages, and/or have a history of repeated injuries makes selling extremely difficult.
Our problem is we never sell anyone until they are completely useless to us.
Cup with a hole syndrome.
One site suggested Sambi Lokonga generated a fee if £10m. That seemed high to me . The Vieira deal has an option to buy for Hamburg ( who have a good chance of being relegated) . If they go down they won’t exercise it and if he doesn’t play well they will return him to us with a year lesson his contract and with less leverage in any future sale negotiations. I’m surprised we only arranged two loans for U21 players and I would have thought our PSR and UEFA squad cost calculations will be much tighter going forward given our expenditure . I can only surmise we generated even more money than we thought last season .
I detest the way Chelsea is run but they seem to generate ridiculous fees for players I’ve never heard of !
Trev@18. I’m not certain it’s a question of “biting the bullet…” It seems to me more that Arsenal adopt a slightly different model whereby they treat the players (more strictly, the players’ contracts) as valuable commodities with human feelings and show them some loyalty and respect by keeping them on rather than trading them ruthlessly when the opportunity to maximise profit arises.
TTG@19: German media say the fee for Sambi Lokonga was 300,000 euros plus some unspecified potential bonuses. Selling him gets 2.5 million euros a year off our payroll, though.
I imagine the whole business model will change if it didn’t already last Summer with the sale of ESR. I think we will see a lot more favourites being sold in future when they are worth more which might upset us a bit. The likes of Martinelli will go a lot earlier I’d imagine. Being ruthless will be the key to getting in better players.
Realistically we had no one of note to sell this time around.
The discussion on our ability to sell is an interesting one. From memory (and it’s not perfect any more) we’ve sold these fellows in recent times for the sums reported (treat them as order of magnitude):
Leno £8M
Martinez £20M
Ramsdale £25M
Kolasinac Free
Mustafi £Compensation
Tavares £4M
Marie £5M
Kiwior £24M
Sokratis Free
Holding £4M
Chambers Free
Guendouzi £10M
Willock £25M
Xhaka £21.5M
Lakonga £0.5M
Iwobi £40M
Nketiah £30M
Balogun. £35M
Biereth £4M
“To get best prices, you’ve got to have some good stuff to sell” (My mum to me age 10 in her village shop). Frankly, from the list above, the ‘good stuff’ category is pretty thin (and I know I haven’t included big names like Ozil and Sanchez for pretty obvious reasons). In most cases our recruitment was MUCH more of a problem than our ability to achieve a decent price. (None of the Marx Brothers should ever have graced the marble halls).
While not eye-watering, the fees achieved for Hale End boys are reasonable – we wouldn’t have paid more for them at the stage they were sold (Iwobi includes add-ons). Biereth now looks like a howler. Balogun hasn’t set Ligue 1 alight (I’m surprised).
Were we to sell our current Hale End boys (Mum would say “Some good stuff there”) we’d be into the £100M+ category two years before their contracts are up. Likewise, our best new recruits (Saliba and Co) would do the same and might breach £200M.
Where I am disappointed is when the likes of Amari Hutchinson, Aden Heaven and Obi-Martin slip out of The Hale End Hot House for free. That leak has got to be plugged.
My recipe for success:
1. Don’t buy duds. Avoid the bargain basement store and Hollywood studio backlots.
2. Spot mistakes quickly and cut them loose (Vieira and Lakionga). Take the hit.
3. Keep prime talent sweet (Dowman) and NEVER lose it before professional signing.
4. Secure astonishing understudies (Mosquera) for when our £200M+ (Saliba) leave.
I really don’t think we’re doing as badly as many are making out. We can certainly do better though.
Ooops, missed ESR for £34M. Memory far from perfect.
Cheers Doc. Top opening sentence and you went on from there. I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments and analysis.
The Saliba injury tied Arteta’s hands, very frustratingly. If he’d had an extra substitute window in hand he could have brought Eze on earlier. As it was, he needed to bring Eze and Ode on together, as he needed to hold one sub window back in case we got an injury. Timber getting crocked at the end showed exactly why he didn’t pull the trigger with subs earlier when he was bringing on our captain, who he didn’t fancy for much over twenty minutes in the Anfield cauldron. Let’s be clear, if Odegaard were fit, he’d have started.
Well played to the Hungarian lad. It’s a top free kick and completely worthy of winning a tight match. Let’s see how the season plays out though, as I think we’ve got a great chance.
As I suspected the fee for Lokonga was less than £1 million .
If we hadn’t sold Lokonga this window then our best bet would have been to mutually terminate the last year of his contract and let him find a new club. £300k is better than nothing. From this window on, every year we will have sellable assets to raise funds to rejuvenate the squad. In the next few years we’ll probably sell Saliba and at least one of Saka, Nwaneri and Dowman (how do you fit them in one team?) and raise a couple of hundred million. Times change. Berta has made the best of a bad hand. We got rid of all the players we don’t need and that is a huge positive in how it will affect our squad, every member of which is now useful and has their place.
Remember, our financial muscle increases hugely if we start winning things!
Chelsea’s transfer deals
IN
Joao Pedro – from Brighton – £60m
Jamie Gittens – from Dortmund – £52m
Jorell Hato – from Ajax – £37m
Liam Delap – from Ipswich – £30m
Estevao – from Palmeiras – £54m
Dario Essugo – from Sporting Lisbon – £18.5m
Kendry Paez – from Independiente – £17.25m
Mamadou Sarr – from Strasbourg – £12m
TOTAL – £280.75mOUT
Noni Madueke – to Arsenal – £52m
Joao Felix – to Al-Nassr – £43.7m
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – to Everton – £30m
Renato Veiga – to Villarreal – £26m
Djordje Petrovic – to Bournemouth – £25m
Lesley Ugochukwu – to Burnley – £23m
Carney Chukwuemeka – to Dortmund £24m
Armando Broja – to Burnley – £15m
Bashir Humphreys – to Burnley – £10m
Mathis Amougou – to Strasbourg – £12.5m
Kepa Arrizabalaga – to Arsenal – £5m
Marcus Bettinelli – to Man City – £2m
TOTAL – £268.2m
The fees for unknowns – Amougou, Humphreys , Chukwuemeka , Ugochukwu and Veiga appear much higher than we could get . And they are sales not loans with options in favour of the buyer. They were stuffed on the Kepa deal by his contract wording which was drawn up by the old regime
The deals for Felix , Petrovic and yes Madueke are very juicy . Ironically they are stuck with Raheem Sterling. Even their patter merchants couldn’t shift him !
Btm,
I like your rules. I would add try to achieve sales rather than kicking the can down the road with loans eg Nelson. And if you loan a player do a deal with an obligation to buy if you possibly can.
I think in 2 seasons time we will look at the Madueke price as being more than fair. He’s gonna be very valuable to us. He’s a top option from the right, good enough to be a genuine danger from the right so we don’t have to overplay Saka (and what price to make sure we keep Saka as injury free as possible by not overplaying him?) but also capable of playing from the left, coming on a sub, or switching mid-game. I don’t see how we can simultaneously wonder at the prices paid for players we’ve never heard of, and also expect a discount on an England International coming into his prime years. The guy is hungry, he wants to play for us, and I back him to have a big impact over the coming seasons.
Eze scored an FA Cup winner for Palace. CL winner for us, anyone?
Palace’s decision to stand firm and refuse to sell Guehi is an interesting one. They’ve retained a very good player for the season – but one who is out of contract at year-end; can start talking to suitors in January and is most probably totally teed off about not going to Littlepool. In doing so they lost around £40M that might have been used to strengthen their team.
I’m delighted that Guehi is not going to Anfield – he would have been as important to them at the back as Isak may be up front. If I was a Palace fan, I’d fear that an important player’s mind and spirit may well be elsewhere this season.
Chelsea transfers are a bit of a red herring. The only way to buy and sell like they do is to have a constantly unsettled team and squad. You might do okay financially, but you don’t win anything like that. We can bemoan the fees they get all we want, but their entire club is now setup to make money for an investment group who don’t care about winning top trophies beyind the money it might make them. When they are already bringing in the dosh in the transfer market, does anyone think they care about sporting achievement?
I think, and I may well be wrong, that Arsenal has got under Josh Kroenke’s skin. I think he wants to win things. The bloke is a billionaire. Earning a few extra quid can only squeeze so much more juice out of life. I think he’s found something he actually wants to succeed at. Dare I say it, something that has become truly meaningful to him.
Btm. Yeah, it’s really interesting. Glasner apparently said he’d walk if they sold Guehi when they hadn’t got in the replacements necessary. It’s a big call to value your manager over £40m. But I think it’s a good one. I’m chuffed Pool will be without him, as an injury to VVD or Konate would now put then in trouble. My impression of the player is that he’ll give Palace all he’s got until the last game. We’ll see how it plays out.
Personally, I’m pleased they bought Isak. I dunno how he fits in a team with Ekitike, and they had much more pressing needs in midfield and defence. Looks to me like a huge wad of dosh on a player who is going to do nothing to prevent them conceding goals, which is where I think they’ll suffer this season.
We’ll have to see if they can stay injury free at the back, or just out score a lot of teams. They are a good side, but I’m not sure they are a well balanced squad.
With you on the above, GSD. When the sands of time close on the end of this season, I think that the arrival of Zubi, Eze and Madueke will be seen as pivotal to the outcome of the title race.
The Kronke’s are clearly fully convinced of MA8’s leadership talents which will be infinitely more important to his continued stewardship at the helm than all of the “out if he doesn’t win it this year” twaddle that abounds. And, as a bonus, Josh will get to sit next to William, Prince of Wales at the Cup Final. Arsenal is fortunate to have these current owners.
Completely agree, BtM. Those who can’t think for themselves and who have achieved little to nothing with their lives are at the same time the experts in managing football clubs, finance and strategy, it seems. They are, of course, to be spurned as you would spurn a cur.
We had the second lowest income from sales among the PL clubs this window.
GSD@33: My two cents is that Isak is succession planning for Salah. In the meantime, he will be high-calibre rotation/cover for Ekitike.
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
Mosquera, and now Hincapie, are two of the key signings this transfer window that thankfully went under the radar from much of the media. They would allow rest, rotation, cover for Saliba & Gabriel, and still let us play with more or less same tactical approaches. Hincapie, in addition, can offer an intriguingly unique set of attacking skillset as a left back.
Will there ever be a transfer window like this for us? At least not so in the near future. As far as squad building is concerned this is as thoughtful and comprehensive as it can get. It’s now up to the players and the coaching team to build the on-field connections and understanding.
Thanks for the link, SP, I’ll go and read.
Spot on, Dr, F.
SP@38: Thanks for the Mike McDonald link. I found his breakdown of Arteta’s game plan into phases intriguing, although I suspect there is more flexibility than McDonald implies, depending on game state (and I think coaches have been telling their players since time immemorial to keep it tight for the first 10 mins). I think he (McDonald) was spot on when he said that Arteta was too slow to react to Slot’s tactical changes after half-time.
>>>>>>>