This extraordinary interlull – a three week break, just weeks into the season has massively interrupted the flow of the club game. There has been the extra hiatus caused by the C114y scandal, but before that broke we’d actually played some football! Including the Community Shield, we’ve played seven games, winning six. Sadly, the one most in our minds was the most recent one – the Brighton debacle. We were interested in soliciting views on how our readers felt that things had gone so far. An audience of Holics is as fair and balanced as you get and we asked several of our regulars what they thought of the season so far. We’ve solicited opinions from Ollie, Gunnersaurus Stunt Double and Noosa, so it will be a very international review of events so far !
I began by asking how they viewed our form so far:
How have we begun the defence of our title? Better or worse than you expected?
Ollie – I am a demanding chap after last season and the transfer window, so the Brighton result changed my view from ‘as expected’ to ‘slightly worse’. I will caveat this with ‘but perfectly fine’. Especially as, penalty incoming or not, I am not convinced 115 can continue their current charmed life, in the same way (but in a different style) Liverpool couldn’t last season.
Noosa – I’ve never thought of us as defending our title. That kind of suggests that it’s ours to lose whereas to my mind every season starts anew, with likely different challenges this time around. We simply have to win it all over again.
Two points more than at the same stage last season would suggest we’re off to a good start, although the Brighton game, hopefully a bad day at the office, now gives pause for reflection, which I hope is not lost during the three-week interlull. I’m sure that Arteta and his team will find the answers should other teams try and replicate Brighton’s approach.
An ongoing concern is how we satisfy some of our senior players with both starts and minutes, Merino, Zubimendi, Eze spring to mind. I’m interested in how MA manages this moving forward.
GSD – We’ve begun our title roughly as expected. Dropping away points at Villa or Sunderland was possible, but we did enough to get the wins. Brighton was just an awful day at the office. It happens! But 12 from 15 points seems about right, and we’ve played much as expected. Although, even though we have not scored as often as I’d like, we’ve looked more fluid than I thought we would so early in the season.
Do you think we are playing more attractive football this term?
Noosa – Yes and no. Some nice stuff against Citeh and Coventry, grinding it out against Villa and Sunderland, at times against Chelsea and clearly not against Brighton. A real mixed bag and, Sunderland penalty apart, no goals from set plays which is a surprise.
Attractive football is good – winning is better.
GSD – I definitely think we are playing more attractive football and I think there is plenty more to come. I’m excited to see us score more heavily than we have so far.
Ollie – It was certainly my hope that we would. And overall (again excepting Brighton…), I would say yes, a little. Helped in no small part by a fully fit again and confident Ødegaard.
What do you think of the new signings?
GSD – I’m very impressed with Tzolis, extremely happy with Konsa, and think Bruno could be just what we need. And even though he’s not close to the first team at the moment, I like Meslier and think getting him on a free is shrewd business.
Ollie – Very encouraged by Tzolis, positive play and contributions. Can still improve but promising, especially for the price we paid, which counts as ‘bargain’ these days.
Bruno G has shown what he can bring with progressive passing, and shots, that fantastic Sunderland shot was both a relatively ‘unusual’ Arsenal goal and massively important in the context of the match. Brighton showed his limitations though, but let’s hope he gets fully fit and sharp and stays fit after fitful beginnings.
Did we sign anyone else? Meslier, I guess, but he hasn’t yet played. I don’t count Hincapié as a new signing. Very happy with Konsa. He is no Saliba, but high quality, and as the on/off repeated injuries to most of our defenders show, was also a very necessary signing.
Noosa – I wasn’t bothered either way that we missed out on Vinicus Jr, there were plus and minus points in my opinion.
Tzolis seems a solid workhorse although I wish he’d go outside more. I think that Rogers would have been an upgrade.
Konsa is a solid buy who needs to keep developing a stronger relationship with Gabriel – both standing off for two Brighton goals!
In respect of squad depth now, lack of minutes suggests that Viktor has fallen out of favour in which case a new striker may be required to better challenge or complement Kai.
If Benny Blanco and Timber continue their now long-standing injury woes a new right back may be needed.
What do you think we still lack, if anything, in any positions?
Ollie – Speed and precision at the front. Despite his erratic end product, Martinelli offered an outlet in some situations that I don’t think we have anymore (I know Havertz is, in fact, deceptively quick, but he has a different position/game). Losing both Trossard (you could consider Tzolis being the equivalent, if slightly less technical replacement) and Martinelli felt one too many.
Noosa – Precision, of course I mean, more of a ruthless goalscorer, something it is not abundantly clear (IMHO) Gyökeres won’t be in this team. Brighton may have been a collective failure of multiple individuals, but that miss from Havertz confirms he’s not quite lethal either.
GSD – I’d still like to see us get a top left-winger. And a new striker. As a squad, we lack pace, so definitely more of that too.
Who has particularly impressed you this season ?
GSD – I ’m sure I won’t be alone in singling out Martin Ødegaard. I wrote in the pre-season about how I would like to see the captaincy transitioned to Rice this season. If Ødegaard maintains his form (which easily guarantees his place in our first eleven on the biggest match days) then I’ll row back hastily on my previous assessment. He looks the player I feared we’d lost, and I bloody love him!
Noosa – Raya, again, although with a couple of brainfades thrown in.
Rice, again. A surprising number of minutes already given previous exertions.
And most importantly, we’ve got our captain back. We are simply a better team when MØ is in form.
Ollie – Calafiori. Maybe my new favourite player. I just like his slightly chaotic style, the way he pops all over the place, being skilful enough to make it count in the opposition half too. I hope he stays fit.
MLS. I know it’s a crowded area but I hope he can now play regularly in midfield. Proper Gooner too.
Ødegaard? Yes, definitely, though in his case it is more a return to the form we knew from a couple of seasons ago or so.
Now hoping for an injury-free interlull and the squad feeling refreshed and hungry for the next run.
TTG – We are living through an extraordinary period both in terms of the strength of our own club and the incredible upheaval that we are likely to see in the Premier League this season . Our status as champions is massively satisfying to contemplate but as the Brighton defeat showed we are in a very challenging league and need to maintain standards . A three week interlull has not helped continuity or helped the season to develop a rhythm. When Premier League football resumes, it will be interesting to see what happens on and off the pitch. We are most grateful to our three correspondents and hope that, when football resumes, the Arsenal can drive forwards towards success both domestically and in Europe.
Thanks to all three and to TTG, who’s had a busy interlull!
A lot to agree with from our three wise men, early days anyway
and so no particular worries. I was pleased to see Big Vik get
back among the goals – I know it’s only the nations league but still
he must be happier in his mind now. He and Mikel Merino will be
needed as the season goes on.
Next up, a strong bounce back against Leeds.
A big thanks to what Matt has dubbed, and rightly so, “the three wise men”. Christ this interlull has gone on forever. Can’t wait for a week today and taking on Leeds next Saturday.
Incidentally my thanks to BtM for supplying this photo of the six wise men at lunch on Friday just off Highbury Corner. As a former City grandee, TTG had the red braces.
For those who wish to know, from left to right, these handsome chaps in the prime of their lives are, from left to right: BtM; Bathgooner; Countryman100; Trev; CER; and capo di capo TTG.
A lot of common sense from the three wise men. Kudos to TTG for corralling their answers.
Has Big Vik fallen out of favour, or just become a player to be used in certain situations because Kai is our 9 most suited to this part-positional, part-relational system that Arteta is using?
C100@3. The supping six appear to have been seated in the kitchen. Was that for the safety of the other patrons?
The gentlemen of the turf have City as second favourites to win the PL this season at 19/5 and fourth favourites to be relegated at 13/8.
C100 @ 4 – thank you for the photo – “ A Quantum of Scholars”.
That’s a fine bunch just there, C100 @ 3. Cheers all. And TTG for the work (I spot a slight mishap in the compilation but it doesn’t matter, and also, I’m not sure anyone called me wise before, I must be getting old!:-D)
Interesting odds, Ned!
Thanks to TTG for such a prodigious output during this interminable interlull.
As always some interesting responses from the “panel” but they all agree a satisfactory start to the season. With our capitano showing a resurgence of his brilliant repertoire our attacking momentum appears to be on an upward curve, let’s hope the injury demons leave our attacking players well alone as we are a little short in numbers.
Let’s see how the guilty decision / furore affects the Mancheaty C114y players over the coming weeks.
Ned @5. Thr restaurant Trullo, widely considered to be one of the finest (but not the fanciest) Italian restaurants in our capital, is bijou in size. I was astonished to see that the Chef is turning out high quality food, from a kitchen which is behind the bar and tiny. I commend him. We were in the body of the restaurant.
C100@: I should have guessed that you were sat next to the bar… 😉
Separately, here is a vignette of the heart of the problem with state ownership of football clubs, courtesy of Bloomberg.
A few days before news broke that C114y had been found guilty of all but one of the PL’s charges, Khaldoon Al Mubarak held a private meeting in Downing Street with Jonathan Reynolds to discuss UAE-UK trade and investment. Reynolds is the UK government’s Business Secretary, and that is his sole role. Al Mubarak is chief executive of one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, Mubadala, holds several senior positions within the Abu Dhabi government, including membership of the Emirate’s Executive Council, and is chairman of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Emirates Global Aluminium. He is also chairman of Manchester City (and its sister club, Melbourne City).
He is a busy man. It is amazing he can keep track of so many hats and manage to wear only one at a time, the Mubadala one in this case, according to Bloomberg.
It strikes me a bit like funding sources. Many hats but the same man underneath.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-02/man-city-boss-met-uk-to-discuss-investment-before-guilty-verdict?
Ned,
There appears to be credence to the ESPN suggestion that C114y knew about the outcome of the commission in July and Al Mubarak’s meeting at No.10 would undoubtedly have discussed the situation . That makes the PM’s slightly conciliatory comments to BBC concerning , even though Downing Street were quick to backtrack on what he said in his interview .
Those odds about being champions and being relegated are interesting. If the appeal process comes through before the end of the season and for all sorts of reasons it really must C114y will be relegated unless the nuclear option of expulsion happens but even if it does probably only two other sides will go down .
I’ve heard so much stupidity from certain C114y fans this week. As may have emerged before while I acknowledge the talent of Oasis I personally detest Liam Gallagher and his comments about the Red cartel ( or to use another term the three biggest sides in the country ) were both ridiculous and blasphemously offensive . Had Arsenal been in this position my loyalty would have been stretched to breaking point and I hope I would have accepted the need for punishment . C114y are truly an odious club and their behaviour has been appalling.
Now let’s get on with the season !
TTG@13: I don’t doubt for a minute that it wouldn’t have come up. It is also my understanding that there have been multiple discussions at the government-to-government level going back months, if not years. It is not as if the club’s ownership is a secret, and Khaldoon al-Mubarak was added to the UK’s official list of approved diplomats in 2020 (so he has diplomatic immunity from any criminal charges that might arise out of this and most civil ones as well).
This quote from him given to the Guardian in 2009 resonates across the years, albeit not in the way he probably intended it the time “How we are handling [the Manchester City] project is telling a lot to the world about how we are. This is showing the world the true essence of who Abu Dhabi is and what Abu Dhabi is about.”
A body of irrefutable opinion with which I have no disagreement.
We’ve clearly had an excellent start to the season soiled only by the sub-par performance at Brighton which has the merit of grounding the incautious optimism of a few (not of this manor) and terminating foolish talk of another invincible season. This is a difficult league to win. The only advantage of being Champions is that the on- and off-field team have proved that they know what it takes to win it and can gain confidence from having actually gone over that course though they must not let that confidence spill into over-confidence.
There’s still much work to be done both on and off the field.
Meanwhile, I too await the unveiling of our long awaited ‘fox in the box’.
Frannie who?
Great quote, Ned @14. Never a truer word.
😜😜
Most media and social media commentators who are unaffiliated to Shitteh are unsurprisingly shocked by the scale and deliberate execution of Shitteh’s corruption. It seems that it has come as an unpleasant shock to many though many ordinary fans suspected something dodgy was going on from the point that their income suddenly matched the biggest teams in Europe before they had achieved anything of consequence. The tale of Daedalus and Icarus seems apt here though I suspect there is still scope for political interference en route to achieving a justly excoriating sentence.
Of course, with a decade of success a whole generation of young fans have had their allegiances influenced by that success and the craven journalists who praised Pep and his team to the heavens. It is a shame for those kids who will hopefully have to come to terms with the fact that their heroes have feet of clay at a much earlier age than most of us did.
However Shitteh’s apologists keep fighting a rearguard action, with dorky politicians throwing the regeneration of East Manchester into the ring as if it is a mitigating factor (after all Hitler had the autobahns built and loved children and dogs, didn’t he? Not all bad!). Here’s the BBC adding a subtle message that the financial doping was actually beneficial to multiple British and European clubs not just Shitteh – trickle down economics, eh?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cmew9w451vx8o
Of course, we shouldn’t ignore the benefits accrued over the years by the hacks who painted the ‘project’ positively.
Keenos is worth reading today. A very confident take:
That’s a very interesting take that Bath provides from Keenos. I read a fascinating Australian article yesterday making similar points and pointing out that even if C114y were to prove that sponsorship came from permissible sources they would have to then show that the sponsorship was ‘ fair value’ and not just a convenient label to legitimise their transactions .
On top of that the duplicity with image rights – ‘ the Fordham arrangement ‘ , the Mancini and Yaya Toure double shuffle and the total lack of co- operation from highly arrogant senior management at the club suggests that they are digging a very big hole for themselves.
Interesting that the ‘ Red Cartel ‘ ( or to use another term , the three clubs robbed of titles they won legitimately) are being painted as villains by this hideous outfit . I think they will look at the nuclear option of reviving the European Super League, something I’ve mooted on here several times in the past . Sportswashing permits no willingness to look at the wider picture . It’s all about their own interest irrespective of what may be catastrophic damage to the wider game
I don’t often listen to podcasts. However, I recommend these two very strongly. This first podcast, involving the highly respected ‘Magic Hat’, has been shared on several other media but in case any Holics have not listened to it, it’s well worth your time. It’s quite long but if you haven’t already listened I urge you to do so:
I listened to it when I drove up to London last week. It’s over an hour and there’s no visual so it’s a good accompaniment to walking the dog, mowing the lawn and other mindless tasks. It shared the journey with the Arsecast from last week involving Phillipe Auclair who is merciless in his assessment of Shitteh and Guardiola (spoiler: whom he utterly despises):
Bath@19: Thanks for the Keenos link. It offers a useful reminder of the motivation driving Abu Dhabi’s owners and a lens through which to view their actions. Neither the good of the game nor even the love of their club is their primary motive. It also serves as a reminder that, in dynastic states where the ruling family controls vast swathes of the economy, there are many hats, but the same small number of people are beneath them. The same applies to the other two Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where sportswashing is part of an economic diversification strategy.
We should also remember that governments routinely exert this kind of economic and political pressure on one another, even if it doesn’t make the front, let alone the back, pages of the newspapers. It is the daily round of countries pursuing their national interests. The greater the power, the greater the capacity to be overbearing and coercive. The perversity is that the UK economy is seven times larger than the UAE’s, so it shouldn’t be the one being bullied.
The rolling acres of the Bath estate must be quite extensive if it takes over an hour to mow the lawn.
Ned @23, heh! I’m ever so glad it’s not!
Ned
Bath has a number of staff to carry out the tending of his estate .
Bath,
Thankyou for attaching these podcasts . They are well worth listening to . In fact so much very interesting stuff has emerged since the first news of City’s guilt I suspect City/ ADUG ( they are interchangeable) are wondering how they get control of a narrative that they have seen spiral out of control .They cannot countenance admitting guilt and getting some clemency because of the disgrace attached to this very high profile case . But they are stoking up massive resentment especially as they seek ways of threatening both the Government and the Premier League. And the other fascinating thread is the accusations levelled against Barcelona of corrupting referees back in the day when they were driven by Soriano, Beguristain and Pep Guardiola who might find his legacy getting tarnished .
And some blogs are picking out concerns about referees like Michael Oliver and Darren England accepting large fees direct from ADUG to refereee in Abu Dhabi and then returning to the PL for crucial games between Arsenal and C114y where Trossard was controversially sent off and the game at Tottnumb where England cocked up the VAR and missed a perfectly legitimate goal by Diaz ( a serious rival to C114y) . Of course no English referee would be corrupt ( shame on you for thinking such a thing ) but forging close direct links with Abu Dhabi is not a wise move for an English referee .
TTG@25: Football is rotten at the moment. Beyond C114y and the Barcelona scandal you mention, Spanish authorities are investigating the Spanish FA in connection with alleged irregularities related to moving the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia; the Argentine FA is mired in a domestic scandal involving sponsorship finances and alleged tax violations, and is reportedly under US investigation for money laundering through US banks; Turkey is in the midst of a large match-fixing and illegal-betting investigation involving multiple referees, players and club executives, and the Czech Republic is investigating alleged bribery and match manipulation involving players, referees and officials.
And don’t even get me started on FIFA.
Bath & TTG: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Sheep.
@25 you are very well-informed TTG 😂😂
Pep’s legacy is royally tarnished by now I’m afraid. However, if you’re
going to boldly claim the moral heights you can’t just talk
the talk or most folk will eventually smell a rat.
Ned @27, as one of my ex-colleagues, who did own a lot of land, informed me, “Sheep are machines that turn grass into money!”
Did anyone notice that Max Dowman was sent off whilst playing for England U19s?
I haven’t seen it and apparently it was a bit harsh but not a good look nevertheless.
Has anybody seen it?
UTA
None of my contacts have seen the sending off, Noosa.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>