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Inching Towards An Identity

Aug 21st, 2021 by

On an early Spring morning – twenty-fifth of March to be precise – in Saint Petersburg one Major Kovalev — who is of an inferior rank but happy to have others think of him as a major and in any case such distinctions can easily get blurred in the real world of imagination – wakes up to a startling realization, which soon turns into a frantic desperation, that his nose has somehow slipped out of his face. And nose here is not a signifier for such secondary things like sense of smell, or danger, or intuition; but the actual anatomical part of Kovalev’s face. 

Later out in the streets, covering his flattened face by a scarf, Kovalev finds his renegade nose to be sauntering around as a high ranked state councilor and cannot quite articulate his demand with sufficient authority to force a reunion with his face. 

Lately the life of an Arsenal supporter watching the team in action on matchday has not been entirely dissimilar to Kovalev’s experience of looking at the mirror on that fateful March morning in Saint Petersburg. The team is wearing red-and-white – or yellow, or electric blue, or … in any case something that has the Arsenal name and crest on the shirt – and contains players that we recognize as Arsenal players. They are playing football, the game we love, and now and then are creating momentary sparks of recognizable brilliance. But overall, the nose is missing, and we look for it. The seeking starts with hope that soon turns into frantic desperation. And sometimes, to our horror, we see the nose dressed up in our opposition’s jerseys. 

The current transfer window has been one of Arsenal’s best in terms of incoming players. Not because of the number we have signed but because of the clear and concrete strategic planning towards squad building that has evidently informed each signing. No more chaotic attempts to bring in established stars (sometimes past their prime) in desperate hope of getting back to the Champions League but both a genuine acknowledgment that the squad needs to be patiently rebuilt and a willingness to do the hard work outside and inside the training ground towards that goal. It is too early to say whether the pieces so painstakingly being assembled will eventually fit together to create the kind of seamless whole that is reflected in matchday performances that the supporters can get behind, irrespective of the results which the more reasonable section of the fanbase accept may take a while to return to the top level. 

But let us also humbly accept that the less reasonable “want everything right now” segment of the fans are numerous too, as is the case with all big clubs, and their passionate demand for the immediate improvement in results creates its own pressure which again is an expected force in the dynamics of a club as widely supported as ours.      

So, in the coming weeks and months, Arteta and his coaching staff have a complex array of multitudinous challenges: build a footballing identity to create a platform for the group of impressive young talents to be able to express themselves and grow together; optimally leverage the experience and expertise of the senior heads, most notably that of the captain, Aubameyang – getting him back to his goalscoring best is a key prerequisite for us to be able to end this season with a noticeable improvement in the league positions – but in a manner that serves the footballing identity. All this while staying true to the strategic direction to be able to make tactical tweaks to matchdays to sustain (and hopefully achieve) a challenge for the Champions League positions. 

Defeat in the opening game – which, now that the events prior to that match have come to light, we can agree was rather unfortunate and one might even say unfair — creates that bit of extra pressure going into this weekend’s London derby against the reigning European champions.  Last season saw us win against Chelsea home and away in the PL for the first time since the Invincible season, and before that Mikel had famously guided us to a win against them in the 19-20 FA Cup final. In his fledgling managerial career he has shown that he can set up his teams tactically against superior opposition and earn victories by playing to the strength of his squad. 

Aubameyang has completely recovered following his positive COVID test results last week, and even though Mikel suggested in his press conference that captain Auba’s participation will be determined by how he feels in training today, I think for a game of this importance and the fact that we didn’t score any goals in the last match, we will see him start. It seems that Ødegaard has been unable to obtain his visa in time to be selected for this match. Had he done so, I thought he was likely to start down the middle with Emile Smith-Rowe as the left inside forward. On the right side the choice is between Saka and Pépé and Mikel will need to balance the temptation to start Saka with the need to let him have a bit more rest since his Euro heroics so that as the season progresses we get more out of his superlative talents. Had both Martin and ESR started, the technical security provided by them would allow for Pépé’s mercurial talent on one flank, especially given Ødegaard’s ability to get the best out of Nico. But if Saka is back to his best in training and completely fit, I think Mikel will opt for his consistency. As Ødegaard isn’t eligible to play tomorrow I think we will see Saka on the right wing and Pépé on the left (a position he played well enough in a few matches he started there). The defense and central midfield will most likely remain the same, but I won’t be surprised to see Holding ahead of Pablo Mari. Even though unlike his Spanish colleague Holding is right footed, he has played on the left side of the defense before and played well.       

My predicted line-up (without Ødegaard):

Leno

Chambers – White – Holding – Tierney

Lokonga – Xhaka

Saka – ESR – Pépé

Aubameyang

I expect Gabriel Martinelli to play an important role coming on as a substitute in the second half – most likely to relieve Saka or Aubameyang – and press the Chelsea defense. 

Mikel is likely to focus solely on earning the points from this match and will drill his team into highly customized tactics suitable for the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. I would expect a cagey match with us relying more on counter attacks. With the fans returning to the stadium a fighting performance from the team may create the kind of feedback loop between the players and the supporters that lifts the team in a big game like this. 

My prediction is a hard-fought 2-1 victory for the mighty Arsenal!

Happy viewing everyone! And to those going to the stadium, the rest of us are looking to you to cheer, support and lift the team. :–) 

Major Kovalev’s nose – in events shrouded in mystery, as Gogol interjects – first appears inside his barber Ivan Yakovlevich’s morning bread, and the panicked barber finally manages to dispose of the nose in the River Neva. As the rumors and innuendos about Kovalev’s wantaway nose grow, suddenly, in events equally shrouded in mystery, a policeman captures the nose dressed as a councilor, and returns it to our hapless major. But his desperation doesn’t end so easily as the nose no longer fits on his face and simply slides off. Until, one fine April morning, again through events shrouded in mystery, the nose is back in its rightful place. 

And maybe one fine match day in the coming months, we too will find to our delight that Arsenal’s missing footballing identity is firmly back in its place, via events shrouded in mystery. However, unlike in the real world of an imaginary Saint Petersburg, in our imaginary world of a real Arsenal, where no events can be shrouded in mystery, the return of the nose back to the face will be long and painstaking surgery, one stitch at a time. But that doesn’t stop me from dreaming of the days when Arsenal will again be synonymous with fluid, progressive, attacking football. 

Old Nikolai Vasilyevich doesn’t have a monopoly on dreams… 

Posted in Match Preview | 76 Drinks »

Even the Stinging Bees fail to wake Arsenal up from its stupor

Aug 14th, 2021 by

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North Bank Ned had earlier welcomed the 2021-22 season with a masterful preview recalling the history of Arsenal-Brentford encounters, most of which had taken place in the inter-war years, and the Bees had enjoyed a rather inexplicable superiority of results in this rare London derby over their much illustrious rivals.  Their last match in the top division of English league was though an 1-0 loss against the Gunners, merely 74 years ago. 

Promoted back to the uppermost echelons, a well-organized, brave and progressive Brentford squad was expected to provide a competent enough challenge to Arsenal in the league season-opener to require the Gunners to play with clarity of purpose and confidence in their abilities to earn a much-needed victory, especially given the schedule in the opening weeks. 

I had not watched much of Brentford in the last year’s Championship but did see the play-off final. For all their evident strengths and positive style of football, before the match I thought the Arsenal team has enough quality, experience and nous to be able to surely win against the league newcomers. More wise heads in this blog were less certain about the outcome given the inconsistency and lack of cutting edge of the current Arsenal vintage. And they were proven right. The most worrying aspect in all of that is, after the match I felt that I really don’t have any rights to expect anything different anymore from this Arsenal team. And when I say the “team”, I don’t just mean the players, I mean the entire collective of the playing squad, the manager, his coaching staff, the strategic direction at the executive level … the overall contour of the Arsenal Football Club. I can no longer enthuse myself to expect anything different or better than what we witnessed away at a newly promoted side. 

Back to the match. 

Before the start we came to know that the senior striker duo of Lacazette and captain Aubameyang are both unavailable through illness. The next-in-line – at least until he is sold or loaned out – Eddie Nketiah was already nursing an injury sustained in the pre-season. The highly promising Folarin Balogun earned his first league start.  On his left was Gabriel Martinelli, returning recently from Tokyo with an Olympic gold medal, and on his right was Nicolas Pépé, who had finished last season a series of strong performances. Two of the three new signings of the season too earned their first Arsenal starts — much discussed Ben White partnering Mari in the center of the defense and Sambi Lokonga working in tandem with Xhaka in the engine room. 

Leno

Chambers White Mari Tierney

Lokonga Xhaka

Pépé ESR Martinelli

Balogun 

As the game unfolded it was alarming to observe that Arsenal has carried forward many of the weaknesses of last season: the needless passing around in the back and losing cool under high press, lack of concerted pressing by the forward line, and most tellingly lack of penetration through the middle through Emile Smith Rowe did his best to break through lines, carry the ball forward and arrive at the opposition penalty box. 

The overall speed and intent of passing in the midfield was indeed much better compared to last season, and young Sambi Lokonga playing a key role in that. Energetic, intelligent, positive with a good mix of physical and technical strength, he stood out in the early stages and along with Emile was key in keeping possession of the ball and venturing forward in the opposition final third. The horseshoe Arteta-ball was still very much in view, but the switching of play and movement of the ball was much quicker and purposeful. Ben White too contributed to that with his forward passes, pinging balls to Tierney and Pépé on few occasions. There were glimpses of cohesiveness worked on in the practice ground. 

However, those were not nearly enough. The strange lopsidedness of the attack continued from last season, with Tierney as a primary attacking outlet with Gabi offering him space by drifting inside. On the right side Chambers had one of his more forgettable games, rarely offering any overlapping run on the outside of Pépé who too was for the most part reenacted his “I will frustrate myself and everyone else” role – always surrounded by 2-3 defenders time and again he chose to take them on to be able to cut inside. Brentford was well prepared for this danger and they handed him well.  Only later in the game in the second half he started drifting more inside to attack the box off the ball, and improved his combination play with ESR and later Saka. 

Chambers had mostly done well in his defensive duties last season. But he was twice in fault for the first goal Arsenal conceded in the 22nd minute. His volleyed clearance was poor and found a Brentford attacker just outside the box. And then when Sergi Canos cut inside the box he didn’t force him to go outside of him but stayed stationary and the Brentford winger gleefully accepted the opportunity to shoot through his legs to score past Leno in his near post. Leno too was partially culpable, just as any top-level goalkeeper should feel to be beaten at their near post.  

Brentford 1 (Canos 22) – Arsenal 0 

The goal should have woken Arsenal up. Strangely – or maybe no longer strangely as this has often been a familiar pattern lately, most dreadful demonstration of which came against Villareal last season in both legs of the Europa semifinal tie – Arsenal did not up their tempo or urgency, simply carrying on as before. There is a not-so-fine balance between staying patient and trusting your abilities to score goals and not showing any urgency in your response to going behind. Arsenal have recently erred too much on the side of passivity. This match was no different. 

Arsenal earned a few corners. Pépé’s deliveries were good – especially compared to the bizarre corner routines of last season – but the team didn’t show enough aggression or desperation to attack the ball, or use the flick-to-the-far-post variation. The only moment of danger came from a Martinelli header that if anyone had gambled to attack on the far post would have earned us a goal. Raya, the Brentford goalkeeper, was assured in commanding the box as well and their defense was impressively well-organized. 

Raya made two very good saves: ESR once broke through the lines in a swift counter-attack and arrived at the box and his shot was palmed away by Raya. Emile lost his balance a bit before taking the shot and his placement was not probably what he wanted, but it was nonetheless a good save. Towards the end of the match Raya pulled out a sensational save from a fierce curled daisy-cutter from Pépé after being set up by a wonderful cut-back by Tierney. That was Arsenal’s moment of the match.

Xhaka’s volley from just inside the box flew by, Lokonga tried his luck few times from distance and though Raya was called to save one or two of those he was not really in danger of conceding. Arteta brought in Saka, Reiss Nelson and the other new boy Tavares (astonishingly, or may be not so astonishingly, at the right back to replace Chambers with Hector and Cedric on the bench). I liked his cameo, direct and purposeful. Nelson looked rusty, understandably so after spending much of the last season out of the squad sacrificed to accommodate a big signing from a rival club.   

In between Brentford scored a goal reminiscent of another team in red-and-white stripes, now thankfully relegated from the premier league to leave all creative minded players with much less fear about losing their limbs on the playing ground. A towel to dry the ball before throw-in? Check. A long throw-in in the box? Check. Fouling the goalkeeper to stop him from moving? Check. Arsenal defense fell for this most agricultural old trick, Pablo Mari particularly at fault in not judging the problem and not reacting quickly to the situation, and Norgaard happily accepted the gift. It was a foul on Leno, but an international goalkeeper and an experienced center-back of a PL team should really not allow this to unfold.   

 Brentford 2 (Canos 22, Norgaard 73) – Arsenal 0 

Though there were some positive signs – Lokonga and ESR particularly, Tierney as ever, White & Pépé in glimpses, Saka in his cameo as expected – the overall feeling watching the match was one of ennui and pointlessness. Watching your team poorly or losing football matches are ineluctable moments in the spectrum of a football fan’s experience. But driving fans to boredom while losing football matches is something I feel a club aspiring to return to a stature that is commensurate with its great history must learn to avoid. 

Arsenal football club is running the risk of drifting into complete irrelevance in the top tier of European and English football. But it is not yet too late.     

Posted in Match Report | 141 Drinks »

To Pick Up Where We Left Off 74 Years Ago

Aug 12th, 2021 by

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Brentford will play the second of their back-to-back league games against us on Friday evening, albeit the two games will be 74 years apart. Our 1-0 victory at Griffen Park in May 1947 was the Bee’s last game before being relegated from the top flight to which they only now return. In between, they sank to the fourth tier more than once, most recently in 2008-09.

That 1947 victory was memorable. It featured the only Arsenal goal by the first Irishman to play in Serie A, You get a bonus point if you knew that was Paddy Sloan, later of Milan, Torino, Udinese and Brescia.

It was — and at point of writing still is — only our second win in ten league games against Brentford, with the first not coming until the eighth encounter. The Bees had the hex on the great Arsenal sides of the 1930s which failed to beat them in the three seasons from 1935-36. Having lost the away game in the 1938-39 season, we finally secured the elusive first league victory, at Highbury in May 1939. Alf Kirchen scored one of the goals. Another bonus point if you knew he is the only Arsenal player to be a double England international in football and clay-pigeon shooting.

Our only encounter with Brentford during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II was a League Cup Third Round tie at the Emirates in September 2018. A Danny Welbeck brace and a late goal from Laca provided the 3-1 win in which a barely 18-year old Emile Smith Rowe made his first senior start and second senior appearance.

Griffens

ESR wore 55 on his shirt that day; he will sport 10 in the new and compact Brentford Community Stadium on Friday evening. The innovative, hexagonal stadium, shoehorned into a 7.7-acre site bounded by three railway lines, holds just 17,250 spectators, the fewest in the Premier League. Our ticket allocation is 10%. The club is saying that Gunnersbury, appropriately enough, is the most convenient tube station for away fans.

Brentford left Griffen Park a mile away last year after 115 seasons. The ground took its name from the emblem of Fuller, Smith and Turner, the Chiswick brewer that once owned the orchard where the stadium was built. It was famously the only English league football ground to have a pub on every corner.

Some ‘holics may remember the mini-media frenzy in the Spring of 1985 around reports of sightings of the Brentford Griffen, allegedly a descendent of the mythical beast that folklore says King Charles II gave to his mistress Nell Gwyn, but which escaped and ended up living on the Brentford Ait. All fake news, of course, when fake news was just hoaxes.

Benhamball

Owner Matthew Benham is a numbers man. The banker turned sports betting mogul read Physics at Oxford in the late-1980s and has supported Brentford since childhood. He acquired the club in 2012 in return for writing off a £500,000 loan that had enabled fan ownership in 2007. Benham also owns Danish club FC Midtjylland where he honed the statistically-based modelling and sabermetrics approach pioneered in baseball (‘moneyball’) that are cornerstones of his football philosophy.

At Brentford, he scrapped the club’s Academy and U-23 team in favour of a ‘B’ side as a part of a player development strategy that involves identifying underappreciated but physically strong young talent that fits a position profile, then developing it and selling it on to larger clubs at a significant profit. This approach let him shop on ascending rungs of the quality ladder, improving the team in the interim, a virtuous circle that lifted Brentford into the Premiership.

Ollie Watkins, for example, was bought from Exeter City as a 21-year old for £6 million and sold three years later to Aston Villa for £20 million. Saïd Benrahma was acquired from Nice at 22 for £1.5 million and sold to West Ham two and a half years later for £20 million, plus a £3.5 million loan fee in the interim. Their much-admired successor, not least by many in this establishment, Ivan Toney, was brought in at the start of last season from Peterborough for less than £5 million and is now valued at approaching £25 million.

Toney missed the Bee’s final pre-season match, a win over Valencia, with a ‘minor, minor’ injury. He will line up on Friday evening along with the latest recruits to the production line, 23-year old Norwegian international centre half, Kristoffer Ajer, bought from Celtic in the summer for a club-record £13.5 million, and similarly aged Nigerian central midfielder Frank Onyeka, signed from sister club FC Midtjylland for £8.5 million. A late recruit, 24-year-old winger Yoane Wissa from Lorient, may make the bench.

Manager Thomas Frank likes to field an attacking 4-3-3 formation. Yet he deployed a back three at the tail end of last season to consolidate a top-four position, sticking with it to the successful conclusion of the play-offs. Brentford lined up in a 3-4-3 against Valencia, but Frank switched to 3-5-2 after halftime, with Oneyeka coming on to boss the midfield and score the winner. That is likely how Frank will set out his team on Friday evening. It will be one full of attacking intent for its big day back in the big time.

Arsenal

An attacking 4-3-3 is where Mikel Arteta reportedly wants his still-far-from-new-look side to end up, but will start the season continuing with 4-2-3-1. In his pre-match press conference, Arteta was realistic about how long reconstructing the team might take but still hoped for additions and departures by the close of the transfer window at the end of the month.

Partey (ankle), Gabriel (knee) and Nketiah (ankle) are off-games. Holding seemingly faces a late fitness test. Martinelli is a late returnee from the Olympic Games. Our other golden boy, Saka, may be too recently returned from his post-Euros holidays to start. Xhaka, also, is back from his Roman holiday, and only too likely to start.

The big decisions for Arteta are who partners Xhaka in Partey’s absence, whether White starts and which of Bellerin or Chambers will play at right-back. That might be determined by Holding’s availability, with Chambers starting if Rob is fit for the bench, and Bellerin starting if Chambers has to be the back-up centre back.

Arteta may have other ideas, including starting Saka, moving Auba up top and dropping Laca to the bench, but my punt on the starting lineup is:

Leno
Bellerin, White, Mari, Tierney
Lokonga, Xhaka
Pepe, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang
Lacazette

Bench

Runarsson, Tavares, Holding/Chambers, Elneny, Saka, Maitland-Niles, Balogun.

The ‘holics pound

The bookmakers have us as favourites. The odds are skinny, and if anything getting skinnier. A 3-1 away win at 16/1 looks the most appealing value, with a more realistic 2-1 at eights and a repeat of the 1947 scoreline at sevens.

Brentford will be up for their big day, but with Chelsea and City up next for us, we need to spoil it and take all three points. A defining season starts here.

Enjoy the game, ‘holics.

Posted in Match Preview | 66 Drinks »

Order from Chaos

Aug 9th, 2021 by

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From ancient times it has been clear that human beings have an in-built drive and need to find patterns in outcomes, in order to make sense of what can otherwise appear to be the chaos of the everyday world. Chaos – the absence of pattern and certainty – is the antithesis of what leads to development, be it cultural, social or indeed sporting. Perhaps therefore it is not a surprising anthropological phenomenon that so many of the early ancient cultures produced origin myths dealing, to a greater or lesser extent, with the creation of order from chaos – from the Judaic Genesis story, Sumerian/Babylonian and Egyptian origin myths through to the Theogony of Hesiod and more latterly Ovid’s Metamorphoses.   Our interest, of course, is in understanding where Arsenal sit in the footballing firmament and most importantly of all whether we are on the path to developing the planned, ordered approach which will enable us to recover our former position in that world. 

In this article, I will look at how we are trying to move on in terms of the transfer strategy from the antediluvian chaos of the late Wenger and Emery eras – players seemingly bought with little or no thought to the structure into which they would fit; signed or re-signed on the kinds of terms which made little or no economic let alone football sense; contracts allowed to run down to the point of valuable assets being allowed to leave for way below their value or even on free transfers. 

Since arriving, Arteta has had to go through the fall of the post-Gazidis power structure with the rise and fall of Sanllehi along with the, shall we say, curious relationship between the club and Joorabchian which was allowed to develop under the watch of the current owners.  And then very quickly having to deal with the situation while suffering further chaos in the form of Covid.  Given this state of disorder, rather than focusing simply on the transfer activity of this season alone, I wanted to put this into the wider context of the current manager’s tenure.  At the same time, I am not looking at Arteta as having sole responsibility for transfers.  He is, we are told, working hand in hand with Edu and has been more latterly assisted by the new Director of Football, Richard Garlick.  As a result, I will seek to apply my analysis, such as it is, to the club’s transfer performance in general, rather than Arteta in particular. I will also be conceited enough to attempt a crude scoring – my own thoughts only, no scientific method applied – against the criteria set out in the preceding paragraph, broken down into 3 areas.

Old Boys

Let’s start by looking at the outgoings since Arteta has arrived.  It is fair to say that while split on many things, the Arsenal fanbase has been united in its belief that the overall issue was one of poverty of talent as opposed to paucity.  We were very top-heavy in terms of the playing staff.  Not only that, but the age profile of many of the players resulted in too many players with negligible sell-on value and top-drawer wages.  A perfect recipe for the undermotivated and overly comfortable to underdeliver. 

To rectify this, the manager has shifted a veritable Who’s Who of ne’er do wells who now go on to become someone else’s problem.

  • Luiz
  • Ozil
  • Guendouzi
  • Mustafi
  • Sokratis
  • Mikhitaryan
  • Martinez
  • Willock (yet to be confirmed)

Now some of these weren’t easy to shift and so the victory, whilst hardly Pyrrhic, has come at considerable financial (if not footballing) cost.  At the same time, with the exception of Martinez, can anyone genuinely posit a case for any of this list being kept on? And Martinez wanted to go as he needed first team guarantees.  And Guendouzi is, in the vernacular, a wrong’un. Upwards of £20m for Joe Willock, while not being a ludicrous sum at least reflects an attempt to extract something approaching value from a player who perhaps seems like something of a man out of his time in terms of the way Arteta talks about playing.  At 22 years of age, and with 40 appearances in the first team to date, it is hard to say that he has made the kind of impact required to force his way into the manager’s thinking in terms of a first team starter, as some younger players have done over the last 2 seasons.  That it is Newcastle who have come in for him probably tells us everything we need to know.

Of the remainder, Luiz is 34 and unreliable; Ozil is 33 in October and had increasingly become peripheral where it matters, on the pitch, to the point that he was an irrelevance for far too many games to be justifying the ludicrous salary on which he was renewed under Wenger.   Now the salary is not his fault. But it does come at a price.  Minimal effort and marginal efficacy do not meet the criteria to avoid rightful fan criticism.  Sokratis is 33 and Mikhitaryan 32.  Neither of them was ever convincing in the Premier League.  The same can be said for Mustafi despite the fact that he had the benefit of age on his side coming in at a sprightly 29 years of age.

Now I think we can agree that there is some more deadweight to go but I think that the above does represent a considerable attempt to move on a very good proportion of the sick, lame and lazy.  The decisions taken prior to Arteta’s joining meant that a significant number of these were effectively without sell-on value. Arteta will still have had to make the persuasive case to the board for ridding the club of certain turbulent players for the greater benefit of the club.

Grading- B+

New Boys

  • Cedric
  • Runarsson
  • Mari
  • Willian
  • Gabriel
  • Partey
  • Lokonga
  • Tavares
  • White

The first transfer window in January 2020 saw the arrival of the first 4 of the names above.  Given that Arteta had only been in situ for around a month, I would like to think that these deals were already fairly well progressed.  Given the cosy Edu-Sanllehi-Joorabchian troika, I may have some support there.  Cedric at least had decent premiership experience and could stand in at right back, a position which had been and continues to give us problems.  Mari was somewhat left field but given that we were desperately trying to lose Mustafi and Sokratis, there was at least some method in the madness in terms of providing an additional centre half who could come in and perform the task of defending more ably than the two players let go as well as not being tainted by the curse of advanced years.   

In the next window, we made 4 further signings, 2 of which have turned out to be very poor decisions.   Let’s start with the utter mess which is Willian. To date he has played perhaps 3 good games in total while at least for the first half of the season he seemed to take on Ozil’s mantle of being the highest paid stand in for the Invisible Man in history.  Runarsson seems to have been recommended by the new goalkeeping coach.  Perhaps he was recommended for his ability to make tea and a mean bacon sandwich.  It can’t possibly have been on the basis of his goalkeeping.  If this coach is still at the club, he ought to be given the loaded pistol and time on his own to take the decent way out.   The best signing of the summer was the central defender, Gabriel. He started very well but had some Luiz-esque moments.  He at least has the benefit of youth to provide cover for the occasional error.  Overall though he has been a valued addition.  Thomas Partey was the final newcomer and came in for a fair cost and with quite a bit of acclaim. In truth his first season was somewhat underwhelming. Again, this may have been due to the lack of creative options elsewhere in the midfield but to be honest for much of last season it was unclear to this viewer exactly what Arteta had sent the team out to do. I think we have seen enough to have higher hopes for this season from Partey. 

By this point, Arteta had won the FA Cup and Charity Shield so firmly had the owners onside. Owners who, in fairness, stumped up a fair amount of cash, especially since we had once again failed to qualify for the Champions League and were condemned to take part in football’s financial equivalent of the village fete tombola, the Europa League again. Overall, and let us put to one side the egregious signing of Willian for a second, the signings represented a further move towards lowering the age of the squad while adding some much-needed midfield steel in the form of Partey.  The fullness of time will tell whether the signing of Willian (14th August 2020) and the departure of Sanllehi (15th August 2020) were in any way linked.  As the lugubrious Francis Urquhart would certainly have said. You might well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

This season so far we have added Lokonga, Tavares and White.  Lokonga seems to have come with the approbation of some pretty high calibre people. Only time will tell but from the small amount seen so far he does seem to be a player blessed with the gifts of touch, calmness and foot speed over 5-10 yards to enable a burst through the lines. The latter was signally absent from the team during last season and will continue to be absent as long as Xhaka is allowed to roam the midfield like some anachronistic woolly mammoth attempting vainly to compete with cheetah and hyena for the pickings on the high veldt.  

Tavares is somewhat left field, literally and metaphorically, as he didn’t manage to hold down a first team place at his former club and there are stories of immaturity in approach not a little reminiscent of the above mentioned Guendouzi.  Again, from the little we have seen, he does seem to bring pace, drive and energy, three qualities which the human boomerang that is Kolasinac could in truth never be accused of possessing. 

Finally, to date, White has been signed as our most expensive defender by a distance.  Now undoubtedly he has performed extremely well both at Leeds and Brighton, to the extent that he made the England squad for the Euros and there was clearly other interest in him this summer.  For me, he has to prove himself as superior to Holding and to a lesser extent Chambers in order to help understand why the money hasn’t been spent elsewhere in the squad, most notably in the areas of creative midfielder and goalscorer. 

The most obvious characteristic shared by the incoming group of players, one player apart, is that of youth.  Arteta has clearly focused on bringing down the average age of the squad and is not afraid to request the funds to bring it about.  Questions however do still exist around the creativity gap which does not at time of writing seem to have been closed through external means. All in all, I will give a fairly parsimonious mark to the club in this area.  I think I can see a pattern forming which may in time be proved correct but to date the incoming players haven’t been of the expected level to provide me with confidence that the target of getting into the Champions League will be hit this season.

Grading: C-  (excluding Willian)

Grading: D-  (including Willian)

Re-signings/Promotions – To First Team Only

  • Saka
  • Martinelli
  • Balogun
  • Smith Rowe
  • Aubameyang
  • Holding

Work in this area has been unequivocally excellent.  Modern young players have come through a grinding process to make it anywhere near the first team.  Over the time they develop at the club, they will have seen hundreds of teammates let go with almost certainly a number of very close friends among them.  This hardens them to the nature of life and the football industry to the extent that they are quite able to mentally compartmentalise their own interests from those of the club.  This is shown in the wider footballing tendency for players to jump clubs at a young age (examples being Sancho and Bellingham) rather than stay at their alma mater. It can also result in the playing-off of the current club of residence against potential future employers. See the likes of Pogba and Neymar who seem no sooner to have moved club than the whole transfer merry-go-round starts again with comments leaked via favoured and favourable media outlets.   As a result, it is hugely to Arsenal’s credit that we have tied up the futures of Saka, Martinelli, Balogun, Smith-Rowe and Holding since last summer.  The ability to re-sign these undoubted talents may not be unlinked to the jettisoning of the deadweight already covered above and the manager and youth setup hierarchy being able to convince talented young players that there is a path to the first team based on meritocracy rather than gerontocracy. The one partial fly in the ointment here has been the signing of Aubameyang who has really struggled for form since signing the new contract.  Having said that, we were not to know of his illness and family issues at that point. And there we return to Theogony – The Fates dispensing the thread of life and cutting it where they will.  Some things are just beyond our control. Chaos from order. 

Grading: A+

Posted in Match Preview | 48 Drinks »

Pre-Season 2021/22, Part 2

Aug 2nd, 2021 by

Sunday 25th July, 2021

When I volunteered for this piece, I had just written the preview for the Crystal Palace game at the end of last season. In truth, I’d had enough of football at the end of a season that had promised so much but delivered so little – well, nothing at all really. And so I volunteered for a slot tucked comfortably away at the beginning of August. There would be loads happening – pre-season friendlies, a host of new players brought in with the owners’ much reported new willingness to refashion the squad. That should rekindle the embers almost extinguished by a long, unenjoyable season.

Fresh from victories in the FA Cup and Community Shield, we stood poised last August with our new manager on the springboard to new success, ready to perform, with a flamboyant flourish, our triple backward somersault with half twist and pike, right back into the luxurious waters of the Champions League, only to stumble off the end of the board and belly flop spectacularly out of top four contention, out of the FA Cup, out of the League Cup, and out of Europe altogether for the first time in a quarter of a century!

(And right there, for those of you already missing the literary style of our very own Doctor Faustus, is a 94 word sentence to keep you going in the meantime!)

That was one season ago – if anyone can remember what a season is anymore. A season affected, then halted and finally resumed and elongated by the dreaded COVID-19 virus. A season of hope in some bright young players, inconsistency, injury, frustration, empty stadia devoid of atmosphere, occasional promise and ultimate failure, which left me looking forward to a break at the end of it.

But this piece is supposed to be a season preview – part 2 – and not a review, so what’s been happening ? Well, I’ve started writing this on Sunday 25th July as I have a busy week ahead and can’t afford to run out of time writing about the upcoming matches on our tour of the USA – which has just been ….. CANCELLED!

COVID-19 has struck again and with cases rising dramatically everywhere it seems, it is quite right that the tour should be scrapped. Sympathies are with those fans in the US who have eagerly anticipated these games and spent money making travel and accommodation arrangements to see them – and to an even greater extent with those whose loved ones continue to be affected by, or lost to, this horrible disease.

Tuesday 27th July, 2021

Like TTG in the previous post, I don’t want to tread on the toes of Clock End Rider, who is tasked to cover our summer transfer activity, so what to do, given that the aforementioned, considerate TTG has, in reality, already gone and covered management strategy, the performance of the Technical Director, and the short and long term aims of the owners!!

Well, I have to do something, so without stealing CER’s thunder by discussing the players, here’s a few thoughts on the type of players we appear to be building around.

Transfer Policy So Far

I will say nothing about the following players’ various abilities as CER will deal with that. This is just an impression of who we have signed and what the plan appears to be.

Could it be that we are finally carrying out the root and branch restructuring of the squad that has been needed for so long ? The signs are good. No more short termism – apologies to the lexicographically offended, as my spillchucker doesn’t think termism is a proper word but, tough – giving highly lucrative deals to ageing players past their best, or simply at an age where there is no resale value if they don’t work out.

We already had a very decent young nucleus of our squad in place. Mikel Arteta has done an excellent job in persuading Emile Smith Rowe, Bakayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Folarin Bolagun to sign long extensions to their contracts. They are all 19 and 20 years of age. Old man Kieran Tierney is already there to guide them at 24 years of age – surely a future captain.

Last week we added two more 21 year olds to the group in Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga, and 23 year old Ben White from Brighton was confirmed by the club yesterday (Friday 30th July).

Stories about us chasing Sheffield United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, also 23, won’t go away, as won’t those relating to three more of the same age in James Maddison, Manuel Locatelli and Ruben Neves. There is word that Ben White was told by “ the club” that he will not be the last significant signing of this window, and there has been talk for a good while that the owners are prepared to spend big this summer.

Do they finally want to see The Arsenal winning major trophies again, or do they want to get us just competitive enough to ensure we are invited into their abhorrent super league, should they manage to resurrect the whole sorry idea ? To be honest, at this stage I am not going to worry about that. I can do nothing about it, and it may never happen. As long as it means a genuine improvement on the total mismanagement of recent years, I’m going to try to enjoy it.

The other unanswered question so far, is what are the prospects for our other young players, Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and notably Joe Willock, who did so well during his loan to Newcastle?

Wednesday 28th July, 2021

Some actual football! Even though Watford had played a friendly against Stevenage the evening before, a match was played against the Hornets at the training ground on the Wednesday afternoon. Arsenal had sent me an email saying that the match would be broadcast live – and free! – on dotcom, kick off at 2-00pm. Unfortunately the email was sent at 2.45pm and I discovered it at around 7.30pm, by which time the final whistle had long ago been blown. In case anyone doesn’t know, we won 4-1 with goals from Eddie Nketiah, Alex Lacazette, Kieran Tierney and Miguel Azeez.

Sunday 1st August, 2021

More actual football today as the mighty Arsenal take on the mighty financially doped Bus Stop in Fulham. This game is part of the triangular Mind series of matches in aid of the mental health charity. The other two matches are Chelsea vs Tottenham at the Bus Stop on Wednesday 4th August, and Tottenham vs The Arsenal at the new Toilet Bowl on Sunday 8th August. The Arsenal games will be available live on dot com at a cost of £7.99 each, which some may feel is cheeky for a pre-season friendly – but £4.00 from each pass will go to the Mind charity.

Update: Arsenal 1 – 2 Chelsea. I did not see the game live, and neither apparently did a lot of supporters who tried to log on to the streaming service on the club website. It seems they were either not able to log in at all, or having logged in were unable to get a working stream and see any football. They were, however, treated to a wine advertisement, so presumably someone somewhere was happy and a bit more advertising revenue was earned. This really is nowhere near good enough for a club of Arsenal’s stature. It’s disappointing, amateurish and indicative of the attitude that seems to leave supporters at the bottom of the list of priorities.

As for the match, Chelsea went ahead through Havaertz on 27 minutes. Smith-Rowe was unlucky to hit the post before Thomas Partey was clobbered and left with a worrying injury that will be scanned tomorrow (Monday 2nd August). Our defence repeatedly found themselves chasing unmarked Chelsea forwards in dangerous positions and acres of space. Granit Xhaka equalised on 69 minutes but Hector Bellerin laid on a perfect square pass assist for Tammy Abraham to wrap the game up on 72 minutes. In fact, that should not have been enough as substitute Joe Willock was denied an equaliser by the officials, that went clearly in and over the line off the crossbar. If only we had some sort of video assistance for referees that would eradicate all this controversy!

Almost finally, a shout out to Bodrum Gooneress and hopes that she is safe and well in Bodrum, Southern Turkey, where many people have been forced to flee their homes this week in the face of huge fires.

So, “we” found something to write about after all this week. I won’t lie – it has felt like a struggle this time around, and I apologise if “things” are not up to the usual standard, but it’s not easy when everything you’re supposed to write about gets cancelled!

Clock End Rider will hopefully have more flesh to put on the bones of our transfer activity in the coming days, when a plethora of top stars will be committing their futures to the club. Oh, yes they will!

Posted in Club News, Match Preview, Match Report, Transfers, Waffle | 97 Drinks »

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