It could be argued that there is no bigger Arsenal legend than Michael Thomas, who scored that incredible goal to win the title at Anfield back in 1989.
Nowadays he works as a pundit, and he was watching the Arsenal game at Fulham yesterday. Thomas was extremely impressed with the debut of the ex-Chelsea winger Willian, who was heavily involved throughout the game until Pepe replaced him in the 75th minute and he thinks Chelsea made a big mistake in allowing the Brazilian to move across London on a free transfer.
“I thought Willian was excellent today both going forward and backwards,” Thomas told CaughtOffside. “He brings amazing energy and always works hard which we’ve seen him do his entire Chelsea career, so it was just more of the same.
“The two assists just shows how seasoned he is and that he makes the right decisions more often than not, with the quality to go with it. Nice to see he hasn’t lost the hunger.
“I was very surprised Chelsea let Willian get into that position where he could go for free, but credit to Arsenal and Arteta for seeing that he still had a lot to offer and tying up the deal quickly to bring him in.
“I think that one might come back to bite Chelsea but I’m not complaining!”
“It was a really confident team performance and the squad are finding a real identity under Arteta which is great to see,”
It augurs well for Arsenal that our two new Brazilians were heavily involved in our first win of the season, and it will give us a big confidence boost, but we know there are tougher challenges ahead.
Are we ready for them? I think we are certainly getting there, don’t you?
Saw this on Twitter yesterday:
I can’t help but feel Chelsea may have made a glaring error in allowing Willian to leave and join a direct rival…
But we were told he was past it… 🤣🤣
Really looking forward to seeing more and more of him. Was millimetres away from scoring yesterday, only a matter of time… and doesn’t he look good in our colours?! 🙂
Not to mention the hair, Sue!
Haha! Of course, Pat 😀 We must have the most stylish barnets in the premier league 😉
I will not mention names but not too long ago 2-3 weeks ago here some of our fans were also saying he is old.. he is done.. well doesn’t it feel good to see everyone come around 😊Willian Willian Willian.. I knew from day one that he will be bringing quality to this team.. this is just the beginning! Coyg!!!
Pretty solid debut for a “Chelsea
Reject”
All I need is for Willian to be consistent for at least two of the 3 years he has at Arsenal then it will be a steal of the century. I’m certain this one will come back to bite Chelsea. You don’t let one of your best players leave to a direct rival especially after he had the best season of his life. Had I been the one handling contacts at Chelsea then I would have given Willy the 3 years he wanted just to prevent him from going to Arsenal. Just take a look at Arteta’s Arsenal then you will know they are a really dangerous team that will start competing for the league sooner than later. You therefore don’t strengthen such a team, a direct rival, with your player who just had his best season. Other clubs have been benefiting from our bad decisions so anyways I’m glad their loss is our gain. Long may all other clubs continue to make such decisions.
Exactly. Two good seasons out of Willian is a great purchase. Espescially if he helps us get into UCL. I have such a good feeling about what Arteta is building. There will be bumps along the read of course, but I think Arteta is the guy with the right vision for the club and he wouldnt mindlessly buy Willian.
This has been the most arsenal response to something I’ve ever seen. The guy has a good debut against the worst team in the league and we’re making out it’s the steal of the century and Chelsea are regretting it so much. He’s signed a 3 year contract so let’s evaluate it after that. Chelsea have loads of young great players in his position and so not keeping him for 3 years was probably the right call for them. We’ve picked up a good player who’s had one good match. This is actually so embarrassing the hype after one performance. Let’s judge at the end of the season and until then stop being childish. The guy above talking about us challenging for the league is just embarrassing. This fan base has lost its marbles
Where’s Topgunner and a few others hiding at 😂
Just wait till Willian misses a 1v1 situation, they’ll definitely come out of their shells.
He already did miss infront of goal but lacazette scored from the rebound 😂👍
Arsenal and Willian looked good against Fulham, which was nice to see. It was a game they should win and they did, despite a couple of errors (clearly from not playing together before) early on. That said, it will be more telling when they face United, Liverpool and City; all away, with Leicester and West Ham mixed in. If they can finish this stretch with 10-12 points, and be competitive in the matches with the other titans, this will be a season worth the watching.
If not, this could be another long, roller-coaster slog to another Europa League placing.
So far Arsenal’s transfer business has been solid. They have signed quality players in positions of need. Willian. Gabriel. Mari. Soares, Ceballos. They still need a starting XI holding midfielder (Elneny is a solid squad player, but he will struggle against better teams).
I was also not impressed to see Ozil left out. Clearly Arteta is still not in control of the team; this decision is obviously a front-office demand because whatever your opinion of him, he is clearly better than any or all of the forward players selected to the bench. If the season slips, this stupidity will haunt the club for another year.
Didnt we just win two trophies with out your idol?
Jesus… This obsession about Ozik needs to end soon. Arteta is still getting it wrong for benching Ozil while still winning games and trophies?
So of you just choose to live in the past.
Ozil will play when Arteta feels it’s right, until the keep moaning about Ozil not being selected, you’ll be moaning a lot this year👍👍
Decent post until the Ozil reference.
Let the man collect his earnings,
play a little fortnight and stay as
far away as humanly possible to
the starting 11. Hopefully AFC can
stilI offload enough #10 jerseys
worldwide to offset his wages. I
have nothing personal against the
German but his Arsenal playing
days @ the club should be
deservedly finished.
Maybe….just maybe it has something to do WITH Ozil himself?? I’ve learned to keep off this Ozil debate but you Ozil stans need to give it a rest, stop living in the past noone’s guaranteed a place in the fisrt team anymore and that’s how it should be.
Does it really, really look like Arteta is leaving Özil out on the say so of the board? If Özil was good enough in training he’d be picked.
I don’t think it is difficult to understand that it is counterproductive NOT to pick the best players possible
Lol, first it was “Raul is gone, Ozil will play”. Now we see that is not true and it’s straight back to the conspiracies. The player you want Ozil to be doesn’t exist anymore. Can we stop pretending he does??
Arteta should not be sentimental in terms of selection, he needs to keep team together one win is not enough to land the trophy lets do more up #GUNNERS.
Great start for Willian. Talk to Chelsea fans tho, and Willian did have a consistency problem tho. I hope Arteta can keep the fire in his belly and really push Willian. He was great in the 2nd half of Chelsea’s season, and he’s had a great start here. Pepe will hopefully benefit from the added competition too.
Ozil didn’t play any game during the project restart of last season and you expect Arteta to pick him For a EPL opening match? Common guy chill! Arteta is probably waiting for Europa league and FA cup to play him to enable him get his confidence back before he can thrust him into PL match so it’s gonna take some times. So wait until then don’t mention Ozil.
Willian is a class player who has won big trophies, we are fortunate to have him. It in my opinion be our gain and Chelseas loss.