Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal – The Gunners can hold their heads high despite loss

It was a great first half for Arsenal, the defence did themselves proud in the face of Barca pressure and it would be wrong to pick on individual errors when you consider they were playing at the Nou Camp against Barcelona.

Joe Willock had a great first half but the same cannot be said of Granit Xhaka and the evidence has been there all pre-season that the youngster deserves to start alongside Lucas Torreira against Newcastle United and not the Swiss international.

Monreal stood out for me in defence, he made some timely tackles and was effective down the flanks when required.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles did very well, he just needs to work on his crossing. Mesut Ozil was another one that I thought had a great first half.

Pierre Emerick Aubameyang was on fire and his goal, assisted by Ozil, was a beauty.

Reiss Nelson was all over the field and while he did struggle to find a killer pass he was still effective.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, alongside Xhaka was the most ineffectual first half performer and you have to think that he will not be a regular starter once the domestic campaign kicks off.

Overall, the first half was impressive and Arsenal being 1-0 up thanks to the Aubameyang screamer was not an injustice.

The second half started with Barcelona in complete control and was peppered with individual Arsenal mistakes in defence. Joe Willock made a hell of a clearance off the line in the 60th minute as Barca piled the pressure on.

Guendouzi has brought a calmness to his game, something that has been needed in the midfield when the defence is under so much pressure.

But it took an awful own goal from Maitland-Niles in the 68th minute to square things up.

I am not going to criticise the young lad, these things happen to even the best defenders in the game and if anything you have to question Bernd Leno, I mean, did he let Maitland-Niles know that he was steaming off his line?

Luis Suarez grabbed the winner with a last-minute volley and truth be told, it was always coming.

Overall, I think the lads can hold their heads up high despite the loss.

100 Comments

  1. You’ve got to love Mustafi. He comes on and we almost immediately concede! The loss isn’t too disheartening though, as we can be proud of the way boys played. Better things to come.

    1. As for the defence, we need to sign Dunk from Brighton.AMN should be moved to midfield. He is not good at defending.

  2. same conclusion as every pre-season game so far. Bad defense. Auba & Martinelli looked good though. Willock i’m convinced will end up being better than Guendouzi… If we don’t sign some defenders before the market closes we are in big trouble. 2nd half, those were mostly Barca kids putting our starting defense under a lot of pressure.

    1. What bad defence? The one that limited Barca to shots outside the box the entire 2nd half? The one where Leno wasn’t even remotely tested (all game) until Suarez’s peach of a 89th winner? The freak own goal from Maitland under zero pressure? People get so bought in to current narratives that they turn blind when actually watching, the defence was pretty awesome, very organised and compact and made Barca look very distinctly average bar the 89th minute of decency. Any other team bar Arsenal and everyone including the press would be talking about how it was harsh and unlucky but they were solid at the back and made Barca struggle.

      1. This is so far off. Defense got battered by Barca beginning of the half and last ditch tackles were the only thing stopping them from scoring. They can’t pass out the back, give the ball away constantly, and the goal we gave away in 90th minute is something you should get used to seeing very often because strikers making runs off our defenders not being tight enough is something that has been done to us throughout pre-season. Also, again, most of the barca midfielders were their 2nd string or youth players and they still did that to us. So no, it was not a good performance defensively. If you seriously think that was, then you are in for a shock come start of the season.

      2. And bad Own goals and giving up a goal in the 89th minute are legitimate reasons to call the defense bad! That is two goals conceded.

    2. Willock was awesome. IMO he deserves to play regularly in our team this season, that´s for sure . We have more excellent young talented players. When they do well, they derserve the to have the chance otherwise they could easily lose motivation.

  3. Defending is amateur we’re gonna concede bucket loads of goals this season with that defence!

    1. Yes and partly because we have a coach who is also suck at coaching defense. I watch my first preseason game and I saw all our frailties of last season. IMO Emery deserves blame also as the defense.

  4. Arsenal has not yet learned to play out from the back properly or how to beat organised pressing…

  5. Defence will be our nemesis this season again. Just pure dung.
    The only good thing was Nelson, Willock and the mid field going forward. Sort that fn defence out… ……….PLEASE!!!!!!!

  6. We simply need to revamp entire defence or else we gonna pay for our arrogant once again, look that Suarez goal! Poor man marking, we badly need rb more than lb, Niles don’t think will do

      1. Mustafi has to be sold ASAP, poor positioning and he allowed Suarez to run behind him and score. Mustafi is always a calamity waiting to happen. You guys in the UK should pressure the club to sell that guy.

    1. But don’t forget Suarez can bring even the best spanish defenders into trouble. Especially in the first leg our defense was IMO decent, but I should like so see us sign Dunk (Brighton) or Tarkowski (Burnley). They know how to perform well in PL. Mostly I’ve seen very good and stable performances by these two central defenders.

      1. Arsenal should sign both if it had ambition and add in a commanding DM like Decoure from Watford as replacement for Zhaka. People should look at the nett spend at the end of the transfer window.
        Emery is being set up to take the fall at the end of the season when his contract is reviewed. Some on here already want him out.
        Let’s face it, it costs less to keep changing managers at the end of short term contracts, than to address the defensive issues at the Emirates.

  7. Ceballos just James Madisson but cheaper…. Just hope we snatch him permanently at the end of the season

    1. I really dont understand how we havent signed any defender yet. That was our obvious weakness and it continues. I find it absolutely crazy! If it was up to me I would never play Mustafi, mistake waiting to happen. Not the biggest fan of Xhaka either and Mkhitaryan seems to be pretty useless too. I’d rather play the youngsters then these guys any day.
      But the defence, I just dont understand why we spend 72 Mil on Pepe (great buy btw) but cant but one single defender. Maybe they see something I dont.

  8. How does Mustafi come on for 5 minutes and fall asleep as Suarez runs past him to score? But Mustafi has better stats than McGuire, yeah yeah, I know.

    We were done in by AMN brainfart and Mustafi being himself.

    More I see Martinelli more I love the kid; supreme business for £6 million.
    Saka created 2 good chances, and Nelson looking to drive up the pitch.

    Iwobi better progress this year or Nelson, Martinelli, and Saka need the pitch time.

    1. Emery has been here a year and we still struggle against organized pressing. Emery needs to do his job and get that sorted.

      As great as our attack is our defense is equally woeful. FFS, all the business and they ignore the defense. That will decide our fate this year; without a steady reliable CB we may still miss out on CL.

      1. Couldnt agree more mate. It’s a complete madness that they keep ignoring our defense. We have had bad defense for 10 years and now with new coach and new people in charge upstairs, it continues. I just dont understand it. If we miss out on CL, it will be purely down to defense, again.

        We need a left back and CB (so that Mustafi never plays haha)

      2. RB is an unmitigated disaster as well. AMN is a special talent
        but his skill set is being wasted at RB. A loan move to a
        Bundelsiga club willing to feature him in the center of the
        pitch would work wonders for the young lad.

        Xhaka and Mustafi are finished at the club and should be moved
        on ASAFP. If Arsenal are going to be overrun in the midfield
        and continually make senseless brainfarts at the back Id rather
        see the likes of Guendouzi, Willock, Mavro and even Medley
        grow through these moments of madness than witnessing the
        status quo from the before mentioned Internationals.

        Monreal and Kola have there issues but I would honestly prefer
        if AFC targeted and experienced RB(Sidibe from Monaco) and
        a stub CB (Kontae/Upamecano/Orban/Kamara/Tah/Umtiti) to close
        out this exciting window.

  9. I hardly see any positive from this match other than fitness sake. Well I am preparing for another harrowing long and frustrating season.

    Every season seems to be a learning curve for us. It seemed I was watching a game from last season except for the jerseys difference.

  10. there is no way in hell amn and mustafi should be part of the starting lineup at st. james park… no way.

    please whats wrong with amn… is it complacency or over confidence, cos if there was a man called messi on the pitch along with suarez during those spells amn was feeling over confident in and around the 18yard box, this match would have ended like correct score 5-1, 4-1

  11. Noticed Mustaphi didn’t close his man (Suarez) down. Not impressed with the last twenty minutes as the pressure took the better of our defencive organisation. Generally it was a good performance from the team in both halves..
    Unai, stop telling yourself it’s all right with our defence because,it is not!…we need intelligence and awareness at the back.. Mustaphi is lacking in that department…we could do with a defender with BFG’s awareness of the ball.

  12. Glass half full about the new season. Obviously we need new CBs. Martinelli is promising and hungry, looks skillful, as is Joe Willy. Xhaka, Mustafi, chambers, should never be near the 18. Not good enough. Miki, mesut, Iwobi should likely be squad players, which represents improvement.

    My 11 to push for trophies and UCL spot: 4231
    Laca
    Auba. Dani C. Pepe
    Lucas. Douzi
    LB? RH. New CB. Hector
    Leno

  13. Mustafi came on, and in just 5 mins apprerance, he was 100% responsible for us conceding.

    Even if we don’t sign a CB, can we just sell Mustafi?

    At least if he is not in th club again, he wouldn’t be an option

    He is the worst defender in Premier League history

  14. proud of losing to barca b team who are a good week behind on fitness front!!!!! its ffing deja vu all over again … xhaka as midfield general wilock as young pretender cant control midfield so an already fragile defence has to work even harder and will always concede particulary as most of them are vulnerable to making stupid mistakes … need to start torreira (what was the point in giving him 5 minutes) and cabellos (already obvious that he has the level of comfort on ball that the others lack) … chambers maitland niles monreal and mustafi are just poor defenders period but at least 2 of them seem destined to start for opening games of season … positives guinduzhi looked better after his last hapless performance and martineli will come good imo aube looking sharp … but for goodness sake bring in defenders

      1. So kev, what about Ozil, do you see any improvement that gives you hope for the coming season?

        1. It’s difficult for me to answer you know.He has done well but the Ozil I know of has still not come to the party.Yes, it’s only preseason but if we are being objective even during the matches there are times you can see he isn’t doing enough and is a bit overhyped.I see no reason to want my player to fail and then go back to hypocritically criticize the team for failure.I wish him well for the season but I still believe he will fall short again.I would love to be proved wrong as usual

          1. Thanks for your sensible reply kev, we both hope this season will see the Ozil you want.

            I certainly agree with you regarding our players…anyone in an Arsenal shirt should be supported.

  15. AMN needs to be sold enough of making excuses for this kid…..he’s not good enough to be a RB and definitely not getting in the middle of the park since both guenduozi and willock have shown to be better talents not to mention…we have ceballos and little uruguayan terrier…the only person that is possible worse than AMN is xhaka but then again xhaka has a hammer of the left leg…so question is a legit question: where does AMN fit?? sell him and get 15 million since he fulfils Home grown quota!!

    1. How many times have you seen him play in the middle of the pack? I won’t blame him for being under par playing out of position.

    2. Sorry but AMN is not a right back gets exposed time and time again he does not have a defensive head on his shoulders and it’s not his fought but being totally wasted in that position and will continue to get found out if Dick Emery keeps playing him there!!

    3. i know that was a meaningless game but i was thinking the same although its our emotions getting the better of us – he is a good squad player and provided that’s the case he’s still the chance to cement a position in this ever evolving arsenal side. We must believe AM-N can at least learn from tonight’s mistake.

    4. I totally agree, where does he fit. Enough of the excuses for him. He is a good talent but definitely not defensively. Any club looking to buy him would buy him as what, a defender or a midfielder?

    5. totally agree man… for those saying he is not a defender… u dont need to be a defender to know when to clear the ball out of your own penalty box and am not talking about the home goal he scored… amn is trash whether he plays in defence or in midfield or is a fan in the stand, he is gonna be still trash

  16. We have enough LB… Niles should be moved on. he is ruining his career because he won’t develop as a Midfielder and he is still below average as a defender. What future is there for him, is he a midfielder or a defender?
    we can blame leno but that mistake is on Niles. Don’t pass the ball to your goal with your head down. Niles needs to be moved on and a proper RB bought to cover Bellerin

    1. Actually…. I think Leno was at fault for the own goal…. granted, Niles shouldn’t have passed towards his goal with his head down, but Leno didn’t have to run towards him to receive the ball either… he’s not an opposition player, so, I see no reason for Leno to come off his goal line….. and other than that moment of madness, they both played well. And as a lot of people have been saying on here, Niles isn’t an RB… we’ll be better off with him in the midfield

  17. Mustafi came on and 5mins later we lost the game got caught ball watching only chambers reacted mustafi not only has too go I’ll take him to the airport myself

  18. What does Maitland-Niles have to do to be squarely criticised?? He is a useless full back, a nice guy, rugged, home grown talent, excellent athlete, potential arsenal midfield player, yes but one lousy defender. I had my head in my hands when Jordi Alba sold him a feint to go left then cut in on his right, but that goal, plus his general performances in pre-season compounding one of the worst performances by an Arsenal player ever in a final (Baku) mean this must end surely. Forget Tierney spend the money on a decent right back (I think we have forgotten how truly average Bellerin is – though god I am desperate for him to return such is the alternative)!! I can’t take any more of this dreadful experiment.

  19. I have never liked Maitland Niles and I’ll might never like him just bcoz of one thing his “stupid foolish cockiness”.prior to his own goal he had already done 3 big errors that could have led to a goal due to his overcoolness.i still remember how he lost the ball against Chelsea in the EL final which led to the second goal.he acts so overconfident on the ball thereby inviting unnecessary pressure on the defence when he loses the ball. he needs to get serious and focused on his opportunity to play for arsenal. I hope bellerin stays fit 90% of the games this season.

  20. One positive I’ll site is the progress of the youngsters. They look like the real deal. Joe willock is going to be world class. He is the Ramsey replacement for me dare I say he’s better. Well done unai. Wenger have probably used him as a center back

    1. But what you fail to remember Ronche, is the fact that all the youngster are actually WENGER BOYS and UE is benefitting from his vision of youth.

      Just imagine Joe Willock…a world class player…part of the Arsene Wenger legacy.

      You keep knocking him and I will come back at you…why don’t you just move on?

  21. Don’t blame AMN.Blame the f*****g dopey managers who keep playing players out of position.Wenger did it for years and now the new manager is doing it.WTF.So annoying.

    1. Thank you for this. I’m still baffled how Arsenal does it’s business, even the blind knows our problem as regard defence. But, the guys at the helms of affairs have a different view. The attack is on point, but for how long shall we continue to be leaving the obvious unattended.

    2. I get your point but how does playing him out of position effect his logic in clearing the ball? He scored an own goal and he wasn’t under any pressure, not to mention earlier he was ball watching instead of clearing the ball when it was literally in front of him?

  22. Disappointed but very pleased with the performance. Maitland-Niles, who I thought had en excellent game and must have impressed the Barcelona hierarchy is still prone to the occasional bit of casualness. Get this out of his game and we have a real star. Nelson was also impressive. We really could have won this game, however if we going to have some bad luck have it in the friendly’s. Now on to real stuff.

    1. Time and time I’ve wondered why Emery can’t see that Maitland-Niles is able to play RB not because of his understanding of the position but rather his physical qualities.He looks like a winger asked to play RB anytime I see him play.
      After he dominated Utd’s midfield I thought he was gonna get more chances at CM but now it looks like the dream might be over.

    1. He was dreadful. Chases the ball around like a headless chicken and leaves space open. Willock will overtake him. I don’t know how Guendouzi became so overrated so fast.

  23. I wonder why Arsenal fans always call out Iwobi Who makes better impact in games and leave out Mhki who does nothing but gives away the ball all the time. The less I talk about Mustafi the better, always out of position. Kolasinac,Xhaka, Mkhitaryan needs to be sold for arsenal to progress.

  24. Mustafi, Xhaka, mhki.
    We are not going anywhere with the above guys in our squad. Add AMN & you have yourself 4 first team players with errors, poor concentration & lack of consistency in them. This Barcelona team ain’t what it used to be & yet we allowed them to dominate us so much.
    I know it’s only pre-season but I’d rather gamble with the youngsters than work with such erratic bunch of players with a proven record of errors.
    On the other hand, Willock will be a baller, Martinelli $ Saka give me hope.
    Looking forward to the new season.

  25. amn should be sold to Brentford or barnsley, where he can be able to acheive his dream as a midfielder so some arsenal fans can go pay top dollar to watch him.

  26. Niles helps as much he can for a year but not a RB and gets blamed.

    He was promoted to first team as he showed loads of talent in midfield but used as a RB as Bellerin is only one or jerkinson would play.

    He helps as Rb while other young & players push for his spot in middle.

    Without bellerin injury and no CD, he would be in middle, dominant. It is not a waist of talent but a sacrifice of talent.

    I hope it doesnt become a waist. He would do better than all dm we have. He has more to offer with all strengh he combines; genshouzi torreira xhaka willock cant be Niles who can be all of them.

    Would pair him with Willock but can be with all 3 others.

    Hope he doesnt go to waist as ypingsters we dt or play out of position. Look average.

    How can we go after a LB all window long when we have no option on RB?

    Same for attacking players instead tp freakin sign a CD?

    It is unreal! We played against la Masia not Barca and our defense dead once more.

  27. From today’s game, it is obvious that willock is going places, boy can play and I know he was on but martinelli is gonna be bargain buy for us he is a baller and auba keeps looking Sharp. And ceballos if only it’s on a permanent deal. How Miki,xhaka is still here is beyond me..who scouted xhaka? He must be blind. AMN the more he plays at rb the more his confidence is decreasing. I don’t have anything to say regarding mustafi as I told my sis immediately he was introduced that we are gonna concede and boom he didn’t let me down.
    All the youngsters I think willock is more ready for first team than Nelson whom I was disappointed in today’s match. What happened to his directness? He couldn’t beat his man always passing back or side ways..we need to sign a cb asap..Chambers was just ok. Sokratis played ok too..Montreal is sub at best man’s past it.
    Upward and onwards coyg

  28. Aside from that one big balls up I thought AMN did a stand up job, I think he is trying to bring calmness to the game when we are under pressure which is being seen as cockiness…. He’s still young and out of position so I won’t judge him too harshly.

    Chambers didn’t do too badly tonight, few scary moments (at least one thanks to Xhaka over hitting the pass back) but could do a job until Holding is back.

    The blonde hair certainly seems to be bringing out better form from Ozil.

    Willock is going to be beastly… He was everywhere tonight.

    Ceballos is a baller…. Can’t wait to see more of him in action.

    Nelson and Saka were both lively and looked far better than Iwobi on the wings.

    Martinelli would have scored a wonder goal if he and Auba hadn’t got in each others way.

    Xhaka and Mustafi are both useless fekkwits….. Xhaka can’t handle any pressure and Mustafi can’t track a man for 5 mins ?‍♂️

    Mhiki kept disappearing but played some nice bits when he was in the game…..still shouldn’t be starting

    All in all not a bad showing and plenty to be positive about…. Hopefully still a few more additions to come but either way I think we could be in for a good season. COYG.

      1. Exactly my thoughts, people hear these youtubers and jump on the bandwagon. And can’t think for themselves, its the same with Guendozi whose been very poor but no one says anything. I understand his young and can’t expect to much but the overhype he got last season wasn’t warranted.

      2. Saka put in better crosses than I’ve seen from Iwobi at least twice last night and has much better ball control.
        Whilst Nelson didn’t take his man on as much as I’d have liked and was probably the weakest of the three wingers last night, he also didn’t give away possession trying to take his man on and failing like Iwobi is prone to do, he was driving forwards a lot and has better off the ball movement than Iwobi normally shows.

        I don’t dislike Iwobi but he needs to either seriously improve this season or he is taking away game time from youngsters who are imo showing the potential to be better than him, stunting their development in the process.

  29. Came on here weeks ago saying in my option AMN is an accident waiting to happen, even in our porous defence he is FAR TOO CASUAL, and prone to costly lapses.

    When played at right back, this lad will be targeted week after week by the opposition this coming season. Expect many diagonals to our right back position, orthodox wingers will be dipping their bread !

    Enough of “he’s not really a full back” – we can’t play him there… simple as !

    As for central defence, hit us with “hail Mary’s” for the last 5 – we will eventually concede !

    And by the way, the above is not just being wise after the event of tonight’s game, as I said came on previously hoping we would address our defensive issues – we need to strengthen at the back urgently !!!!

    Overall played well, but the old faults still come back to haunt us.

    Nearly a very good squad, however we remain 2 or 3 short.

  30. AMN has always been overconfident which is the only thing I hate about him. Was the same when he debuted so no progress on mentality. Errors in positioning or defending can be excused since he is no defender but he will lose balls in midfield just like xhaka if he doesn’t progress.

    People who criticize emery for playing him at rb should remember that Liverpool and city also do the same when their fullback are injured. Can’t buy a rb just because bellerin is injured.

    1. They have good centre backs hence they can afford to cover someones error, as it is our defence is a pathetic, why add to their misery.

  31. We need another specialist RB to cover for and challenge Bellerin.

    AMN’s error today was more a lapse in concentration and loss of awareness than overconfidence

    1. wow, you made two comments in this thread that legitimately hit the nail on the head. Wish more on here would be more logical in there thought process.

  32. Don’t understand why some Gooners, well most actually, care so much about the result of a pre season match. No sensible fan ever expected us to beat Barca out there. Oh, I know some did. But I did say “sensible fans”. With the appalling Xhaka and his immobility and lack of awareness constantly holding us back and NO quality outfield defenders at all, a narrow loss to the best side in Europe, IMO, was something of a triumph in reality. And I AM ALWAYS A REALIST. Forget the result, it is almost meaningless and instead worry about the ongoing decade long plus farce with NO defenders of top quality at all in our outfield defence. I am one who DOES rate Leno though.

    1. thats right jon … the game just confirmed that if xhaka plays week in week out and we dont buy at least one quality defender … ideally 2 then we are going to struggle … the difference between de joeng who looked like he had been playing with barca all his life and our youngsters who demonstrate various degrees of “potential” should indicate the gap in class that we still face

      1. Exactly my thoughts as well. Its preseason and its meaningless. Better to make all these mistakes now than when the real matches start. AMN played well apart from the own goal. Xhaka again lack of mobility will be a problem for us when teams press us. Anytime his in danger he just passes backwards instead of playing a one-two taking the pressing player out of position or he’ll ping the ball at 30mph to another team mate putting them under pressure.

  33. Im not going to come on here and slate AMN as we all know he is not a RB and never will be. I think he gives it his all but its just not what he is good at. He can be a very valuable member of the squad if he is played in the middle of the park. We need to get rid of Jenkinson ASAP as its pointless having him if he cant even get in the team ahead of AMN who isnt even a RB. A new signing at RB is becoming a priority along with the rest of our defence. Pepe signing was briliant but we need to get back down to earth and realise just how weak we are at the back and it will keep coming back haunt us unless we fix it. LB, RB and CB signings all needed before Thursday.

  34. Thought we done well tonight, Ceballos is a class act and am excited to see more of him.
    All I’d say is patience, Emery is building HIS team now and we have some great talent coming through so the future under this management looks good
    They have totally changed the way the club is run so this takes some time to achieve.
    We stagnated too long under the old wenger gazidis bs which has set us well back in terms of keeping up with the way the world works.
    Liverpool haven’t won a title in what 30yrs? What I’m saying is it takes time and patience.

    Let’s get behind EVERY member of that team on match days and help the team, no more booing, it’s not productive and the opposition must love it, I know I would if the table were turned

  35. Amn is average end of story, am tired of hearing people say he’s a midfielder even the boy said himself sometimes ago that he sees himself more of a winger, Ramsey was played in different positions when he was younger and he didn’t really disappoint like Amn olexandr zinchenko of Manchester city is an attacking midfielder yet last season he played Lb due to Mendy being injured, if a youngster like Amn who has been playing as a Rb since he has been promoted to the first team can’t still improve his game then he should be benched, why will 2 respected coaches use him as a Rb if he’s that good in the midfield or are you telling me you know more than them, why will emery buy guendouzi and promote wilock to play in the midfield ahead of him if he’s really that good in the midfield, the boy plays like he’s won everything as a football player he was a major reason why we lost that final against Chelsea, iwobi played all his life in the academy as a Cm but played in the first team as a winger and regardless of what anyone will say he hasn’t been so good in that wing but he’s been improving and always causes the opponents trouble, so please stop with all this Amn is a midfielder stuff he’s just not good enough.

  36. Praise to Willock and Nelson. Martinelli looks the real deal. Chambers did well. AMN needs to learn Mindfulness. His concenration must be for 90min. Guendouzi looked sluggish and not quite up to the pace. Mkhitaryan…was he playing? Why was Mustafi brought on? I really don’t get it. We need a CB urgently…like now.

  37. AMN, Mustafi, Mkhi and Xhaka are all a burden to Arsenal that’s according to nearly all the voices of the Gooners who spoke on this site on the friendly match Arsenal lost 2-1 away to Barcelona at Camp Nou today. And since the voice of the people is said to be the voice of God, Emery should therefore try to listen to the voice of the Gooners and act fast on it if he can before the transfer window for this summer closes on Thursday this week.

  38. I yearn for 1980s #Arsenal pre seasons. We’d play Boreham Wood or Barnet, and some obscure teams from Belgium or West Germany. Nobody heard about, or cared about results for days, and only noteworthy news was that Nicholas & Sansom were overweight from too much holiday boozing.

  39. 4 Aug 2019 22:56
    @34. Frozen Horse
    “I’d rather lose to Barca than win the Aldi cup.”

    That’s a Lidl cruel. ?

    (I took this from the BBC thread on the game)

  40. Admin Martin are blaming Leno for AMN own-goal. Agreed we should not crucify but that does not mean we should transfer fault to someone else.

    1. Emery has a careless approach that he has to change. It is not good for AMN’s young career. He is NOT a full back, neither right nor left. He is a CM and better than both Guendouzi and Willock.
      Monreal is doing ok in a back four so we desperately need a RIGHT full back even when Bellerin is fit as he’s also hopeless at defending.
      Could do with getting Lee Dixon in to give a bit of instruction to our players on how it’s done. We cannot rely on either Steve Bould’s or Emery’s defensive coaching as it is proven to be rubbish.

  41. Why do we keep hyping our academy players when they are just bang avg, no wonder arsenal board is so delusional and dont see the short comings in defence bec our fans are delusional who think avg players like willock, Amn and Nelson are going to be world beaters and set the world on fire. Arsenal academy structure sucks we need to reform it and come up with a new plan. Dont tell me we are fine in that department how many youngsters have we produced who were good n could claim there position in Arsenal team just one, hector who is poor man’s Danny alves n it’s not like we sold them for such high value either. Look at what ajax and la Masia is producing n look at what we are producing even totenham has a better academy then us.

  42. I bet you the reason Emery brought on mustafi was to show the board look how it’ll take for us to concede now mustafi’s on lol

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