Four players who did well to lay a permanent claim to a shirt after the Bournemouth game. by Lagos Gooner
Hi Arsenal family; hope you all are having a nice day already? Today, I quickly want to talk about four players who played against Bournemouth in the FA cup, who can proudly lay claim to a starting shirt. Even if we feel we have better players than these players I would mention, I still feel they should be given every opportunity to play more games, this season.
Bukayo Saka: Against Bournemouth, Bukayo was a sensation. Scoring a goal and assisting another against a premiership giant like Bournemouth is no small feat. He controlled the left back and bombed forward to add to our goal threat with ease. He was tireless and together with Martinelli, he terrorized the Bournemouth’s defence. I have been hearing stories about how Tierney would displace Saka once he is back from injury, well I am not the coach of Arsenal but if I was the coach, I wouldn’t allow Tierney just stroll into the team; he has to show me why he deserves to play. Tierney may not really show us the stuff he is made of this season because of the injuries he is struggling with, so Saka may play regularly until the end of the season.
Gabriel Martinelli: I don’t want to be sounding like a broken record but I don’t see why Martinelli won’t be playing regularly until the end of this season, at least. He is everything you need in an Arsenal player and he plays with so much determination, not seen in most young football prodigies. Against Bournemouth, he didn’t score a goal but his overall contribution was spot on! This young lad has done everything to deserve a starting spot, even if it means keeping Lacazette on the bench (I have nothing against Lacazette but he is not on form at the moment and needs to be rested).
Eddie Nketiah: After a brief loan spell at Leeds United, our young goal machine is back, and if we are to believe the coach, he has a role to play this season. He scored a sweet goal against Bournemouth and would have enhanced his reputation with that goal. If not for the presence of three better goal scorers in Arsenal, Nketiah has everything needed to start games for Arsenal and score goals too.
Joe Willock: Joe Willock has had an on and off season so far but his display against Bournemouth, was pretty excellent. He has been in the first team of recent and may likely play more first team football if he keeps up his excellent displays.
That’s all friends! What do you think?
We are Arsenal and we are proud!
Sylvester Kwentua
Even Demba Ba had 1 good season then flopped at Chelsea.
Let’s see what happens in another year or two
A lot of people are writing Willock off but I think he’s gonna be a star in a couple years. His pressing, work ethic and driving runs will all improve in his game over the next few years and he will
be what we all wanted Ramsay to be. I can’t wait.
In these 4 we have seriously talented youngsters.
Ypu forgot to mention guendouzi,he controlled the midfield,he was superb in the 2nd half.
Any formation or tactics that does not include aubamayang and Martinelli is rubbish. It’s clear to all of us the boy never gives up, the goal he scored against Chelsea Lacazette will never score that type of goal, you can see the boy really wants to succeed and he’s given everything he has on the pitch unlike some of our youngsters ( Nelson). I don’t care if Lacazette will be benched, all i want to see this weekend is aubamayang Martinelli and any other winger the coach decides to use.
That goal against Chelsea, Lacazette would’ve waited to turn the ball around the midfielder chasing him first..
It’s sometimes annoying when Lacazette should drive the ball, but he holds on to the ball for 45 seconds in one spot.
I’m not writing off Lacazette though, but we need him to do his job, seriously asking Martinelli to shoulder the burden of goalscoring in his first season might take it’d toll later. (I hope not) With all the hype he’s been getting, I hope his mom who stays with him in London helps him stay grounded and to keep working.
To call Nketiah “a goal machine” is unfounded hype at the moment Sylvester.. I agree he shows promise but goal machines score twenty plus goals a season for years, a la Henry, Wright or Aguerro.To call the hardly begun his career yet Nketiah, naively, “a goal machine” shows YOU as the hype merchant you are and as you are regularly showing on here. I prefer sober realism, as that does not put unnecessary pressure on still young and developing players.
But you are young, as Nketiah is too and will improve, with time, hopefully. You MAY even become, in the fulness of time a writing machine of quality . We can only wait and see and time will tell. But right now, you are not and nor is Nketiah. Sober reality!
Exactly Jon, I think fans are hyping these kids too much and it’s not really inspiring.
Everyone know I was always calling for Saka to be promoted and given the chance over Nelson or any other player while he was still with the U23, because i saw him play for the U23.
I was always confident about him and valued him way above Nelson. That fact’s not hidden, but since he has gotten his chance (Which I’ve always wanted) He’s been living up to my expectations and doing well, but then I’ve taken a step back a bit on singing him praises, not because he hasn’t earned it, bit because I just need to stand back and watch him do the thing I’ve always known he could do, stand back and just enjoy it with him instead of singing praises after every single game.
I don’t see myself as one who joined in the Martinelli hype band.
He’s a fantastic player, but let outsiders hype him, let people out there be the one to sing him praise. We just need to keep showing him support and love.
The day Nketiah ends up playing poorly, you’ll see our fans come for his head.
The whole hype about our younger players is already tiring and sounds like a broken record to me
It’s a bit like calling Bournmouth a “premier league giant”…
Eddie How I sighed with relief when I read your sober and welcome comment. I agree with you totally. We do have a number of young players who carry our hopes for a career and perhaps a stellar career. I share youR hope for Saka and consider him , with Martinelli, ouR best hopes for top careers. But nothing is ever certain in football and we realists should always remind the hype merchants like Sylvester of that situation.
I can only imagine what the likes of Sylvester would have written about JACK WILSHERE AT AGE 17 AND LOOK HOW THAT TURNED OUT! Injury wrecked his career. Daft hype just puts unnecessary pressure on young shoulders and gets non realisic fans too critical when they have a poor game, as all players of all ages do at times. This never helps our club and I REALLY WISH THAT HYPE MERCHANTS WOULD STOP THIS HARMFUL NONSENSE.
Of course it will be best for our 2 best goal scorers to be present always cause every game from now on should be a final.
All five can go on to become fine players for Arsenal.AMN is another with real talent who could flourish under Arteta who I suspect will use him in midfield before too long.He needs to improve his concentration and decision making but he is an athlete with real pace and energy.On a more pessimistic note, thus far I have yet to be convinced by Pepe who needs to improve in a number of areas.Part of the problem in my humble opinion, stems from this obsession of playing “inverted” wingers.As a natural left footer,I would like to see him player as a conventional left winger when he can cross on the run and cause havoc.Look what young Saka achieved against Bournemouth playing on his natural side,one goal and an assist.I hope MA gives Pepe a run on the left before too long.Martinelli can play in any of the front three positions and reminds me of the young Ronaldo when he was with Man utd.
for me I would rather play lacazette , than these useless kids in the name of willock and kentiah
Martinelli and Saka have been tested enough and they have proved their worth. Leave Nketiah out yet.
To see a lineup without Martinelli will be disheartening to me. That boy is out to prove a point. He has a determination of a certain CR7 that I was watching in a Man U shirt at his early years there. We have pure gold in our fold.
Those players are excellent, I really respect Gabriel Martinelli he is exceptional. Joe Willock Is good player his work rate good but for him to grow he need more playing time, I suggest if he go on loan to another club
There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Lacazette woukd not have been anywhere near the goal to score the way Nketiah did against Bournemouth. And if, by pure chance, he had been, he would have blasted it over the goal into the stands. We cannot afford to have players on reputation in the team. Laca has just not got it at the moment, and we have players that HAVE. I would be very disappointed to see Laca selected before Martinelli against Burnley.
Too much hype, the type of content you’ll find on twitter
We get accused of being too negative, now it seems being too positive is a bad thing. Not sure what neutral looks like on a fan site
For sure gabi and saka they should not miss any game
One of things i noticed when arsenal attack is the lack of contribution from wingers to create chances.They try to take on defenders rather than trying to continue the momentum playing a passing game,specially pepe but martinelli does it sometimes as well.The main reason laca is being ineffective is that.Him and ozil tries to keep that momentum going.Laca is great in link up play and one-twos so is ozil but the wingers,i dont see them even try.I think MA will focus on that.
There is reason to feel optimistic about our younger players. With as Arteta as coach they stand a good chance to make it to the top. For me, Martinelli and Saka stand out as our best prospects.
Gendouzi can also be added, Saka in first half as attacking midfield with Martinelli infront of him made that wing impossible to play; fire. Sure Nelson would have done better than Pepe!
Hopefully our coach took notes and didn’t guess that firs thalf’s formation.
I do get that we needed to keep score but not switch to a defensive team at top of second half, nor if we control game as we left it before break!
Players & coach all deserve a 9 in first half, but he deserve a 3 to 4 in second half we lost.