The new Arsenal boss Unai Emery seems to be unloading the Gunners deadwoods with a rarely seen determination, and we are expecting a deal to be done for Mustafi sometime today. But the latest Arsenal rumour relates to Henrik Mkhitaryan, who is apparently being chased by the Italian giants Roma, with the famous Italian sports journalistGianluca Di Marzio revealing that Roma Sporting Director Gianluca Petrachi is pushing for a loan deal with an option to buy next season.
The Armenian midfielder has never quite regained his previous form after his arrival in England, where he very publicly was pushed out of the Man United team by Jose Mourinho and was then offloaded to Arsenal when the massive swap deal for Alexis Sanchez was finalised.
Mhki came on a sub in yesterday’s draw with Tottenham but was far from impressive and couldn’t hold on to the ball for long and has rarely impressed in an Arsenal shirt despite incredibly making three assists on his debut for us. Although he is not held in high regard I still insist we did better out of the deal than Man United did, getting an expensive out-of-form Sanchez as his replacement, but his wages are much too high to warrant keeping him as a stop-gap squad player. If Roma are willing to take a chance on him and remove him from our wage bill who are we to complain?
I, for one, will not be unhappy to see the Armenian leave. Four goals in 22 games for us last season is hardly impressive…
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Let him leave. He is a liability. I had hope in him, he has had his equal share of chances but it just doesn’t seem to work for him. It’s fair to say he has been given his chances and a fair judgement made.
Can we include Xhaka for free ! Possibly the worst midfielder we’ve had
Please, someone, anyone, come in for Xhaka & make all of my Christmases come at once ?
Wow if Miki goes to Roma and Mustafi somehow goes to Juve, we have done very very well!
Now we just need to get rid of Xhaka
A loan move to Roma would be in the best interests of Mik and Arsenal.I only wish similar arrangements could be made for Mustafi,Sokratis and Xhaka.
Mkhitaryan and Xhaka should leave for free. They are not footballers. Xhaka should be playing in the Champioship and Mkhitaryan sould join Alexis in Serious A the take it too serious league. I was told by a secret source that Mkhi passed a ball to one of his own players…’deliberately’ six years ago. Great stat. Xhaka is working for SMERSH to undermine everything Arsenal do and to keep us out of Europe. That can be proved by how many he has mercilessly scythed through and annihilated.
I only pray he goes. Cos if he didn’t he will always feature in our game with the kind of manager we got.
Since yesterday I haven’t got the idea why Emery chose to bring him on instead of Nelson. Even Ozil would have created alot of chances with the chance he got.
He made me think of iwobi cos I knw Iwobi would have done better in that occasion than him.
And allowing Monreal leave before our NLD is suicidal. Kolasinac was rubbish yesterday(sorry Sue) and people saying Kolasinac tried yesterday are been mediocre like him, how can he be in a good position for our equaliser and yet fall over. No real contribution yesterday. Even AMN perform better than him going forward.
Mhyki should please leave this club for God’s sake. And enough of this Sokratis Luiz combination.
I will take it having a junior player(Chambers) making all there(cos I know he will learn from the mistakes) than this 2 clowns who can never learn again
And for Xhaka, I think by now Emery should realise Xhaka will cost him his job if not taken out from the first eleven.
People saying Xhaka’s long ball has been helping us should take a look at Guendy(yes he needs to learn his positioning well and I know that will come with age) long ball yesterday. Xhaka is rubbish and should leave the club.
Torreira needs to start all our matches with the instructions that he shouldn’t move forward and stick to his job cos the way Emery use Torreira this days is suicidal.
Bobs, torrera appears to be too small and light for the premier league. We need a Wayama-like defensive midfielder
That’s what they said of cazorla
Makelele was small and light.
Kante is small and of medium built.
It’s not about strength most of the time, it’s positioning. Torreira was good enough when he first came, even if he was — if anything — even weaker than now. He was played as a proper DM then, though.
I feel Emery is the worst possible cross between Wenger and Conte. He either has cowardly tactics like Conte, but less succesful results. Or he is stubborn like Wenger and keeps playing Xhaka or persevering with mediocre players, but playing with worse style than Wenger’s teams.
The problem is we lack physical players in midfield other than xhaka who is trash but offers physical presence in the middle.
Why is martineli not getting opportunity?
what else can we see from mikh that we haven’t seen?
What physical presence? opponents don’t fear Xhaka because he has none. No positional sense and cannot defend to save his life. Long balls? A joke his repertoire is sideways and backwards usually to team mates who have 2 or 3 opponents on them so his stats look good. So who is to blame…right the manager…close my eyes and it could be Wenger on the touchlines
why does Wenger and Emery like xhaka?…is there something we don’t know…
It does make you wonder doesn’t it! Where the bodies are buried perhaps! I use humour but make a serious point about why these two managers rate Xhjaka, one enough to waste £35 million on him and the other to keep picking him in front of far better players too. Surely almost 60000 Gooners in the ground cannot always be wrong to want him out. And millions more who watch on screens too. I have twice asked on here if there is a single Xhaka lover out there and not got an answer. The answer is clearly, NO THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE!
Til now I have been one of Emerys most strong fans. But if he keeps on picking Xhaka from now on, I WILL CHANGE MY OPINION ON EMERY. Only a fool keeps on picking a way sub standard player esp given all the abundant evidence of his uselessness.
First two games without Xhaka, six points. Another two with him, one point.
I thought Xhaka played v Newcastle
Indeed, Jon, one of definitions of foolishness is doing the same thing but expecting different results.
If it ever applied to a footballer, it has to be Xhaka. Even if he has 2 or even 3 decent games, you ALWAYS KNOW the next huge game-costing mistake is maximum 1 or 2 games away.
– On Mkhi, though: it’s good he’s going. Has proven in the past he is talented, but has been playing attrociously under Emery. Clearly he needs a different manager to recapture at least a sliver of brilliance he showed at Dortmund.
Agree he has to go. Shake no. I think when Bellerin,Tierney & Holding return it’s a big improvement. Play:-
Leno
Sokratis holding chambers
Bellerin luis ceballos tierney
Pepe laca Auba
I think good balance. Zhaka ok for Carabao,early rounds of europa Fa cup & cover for suspensions or injury. Also AMN is available.could also add Guendouzi/Torreira instead of luis/Ceballos. Awesome.
With only 2 midfielders any team will dominate our play.
No way. Has to be 4-3-2-1 or 4-2-3-1
The only 3-at-the-back that can work for us is 3-5-2
Also, in a back 3 Luiz is actually quite decent and definitely better than Chambers and the wrestler.
The much respected journo MARTIN SAMUEL(Daily Mail), said about that ridiculous and self indulgent Xhaka lunge, that it was the worst tackle he had seen in the penalty area. He was, as usual, correct. CARRAGHER SAID THE SAME THING. HE WAS CORRECT TOO.
Like you JF I was all for giving Emery time to put our house in order after the previous tenant left it in a run down state, but if he continues to play, Xhaka, Sokratis and Luiz I’m afraid he will lose my support.
Grandad, Yes, we are both longer in the tooth than most on here and well know that any new manager needs a really fair amount of time to turn around the rusty sinking ship that his predecessor left behind. But there are several alternatives to XHAKA. Also to Sokratis. Emery has made some strange team selections this season already, after his generally accepted free pass last season. Continued mistakes will quickly change perceptions and mine certainly. There is no excuse to play Xhaka, except for extreme injury in midfield, which is NOT the case currently. I put the panic buying of Luiz down to KOS and his disloyalty to the club AND to Kroenkes meanness. I do NOT believe Emery would have chosen to buy Luiz, given his own choice and decent money to spend on the several defenders we badly need.(And have badly needed for many years going back ages.)
It has been said many times – Emery does not select players. He chooses a position he needs, but it’s not up to him to choose a player, he’s just a coach.
That’s great next is xhaka. The youth will be giving the opportunity to shine.
Yes to Xhaka leaving, no to youth in the league (at least not most of the time).
This is the season when it’s the biggest chance to crack top 4 with Spurs on a downward slope and Utd and Chelsea in troubles of their own.
But some of them can prove themselves in the Europa – Martinelli, Saka, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Mavropanos, AMN in a midfield role, Willock.
as soon he leaves the better, i am referring to mhkitaryan. i blame emery for introducing him instead of one of our youngsters
Emery made two (actually 3) crazy mistakes yesterday:
1. Not starting either Ozil or Ceballos
2. Starting Xhaka
3. Brought in Mykhitaryan instead of either Ozil again or Nelson even when he knew The Lazy Ass will be leaving for Italy today.
These kind of mistakes are not pardonbable especially from a Manager who has ambitions.