After helping Arsenal beat Chelsea, Brighton and West Brom, AS says that the form of Emile Smith Rowe has forced Arsenal to abandon their pursuit of Isco.
The Gunners had struggled with creativity in their games before the match against Chelsea.
But they brought in Smith Rowe into their starting XI for that game, and the Englishman helped them earn a 3-1 win.
They have gone on to win two more matches with him in their starting XI.
Isco was eyed by the Gunners as the player that would bring creativity to their team for the second half of the season.
The Spaniard is struggling to play in Madrid, and he wants to be at the Euros this year.
He would have represented an experienced addition to the Arsenal midfield, but the report says that the Gunners have been delighted by the impact of Smith Rowe, and they are prepared to hand him more chances.
It also adds that the Arsenal man’s height gives him an advantage over Isco and praised the Englishman for having a magical right foot.
Isco is now closer to joining his former manager, Julen Lopetegui at Sevilla when he leaves Madrid than he is Arsenal.
We don’t need another CAM. We need a player type we don’t have
Its all well and good people saying we now have Smith-rowe but what happens if he gets injured we will be back to square one
If Smith-Rowe gets injured, we still have Ceballos, Willian, Nelson, Willock, Lacazette and Ozil. Ceballos has made a lot of successful ground through balls, more than any Arsenal midfielders
Ceballos has been played in the CAM position a few times before, but he failed to shine.
Willian, Nelson, Willock and Laca have not done well in that position in league games.
Unless Arteta is open to bringing Ozil back, we need another CAM for when Smith Rowe is injured or has a dip in form
Ceballos played as CAM under Emery’s 4-2-3-1 in two EPL games and he performed brightly. Under Arteta, Ceballos just played at the CAM position for less than 45 minutes
Smith-Rowe recovered the ball six times in a game and made plenty of crosses, whereas Ozil doesn’t have that energy and willingness to take high risks. We need a tenacious and skillful CAM behind Lacazette, not a passenger
Ceballos played more than 2 times as CAM under Emery. He probably played well twice. The reason he wasn’t continued in that position was because overall he failed to impress as CAM.
Under Arteta, he played as CAM more than 45 minutes. He didn’t impress either.
Yes ideally we need a CAM who works harder than Ozil without the ball. That’s why we need another CAM
Arteta has said more ‘out’ than ‘in’…and thats fine, but we do need at least one player in that key CAM position. I’d like to see ESR step up – but he’ll need to be consistent, not get injured (as Thomo said) and be able to maintain a very high level of play against the big 4 or 6 (or whatever it is these days).
I think only a world-class, experienced CAM can provide that. We had one..once. He gets paid a sh*tload to play Candy Crush now.
Think we may have dodged a very expensive bullet there. Incredible talent but not sure about motivations
Buendia please. Hard working, creative winger who drifts centrally. Our RW is a suspect with the forms of Willian and Pepe. I think Nelson will go on loan regardless of our transfers.
Don’t you think that Saka is playing rather well on the right wing?
Left footed but his right foot has been excellent with good crosses and that wonder goal.
Most of all we don’t need older players.
It is not like we are one or two players away from the top.
We need prospects we can develop like ESR, Martinelli, Saka and the likes.
They are more economical and can be molded into playing the arsenal way.
Your “hero” Mr Idle is an older player. Glad to see you are now seeing the light, finally.
But lcw has always said that signing old players is not beneficial. And nowhere has he said that MO is his hero. I disagree with some of his points too, but I have always heard Mr.lcw say that the Ozil situation is a tremendous F*ck-up by the board and the manager, and on this, I agree with him 100%.
Register Ozil as backup to ESR. CAM sorted.
Frightening if we were ever considering Isco. Yet another washed up player that Arsenal would’ve bit on. Have we learned nothing from Willian, Luiz, Cech? Let the older guys go some place else. Just not Arsenal. (And isco isnt even that old interestingly)
Buendia just looks perfect, young and strong already consistently proven against top premier league opposition.
Auba won’t be here forever so in the near future, Martinelli maybe central, Saka on the left, and even ESR on the right where he has played regularly in the past. Adding Buendia increases options, rotation and cover and I don’t see anyone we have who really plays defence splitting passes like him.
Pepe and Willian I don’t are part of that future.. Nelson maybe.
Buendia and then another versatile box to box mobile midfielder to replace Xhaka, Elneny and Ceballos… though I wouldn’t be against keeping the last two in our squad.
Looking forward to summer at the latest to get ozil, mustafi, sokratis, Luiz, off the books.. and some money in for Torreira, Pepe, Xhaka, Chambers, Willian, maybe Bellerin and Guendouzi.