Well now the window has closed we can all sit back, take a breather and consider what lays ahead for the season.
The new additions should add to the quality of our squad and I for one had to double-check the Pepe and Luiz signings. I would say arsenal have made intentions clear of our ambitions so now to assess/dream of the season ahead.
While I don’t want to focus on our rivals, it can’t be ignored what threats they pose. Chelsea has surprised many allowing players to leave, given the ban, and Man Utd have again spent big and so along with Spurs also making moves in the window our competition for a top-four spot has changed in its dynamic.
So to the season ahead and what we should expect. Given the spend and Unai being now in his second season, I would suggest our goal is achieving 3rd or 4th in the EPL with a strong run in a cup competition or two. I don’t think our manager can achieve nothing less and keep his job. Now I know many of us fans want to challenge for everything, but reality would suggest that’s another year or two away yet.
We will still have defensive issues, which will need another two windows to address, and injury worries me for the season ahead, is it me or do we seem to get more than our fair share?
Maybe Wenger was right that top four is like a season win, given Man City and Liverpool are right now on a different level. I believe a successful season will see us compete in every game, avoid the usual one or two thumpings, bring a few youth players on and be the best of the rest with a 3rd place finish and a cup win.
Still, this is one mans hopes and opinion!
Daniel Honour
Laca pepe ozil kolasinac out of Sundays clash…..tf
Made some good signings and loans.
Hopefully Lacs, auba and Pepe can gel and the defensive experience of luiz and the promise can sure up some of the holes in defense.
Would have liked to see Ozil go but at the expense of results I think we will see Cebellos take his role.
Happy that mustafi may be off though.
We can do 3rd if lucky with injuries and team gels quickly
The team news for new castle game has confirmed that kieran tierney will join full team training in 4-6 weeks. Which means he wont be playing in the first team for 8 weeks at the very least. 🙁
I think we’ll finish 4th and give spuds a real go for 3rd.
City and Liverpool on another level and surely finish 1 and 2 again with points to spare.
Utd 5th to edge out Chelsea, with Leicester to really push Chelsea. 8-10 is too hard to pick with Wolves, West Ham and Everton.
After that who cares about the bottom half except the 3 that get sent down.
Injuries can change things, but I feel the table will look like this at seasons end.
1. City
2. Liverpool
3. Cocky Ba$tards
4. Arsenal
5. Utd
6. Chelsea
7. Leicester
8. West Ham
9. Everton
10. Wolves
11-20 who cares
I highly doubt that especially Everton,westham I think Liverpool will pip city this time around
City improved and Liverpool brought in young CB for £4 million, not enough especially if they have injuries.
We’ve been hearing about Everton for couple years and still haven’t moved up despite massive investment. Have you seen how much they’ve spent last couple years?
Everton finish 8th or 9th again like usual.
I reckon we will field:
——— Leno
AMN – Luiz – Sokratis – Monreal
— Torreira – Willock/Xhaka
———- Ceballos
Mkhi – Auba – Nelson/Martinelli
Well, Unai has said we can expect some more departures between now & 2nd September……
I quite like Mclovin’s team (above) although I was hoping to see Sead & Mesut!!! And Laca & Pepe!!! Argh!!!
The only thing that has perked me up, a little, is Tommy (Love Island) is on Soccer AM tomorrow ?
And come on Norwich ???
I think it’s game over already Sue ?
I don’t wish to know, Kevin!! ?? can’t rely on Tim Krul for anything ?
3-0 ? Norwich look good going forward Sue but horrific at the back this game could get embarrassing for Delia Smith’s men ?
?????????????
No doubt she’s on her 3rd bottle of wine already, and I bet the Norwich fans are relieved it ain’t at Carrow Road or they’d definitely be hearing the Let’s be having you speech ??? hic!!!!
She does look like she’s been on the dessert wine ? haha it’ll be more let’s be heading home 4-0 could end up 7 this game ?
Actually I can’t say I blame her, as I’ll probably be exactly the same on the 24th ?? (to numb the pain!!)
You’ll be knocking back a few boilermakers that day Sue ? if Mustafi plays we’ll be fine ?
That sure as hell would numb the pain, Kev!! Would near enough kill me haha!!
? no comment haha!
Pukki is pukka ??
Hahaha definitely pukka ? I’d say you could definitely handle a few brews ???
Sue baby the good news is that VAR is in play. Mike Oliver and mike dean can keep their arrogance in the pockets.
I hope so, Pat! And don’t forget that chubby little Jon Moss!! ?
Going to be very interesting, for sure!!
Since the new season is about to begin let me repeat what I say every season. Though I hate spurs and United, I can never hate them as much as I hate Chelsea. Rant over. Sorry for being off topic.
Be nice to see Luiz score a worldy against them ?
Yeah, I’d seriously love to see that.
Lacazette being out for Sunday isn’t a terrible thing. Aubameyang can play up front instead of on the left. He is at his best up front
Cellabos can play Ozil’s position with Torreira and Guendouzi or Xhaka at the back of midfield. I’d rather try Cellabos as CAM instead of Mkhitaryan
Wings we can try Nelson and Martinelli
Or Emery can start Willock instead, because Willock has been playing with Arsenal’s system for many years and he knows his teammates well
We have some new options for the wings in Nelson, Saka and Martinelli, but I predict Mkhitaryan would start due to seniority
Sky said Unai will decide on Saturday if Laca & Pepe will feature on Sunday… there’s a glimmer ?
As long as our playmakers cannot control the game, our defenders will still suffer. It’s no coincidence that Van Dijk, Luiz and Keane had the lowest numbers of interceptions, tackles and fouls last season, whereas Mustafi’s almost double the figures
It was because they were protected by good tempo dictators, whereas our playmakers’ ineptitude in midfield allowed the opponents to press our defense hard
I don’t think we can call the likes of Xhaka and Ozil playmakers, since they are so bad in tight spaces. Emery has to gamble on other options such as Ceballos and Willock, if Arsenal want to finish in top four
I’ve been saying this for ages. No matter how good your defense is they will still leak goals if the midfield players can’t hold on to the ball.Teams constantly attacked our defense. Xhaka can retain the ball for more than a second. Our midfield players also don’t defend as well. We can spend a 100 million on a defender and were still going to concede goals until we replace Xhaka, Ozil etc with ball winning, tricky players controling our mid. I would go as far as saying xkaha should be sold before Mustafa
If Arsenal can get the right defenders in, pay that bit extra to beat other teams out to the top young names like we did with Pepe. If we can do that then this team has the firepower to go on winning runs much like city and liv. It would probably make the games against city and pool more decisive in the grand scheme. I agree that it will still take some windows or at-least one summer window to get the ideal lineup in defence. I think we should ignore the Jan window again seeing as it worked for us in this window.
Excited for the new season, the players need to start as they mean to go on. How we start the first ten games or where we’ll be after them will be very telling. If the players don’t want fans saying ..we need two or three CM players and we still need two wingers as well as a whole new backline …then they need to tackle this season in the meanest possible way, be ruthless.
Too many players out whether injured or otherwise to have our best 1st eleven starting at Newcastle and possibly for a couple of months , so on that basis we could be nearer to bottom than top and playing catch for the rest of the season……………..I`m expecting better things for the following season ! hahahaha
PL is back ? can’t wait until Sunday ? Norwich could have scored twice the German fella has 2 left feet ?
We gave in with Mkhitaryan for the Europa Cup final and we lost. How can we give in with Ozil and Kolasinac? Emery should play our best team, not a team chosen by thugs.
Sean, I guess it’s the frame of mmind the players must be in.
This new incident has seen the police protecting both families, it is being reported.
Hardly the preparation for a good performance I would suggest.
Some are just waiting for that to happen, so I believe the club has made the right decision.
Ken-I believe this would have been a management decision not the players.Both players would be out there if they could but surely even the most biased of supporters will understand that their families must always come first.How can they have 100% concentration on the game with this on their minds?And if ANYBODY questions the players attitude over this then they are morons
Okay I really don’t mean to sound insensitive or callous but are they now gonna sit out every game until the thugs are caught? When will that be? How much does it cost anyway to hire private security and post them at the players’ residences? I bet a lot less than the £350K a week going down the drain on Sunday.
QD-We don’t know all the facts as yet.But would you be able to concentrate 100% on your work if your family had received the threats that theses two have?Of course you wouldn’t.If you told your boss what was happening he would send you home.
Listen-if this was Alex Iwobi and not Mesut Ozil I would still feel the same.Believe it or not there is more important things in life than football.
Maybe, the reason Ozil and Kolasinac are not travelling to Newcastle is not the Club’s decision, but at the direction/advice of the police?
Call game off imo it’s the only option
Exactly Sean there’s no reason both players shouldn’t be playing because of 2 delinquents
I don’t think we are talking about a couple of 2-bit delinquents here. They were part of an organised gang trying to Nick Ozil’s £100 grand motor. Both Ozil and Kola have received threats from the gang in the past 48 hours which the police are taking seriously. This is not petty crime we are discussing, it’s organised crime with big money involved.
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Liverpool is on fire 4-0 in first half. Klopp is a give factor in that team. If only Emery can set our team up this way nothing can stop us from making cl with the new players we have
This is a really well written article, surely everyone thinks the same yes?. I think Everton, wolves and Leicester could start pushing the establishment of 6 this year. My tongue is firmly in cheek
Yes I think they can.
Firstly even with making signings for key areas whilst selling players we needed to, our squad will need time still to adapt to each other, learn what to expect from each other and along with that, we need to allow the injured players time back in and get full fitness.
Tierney and Holding will be back for Sept. Bellerin still off and before xmas I suspect.
David Luiz in for Koscielny offers a player with 600 EPL games under his belt. It’s a stable purchase.
Like or hate iw0bi, we can all agree £35m is very good business and a sign we are not just good at trying to make purchases, but also to sell.
Its going to take this season still for the new core to seamlessly work together.
Great to see the signings but also caution is needed to allow the fact we will be poor still at periods as we try to do new things.
The season ahead is all about progressing the clubs set objective
I’m missing Iwobi already, 17 years at the club. He is really a son of the club
at!! Liverpool raping Norwich just this first half.. I wish Arsenal can adopt scoring goals this way.
Once were three nil up you’ll see our players walking around as if they own the pitch??
We shouldn’t play Lacazette on Sunday. It’s better not to risk him. I don’t want him out of action longer. That’s the beauty of having 2 top strikers. When one is injured we still have an excellent player to play up front
Nelson, Martinelli, Mkhitaryan or Pepe can play on the wings
I hope Torreira plays in the back of midfield with either Guendouzi, Ceballos or Wilock. I’m not keen on Xhaka
Iwobi is a true gunner. That message was almost as heartening as Jenko’s. To think of he spent 17 years with us and he’s only 23… Good luck to you. Even though I was never fully convinced with him, I am not anti-Iwobi. Good luck with your future endeavors.