Arteta celebrates his 2nd anniversary as our Head Coach. A FA Cup and a semi-final in the UEFA Cup have been his major accomplishment with the team so far in terms of result but together with Edu, they have also worked extensively on the squad and two years later, the starting XI is resoundingly different:
- Arteta’s first evert starting XI: Leno – Maitland-Niles, Luiz, Papastathopoulos, Saka – Xhaka, Torreira – Nelson, Ozil, Aubameyang – Lacazette
- Where are they now:
- Luiz, Sokratis, Ozil – OUT
- Nelson, Torreira – LOANED OUT
- Auba – unavailable for selection
- Leno and AMN – Benched
- Xhaka, Laca – starters
- Where are they now:
- Arteta’s current starting XI: Ramsdale – Tomy, White, Gabs, Tierney – Partey, Xhaka – Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli – Laca
Same system though, different players…Quite some new blood arrived this season with Ramsdale, Tomy and White. Some players have lost status like Auba, AMN and others have gained status like Saka…
Plus some other players have left the club like: Martinez, Mustafi, Guendouzi, Willock, and Ceballos and others are about to do so like Kolasinac and most likely Bellerin so a big revamp was done.
Best recruit so far : Ramsdale? Tomy?
Worse recruit so far: Willian? Partey? Cedric? Mari?
Anyways, the team is now full of younger talented players that are hungry for success and that can play as Arteta wants them to do so. I think Sambi will come in good too and now we have one major gap to fill at CF unless we put our trust in Eddie or Balogun to really make that role theirs…Otherwise, it seems that Vlahovic or Calvert-Lewin or even Toney could be welcome at AFC by Edu/Arteta.
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Our squad age average is 25.01 years old
But our last starting XI in the EPL was at an average age of 24.33 y.o
Ramsdale – 23
Tomy – 23
Gabs, White, Tierney – 24
Xhaka – 29
Thomas – 28
Saka – 20
Ode – 23
Martinelli – 20
Laca – 30
With 8 players under 25 years old and the other three younger than 31…
Now if you ask me, we should pursue young players in two positions:
– CM/DM: Declan Rice, Kalvin Philipps or Aurelien Tchouaemini
– CF/FW: Vlahovic, Calvert-Lewin, Chiesa and eventually Isak, David could be considered too
Rams – Tomy, White, Gabs, Tierney – Partey, RICE – Saka, ESR, Martinelli – VLAHOVIC
That could work just about right
Cedric and mari were really stupid moves, day spent half of there loan spell injured and we still bought them
Typical panic buys…
Don’t agree that Cedric has been a poor signing: he was bought as back and as back up he has done a fine job.
I agree, LB. Cedric’s a good back up, like El Neny and Holding. They understand their worth, and are ready uncomplaining if needed. I like them all – as long as they’re not starters!
I can’t help being excited at the moment. The names on the team sheet are so fresh and positive. The last transfer window was the most delicious since the day they signed Mesut, and in terms of success, I think the best for at least twenty years. One always expects that not all the new toys will be shiny and well-made once we start playing with them. However, this collection are all brilliantly-chosen, and one or two are the biggest upgrade that the squad has had in years – Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, MO, Sambi, Tavares, White (who maybe cost just over the odds but still…).
Moreover, the fact that ESR and Saka are home grown and straight on the team sheet; Martinelli and Gabriel are going to be polished diamonds, and Tierney, when fit, is as good as any left back in the league – how can I avoid being excited?
This is a team to get behind – not that I expect us to win much this year, starting with losing in the Carabao semi-final, but it’ll be fun watching!
Cedric has not been a poor back-up player, this is true.
Not fair to put partey in with Willian ffs
Yes every reason to be excited.
If we win our league game against Norwich, we have 35 pts. 50% of the season and 35pts already. If we match this performance the rest of the season that’s 70pts. Can Arteta push them to do better?
I think there is no better time to get into the champions league than when your team is perfoming consisently. If the pieces fit well together we can expect a good result in almost every league game till season’s end.
We just need to steady ourselves against Liverpool and City and stop all the wheels coming off and losing heavily. I believe getting a result against the two most powerful teams in the Premiership is a measure of how far we can go in the Champions league if we happen to qualify.
Of course practically speaking we can sit comfortalbly in top four as long as we can closely approximate the results of the big two against other teams. We do not necessarly have to beat them. I do hope however that the vision of the coach is to build a capable team that can challenge for trophies.
Fnally I am in agreement with RC78 about the positions that we need to refresh to add another layer of improvement that might just give us some consistency in the league over 38 games. I also believe we should target young players and If we can refresh the midfeld with a Premiership player that would be great, but the new striker should be some big scary new face that would driver the fear of God into opponents (yep… him that big scary guy from Europe)