After a slumpy and slightly worrying end of the first half of the EPL last year, we started this year with a bang…courtesy of set-pieces to unlock the game through Gabriel and then great counter-attacking efforts expertly concluded by Trossard and Martinelli. 5-0 at home against a sorry Crystal Palace and here are the talking points:

A) We are cementing our reputation as a lethal offensive set-pieces team.

B) Raya does not give me much confidence in terms of shot-stopping and he is losing confidence with his passing too, at least with his feet.

C) Saka seemed in good form and so did Odegaard while Trossard continues to show his intelligence on the pitch.

D) Two goals for our Brazilian CB and a double for our Brazilian Winger… We need goals from everyone.

E) Zinchenko was very comfortable in the game but the opposition was weak.

F) Hoping that Gabs and Rice just have little niggles. We need them!

G) Top 4 will be a tough battle – I don’t see Liverpool nor City losing many points so we are going to be fighting with Villa and Spurs for the remaining two spots and it will not be easy. Without some smart and effective purchases this winter, we will not be able to battle it out with the Scousers nor the Citizens for the title.

Raya, White, Saliba, Rice, Havertz, Jesus – 6

Saka, Zinchenko, Odegaard – 7

Trossard, Martinelli – 8

Gabriel – 9

Other subs: N/A

• Out of the League Cup, out of the FA Cup…
• Still in the hunt for the EPL and still qualified for the CL

But more worryingly, we are struggling to win games for the last 5 weeks and we are also not able to put a shift to “at least, not lose”. We are not even playing poorly but we are not decisive in our own box and especially not in the opposition box. Goals are not coming via our defenders (White, Zinchenko, Sailba, Gabriel), our midfielders (Ode, Jorginho, Havertz) and not even our forwards…

Also, I feel like our back 4 is definitely not as strong as people think it is. Always feels that Zinchenko can be caught, Gabs can be bullied and that White-Saliba can get confused…Raya is not so decisive and Ramsdale is losing confidence and he may want toleave in Jan now that we are out of national Cups…

Everyone is pointing at G. Jesus but Saka and Martinelli not really performing and Trossard not being as decisive as before. Nketiah and ESR are not given much playing time. Havertz is still looking for his scoring boots while Odegaard continues to create good chances but is not scoring himself…

So the point is that we need someone who can put the ball inside the net. Toney will stay with his club for now, Solanke is having a resurgence but no guarantees that he will leave Bornemouth so…who is left? Not many players…I am thinking we should try (a) Jonas Wind (Wolfsburg) or (b) Arnautovic (Inter). I think both players could be swayed into joining us. Jonas has a great goal ratio and is really improving since last season, he will have the energy to also play for us while Arnautovic provides a great anchor point up front “a la Giroud” although he is not young anymore so he is more of an impact player to bring to unlock games during the games themselves but he is tall, strong and can hold the ball well and has a good goal ratio as well and can take good freekicks too.

I would not be against brining in a CB and a DM too. Kiwior has been way below par wherever he has been playing and we cannot only rely on him and then we have a good DM/CM group but with El Neny at the ACN and Partey yet to fully recover, we need another player…For the DM/CM, I think Koopmeiners would be a very good addition but also, and of course, D. Luiz and Paulinha are also to be considered even if Arteta likes Zubimendi a lot. For the CB and since it is a squad position, I would not mind Tarkowski or Branthwaite.

Raya – White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinc – Rice, Havertz – Ode – Saka, WIND, Marti

Rams – Tomy (once back), Kiwior (boo), Tarko, Cedric (boo) – Partey, KOOP – ESR – Jesus, Eddie, Trossard

Anyways, feeling grim about our chances to even remain in top 4 at this point…

Few players that may ask to leave: Ramsdale, ESR, Nelson and maybe even Eddie

After qualifying for the next stage of the CL and still being in the mix for the title despite two undeserved losses to Newcastle and Villa (very similar losses by the way against teams that just set up to defend and scored on their rare opportunity…so annoying!), we are heading into the festive season full of cautious optimism. The next three months are crucial to our season – if we lose our ways in this period, by March, we will be out of all competitions and trophy hunts…

With the January transfer window opening, it seems that looking at a CF and eventually DM/CB/LB options may not be a bad idea…We need to score more as well as avoid silly goals. There is no way we should let Ramsdale leave us – he is key to our squad balance.

Ra(?) – White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinc – Partey, Rice – Saka, Ode, Gabi – Jesus

Ra (?) – Tomy, ?, Kiwior, Cedric (?) – Jorgi, Mo – Tro, ESR, Kai – Eddie (or Toney?)

Still unsure about our back-up CBs, LB…

Anyways, let us hope for a positive next 3 months. Allow me to wish you all already happy holidays and a wonderful 2024! I hope we will rejoice celebrating AFC trophies come May 2024 🙂

Cheers!

A fit Partey is a crucial player in our system as we have seen last year but since joining us, he has been injured…a lot…And now we will do without him during the African Cup of Nations…El Neny will leave too for the ACN and we would be left with Rice, Jorginho, Vieira, ESR and potentially Kiwior and Zinchenko to play as our double pivot…

Rice-Jorginho – works OK but we lose out on Rice’s outstanding contribution as a shield in front of our defense. Also, his passing from a traditional DM position is very good so it is a trade-off to consider.

In any case, Partey is being linked with a move away from the club since last summer with Serie A a probable destination…So who could come in to replace him?

• Y. Fofana from Monaco would be an excellent addition. He can play as a traditionnal 6 but also as a box-to-box. He is young, has a very good passing in him and a decent shot as well.
• K. Philipps from Man City may flourish again under Arteta. His partnership with Rice has been outstanding for England and he is one that is happy to do the dirty work so having him and Rice behind Odegarrd would definitely help us. Is it a risk bringing him in given his horrid time at Man City? Maybe but I d gamble on him…
• K. Thuram is a player to watch. Still a bit tender at times, he has got great potential. He can break lines with his running and passing but he is still inconsistent and need to beef up his defensive contribution. I would not break my bank for him, just yet.
• D. Luiz, what a player. He can do it all in the midfield. I am not sure he ll be willing to join us though given the form of his team but he would be an outstanding addition to our team. Maybe Edu can sell him the Brazilian connection.
• Bowen and McGinn, under rated players with huge work rate. They can help add steel to our midfield although they are yet to reach top class level yet.
• Musiala, the dream. A Bellingham in the making to be honest but he can only play moving forward for now, which would see Odegaard drop to the double pivot, which is OKish.

Ra(finish the word) – White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinchenko – Rice, FOFANA (or D.LUIZ or K.PHILIPPS) – Odegaard – Saka, G. Jesus, Martinlli

Ra(finish the word) – Cedric?, Kiwior, ?, Tomy? – El Neny, Jorginho – ESR – RN, Nketiah, Trossard

I like F. Vieira but I believe that a fit ESR is more valuable to the team…

Also, there is clearly a need to look at enhancing the team at CB and WB.

In Ligue 1, Melvin Bard is looking promising at LWB and J. Clauss is doing well at RWB but in the EPL, a playing like Coufal, Mytchel could be good options while Frimpong.

At CB, Singho, Guehi, Danso, Tarkowski, Dunk, Nunes may be worth exploring…Singho, Guehi, Danso as real comptetion for Saliba-Gabs and the rest just to add depth to our bench. I am yet to see the real value addition and stability that Kiwior brings to the backline.

Also, we must extend Tomy’s contract…He is reliable and also a great squad player.

First of all and most contentious position, arguably:

• Would you stick with Raya, his nerves and give him to settle in our team; Or
• Would you go back to Ramsdale and his antics and yet effective Goalkeeping

Then, what is our best back four:

• Would you keep last season’s formula: White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; or
• Give a chance to: Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko to basically have to FB with playmaking abilities, coming into the middle of the pitch…
• Give a break to Zinchenko to play Tomy at LB: White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomy?

In midfield, what is our best midfield 3:

• Would you play the obvious choice: Ode, Partey, Rice and how do you set-them up (2-1, 1-2?)
• Would you give a chance to Havertz or Vieira in the middle of the park in lieu of Partey?
• Would you play it safe and play Jorginho as the DM and again let Partey out?

Up front, what is our best front 3:

• Saka, Jesus, Martinelli comes straight to mind, but what about:
• Saka, Martinelli, Trossard, or
• Saka, Havertz, Martinelli, or
• Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli,
• I think RN, ESR may be a bit behind in the pecking order but do have your say please…

So here is my best XI for what it is worth:

Ramsdale – White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinchenko – Partey, Rice – Odegaard – Saka, G.Jesus, Martinelli

So just Rice in lieu of Xhaka from last year’s starting XI. I think that:

• Ramsdale deserves to stay in our goals. He has been very good for us and I find it slightly unfair that Raya was just given the N.1 spot just like that…
• White is currently our best RB and that the defence is more solid with Gabriel in it so I keep the usual back four. I also do not like having two FB that would come in the middle of the pitch, one is enough. We need balance…
• Odegaard is our play maker and Rice is already indispensable. I like Partey over Vieira and Havertz in our current set-up. He brings more defensive grit and also he is not bad on the ball so with him and Rice in the team, we have enough grit, engine and they can take turn at DM depending on the game evolution. I would play them as a double pivot too with Odegaard as a real CM/AM.
• Saka and Martinelli are our best wingers and they are decisive on the wings and are also learning more and more on when to come to the middle of the pitch/box. For the CF position, G. Jesus is our best option although Nketiah does work very hard too. Trossard is best as a “super-sub”.

So there you go, this is my take on it. What about you?

At last! We finally beat Man City in the EPL! We waited a long…long…long…long time to do so.

Everything was not perfect, starting from a very dreadful first half by Raya…But we executed a very smart game plan consistently during the game. We did not concede many chances and City was clearly getting frustrated as one could have seen at the end of the game (ie: Kyle Walker at it again with staff…). We also managed, especially after 30 minutes and definitely in the second half, to put City under pressure defensively with some incisive passing and runs…Overall, it was a cagey match and if it were a boxing match, we would have won with points rather than with a TKO…We were the slightly better team yesterday.

The impressive thing is that we did not start

• With Saka and Martinelli, our best wingers…We had Jesus and Trossard on the wings and Trossard was not 100%…
• With Partey, who has been excellent with us in the last 12 months or so…

I really liked our defensive work yesterday and our stability, Jorginho has a very good game and Rice was outstanding again and so were Saliba and Gabriel. With Partey back, I d love to see Ode, Partey, Rice in midfield.

Our subs had a big impact – Martinelli, Havertz, Tomy, Partey immediately got into the game and made their presence felt. Martinelli’s goal is largely the result of wonderful work from our subs. It is just so nice to know that we can count on a squad rather than just 11 players.

And what can we say about the Emirates? What an atmosphere, what about our fans? Amazing place, slowly but surely creating a “Highburyesque” type of hype around it 🙂

And a good win for us…Can you believe we are top of the league but with Spurs? Man City only 2 points behind though and Liverpool 3 points behind…

Ratings:

Raya – 4, a disastrous first half and a better second half. I m keen to see Ramsdale back in goal…
White – 7, another solid defensive display.
Saliba – 8, contained Haaland again – not so easy to do but he has done it.
Gabs – 8.5, why he did not start at the beginning of the season beats me? He is our defensive leader, most of the time.
Zinc – 6, tried hard sometimes too hard and was beaten also defensively once or twice.
Jorgi – 7, early booking but solid game overall – well done!
Rice – 8.5, what an amazing player we have recruited! Solid and industrious display, another one 🙂
Ode – 7, well contained in the first 30 minutes but then grew into the game.
Jesus – 6, tried hard and could have been decisive but overall worked hard despite lacking a final attacking product.
Eddie – 6, same as Jesus.
Trossard – 5, did not seem 100%.

Subs: Martinelli – 8, Tomy – 7, Havertz – 7, Partey – 7.

MOTM: Gabriel, Rice, Martinelli for me in that order

I am hoping that Arteta will

• play our usual back 4 (White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinc)
• establish Ode, Partey, Rice as our mid 3
• be able to count on fully fit Saka, Martinelli and Trossard soon
• reflect on Raya-Ramsdale and the need to maybe bring Ramsdale back between the posts.

Our next 5 fixtures are:

Chelsea – Away
Sevilla – Away
Sheffield – Home
West Ham – Away
Newxastle – Away

We need to get 10 points in the EPL (3 wins, 1 draw) out of 4 games and at least 1 point vs Sevilla.

The EPL will be tight this year. Man City lost two in a row, Spurs are overperforming and so is Brighton. Liverpool has been performing well in the last 6 months and Chelsea is starting to find their rhythm while Newcastle, Villa, West Ham and even Man Utd cannot be totally discarded…

COYG!

After our win at home against PSV, we are now traveling away to Lens in Northern France. If anything, Lens is a city of football with a wonderful stadium (Bollaert) and supportive fans. The atmosphere will be fantastic in the stadium but unfortunately, recently, Lens has had an issue with very rowdy fans as well so if you are going to Lens tonight, keep safe. Lens did amazingly well last year and are coached by Haise – I am sure we will see him in the EPL soon in a team like Brighton, Southampton, Leicester before eventually making it to a bigger team. He is a really good coach and the Lens team will be prepared to face us tactically. They did lose their talsmanic player in Fofana and their break-out star in Openda but they did recruit some interesting players like Wahi, Diouf and Fulgini. So they are not as good as last year yet but they have been able to soften the blow of some key departures. They will play with heart and they will stay disciplined too. Their key playeres are:

• Samba (GK), a good shot stopper, he has improved his aerial ability and distribution
• Danso (CB), the Austrian international was touted to leave this summer but Lens managed to keep him. Reminds me a bit of Saliba.
• Frankowski/Machado (WB), former midfielders with great engines turned into industrious wingback with great delivery and passing ability.
• Sotoca (AM), a clever player that sees the pass, loves one-two (pass-return pass) plays and has a decent shot in him. Very good at playing in between the DM and CB and reads the game well.
• Wahi (CF), an up and coming striker. Strong with already a good game with his back to the goal, he has a fierce shot and can press well. He will be a handful.

Gradit is also mostly reliable at the back and Thomasson can have good games up front. Medina, Samed and Mendy can sometimes be more erratic in their performances. Lens will play in a 3-4-2-1 most likely:

Lens : Samba – Gradit, Danso, Medina – Frankowski, Abdul Samed, Mendy, Machado – Sotoca, Thomasson – Wahi.

I expect Arteta to line up in a 433 tonight and this is a game where we will need physicality in the middle (GK-CB-DM-CF) and pace on the wings (RB, RW, LB, LW). The Lens block is not easy to move around and the game will ultimately be unlocked by a clever pass from the middle of the pitch (Odegaard?). If I were Arteta, I would play the following line up:

Ramsdale – Tomy, Kiwior, Gabriel, Zinchenko – Odegaard, Rice, ESR – Nketiah, Havertz, RN

but I expect Arteta to play the following line-up

Arsenal : Raya – White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko – Odegaard, Rice, Havertz – Saka, Jesus, Trossard (if available).

It will be a hard game but we should manage a win. 1-2, goals from Havertz and Nketiah.

COYG!

A rather convincing win away from home against a Bournemouth side that really alternates between solid performances and abysmal ones, including within a match itself. What an unequal performance by the home team…Shambolic defending followed by good press…Hard to follow and understand. That said, we played a very good game ourselves with special mentions to Ben White, Odegaard and of course Saka.

Saka was not only in the squad, he was also a starter, pour first scorer, our main threat and he played 76 minutes although he did get hurt again…M not sure we should have played him in the second half but it seems Arteta cannot cope without him, especially with Trossard and Martinelli missing…

The game also saw Havert score his first goal for us, courtesy of a penalty and of Odegaard who graciously left Havertz take it.

A good win especially with City losing…Liverpool got robbed by the ref, much to the favour and delight of Spurs…The EPL looks very tight from 8th to 2nd place with a small gap of 5 points…Top 6 looks very tight with 3 points separating 6th place Brighton to 1st place City and one point separating Noth London rivals Arsenal-Tottenham to Manchseter powerhouse City. Good start to the EPL, hoping for a tight race till the end. Wouldn’t mind Spurs losing some steam 😛

Raya – 7, tidy performance

White – 8, a goal to cap off a wonderful performance. Just needs to improve his delivery and he ll be amongst the best RB.

Saliba – 6.5, a good performance

Gabs – 7, solid.

Zinc – 7, a key clog in Arteta’s system.

Odegaard – 8.5, an assist and a goal and a great impact on the game. Quality ball movements.

Rice – 7, a tidy display. No fuss.

Havertz – 6, a goal and hard work but missing some sharpness going forward in terms of runs, passing and shooting. Can do and must do better. Happy he got a goal though. Hope it unlocks his potential.

Saka – 8, a constant threat. Another goal. What a player.

G. Jesus – 6,5. A good display but seems like he is still pondering on the missed chances vs Spurs.

Nketiah – 6.5. Still getting the nod ahead of RN, ESR. A very resilience performance but still missing a goal or assist to have a complete performance.

Subs: 6.

Arteta: 6.

Next up is Lens away in the CL! COYG! Lens has a very good coach but the team has weakened over the summer.

How will Arteta approach this Cup this season? Does it see it as a potential trophy or more of a playground to learn and give minutes to squad players? Based on his pre-match interview, it seems he is leaning towards the second option..I think he needs to find the right balance in any case…

Brentford away is not an easy tie in the EPL and I d say even worse as a cup tie so we are in for a tough game.

Here is my preferred line up:

Ramsdale – Tomy, Kiwior, Gabs, Cedric – El Neny, Jorginho – RN, Havertz, ESR – Eddie

Most likely line up:

Ramsdale – Cedric, Kiwior, Gabs, Tomy – El Neny, Jorginho – RN, Vieira, ESR – Havertz

Predicted score: 3-1 for Brentford

What a disappointing outcome in the NLD! It really feels like two points lost. Spurs played a good game for sure but we were the better team for large part of the game and we gave away two leads and two goals very cheaply, especially the second one…

Anyways, not too much to write about:

Raya – 7

White – 6

Saliba – 6

Gabs – 6

Zinc – 6

Rice – 6

Vieira – 5

Ode – 6

Saka – 8

G. Jesus – 7

Nketiah – 6

Subs: 6, except Jorginho: 4

One thing we have learned for sure is that we cannot cope with injuries to both Martinelli and Trossard and that Arteta is not afraid of making changes (Rice out after 45 mins…)…

COYG…We gotta go and win at at White Hart Lane now.

Man City meanwhile seems unstoppable