Category Archives: NewsNow

Alexis Sanchez to United? Theo Walcott to Everton?

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If you were going to put money on the destinations for Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott this January, then you would put it on Manchester City and Southampton.

We all know about the ongoing links with Manchester City for Alexis and it was reported that Theo to Southampton was done deal and all we needed was Walcott’s signature.

However, it seems as if the vultures are circling (in a sense).

Manchester United have apparently made contact with Arsenal and are keen to hijack the Sanchez deal, which would be typical Jose Mourinho. And the BBC have just reported that Everton are in negotiations to sign Theo Walcott.

Manchester United certainly have the money to tempt Alexis so it’ll be interesting what happens there and will say a lot about how Sanchez is thinking. If it’s about trophies, playing beautiful football and being re-united with Pep Guardiola then he will go to The Etihad. But if it’s about one big final deal then Manchester United would be the choice – and it could be argued that he would probably get more playing time at Old Trafford.

A lot has been made about his relationship with Guardiola and the time they spent at Barcelona but correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Spanish manager sell him after only one season together?

Anyway, the one thing for sure is that Sanchez won’t be seen in an Arsenal shirt for much longer.

Then we come to Theo. Southampton did seem to make sense as he wouldn’t have to uproot his family from London to the North but the Everton story is gaining traction. But if he did go to Everton I would understand why.

He’d play with Wayne Rooney which is a big pull whatever you think of him and also work with Sam Allardyce, as opposed to Mauricio Pellegrino, which is a no brainer really. Especially when the Argentinian managers future is far from certain. Working with Big Sam and getting more playing time will be in Theo’s thinking if he wants to reignite any slim chance he has to make the England squad for the World Cup.

So there we have it – where do you think Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott will end up this January? Or maybe they’ll both stay?

 

Why Arsenal Must Sell Alexis Sanchez in January

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[ Photo Credit: joshjdss ]

So the big transfer news this January Transfer Window is about Alexis Sanchez, and whether he leaves for Manchester City now or in the summer.

Reports are saying that his move to Manchester City is a done deal and it’s up to Alexis Sanchez whether he leaves now or in the summer – if he leaves now Arsenal are likely to get around £20 million but if he goes in the summer that fee is mostly going to go straight to him as a signing on fee, as Manchester City won’t have to give Arsenal a bean once the summer comes.

Talk of Sanchez moving to Bayern Munich or PSG has cooled, even though in some ways a move to Paris would seem to make more sense. He would be playing alongside Neymar and Mbappe which is surely tempting and because he wouldn’t cost anything in the summer surely PSG would see that as an attractive option since they’ve spent mega money on Neymar already. But I digress.

If I was Arsene Wenger, I would sell him now.

Of course he is a special player – probably the best we have at the club by a long way – but he’s not firing on all cylinders and clearly doesn’t want to be here. Yes he guarantees goals and assists but you get the feeling that his presence is not ideal for the club.

It’s easy to look short term and see what he gives the team (and don’t get me wrong, I love Alexis). He gives 110% every single time he puts on the Arsenal jersey and for me he’s the only world class player at the club. But Arsenal have royally cocked up the contract situation so should cash in while they can.

But there’s another reason why they should sell.

I believe that the team would benefit from his sale on a few different levels. Firstly a team is always bigger than one player and his departure would allow other players to shine. How many times has we seen Alex Lacazette subsituted towards the end of every game just because Arsene is too scared to take of Mesut Özil or Alexis Sanchez. It’s becoming a farce now and a player who has signed a long term contract with the club, who is also extremely talented, should be Arsenal’s main man. With Sanchez at the club that’s just not possible.

And the team will adapt. We’ve had a long line of quality forwards leave the club and we’ve always managed. With Sanchez gone maybe Arsene can find a way to play Olivier Giroud and Alex Lacazette in the same team? A formation tweak could see two motivated and loyal strikers kick on for the rest of the season.

Then there are the rumours that Alexis is a negative influence on the dressing room. Personally, I think that’s a load of b*llocks and every squad in the world has players with different personalities (just ask PSG) and I’m sure there are arguments from time to time but that’s football.

At the moment, Arsenal are stale, boring and predictable – but with Alexis Sanchez’s departure, at least there is some score for change which might be for the better.

How’s this for an Arsenal team?

With Sanchez gone, we could line up like this:

Screen Shot 2018-01-10 at 10.57.26

 

Could Manchester United Be Any More Lucky or Negative??

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What a game, unfortunately though we got a result we didn’t deserve.

3 shots on target and 3 goals, typical of a extremely negative Jose Mourinho side.

At the end of the game, I was proud of Arsenal. Yes, 2 stupid mistakes lead to the first 2 Manchester United goals but mistakes happen and it’s not as if Koscielny and Mustafi misplaced those passed on purpose. After going 2-0 down after 11 minutes, all Arsenal could do is respond and did they.

After the United sucker punches our response was (almost) perfect and we dominated the game, with chance after chance. The only problem was David De Gea was on world class form – some of the saves were sensational and he kept Manchester United in the game – because against any other keeper we would have scored 4 or 5 in the first half alone.

Manchester United have a reputation for being very negative under Mourinho but today he took that to a whole new level. It was as if he thought he was up against Barcelona in their pomp. A squad that cost around £500 million to assemble was reduced to a defensively desperate mess by Arsenal, and for that I am proud of my team.

And any Arsenal supporter who is critical of Arsene Wenger is an absolute joke – could be legislate for the 2 mistakes? No. Was it his fault that a side that cost half a billion to assemble played like a non-league side at The Emirates? No.

Arsenal gave it everything and our recent form has been outstanding.

Arsenal fans need to put things in perspective.

 

Arsenal Dominated Chelsea From Start To Finish

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Before the game I was optimistic as you can be when Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge:


But on this occasion, I am more than happy to eat my words.

In the last decade, we’ve only won once at Stamford Bridge, when Arsenal won 5-3 and Robin van Persie scored a hat trick and John Terry decided that he forgot to move his legs and just gave up. While that was a great game and performance from Arsenal, the background to that match was that Andre Villas Boas was losing control of the Chelsea changing room.

And recently, we’ve been abysmal at Stamford Bridge, hence the above bet and tweet. It seems like every time we visit Stamford Bridge or Anfield, we play far too open and end up losing 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0.

But today, Arsenal played like a team.

Which this season hasn’t happened yet.

For the first time in a while, the formation, team selection and tactics were all spot on. Arsenal had Koscielny, Mustafi and Monreal in the back three, and had Hector Bellerin on the right (where he should be – not on the left!). And finally, finally, we had Sead Kolasinac where he was supposed to be, at left back!

Crazy I know Arsene but playing your full backs in the right positions might work!

Then we had Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey in central midfield, both of whom had excellent games.

But whether Arsene Wenger had intended or not, the front three today were spot on.

With Alexandre Lacazette the spearhead of the Arsenal attack, he was flanked by Danny Welbeck and Alexander Iwobi – and it was a masterstroke.

That front three set the tone for Arsenal’s performance and all three of those players were full of running and ran their hearts out for the cause. They hustled, harried and put the Chelsea defence under constant pressure.

The amount of closing down they did was truly phenomenal and something we haven’t seen this season, mainly because of the way Mesut Özil plays.

Welbeck, Lacazette and Iwobi worked together and if it wasn’t for their example we wouldn’t have been good as we were because they set the tone, lifted the team with their passion and that’s why we should have beaten Chelsea in their own back yard – comfortably.

In terms of chances, Welbeck had a good chance with a header early on, Lacazette forced a good save from Courtois after Ramsey and Bellerin combined well – and overall we caused the home side all kinds of problems.

The performance from back to front was exceptional today and you will not find an Arsenal fan who was not proud of the lads today. They worked their socks off, gave it their all, were well organised and played like a proper team.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the goal we rich deserved and that’s a bit disappointing, but no-one can fault the performance and in a game where we usually get turned over, instead Arsenal have given the fans hope and optimism moving forwards.

#COYG

 

Arsenal’s Transfer Deadline Day Reviewed

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So we come to the end of Transfer Deadline Day and now I’ve had time to calm down, I can go through what has gone on and give my thoughts on the whole day.

Before TDD, Arsenal had signed Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac, two players of real quality. Lacazette made the perfect start to his Arsenal career by scoring 2 minutes into his professional debut, and was unlucky to have a goal disallowed in his second game against Stoke after he lashed a shot into the top corner with his left foot. He started the Liverpool game on the bench and we all know what happened that day, but no fault could be attributed to the French striker.

Kolasinac looks like one hell of a player. He bossed it in the Leicester game and assisted Danny Welbeck for his goal. I missed the Stoke game but by all account he is a solid, determined player who gives it his all and will be a real asset to the club. He, like Lacazette, was strangely left on the bench for the Liverpool game.

So onto today. Transfer Deadline Day was always going to important to Arsenal (and the supporters) after the debacle at Anfield on Sunday. All the goodwill Arsene Wenger managed to retrieve after the FA Cup win, and the whole “catalyst for change” rhetoric over the summer gave Arsenal fans some hope. The atmosphere was toxic at times last season, with a lot of fans calling for Wenger Out. But winning a trophy helps and the signs over the close season looked promising – we signed players early, there were new people brought into the coaching team (although I haven’t actually seen Lehmann on the bench yet?) and we were told that we had around £150 million to spend.

£52.8 of that went on Lacazette, and Kolasinac was free. Added to that, we’ve sold several players such as Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gabriel, Gibbs and Szczesny meant we were actually in a £30 million profit.

We also left Lucas Perez go out on loan, as well as Joel Campbell and Carl Jenkinson. We rejected a £20 million bid for Calum Chambers and then we have the saga with Thomas Lemar and Alexis Sanchez.

What is going on at Arsenal?

Our defensive issues have been highlighted in recent times and we have conceded 8 goals in 3 games, the second worst defensive record in the entire league. Yet, we let Gabriel leave (who is a very good central defender), and Mustafi almost left and is apparently out of favour with Arsene Wenger. With defensive issues surely getting rid of centerbacks is counter productive?

With Gabriel’s departure and Mustafi and Mertesacker out of favour, our only real options in central defence are Rob Holding, Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal – which is not a central defensive partnership that will be anywhere near competing for the Premier League title. Rob Holding is young, Koscielny is injury prone and Monreal is not a central defender but a full back. Calum Chambers is another player out in the cold so what the hell is going on?

So our defensive issues weren’t addressed on Transfer Deadline Day, and if anything Arsene Wenger wanted to sabotage himself and move on defenders!

Arsene Wenger has no idea as our midfield clearly needs strengthening but we sell Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (who was played as a wing back anyway) and don’t bring in another midfielder.

Then the whole Alexis Sanchez affair.

Look, I like him as a player but it’s clearly not working out. For months and months now he’s been unhappy, chastising his team mates almost on a weekly basis and showing his disappointment and distain for the club on the pitch. He’s a winner surrounded by losers and Arsene Wenger is delusional if he thinks Alexis is going to perform anywhere near his peak this season. Manchester City offered £60 million and anyone with an ounce of common sense would have bitten their arm off. Why turn that down just to let him leave for free in the summer?

I ask you this – has any other “big” club (or even small one for that matter) let a star player leave for nothing before?! Imagine Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe, Neymar, Cavani, Lukaku, Pogba or Suarez leaving for free? Are you insane?! The mind boggles it really does!

£60 million for a player who wants to leave and only has 12 months left on his contract? It sums up Arsenal that they couldn’t even get that right and completely cock it up.

And the Thomas Lemar situation is just as sad as it is pathetic. We could have got him weeks ago for about £70 million but our crack team of shit negotiators decide to wait until the last day and offer £92 million. Unfortunately Lemar turned us down and preferred Liverpool, but you wonder if we were really in for him after leaving it so so late.

The more likely explanation is that we went in late knowing fully well that it wouldn’t happen, and the £92 million was a complete red herring. I mean come on, think about it – Arsenal signing a winger for £92 million? Do you know how absurd that actually sounds!

Exactly.

Overall, a terrible Transfer Deadline Day and no encouragement whatsoever that this season is going to get better. No doubt that we’ll get a couple of wins on the bounce and pretend everything is okay, and then lose another game because of our midfield and defensive weaknesses and we will go through all this shit again.