Arsene Wenger has praised the performances of summer signings Rob Holding and Granit Xhaka after today’s 3-1 win over Watford.
The Swiss international showed his impressive range of passing in the first half in particular, while 20 year old Holding had another impressive display alongside Laurent Koscielny at centre-half.
Wenger was particularly impressed at how he’s coped with the opening day of the season when Arsenal let in four against Liverpool.
“An outstanding performance,” he said when asked to rate the youngster.
“I’m happy that you noticed that, because it’s important that a player who comes from Bolton, comes to a club where he concedes four goals in the first game at home, he has to play under huge pressure at Leicester and today he performs the way he does.
“I think it’s not easy and it shows some great potential and I am convinced that he will give a fight to all the centre backs.”
And on Xhaka, who might have had an assist to his name had Gomes not saved Walcott’s shot created by the midfielder’s long pass, he said, “Xhaka has a good touch on the game.
“He is calm, his passing is effective, he has a left foot as well so he can find as well the opposite side sometimes.
“He’s good on the ball and he wants the ball and he’s shown physical strength in his locker and he’s adapted very quickly.”
£2.5m for Holding shows we did Rob Bolton.
Which to be honest doesn’t fill me with much pride but that’s big business I guess
I get what you mean, however, I am proud of the fact that we managed to scout him and secure his signing. Rather than he end up at a rival. The is just not important in the current climate yet overstated when it is Arsenal.
Payback for hagging at our bid of £10m for Cahill, only to sell him for exactly that amount 6 months later. Fucking cunts.
Great to see Holding is holding up well so far
Good to know about his left foot, I was kind of worried.
Yeah. I only have two right feet hehehe….
I am Holding a Xhaka
I’ve penned song a for our new signings. Hope you all like it and we hear it from the lads on the terraces soon.
‘Who can pass the ball? Xhaka can
Who can head it out? Holding can
Who can score the goals? Perez can
Wenger, please sign Emre Can’
Come on, lets pull together for the lads in red and white. Lets be the best team this season and beat our rivals to the big cups.
No
How could a person travel and seeing the destination decide to fall into a well………. oh, that is a movie I saw.
Dude, who is this Can?
Man, that is a great song. I’m in!
Go on “Robster” keep Mus out of the team!!
I hope mustafi takes his place on the bench and waits for the opportunity. Holding could be the surprise of the season.
I love your enthusiasm but he will tire. A nice rotation system might work, but we were best when we had consistency at CB…
Gabriel and Chambers are the odd ones out for sure.
Everton bought John Stones for a round of drinks and some pork scratchings…and sold him for £45m.
Wenger might well have done the same thing with Holding….
Surely the REAL skill in buying a player is spotting the talent before stupid sums of money come into it.
Amazing what a win does for morale.
It would be unbearable to go into the international break with even more negativity.
Can Pogba pass like Xhaka?
Who?
You
xhaka……boom!
We performed a daylight Robbery on Bolton and the sweetest part of it is they smiled while we did it. Arsene surely “the Last Don”
The Peter Cech was widely lauded as being the best bargain of the transfer window last season. At 2.5 million and with performances like that, its beginning to look like the Holding deal might even surpass that!
Petr? Peter? What does it all mean?
“the Peter Cech deal”
The “Petr Čech” deal
nice to see a good performance but look at the number of points the cunt at man u has already. The start to the season has not been good enough I fear, I will always support the team but it’s deja vu.
Wait until they play Liverpool and Leicester and also wait until we play them…Come on!!
How on earth can a defeatist think he’ll find joy and happiness supporting a football club? No team is successful all the time. Most are successful only occasionally, and by that I mean they win some games, lose some others, win no trophies, and rarely get on TV because nobody outside of their home town gives a shit about them. Their constant fear is relegation, and their only realistic hope is that they might get a promotion one day. At Arsenal we are damn lucky to be where we are in the league and to have won two FA Cups… Read more »
Holding’s talent will keep Mustafi and co. honest by providing genuine competition for starting places. Win-win for everyone.
Everybody said chambers was a steal sfter his first few games, not getting my hopes high
He may yet be. Patience, my friend.
P.S. I always thought you were a good goalie.
AW has had a lot of flack over lack of signings but he had good reason to be careful as he was hoping to sign Greissman. Having said that in stead of splashing money left,right and centre like some other managers, he has carefully targeted players that were a must . I hope that the new centre forward is as good as some suggest, because that is were are short until Welbeck returns which is a long way down the line, as I dont think Giroud ,Walcott or Sanchez are centre forwards in the style we require a poacher.
as he was hoping to sign Greissman.
So Arsene told you himself or you heard it on Metro?
Holding already gives me more confidence in our defence than Gabriel ever does.
Gabriel showed similar promise in his first 2-3 games. As much as I’m encouraged by Holding, I hope we can be measured in our praise. At the end of a full season we’ll have more evidence to support our feelings.
we should stick with Holding , he`s class !!
Xhaka reminded me of Alonso. Great distribution of the ball, was really impressed with him today ?
Looking at how mind-blowingly awesome the Xhaka-Cazorla-Ozil midfield is (potential for the best football we’ve seen since the Fabregas/Hleb/Rosicky years?), does anyone else feel that the lack of an out and out ball winner in the Kante/Coquelin mould may not be *such* a worry? Our ability to control possession as well as Xhaka’s tenacity/physical power and Cazorla’s very underrated defensive discipline may be enough to make up for the fact we won’t be as watertight with a Coquelin in there. The midfield we saw today with Ramsey on the right (sorry Rambo) and Alexis in the kind of form he… Read more »
Well, that was your first half summary, I assume. Are you holding back the crazy optimism a little bit following the not-quite-so-great second half? I’m saving this level of enthusiasm for when we’ve played like we did in the first half in both halves of 20 or 30 games. There were quite a few encouraging signs though. We just need to be able to keep the performance and pressure up for a whole game rather than bits of it. Sadly we tend to get complacent if we ever get 3 ahead of the opposition and instead of kicking on we… Read more »
The xhaka-cazorla pivot seems wonderful and reminds me of xabi Alonso and thiago alcantara being paired. But for some games ramsey might be better suited because of his tenacity and workrate.
The thing is we have the best of both worlds with our current depth in midfield we can pick and choose.
There will be matches where the Coq’s extra bite is needed so he’ll still get game time.
Options we have in midfield are staggering now. What we saw today may well be the first choice but still keeping fingers crossed to see Wilshere get a solid run of games/fitness, and Elneny impressed me again today when he came on.
“I am sorry he doesn’t cost £55mil”
Indeed we robbed bolton
Rob Holding seems to have great potential. I think the reason we still bought an experienced CB is because it’s hard for young players to stay consistent for a whole season.
A ridiculous suggestion but given how strong our midfield is, and our need for a CF who can score counter-attacking goals, would it be so impossible for Ramsey to be converted into our third CF? When he is on, he is unplayable, and can play anywhere.
Poor Jack. He seems so down the pecking order. Everyone seems to be above him now. Maybe he can play there when Ozil is taking a break?
Cos seriously I can’t see him fitting into the two CM role
What’s your take?
Suddenly the professor is forgiven.Thank God he has mind of his own.
i truly hope the arrival of Mustafi doesn’t put a brake on the outstanding development of Holding, all those “spend some fucking money” anti arsenal fans!!