Arsenal’s injury crisis appears to be clearing *touch wood* with news that Alex Lacazette and Alex Runarsson are clear of Covid-19 and Hector Bellerin and Gabriel are back in training.
It’s unclear at this point whether the quartet will be considered for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash with West Bromwich Albion – we suspect Gabriel might need a couple of weeks to build his fitness – but the others could make the trip.
Arsenal’s medical team have also confirmed that Kieran Tierney and Gabriel Martinelli have recovered from the cramp that forced them off in Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea.
Having missed the weekend’s game because his visa hadn’t arrived, ‘new’ signing Martin Odegaard will also be available for the trip to the Hawthorns.
Ben White is not available on Wednesday – he’s isolating due to Covid – but there’s a hint he could return for Saturday’s trip to Manchester City. He’s being “continually monitored”.
Eddie Nketiah, linked with Crystal Palace, and Thomas Partey are still working their way back from ankle injuries and won’t feature until after the international break.
The club is still using Covid as a reason for Willian’s continued absence. He’s not been seen since the pre-season friendly defeat to Chelsea over three weeks ago and, given the links with Corinthians, we may never see him again.
What they mean to say:
“Look how many injuries we’ve got. 11. ELEVEN. It’s not fair. This is why we’ve been so rubbish. OK so some of these are players who haven’t actually missed a game so were never really injured. Some are players who wouldn’t/ shouldn’t get near the first team. But look. Eleven. That’s why we’ve been so rubbish. Not the tactics, the motivation, the effort, the planning and execution on match day. Injuries. Eleven. Jeez.. Ooop there goes my hammie!”
The relentless negativity is just boring now on the comments.
Yes. We are not in a good place right now. I dont think continuous whinging is going to help.
Relentless boredom.
100%
Interesting that after Brentford #ArtetaOut was upvoted 4-1 here and was the #1 trending topic on Twitter.
After the Chelsea game the entire stadium booed the team off the pitch.
Yet a bunch of ppl with new handles are posting pro-Kroenke pro-Arteta messaging with Arteta’s exact talking points about “fan negativity” being the real problem at Arsenal Football Club.
Quite flattering for Blogs that Kroenke’s PR people chose Arseblog comments for their PR campaign. But longtime readers should take these comments and upvotes with a grain of salt.
Or…some other Arsenal fans want to share another view?
Just a couple of things:
Excuse me, that’s not on.
You’re accusing others of “whinging” and calling their thoughts “boring” and now pleading tolerance of your opinion? You can’t have it both ways fella.
Mikel has been playing boring shite for a long time, and then losing in the season opener to a side that’s never played in the Premier League.
And then he’s pleading sympathy when his own signings (Cedric, Mari, Lokonga, new contracts for Holding, Saka, Xhaka) can’t at least give them a game according to his own feckless “tactics.”
Tell Kroenke to get f*cked and get out. We want our Arsenal back.
Not me my friend, confusing me with someone else (check the username).
I’ll grant that there’s a sliding scale of what’s interesting and insightful, but each to their own IMO.
A-fucking-men
Classic.
Perhaps you’d prefer some bland soundbites about learning from our mistakes and moving on etc etc.
If you want those there’s been plenty coming from the arsenal club and players over the past few years.
Against Chelsea, we were missing our two first-choice centre halves (White and Gabriel); our first-choice midfielder (Partey); our first-choice playmaking forward/midfielder Odegaard); our second and probably third-choice strikers (Lacazette and Nktieh); and ur first-choice striker (Aubameyang) was not fit to start and our best player recently(Saka) was not fit to play 90 minutes. Liverpool would look terrible if you did that to them (as they did); even Bayern would. City would just buy Grealish or Kane or Zidane or something, but everyone else would look pretty much as we did.
It’s really all about perspective, as McCheese says. It’s a crazy amount of injuries and illnesses, as you rightly lay out here, and it’s not just about not having them on the pitch during the games. I know some have complained about a lack of cohesion compared to other clubs, and I agree–but how can that also not be a result of players being picked off, often in the day before the games, unexpectedly? Imagine being both the manager and other players and having a game plan and then having that blown up last minute. It’s really fucking hard for… Read more »
It’s the weekly cycle. We’re back to mid-week optimism again. Rinse and repeat next week, and the week after and the week after…
You know what would be refreshing, Arsenal actually surprising us on the pitch with some different tactics and getting a big result or two. That might be nice instead of the weekly Sunday/Monday excuses to keep the fans optimistic for the next match.
Hey George, I think you’re misreading our old pal L. O’Perspective up there.
Nobody wants the bland soundbites. We’re all miserable and we’re acting it out in different degrees and ways. But some here, like you, have decided to act it out with constant whingeing.
There comes a point, mate. The negativity is so predictable and so relentless that it’s just lost all interest. I guess the internet’s not really the place to look for perspective, though, is it? There’s really a lack of it. A lack of perspective, some would say.
I don’t know if some of it is due to the world around us, but I’m taking these defeats really hard. A piece of me thinks I should distance myself a little from football because it’s just another thing right now that causes a downturn in emotion. But you’re right, there’s no point in ranting and raving. I always try to remember the abstract relationship I have with the club. That on a personal level the wins and defeats of an international sports brand shouldn’t have a profound effect on me. And that football is a passion and passions should… Read more »
Indeed. Sometimes I wish I could be as apathetic to our defeats as some of the staff at the club are. That’s something I truly envy.
Know what you mean – maybe accept caring so much is intrinsic to being human? This club represents our ‘tribe’, football plays to our need to belong and have meaning. Unfortunately we can’t think ourselves out of the emotional connection but what I’ve found helpful is to find ‘substitutes’ that help to give a distraction (Arsenal’s woes have done wonders for the number of books I now read, or the music I discover). I’m in my 5th decade since that sliding doors moment of being taken to Highbury with a friend and his dad and although I have other really… Read more »
Oh and BTW, expanding the watching this season like a World Cup, there are always inspirational stories about other team’s players that everyone gets behind.
Rivalries aside, check out Lukaku’s background and journey if you want to be inspired and pleased for the personal triumph of another human being: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOtBzsZIals
I’m looking forward to seeing him dominate other defences and just enjoy the spoils he’s worked relentlessly to win (and it helps that he’s not a c*ck).
All I want to see is the team playing some good football and showing us that they are interested in changing things and investing in project youth. If we finished 8-12 with a team full of youngsters that were giving 110% on the pitch and creating chances (even if we were conceding a few) and banging in some goals, I would have zero problems, in fact, I’d be optimistic as there would be direction and building. One encouraging sign is our signings are definitely young (despite paying some exorbitant fees for some of them). Now we need to see that… Read more »
Yeah, me too – but you know, when it doesn’t go to plan it’s good not to have the weekend ruined.
Well we just got two back to back matches of lots of young players. One of the things we’re going to have to accept along with that is a potential drop in tactical nous and execution of the gameplan among the lads on the pitch. That’s part of the challenge with young players and those who have only joined the club very recently.
Cake and eat it too, and all that.
The test comes when players come back. Who gets picked then? Gabriel or Mari? Xhaka or Lokonga? Leno or Ramsdale? And what type of football do we play? Football where we allow the opposition to overrun in the same area all game? Football when a newly promoted team give us a right licking? Football where we don’t create enough and score enough goals to even show there is a direction. I guess we’ll find out…tick, tock.
Wow. Such a great post. Thank you brother. I too was bewitched by the club in 1991 at the tender age of 7 when, just like you, a friend from school took me to a game – Arsenal vs Cambridge United in the FA Cup. Walking up into Highbury was it for me. I’ve been fanatical ever since. I remember the birds on the pitch so clearly. I don’t know why. I think that I was so lucky that I walked into a side that was winning things. My earliest football memories were the Cup Winners Cup win, the double… Read more »
Know what you mean, it’s not fickle, you’ve paid your dues.
Just try and cheat the ‘system’ take the wins, ignore the downs – it’s all way outside of our control.
Everyone’s taking pot shots at us because of what we are and who we are. No-one gives a monkey’s about Stoke or Burnley or West Ham or even Chelsea or Man City come to that.
And when it’s really hard watch clips of Henry scoring against Tottenham, Real Madrid, Inter, Liverpool, Utd….
Or Adams scoring that goal against Everton.
And then think about Hale End.
Couldn’t agree more. First stood on the North Bank in 1970. Was there the night we won the Fairs Cup. Loved the 70/71 team as you do your first winning team. Endured the mid 70s, the 80s, before Stroller gave us a team to be proud of. Mostly ups until the last few years ( by the way, what ARE the ‘Wenger Out’ crowd thinking now?). I’m prepared to give Arteta more time, I’d rather see us build a team rather than do a Chelsea or City. Despite all the negativity I see signs of promise – Saka, ESR, Sambi,… Read more »
Alcohol often helps too.
It do.
I reached a point years ago when I gave up my season ticket that Arsenal are no longer the barometer of my moods. I love the colors, the history and times spent with mates in the late 70’s and 80’s but that’s almost all it is to me now. I will always be a gooner, I’ve travelled all over Europe and the UK and loved every minute. The good and the bad, but I now feel completely detached from the club.its super rich players that don’t give a fuck, likewise its owners who just see it as an investment. For… Read more »
A little break is a good thing. I’ve checked out of the comments for several little breaks over the last few years. It helped my perception of it all, I think, without having to walk away from watching matches too much. And in the last 1.5 years we have all had so much other stress to carry that football can take on an outsized and sometimes unhealthy burden of our hopes and become a touch point of our anxieties and frustrations. Leaving behind the narratives of others allows me to watch with fresh eyes; to see what I see. To… Read more »
Yeah right mate, you’ll be back tomorrow 😉
Maybe if the club makes the right decisions and stop lying, making excuses and going on jet-ski vacations the fans wouldn’t be so critical. So far: Willian, Auba, Runnarson, Mari, Cedric turned out terribly. Partey and Gabriel still up in the air if they work out. Thats just last seasons decisions. Who knows about this season, looks worse.
I am afraid the negativity is not going away as long Arteta is around the club. Whichever way you look at it, that is the reality. Many fans were very disappointed with the transfer business.
And before Arteta the negativity was because of Emery. Before that because of Wenger. No, it’s not the manager. Social media (which these comments section tangentially are) and mob mentality of the live crowd magnify the malcontents, and they will never go away but rather find the next thing to abuse to bask in the rapture of their words on a screen or heard in the crowd being reacted to by others. The aforementioned managers, Xhaka, Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Gervinho, Eboue, there were at least half a dozen more abused in amongst those.
*Kroenke’s PR agency has entered the chat*
I guess though it is this bizarre zeitgeist we seem to have been locked in for what seems like forever as a collective. Its just compounded negativity which essentially stems from so much executive incompetence which is only really starting to become apparent now. Previously Wenger was the smoke screen for such a longtime, the ambiguity was always there as to who exactly was responsible for the shortcomings all over the club. Was it Arsene, Gazidis, the owners. nobody could really put their finger on it exactly. And now in the post Wenger era, it is becoming crystal clear that… Read more »
Sounds like you have some perspective.
I agree.
Lack of perspective has more perspective than George 👍
I bet if I was a documentary maker and wanted to film behind the scenes of this Football Club I’d be loving the amount #content that’s happening right now.
Funny how missing all these players (who were fit last season and were absolute garbage) is to blame for Arteta’s lack of management skills..
You’d have to be a total idiot that needs psychological help if you keep believing Arteta’s excuses. 60 league games, 20 league defeats. No other club in the league touches Arteta with a bargepole. Fans of other clubs are begging for him to stay. Total shambles
We have spent £260 million in the last 3 years…….over a quarter of a Billion. Maybe Tierney could challenge for a place in the Invincibles…..could any of our other signings even get close to the squad?…….we have lost the first two matches, but it’s the manner in which we lost them that should really cause concern……..
The invincibles were mostly at the peak of their powers.
Arsenal has invested in youth partly because they cannot compete with the moneybags of this world.
The signing Tierney, Lokonga, White, Ødegaard, Ramsdale and Tavares account for more than half of the £260m spent. Their average age is 22.
How many 22 year olds played a key role in the invincibles?
They have a wide room for development before them.
My only concern is Arteta’s ability to mould this team in a way that aids that further development of these lads.
Won’t argue with any of that…but if they develop and hopefully they do….to recoup the £260 Million are you convinced that we will keep them through their prime or will we become a club that develops youth and sells them on to our competitors…thus constantly requiring a wash repeat cycle….
Out of interest Cole, Clichy, Reyes and Toure were in the 22/23 age bracket. I suppose the difference being we didn’t pay through the nose for any of them…
Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Edu, Keown, Parlour, Vieira, Kanu, Bergkamp, Ljungberg, Kanu, Wiltord, Pires, Henry…
That is what I am talking about.
We paid an awful lot for Reyes in 2004 terms!
Arteta doesn’t develop players, he likes finished articles. Look at Saliba, Nelson, Martinelli who was largely overlooked last year. You could put Pepe there as well who needed development and adaptation to the new country and league, while mikel chose to bring a chelski has been and shatter his confidence. ESR happened by chance while all of us knew what gem he is, Saka developed under Emery.
Your comment is proper case of selective bias.
Good that you backed it up with arguments…
By your methods of deduction we could also easily say Saka happened by chance under Emery. Martinelli spent a fair amount of time in and out of injury last year, frequently at times when he was just starting to click. That and to be honest, when we need to hold up the ball and keep possession he’s not the guy you want in there. We needed that several times last season. He’s a direct player that takes chances. Nelson, well, just hasn’t been able to take his chances yet. He’s been given several, under a few managers now. Not every… Read more »
Saka? Emery is not here so not a topic anymore.
Martinelli deserved more chances, as did Nelson, who was good at the end of the 19-20 season, scored against lpool and then was forgotten. He needs a run in the team and full confidence of a manager. Sadly we don’t have such a manager.
Tierney being backup to Cole is the definition of strength in depth
Ironically, most of the Invincibles when first signed, wouldn’t have got into the Invincibles.
Arguably only Campbell and Bergkamp (and perhaps Lehmann), were ‘fully baked’ when they joined and who remembers the ‘waste of money’ jibe for Dennis’ in his first few weeks.
Wenger’s early years and the 1930s dynasty* were outliers for this club. It’s a stupid standard to measure against – that path only leads to despair. In the absence of FFP being rigidly enforced (which it won’t), the best we can do is build for cyclical success (just like Liverpool) based on nurturing, building and (yes) selling, potential young talent. If we can become the Dortmund/Atletico of England, that’d be great. My two basic concerns are: Hire an “established” coach who gets rid/ignores the young talent. The ‘fans’ don’t have the patience, or allow the time for young players to… Read more »
And now we’re all being told that the Premiership title and Champion’s league football are not to be expected at this club – period.
And people tell me that mediocrity isn’t accepted….
Nope, not what I’m thinking in any case. The petrodollar spending isn’t going away, which means it’s really hard to compete, however a process of team building via young players and taking our chances (i.e. 2008 and 2016 to name just two) means that the Champions League could be an annual thing and being competitive is a given. Liverpool are going to struggle when this front 3 get too old to perform, hence the cyclical approach to successful team building. We’re still playing catch up and probably 3-5 years away from being really ‘up there’, no-one’s advocating mediocrity, its’ just… Read more »
I get the economics part (although we are dropping massive funds ourselves in the last 3-4 years – the thing is are we doing it wisely enough? I’m not sure at all). And I agree that we’re going to probably sell ESR and/or Saka (and probably Tierney too) – we just better make sure we’re getting close to 100M when that time comes. The problem I have with your argument is “when we’re finally getting a workable strategy together.” What is this strategy? I’m yet to see much direction at all on the pitch (plenty of excuse though) and the… Read more »
Fair comment. The strategy I’m referring to is the economic one, without the money invested wisely, into “assets” with resale value, we’re going nowhere, even if we had Klopp or Arsene v1.0 We’ve been pissing money away for years. Regards the ‘how we’re led and how we play strategy’, you’re probably not wrong but we can’t realistically measure how effective we are this year until at least the end of Nov. that’s all. If he can’t get a tune out of this side when we have everyone back, then change is necessary. It seems that some people are losing their… Read more »
Top 6 in net transfer spend. Top 6 in wage bills. Top 6 in commercial revenue. Top 6 in ticket/matchday pricing compared to the rest of the league. Yet we shouldn’t expect a top 6 finish and European football because of our squad supposedly isn’t good enough. We do have some deadweights at this club but I just can’t accept that we’re so bad, we can’t even compete with the likes of West Ham and Leicester City. Good coaching and tactics is what separates us from them and arguably nothing else. Youri Tielemans and Jonny Evans were brought down to… Read more »
Exactly. It’s the way we lose that’s the concern. No tactics, no balls. And that’s all on the manager. Every side has injuries and if we are basing our happiness on everyone being fit, then we are in for a very depressing season.
You forget we were 3rd in the 2021 calender table, and 3rd best defensively in said table
Why not roll out ‘The Second Half Of Last Season’……?
Give it an airing. Go on, treat yourself……
🙄
Is this not good as saying we lost a match 5-2 but we won 2-1 in the second half, although we conceded 4 goals in the first half, there are positives to take.
Maybe my comment was missing some kind of emoji or something.
I’m sick of hearing about those 2nd half of last seasons stats. The performances were still pretty bad.
Your sarcasm was not clear in anyway, but I should have picked it as I know this has been your take on things…[thumbs up emoji]
I can’t wait for our admission into the 2nd half of the champions league based on our second half form from the 2020/21 season. This is such a pathetic narrative. We had basically crushed all but about 10% of our chances at European football via the league by the end of 2020, so the pressure was off. Then each time we got close enough to hope again we would drop points in big games and crush those slim hopes again. This is classic Arsenal – fold like origami when the pressure in on, play like world beaters when it’s off.
How r we fairing now? Doesn’t 2021 involve the last 2 games?
It took Wenger something like 116 games before registering his 20th defeat.
It took Mozart only ’til the age of 5 to compose his first symphony….Arteta out!
Maybe the team should run out to his Clarinet Concerto, 2nd movement.
life is getting quicker
he had a defence that was unmatched which is a great starting point. he also had Wright and Bergkamp. where we lacked then was in midfield. we all knew our deficiencies when Arteta came in, some are still there.
Wenger’s philosophy was to play attacking exciting football.
Arteta’s philosophy is to bore the shit out of everyone with back passing, side passing, hit and hope punts and losing possession and then to blame everyone and everything but himself when it fails.
Oh come now, we all know those one-liners are effectively meaningless.
Wenger had a much stronger squad to start with. Arteta started with a shambles by comparison.
Klopp struggled early on. Solskjaer had shit results to start. A broken squad takes time to reassemble. If anyone said he had everything he needed to succeed from day one they’d rightly be anointed fool for the day.
We’re 2 matches in with half our starters out.
Thats like losing half of what he won 🙆♀️
I really hope we’re not going to see Willian again, there is nothing to see just laugh of his big belly on this tiny, strangely looking guy.
Oh, and supposedly Watford is interested in Elneny. I don’t know why but it seems scouting players through trees etc. isn’t a good idea and gives no true assessment of the player but fuck it. Hope they get him.
His road to work won’t change much, everyone happy.
who the hell is Runarsson and when did we sign him?
The question should be WHY did we sign him 😂😂😂
Because we sacked our scouts and relied on our goalkeeping coach?
We lost the first two games because of the missing Runarsson…
Runar, son of Runar.
I’m actually a bit gutted Laca missed those first two games. In the back end of last season he was linking up well with the young guys. And he was looking sharper (than others) in pre-season. He could’ve made a big difference in the Brentford game.
He could have shown Lukaku what real dominant centre forward play is
Definitely, having Laca, Partey and Gabriel out is losing the entire spine of the team. Laca is so good at helping our young players link up and has been great in preseason. Without him as the keystone we really struggle to link our build up. I love Martinelli but the pass map from Sunday tells you how hard that job can be if you are inexperienced. I think that’s why I’m not so hysteric about losing these first few matches. When those guys are back and get a few games together we will see the true face of the team,… Read more »
How can we explain the poor performances against the likes of Villarreal, Brentford and Aston Villa then? Brentford (A) – Fair enough, COVID and pre-season injuries have put a dent into match-readiness. However the team we faced had less Premier League experience than us. They were also missing starters like Josh Da Silva, Mathias Jensen and Rasmussen. Onyeka and Ajer were also making their competitive debuts for Brentford against us. Villarreal (A/H) – Most of the team’s spine and key players are available. We lose the tie with only a 3 shots on target to Villarreal’s 9 and only a… Read more »
The club is still using Covid as a reason for Willian’s continued absence. He’s not been seen since the pre-season friendly defeat to Chelsea over three weeks ago and, given the links with Corinthians, we may never see him again.
AMEEEEEEENN!!
apparently fat people can suffer covid more acutely than athletes..
This though tactless is genuinely true.
though it is more to do with the general strain on their respiratory systems because of lifestyle choices and cardiovascular issues than their off season tummies.
it was very much tongue in cheek and yep, very tactless
Hopefully he’s under the patio in Brookside…
I read this as transfer availability
Please may we never see willian ever, ever, ever again in an Arsenal shirt.
He sullied its beauty.
Up The Arse
Just be happy no matter what arsenal throw your way.
If Willian plays be happy because you know he just 2years, so some day.
Don’t let your joy be based on Arsenal cos the have the ability of giving what is worst than COVID-19.
Be Happy!!!!!!
With our luck, there’s probably an option to extend somewhere in his contract and the manager exercises it.
Wise words Omash. Equanimity and supporting a football club is a tough marriage. But in many ways can be the best teacher.
You have to consider that recovering from covid does not mean full fitness within days, but many weeks. This issue is being overlooked by PL.
We need Gabriel, Partey and Laca back, after the break to kickstart our 10 game winning run
Listen I’m not trying to get into an argument and back the man, but what if our rivals Aston Villa, West Ham ,Everton and Spurs didn’t have there 2 best CBS , there best cm,there attacking mid, 2 best strikers. Had to play a team of an average age of 23.
What would they do right now?
Pretty sure they would not get abused by Brentford. I mean come on… BRENTFORD!
They’d probably adjust mid game to an overload on the left too we saw against Chelsea instead of granting them free access to that channel for the entire game.
Yawn…
Same Ol’ Arsenal, Always excusing…
I thought arsenal had published a list of players they were willing to let go
They have – it’s on the Arsenal website, link is titled “men’s first team”
Offers above 30m are invited.
Ramsdale, Bellerin, Chambers, Holding, Tavares, Elneny, AMN, Nelson, Odegaard, ?, Aubameyang.
Pepe or Saka on the left for 60 and 30 minutes respectively* Aubameyang for 60 minutes and Lacazette for 30 minutes in attack. Odegaard for 70 minutes and then Azeez for 20 minutes.
*Maybe even start Azeez on the wing if we feel confident enough, boy deserves a chance.
Xhaka will probably play
Pepe as well
Amn trying to sell so risk injury?
We’ll start a strong a lineup as possible. If we were to lose, even playing a weakened lineup, the pressure on Arteta would be enormous – if it isn’t already. I’d expect a similar lineup to the Chelsea game but with Odegaard in the mix & Auba starting if he’s fit enough.
Gabriel back in training is a huge boost. With Saliba out, he’s the only really athletic centre-back that we have, and Lukaku showed us why we need one of those.
Still have faith in the Gabriel/White pairing, can’t wait to see them having a good run of games together.
Ramsdale in the goal, Martin at no. 10 and Laca at striker on Wednesday should also give us some perspective in the potential rotations to come.
Heads up Gooners, the future might still be bright!
Willian has been really unprofessional during international duty or after time off.
Maybe also an update om Arteta? He’s according to reports given 5 more matches to convince that he can improve.
I don’t think he can,Ambroses brilliant tactical column from Chelsea match is a telltale of a manager who are not able to cope with PL in this stage of his careeer.
Think an experienced manager as Conte will straight things up fast.
Let’s go all in for the cup, play a strong line up and try to pick up a little confidence before we visit City on Saturday. Coyg
Massive relief knowing Alex Runarsson is available. I’ll sleep better tonight thats for sure.
It reads more like a “For Sale” list on the whole.
The team were performing well 2nd half of last season. There must be reason behind that we performed so badly in the first 2 matches. Tactically? Players missing? But it is almost the same players we had.
I can understand the Covid and injuries played a part, but still the performance were just too bad to take.
I think the board needs to start to ask questions if we lose to West Brom (hopefully not) and a bad performance. Is Arteta still the right man?
Arteta is learning on the job. It’s a painful process.
Who are we going to bring in? I feel we need a striker but haven’t heard a thing…. without goals we are bang in trouble.