It might be dead quiet at London Colney but around the world, Arsenal players are facing the media while on international duty.
Here are a few bits and bobs that have cropped up in the last few days that you might have missed.
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Kai Havertz on his start to life at Arsenal…
I think so far in my career I had phases here and there where things were a little bumpy — and of course I know that you (media) after four matchdays will just point out the negatives, and a lot of bad stuff will be written. It’s not the first time I’ve come to a new club and so I know that it can take a bit longer and so I am relaxed about it. It’s only my second month there, so that’s why I’m relatively relaxed.
Source: AFP
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Leandro Trossard on Belgium’s competition for places and whether being rotated at Arsenal is an issue…
A lot of young guys have come along who want to show themselves. That’s good too. There are many good players, such as Bakayoko and Doku. But I see that every week at Arsenal – that’s nothing new. I don’t know how the national coach feels about that [his role at Arsenal)]. I am still convinced that I will play enough matches. I will be ready for the European Championship. We have a game every three days [at Arsenal], so it’s impossible to play with the same guys every time. It’s up to me to show myself when I get a chance. The coach told me that too.
Source: Het Laatste Nieuws (via Sport Witness)
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Eddie Nketiah on competing with Gabriel Jesus…
It’s nice to be competing with him (Jesus). We both want to do the same thing and help the team. We push each other in training. It’s healthy and friendly competition. We have a good relationship and we support each other.
Source: England press conference | Hayters
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Bukayo Saka on persuading Declan Rice to move to Arsenal and re-watching his teammate’s goal against United…
Obviously, he’d ask a few questions and I’d answer them, but yeah, I’d just try to give him the reassurance that he’d be coming to the right club and that the future is exciting for us. If he joined us, he’d make us better and that yeah, we can definitely achieve things.
I think I’ve watched his goal back 20 times. It was an unbelievable moment for him and his family. Even the stadium, he said it was crazy when he felt the atmosphere. He’s right though, it’s really special to play there. I’m just happy he’s happy and that he’s performing, and he’s got his first goal as well, I don’t think there’s a better moment for him to get his first goal. So yeah, I’m happy for him.
Source: talkSPORT
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Saka on advice he’s [not] given to Eddie Nketiah…
I don’t think he needs much advice, that’s a man who deserves his moment, 100%. He’s worked so hard for it, I see him every day in training and even when he’s not playing he has the same attitude. I’m so happy he’s here. I don’t need to give him any advice, I just want to make him comfortable so he can be himself, enjoy it and do his stuff.
Source: BBC Sport
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Martin Odegaard on switching off outside football…
I try to do things that don’t have much to do with football. I do other things and don’t think much about football. I feel that I have gotten better in this respect over the years. When I was younger, I felt that I could get very caught up in everything that happens. Battles could affect me for a long time. Now that I’ve gotten a little older, I feel like I’m able to come home, do other things and shut it out. I think it’s important for your performances in general, but also for being in the game for a long time. I think you have to be good at jumping out of the world we live in, closing it and forgetting it. I feel that I have become much better at that. I tried my hand at golf for a while, but I never became a great golfer. I do normal things. Sometimes I watch TV series, hang out with friends, family, everything like that. If the weather is nice, I’m out in the sun. It’s nothing special, no huge hobbies, but I do things that help me relax and unwind.
Source: TV2
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Oleksandr Zinchenko on working with new Ukraine manager Sergei Rebrov (yes, that one)…
I’ll say that the work is intensive, but at the same time interesting. A lot of information needs to be conveyed to the team in such a short time before such important games. I think that the coaching staff does it with 5 stars, as they say. Let’s see what will happen in the game.
Source: Sport UA
Even the comments are dead quiet.
If Bukayo was honest he would admit the only reason he watched the highlights 20 times was to learn how to do Dalot’s infinity slide for his next goal celebration.
Never gets old
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=63FmHmP95dc
I was so hoping someone would make that video.
Wasn’t that Jonny Evans?
Havertz will turn out good with time and patience but I blame Arteta for starting in every game so far. I feel like easing him into the team would be a much better idea. Bring him off the bench, give him 30-35 min to get used to the team chemistry. Maybe start him in the cup games, couple of Champions league games and he should be good.Trossard was one of the top performers in preseason and I believe he deserves to start ahead of Havertz, specially against teams that park the bus.
My guess is Arteta will have looked at our first few games and thought we can probably win them without being 100% so it’s a good time to bed in new players and systems. But for two stupid individual mistakes vs Fulham he’d have been right
Don’t forget Havertz’s miss and pass that started their attack and goal against United. Those two could have cost us, luck we won otherwise Havertz would be under more pressure.
Arteta: “Hey, Mr K, can you please give me £65 million to sign this great German player?” Mr K: “What’s his name?” A:”Kai Havertz.” Mr K: “The Chelsea guy? Isn’t he a bit shit?” A: “Everyone thinks he’s shit – but I can turn him into a great player.” Mr K: “Er, I’m not sure this is a good idea, Mikel.” A: “Trust me, Mr K! I promise you this guy will be the next Dennis Bergkamp.” Mr K: “We’ll, ok. But he better play every game. We need to get the most out of the money, and his obligatory… Read more »
This seems like a perfect place to post my recent Havertz ruminations and research. First off, people around the game who know the game think he’s a unicorn. A silky smooth touch, vision, finishing ability and ball striking, work rate off the ball, and outstanding in the air? There’s literally nobody else like that in world football. Turns out he is a heavily left footed player who played almost exclusively on the right hand side at Leverkusen. If you look at his heat maps from that time, it’s striking. So he might be one of those players that just sees… Read more »
Nice ruminations. I don’t think he’s as badly suited to build up play as you, but I do like the Ramsey comparison – perhaps a more technically astute player, with perhaps slightly poorer natural finishing ability of Ramsey (but that could easily change). My take is that I believe Jesus will unlock a lot for Kai with his natural link up ability and ability to jump to from and between lines so rapidly this will create the spaces that Kai should thrive in. Still, I’d really like Arteta to ease back on forcing Kai into every start and let things… Read more »
The other thing we can do to get him going is to play Gabriel Jesus ahead of him. Gabi seems like a perfect partner for a Raumdeuter because of his tendency to drop deep and rift wide, all of which opens up space in the box for Havertz. We can key him further by playing a ball dominant creative type on the left wing, like Trossard, rather than the much more direct Martinelli. It all feels a little too Goldilocks and maybe it is, but as of now this player needs all the help he can get because mentally he… Read more »
What an odd little fantasy.
Extremely niche fanfic
👏👏👏 the next shakespeare!
Well, I’ve had my tinfoil hat on and been watching some clips of excitable people on YouTube and apparently, it’s all a conspiracy! According to a man in a wool hat in a Flat Earth t-shirt, Arteta was concerned about media pressure on Rice, so he signed Havertz to act as a kind of lightning rod for criticism. Who knew?!
Wrong!!
The real reason why Arteta signed Havertz is because he felt sorry for Chelsea after they squandered a fortune on the donkey that is Mykhailo Mudryk.
Been saying the same thing, even before the season started. There was no need to force him into the starting unit. And he’s so versatile he can be a weapon off the bench and he’s away from the heavy pressure. He can still do that, especially with Vieira earning his place. But we went down this road with Willian, he just kept playing him – there is a feeling that Arteta is trying to prove himself with this too. I hope that’s not the case. He’s not deserving of the start right now (and again fit/bringing him on slow reasons… Read more »
I would advance the example of Martin Odegaard as a player we took from a big club because he didn’t cut it there, then put him in the team and stuck with him there even though the early going wasn’t spectacular. We bet the we could unlock the player he was at Real Sociedad and that’s just what happened. We are betting on something similar with Kai.
Marty was really good early. Not at the level now, but still his loan season he was really well. My fear after that season was we simply were not going to be able to sign him (thankfully we did). There is so much football this season that Kai will play A LOT no matter if he is brought off the bench a bit more early and playing cup games. We HAVE to rotate. That’s something Mikel needs to improve on a bit IMO, rotation and having different looks that the team is used to playing with.
It took a while to find his feet though, particularly in front of goal. I don’t think anyone had the knives out for him like they do for Kai, but it took him a while. Ditto Partey. Ditto Martinelli. Jesus and Zinchenko were the only ones who walked in knowing what to do because Pep. Arteta is not an easy manager to play for and his system is not an easy one to master.
Who is Sergei Rebrov?
Played for west ham and s***
A brilliant midfielder
If he were really brilliant, more people wouldn’t be asking who he was! Also nobody who’s anybody ever plays for that lot.
It was quite a few years ago, so some wouldn’t have heard of him.
Sol Campell ? Gazza … Lineker .
ahh yes crap players …
some of you are so young . 😀
Don’t want to make anybody feel old but he played a very long time ago. I’ve just had a look myself and he left the premier league in 2005 – there are voting-age adults walking into Universities across the country this week who never lived in a world where Sergei Rebrov played in England!
You did make me feel old but you also made me think that next year there will be voting age Arsenal fans walking into universities who never lived in a world where Dennis Bergkamp or Robert Pires played for Arsenal. Imagine that kind of existence…
except sol campbell….
Wrong!
Martin Peters, Bobby Moore
His Wikipedia says he was moderately succesful at Spuddenham.
Declan Rice says Hi!
Serhii Rebrov wasn’t a midfielder, he was a good forward who made a formidable partnership with Andriy Schevchenko in an excellent Dynamo Kyiv side, where amongst other remarkable results they trashed Barcelona in their own Camp Nou on a famous European championship run all the way to the semis, if I’m not mistaken. A side that also had a certain Highbury legend called Oleg Luzhny, by the way. That was back in the days (the late 90s) where you had no superclubs and some teams (such as Valencia, Deportivo La Coruña, Monaco, Porto, Lyon and PSV) were allowed to challenge… Read more »
This is a premature post, as I am sure one for Pepe will come. In the context of just Pepe and another (reported) contract cancelation – fine, especially given his wages. However, on the whole, Arsenal/Edu/whomever need to throw a couple elbows if we are to sell properly. Say ‘no’ if you don’t get what you want. Draw a line and stand behind it. That’s the only way the narrative AND reality will change. I think the club is in a financial position to do it. I get why players need to be moved on, but have to be able… Read more »
The club said no to Wolves £20m offer on AMN and he left on a free. The club said no to Besitkis £2.5m offer for Holding and we got £1.5m. Just saying no didn’t work on the war on drugs and won’t work as a selling philosophy. Our problem is two-fold: We have shit players for sale that clubs in the market for and we don’t market the players well by giving the ones we want to sell game time. And why is that, because we actually want to win the games. Players who have value we have sold well,… Read more »
we did well selling iwobi too. 35 L i think. anyway, if you don’t want to sell players like balogun for example to direct competition in the uk, you’re ability to sell for high $$$ is limited i felt like our selling so far has been reasonable for the atrophied values we’re trying to dump. i’d like cedric and pepe gone, but at this point its more important not to give them squad numbers.
I can’t believe we are at a position where someone is questioning a £4m for Pepe. He might not fit Mikel’s way of playing, but is worth a lot more than that.
We just sold holding for 1mil…!! At this stage, we basically give the players away to get them off the books…it has to stop.
I wonder if the club does this to help the player keep a high salary. Leno for £4m was very surprising but for him, there should be a club ready to pay a proper transfer fee and salary.
Sorry, but he’s not because the teams that might want him cannot afford his wages and the teams that can afford his wages don’t want him. He’s an overpaid sunk asset. Worst deal in arsenal’s history there.
The Pepe deal was so dodgy it precipitated Raul et al being forced out and Arsenal starting again again. Look at us now! Terrible deal in isolation, but amazing when you look at the bigger picture.
To make a half full glass of omelette…£72m well spent!
Cue up the anti-Kai legion: “that’s exactly the problem with him, he’s way too relaxed!! How can he be so relaxed when we’re so angry all the time!”
The “body language” thing is just poison. If a ball is played far beyond your ability to reach it, but you run like crazy only to watch it cross the end line–well, you become a crowd favourite, even if it really means you are exhausted after 70 minutes.
Gimme a player exhausted after 70mins over a player who still looks pretty after 90mins any day. If mesut ozil chased the ball a bit more and made a tackle more than once a season he might have been a multi time Ballon d’Or. It’s really up to Kai havertz what he wants to be. Put in 110% every minute he’s on the pitch and he’s a world class talent that could take us to another level.
Well, I think your comment proves my point. Though five subs have made it less true, football is still a sport where going all-out all the time is almost always bad for your team. It’s not the NFL.
Yes, my comment was absolutely made with the fact that we now have 5 subs. Players can and should go even harder – blowing teams doors off early is very effective. You act like elite players playing hard is impossible to sustain. Odegaard does it EVERY game and basically for 90mins every game. Kai is not putting in the same shifts as Marty…yet. That IMO is pretty clear. I don’t think he’s lazy – not on the level of late Ozil laziness that is for sure. He does work a lot of the time and he moves well off the… Read more »
I watch Odegaard as carefully as I am able on television; he is my favourite player. He has a tremendous work rate, but he does not play at all as you seem to think. He understands, better than 95 percent of players, where to be and, like all great players, gets there in the most economical manner possible. Sometimes that requires a sprint, but often it’s a jog or even a walk. I think you must judge players by the amount of strain on their face, not what is actually happening on the pitch.
Ridiculous comment – but this is your typical condescending MO. Obviously I don’t expect players to run around like headless chooks like you’ve whittled this argument down to. But there is passivity from some players that certain guys (particularly Odegaard; Rice; but also Martinelli; Saka; Tross) absolutely know cannot happen. Kai needs to adjust to that. I think his workrate has been decent, but not exceptional. There have been times where I’ve seen him out of position and switching off. Again not commonplace, but it happens more than those other guys and is part of his adjustment period that he… Read more »
You talk about effort and defending but you then go on and completely ignore that when you decide Vieira and Trossard deserving starts over Havertz. Trossard runs around a lot but show me any defensive play he’s made lately as impactful as both Havertz’s interception and block v. Utd. Vieira was running just as much last season, he just had less impact in his touches. If he was running around exactly as much this season and didn’t have two assists and drawn a penalty you’d still say he’s a lightweight and not good enough just like (I assume) you did… Read more »
Nobody even won a single Ballon d’Or during prime Messi and CR7 days, forget multiple.
Ozil at his absolute peak was still not close to those two. Him chasing the ball more or tackling more would not have closed the gap either.
Did you ever think the different between Mesut and Ronaldo/Messi was workrate/effort/determination? Ozil had the technical gifts to match them – he was an exquist footballer, but lazy and weak when it came to anything physical.
Except Havertz does run a lot, makes a lot of defensive contributions and has been getting criticism for things he has done rather than things he hasn’t. He’s missed a couple of great chances but then he’s been in the position to have those chances. He’s making the right runs from midfield and he’s working hard for the team. He hasn’t been disappearing in games. A goal and/or assist could be transformative for him. Some players take time to get into their stride, some hit the ground running then get too big for their boots, others remain consistently good or… Read more »
True words,sir ! As I recollect, even Gabriel J., Saka,Martin Ø, and Martinelli have also missed a few sitters at times. Kai is probably not a spectacular player, but I see him functioning well as a member of this team. As a former American president once said ‘ cut him some slack’.
I see the exact opposite of this. Kai is a spectacular player. Some of the things he did at Leverkuesen were incredible, but I don’t think he is functioning well as a member of this team…yet. This is an adaption period to a very different role. Right now it feels Arteta is really forcing things to work with Kai rather than giving this a chance to develop more organically. Kai can be a truly elite player for this team, but it will take time, and he needs to work – and work at an elite workrate level.
I know that Havertz runs, and runs very intelligently; like you, I very much appreciate his defensive contributions. But (like Ozil) he often looks like he’s not very concerned and his missed sitters, unlike Saka’s, are met with anger rather than disappointment. (For the record: I love Saka.)
It’s a very basic human trait to view actions not for their own merit or in isolation, but through the lens of what you already believe about the person doing those actions.
Do you remember Willian? Shame he never got the level of support Havertz is getting…
Willian had an entire season of being shite so he had his fair chance. Most of us where done with him by then but he added insult to injury by turning up fat for pre season training. Thank fuck the club paid him to piss off before another inevitably dismal season took hold.
Havertz is four games in. Let’s see at the end of this season before we get carried away with the Willian comparisons, shall we?
The Willian : Havertz comparison is interesting because in some ways it is the same phenomenon. We take a Chelsea player and try to fit him into the team by giving him a new role that he’s never played before. In Willian’s case he was a lifelong pure winger we attempted to convert into a RCM, now known as the Odegaard role. Arteta showed a frustrating persistence with Willian, hoping it will click, and it just never did. We bought him out and Fulham brought him back, played him as a winger, and he was useful again. In Havertz’s case,… Read more »
In some ways its the same, but Willian was over 30 when he joined and Havertz 24. I thought signing Willian was a mistake and I thought Arteta persisted with him too long but it was an opportunistic signing in a period when options and our squad depth were much smaller than now, in many ways he didnt have (much of) a choice after the initial mistake. I think Havertz’s performances so far are viewed through the lens of a) Chelsea b) Willian and c) perceived arrogance of Arteta and this causes people to underate what he has done. This… Read more »
ehhhm, excuse my ignorance, what is a raumdeuter?
Google says:
“Raumdeuter or space interpreter is a role in which the player has two main objectives. First, find the space in the opposition’s defence. Second, exploit the space. The player does not occupy a fixed palace; his position on the pitch is determined by where the space is.”
It could be seen as unfair on Willian that he was played out of position. At the same time it must have been made clear that this was required of him.
For sure he was very aware and I’m definitely not saying we did him wrong at all.
Willian was over the hill, to be fair to him, old dog new tricks etc. The exciting thing about Kai is he’s got his best years ahead of him. I trust Arteta to unlock his potential, which as you say is sky high. Sounds like he’s sensible enough to ride the noise in the meantime.
I agree with this. I believe Havertz will come through this period and do well for us.
I’m sure we all supported Willian when he showed up with two assists in his first game at Fulham.
It was the pure shite after that put us off.
willian double destroyed us— he blocked pepe (after pepe’s one good run the season before)—who knows what would’ve happened if willian wasn’t signed. willian, pepe, cedric—all from the sannelhi/gazidis/mislintat era.
All I can say is” Kai be cool boy….. Don’t play with pressure , just try to work hard 💪, I know when people put their eyes on you it’s difficult for you to play well” but please boy don’t let those comment from fans pool you down. But those comment may increase more energy in you, one day we will all be happy with you
Me on all of them
Please, all of you should come back from the international break injury free and fully fit… #coyg.
Martin Odegaard is so cute!
😃
Arsenal’s former club record signing Nicolas Pepe has joined Turkish side Trabzonspor on a free transfer, ending a disappointing three-year spell at Emirates Stadium.
Trabzonspor are seventh in the Turkish Super Lig and in a video posted on the club’s Twitter account, Pepe said: “I came here to become a champion and achieve success.”
Neither kai not kia suits Arsenal
Just seen the Pepe news. Free transfer. I get that he was on big wages but surely he’s taking a pay cut to play in Turkey. I just don’t get how we end up with nothing for a player who is abundantly talented, with plenty of end product. He just didn’t fit our style of play. Signing him for such an exorbitant fee was always going to be a risk and makes him look a far worse signing. This is a guy who scored two free kicks in one game and linked up well with Aubameyang. He had a couple… Read more »