THREE GAMES IN, WHERE ARE WE?
You’ll never, ever convince me that international football three games into a season is a good idea. What are we doing here? Players aren’t fit. I’m not settled into the season. It is absolutely crazy that we’re still doing this sort of thing. But… it is what it is. Can’t wait to see England vs Andorra.
So, on the Arsenal front. The door has slammed shut on a window. Ten out of ten for spending money. For getting ownership to do two windows worth of shopping in one summer. For Arteta and Berta keeping all the crown jewels. For the loans manager for getting all the deadweight out of the squad with no drama.
Sales department? Come on guys. Eighteenth worst in the league? Are you kidding? Meanwhile, Chelsea are raising £300m+ for utter dross while selling players like Ishe Samuels-Smith to Strasbourg for £6.5m, before buying him back within 30 days, then immediately sending him out on loan to Swansea.
NOTHING TO SEE THERE. But Crystal Palace and Drogheda United get booted from European comps they earned the right to be in. THE SYSTEM IS RIGGED.
It is a puzzle to me that Arsenal’s ownership hasn’t taken a cheeky stake in a Dutch or French club. Join the party. Get creative. Arsène Wenger had a good thing going with Beveren way back when. Why haven’t we found a few distressed clubs we could put players who don’t want to leave in? Sorry, forgot you can’t actually do that in Europe. But, you get the point.
So, what have we learned in the opening three games of the season?
Arsenal are still very, very good.
We haven’t conceded in open play yet. Lucky in the United game if we’re honest where we conceded seven shots on target, but against Liverpool and Leeds, we shipped four shots on target. Quite something.
Arsenal have shipped the weak links in our defence, bar Calafiori, who is made of paper. But Hincapié can cover off his work if needed. That means we’ll be robust all season. There are no catastrophe weak links, which means the platform we build our attack off is going to be very good.
Speaking of attack… give. It. Time.
I’m not lecturing you… I’m telling myself to stop being such a baby. We have a new striker in the system that is like nothing we’ve seen before. It will take him time to adapt to our system and it’ll take the players time to work out his game. But it will happen.
Eze isn’t going to bang right away, he’s coming from Palace and a totally different operation. But, you know he’s the new Bergkamp.
We have dropped a total reboot on our forward positions. We have depth, hunger, youth, power, pace… and bang bang we didn’t have last season.
Arsenal fans can keep on going off about how poor we were in attack last season, but all the horseshoe stuff has context… we had Merino up front. The two seasons before, Arsenal were breaking their own Premier League goal scoring records. Eighty-eight and ninety-one goals is where this squad sits in a normal season. Now we’ve added 25 g&a from Eze and 67 from Gyökeres. You really think we’re going to struggle for goals this season because we’ve not sizzled at United and Liverpool away?
Come on… come on… take a walk, really deep the true reality of Arsenal. Is it deep enough? Yes. That’s right. You’re feeling it now.
Intangibles can be tangible…
Yeah, weird line, but I’ve been mostly angry over the past 24 hours about Arteta’s inability to get the maximum output from great performances. Arsenal were not shite against Liverpool, that is objective fact. Don’t argue, just roll the video again. It was always going to be a low margins game against Liverpool, they looked to nullify our strengths, we did the same to them. Our games are the new City vs Liverpool. The game was split by a moment of genius. It happens… but we weren’t shit. By most metrics we were the better team. It didn’t roll for us…
But can we do more to make things roll for us? Maybe.
Firstly, we’ve purchased a lot of potential game changers and we have some kids who can offer us the magic.
Second, once those new players bed in, one would hope that Arteta rolls the dice a little earlier than 70 minutes. A bit more boldness. As Del Boy once said, “he who dares, wins, Rodders.” We need to dare and stop playing underdog football.
The next intangible is injury stuff. Arteta hasn’t really impacted the latest round of issues. Kai’s problem is what happens with wear and tear. It’s like needing an oil change for your knee. Saliba rolled his ankle. Saka has little hamstring issues through the season. But… the key factor here is Liverpool never have those problems. How do we get some of that action? Listen to players when they complain, rotate often, and calm the f*ck down with training.
Luck will always play a factor, but Liverpool have a much sharper approach to how they manage fitness, and if they get luck, it’s luck fueled by smart thinking.
The good news? We have depth this year. The squad is a group of 24 trusted players. Arteta has no excuse to play the same starting 11 three times a week until they break. My gut says he is fully aware of this and he will deliver a more balanced approach this season.
Ok, that’s my piece for today. If you want an early bird podcast, check out The Dugout Session with Jacob. He has south London band The Manor on the podcast… and I gotta say, the listen was outrageously good. Proper, proper podcast.
Podcast## THE DUGOUT | ARSENAL SESSION WITH SOUTH LONDON BAND, THE MANOR (EARLY BIRD)
Pedro
·
2:18 PM
THE DUGOUT | ARSENAL SESSION WITH SOUTH LONDON BAND, THE MANOR (EARLY BIRD)
🎙️ The Dugout with Jacob Hawley
Read full story