CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GAMES THROW UP A MIXED BAG
I absolutely cannot believe I titled a post yesterday and called the subs impactors when really, I should have been giving them the new name I did NOT know about.
They’refinishers these days…
‘Yes, I did, and I love it because I don't like other words to describe the players. I think if the game is developing, they are going to be more important in many minutes, so the quality of those minutes is going to dictate the quality of our season for sure.’
This is genuinely like the time I moved to New York and had to learn pronouns and what you could NOT call a packet of cigarettes in public. I can’t keep up. Also, surely he wasn’t telling Gabi Martinelli in the dressing room he was no longer an impactor… he was a finisher? Imagine hearing that if you’ve not been finishing. Some absolutely sick reverse psychology going on there but I do like it a lot.
Arsenal have a BEASTLY bench this season and there’s not dounbt a bench needs to be a key weapon as we look to wreak total destruction on the Premier League this season. Thierry is saying the same thing.
“Right now, I will say that nobody has a team as deep as Arsenal.”
“Some teams can match the starting XI, but Arsenal almost have two teams.”
You have to take Thierry with a pinch of salt at the moment, he wants everyone to know he could be winning with Arsenal right now as manager and he wants to always remind people he was the best there ever was for Arsenal. He’s right on one front. I can agree with him on Gyokeres’ touch, because that is my own agenda, and I think at some point we’ll all accept the shortcomings on those sorts of things. But on Arsenal’s depth being the greatest? Come on Thierry… Chelsea have three starting 11s, Liverpool just spent £400m this summer, and Man City has spent £420m since January on their squad.
You can say you think Arsenal has the best squad… but pretending Arsenal are the first team to experiment with depth is crazy talk. It’s like telling an American your name is Peter at a restaurant and pronouncing the ‘T’. A recipe for carnage. It’s said with a D if you to dine in a fine way. I digress…
Man City fans are crying about their Thursday game at home against Napoli this evening. This has all the ‘on paper’ hallmarks of being a tough game for them, but you know they’re going to wallop the Italians 6-0, and make all their subs on 45. KDB and McTominay probably don’t have any surprises up their sleeves. But, who cares, they’re playing them on a Thursday and giving them the same disadvantage we had against them last year… cry me a river.
They’re also playing Arsenal in London, so an away trip with less rest will come with some mild fatigue issues this early in the season.
But I don’t think we need to rely on fatigue at this point of the season and my hope is trouncing Man United is a faux builder of confidence at this stage of the season. But more on City later in the week.
Liverpool won another game with outrageous luck. Everything rolled for them against Atletico. They scored a disgusting goal inside 6 minutes when the ball ricocheted in off Andy Robertson. They dropped a two-goal lead again… then they were gifted another last-minute winner courtesy of a 34-year-old centre back who never gets injured.
Getting all your last-minute winners at the start of the season, in successive games, might seem like winnertivity, but it’s not sustainable… nor is the luck. They have problems over there. They’re either going to fix those issues so when the luck runs out, they’re ok. Or, they’re going to get some disgusting luck head their way and the wheels are going to come off and they will have to win games like mere mortals.
Scoring last-minute winners every game is not the sign of a team doing things the right way. Liverpool don’t look free flowing, the defence can be got at, and I think there’s a correction on the way… have been saying that since last September of course.
Let’s talk about Chelsea… they played away at Bayern Munich and looked quite good for 20 minutes then they were taught a very real lesson and walloped 3-1. All that money spent, very little to get excited about. The result is less interesting to me than the effect 3 games a week at the highest level is going to have on their squad, which boasts quite a few injury-prone players. I’m not sure they’ve really added additional quality to their squad this season. They brought in players that have come from lower-quality leagues, they’ve shipped out experience, and it all looks a little transitional again.
Newcastle play Barcelona tonight, a massive game, for another club that really, really struggled with the Champions League two seasons ago. They hardly won a game, and the whole excursion rocked their season. Eddie Howe did really well getting a very expensive squad back to the big time, but I have my doubts their summer is going to sustain another big season.
Things also looking rough for Unai Emery… no goals this season? Wow. Just wow.
Ok, that’s all I have for you today. Check out the latest Dugout with Jacob Hawley. This episode was with special guest Kevin Lee Kharas of Real Lies, and it’s another brilliant piece of thoughtful Arsenal chat. I loved this episode, think you will too, so many deep topics and great stories. Early bird for members!
Reiss Nelson scoring a penalty in the League Cup? Glad to see it…
Jason Ayto landing the Sporting Director role at Brighton? Things we love to see! That’s a very exciting role for a club that has high ambition and spends a lot of cash. It’ll be really interesting to see what he does with a team that has already hit a pretty high level.
Ok, final push… The Dugout podcast series with Jacob Hawley moves into episode three with the supremely interesting and talented Kevin Lee Kharas of the band Real Lies. This is one of my favorite episodes so far, the conversation is layered, nostalgic, and thought-provoking. You’ll love it.
Podcast## THE DUGOUT | KEVIN LEE KHARAS OF REAL LIES (EARLY BIRD)
Pedro
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12:54 PM
THE DUGOUT | KEVIN LEE KHARAS OF REAL LIES (EARLY BIRD)
Jacob is joined by Kevin Lee Kharas (@kevkharas), lead singer of Real Lies and devoted Arsenal fan, for a wide-ranging conversation that blends music, football, and the madness of modern fandom.
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