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The Arsenal Thread XXVI



The Arsenal Thread XXVI

In honour of Bukayo Saka

STAR BOY







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Reply 1
Welcome Declan

Reply 2
Reply 3
In


Huge signing. This guy is generational and is our most important signing since Bergkamp and Henry, he was that important to our run last season. The guy doesn't seem that quick but he just has a way of gliding/positioning where it never really feels he needs to go top speed.
(edited 1 year ago)


The OP makes it sound like Saka has died..
Original post by Tom.Ford


Huge signing. This guy is generational and is our most important signing since Bergkamp and Henry, he was that important to our run last season. The guy doesn't seem that quick but he just has a way of gliding/positioning where it never really feels he needs to go top speed.


Arsenal fans said the same thing about Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil.. how did those go?
Original post by Zerforax
Arsenal fans said the same thing about Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil.. how did those go?


Saliba is a different gravy to both, a different level of footballer. His peak is much higher than the two you mentioned. He's the type of player that can fit into any team in the world.
Reply 8
Miss the days of Arsenal being able to run through a thread a week.
Reply 9
Original post by Zerforax
The OP makes it sound like Saka has died..

Reply 10
Reddit taken over but it's a pile of **** tbh.

Anyway I called Xhaka being a solid signing for arsenal years back.

Havertz gonna be great for you guys. Chelsea fans coping because they think our U21s can get us to win the title.
Reply 11
Reddit taken over but it's a pile of **** tbh.

Anyway I called Xhaka being a solid signing for arsenal years back.

Havertz gonna be great for you guys. Chelsea fans coping because they think our U21s can get us to win the title.

Reddit is the worst but it's the only option atm. I never bother commenting though

Xhaka had 1 good season in 7 man

Havertz will be average
Reply 12
Original post by AR_95
Reddit is the worst but it's the only option atm. I never bother commenting though

Xhaka had 1 good season in 7 man

Havertz will be average


Two and you guys were using him DM instead of further forward which freed him up.
Reply 13
Two and you guys were using him DM instead of further forward which freed him up.


Yeah I gave you credit for the positioning thing but even then this guy had the full bozo gene in him up until this season and had awful temperement at times
Reply 14
Original post by AR_95
Reddit is the worst but it's the only option atm. I never bother commenting though

Xhaka had 1 good season in 7 man

Havertz will be average


Were going to miss Xhaka more than we think. He had obvious weaknesses, speed mainly, but his positional sense was exceptional and rarely was he caught out. Just consider games when he wasnt playing, which werent many, and see how badly we needed someone to control the midfield.

Rice may or may not be a better player, but he will surely need some time to settle in. He wont learn how to play with Odegaard/Partey overnight so frustration is nearly guarenteed.

However, we have real depth now for the first time in years in most positions and all at a high quality. I would like someone like Vlahovic in tbh, which we could fund by selling Nketiah? Then, assuming Havertz plays midfield were pretty stacked almost everywhere. Trossard looks a better and better signing in that context, someone who is happy to play fairly often.

Should be a good season, although I still expect City to win by 5-10 points. How would we feel about just an FA Cup win? I'd settle for it, 2nd and the CL semis +. Been a while since we had big k/o Euro nights
Original post by Zürich
Were going to miss Xhaka more than we think. He had obvious weaknesses, speed mainly, but his positional sense was exceptional and rarely was he caught out. Just consider games when he wasnt playing, which werent many, and see how badly we needed someone to control the midfield.

Rice may or may not be a better player, but he will surely need some time to settle in. He wont learn how to play with Odegaard/Partey overnight so frustration is nearly guarenteed.

However, we have real depth now for the first time in years in most positions and all at a high quality. I would like someone like Vlahovic in tbh, which we could fund by selling Nketiah? Then, assuming Havertz plays midfield were pretty stacked almost everywhere. Trossard looks a better and better signing in that context, someone who is happy to play fairly often.

Should be a good season, although I still expect City to win by 5-10 points. How would we feel about just an FA Cup win? I'd settle for it, 2nd and the CL semis +. Been a while since we had big k/o Euro nights


Jorginho does what Xhaka does at a higher level. Put him next to two monsters (Rice and Partey) and it would be scary but not for us.



They must have told him not to pass forward at Chelsea, because he is just pulling teams all over the place in that video. He's a perfect rotational option.

Also with regards to Rice, he is a great ball carrier also, something that Xhaka lacked.
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 17
Original post by Zürich
Were going to miss Xhaka more than we think. He had obvious weaknesses, speed mainly, but his positional sense was exceptional and rarely was he caught out. Just consider games when he wasnt playing, which werent many, and see how badly we needed someone to control the midfield.

Rice may or may not be a better player, but he will surely need some time to settle in. He wont learn how to play with Odegaard/Partey overnight so frustration is nearly guarenteed.

However, we have real depth now for the first time in years in most positions and all at a high quality. I would like someone like Vlahovic in tbh, which we could fund by selling Nketiah? Then, assuming Havertz plays midfield were pretty stacked almost everywhere. Trossard looks a better and better signing in that context, someone who is happy to play fairly often.

Should be a good season, although I still expect City to win by 5-10 points. How would we feel about just an FA Cup win? I'd settle for it, 2nd and the CL semis +. Been a while since we had big k/o Euro nights


Everything Xhaka offered though he equally lacked in other areas. We'll miss him if we don't replace him but I think we'll realise what we've been lacking if we sign a suitable replacement. He's not that unique of a player and there are plenty of midfielders that do/did his job. At best he was an engine and a leader, also brought that **** housery and spine that we lacked. At our best periods last season, if you had to pin point which position was the bottle neck from taking us even further, it was most likely Xhaka.

Fondly remember plenty of times where our attack build up would end because of a misplaced Xhaka pass, or times where he just didn't look as technically up to scratch as the rest of the squad. Defensively he's never been that great either. He became a good all rounder in all aspects of his game but didn't excel at any. 6 or 7s out of 10 across the board. Granted he contributed with his goals but I think that's replaceable. The problem is that we're taking a massive gamble if Havertz is coming in to replace him, and I think it's a downgrade if anything.

Keeping Partey is an absolute must. Too much recency bias in fans to want Partey out and think Rice will be a direct upgrade. Partey was easily the best DM in the league alongside Rodri for the first two thirds of the season. Just need to remember how much we were panicking when his injury woes came up in Jan. Partey doesn't lack in technicality or passing either - it's not exceptional but it does the job. Rice may end up being better defensively but we have no idea if he can step up to the plate for our style of play or if he can do the same job in our transitional play.

This is the best depth we've had in years but it still depends on how we carry on with the window. I just don't have a good feeling about us selling Balogun and think it'll come back to bite us if we offload him to Chelsea. I don't usually care about stats but his aren't that bad either. There's definitely a player there we can take a gamble on. Jesus is a good stop gap but can't be our main long term solution, insane work rate but very average output.
ESR should hopefully feature more this season, and it's very wise by the club to not over expose him or risk his injury. Good that the club has taken a different approach to what they did with Wilshere to prevent history repeating it self. ESR coming in and Nelson getting more minutes should give us enough depth. I don't know anything about this Timber kid but I hope he can play CB..


I think City actually regress this season. History suggests it's highly unlikely to continue trajectory after winning 3 leagues in a row, and a treble. They're also potentially losing some big hitters, and KDB's fitness injuries will catch up to him. It'll be a three way race with us, City and Liverpool who may be competitive again
Reply 18
Original post by Tom.Ford
Jorginho does what Xhaka does at a higher level. Put him next to two monsters (Rice and Partey) and it would be scary but not for us.



They must have told him not to pass forward at Chelsea, because he is just pulling teams all over the place in that video. He's a perfect rotational option.

Also with regards to Rice, he is a great ball carrier also, something that Xhaka lacked.


Yeah I wasn't sure how to feel about a Rice, Jorgi and Partey midfield. I reckon we should give a punt at playing Jorginho in that 10 role as rotation for Odegard but I don't actually know how he'd do there.


I think we're just one world class signing away from actually winning the league. Liverpool had Mane and Salah firing for them. City have always had a girth of WC players. We need Martinelli or Saka to really step up this season and hit new levels. Unfortunately they both get neutralised quite often against solid defences
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 19
If Madrid buy Mbappe we have to pounce on Valverde or Tchouameni

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