The two Arsenal factors that are making the headlines this morning

By Tony Attwood

Sometimes the media go their own way each picking up on different points about Arsenal, the club’s transfers and where it is going.  But other times such as today there is a bit more of an agreement – and that is that Dowman is truly a sensation, and we were not all fooled last season, while Arsenal are getting things right in the transfer market.

As I have mentioned so many times before, when one journalist leaps on a theme the others tend to follow, and that can give the (often false) impression that everything in the club is wrong, when in fact all that is happening is , as I say, each journalist is copying the theme of another.

Now that the friendlies have started we can all judge Dowman for ourselves, and it would take a curious view of the reality of the pitch to suggest that Max Dowman isn’t the real thing.  But there is a second point emerging – Arsenal are not being pushed into paying over the top for their transfer targets, which is certainly what some clubs seem to be doing.

Of course Arsenal do have a great advantage – going into the summer as champions is about the best advert a club can have when it comes to recruitment.  “Come and play for us and you could well end up with a champions medal” is an advertising ploy worth its weight in, well, medals.   And works rather better than Tottenham’s approach of “look at all these expensive players we are buying to get us out of coming 17th (as we have done two seasons running.”

What Arsenal are in fact now doing is saying to selling clubs, “we won the league without your man last season – yes we would welcome him and yes we have space in the squad, but we don’t desperately need him.”   Now the selling club tries of course to stay at its set high price, but the word quickly gets around to the players that their club (which may well have ended up mid-table or lower last season) is setting ludicrously high prices on its players, thus destroying their chance of moving on to a club that can win things (eg Arsenal).

And such a conversation happens before we even get near the regular one, “Arsenal will give you games in the opening phase of the Champions League where you can prove you worth.”

So far Arsenal have made the loan of Piero Hincapié a permanent deal and let the aging Trossard move on and bringing in the much young Tzolis. And they have made it clear that the days of ludicrously high prices are over.  Which means that come the last week of the window, there will be a lot of scabbling for deals gong on and Arsenal will still have their cash.  And they will be starting to say, “come and play for a club that brings in players like Max Dowman.  It’s Max this year, imagine who it will be next year.

And Kai Havertz really seems to have found his form too!

Thus so far we have had a training ground 3-0 win over MK Dons, and a 1-4 away win over Girona.  Next up is a game in three days time against Real Betis in Dublin on 5 August.

But there eis also circulating a rather fascinating chart comparing Arteta’s work thus far, and Wenger in his early days.  And fan as I was of Wenger I have to admit it rather does look as if Arteta is matching or even succeeding the master.   Arteta’s win percentage is now over 60% while Wenger’s was 57%.   Arteta has won 177 or his first 300 games, while Wenger won 164 – and indeed if we go back down to just 200 games Arteta still wins (118 to 110).   While Arteta has actually won 40 games in all first team competitions in a season while with Wenger it was 39.

Of course these are just figures and as some say you can prove anything with statistics, but even so, it is rather encouraging.  And of course we still have the possibility of Bruno Guimarães joining the club given that a) Newcastle have just lost their manager and b) the player has not joined the pre-season training camp (although of course he might just have a cold).

The media reports suggest that Bruno Guimarães was not with the Newcastle team to Murcia on Friday