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By Bulldog Drummond
With the ceaseless talk of al the transfers Arsenal are expected to make any day now, one of the things that much of the media miss out on, is who is going to leave. And this is rather important because there still are only 25 places available in the squad.
What’s more, even without the question of who can be in the 25, many of the players touted each day as coming to Arsenal would surely only come if they felt pretty certain of getting regular games.
If we look at last season, the unmoveable players appeared to be…
| Player | Games | Position |
|---|---|---|
| William Saliba | 38 | Defender |
| Declan Rice | 37 | Defender/Midfielder |
| Martin Odegaard | 35 | Midfielder |
| Bukayo Saka | 35 | Defender/Midfielder/Forward |
| Ben White | 35 | Defender |
| Gabriel | 34 | Defender |
| David Raya | 32 | Goalkeeper |
| Kai Havertz | 30 | Midfielder/Forward |
Havertz of course took his time to get going in an Arsenal shirt, but his 13 goals came in the latter part of the season, once he had settled into the team and he now looks unmoveable.
In addition to that we have one player who I would expect to be in the team regularly but who were not due to injury: Jurriën Timber and one who following injury lost his form somewhat: Gabriel Martinelli
Which leaves one place available and we haven’t put in Leadro Trossard yet, nor Tomiyasu, nor any of the younger players who only a year or two ago were being considered as the heart of Arsenal’s future.
Of course a couple have left. As the Mirror tells us “Albert Sambi Lokonga has joined Sevilla on loan with an option to buy, while Nuno Tavares has signed for Lazio on loan with a €9million (£7.6m) obligation to buy. Mika Biereth has been sold to Sturm Graz, while the likes of Mohamed Elneny and Cedric have been released.”
Whatever the solution in terms of players what we really need is a way to turn the draws into wins and defeats into draws… And this thought takes the focus onto just ten Premier League games. And indeed if you want to place bets on the Premier League matches you can check 1xbet site for current odds.
The gap as we know of course was just two points at the top of the league last season (with the goal difference identical with Manchester City) so the first thought must be how could those have been retrieved The most obvious games where we might have done that little bit more were…
| Date | Match | Res | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug 2023 | Arsenal v Fulham | D | 2-2 |
| 04 Nov 2023 | Newcastle United v Arsenal | L | 1-0 |
| 09 Dec 2023 | Aston Villa v Arsenal | L | 1-0 |
| 31 Dec 2023 | Fulham v Arsenal | L | 2-1 |
One more goal in each of those would have given Arsenal five more points – more than enough.
And indeed there were other games in which one more goal would have given Arsenal two more points – the draw with Tottenham at home on 24 September and the draw with Chelsea away on 21 October.
And then we have the notorious dips of which we made so much a year ago. – the periods were suddenly Arsenal just seemed to lose to plot and had a run of games with unexpectedly poorer results.
Two seasons ago those repeated dips were undoubtedly the core reason why Arsenal failed to win the title. Last season was a lot better and there was only one dip. It ran from 9 December to 7 January and, including cup matches, gave Arsenal one win (2-0 in the league against Brighton and Hove), two draws (one in the Champions League and one away to Liverpool in the league) and four defeats (three in the league to Aston Villa, West Ham and Fulham, and one in the FA Cup to Liverpool
Of course, such suppositions are based on the results of last season staying as good as they were before, with Arsenal adding just that little bit more, and Manchester City not doing so – which is a lot of suppositions.
But we might also remember that Manchester City don’t perform at the same level every year. Over the last seven years their goals scored per season has varied between 83 and 106 (a range of 23). The goals conceded however has ranged between 23 and 34 – just 11 difference between best and worst. Their top scorer in the league has got between 17 goals Gündoğan in 2020/21 and 52 (Haaland in 2022/23). And their points total has ranged between 81 and 100.
So maybe our best hope is a little bit more from Arsenal and just a little bit less from Man C. Or maybe at last the resolution to those 115 financial casees against them, a loss of 75 points and relegation to League Two. Something like that.
Tavares is now injured.