Reiss’ great record, loanees done great, transfers that won’t happen, international insanity

by Tony Attwood

Let’s open with a nice piece of news: Reiss Nelson has scored six Bundesliga goals this season. No non-German player has ever reached six Bundesliga goals at a younger age.

Actually it wasn’t a bad weekend for our loanees: Matt Macey played for Plymouth as they won 1-0, David Ospina played for Napoli (they won 2-1), Calum Chambers played the whole game for Fulham (although unfortunately they lost).

And in another bit of good news Lacazette has p,ulled out of the France squad, which is good news in that it means he can’t get injured, although I have not been able to see exactly why he pulled out, after being pulled in.

But Football London, that 40 Arsenal stories a day machine code driven web site has told us we must all worry because we are the only team other than Cardiff not to have held a PL lead at half time.

Which made me wonder: why should we be worried about that?   I mean, there are no points for being ahead at half time, so what does it matter?  Being ahead at half time has benefits (you are ahead at half time) but dangers (players can take their foot off the accelerator, while the opposition are beefing up their efforts to score).

It is like saying that I should be worried because it is sunny this morning (which it is) because after the sun comes rain (which it always does – although it might take a day, a week or a month for that to happen).

Elsewhere in the very big news Jermaine Pennant has attacked Igors Stepanovs.  That is a top story in the Daily Express and has made it big on News Now too.  To me it is interesting that this story should be as big as it is, while Untold is getting attacked regularly for running its series on Manchester City, the organisations it is associated with, and the way it tied Uefa up in knots.  Funny ol’ world, newspaper reporting.

Incidentally I do think it odd that Untold is criticised for running the Manchester City corruption story on the grounds that Arsenal is sponsored by a middle eastern airline.  Perhaps they have not read our criticism of the Emirates, which is fair enough (there are over 8000 articles on this site) but even so, the notion that what Arsenal does affects the rights and wrongs of what Manchester City’s owners have done is very odd.

Anyway Football Fancast reckon that all our midfield problems (if you accept we have deep midfield problems) will be over because we are going to sign Abdoulaye Doucoure from Watford – and yes they are just going to let us have him, and the player wants to come to Arsenal.   Oh we are also going for Chilwell from Leicster too.

But the overall feeling is negative, with headlines such as “Arsenal’s lacklustre draw with Wolves shows how great Emery’s task is” from Gunners Town.   The writers of such headlines have forgotten that after one match in the Unbeaten Season the Times said that Arsenal fans were calling it the worst performance from an Arsenal side they have ever seen.  Of course they didn’t know what was going to happen next.

Anyway the transfer nonsense continues as we are apparently fighting with Juventus to sign Juan Mata.  And presumably his lesser known brother Doesn’t.

Meanwhile the question is, who will get injured with international call ups?  Tragically no fewer than 12 of our team are at serious risk – and it is a greater risk than occurs with league football, since the international managers are notorious for playing players with an injury, secure in the knowledge they don’t have to take the consequences.

Meanwhile we have the all-important internationals coming up like Switzerland against Qatar, Australia v Lebanon, Honduras v Panama… and I am sure Lichsteiner will see the error of his ways and play for  Liechtenstein and Xhaka with Switzerland, while some commentator somewhere will notice that Sokratis is asking all the questions.  (Don’t worry about that one if you don’t get it – it is very silly).

Mind you there is a tiny bit of good news as Lacazette has chosen not to accept his international call up – which means he will be getting treatment for a niggling injury.

Anything else?  Well, Foot Lond think we should sign Ever Banga.  Oh yes and the Daily Express tells us that Arsenal are going to sign Bailly in January.  Although they clearly don’t want to get rumbled when it doesn’t happen, as they say they got the story from the Telegraph.

Just one more: Foot Lond tell us that Arsenal are going to sign Lille’s Nicolas Page.   I suspect the chances are the ususal 3 in a 100.

 

 

 

5 Replies to “Reiss’ great record, loanees done great, transfers that won’t happen, international insanity”

  1. Reiss is really doing well at Hoffenheim. If he continues to play that way we will have a complete ready player next season who can set the PL on fire. Letting him find his best form in the Bundesliga is also a great thing as the Bundesliga is a rather clean league with referees who are very strict most of the time so there are not really a lot of big injuries.

  2. chilwell is the one fantasy rumour i wouldn’t mind seeing turned into fact – in my opinion, the lad has made tremendous progress. as for good ol’ nacho, he is not eternal, and if you ask me (nobody does, of course), his prolonged absence has something to do with our difficulties against the likes of palace/wolves …

  3. Agree about Monreal Le Gall. Kolasinac is a different player on the left flank and certainly attacking wise half what Nacho offers. I hope Nacho is back after the break

  4. 1) agreed, that Nacho Monreal being out is affecting us a lot. He has developed a knack for goals too. Kolasinac is still getting up to speed

    2) Reiss Nelson is playing out of his mind. Saw some of the highlights and a bit of his Bundesliga game and he is delivering good chances too. And his teammates seem to love him. contrary to most people, I think we should not recall him and let him develop. Playing 10-15 minutes in the Premier League isn’t going to do much for his development

    3) The one really crazy rumor is Alexis Sanchez. It’s so darn crazy it might just happen. Here’s the contrarian case for it – we have Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil, Mkhitariyan. then we have Iwobi (who is developing into a fine player), Ramsey (who unfortunately seems to have left already), etc. Sanchez would be a really good addition to the attack. his best years have been at Arsenal and he still has 3-4 years left

    4) The wild card for Sanchez to Arsenal is that he is the sort of fighter that Emery LOVES. He’s like Lacazette in that he keeps running and harassing defenders. Plus he has telepathy with Ozil
    So as absurd as this rumor is, it is not inconceivable

    though Arsenal can’t afford his salary so not going to happen

    5) Both Crystal Palace and Wolves games showed that the ‘sleeping in the first half’ will sometimes lead to lost points. It’s curious – when Arsenal turn it on they seem to be able to blow teams away. Not sure why they can’t turn it on more often during the course of a match. Especially in the first half

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