By Bulldog Drummond
One other snippet of news coming through of late… clubs are starting to react a little to the new loan regulations which are due to start in 2020/21. The thought at the moment is that Premier League clubs will be able to get round these by loaning more and more players to English and Welsh clubs in lower divisions. There is also a hope that players under the age of 23 will not be included.
Certainly if those two regulations are included Manchester City and Chelsea, the great loanees, will not be affected – and will I suspect be driven towards running nursery clubs with whom they have a particularly close arrangement. But if Uefa up their game and stop those loans, and this comes hot on the heels of the inevitable changes from the UK leaving the EU, there really will be some serious re-thinking going on. Or failing that, some serious complaining.
As for the game today, the thing that does strike me completely is that, as many have said, we could well have 11 changes from the Europa League team to the side to face Tottenham.
Now of course that is due to two things: one is that we really do have a terrific range of young players coming through and some good backup players as well. The other is that the Europa League is never going to challenge us in the initial rounds.
This is so different from the Champions League where the chance to blood youngsters is much more limited – and that is a distinct disadvantage of playing in the Champs unless one has a giant squad.
So we see the problem facing Tottenham today – they have upcoming a really tough final group game which involves little opportunity to rest top stars – which means either they keep on playing them and ultimately risk burn out or injury, or they have to play just one or two lesser players and have the top stars on the beach – which is really not so much rest at all.
Of course they want to progress in the Champs League because that is where the money is – and given the dosh they have been throwing at electricians and others of late, they probably need every penny they can get.
The BBC pundits however are very much on Tottenham’s side, with only a few like Jonathan Pearce having the honesty to admit they really know what’s going to happen. And that seems reasonable given that, as we have noted, we have Arsenal 18 games unbeaten – the best of any club in any of the main leagues in Europe. Tottenham have just had six wins in a row.
The other big factor is that we don’t normally lose league matches at home to the Tinies. One defeat in the last 25 as far as I can see.
Tottenham were at home in Europe with an extra day to prepare, but we will play a refreshed team who by and large didn’t even travel for foreign lands.
And Lawrenson writing for the BBC made an interesting point: “Arsenal have not really been convincing whenever I have seen them recently, but that just makes it even more impressive that no-one can beat them – they are 18 games unbeaten and ticking along quite nicely.” That is a point that hasn’t been made in force – we are unbeaten, but not always that especially great. It is a foundation that clubs have often used in the past to great effect.
And we should take from the stats the fact that Tottenham have dropped 37 points from winning positions in Premier League games against Arsenal – the worst record of any club against a single opponent. That’s a record I’d like to see continue.
And again, we score against them. In each of their last 22 home games against Tottenham in all competitions, we have scored – the last time we didn’t was a goalless draw in November 1998.
But, since there have to be negatives – only two of the last nine Arsenal managers (including the caretakers who got a crack of the whip) have won their first league game against the Tinies: Don Howe in 1983 and Arsene Wenger in 1996.
But we can’t end on a negative so how about the fact that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored with his last eight shots on target in the Premier League.
- Another problem at Tottenham’s new ground? No, that can’t be right.
- Arsenal v Tottenham; it isn’t when they think it is. Confusing times all round.
- Arsenal v Tottenham: a truly revolutionary approach from the press
- Totts amazing fouling record. Matchweek 14; all the Games and Officials & the star of the show.
“….clubs are starting to react a little to the new loan regulations which are due to start in 2020/21.”
Chelsea and Man City aleady have, unsurprisingly given it is a big part of both of their ‘business models’.
This is FIFA’s reasons behind it’s possible implimentation:
” Fifa’s proposals have been developed by a task force created by its football stakeholders committee as part of a wider overhaul of the transfer system. In a presentation to clubs in September the task force explained that its aim was to make the loans of players for the purpose of youth development as opposed to commercial exploitation. The latter motive has been an integral part of the Chelsea business plan for a number of years following a model established by the former sporting director Michael Emenalo. The club have recruited the best young players from all over the world and loaned them out before selling them on for huge profits. In the past five years Chelsea have generated £139 million in transfer fees by selling five players recruited as youngsters and sent out on loan — Nemanja Matic, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Ryan Bertrand and Nathan Aké — as well as making significant sums by selling on dozens of other players.”
The key phrase being: “….the task force explained that its aim was to make the loans of players for the purpose of youth development as opposed to commercial exploitation.”
But you only have to read the very sympathetic tone of the article in the Sun on Saturday headlined:
FOR SALE: PROMISING YOUNG CITY STARS FACE BEING OFFLOADED IF FIFA CHANGE THE LOAN RULES
to know were the media are going to go with this one.
We all know that anything that could possibly inhibit Man City’s attempts to rule the World is going to be roundly critisised, and have enormous problems with it’s implimentation, and even if it is implimented, much in the way ‘Fair Play’ was, it will be circumnavigated by their lawyers in a heartbeat.
What Man City and Chelsea want to do they do, end off.
Sorry there will be no live report as we come together with the Arsenal Belgium supporters club and I will not be able to do my usual stuff
And Lawrenson writing for the BBC made an interesting point:
“Arsenal have not really been convincing whenever I have seen them recently, but that just makes it even more impressive that no-one can beat them – they are 18 games unbeaten and ticking along quite nicely.”
How refreshing from Lawrenson. See, they can be reasonable when they want.
That’s exactly how I see it.
I think that despite this long and impressive unbeaten run it is still very hard to nail down exactly how good, or bad, we actually are.
We have looked absolutely stunning going forwards at times resulting in a couple of the best goals we have ever scored.
But these spells of brilliance have been largely few and far between, but the point is when we do have them we score, and often more than once. Unstoppable is the word.
But we also seem to be permanently on the verge of conceding a goal, and often as not we do.
We also have this inexplicable habit of starting poorly. Not just for 20 mins but often for the entire first half.
Very odd.
But the thing is, apart from the first 2 matches, what we seem to of done is find a way to just hang on in there when we are, as Lawrenson says, not convincing. Yes we often let ONE goal in, but that’s it, and given our attacking options the concession of one goal is often as not well within our powers to overcome.
As for the quality of who we have played, well yes there is a point to that, but I think against Chelsea we were unlucky to lose. 4-4 or even a 5-5 would of been a fair reflection of that game. We were rubbish at the back and brilliant going forward. It was an odd game to say the least.
I also think we just shaded the match against Liverpool and actually put in our best defensive performance of the season against arguable the 2nd best (excluding ourselves ?) attack in the Premier League.
All of which makes predicting todays outcome almost impossible, and as such I’ll have to get back to you once I’ve picked these splinters out of my backside.
Hahhahahaha
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Vertan gone.
Come on you Gunner’s
Beware of Dean…..
Come on ARSENAL
Oops….
That’s a dive
A
N
Y
D
A
Y
What was holding thinking about then.Diving in like that
Holding got the ball & Son dived like a bitch & Dean the corrupt gave his team a penalty!!
Whats new?
Mike Dean involved in a extremely controversial penalty decision that goes against Arsenal?! Wow, who woulda thunk it!
This is a genuine question; is putting your hand on someones back a free-kick these days?
what the hell was that??
Two dives got them two goals when we were on top
The spurs showed nothing at all during tne first 30 mn. Nothing!
First goal, free kick given for a dive of Son.
2nd goal, penalty given for an imaginary contact. Thank you Son and Dean!
COYG
Auba auba auba aubaaaaaaa
Wohoooo
Yyyeeeeaaahhhhh
Come on ARSENAL
Yes Auba..Great goal.
Menace you really are special.A gift that keeps on giving.What does the village in India do for an idiot when your bak in the Uk??
nick they look for you! which part of the truth hurts your dumb arsenal?
You couldnt pay me to live there..Takes someone special like you.
I genuinely cannot believe the commentators are still talking about Wengers fucking zip…
Hahhahahaha hahaha hahahahahahah Hahhahahaha
Efff them
Come on ARSENAL
Lacazette!!!
@nick..
You know nothing about India..
Keep believing the BBC propaganda.
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Come on ARSENAL
Your move, Dean…
Hahhahahaha yyyeeeeaaahhhhh
Torriera
Wohoooo
nick fancy a curry after the game?
Arsenal 4 – Mike Dean 2
Go Uni..You have transformed Arsenal..
Arsenal 13 ..Yes i do.Went to Goa a few years back.Never again.
Red…!!!
Is it Dean!!!!
He mistook feni for a body part & got sozzeled!!
Sokratis is quick…
19 unbeaten. Arsenal have their groove back. The transition from AW to Emery has been seemless and successful.
Fantastic performance.
Well done lads. Loving it.
COYG
Ohhhh Unai Emery’s MAGICK/He wears a magic hat/And when he saw the tiny totts/He said I’ll shit on that!/Ohhhh ….
Ha! That stopped them Chickens! Alls quiet at the Coop tonight, except the sound of sobbing.
COYG!
WOO HOO,HOO ! Well done the Arsenal.
And the unbeaten run goes on.Dean or NO dean ! And a fine red card to boot too.
Thanks Walter for attending the match with some great fans of the Arsenal.
Up the Gunners @
If appeared that two of the Spuds players spat at Xahaka following the foul on him.
PIGMOB to take retrospective action ?
Unfortunately our Women’s winning run came to an end at Man C£ty losing two nil. Truth told we were far from our best and our injury ravaged squad looked a pale shadow of the team from a few weeks ago. We do, however still stay top of the league but only by three points.
Two Continental Tyres group games on each of the next two Wednesdays against second division teams after which there is a mid season break which can’t come soon enough for our exhausted players.
Fantastic game by the boys despite Dean. I’m euphoric. Nonetheless it fucks me off so much that th BBC can’t help themselves. Rather than b dedicated to the superiority of AFC they have used it as an opportunity to criticise Wenger. BBC “journalists” have repeatedly proved how untalented they are but their level of vitriolic bias is extraordinary.
Called it on PA and Untold before KO.
Dean pen for Arsenal was nailed on. The punters should’ve raked it in on that call. Easy. Money.
How is it that a referee or the PGMO can be so predictable? I am not a prophet or soothsayer, I just keep my eyes on the Football.
Someone has to take over from Mike someday,
and who better then Mike? Certainly not someone with such an incongruous record that was put right today? Saythatagain? Who could’ve predicted such a thing!
Unfortunately for the pgmo rep today the gulf in class between the football players on the football pitch was too big without resorting to the smelly stuff he’d previously dropped to his own embarrassment in front of all in that Chelsea game etc.
UTA
There can be little doubt now that Emery (with the aid of some newbies) has already transformed the first team squad. I like the way he will bring in subs at halftime if necessary. Arsene Wenger seemed always to wait until the 68th minute.
Although it’s easy for the players to express their joy when the team is doing well, there is something about the present squad that displays real camaraderie………a welcome trait this early in the season! 😉
I never realised it was possible for a football team to win three FA cups in four years without any camaraderie. That’s a flabbergasting revelation!
The 343 is incredible never seen anything like it. Save, you know, during one of those FA cup victories.
Viva la revolution!
Which of the subs was it that stacked the celebration slide when Lacazette scored ? Very funny.
Cant be certain but having already re watched the goals at least a dozen times I think it was Lichtsteiner. I bet he gets a ribbing over that.
As has been said there seems to be a great comaradery, but I’m not subscribing to the notion that there wasn’t any comaradery under the last manager.
I, like a lot of other Arsenal fans I have no doubt, have been watching past victories over our great rivals in the build up to today, and nobody is going to tell me the celebrations were not as vociferous and the camaradery not as strong.
Having said that I don’t doubt the spirit last season was down. We had a tough time away from home, and there was even more vitriol than normal aimed at the team and the manager, so no wonder.
So as much as I’m loving today and enjoying the season and think we are heading in the right direction I find it extremely distasteful when commentators use everything good about our current manager as an excuse to knock the last one.
We were a great club with a great team and a great manager. We still are a great club with a great team and it seems we also still have a great manager, just a different one.
Things are looking good.
Now I’m going to watch it all again if you don’t mind.
A match report is now on line
@Finsbury,
You are missing the point.
The present camaraderie is remarkable due to a new coach, new tactics, new players and so early in the season.
Very encouraging. 😉
And the old camaraderie was due to the old coach, old tactics and 3 Fa Cup wins in 4 years. Very enjoyable.
The present camaraderie is NOT remarkable, it is nothing more or less than I would expect. Go and look on Arsenal.com at all the victories over Spurs, including last year, and the celebrations are very similar.
We are on a roll, unbeaten in 19, playing very well at times, if players aren’t piling in celebrating then something would be very wrong.
As I said, the critisism both the players and manager endured under Wengers latter years would of tested anyones spirit.
I have no doubt at all the players are feeling happier simply because to some dgree at least the eternal barracking has stopped, and it has nothing to do with results, because over the previous 5 or 6 years we’ve had some wonderful results, triumphs and ‘spells’, but the barracking never ceased.
Your entitled to your take on it of course but as I say, I think there’s nothing at all remarkable about it.
good job nitram. the ignorant seldom realize what they have until they lose it. the only club with more consecutive years in the champions league is real mad. how many managers did they need to pull that off? when fergie left man u they collapsed like an airless balloon. any idea why arsenal is on a 19 game streak? bueler? bueler?
Great observations about the consistentency that this team displays and has had over the last few years.
The difference between the way they play is more effort in positioning and ruthless aggression toward goal scoring.
There is no doubt that Emery has a different level of fitness and early tactical change toward the winning result, though not always successful againt the busses of the game. The number of chances that have been converted improves against open teams.
The PGMOL effect was nullified by quality passing before the tackle. It does not change the AA pundits but it embarasses them.
The exclusion of Ozil wasn’t even a topic after such a magnificent performance.