By Bulldog Drummond
Unai Emery has said Arsenal will not be able to sign players this month but just take them on loan. So all this talk of Barcelona’s Denis Suárez and Sevilla’s Éver Banega means loan deals not transfers – if the talk has any basis in fact.
And all the other chatter about £50m players being ready to sign is just piffle. And who’d have thought that?
This mention of loans strongly suggests that the issue is not one of the new FFP rules operating in the Premier League as those rules are based on salary increases – and salaries for loan players are normally paid by the borrowing club, so buy or sell, it doesn’t make any odds.
Rather, our lack of buying is, as a number of publications are now saying,s because the manager is not being given funds by the owner. It was a point that Untold made multiple times last year as the “Wenger out” campaign was avidly promoted by the media. One might be able to change the manager, but that alone didn’t mean that new players would be turning up by the shedload.
If the idea was that Mr Wenger was a poor coach then fine, a new manager might be able to turn the squad around. But if the idea was that the squad was no good, then changing the manager would not help – at least not for several years.
Anyway, Héctor Bellerín, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal are all back in full training and Mesut Özil is also fit again.
Konstantinos Mavropanos is particularly thought to have a bright future at the club – and indeed Goal.com has an article on him stressing the value that the club places on the player. He is due to play for the under 23s against Manchester City on Monday.
Meanwhile, looking ahead to tomorrow’s game, West Ham at home are a mid-ranking team…
Home matches only…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Watford | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 16 | 18 | -2 | 16 |
| 11 | Leicester City | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 14 |
| 12 | West Ham United | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 16 | 18 | -2 | 14 |
| 13 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 15 | -3 | 14 |
| 14 | Cardiff City | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 23 | -10 | 13 |
| 15 | Fulham | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 19 | -7 | 12 |
…still with more defeats at home than victories, and a negative goal difference.
Arsenal away were notorious last season, winning just four games all season through. This season while not setting the world alight away from home we actually do have a better away record than West Ham have a home record…
Away matches only
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 28 | 12 | 16 | 30 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 5 | 16 | 26 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 22 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 7 | 12 | 20 |
| 5 | Manchester United | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 17 |
| 6 | Leicester City | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 17 |
| 7 | Arsenal | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 22 | 21 | 1 | 15 |
| 8 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 15 |
Recent results haven’t been exceptionally wonderful, but then we have had so many players out injured. This weekend’s match may mark out a continuance in the improvement in away performances, not least because away from home this year we have scored six more goals than West Ham have scored in their amusingly called “London Stadium” (better known as the Tax Payers’ Stadium).
More anon.
- Matchweek 22 – All the Games and Officials and the predictions
- Late ‘Smash and Grab’ sees our Women reach the semi-final of the Continental Tyres Cup
- West Ham v Arsenal injury news, line up and transfer update
Arsenal have the sufficient number of senior Gunners and the youth ones in place at both the Emirates Stadium and at the Hale end at the club that can make Arsenal to have a successful campaign this season to win 2 titles. Firstly, one in the domestic Cup competition and secondly, in the European Cup competition. And to also make the club to have a successful four place finish in the Premier League this season to qualify to play in the Ucl next season.
Emery, the Gunners head coach is reported to have said in his pre West Ham match conference that Arsenal will not be signing any player on the permanent deal this January window. But he said the club could sign one or two players on a loan deals this winter window to reinforce the Arsenal first team squad. Fine. However, he didn’t give any reason as to why Arsenal will not be revamping their first team squad during the ongoing winter transfer window by doing one or two permanent deals signings for the club. But on our own part as Gooners we could allude that failure to revamp the Arsenal first team squad for the 2nd half of the season revamping exercise with at least 2 top quality new players of a defender and a striker must be as a result of the cash crunch currently prevalent at Arsenal finances possibly due to the repayments of the over $500m bank loan that Stan Kroenke, the Arsenal owner took from the German Deutsche bank to buy Alisher Usmanov’s sake holdings at Arsenal late last year which Kroenke has to now be tapping out money back from his various sporting franchise businesses including of course from that of his Arsenal FC money account to source for money to service the Deutsche bank loan he took. Hmmm. So, let us wait to see what next will happen at Arsenal during the next summer transfer window. But honestly, I am not against the Arsenal business model of self financial sustaining. If at all anything, I am in totally support of the business model. Because that’s how a business should be run in the first place. But the financial playing ground has to be level and not be galloping for all the PL club sides who are doing the same football business that Arsenal are doing.
Now, going in to discuss the likely success of Arsenal over West Ham in the match tomorrow Saturday away in the PL, with the 5 top quality Gunners who have been sidelined with injuries but now have returned to resume full training last Wednesday for the West Ham match. Therefore, Emery should be in a strong position now to name a very strong Gunners starting XI team and a strong bench too to play against West Ham at the London Stadium and be successful at beating the Irons very well collecting the whole 3 points at stake in the match if all things work according to the plan being planned for the Gunners by Arsenal to execute the plan to a greater success in the match to collect the maximum 3 points at stake in the match by the very strong starting XI Gunners team and a strong 7 Gunners on the bench that Emery will name to have play the match against West Ham matters a great deal. For, he has to get his starts and bench for the match correctly to the letter and not make the mistake of not getting it correctly.
And in this regard, I will want Emery to take a serious look at my Arsenal 4-2-3-1 playing formation starts and the 7 Gunners strong bench that I’ve named in my starting XI and on the bench for the match and let him adopt them wholesale for the match without making any changes to them. For, these are the Arsenal correct starts and bench that will mold the West Hammers in the game with their hammers after the Gunners have collected them from their hands at gun point to start molding them immediately both the West Ham and the Arsenal teams stepped on the field of play to start playing the match at the blast of the whistle by the match center referee, Jonathan Moss authorizing the commencement of playing the match.