by Tony Attwood
1: Edu and Arteta are reportedly about to do something that’ll overjoy Arsenal fans. (HITC)
Martinelli is going to sign a new contract.
2: Arsenal ‘eyeing bargain transfer’ to give William Saliba a new partner in crime (Express).
Arsenal are going to sign Eintracht Frankfurt defender Evan Ndicka
3: Stuart Pierce reveals the only reason Arsenal are top of the league. (Metro)
Arsenal signed Jesus. (It’s all good stuff, all this journalism whatnot, ain’t it?)
4: Arsenal Injury Boost (Standard)
Arsenal have been boosted after Gabriel Jesus was passed fit to face Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday following his head injury against Liverpool.
After Kostas Tsimikas gave him the elbow he “underwent lengthy treatment on the pitch” but “eventually got to his feet and carried on before he was replaced late on by Eddie Nketiah.”
“Arsenal have assessed Jesus this week and the in-form striker has not suffered a concussion and is available for the away trip to Bodo/Glimt. It is thought he did not train on Wednesday morning as a precaution.”
5 He can play
Arsenal defender Ben White’s chance of going to the World Cup may have improved last night. (TBR)
6. Arsenal have a player who is faster that Luis Diaz.
It is, of course, Martinelli
7: Mikel Arteta told why Arsenal will ‘struggle’ after World Cup 2022
This piece comes from Brad Friedel who is quoted in Football.London claiming that Arsenal could struggle with the World Cup break, with his former club Tottenham a potential beneficiary in the Premier League title race. Why they will struggle we don’t know and are not told.
He started out by saying that Tottenham “have one of the best strike forces in Europe could be a deciding factor in the title race.”
Now we might pause at this point. “One of the best in Europe” is quite a claim and it is not validated in any way with any set of comparisons. One might say “one of the best in the Premier League” given that they are the third best scorers in the PL, equal in that position with Liverpool, but where is the evidence for “best in Europe”?
He went on “A team like Arsenal could struggle with this [world cup] break, though, which could take this momentum from them….
“The 51-year-old also refused to rule out Liverpool from the title discussion, saying that Jurgen Klopp was the right man to lead the Anfield club going forward…
“I actually don’t worry about Liverpool. I grew up as a Liverpool supporter. Jürgen Klopp and his staff are fantastic.” So that’s ok then. (See also the bonus point at the end).
8. Things spotted at Arsenal training
This is another Football London piece written by their “brand writer”. Nice to know they see Arsenal as a brand. I think that puts their material in context.
Gabriel Jesus missed Arsenal training ahead of the game against Bodo/Glimt on Thursday.
And how big is this story? Well “football.london understands that the reason for his absence was purely due to rest. Thankfully, this means Jesus should return for the match against Leeds United this weekend.” So not a story then.
9. Four Arsenal youngsters called up
Khayon Edwards has been called up, “it is fair to assume the striker is the natural replacement for Gabriel Jesus in the squad.” He plays in the under 21s
Matt Smith and Bradley Ibrahim trained too, as did the Romanian midfielder Cătălin Cîrjan. It’s all in FoLo.
10. “The Good The Bad and the Ugly” from Anfield Index
The Good consisted primarily of Darwin Nunez
The Bad consisted of the injuries to Luis Diaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip.
Of course there is also some “bad” for the referee, which unlike the Untold analyses of referees, relies on personal observation rather than statistics in order to make the complaint. Which makes discussion difficult if someone else has an alternative view.
The Liverpudlian view is,”That Thomas Partey was allowed kick him twice and then drag him to the floor was just one of many moment in the game that left people questioning Michael Oliver’s reputation as the Premier League’s “best referee”.”
Oh dear, Mr Liverpool supporter, if only you knew what we said about Oliver – but you don’t do stats, so I won’t trouble you.
And then a curious one, “Alexander-Arnold’s injury might have come at a good time for the player,” which isn’t very nice.
There’s quite a bit more about the referee, and if you were to believe it you’d take it that this was the most pro-Arsenal referee ever. But again if only some stats were used, such as this referee’s actions elsewhere and the clubs’ record through the season with tackles, fouls and yellows, a variant opinion might be formed.
But ultimately even this non-evidential approach runs out of steam reaching the conclusion that “Liverpool were masters of their own demise. The biggest issue with their poor performance was the lack of effort.”
Moving on there is the view that defending “remains an issue”, and the captain “didn’t do his job.”
Ah well, with supporters like that who needs an opposition? Or indeed a statistician. (Ring a bell anyone?)
Something I’ve come to realise over the years is that it’s pointless to speak to Pool supporters after a loss to Arsenal as they always look at the ref to blame for their actions or lack thereof. I
was told before the game that Arsenal can have Nunes for free as he doesn’t fit their playing style but since the game there has been no message or anything from these ‘friends’ of mine so I just shrug it off as bad sportsmanship. They will hopefully wake up and realise that having a big central striker has not really been Klopp’s idea of a team, hence they will battle to integrate him into their style of play. At least they can now see what they lost by letting Mane go to Bayern while trying to get Salah to play on the right wing and outsmart the opposition. May their discomfort continue till they realise that making daft transfer decisions have consequences so they can learn from their errors. Up the Gunners!!!!