Agreed Auba is a great striker and without his goals in recent years, we may well have been in relegation battles. Tammy is the type of striker we need to play alongside Auba, think the duo would have worked well together.

Don't think we play as many high balls into the box as you suggest. Pepe is a one trick pony, cuts inside onto his best foot and tries to curl it into the top corner. Fella in Row Z seat 16 has caught many of these shots.

Not sure who is available but starting to think Allardyce is a realistic possibility until the summer at least

Arse still bottom
Comeon
NORWICH

Tony Adams just landed City airport.

Arsenal v Norwich next - 20th v 19th

Lurka you talk a lot of sense about Arsenal - you should be manager speaking about their poor business - it still makes me laugh about how Chelsea offloaded Willian on to them

Re Willian. He was a free-agent but Chelsea had apparently offered him a 2 year deal and he knew that he wouldn't be first choice under Lampard esp with Werner and Havertz joining. Arteta offered him a 3 year deal and told him he'd be first choice, which he was. There was no fee which is why his wages were so high (200K+ pw), so all Chelsea saved was wasted wages really.

In fairness to Willian, he has apparently left to go to Corinthians and foregone a larger pay off and saved Arsenal £15-20m according to reports. That's decent of him, a guy who just wants to play football and not steal a living when he hasn't justified his cost.

Ozil tweeted out 'Trust the process' with a broken heart shortly after the final whistle yesterday. That seems to be a dig at Arteta and indicates that Arteta is the reason he didn't play at all after the resumption and not because of pressure from China as a lot of people seemed to think.

When you think of how Arsenal struggled up until Christmas last season, had 14 points from 14 games scoring 12 goals (8 points and 7 goals in the last 12 of those 14 games) and creating very few chances it just shows how much of a dictator Arteta can be, if he is the reason. I wanted Ozil gone but the team was crying out for him then. Emery dropped him too but the team never had a problem scoring under Emery.

I agree with you 1st tp.  And the present goalkeeper is poor too.

I have sympathy for Arsenal fans.  It can't be fun watching such consistently poor performances/results with the result that your once "invincible" team is now only just better than average.  I don't suppose Arteta is feeling any better to be fair.  He must be absolutely distraught that so much is going wrong.  For me he is in a job for which he is not equipped and I would very much like to see him not physically accosted in public, or his family, by misguided fans.  Fans are very emotional - it's the nature of following a football club - but they really need to be directing their verbal venom at the board who, like boards everywhere, hide away from trouble.

I don't disagree but does he have any other defensive options?

The guy is a bluffer, he hasn't a clue, the atmosphere in the Emirates is like a morgue.

Very poor in terms of chances created from open play and chances given away. He got a set piece coach in from City in the summer and until recently something like half their goals came from set-pieces. He and Ramsdale are covering for his deficiencies big-time. They are better at beating the inferior sides so far this season as a result but nowhere nearer the top teams in head to head matches.

Ben White is a good player if you are a passing stats nerd but he is an awful defender and a liability at the back, esp against the top sides. For all the praise from Sky for Ramsdale at Anfield last week, nearly all his saves were straight at him and he was poor for the first two goals. A good signing and a big improvement on Leno tho.

Has he gone yet?

Heard there was a demonstration at the stadium planned for this week…..

What I like about you mes is that you’re prepared to put your head above the parapet, unlike most. And you’re able to poke fun at yourself.

Don’t think Arsenal will win the league, they’ll be happy with top 4 in their rebuilding process, but Haarland will be top scorer.

Epic thread.

but.....

They are improving. They have a little more steel. They have confidence and pace. Will they get lumps kicked out of them in the frozen North? The North remembers!

Will they still lose the ball on the edge of the opposition box and be countered?

Nobody is fully convinced. They are getting better and stronger physically and mentally.

I am still thinking a Douglas Ruiz might give them a real counter attacking flair when they have to dig deep and sit. He is a good tackler but has an amazing long pass for youngsters running on.

Their future burns brighter than any of “ The Rest “.

But we haven't played anyone yet, they said, then we go and beat two of the top 6 back to back.

For all the credit Arteta gets for getting rid of Auba (at a cost of £7m and 3 times that in wasted wages) you have to remember that it was he who wanted him to stay on £350k a week and play him in a position which didn't suit him and which he was almost instantly visibly unhappy with.

He didn't 'get rid' of Laca either. Laca left on a free and was first choice in his final year when he was absolutely woeful. I suppose you can give him 'credit' for not offering him a new deal but then you have to criticise him for doing exactly that with Auba. He is the only Arsenal manager who Auba didn't score at an elite level under. Play him as a box 9 between the posts running towards goal or let him leave. Don't double his wages to play him on the left or false 9.