It may not seem like it right now but the dominance of Liverpool and Man City will end, it always does and when that happens Arsenal need to be in a position to capitalise.
In all reality, Arsenal cannot compete with City and Liverpool at this moment in time but Pep Guardiola will depart one day, so will Jurgen Klopp, their best players will move on or get older and history is littered with clubs that have failed to make that transition when circumstances change.
Man Utd is a classic modern-day example, their best players moved on and their replacements are not adequate for whatever reason and of course, they lost Sir Alex Ferguson.
I recall a time when Chelsea was dominant and the feeling was it would go on for years, it has not, though they have fared better than most to some degree.
The point is that, in all reality, once Liverpool and Man City begin their decline it will be one of Man Utd, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea that fills the void and that comes down to which team is the most prepared.
From what I can see right now it is Chelsea and Arsenal that are best positioned, both clubs have excellent young players some playing first-team football, on the fringes and coming through, I just do not see the same with Tottenham and Man Utd.
Obviously it is subjective right now in terms of which club will take over the crown in years to come but one thing is for certain, it will happen, everything goes in cycles.
It will take a year or two.
All in good time
Emery has helped us with good signings
Emery has helped greatly by getting Pepe, Saliba, Tierney, Ceballos (if he stays), Torreira and Guendouzi to add to Wenger’s Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ballerin. Also selling or releasing a few players
But we still need:
1. A top CB
2. CM replacement for Ozil and Mkhitaryan
3. Backup RB
4. A quality Left Winger
Selling Ozil, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan and Mustafi
There is no guarantee on how Martinelli, Nelson, Smith Rowe, Nketiah will turn out
I hope to see this team this season:
Leno
Bellerin
Tierney
Luiz
Holding
Torreira
Guendouzi/Ceballos
Ceballos/Ozil
Pepe
Aubameyang
Lacazette
The signings were done by Raul, not Emery. Emery’s choices as reported were N’Zonzi, Banega, Nkunku,etc. (LOL).Agree with your line up, it may come true once next season,once Emery departs.I’d replace Luiz with Saliba. Hopefully Raul can transfer Mustafi, Socrates, Kolasinac and get decent replacements.
A good response to the Rual buys. Now reply to this harmless question. Who in this modern world would you replace Emery with?
How about Allegri? Not working at this time and is a proven winner.Also knows a thing or too about defending.Which is something Emery has not seemed to grasp.
Allegri is a good shout, although he’s had it so easy at Juventus, that’s it’s hard to know how much of an upgrade (if any), on Emery he is.
Obvious choice has to be Simeone, although he seems settled at Atletico. We have been a defensive shambles for years, and he would be the perfect man to fix this. He’s used to working on a budget. He consistently loses his best players, yet look how well he copes with it. I would have loved to have signed him after Wenger.
Simeone needs a particular set of players.
Even if given players he would want (dubious right now), it would take at least 3 years before a new team would be assembled by which time he might call it quits and the new guy would then have players suited to Simeone/Mourinho style of defend defend defend then nick it on the counter.
Also, Simeone would have to win the title. There’s no way fans would tolerate by far the most boring top 6 team (which it would be under Simeone – seriously, Atletico is the only team in Spain I’m never able to watch an entire match) unless there was some serious success beyond the top 4 “trophy”.
Phil, Allegri appears to only want to work in Italy, as he is not keen to learn another language. Apparently he was approached regarding the Real Madrid job and wasn’t interested, because he would have to learn Spanish.
With respect to the Arsenal job, he would require a transfer budget, far in excess of what the club would be prepared to provide.
This is the team almost every body wants to see out on the pitch, unfortunately our coach doesn’t, so I see Torreira being dropped to the bench in favor of Xhaka and Ceballos.
I think Emery line up against Watford will be.
Lacazette
Aubameyang Ceballos Pepe
Guendouzi Xhaka
Kolasinac Luiz Sokratis A. M-Niles
Leno.
Subs –
E. Martinez
Ozil
Willock
Torreira
Nelson
Martinelli
Chambers
Hahaha everyone wants to see xhaka sold
Golden generation. Under 22 years old.
Nketiah
Saka E. S-Rowe Martinelli
Willock Guendouzi
Tierney Saliba Holding Bellerin
E. Martinez.
Subs –
Nelson
A. M-Niles
Sorry for being pedantic, but
Holding is 23.
Bellerin 24.
Martinez 25.
I’m also hoping Martinelli can compete with Nketiah as a CF.
How can you ignore Tottenham when they made it to the champions league final and have just strengthened well with big signings like Ndombele and Lo Celso? They also snapped up that kid Sessegnon who looks good. Man utd as well took major steps in solving their defensive issues with Maguire and Wan Bissaka. Everyone in the top 6 is looking fire…apart from Chelsea who have not replaced Hazard.
Anyways, sorry to go OT but excellent news just in is Xhaka has suffered a knock while on international duty. He has not been properly assessed but he could be out of the Watford game and even longer. I think we can all heave a sigh of relief now, Emery was never going to man up and do what needed to be done about Xhaka.
I read Torreira suffereda knock too ?
Yes I heard about Torreira’s injury as well but it didn’t sound very serious. Will probably be out for a game or two.
Xhaka hopefully will be out for longer though ?
We will probably win all of our games during is absence, and then he’ll walk straight back in the team again!
He’s already said he’s taking time off when his baby is born, so maybe we won’t see him till after that??!!
Oh jeez, QD.. i don’t want Torreira to miss any ?
Sue, I wonder what the reaction would be if we lost every game while Xhaka is out?
Torreria is a kick in the teeth as well, is this the start of our normal injury disaster starting again?
I wonder too, Ken….
I seriously hope not… i think it’s safe to say we’ve had more than our fair share of long term injuries.. no more please!! Really looking forward to Bellerin, Holding & Tierney walking out on to that pitch!! And I’m also looking forward to the Villa game! You’ll be going too? Will you stay down for the Forest game too, Ken? Tickets are cheap for it.. not sure I’ll make that one as yet
Trying to get down for both games Sue, not sure if it is viable yet.
Still, the Forest game will be an ideal opportunity for the fans who can’t get tickets to see our club play.
My ticket will cost me a fiver!!!! Highest priced tickets in the world?
Some “fans” will say anything to knock our club, can’t find anyone bleating about how “cheap” this game is!!!!
£5 – to see the mighty Arsenal & (fingers crossed) revenge (for the FA cup)!! How sweet will that be?! Worth every penny!!
Play Luiz or Chambers in midfield, if Torreira is injured. At least there are some options this season.
Titles
Man Utd 20 Liverpool 18 Arsenal 13
Everton 9
Chelsea 6 Machester City 6 Villa 6 Sunderland 6
Sheffied Wednesday 4 Newcastle 4
Wolves 3 Huddersfield 3 Blackburn 3 Leeds 3.
Portsmouth 2 Burnley 2 Spurs 2
Nottingham forest 1 Ipswich 1 West Brom 1
I am sure Forest, Ipswich and WBA are also calculating
when their next title winning cycle is due and
most importantly will they be ready? 🙂
Where’s Leicester?
We dont have a have a coach yet. Emery is so confuse that he dosnt know his first eleven
Our team has the players it needs in most of the positions, except in defence, and with right formation and tactics, our frontline can score more than we concede, so it’s vital for Emery to get his act together now.
Just read some interesting stuff on Saliba and don’t know if it’s already been mentioned here, but he’s listed in this seasons squad of 49. Apparently, even though he won’t play for us this year, being registered in our squad this year counts towards his home grown status. He won’t be playing for St Etienne either for six weeks or so as he’s recently had an operation for an abducter muscle injury.
You can’t and should not prepare for the failure of your opponents. You should constantly seek to improve in order to be the best that you can be at any point in time.
Sure, City and Liverpool will fall back at some point. IMO this will either be when the managers leave or when their message becomes stale and they can no longer motivate their squads to the high levels of motivation they show today.
For Arsenal to compete for major trophies we need all ingredients of success to be present; complete squad, top manager, dedicated owner, luck with injuries, and a few good calls in big games.
At the moment we don’t have the squad (lack in many areas compared to City and Liverpool), we don’t have the manager and probably don’t have the owner although we can’t complain about the investment in the squad in terms of money.
At the time we purchased Mustafi and Xhaka their price tags were considerable the mistake we made was choosing the wrong players. If Mustafi was top quality and Xhaka a top midfield player (as their price tags demanded) we would be in much better shape. But buying players is a gamble and we made some crucial mistakes when we could not afford to do so with our rather limited resources compared to City and Pool. The renewal of Ozil’s contract was also a big mistake whether you like the player or not.
I believe if we want to move back up the ladder of competitiveness, we need to first finish in the top 4, then attract a top manager followed by continued smart investment in our squad on the back of CL money and to have some “luck” with the development of our youngsters.
All of that needs to take place whether City and Liverpool fall back or not.
Although Arsenal are somewhat behind both Man City and Liverpool in terms of quality of whole squads, I feel on a more basic best 11 we are potentially closer. Seeing the team choices Against Liverpool and Tottenham, my heart sank into my boots. Supporters often see the game with a brutal honesty. The assumption is the coach always knows best because he is a professional. He must know better! I would in some ways challenge that. It seems the supporters have often over the years have seen the failings of many players before the manager. Some players, of course, divide opinion. Ozil let’s say. Other players such as André Santos, Sebastian Squllaci, Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi are just clearly not good enough. The supporters seem to see this much earlier than the manager. Granted sometimes the manager does not have a lot of choice and may argue he has to play a player. In brutal Premier League reality that argument can cost. An example is Granit Xhaka’s penalty give away vs Brighton last season, that in reality definitively cost us Champions League football. Sadly the recent penalty vs Tottenham too. With the right choices we are closer than believed, but with the whole squad we have a long way to go. Emery lacks a certain bravery, in my eyes, and that costs us. Last season, particularly earlier in the season, he was making exceptional substitution choices. This season he cannot see what is in front of his eyes. Xhaka costs games…. de-facto. Until we play our best team we will have no measuring stick to measure what we are really capable of.
Fair point about Chelsea but you don’t know if they will stop pulling funds for a long time. Che were hit with a ban too. City could repeat Manu dominance for all we know. Pep will leave eventually but it depends on the cash situation, also city could improve the ground capacity. Hopefully they bore of it and move on but not sure how likely that is. Liv will be caught and drop off at some stage. Manu have money to rival city but they can’t seem to get it together, still shows the void Fergie left. If Pep leaves the dominance might break, but they’ll still be up there around you’d imagine.
I think as Real Madrid has shown, you can have a squad of super players but without the manager to make it all work you won’t be guaranteed of major silverware.
Like you say City will be asked a question when Pep leaves but if they succeed to attract the right manager they might remain a force.
Man U have the money so they will be around, sad to say. They will finally get a top in-form manager like Allegri, get a technical director, and then they’ll be near the top again.
Chelsea have the youth, but when Roman sells, you never know how it would all play out.
Tottenham are a question mark. Anything is possible, especially when Poch leaves.
But like others have said, Arsenal needs to focus on themselves, and invest in keeping the best of our youth as well as getting talent when they’re young – e.g. Guendouzi, Saliba, Martinelli, Tierney.