Arsenal are not ready to start the new season by Konstantin Mitov
Well lovely Arsenal people, we “won” the Emirates cup thanks to a penalty save from Ramadale, which was the highlight of another lifeless preseason performance.
Compare it to last season when we recorded a 4:0 win over Chelsea and a 6:0 thrashing of Sevilla, it’s night and day. Last year’s pre-season was an introduction of what’s to come.
Our momentum carried into the season and a major reason was having a solid starting 11. This year we’ve been chopping and changing each game and I’m confused all over the pitch.
Let’s start with the defence. Who is our starting left back? Why was Zinny on the USA tour, apart from PR? He didn’t play, yet he’s to feature in a friendly game, just before we play City? Something is not right here. If he is going to focus on personal matters I’m fine with it, but let’s then leave him to it, and have him back when he’s mentally ready to play for us.
We’ve tried KT, Timber, Kiwior and Tommy at LB. For me the best options were KT and Timber, who’s been the shining light of the pre-season so far. Who will play against City is a wild guess though.
Bar a miracle or injury, I’d be shocked to see someone other than Saliba and Gabriel in the middle, but on the right I’ve really enjoyed Timber, so Benny Blanco is under pressure.
In the midfield, I think Thomas Partey is a must and pre-season showed again what only he can do in our midfield. He gives us control over games we just lack when he’s not on the pitch.
Odegaard is the best number 10 in our team by a country mile, as the Fabio Vieira experiment failed again. So there’s one spot left and it’s between Rice and Havertz and I think the German is the one seen as the Xhaka replacement.
Up front Saka is the obvious player on the right, due to form and lack of any real competition, but on the left Trossard really left some questions for the manager on whether he or Martinelli should start.
Up front is what really worries me. Jesus is out again for weeks, and we again haven’t solved the obvious striker issue. I know Eddie scored a goal and played alright against Monaco, but he’s not a title winning striker.
City have Haaland up front and we have Eddie, and they are the team we’re trying to fight against. That game against City means something. We haven’t beaten them in forever, we need to get one over them at some point, why not Sunday?
My overall reflection of the pre-seaaon is that some expectations adjustment will be required. I don’t think we’ll be title challengers based on what I’ve seen. I’m not sure we’ll be comfortably second either.
We started so well with the signings, but we haven’t addressed the striker situation, we’ll actually miss Granit Xhaka, as we haven’t settled on his replacement and new signings will need time to adjust.
I think, last year, Arteta just stumbled upon a system that works. He was probably surprised by how good Saliba was, Ben White worked at RB and Jesus and Zinny lifted us. The right pieces just fell into place.
Now we start the season with 3 really good players in addition and only Xhaka gone, but somehow our team feels weaker on the pitch, so here’s a quick note of warning. Just the fact that we’ve spent 200+ million, doesn’t mean we’ll be better on the pitch.
Declan Rice will need to be eased into our system. He may have captained West Ham, but this is Arsenal football club, expecting to challenge City for the title. We’re a team that demands the ball every game and we have to dominate midfield, battle low blocks and so on.
Anyway, Man City on Sunday will tell us some things, but I’ll just say that I’ve seen us beat City in the community shield before and then they go on to lift the title… So the result of this cup may not mean a lot for them, as they always hit the right form at the right time, but for us it does.
I want to see what our starting line up would be, I want to see intensity, good pressure, confidence in possession, and I wanna win. We need to show that were ready to battle with City again, because right now I don’t think we are…
Konstantin
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
I don’t think we’re ever ready to stsrt a season, you just have to start it. First game will be sticky for sure.
Let’s hope we put on a good fight against City.
Last season after the preseason we had trashing sevila 7 and Chelsea 4 we were pumped and excited to be entering the new season, but this time around it’s been a mixed bag of feeling, scrapy performances par barca and poor mls side and one of our standout player in preseason in Jesus been injured, it’s all looking bleak at this point and with our new signings it’s only Timber who is currently looking solid, unlike when Jesus and zinchenko joined
Every transfer is a trial for Edu etc.
Chelsea don’t have that problem, for example and neither do Newcastle it would seem.
Yes second is not a guaranteed shoe in. We have the same issue we had in December when Jesus was injured at the World Cup although we potentially have the use of Balogun which we didn’t have earlier. FFP rules is rearing it’s head…let’s see who goes out of Pepé, Tomiyasu, Balogun, Nketiah, Soares, Lokonga and who goes out on loan too…
Saliba made such a difference…we NEED a goalscorer with no one it would appear to be on Mikel’s radar + have to hope that between Trossard, Havertz, Saka and Martinelli they will do better than last season.
Arteta’s constant tinkering with arsenal’s team is not helping the team at all.. and I still can’t believe he wanna let balogun go at the expense of nketiah. And still believe we can still challenge city with nketiah at the helm of affairs ?? In as much as I would hate to say it,, The truth is that signs points to the fact last season will be better than this season,, players are being switched position more often.
Chooses a settled lineup: “Arteta doesn’t know how to rotate!”
Rotates the lineup: “Arteta’s tinkering too much!”
The key is balance.
Agreed, so let’s take a balanced view. It’s preseason, we’ve made 3 pretty big signings, and the manager has rotated the squad, something he had been advised of not doing in the past, to get them all physically and mentally prepared. After the game against Barca people complained that our regular starters stayed on the pitch after half time. After that he makes wholesale changes and people complain that he’s “tinkering”. Where’s the balance?
I understood those who say that to mean over the course of the season not only the past 3 games.
My view is to let the manager do his job the way he sees fit and be judged only on results. Results which should exceed his predecessors in every way considering the backing and patience.
I think we’ll struggle without Jesus. Nketiah hasn’t improved his strength yet and Balogun barely played in pre-season
If you watched Haaland’s EPL goals, he used his strength, pace and aerial ability to brush his markers off. I can only hope Balogun can do something similar
Why not support city and halaand than coming here telling us in every article about halaand and city
I don’t like to watch Man City, but their CF type could be the missing puzzle piece of our squad
Well, don’t be too sure. Halaand was on field when Brendford did the double on MCity. And Halaand also played when they were beating by Liverpool. There is more to this things than just having towering CF. There
were teams in Epl last season with your type of CF but couldn’t near Arsenal. If Arteta gets his tactics and team balance right there would be no issues.. Stop over emphasising it Gai.
I agree with the article. This season will be the one where Arteta’s managerial prowess will be put to test. With so many variables to factor in, new players and possibly new formation, this season is a test for Arteta. I am excited for the coming season but equally afraid as well. I want Arteta to succeed really as I feel he is the right man to take the Arsenal to its glory, but at the same time I am afraid if he will have to face the wrath of the fans if things don’t go as planned, for any reason whatsoever. So this is the most important season for Arteta managed Arsenal. If he gets through well, he can go on to be the figure Arsenal is associated with in the future and Arsene can finally retire.
We are not buzzing with confidence and rearing to go, because the players we sign are not able to inspire confidence as a result of the gaffer overthinking.
Arsenal now bidding for Raya could result in more confusion and unsettling the core, why wasn’t Raya targeted earlier?
Is it that the decision was taken after Man United first goal?
Too much question at this late stage, but all not lost.
The problem this time around is it seams Arteta doesn’t know his best eleven and it’ll take time for him to figure that out, that’s my concern. Everyone knows him and Edu made a mistake to buy Kai the money which would have been used elsewhere. And maybe he should move from his favored 433 to a 4231 formation. Tierney has always been good therefore he should be starting games, for Zinchenko I’ll be surprised to see him playing for his country course Arteta himself said he’s not ready. This is the line up I would start against Man City if I were him:
Ramsdale
White Saliba Gabriel Tierney
Partey Rice
Saka Odegaard Trossard
Nketiah
No way I’d drop Martinelli.
I’d drop woeful Nketiah in a heartbeat and play Trossard as the striker. We played some of our best football with Trossard as striker, not Nketiah.
The team looks disjointed with Nketiah playing striker.
I think the chopping and changing is why the team has looked disjointed compared to last time when Arteta relied on his ‘first 11’ . That said,I believe it was the right approach from the manager because it meant every player got valuable minutes and the coaches were able to evaluate the performances of each player. Preseason,in my opinion is about experimentation,it is about elevating fitness levels after the break,it is about assessing the new players and helping them acclimatize to new teammates and tactics, it is about evaluating the players that were on the fringes last season, it is about experimenting with different tactics to make us less predictable – you can’t do all that and expect free-flowing error-free results. We may have had remarkable results last season and you are right when you say it provided momentum into the new season,but I feel this pre season has been more successful to the extent that more players were involved and there was more experimenting.
I disagree with you about Viera, I think he did relatively well against Monaco,despite playing in a position not suited to him. You’d be surprised if I told you that he won more ground duels than ESR and Martinelli ; he also created more chances than both of them. I believe Viera will show his obvious talent in the coming season and surprise many fans.
Concerning the striker situation,I’m not worried at all. Nketiah played well against Monaco. He also did well there after the Jesus injury in the World Cup. In addition to that,we have Trossard who has arguably been one of our best players in preseason. He did quite well as a nine last season,linking superbly with Martinelli on the left. For what it’s worth,Manchester City,the treble winners,have not been spectacular in Preseason either. Does that mean they’ll struggle in the coming season??? I will wait until at least five matches have been played to make a reasonable judgement.
Onyango. Uko na imani lakini, it’s good to have a good striker in the team who can score depandably. You well know nketiah how his record of scoring is. someone who can score in 2,3 games and stay almost half a season to score again. is that a title winning striker to be honest? We can’t depend on attackers to win us the league we need a complete striker.
Good god. I thought I’d landed on “ Le grove”.
Such is all the Doom n gloom.
Arteta has used pre season to integrate the newbies & try a few different systems.This is what pre season is for.Some work ,some don’t.Expect a different Arsenal this Sunday.Trust me.
My biggest worry is who replaces Jesus if injury or rotation becomes an issue. Nketia is not, and never will be, good enough on a long term basis. To replace Nketia with a spearhead no9 would be my number on priority.
City won the title for two straight seasons before Halaand, he wasn’t the reason why they won the league. They would have done that without him.
Really??? So his record 36 league goals made no difference? They won the treble and the UCL for the first time and the guy scored a total of 52 goals and still made no difference? I would have him in our team in a heartbeat and I guess so would Arteta.
“I think, last year, Arteta just stumbled upon a system that works. He was probably surprised by how good Saliba was, Ben White worked at RB and Jesus and Zinny lifted us. The right pieces just fell into place.”
Just like Pep just stumbled into his 3-2-4-1 mid season that enabled them to blitz the 2nd half of the season right?
Yeah, I think arteta’s system was a bit too precise to have been “stumbled upon”. It was clearly how he wanted to play. I think signing zinchenko helped him to solve the xhaka puzzle, and that’s what really made it work for the most part. Now that xhaka’s gone, he might have a new puzzle to solve
I stopped reading the article after the opening Zinchenko rant.
I absolutely agree with everything Positive Pete wrote.
Moaning Mitov back to his pessimistic best.
I think we will have to endure this type of article till the season gets underway.
This author is a regular moaner. Rarely has anything positive to say and often comes on here to find fault and make demands.
Panicking before we take the pitch?
Arteta has improved this squad every year he has been here. We’ve added 3 players that should slide into the starting XI quite easily.
If we add Raya, the competition at keeper will be top notch.
At the back, Timber will make as stronger than last year at 3 of the 4 positions. Not counting Saliba.
At midfield, Rice will need a few games to integrate. But I have full faith in his quick learning the system. I think this bunch is stronger than we’ve seen in years!
Up front is the ‘?’. Jesus can’t stay healthy at the moment.
At the end of the day, we gave up far too many goals. Timber, Rice and Raya(fingers crossed) will improve the defense. Think of those draws all in a row at the end of the last season. We don’t give up goals to teams less than us, we win the league!
Let’s not get our panties in a bunch before the season even starts.
i have the same thoughts with the author.
I’m also thinking that this coming season will be the reverse of the last one. We will start slowly, maybe even badly, ang grow gradually into the season and end very strongly
Konstantin, your worrying about Arsenal next season’s campaign possibly having a lackluster performance that can lead to a fail realised objective season is quite in place. More so, if Declan Rice inability to hit the ground running for Arsenal in preseason is taken into account.
As a matter of fact, Arteta and Edu not addressing the striker issue this summer transfer window, I mean the lack of a world class striker of at least 30 League goals scorer per season to lead the line for Arsenal next season in the Epl and Ucl is a serious concern to worry of it by the Gooners I would think.
Can Nkethia lead the line very successfuly in the Epl for Arsenal and help the team to be topping the table? He can only try his best but which may not be enough. GJesus is down for weeks as per reports. And this could mean he won’t get to 20 League goals for Arsenal next season when he’s back? It’s likely..
If Arteta seriously wants to undo Pep Guardiola his former coaching school boss to the Epl title win next season. I think he will need to have a rethink on his stance of not addressing the world class striker having in his team. But relaying on GJesus and Nkethia to do the job successfully for him. But both who may not be able to lead Arsenal to the promised land next season . And the jettison of Balogun by Arteta, who has shown the glimpses of becoming a world class striker. But not giving the chance to prove himself is very unfortunate.
But since Arteta doesn’t look to care of what any Gooner may thinks or feel about how he does his Arsenal job.
Nevertheless, can he speak to Kroenke requesting he approves for Arsenal to sign Kylian Mbappe on a loan deal this summer? And make the deal ornament next season if Mbappe help Arsenal to win the Epl title coming season. And possibly also help us win the Ucl which win Mbappe is after to win at his present PSG club side. But which hasn’t come ti fruition for him.
Us Gooners know what? If Arsenal sign Mbappe on loan this summer, he may help us to win the quadrupled. As he will be Arsenal’s Haalanf 2.0 version
Some of you are soooooo boring
Arsenal haven’t been able to defeat Man City in ages. Arteta may have to think outside the box to defeat Pep’s Man City come Sunday at the community shield match. Brentford did the double on Man City last season and were the only EPL team to do so. Arteta should study Brentford’s tactics in those games, therein may lie the blue print to overcome Man City.
Maybe one of his tactics to beat Man city is to sign Raya from Brentford.
Simply say it “ARTETA DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HIS DOING AS USUAL”..He could have gotten us a PROLIFIC,durable, clinical, taller & imposing out and out striker inorder to reduce the goal burden on Saka & martenelli but chose to go for Kai Harvertz…He could have sold the likes of TOMIYASU, holding , NKETIAH, Nelson, Lokonga etc Last season but he choose to get Just timber to play multiple positions that he in his playing days will not do and any fans in his right mind thinks Edu and ARETEA are ready…They are not mate..It’s just the same old drama waiting to play out again and this is not just about Edu, it’s about a manager who never learns and evolves and knows his team in and out completely like Guardiola who has these things inbuilt in him… thanks
I’ve said all along that it will be more challenging next season the simple reason being Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U having relatively poor seasons. The owners have given MA the players he wanted to strengthen the squad and will expect a return on their investment. That’s how it works, ask Graham Potter? However, everything points to a great season, I can’t wait!!!
Arsenal is more than ready to go.
CF: Jesus, Eddie, Flo
WF: Saka, Martinelli, *New signing*, Nelson, Marquinhos
AM: Odegaard, Havertz, Trossard, Emile, Fabio
DM: Partey, Rice, Jorginho
SB: White, Tomiyasu, Timbre, Zinchenko, Tierney
CB: Saliba, *New signing*, Magalhaes, Kiwior, Holding
GK: Ramsdale, *New signing*, Turner
Issues to be addressed along the line –
1) one more WF upgrade in Saka mould to consolidate the available options
2) one more CB upgrade in Saliba mould for Holding to leave
3) one more GK upgrade in Ramsdale mould for Turner to go
Hello Man City have been winning the league without Haaland
And that complaining was too long for me to follow through
We’re ready for the season
So until we thrash someone 6-0 before u agree we ready
Man City just lost against AthletiCo Madrid
Maybe they’re not ready too then
Man Utd’s preseason doesn’t look like a ready team also based on your analysis, neither do Liverpool
We’re super ready Bro.
Over-ready dey worry us sef
It’s important not to take this author too seriously. He is generally OTT in his pessimism. Although he pops up fairly regularly his perspectives generally cater to a fringe group of fans who often don’t see much positive happening at the club.
I called it last season: we missed our chance. We have a better squad now but have lost the element of surprise. Everyone knows how we are gonna play and that’s ok if you’re City because you can’t do anything about it but we aren’t them. I think we will be Top 4 but a mile off winning or even competing. I’d have taken a sloppy title while we caught everyone napping but we missed the boat.