Arsenal v Spurs: NLD Preview

It’s been a while since I wrote anything about Arsenal, but with a huge game against Spurs today I felt the rare urge to do so. It’s been far from a perfect start to the season for Arsenal, but they have won their last two games by the same 1-0 scoreline. Prior to those games they had lost three in a row and they failed to score in those games while conceding nine goals.

Of course there were excuses of players missing and the transfer window still being open, but it’s difficult to justify those first three games. Things have improved defensively since then, but we’re still very much goal shy with two goals in five games. The perfect time to overcome our goalscoring issues would be today against Spurs of course.

Spurs aren’t exactly having a great time of it either with back to back 3-0 defeats after briefly topping the table with 1-0 wins in each of their first three games. As it stands Arsenal can actually go ahead of Spurs if they win by two goals, but then again we have only scored two goals in our first five games. I would be happy with any win and I think there’s every chance Arsenal can take the three points.

We have to be careful of how Spurs play with Nuno Espírito Santo now in charge considering Wolves beat us at home and away last season. I think Wolves actually played better football than Spurs under him and their main tactic is more than likely going to be trying to hit us on the break. We have to be careful not to over commit which of course would stifle us in attack, but it’s a balance Mikel Arteta has to get right.

The time Thomas Partey got in the Carabao Cup against Wimbledon on Wednesday night will hopefully have done him and us some good because he is going to have to play a very important part if we’re going to win. Arteta has a couple of decisions to make ahead of the game with both Aaron Ramsdale and Bernd Leno anxious to start in goal while he also has to decide who plays in the middle with Partey. Personally I’d prefer to see Albert Sambi Lokonga, but I would be very surprised if we didn’t see the return of Granit Xhaka after his three game ban for the red card against City.

Amazing as it sounds we could actually go with five points of the Premier League leaders Liverpool if we win this game which would be no mean feat for a team which had the worst record of any team in the Premier League era after three games. Of course we have to win to accomplish that feat and it’s not going to be an easy task. The performance of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is going to be important for us and I still think we need to see an awful lot more from him than we have so far this season.

The purchase of Martin Odegaard could be the creative spark we are missing, but I still think there’s not enough pace or urgency to our attacking game. I don’t know if that’s what the manager has called for, but if we’re going to continue to climb the table we need to up the tempo. I can’t think of a better time to do just that than against that lot this afternoon and to go ahead of them in the table with an impressive attacking display. Here’s hoping that’s exactly what we get.

That’s it for now.

See you next time.

It’s Partey Time For Arsenal

The transfer window closed last night and with it the ability for clubs to improve their squads from without. There is still the option of moves within the English leagues, but moves to and from all other leagues are finished. It looked like Arsenal would miss out on their targets as deadline day approached, but they pulled a rabbit out of the hat just in time.

We had spent most of that window chasing Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid, but it seemed we were unwilling to pay the release clause of €50 million. If reports are to be believed Lucas Torreira had been told by Atletico that he had been signed on loan from Arsenal to play alongside Partey in their midfield, but he would have had to stay at Arsenal to do so now. I wish Torreira no ill will and I wasn’t particularly pleased that we loaned him out, but Partey is definitely an upgrade on him.

Our midfield needed a player of his calibre and I have no doubt his addition will help Mikel Arteta to mould the team in the way he wants. Again there are reports of Diego Simone being particularly unhappy with Partey’s last minute departure and I can imagine how we would feel if one of our best players did one at the very last minute. I’m not too bothered about how if affects Atletico though as long as it helps to make us a better team.

All in all it’s been a pretty good transfer window for Arsenal with Partey added to the arrivals of Willian on a free transfer and Gabriel Magalhaes. Both of those players added strength in positions where we really needed it and Partey should be the next piece of the Arteta jigsaw. There’s still a good bit more to go, but it’s difficult to deny that all the signs point to us moving in the right direction.

Perhaps the biggest deal of the transfer window for us was the manager convincing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to sign a new contract. If he had decided to leave I can’t see where we could have got a replacement of his quality or how we could have afforded one if he was available. Retaining his services must certainly have a positive affect on potential purchases when they see a player of his calibre at the club and it seems the manager is becoming a bit of a draw himself too.

We probably could have done with moving on a few of the players who are surplus to requirements, but it seems Sead Kolasinac, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and even Mesut Ozil will be with us for a while yet. Both Kolasinac and Sokratis looked like they might be on their way, but Ozil has absolutely no intention of going anywhere despite obviously not being in the manager’s plans. It’s an awful shame to have a player earning £350,000 a week not participating at all, but there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it any more.

This season has started pretty well with three wins from four games even if two of those wins were against teams who still haven’t got a point between them after four games. The other win against West Ham didn’t seem like much at the time, but their subsequent results might just put our win against them in a better light. So far out only defeat came away to the reigning champions who are favourites to retain their title despite their absolute hammering by Aston Villa on Sunday.

Unfortunately we have to undergo another annoying international break before we get to play again. When we come back Arsenal have a very tough run of games with trips to both Manchester clubs either side of a home game against Leicester. As bad as both Manchester teams have been it’s still been six years since we won away to any of the rest of the “big six”and beating either of them will not be easy. If we can come through those three games with more than three points I think it has to been seen as something positive and it should keep us in contention at the right end of the table.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.