Arsecast Extra Episode 616 - 16.12.2024
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Hello and welcome to a brand new Arsecast Extra, as always with James from Gunnerblog. James, good morning to you. Oh, is it? Doesn't feel like a good morning where I'm sat, I'll tell you that. It's been a weird weekend, hasn't it? Because, well, I don't know why it's been a weird weekend, actually. Well, all the football results were bad for us, pretty much. Yes, that's true. Apart from Man City losing, which was obviously fantastic.

And long may that continue. But that means Man United are happy. So there is a trade-off there. Right. Chelsea won. Not good. Liverpool dropped points, but apparently we didn't capitalise or something like that. Really? Spurs won. Yeah. More than won, in fact.

So, yeah, it wasn't a great weekend. I've been coming down with a cold. No. I know. That's supposed to be good for Arsenal, Andrew. Maybe we've gone beyond the point where a mere cold is sufficient. Yeah, I have to die, I guess. Well, I mean, we could go step by step. I'll have to be sacrificed. Step by step, I was thinking, like, you know, a mild amputation, perhaps. Okay. Yeah, I've done well. My son is in nursery these days, which is essentially a factory for...

biological weapons as far as I can tell it's just it's a breeding ground of viruses and other nasty things and they've got to me yeah it's great for the babies you know build up the immune system etc etc not so good for the parents when too late for me Andrew I've just never had an immune system of any note really

So I walked right into this one. I went, in fact, I'm thinking back on Thursday, I went into the nursery for the nursery Christmas party. What was I thinking? I should have had my hazmat suit on. Yeah, that's for sure. I was wearing a Father Christmas hat, Andrew. I wasn't wearing appropriate PPP. Need the mask on, you know.

That's what you need. Bring it back to the old days. There you go. There you go. Oh, well. Oh, well. As you joked to me before we started recording, at least we got the football to cheer us up. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. Anyway, it's not been the most cheery weekend from an Arsenal perspective. Obviously, when you drop points, it's no good. And when you drop points for the second week in a row, it's no good. And when you drop points for the second week in a row in similar-ish kind of fashion...

Even though I think there were some differences between the Fulham game and the Everton game in terms of performance, the major underlying issue appears to be that when we face a team that sits deep and stays organized and is compact and defends well and with enthusiasm and with some rigor,

we are finding it very difficult to break those teams down. And I don't think it's necessarily a new issue. I also don't think it's an issue that's unique to Arsenal because I think it's a challenge that many teams have to face. You know, if you're a top team, a lot of teams are just going to say, OK, well, you know, if we open up, you're going to open us up and we're not going to do that. So come and break us down. It is a problem that lots of top teams have to deal with. But I think it is one now that is...

a significant issue for Mikel Arteta because it's not just this weekend and last weekend that this problem has become an issue for us. No, I was thinking along similar lines, like is this an inevitable development plateau that teams hit? You know, so you get good, you get to a certain point where it's like everyone who comes to your home stadium is

sits in with eight men or more behind the ball and makes your life extremely difficult. And is there a kind of levelling off at that point while you have to almost unlock a different problem? You know, it's one thing coming out on top in a game where there's space and transition and, you know, things are more open, being sort of the more effective and more clinical. But when it's literally an exercise of attack versus defence...

And at a certain point in time, you become good enough, as Arsenal are now, that maybe like 75% of your games in the league will feel like that. Is that sort of an issue that everyone comes up against? And I know we're enjoying laughing at Man City's expense right now, but there was a certain point in time where they did crack that. They were able to just kind of grind down those teams who went to the Etihad and tried to do the same thing. I feel like that's a puzzle we're yet to solve.

And what's interesting actually is, you know, we're hitting this wall a little bit now, but I think that's because we haven't had a ton of fixtures like this. You know, if you look at our run of games from August till now, I was really struck by the fact that there were a couple of Everton players booked for delaying restarts because that was something I was saying in August, September. I was like, in the fullness of time, the shoe will be on the other foot. Arsenal will be the team chasing Everton.

And it'll be the other team annoying us with delaying tactics. But it's kind of weird that we've almost got to mid-December before we've hit a run of games where we're facing an opponent doing that. We played a lot of good teams and a lot of good teams away from home until this point. Yeah, that's true. I'm not going to say it's a difficult game to analyse, but I think...

The idea of a simple solution is not necessarily there. And I'm sure we'll get into it. Maybe we'll get into it in part two because we have questions about January and things like that. Like, does an attacker solve our problems? Like, would it hurt? No. But does that solve the issue that we have of teams? I think another aspect, this is sort of where I'm going with this. Another aspect of being good for this long is that, like, what made you good is...

Yeah. Right? So your opposition analysts and managers and coaches and things like that, you can look at what you need to do. And I was really struck at the start of last season when Arteta talked about the need for his team to be more unpredictable, right? To be more tactically...

Variable, I guess, is the way I want to put it. And I feel like right at this moment in time, we're not that. We're quite predictable because you can more or less predict the lineup. You can more or less predict who's going to play in pretty much every position, bar, let's say, whatever issues we've got with fullbacks. That means a little bit of rotation there. And the left-hand side, like, is it Martinelli or is it Trossard? And then it's like, well...

Does it really matter which one it is at this moment in time for the opposition? So I wonder, you know, is there a wider discussion to be had when we think about how to deal with games like this beyond saying we need to fucking get a big striker or we need to get this guy or that guy that there are...

things that the manager and his coaching staff need to look at in terms of how the team is set up generally to provide that little bit more unpredictability. And I guess we'll get into it when we come to talk about the second half and the substitutions, that there was possibly an opportunity to do something a little bit different. And, you know, he sort of went like for like in many ways when it came to his changes. Yeah, I mean, I have some...

hot spicy takes on the transfer thing that I will drop at some point. But I think you're right that it's a bigger conversation than that. And one of my sort of feelings about why Saturday was so frustrating, in maybe a way that Fulham wasn't necessarily, is that I don't think this Everton team are any good, really. Like, at all. Yeah, no, I agree with that. Like, I know they defended all right. I thought Jordan Pickford had a really good game. I thought outside of that,

It's a Sean Dyche team. They've got Ashley Young at right back. There's no real goal threat, I don't think, going forward from them. Calvert-Lewin works hard, but he seems a bit of a blunt instrument at this point in time.

I don't think this is a good side. And so dropping points against them, particularly a side containing a few people we don't really like, is particularly galling. I agree with that because I think what you do have to take into account with Fulham is that they were, you know, they're a decent team who do have attacking threat, who are in good form and it was away from home. And I'm not saying it was, you know, one thing is more frustrating than the other, but I think you have to look at the context. Well, they just went to Liverpool and got something. Yeah, I mean, yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Everton defended well, I think. You have to give them credit for that. I think there is an element of them executing their game plan quite well. But if you're looking for the sort of pie chart version of this, it's sort of like Pac-Man with his mouth barely open, right? So the mouth open bit is...

Everton playing quite well in terms of their game plan. The rest of the pie chart, the rest of the Pac-Man is Arsenal not doing as much as we needed to do to cause Everton problems. I really wondered where we were going with that. I have to be honest, around the Pac-Man thing, I was like, I've got no idea how this will resolve. But you pulled it off. Thanks very much. Thank you. Little moments of inspiration there. But look, let's sort of go into...

nuts and bolts of it. And I think if there are regrets about this game for me, it's maybe the first half. And actually, you know what? I was expecting the first half of this game to

to be lukewarm from an Arsenal perspective. Yeah. They have been a bit recently. Yeah, they have been, but also Everton come into the game on the back of 10 days of not playing. They didn't play the Merseyside Derby. They didn't have a midweek game. We had that game against Fulham last Sunday. We had a midweek game against... Who the hell did we play? Monaco?

Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, we had that to deal with. And I don't think it's uncommon for, you know, the Champions League hangover, in inverted commas, to apply itself to the first half, right? So the first half...

of this game, I thought it might take us a while to get going. It might take us a while to sort of find our rhythm to properly warm up. I was expecting us to be a lot better in the second half than in the first half. And actually the converse was probably true. So those first half opportunities to score goals, I think are the ones where I have those regrets. You know, Martin Odegaard in particular, in front of goal, you know, just not where

We know he can be in front of goal. I know he's like a bit hit and miss, but you know, there was a period where he was scoring quite regularly and I think he got into positions. One ball from Mikel Moreno, he put it over the bar. There was a second one where he did really well actually to sort of shift outside a couple of defenders and dragged his shot just wide. I mean, that's one of those, Pickford was not getting anywhere near it, you know, he was rooted in.

And then there was another one where I think it was good work from Saka, got into the box, pulled it back. Was it a bad finish? Was it good defending? I think maybe good defending as well as perhaps not quite the finish we needed. So those three opportunities in particular from Odegaard were ultimately what you look back on as the moments that could have been difference makers in this game and given the game a different dynamic.

Yeah, I wouldn't say that any one of them was kind of a terrible miss or, you know, a must score. But across the three, you want to see one of those being converted. I do think that one towards the end of the first half was about half an hour gone where Saka, I think Havertz plays him in. He skips past a couple of men, puts it on the plate, really takes his time. I think Pitford maybe saves it. I can't remember, but it's...

Yeah, that's the one really that you'd look at and be like, I think he can score there. But so often if you get the first goal, it completely changes the dynamic of the game, right? It changes the requirement for Everton. You know, it's no longer good enough for them to just sit in and probably...

we're not analysing this game in the same way this morning. But without that, the longer it goes at nil-nil, the more simple their task becomes. And maybe the more resolute they become in terms of, you know, knowing they're getting closer to it. Yeah, I was dreading half-time nil-nil because I felt like that would be so encouraging for Everton. It does Dyche's team talk for him, really. Yeah, absolutely. Just keep doing that, lads. Which they did.

They did, and I think it's the second half in particular that needs the most analysis. Yeah, I mean, we've got to talk about the subs, I think. Yeah. Well, we would have a good chance...

We had a good chance in the opening stages of the second half when it was an Odegaard cross. Yeah, Havertz won the header, headed it down, Saka on the volley to the near post. Pickford makes a good save and you're kind of thinking, okay, that's like two minutes into the second half. That's what we want, at least. You know, you want it to go in the back of the net, but you want to show some...

You want to show some endeavor. You want to up the pace, up the intensity, because I do think that first half, despite those chances we talked about, was a bit flat. Like I feel sometimes with this Arsenal team, they, whether it's confidence, maybe that's what it is, you know, where they say, look, we'll just keep playing. We'll keep possession. We'll pass it around. We won't take too many risks, but, you know, we'll keep circulating the ball, try and pull them out of position, right?

I think sometimes we get into a rhythm that's really difficult to break out of. Does that make sense? We kind of lull ourselves into a false sense of security. Yeah, yeah. Like we're dominating the game. We're playing the game in the Everton half, but we're not playing the game with the speed or the pace. And that doesn't just mean people running really fast down the wing.

I think what it means for me anyway is how quickly we use the ball, how quickly we pass the ball, how many touches we take of the ball before a pass is made. And I think, you know, throughout this game, we were really guilty of too many touches, passes not being quick enough, all of those things. But the first half in particular, you're looking for the intensity to be upped after the break, and I don't think we were able to do it.

No, I mean, there was a sort of fleeting moment. I wrote down in my notes, you know, I think about 10 minutes after our time where I sensed there was a bit more urgency and the crowd were, you know, maybe more engaged. And there was this kind of feeling of like, right, come on, there's a requirement to up the tempo here. But I think it just sort of petered out. And as I say, I do think the substitutions played a part in that. You know, I thought it was quite odd at the time. And looking back today, yeah.

I still can't quite get my head around, particularly the removal of Martin Odegaard. I agree with that. So let's get into it. Because at the time, when he took Rice and Odegaard off, I was scratching my head. Because they are two...

players who are so fundamental to what we do and how we do it, right? Particularly if in a tight game like this, you're taking off somebody like Rice whose set-piece delivery has been so effective for Arsenal. As it turns out, as it transpires, there was an issue with Rice. So he didn't have a choice there. He had to take him off because of the injury or whatever Declan Rice was feeling that he didn't want to exacerbate, right? So that's fair enough.

You've got to do that. The Odegaard one, he said it was for tactical reasons, to try and give them a different problem down that side. Now, look, maybe there's something about Martin Odegaard at the moment we're not 100% on. You know, he got a good kick against Fulham, didn't he? He also is not long back from that big injury. He's played a lot. There's a new arrival in his family. Maybe there's a fatigue issue that we're not fully aware of. Yeah, I mean...

that is one thing I would suggest is that he has got a newborn infant child and one of the things that Arsenal will presumably be measuring on their players is sleep quality recovery quality um

maybe Arteta would not have, I think wisely, not wanted to cite that in a press conference for fear of starting a hashtag baby out movement. Do you know what I mean? Yes, absolutely. So I think if that was a bit of discretion, but they think that Odegaard is not at his sharpest and maybe some of those first half misses...

to that idea in the manager's mind, I guess that would be an explanation of sorts. Yes. And I don't think that's beyond the realms of possibility. But what he said was with Martin, it was a tactical decision to try and change their rhythm, especially on that side. Now, I don't think this was necessarily Martin Odegaard's best day. Certainly the first half chances that we talked about

We'll color people's view of his performance. But I also thought there were moments where he was combining with Bakayo Saka on that right hand side that were probably our most dangerous moments.

the game in the second half. You know, the cross that he put in led to the Saka chance. There was a lovely little pass, if you remember, and Saka got to the byline, went past the defender, pulled it back, Pickford actually cleared it with his feet. But it was one of those where he got himself into the sort of position you want to see Bukayo Saka, you know, in behind, basically. It's very difficult to get in behind Saka.

a deep lying defense like Everton's, but we managed to do that a couple of times. So I don't think the tactical explanation really stacks up for me. I mean, if it was, it was a tactical mistake because we were worse after he went off. Yeah, I mean, that's what it comes down to for me. And also I just think,

if it is the 93rd minute and the ball's on the edge of the box with somebody in this squad and you're hoping they can pull it out of the fire for you, I think it probably is Martin Odegaard. Like, he's done it before. And, you know, I think he was our best hope of kind of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Yeah. And listen, I've said many times, I want to see Manieri getting minutes. But I also don't necessarily buy...

bringing Maneri on Frodegaard would kind of dramatically change the pattern of play on the right-hand side. Exactly. You know, that's why I think maybe Arteta's fudging what is said publicly there because it just doesn't quite add up. No, I agree. And I think if you do want to do something different tactically, maybe...

You know, you put on Waineri for Mikel Mourinho. Now, there could have been, I don't know, is there a sort of height consideration here where having lost Rice, we know Everton are actually quite good at set pieces. I think they're only second to Arsenal in terms of set piece goals this season. Did he want to lose another tall player?

Maybe that was part of it. I'm not sure that should be the biggest consideration. But, you know, if you want to do something different tactically, why can't you play Mourinho or Nwanehri alongside Martin Odegaard? Why can't you try and shift the dynamic that way? You know, that would be exciting. I think with Nwanehri, there was an early flurry of involvement, and then he just went really quiet. He...

I think he was, I don't know if he was instructed to take up those positions, but he felt a little sort of crowded out, you know, there, but impossible to find because he was either too close to Bakayo Saka or surrounded by Everton players. Maybe we needed something a little more from him. He only had 10 touches of the ball in half an hour, a bit more than half an hour. So that's not the kind of involvement that you want from a sub if you want to change something from a tactical perspective.

That's not a criticism of Nwanehri, by the way. I think, and it was obvious to me after about 10 minutes when he came on, that we were not getting the ball to him at all. I don't think it helped, you know, with later substitutions when we had...

Thomas Partey on it right back and Jorginho kind of trading wall passes on the halfway line between each other, taking touches, taking touches, taking touches. You know, this is what I was talking about. But I think it was incumbent on Arteta to get the message to Nwanehri to move into different positions, to make himself more available and

But again, maybe when Airey was doing what the manager wanted him to do, I just feel like the last 20 minutes of the game basically passed him by. And I think when it is a 17-year-old player with all that talent and potential that we want, it's the job of the manager to react to how that game is going and to maybe get him into different positions and get him more involved because you can get that message onto the pitch pretty quickly.

Yeah, and I also think as a 17-year-old in a tight Premier League game against, you know, ranked massive defence in front of him, it's kind of more extraordinary that this doesn't happen every time. You know, that he gets a bit kind of

not even overall, but sort of crowded out. You know, I think that's a huge compliment to him that that doesn't happen regularly and that he's been such an excellent contributor for us this season. But there was probably, he was probably due a game where he hit a bit of a brick wall or found it harder. That's young players and that's development. And, you know, whether the blame is on the manager or,

the blame is not even the right word to apply to a player in that situation yeah i know what you mean yeah just to try and understand why it happened exactly i i think it's kind of an inevitability as he grows and matures that he'll have games like this um but it didn't work i mean there's no and to be fair to after so he didn't hide from that in his press conference you know he was pretty clear about the fact that it was his call uh and it didn't pay off but i agree that some of the other subs didn't massively help either like i don't really see what we gained from

switching Thomas Partey into right back. No, me neither. I don't understand that at all. I think, you know, you could have brought Partey on for Rice in central midfield if that's the way you wanted to go there. Maybe there was a consideration about Timber, but, you know, he ended up playing the full 90 and playing at left back where...

I think when the left side is not functioning the way you might want anyway, I don't really think that gives us what we need on that side. The other options he had available to him, of course, were Kieran Tierney, Jakob Kivior, he could have put them on. But I agree with you. I don't know what we get from Partey right back in those circumstances. You know, is it...

impossible that we can look at a game like this and say right we're absolutely dominating everton here they're not touching the ball i looked at the heat maps yesterday everton's heat map is strongest in their own box that's that's basically the story of the game from their perspective they didn't have the ball in our half really so do we need a back four can we put on

another attacking player and shift to a back three or a nominal back three where we can get more players higher up the pitch and maybe cause them some problems that way. You know, those are things that I think we need to try and explore as we look for solutions to what could be, you know, an ongoing problem. Maybe, maybe. I mean, one thing that struck me was Gabriela Jesus obviously came on, right? With about 20 minutes to go. And he went in and sent it forward. Yeah.

And Kai Havertz, certainly for the first 10 minutes that Jesus was on the field, was playing really deep, like in a sort of midfield, probably in Mikel Moreno's position, right? And I just thought that feels overly conservative. Like, you know, get those two in the box close to each other. You know, for all Gabriel Jesus' issues at the moment, I think he's got a better chance with a target man up alongside him. And at least that way we've got the numbers to...

create a bit of chaos. You know, you sort of found yourself harkening back to the days when Arsene Wenger would just throw all the strikers on the pitch at the same time. And Arsenal would end with four forwards, effectively, on the field going for it. And I actually think that at this point in the Premier League title race, you know, we're into December now, the gap is what it is.

we're in a position where we need to be going for it to that extent. Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, that was to me as well, one of the disappointing aspects of this game was that, you know, this is not a new experience for Arsenal. We've seen this game countless times before, where a team comes to frustrate, you get to midway through the second half and you're like,

Where the fuck is the goal going to come from? And like you say, there have been periods where you get four attacking players, sometimes five attacking players on the pitch, or you put an attacking player as a nominal fullback as has happened. Remember, like sometimes Theo Walcott would end up as like a right back.

Yeah.

The closer you get to 90 minutes, the more desperate you are for a goal, the more risks you take, the more you push players forward, the more difficult it becomes for the opposition to deal with what you're throwing at them relentlessly over and over and over again. That didn't happen. It didn't happen on Sunday. I mean, the substitutions...

made us worse. There's no question about that. I think, you know, Arteta and substitutions has long been a discussion. It's been quite a while since I can remember him getting them as wrong as he did. I think as well, we have to have a conversation about, you know, some players maybe not playing anywhere near the level we need them to be at right now. And I think Gabriel Jesus in the Premier League is that

Leandro Trossard is that. Gabrielle Martinelli is that. And that's a lot to carry, you know? That's sort of three players, three attacking players who are well below par. It felt to me like this was a game where the bench might need to be really important and impactful. I think it was a game where we needed the bench to be really important and impactful, but it just wasn't. No. No.

And among that list of players, it always seems absurd to have to mention them. But, you know, I think we have to cite Raheem Sterling as well, because if this isn't the sort of situation for which he was signed, I just don't know what is. And yeah, I feel like we've said that half a dozen times this season already. Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's an issue. It felt like...

To speak broadly, I felt like the tactics weren't going to get us over the line. I felt like it needed some individual brilliance. And with Odegaard off the pitch, we didn't have a player who stepped up in that moment and seized the opportunity. So, yeah, we didn't get the goal. And I think we have been in this position before in previous seasons,

There might have been years where the pressure eventually told or we scored off a corner. Who knows if Declan Rice had been on the pitch, maybe that might have happened. But this season, I do think it's slightly characterised by...

Those really fine margins not quite falling in our favour for whatever reason. I haven't been ill enough or something. And unfortunately, you know, we don't get it. And were you across the Liverpool score as this game was going on? Did that add to your frustration? Yeah, of course. You know, they're down to 10 men early on. And look, it was a very interesting game. I watched the highlights on Match of the Day yesterday.

God, the way that Liverpool, even with 10 men, can break from deep and cause the opposition problems just gives me so much envy. You know, there's a pace to their game that's very enviable. I think that needs to be something we look at. But yes, of course, you know, and you're looking at their score and you're thinking, well, this is a chance to drop or to pick up some points. I mean, think about what four points extra would look like right now when you look at that league table.

You know, for all the sort of woes that Manchester City are experiencing at this moment in time, we're only three points ahead of them. To me, that feels the most significant thing about the Premier League table right now, rather than us being behind a Liverpool team who, to be very, very fair, have been excellent this season. They've been really, really good. They've found ways to win games that maybe they shouldn't. And there's the difference between them and us,

And people will say, well, the difference is either the approach or maybe what they've got to call on from the bench. They've got players who can make a difference. But yeah, it was. It made it very, very frustrating. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those where I kind of feel like I'm sort of glad that we leave it a day and a bit, you know, to do the podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where you can sort of look at things in the cold light of day a bit and

But I also can really understand why there is such focus right now on the makeup of the squad or how the squad has been assembled or with four or five months. Is it that long? Even we're into December. So, you know, end of August to December, you're looking at the,

Looking at the summer window and making an assessment of that based on what we've seen so far this season in terms of what we've seen from the players who've come in and how involved or not some of those players have been. Well, and what we still appear to lack. Yes. You know, did we plug all the gaps? Did we emphasize the right areas? Yeah.

I always have to offer this caveat that just over a year ago, we were having similar conversations about that summer's window. The tide of opinion on that was only just beginning to change around then with David Rye finding form and Kai Havertz kind of coming good in that centre-forward position. But yeah, I have had reservations about that window and unfortunately...

At the moment, I still have those concerns. Yeah, it's trying to find that balance between, like, I still think this is a good team. We are a good team.

We're lacking something this season, for sure. We're lacking the ability to get on top of those fine margins. I'm not like throwing the baby out with the bathwater by any means, because I think what we've done and how we've got here and how we've raised expectations is part of why Saturday and last week were so frustrating, right? They're so frustrating because we expect better, because we know that this team...

is capable of better, as we saw last season. So it's not a case of like, oh, well, because of this, everything now is shit and everyone is shit and we need to rip it all up and start again. I don't get into that, but I can understand why you're in a season where...

You know, those expectations were high and where there are opportunities or has been maybe an opportunity to sort of put some distance between ourselves and Man City and to catch up with Liverpool. We haven't been able to take them. And the reason we haven't been able to take them is not because...

We're conceding silly goals, which was a thing we used to do a lot, which I didn't like and you didn't like and nobody listening to this liked. It's very frustrating, but I wonder which is more frustrating, you know, the lack of goal scoring or the ability to concede stupid goals. Maybe there's no need to sort of pick one or the other, but I think one of them is

is more aligned with a lot of conversations that people were having about how we were building the squad this summer and what we did in the transfer market. Having, you know, for example, targeted a striker at the very start of the window and then got to August to the deadline day and brought in a guy who the manager at this point basically deems unusable in the Premier League. It might change, but, you know, that's the reality of it, right? Yeah, I think so. I also think as well,

We have to be self-aware and maybe there's a degree to which as Arsenal fans, you know, maybe the concerns over our attack are always going to

bother us more. I'm generalising in massive terms, but you've got, you know, generation upon generation of Arsenal fans who've spent 20 years watching Arsene Wenger teams. And I do wonder to what extent that's kind of ingrained in our DNA as supporters. I know if you go further back, you've got George Graham and things like that. But I do think that people's idea of Arsenal is of them as a kind of swashbuckling attacking team. And I think maybe the gap between Arsenal

that and you know where we are certainly where we were on saturday against everton causes a bit of angst uh yeah i don't know but it's yeah it's really it's an interesting discussion for sure and um i suppose i might as well ask you now okay like how does this make you feel we talked about this game a lot how does it make you feel about the title i mean i don't think it's

I don't think it's on now, to be honest. I don't think it's... It's six points to Liverpool and they've got a game in hand. Yeah, I mean, it's not impossible. Mathematically, it is not impossible. And like you say, there was a period last season where we found it really hard to score goals. And it was only actually quite a short period. It was that West Ham game, the Fulham game, and then the FA Cup game against Liverpool. It was three games that felt like an eternity. And then there was a break, wasn't there? And I think that sort of

elongated that sense of like oh when are we going to score again when it was actually only three games and basically in the last 10 minutes of a game against palace i think we added two or three goals to the scoreline yeah okay and then we just went from there and then we went from there so you know it's it's not impossible for this team to click again i don't think you know the idea that like like i said that everyone is terrible now and nobody will ever score again you know i can't

buy that, you know, but I do think there is massive room for improvement in terms of how we play, chance creation, being more clinical in front of goal, you know, so it's not impossible, but until we get to a point where we feel like an Everton game isn't going to happen again, I think, you know, expectations might need to be tempered a little bit in that sense. I just have this weird paradoxical thing where I don't feel like we look

like champions elect I feel like in each of the last two seasons I've been like this Arsenal side look like they're really going to do it this year or do something um and they're not quite giving me that feeling certainly in the Premier League um and yet I do look at Liverpool and I look at their recent vulnerability you know a couple of consecutive draws conceding a few goals and I I don't feel like they are a sure thing either at this point in time um so it

Yeah, I still have. I still hold out some hope, but I'm pretty clear that improvement will be required. No, I agree. Yeah, I mean, it feels maybe a little bit more competitive because I think City eventually will steady the ship and they'll start to win games again. And Chelsea look good and Liverpool are good and we're not as bad as everyone says either. So, you know, there is the possibility for this to be tighter and therefore more points get dropped along the way. I think when it is a two-horse race and if one horse...

you know, is fucking juiced up on steroids, it's going to run out in front, right? Which is financial steroids, maybe. I don't know. But I think if there is a more competitive title race, then I think the points total is likely to be a little bit lower. So it gives us a way to get back in. But we've got to do better. You know, I'm curious as to what you think...

Arteta can do because, look, we'll talk about January in part two because we've got all kinds of questions about transfers and things like that, which is fine. But let's do the thing or say the thing that nobody likes, which is that we have to get more out of the players that we've got, right? Sure. That is the reality of the game on Wednesday, the game next Saturday, the game on the 27th, you know, going to Brentford on the 1st.

There's going to be nobody new for any of those games. So what we have to do is get more out, more of a tune out of what we've got. So do you have any sort of bright ideas about, about how we do that? How do we become a bit less predictable? How do we, you know, unlock what I think is,

exists within this group of players, which is an ability to attack better, to score more goals, to be more decisive, to actually be a little bit more exciting as well. I know it's hard when you're just playing against a team, but I think we have it in us to be better than this. So does it mean a tactical shift? Does it mean personnel shifts? Does it mean him trying to play

you know, in a slightly different way with slightly different variations of players in different positions. Yeah, it is hard because if Odegaard puts a couple of chances away in the first half, then the complexion of this entire discussion changes. And, you know, it's tempting to be facetious and say, practice finishing. The problem with that is if you spend a week hammering into the players that they need to focus on their finishing, you're probably going to get a load of players who are really stressed out in front of goal and that's not going to help.

I think that for me, it's about the in-game management. I don't actually have a great objection to starting 11. I'll take a pixel the way the team cut out the blocks. But it's like when the sands of time are slipping away, how flexible from plan A are you prepared to be? How much are you prepared to gamble, basically? Are you prepared to roll the dice? I do think...

A lot of football is about gambling and being brave for players, for coaches, for recruitment people. There's a lot of rolling dice.

And I think Arteta, if you think in practical terms, well, I think our wide players would be better off with fullbacks who are supporting them on the outside, making overlapping runs, taking defenders away from them rather than sitting in the centre circle. Sure. I think that's one thing. I think we shouldn't be afraid to go to two centre forwards in the box rather than pushing one of our centre forwards back into midfield to maintain the shape and the positional play. Yeah.

And I think maybe with our midfield selections, we could be a bit more aggressive and progressive. As you said, like, I'd love to see Odegaard and Ranieri, you know, or a similar player on the pitch at the same time. Yeah. Not every game, not from the start necessarily, but in a situation where we need a goal, I feel like that offers a lot more creativity than some of our alternative solutions. I agree. I agree. Yeah.

I mean, do you think... It's easy to sit here and say that. Sure, sure. Arteta could, given the opportunity, he could dismantle all those arguments. Maybe so. And, you know, maybe you do it and then you get sucker punched and you lose 1-0. Do you think there's any more willingness to sort of accept a bad result if it feels like we've really gone for it? Well, also, I mean, take the last two games.

let's say on one we did get sucker punched but on one we get the winner we're in a better position in terms of the league table in a league where it's three points for a win sure it's worth the gamble i think most of the time and and you know it's funny i mean look that would venga we all had our issues with arsene wenger towards the end but i do think if you look at his entire time

as a manager. He's someone who loved a punt. He loved a punt on a player. He loved a tactical punt within games. He backed himself. And I feel like maybe there's a confidence in that that comes from experience or winning things. And maybe Mikel Arteta isn't quite there, or maybe he's too wedded to another ideology. But I think it's a trait that he...

And I think that's shown some signs of developing. I mean, if bringing Ronario for Odegaard isn't a gamble, then what is it? But it also felt like a way of kind of offsetting the risk by not having those two creators on the pitch at the same time. Sure. I mean, one of the things he did talk about afterwards was...

you know, how we haven't really given up any chances in the last couple of games. And I think there is something to that, right? I think the combined XG in this game, XG against in this game, Everton had 0.09 XG, and Fulham was...

0.16 XG. So over the course of two games, it's like 0.25 XG, right? We're good at defending. We're really good at it. But does that come at a cost? Is there a cost to being that defensively solid?

Like, is part of the defensive solidity an inherent cautiousness that exists when the players are on the pitch? When you talk about taking risks, it might be a guy just kind of fucking charging forward or it might be somebody vacating their prescribed position to get into an area that they think might be useful for us but leaves a gap.

for the opposition to exploit if they get the ball, for example. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, totally. And we've got a group of players who are really kind of disciples of Arteta. You know, they've...

They're a young group, a group who fully buy into and believe in his methods. And I think that's had fantastic results. But I'm not sure there's much of that kind of maverick spirit that can sometimes be a difference maker in games like this. You know, it's weird, isn't it? I mean, I was watching the game. This is going to sound mad, what I'm about to say. I was watching the game unfold and I was like, I don't know where we're going to score here.

my brain, I wasn't really concentrating, but my brain went, maybe bring Pepe on. Which I know sounds so dumb and I know he was basically a disaster. And in that moment, I obviously just forgot that he hasn't played for us for about three years. But I think it's interesting that for whatever reason, the synapses landed on him. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Someone who is...

an individual who's going to be like, I know what I'm supposed to do in this position is play the five-yard pass to the guy standing free, but I'm actually going to just duck inside and have a shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there was a question, but you've brought us on to that, so I might as well just do this question before we go into the break and part two from the Discord from Hale and Harula, who says, your esteemed colleague, Andrew Allen, he's not that esteemed.

He's our colleague, that's for sure. His hair is esteemed and his facial hair. And his beard is amazing. Highly esteemed.

Anyway, he said on Blue Sky on Saturday that Arsenal have taken such extreme measures to remove chaos from matches, to control them in every conceivable way, that we've got to the point where many of the players are like robots, repeatedly relying on the same patterns of play. Do you agree with this observation? Do we need more chaos in attack? And is that tied into your Matrix glitching desire to see Nicolas Pepe back on the pitch?

I think so, yeah. It's such a big answer, though. Should I do it now? Yeah, let's. Okay, let's do it here anyway. So I think that's true. So one of the thoughts I had as I walked away from the game after full time, and I spoke about it in my video, was I do think that Arsenal are lacking players.

just enough individual quality in attack to be Premier League champions. And the comparison I use for that is I looked at the sides in recent history who've won the Premier League for Arsenal. And some may say that's an absurdly high standard. But hey...

That's a Premier League title. So in 1998, you've got Dennis Bergkamp and you've got Ian Wright laterally towards the end. Nicholas Snelka. Nicholas Snelka as well. So in Bergkamp alone, you've got a player who can be a total difference maker on almost on an individual basis who can create or score a goal and

out of nothing, right? It doesn't, it almost doesn't matter to an extent. As long as you're getting in the ball, you've got a chance. You go on past that, you look at our title winning teams in 2002 and 2004, obviously Bergkamp is still there. You've supplemented him with Robert Pires, Freddie Umber, but also Thierry Henry, right? Who, I think Bergkamp and Henry are, are,

obviously, absolutely absurdly good, sort of God-level players. But what I would say is, in the last 30 years, we haven't won a Premier League title without someone like that. So I think, you know, I know people point to last season, they say, we scored a record number of goals. Yeah, we did. But we also had five games where we didn't score. And we also racked up a lot of those goals in quite straightforward fixtures, you know, in that little run where we put in six past Sheffield United and things like that.

You know, I think that's often trumped out, like Arteta will point to that a lot, but I'm not sure it's quite as convincing as it ought to be. And so now, obviously, I know that everyone's going to say, well, so what do we do? We go and buy a Thierry Henry or a Dennis Bergkamp? And this is, I think, where it gets really interesting, because that's obviously almost impossible to do. Of course. And at times, sort of like a happy accident in a way. Well, that's it. That's it.

So I was thinking about that and I was thinking about Mo Salah. Mo Salah is that player in the Premier League right now. I think we can all agree on that, right? But Liverpool didn't buy Mo Salah thinking he was going to become Mo Salah. Do you know what I mean? I know, yeah. He was a good player. He was a guy who failed at Chelsea, who'd done all right at Roma. He was the right age. He cost something reasonable, 30 million or whatever it was at the time. It was a big price, but not crazy. He ticked all the right boxes and they rolled the dice on him.

And they rolled a six. And my feeling is that when you look at the way in which we have built our squads, we just haven't taken enough time

on attacking players. Well, we've hardly signed any. Exactly. And so listen to this. So since 2015, these are the attackers Liverpool have bought, right? So they bought Firmino, Benteke, Ings, Mane, Salah, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Solanke, Shaqiri, Minamino, Jota, Diaz, Nunes, Gakpo, Chiesa. Now half those players tanked.

But that is, I'm afraid to say, how football recruitment goes. Unfortunately, the best strategy for football recruitment historically is proven to be trial and error. Yeah, wasting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I know that maybe we're not a club. Look at Chelsea. I don't think they knew Cole Palmer's going to score 25 goals in his first season.

But they just bought a shit ton of attacking talent. And he was the one who converted his potential. Now, obviously, I know we can't spend that kind of money. I know we can't and perhaps shouldn't be buying as many attackers as that. But I do feel that there's been a kind of a reticence to sign a forward unless it's the perfect forward. Sure. And I feel like that has left us in a position where...

Who knows, you know, like if we'd signed four attackers more over the last five years, one of them might have turned out to be fucking great. Yeah, maybe so. I mean, the thing about it is, I think the forward market, if you were to say to somebody now, right, go and get anyone you want. And there's a couple of names that will be out there, right? Like Isaac or maybe Giocares for some people or Ozyman or one of those. I just think, you know.

There is a really limited supply of top class strikers out there. And then it's a case of like, well, do we spend money on a player we're not 100% convinced is going to be the right guy? Maybe, maybe not, you know. But I think if you are waiting for the porridge to be just right, you could be waiting a very, very long time. And there are still no guarantees about, you know,

any player when you sign them that they are going to be a success. You know? It's like you could spend a hundred million. So, I mean, I think we're just sort of fleshing this out a little bit. What I think maybe when it comes to Arteta, when you look at the forward players that we've signed, you know,

Who have we signed? We've signed Raheem Sterling, who we don't use. We've signed Kai Havertz, who we signed as a midfielder. And I think I like Kai Havertz, but he was signed as a midfielder. We've signed Gabriel Jesus and we've signed Marquinhos. Trossard as well. And Trossard. And Trossard, to be fair, has been a decent buy. But that's it in five years. Now,

He's been lucky, of course. He's been blessed with Bakayo Saka. We had Gabriel Martinelli, who looked like he was going to be, you know, a really, really good player, but who has since, whether you want to say plateaued or stagnated, maybe that's what it is. But I agree with your contention that we haven't done enough to bring in forward players. We've signed probably or spent nearly as much on goalkeepers as we have on forwards under Mikel Arteta. And that

is part of this problem. I think just sort of flipping it around a little bit though, to play devil's advocate on this, would Arteta's philosophy or the club's philosophy be, well,

we don't want or it's very difficult to find that one player. Therefore, the collective approach to goal scoring, attacking is probably the best way to do it unless you're absolutely sure you can find that player. Yeah, I think that's fair. But what I would say is if you take Nunes out of that list of Liverpool signings, because obviously that was a huge price tag, the rest of them, you're looking at guys largely who are sort of up and coming players

early 20s, bought in the sort of 30 to 50 million bracket. And, you know, they have left them with a really diverse, interesting group of attackers. Obviously, one of them, maybe arguably two, in Salah and Mane, went kind of supernova. But...

I think that's what Arsenal should be looking at. I don't think it's necessarily... I think we've kind of talked ourselves into a position, maybe as a club even, where it's like, ah, we need the golden ticket. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Declan Rice, you know, or the £100 million. He's the guy. And I think we should be sort of diversifying our investment a bit more than that. I agree. Isn't that also perhaps the most achievable way to do something in January? Because these sort of...

unicorn strikers. Like there's no way Newcastle are going to let Isaac go in January. There's no way Yocarez is leaving in January. And if he does, he might go to Man United, Ossie Mann, all of these guys. They're not going anywhere, but there are players at Premier League level and abroad who you could bring in for a reasonable price and

an add to your squad, and maybe one of those guys becomes that guy, or at least in the context of this season and where we are, gives you more than Gabriel Jesus is giving the team and then Mikel Arteta is prepared to allow Raheem Sterling to give the team. Yeah, I think so. And, you know, he's actually an interesting example. Like,

He was a gamble in some respects for Newcastle. But they felt they were in the right position to take. And one Arsenal, he had a release clause. So the other thing, just to come back to the coaching and Andrew's point about chaos, I don't think this player is going to come out of...

the Arsenal Academy. Like, I think that Arsenal are so structured and the team are such sort of acolytes of Arteta. They're almost kind of indoctrinated in a positional system and style of play. I almost feel like we need to bring in players that have had a different educational experience that are sort of

An antidote is a bit strong, but who provide a kind of different flavour in attack. Does that require Arteta to not indulge, but to compromise his own principles in a way where he might prefer a player to be more structured? You know, does that work? But perhaps you've got to sacrifice a little of that control to introduce a little bit of that chaos. Yeah. And I think...

I mean, everyone's again going to think this is a ridiculous thing to say, but I did think of Ronaldinho when he went to Barcelona and what a sort of clear playing ideology they have and inherited from Johan Cruyff and the extent to which he was accommodated

And it totally transformed their existence. Now, of course, you'd be like, oh, right. James just thinks we need to find a Dennis Bergkamp or a Ronaldinho. Well, that should be straightforward. What I would say is like, if you think of where Ronaldinho was at before he joined Barcelona, if you think of where Thierry Henry was at before he joined Arsenal, like where Howard Sala was at before he joined Liverpool, you don't have to buy superstars. You don't have to buy that one superstar. In fact, most clubs will never, ever, ever be able to do that. You have to buy players who,

who are on the precipice or have the potential. And it might work, it might not. But I think you have to commit to it. Yeah. I can't argue with that. I can't argue with that. I think that is the most realistic way to find that player is to identify the talent somewhere else, whether it's in the Premier League, whether it's somewhere abroad, whether it's in South America, and to take a chance.

Spend some fucking money. Spend a little bit of money. You've taken the pride out of it, garlic. No, I don't mean that at all. We're in a good place. This is all relative, this discussion. But I do think, I spoke about rolling the dice and taking a gamble. And I think we might just be in a position where we need to do a bit more of that.

Yeah, well, certainly it feels like this is a team that needs some of that going into the January transfer window. Perhaps this is a discussion that will continue in part two with some of the questions. So what we're going to do is take a little break here. We'll be back with your questions in part two right after this.

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Welcome back to the Arsecast Extra. This is part two of the show where we answer the questions that you sent to us on BlueSky, at Arseblog and at Gunnerblog. Also on the Arseblog Discord chat server, which you get access to if you are an Arseblog member on Patreon. Before we get into some of those questions, some mug stuff, right? Oh yeah. We put our Goodly Morning Mugs on sale. Many of you have bought those mugs. Thank you so much indeed. We said that we were going to give all

all of the money to charity. Instead, we're going to use it as a fund to buy Arsenal a new attacker. Sorry. Yeah. And that's just what we need. I'm sure they'll understand. They'll understand. No, of course we're going to give the money to charity. I have received or have just been notified of a payment

from the Redbubble people who sell and ship the mugs. So we've raised just over €4,000 for Oscars kids and for children's hospices across London because this is the season of goodwill and giving.

What we're going to do is we're going to round that up to 5,000 euros. So we're going to give 2,500 euros to Oscars Kids. We're going to give 2,500 euros to Children's Hospices across London for the incredible work that they do for sick kids and their families. And at this time of year in particular, it could be very, very helpful. So thank you.

to all of you who have bought those mugs. And going forward, if the mugs will stay on sale, going forward, we'll continue to donate the proceeds of those mugs to those charities as well. But for now, just before Christmas, five grand raised for both of those. Very, very decent. Thank you so much, everybody.

Let's hope the powers of the Goodly Morning mug are soon restored. Let's hope so. Another mug thing, we've got a little bit of a competition for you. Our friends at Playbook Products have got some Arsenal mugs to give away. If you go to their website, playbookproducts.com, one of the mugs is Arsenal's Greatest Goals 97th Minute Heroics.

What goal does that refer to? What goal does that refer to? So send your answers to competition at arseblog.com, competition at arseblog.com, and you'll find a link to the playbook page that I'm asking you about in the show notes. So there you go. So yeah, charity mugs and a chance for you to win mugs as well. So it's mugtacular today. And speaking of mugs, let's turn to the listeners' questions. Okay.

No, what have you got for me? Oh, what have I got? Okay, what have I got? Let me see. Oh, God, we talked about that. We did all that. No, not that we talked about it. It was a mammoth part one. What about this one from Ben Stewart? Ben says, morning, guys. Thoughts on fans booing on Saturday? Obviously, they're welcome to their opinion, but it feels like expectations have risen beyond any grace for the manager or players. It wasn't a mega boo. Certainly where I was, like, I didn't even really note it.

To me, it was just that sort of disgruntled sigh. I don't know. How did it come across on the TV? I think as soon as the final whistle went, I just turned the stream I was watching on off. So I didn't know there were boos. Look, I think it's a consequence of raised expectations, as we've talked about many times, where you raise the expectations and then you fall below them. People are going to be disgruntled and...

The way people express that disgruntlement in football grounds is usually booze. I'm not here to police anybody and say they shouldn't do it or should do it or whatever. For me, this is a team, though, that has given me a lot over the last couple of seasons. I have a lot of goodwill for these players. I think we are still a good team. I can't really connect with that personally.

But, you know, when you have a crowd of 60,000 people, you've got all kinds of opinions, all kinds of outlooks. And, you know, a few of them are going to boo and a few people are going to not like the booing. So, yeah, it just is what it is. It's just human nature. I don't really, you know, I just to each their own.

Yeah, I think there's boos and boos. Like, I don't think they were booing. When you want to see some booing, check out the highlights of Southampton versus Tottenham from last night, during which the Southampton stewards had to erect a security barrier around Russell Martin's technical area. No way, really? Yeah, apparently during the game, as they trailed 5-0 at half-time. You know, I think this was more kind of a...

Just disgruntlement with the result, really. I don't think it was a booing of the manager, of the players. I don't think it was targeted booing. It was more an expression of disappointment. Yeah. I mean, obviously you'll get your individuals who, for whom, you know, that sort of anger and blame is an outlet. But...

I didn't get five. That was the general feeling in the stadium. I think more people were just sort of deflated and a bit resigned. Yeah. For the second week in a row, they've seen the same kind of issue crop up two weeks in a row. And, you know, yeah. And as we said, I just think Liverpool dropping points two weeks in a row and us not capitalizing. Yeah. It really kind of makes you feel like, ah, you know, maybe it's not going to be our, our year. Um,

Now that you put it like that. What have I got? Okay, I've got this one and it comes from Callum. Callum on the Discord says, should we be more excited about Myles Lewis-Skelly? Everyone has been looking at Nweneri, but do we have another major talent on our hands? It's interesting, isn't it? I mean, is Myles Lewis-Skelly, is he the first of the two to get a Premier League start now?

and a Champions League start. Yeah. I think he's excellent. What did you make of his performance on Saturday? Very good. Again, I thought he was very impressive in midweek. I thought he was good again in this game. I thought he had a couple of moments where maybe his inexperience showed. I thought he was quite lucky to not get booked, actually. Although I never saw a replay of that. What was that? I can't remember. It was like a breakaway around the halfway line where he sort of slid in and took someone out. And they played advantage. Right. But the ball stayed in play for about...

five minutes after that and afterwards I was like he's obviously going to go book him and he didn't just sort of forgot stern word no he did have a chat with it all right okay and again I mean I'm biased but I like that because I'm like you know he did a guy on his premier league debut 18 years old flown into a challenge a bit there and the record managed and diffused the situation I think that's I think that's that's good but um I thought largely he did really well and yeah I think playing the full 90 I

was probably never going to happen, I think. No. They always manage the minutes of a young player in a situation like that. I think the amount of adrenaline they're experiencing alone probably makes them think, you know, we need to watch him a bit. But I think he's done really well. I don't know if he's underrated. I think people are really excited about him. And comparing with Ranieri, it's difficult, isn't it? I mean, they're just very, very different players. Myles Lewis-Skelly is a guy who does his best work on the halfway line. And Ranieri is a guy who does his best work on the edge of the penalty box. And

that's always going to be a bit more eye-catching. Yeah. Thank you for coming back into the mic there as well. Yeah, sorry. I sort of got myself into it. I was very loose. I sort of had my feet up. I was sitting back. I was really ruminating on that. And then I suddenly thought,

probably can't hear me actually yeah I was about to stop and say I think you need to talk into the microphone I think I've done that for a whole podcast before by mistake this time I had to self-aware no I really like him I think he's been very impressive I think what essentially he's done over the last couple of games means that we've added a player to the squad in a way

The question then about how he plays that left-back role is one maybe which ties into some concerns or something you mentioned in the first half where at least sometimes Ben White and Jurian Timber overlap Bakayosaka. Ben White much more than Jurian Timber in the last couple of games. I accept it is very difficult to do the overlapping thing when there's no space to run into that.

when the opposition are sitting as deep as Fulham did and as Everton did. But of course, it was Thomas Partey right back, wasn't it, for Fulham. So, you know, that ability, does he have that ability to play on the outside a little bit? Maybe he does. I think he's linked things quite well. You know, you think about the pass for the first goal against Monaco was really, really good. There was one...

Yes, or on Saturday, I think it was his ball or his pass into Mikel Moreno, which brought about that first Martin Odegaard chance. Yeah, it was. So, you know, I've really liked what I've seen. And I think, you know, the discussion about left back, you know, when you've got Tierney, when you've got Zinchenko, when you've got Tomiasu, when you've got Calafiore, like at some point you have to think, right, I've got to maybe focus a little bit on a guy who can stay fit.

Yeah. And for now, touch wood, and hopefully forever, you know, he's that guy in the squad, you know, as a sort of

I don't want to say natural left back because I know he's been moved back there and been retrained, repurposed, if you like, from his youth days in midfield. But I just mean in comparison to someone like Jakob Kivior, who is available, but who is a centre half being asked to do a job at left back, whereas Lewis Skelly, I think, could be more natural in that position. Yeah, I mean, we've really applied the kind of recruitment strategy I'm asking for in attack to the left back position in recent years. And I actually think there's sort of a danger that,

Had Lewis Skelly not made these strides forward, we might have been looking at the full-back areas in January again. I know it sounds crazy, but maybe as a short-term solution or something because we had so many injuries there. I really like him as a left-back, I must say. I think he's got real potential there. I'm not sure he's ever going to be a guy who gets to the byline or goes on the outside. Arteta, I could see in the second half, shortly before we brought Lewis Skelly off, had a big chat with him. You're always...

It's guesswork really interpreting what the pointing and gesticulation means, but it felt like that's what he was asking him to do. And he brought him off shortly afterwards, maybe because that's not, you know, an aspect of his game he's developed yet, but as Ben White shows, you know, that you can add that. And I think it was the last, the Monaco game, he was playing at left back. And again, my mind was kind of wandering and I saw him there. And from a long way away in terms of his sort of body type and the way he moves, I,

i had this flash of thinking it was jury and timber and i i think he has a very similar kind of physique and physical suitability for that fullback role that kind of very sort of tigerish almost like middleweight shape to him yeah uh

So, yeah, I think he's got a great chance and I'm really happy for him that he's making the step and happy for the academy. I think it's fantastic. Of course. Can I just follow on from that one with this one from Blue Sky from MachuAFC84.com.

He said, I appreciate we do not know what his fitness levels are like, but would you have liked to have seen Kieran Tierney thrown on in the last 15 in a game like Saturday? Felt like our wingers were isolated, Partey never overlapped while Timber inverted from the left. And I think what he's talking about is Tierney as that kind of up and down, straight line, running, overlapping left back who can put some crosses in from that side. Just...

to give you a little bit of variety, I guess, is why the question is being asked. Yeah, I thought about it because they switched Timber over to that side and he did a bit of combination play and trying to get him behind, but obviously it's on his wrong foot. I mean, is that not another aspect of getting the substitutions done?

in inverted commas, where you bring on a guy not in his natural position, you move a guy from his natural position into not his natural position. And I think Timber can play on the left to a high level. I just think, obviously, right is his natural position. And therefore, you have two players kind of out of position, so to speak. Kind of, yeah. We went from having one fullback who can overlap to sort of neither. And Tierney, I have to be honest, when you were saying...

should we have brought him on? The first thought I had was, what if you bring him on, his hamstring explodes and then he's here for another three months recovering. Does it matter really though even? Does that even matter if he's here or if he goes on loan or, you know, does it matter? It might matter economically a little bit, but I don't know. Yeah, maybe it doesn't. Maybe it doesn't. I mean, I suppose it'll be interesting on Wednesday night, we've got the Carabao game. Oh yeah, we had some questions. Don't expect to see Calafiori back.

If Lewis Skelly is starting left back for now, do you give Tierney a game there? Well, we had a question from Dean who's at rightcentreback.bsky.social over on Blue Sky. He said, name the lineups. Is it rotated lineup? Name the lineups for Palace on Wednesday versus Saturday. Are they the same? I don't think they are, but I'm thinking about, you know, what exactly we do on Wednesday. Um,

It's a difficult one because there isn't a right centre-back apart from Saliba, unless it's Timber. But then that means Partey at right-back or Rice even. But if Rice can't get through, you know, an important league game, maybe there's a need to sit him down for a Carabao Cup game, you know? Even Aiden Heaven is a lefty, I believe. Yeah. Maldini? Maldini, your time has arrived. I think,

I think maybe three or four changes. I think that'll be it. Yeah, yeah. Who do you think will come in? So who didn't start? I think Jesus. I think he needs to, he has to start Sterling just to give Saka a rest. I think Jesus will start. I think Trossard will start. I think Nwanehri will start. Jorginho. Jorginho probably. Could be Marino again. So you have a Jorginho, Marino, Nwanehri.

Yeah, what about fullbacks and defence? Raya will play, I would imagine. Yes, I would say so. At this stage of the competition, I would imagine so. It'll be Lewis Skelly in the absence of anyone else, or it could be Tierney, I guess. Could potentially play Tierney. But then we've only got two right-backs to get us through all these games, and those are Partey and Timber. If he wants to give Saliba a rest, which I don't think will happen,

Yeah, he could go something like Partey, Timber, Kivior. Or Partey, Timber, Gabriel, Kivior, you know? It just depends. Gabriel's just back, isn't he? Yeah. What was that? Was it like a hammy or...? I'm not actually sure. Probably concussion from heading so many balls into the back of the net. I think he'll pick Saliba and Kivior. I think so. And then he'll go, maybe he'll rest. I think he might go Partey, right back, Timber, left back, you know?

Oh, don't, don't do that. I just think a player as young as Lewis Skelly, they tend to sort of look after them physically, don't they? No, I agree. I think you could see even in the Monaco game that when he came off, he was, you know, I said that, I can't remember if I said this to Lewis on the preview podcast, like, you know, he's obviously a fit young man, right? But he hasn't even been playing sort of under 21 football. So there's no significant match fitness there, which is different.

So starting two games in a row, he's done an hour against Monaco. It was about 70 minutes, I think, against Everton on Saturday. It is going to take him time to build up his match fitness. But I think also the Carabao Cup is kind of the competition where he and Arteta, and I'm sure Nwane Eri as well, will be looking at this game as the one that they should play. Yeah, that's true. Do you know what I mean? But maybe it's off-set. But he didn't play at Preston. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. Zinchenko started, I think. Because he'd been quite involved, I think, as well in Champions League games. I think he'd come on maybe against City and I forget. Yeah, he came on for a few minutes against City, all right. So yeah, the left-back, I think, in some ways, the full-backs is the most interesting selection because it's where we're a bit stretched and it's going to be some sort of compromise involved. We're not expecting Calafiore back for that, are we? I'm not personally, but you know,

Arteta's been very tight-lipped on it. So, you know, I'm a bit in the dark on that one. It'd be nice. It'd be really nice. Let me ask you this. Okay. It's about a player who we think is quite likely to play on Wednesday, and that is Heem Sterling. I'm just looking for it now.

Here you go. MaximumGuna97. Morning, gents. What exactly is going on with Raheem Sterling? I know he's not the long-term answer and likely not to be here beyond the end of the season, but what was the point of getting him in at all if he's just not going to play? With how inconsistent and unreliable both Martinelli and Trossard have been, surely he's worth a go to try something different on that left side? I really hope he plays on Wednesday, but at this point, Artista seems so reluctant to play him. I wonder if something else is going on.

I don't know if there's something else. I think it's just maybe it ties into what the manager is or the discussion we had about taking a risk or taking a gamble. My gut feeling is that Arteta doesn't trust Sterling defensively. I don't know that for sure. But what was the game? Could have been Bournemouth where he started. Was it on the right? Started, yeah. Started on the right-hand side. When we went down to 10 men, he was the guy who came off straight away.

And I think it was because Arteta needed 10 players who he absolutely believed could put a shift in defensively. There was a game a few weeks ago as well where he brought Sterling on and within a few minutes, he brought Nweneri on as well to provide a bit more cover on that side defensively for Sterling. So I think that's where the issue is. What Raheem Sterling is capable of now is

I don't know, because we've barely seen him this season. We've barely seen him in the Premier League. We've seen him a bit in the Carabao Cup, but that's hard to make an assessment on because you're playing lower league opposition. I genuinely don't know what he's capable of from an attacking perspective. I mean, unfortunately, in the current state of affairs, it's entirely plausible that Arteta...

did what I've been asking him to do. It took a bit of a gamble on signing him. He turned up for training and they were like, Oh, like that's how it kind of feels that, you know, they signed him based on his previous relationship with the manager and what he's done in his career. And that what he's doing on the training ground is not giving the manager sufficient cause to pick him. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to escape the idea that he is the, the,

archetypal example of a player who started really young and who has faded early and fast. And I think that could be as simple as it is. Like you though, when we're desperate for a goal, when we absolutely need a goal to win us a game, as we did against Fulham, as we did against Everton, to get no minutes at all really does raise questions about

either his level or what is going on between him and Arteta. Like Arteta, when he speaks about, he's speaking about Sterling in the same way he spoke about Smith Rowe last season.

Do you see those parallels? Yeah, or Eddie Nketiah. Yeah, he's working really hard. It's my fault he's not getting on the pitch. You know, I feel bad for him. You know, it's about taking his opportunities when they come. But then the opportunities don't come. You know, what he says publicly, which I understand, by the way. I understand. There might come a point where he has to play. Right?

Raheem Sterling because of suspensions or injuries or something like that. So he can't say anything publicly that's going to completely and utterly demoralize a player. But I think when you look at what he says versus what he does, it's what he does that tells you the most about the situation. Absolutely. Actions speak louder than words. And I have this feeling because he always talks really positively about Sterling, but it's often in the past tense. He often will say like, you know, we had an amazing connection together and

you know, what we've been through. And I feel like there's very little sort of throwing it forward. So, yeah, I'm not hugely optimistic. A few people are saying, you know, is there a break clause? Hand on heart, I don't actually know. I'd be quite surprised. I think those are relatively unusual. Yeah. I think he's probably here until May.

Right. Rory O'Kane says, are you concerned that Martin Odegaard is yet to score in open play this season? Two years ago, he broke the Premier League record for open play goals from midfield. Now he doesn't look like he's going to score when he gets a chance. I know we talked about this a bit, obviously, in the first half. But, you know, is it a case that he's sort of... That's striking, isn't it? Is he blocked a little bit? That happens sometimes, doesn't it? You go through little periods.

Yeah, I mean, it was interesting. He took the penalty the other day. Was that part of an attempt to kind of unlock that? Just looking back at his season and his numbers now, obviously he missed a big chunk. So it's not quite as dramatic as it seems. But one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine Premier League games without an open play goal.

Yeah, I think that's an issue. And I think one of our issues last season in that sort of tricky spell is that a number of our attacking players kind of fell out of form at the same time. I think there's a little bit of that happening right now too. So it'd be great if he could rediscover that goal scoring touch. What else have we got? We had a load of questions that we've sort of... Talked about, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even that Andrew Allen thing. What's this? Yeah, can our coach attack? That old chestnut. Yeah.

I mean, I understand the question. I do understand the question. But I think we've covered it in a lot of detail in the first half. What about this one from Mayo Gooner? Averagely morning, gents. Obviously, with January around the corner, some business may or may not take place. So if a club, maybe in Spain, for example, needed to bolster their attack and came in with a cheeky 50 to 70 million pound bid, would you consider the offer and sell Gabrielle Martinelli? No. I'm going to say no.

Because I think that it would just, you know, to be as well off as we are now, we'd have to do a fair bit of incoming business in January. And I slightly doubt our capacity to do that. But I do think that is an interesting conversation. And I do think if Arsenal were presented with an offer like that, maybe more so in the summer, you know, I do wonder if it's approaching the point where they might...

be tempted to take it. What do you think? I mean, I don't think I'd do it in January because what I think we need to do in January is improve on Jesus and improve on Sterling, who aren't really giving us anything, you know? Whereas I think Martinelli's form has been patchy, no question, same with Trossard, but they are still capable of getting us goals and I think...

With Martinelli in particular, he is only 23. So there is still the capacity, the ability for him to kick on again. I also feel like he's not a player that I would ever want out. Like, he's not a problem. Do you know what I mean? Like, he's not a guy who I'm like, oh, he's a bit toxic. Or like, if I was building my dream Arsenal squad, like based on what we have now, you'd probably have him involved, but you just might have him...

behind someone else in the pecking order potentially. Whether he'd be up for that is another matter entirely, but his attitude is so good. He has such great raw attributes. Like I'm not in a hurry to get rid of him. If the question is, can we upgrade on him? I'd have to say yes. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree with that. I think he has, like I said earlier, plateaued considerably and,

There is a wider discussion to be had about our left-hand side, I think. The lack of consistency at left-back. The left eight remains a mythical problem for Arsenal, doesn't it? It feels almost like that one position could be the key to unlocking more from Arsenal.

this team with what we have but if that was functioning what did you make of Marino on Saturday because I saw him get a fair bit of stick I mean I think he's been fine yeah I think he's been alright you know he set up that good chance for Odegaard maybe a little culpable when we talk about how quick we move the ball you know

He's fine. I don't think he was really terrible or anything. I don't think anybody was absolutely awful on Saturday. Were they good enough? No. But I haven't really seen... This is only the second time that Rice-Marino-Odegaard started. Exactly. I'm sure the plan when they sat down and sketched that out this summer was for that unit to be much more...

involved by this point. You know, it's December the 16th and this is only the second time they've started a game together. That clearly wasn't in the plan. This should be when they're finding their rhythm, right? Exactly. Exactly. Nevertheless, I think he hasn't raised the level in the way that we might have liked. And again, it could be because that unit, which is a pretty important unit in the midfield, you know,

Just hasn't had time to bed in together and to develop any kind of chemistry, as Arteta would say. You know, it probably doesn't help either that Rice is playing through an injury at the moment. But, like, I think he was fine, but I don't think he's the guy, you know, to really unlock that position for us. It feels almost like Arteta thought, right, I need somebody who is...

Granit Xhaka adjacent in a way. Do you know what I mean? Because that worked so well for me. Who else is out there that could do it the same way? You can see some parallels between Marino and Xhaka. Left-footed, tall, strong, not particularly quick, but can get into the box. Decent in the air. You can see why that went, whereas I really feel like that left eight position needed a bit more...

or something like that, if that's the right way of putting it. I think that's still what it needs in order to make us a more coherent unit down the left-hand side. And coming back to what we were just talking about, maybe that allows you to get a bit more out of Gabriel Martinelli, whose game, I think, has become a little one-dimensional. There isn't quite the willingness or the ability to take people on the way he used to.

And maybe that's defenders sussing him out as well. Maybe. It could be an element of that too. Yeah. I think it's interesting, Marino, when I agree with you kind of on the recruitment there. I think if you were kind of broadly breaking Arsenal's midfielders into categories, I think you would say that Marino's got more in common with Declan Rice, Thomas Partey and Jorginho than he does with Martin Odegaard. Yes.

And I think that's sort of too weighted towards one style of midfielder, if that makes any sense. No, I agree. I agree. Like, I think he can contribute. I think he gives us some squad depth. I think, you know, there are things about his game that are good and useful, but I don't think he's...

The guy who's going to up the ante, if that makes sense. I did think there were some encouraging signs in the first half from him. You know, you mentioned Granit Xhaka. Mourinho made a few runs that were very Xhaka-like to the byline and, you know, making those little diagonal movements in behind, set up Odegaard with a chance. There were some green shoots there, but I do think stylistically it might ultimately be a different type of player who unlocks that flank. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, again, that's a question for the transfer market, I think, isn't it? Rather than, you know, what we've got internally, unless, you know, you do decide to start Nweneri alongside Odegaard and see how that works. Yeah. Yeah. He's got that option. I mean, I guess you've also got the option of maybe Lewis Skelly, but I think he again fits into that former category of midfield players. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, we'll have to wait and see. But I am... Look, I want to see more of that midfield three. If that's plan A, if they're the guys, let's give them a run. Let's give them a chance. Yeah. Let's just do this very finally because, you know, we've talked in fairly broad terms about January and it's very difficult to get into specifics. Like, we had a question from...

Blue Sky, Magnus Holmberg saying, you've got the power to sign one player in January. Who do you go for? It has to be a realistic target. His club would let him go and the price would be doable. I find that question a lot more difficult to answer because, you know, who is really available in January? I mean, I suppose if you really throw the money down, then most clubs, you know, sort of in the tier below Arsenal would consider a deal for a player that

But it's more about whether Arsenal have the ability to do that. Do they have the money? There was a question. Let me see. I think it was on the Discord. I apologize. I can't find it. But, oh yeah, here it is. It comes from Alessandra Hedgeblog, who says, if we sign Sterling in the summer, does that really suggest there's any budget for a striker or an attacker in January?

Would a striker be free now who wasn't available in the summer? What's changed monetarily or in the market? So there's the sort of wider question about Arsenal's ability or what is actually possible for the club to do in January. And look, I've said this more than once over the last couple of weeks and certainly after the last two results, I feel like it really is necessary. But what is possible and realistic?

Yeah, and I have to be honest and say, I don't entirely know. I mean, we can make inferences based on the transfer activity last summer, where Arsenal got pretty close to breaking even, I think, in terms of what they paid out and what they brought in. And I don't think the Sterling signing is necessarily one because Arsenal didn't have a penny that they could apply in the market. I think it was more one of, well, this is a very low-risk signing.

move at a time when none of our primary targets have come to pass. But, you know, my understanding at the end of that transfer window was that what Arsenal had done in terms of ins and outs meant that they would have a bit of flexibility going forward in future windows. I do think, and I know that everyone will groan slightly at hearing this, but

I do think that that's probably that sort of significant expenditure is more likely in the summer, just because the market is more fluid at that time. But yeah, it's hard to call. And I think as well, January transfer strategy, unfortunately, is always impacted by what happens on the pitch. You know, if you pick up an injury or two in one position, like if Arsenal lose another right back, which is not beyond the realms of possibility, given the histories of the guys they've got in that area,

Suddenly, you find yourself thinking... I need a right back. I need a right back. And that probably comes at the expense of everything else. And when you look at Arsenal's January, it's like I think there is a more kind of reactive tactical element to them rather than the bigger strategic stuff. So I think a lot's going to depend on injuries, availabilities, the needs of the squad. I think January tends to be more of a short-term sticking plaster situation than...

And long-term class.

to the team for a price which was much more reasonable than that of Mikhailo Mudrik.

But that willingness was there to do something in January. True. But it's whether or not they can identify a player in the market, whether it's in England or abroad, who might be worthy of that kind of pursuit. Yeah. I do think an interesting kind of wild card in this is the fact that Arsenal have got this interim sporting director in place in Jason Aito. Yeah, you did a big piece on...

on him for The Athletic, which is very interesting, actually. I thought it was quite interesting to hear Edu talk as openly as he did about, you know, the situation and, you know, the succession plan, if you want to call it that. Yeah, I think... Well, I think...

I think that he feels that he put that in place, that he sort of groomed Jason Aito as a potential successor. And I think he would like to see that plan followed through on. I think there's a few people internally who would like that because Jason's very well thought of. But I do think in terms of the market, his role as Sporting Director has kind of been narrowed a little bit to focus on the first team and supporting Mikel in the most helpful way he can.

I think Mikel's opinion on the sporting director position will ultimately carry a lot of weight. He was quite complimentary about him in the press conference. He talked about him and said, you know, he was asked a couple of questions and he said, well, we have Jason Ato, you know, and he mentioned him by name. Yeah, he said that we may have the solution internally. I mean, who knows? You know, he may just be being political there and...

ultimately, you know, he's not leading that process as he said himself, Arteta. But I do think if you're Jason Aito and you want the job and you want Mikel Arteta to want you to get the job, the best thing you can do

is finding a player. I mean, is that, I mean, the process of how transfers go down is obviously a very interesting one, but you know, could it be as simple as someone like Jason Aito studying the market, seeing who's out there, you know, doing a little digging on availability and price and things like that, and then presenting that as an opportunity to Mikel Arteta and the board to say, look,

This guy, this is what he can do. This is what he could bring to the team. This is how much he could cost. This is how much he's going to cost in wages. You know, is that a possible scenario that could happen?

in the January window or maybe even before the January window if they're thinking about, you know, being active. Yeah, I mean, you'd have to imagine those conversations happening right now. And basically, they all sit in a room in a video suite at London Colney and, you know, the recruitment department, I guess it'll be Jason Aito, there might be others in there, the head of recruitment or...

one or two more will sit with Mikel, often with Albert as well, because, you know, trusted lieutenants, Mikel, and they will talk through lists, you know, they'll talk through positions and lists of players and watch clips. I mean, that is essentially...

When all that work of building the relationships, identifying the players, getting the data, that's where that all comes to a head is in those meetings. I don't know, but you'd have to imagine that meeting is sort of... Those kinds of discussions are happening right now. Unless there is something we don't know about, that means that Arsenal can't do something in January. And I just have to hold my hands up and say...

The Cronkies aren't showing me the accounts. I don't know. Do you know what I mean? But I have to believe, based on the way the summer went, there's at least a possibility. And I don't intend to sort of... It shouldn't become the case that if we don't sign someone in January, well, it's all Jason Aito's fault. Eddie would have done it. I don't think that's true. I think the decision will ultimately be led by the club, right? And I think what Mikel wants to do, what Tim Lewis wants to do...

what Richard Garlick wants to do, what the owners want to do will be a factor. But if we're all making a case for how and where this Arsenal squad could be improved, you can bet those conversations are happening internally as well. No doubt. But fingers crossed that they can bring something to fruition. Just does feel like, not that we've gone stale, but something new happens.

might just be required to spark us back into life a little bit. But in the meantime, of course, we've got to win some games. Two games against Crystal Palace this week, which is a weird dynamic, obviously. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the week. We'll do a post-game podcast on Thursday for you. A little later on Patreon, we'll look back at what was a very interesting weekend in the Premier League.

In the 30, myself and Phil Costa. You can join us for that, patreon.com forward slash arseblog. For now, though, take it easy, and we will catch you on the next one. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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