Match Day Thread Brentford vs Arsenal - Matchday Thread

That’s an amazing stat alright. With that I thought you would be at least top 6. But then what do they say about stats and lies?

The worrying thing for Arsenal is that with 3 games gone, they’ve already conceded 9, almost a quarter of the whole last season. Who cares about stats eh?

 

I'm not gonna say Saliba doesn't have potential but I would say you probably have too high of an opinion at the moment of a player that has so far done absolutely nothing for Arsenal and only performed in a lower quality league.

Ligue 1 was a bit of a goldmine in the early 2000s and even before that - you lot certainly bought some unreal players - but in the 2010s there's been a hell of a lot of flops, especially big money ones. Pepe, Ndombele, Batshuayi, Mendy, Bakayoko and I'm sure there's more, it just doesn't seem like the best place to shop nowadays.

I don't know anything about Lokonga so can't comment if he's a good signing or not but I'm not sure about Odegaard. He's got talent but I doubt he'd make many (if any) of the XIs of the top/ big six. For me he's a bit like Sigurdsson (minus the rumoured noncing), a good player but just below the level of what you'd want from a starting calibre player at a big six club, obviously I ain't seen him as much as you but I didn't get the impression he done much last season for Arsenal so I was surprised you signed him permanently this time around.

 

I hate this lower quality League argument for players.
This is the league that brought us Henry, Vieira, Petite, Desailly, Drogba, Cantona, Lloris, Essien, Kante etc.. and is still full of quality players. From the age of 17-18 Saliba has looked a cut above the players around him. As I said previoulsy on here I've never been more convinced by a young CB. He's got shades of Van Dijk about him. Of course he could have a terrible attitude and throw that talent away.. that's a another debate though.

With Odengaard at 15-16 he was expected to become the next Messi/Ronaldo - he was that level of talent. Arguably the biggest young talent in Europe at that point - it didnt quite work out for him at Real but the potential is still big. He could still grow to be alot better than people expect.

Lokonga already looks like decent competition for Xhaka and is going to get better.

 

Ive started to change my opinion on our signings a bit. Initially I also subscribed to the theory that we wasted a lot of money, but now I think we should judge these players at the end of the season.

Our goal this transfer window was to buy young and en masse.

We wanted to bring many in (6) so that we could reboot the culture surrounding the squad. a shame we couldnt get more players out.
We wanted to bring in young players, so they could grow together and Arteta (who I still think will be sacked before Christmas) will be able to mould them to his liking.

For me, White and Odegaard have huge potential upsides. we overpaid for White but not by much IMO. Odegaard is a player I like and I see many positives when he played. I see a lot of rival fans saying he wouldnt get into another top 6 side etc. Not only do I not agree, but I think they are going solely on stats from last season (Odegaard had 1 league goals and 2 assists). But for me looking at his ability and style of play is more important - especially as hes only 22.

Lokonga looks good. I can already tell he will make it here; and I think thats truly a diamond in the rough weve found.

Tavarez also looks great especially as hes only cost 7m.

I must admit I know almost nothing about Tomiyasu, so cannot comment on him. Sky were saying some ridiculous nonsense like his 'agent' was saying hes neither a right back nor a center back - whatever that means; he played there for Bologna for 2 seasons so just sky chatting **** yet again methinks.

And that leaves Ramsdale. This one is easily the most controversial of the signings. I do think weve overpaid for him, and there are question marks about his ability as 3 relegations in 4 seasons doesnt speak well, but I will reserve judgment until I see him play. Who knows maybe he will prove everyone wrong?

 

So the person you deem the biggest cause of them going down ended up being voted player of the year for them??

 

He wasn’t the biggest cause. I said some did think that but he didn’t make the saves that Henderson made in several 1-0 wins of SU. Clearly other factors were at play. SU’s interesting system with their CBs didn’t work well the 2nd season.

He was a busy GK and of course had to make more saves than the like of Allison or Ederson. But I was surprised that Southgate selected him and Arteta bought him to replace Martinez or challenge Leno.