Tag: Transfers

WE ARE BACK BABY (Arsenal – Liverpool Reaction)

I am going to be so insufferable and need somebody to humble Arsenal quick cause I am FEELING myself. Arsenal got rid of our Klopp voodoo curse and pulled out a 3-2 win at the Emirates over Liverpool. Klopp has essentially owned me and Arsenal since he stepped foot in England, you can say since Klopp arrived at Liverpool, this was the first time we have convincingly beaten him over 90 minutes in a football match. Just outrageous but we managed to pull it off today. Two goals from Saka and a early one from Martinelli carried us to victory despite Liverpool able to peg us back twice.

It’s tight at the league’s top, but this victory puts us back on top. We are well entrenched into this “title” race as long as the standings say so but more importantly, it more than entrenches us into the Top 4 race as we are all on stand-by with Haaland wrecking City to the title. THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

  1. My guy Tomiyasu is back – Arteta went with pretty much the same XI that has carried us this season in the league except for one huge change, at LB with Zinchenko out due to injury, he selected RB Tomiyasu at left back instead of Tierney. Huge call by Arteta which would cause controversy anyway it turned out and it turned out in his favor today. Tomiyasu absolutely pocketed Salah from the start. Salah basically went missing for the duration of match and a search team is absolutely needed to find his whereabouts. Just a tactical masterclass by Arteta using the defensive-minded Tomi to keep an eye on Salah knowing full-well Tomiyasu has experience playing as a left-sided CB for his country 🙂 . Happy for Tomi, his performance today made me think that whenever we play a match, he is part of our best XI, not sure where he belongs, but it definitely on the pitch.
  2. Martinelli is a problem – Every chance Martinelli got, you could see him wipe his tongue across his face as he knew it was time to feast on poor Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Martinelli’s pause on Arsenal’s 2nd goal sent Henderson and TAA back to Liverpool as it completely took them out of the game and left it on a plate for Saka to finish. Every time we needed a consistent threat, Martinelli was there for the call, whether it be Gomez, TAA, or Henderson, he cooked them all. It was so bad, Klopp subbed out TAA at halftime (he said it was cause of injuries, probably wasn’t), subbed off the RCB (Matip) , and subbed on another CM for coverage. What a game for Martinelli.

3. Thomas Partey Masterclass – outside of Rodri, is there a better CDM in the league? I thought he was brilliant, especially in the second half. We do not have one individual who can do half of what this man does for us. His timing and pacing of his passing just keep us ticking and going all match long. He did everything required to keep us on top throughout the match, making tackles, resisting their press, pinging balls out wide that you wouldn’t even notice if you didn’t pay attention. I just love this man so much. Just watch this comp and admire his greatness. I want Arsenal staff at his beck and call 24/7. I want all of his needs attended to at all times of the day. When he eats, when he dresses, when he goes down the stairs, we must all come together to make sure Thomas stays healthy for the whole season cause without him we are hopeless.

4. Calm down – When we scored within the minute, you could feel the buzz throughout the stadium and that transferred to the players undoubtedly. However, that only hindered our performance as we were all gas no brakes when we should have slowed down and our stamp into the game. Too many times after we got out to the 1-0 lead, we were just directly feeding our front line instead of building our possession through the midfield. This allowed Liverpool back into the game and getting the deserved goal to draw level at 1-1. Too many times when Thomas received the ball and had no support from Xhaka and Ø as an outlet which then would cause him to play back to the defenders who would then hoove the ball forward. Just played right into the hands of Liverpool which allowed Henderson and Thiago time and space to operate despite being in poor form this season. There was s glimpse of that naivety that ran its ugly head during the United game, we were able to counter with a second goal before the half but we need to see these moments better in future games. To be fair, we were much better in the second half, when we asserted our dominance, you can tell, the midfield trio of Ø, Xhaka and Thomas get more involved within the game, Martinelli and Saka get isolated onto their defenders etc. We were a better team throughout the full 90, just need to see the tough moments out better.

5. Martin Ødegaard confuses me – He had that minor injury right before the international break which hindered his form a bit but there were times throughout the game when I felt like he went missing. Especially in the first half where Liverpool grew into the game, we needed to find our playmakers to take the sting out of their momentum but he was nowhere to be found. However he played the sumptuous ball to Martinelli on the first goal. He will have moments of pure brilliance out of nowhere but its the consistency throughout the match where I feels like he goes missing at times. As our captain we need him showing for the ball and putting his stamp on the game, I don’t care if he loses it, we need his touches on the ball regardless cause more times than not, his touches on the game are pure quality.

6. Gabriel man, I don’t know what I am going to do with this guy – This guy man, he is straight out of a Six Flags amusement park, a damn roller coaster. He takes you through all the emotions. He will have moments of pure madness, gives the penalty away against Spurs, gives the goal away against Fulham etc. but then he will turn around and produce brilliant moments such as his goal against Fulham to win the match and then his dummy to set up Saka. Just an absolutely mad player that isn’t healthy for me. He got away with a questionable hand ball today as well in our box.

7. Rotation is key right now for Mikel – with the Europa League games coming hard and fast, that means the Thursday-Sunday cycle is well and truly on, so he needs to start resting players like Martinelli, Gabriel, Xhaka (maybe or maybe not) in order to preserve our player’s health through this busy part of the season. The back four I’m not too worried about as we have Ben White, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, Saliba, Zinchenko, Tierney and Holding for four spots. It’s the midfield that worries me as Sambi is the only replacement we have when Xhaka and Thomas goes down. I’d like for him to try a Sambi- Fabio pivot during the Europa League games, see if he can cut it as a deeper 8. The front 3 speaks for itself as we have Marquinhos and Reiss now back into the fold for our wide position with Eddie backing up Gabriel Jesus.

8. Got my eyes on you Jordan Henderson – Undoubtedly, this is the game of the year so far in the Premier League. Emotions were running high for both teams. There are rumors circulating of an incident between Gabriel and Jordan Henderson that had racism stemmed in there, whether it’s true or not, who knows but hopefully more details come out in regards to it.

9. I LOVE GABRIEL JESUS

VERY TOP. GOOD SENSATION

Featured image credits: Reuters

Video credits: NBC Sports, Iskaholic, Terry Flewers

Arsenal win their first 5 league games and idk how to act (Arsenal-Villa reaction)

I do not really know how to process what is going on right now. I can’t complain about anything Arsenal are doing right now. My only personality usually is complaining about Arsenal but I can’t do that. They play well, start fast and score goals. Legit the 3 things I only want in life. Arsenal has started the league campaign winning 5/5 games and sitting firmly atop the Premier League standings (Yes, I understand City is right on our ass but let me have today). We found Aston Villa in terrible form and it showed tremendously as we dominated them in a 2-1 victory. Villa were terrible, we were awesome for the most part and find ourselves ready to hopefully bring United back to Earth this weekend.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

  1. Gabi Jesus has been the best player in the league this season not named Haaland. He was absolutely splendid tonight. Despite the short rest, he was energetic throughout, going out of his way to get involved in the game, and just absolutely destroying Mings and Konsa throughout. Gabriel Jesus has absolutely mastered the timing of his shoulder budges as multiple times throughout the night he bodied the much bigger Mings and Konsa off the ball using his lower body of strength. He was rewarded for his work with a goal off the spaz (Emi Martinez). I love him. I can easily say outside of my girlfriend and immediate family, the most important person in my life right now is Gabriel Jesus.
Another plus on the night was him getting in the head of the clown that is Emi Martinez

2. I straight up might be cheering for Brazil in the World Cup. The performances of Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli, and Gabriel have gotten me pretty much a shoo-in to cheer for the Seleção this winter in Qatar. Gabriel Jesus is self-explanatory as I am essentially in love with him at this point. Martinelli has played so well this season that he has essentially made Emile Smith Rowe irrelevant at the moment and essentially made Pépé go back to France. He got his third goal of the season and has cemented himself at the time being to the starting XI with his energy and goal output. Gabriel has formed a formidable duo with Saliba at the moment. Despite his blunder last week against Fulham, he responded immediately with a goal of his own to win us the game.

3. Ødegaard owns me at this point. Especially in the first half, he was absolutely magnificent. He was on another level, everything we did in the dominant first half went through the Norwegian. He ran his balls off to get his foot on the ball, and he showed himself to Sambi as an outlet and was the outlet for every attacking player that sensed some sort of pressure. My Captain 😉

4. Despite the 1-0 scoreline, we could have scored 10 in the first half, we were a different class. The best part of this Arsenal squad this season is how fast we have become at starting matches. In every game this season, we have come out and put our stamp on the game from the start, dominating possession, and relentless pressing to make sure we got the ball back. I do not think that Ramsdale had to touch the ball with his hands or had to make a save in the first half. We just need to make sure in these spells of dominance, that we make it count with multiple goals and balance out that energy to ensure we keep it up for 90 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

5. I am biased and I don’t understand how Ramsdale wasn’t fouled on this goal. Was Ramsdale supposed to knock Kamara out, was he supposed to run over Kamara? I don’t understand. Kamara was essentially inhibiting Ramsdale’s movement on that goal. Robert Jones and VAR are clowns for letting that goal stand. Ramsdale should have done better for sure but a foul is a foul. Ramsdale next time needs to put a defender between him and the other team or just truck the player on the other team as the keeper usually gets the benefit of the doubt on those plays.

6. Cédric got called for a penalty for touching Son last season but nothing was called for Mings performing a WWE move on Saka, what a sick joke from VAR and the officiating.

7. John McGinn is such a cunt. With Sadio Mané in Germany now, John McGinn has to be the clear leader in the league for the dirtiest player. He’s such a dirty cunt, the way he goes into tackles so late with an extra cleat or body barge to make sure he gets a hold of everybody that goes up for a tackle against him. Such a bastard really.

8. Tomiyasu looks really good, like really good. If Arteta wanted to insert Tomiyasu into the starting lineup, I wouldn’t mind. Obviously, it is tough for Arteta to switch anything up with how well we have played with White-Saliba-Gabriel-Tierney/Zinchenko but Tomiyasu offers us something White doesn’t going forward. I am not saying he has to make the change now, I’m just saying Tomiyasu looked solid.

9. I absolutely feel for Ollie Watkins for being stuck in Saliba’s pocket all night. I watched all 90 minutes of this game and can’t remember one thing that Ollie Watkins did. Like I can’t tell you one thing that he did, which just shows you how well our Rolls Royce of a defender in Saliba shut him out. Just amazing.

10. I’m sick of Thomas Partey being injured. We need to sign reinforcements in this window badly if Thomas is out for an extended period. Can’t be cheap in the window and rely on our young players to carry us through, we need depth at midfield and a winger with the departure of Pépé.

Twitter credits: NBC Sports, ArsNoContext

I’ll never give up on Nicolas Pépé

Nicolas Pépé just completed a season-long loan move to Nice for the 2022/2023 season, which likely ends his career at Arsenal. I don’t know how I feel about it. Objectively, if you look at it, it can not be labeled anything but a failure. Joining Arsenal in 2019 as the club transfer record fee of €79 million, anything but player-of-the-year type performances would be the only standard. Nicolas Pépé bagged 27 goals and 21 assists in 3 seasons at Arsenal (112 apps). Not terrible but nothing remotely close to what he should have produced with that transfer fee. Is it his fault that we went out and spent that money on him? Absolutely not. Should we have expected more from him after his last season at Lille? Absolutely.

Why did it not work for Pépé at Arsenal? He absolutely had moments where you recognized his immense talent and potential. He had a wand of a left foot. He had deceptive quickness and an uncanny ability to thrive in uncertain situations, especially when trying to go past defenders. However, there was such a lack of consistency with it that was so frustrating. Unai and Mikel never seemed to be able to get the best out of him but it also seemed pretty obvious that neither really gave him the fairest chance. Unai has stated publicly that Wilfried Zaha was his preferred winger to get in 2019 and Mikel from the start has shown favoritism to every other winger at Arsenal before Pépé.

Pépé isn’t the type of player you want in a possession-oriented team against teams that defend in low-blocks. His style very much resembles an old-fashioned winger where his first instinct is to go at players directly as opposed to looking to combine with teammates firsthand which goes against the fluid possession that Arteta craves. Pépé thrives in chaos and counter-attacks. His best moments at Arsenal came from us countering City in the FA Cup SF or his majestic goal against Wolves shown below.

Nico did well to win the ball off Semedo and then he got the ball from Lacazette and from there, just absolutely emasculated Semedo and Neves before curling it to the far post with his weaker foot. Just frustrating that moments like this came few and far between.

Arsenal had an 18-pass move against City in the FA Cup SF in 2020 where Pépé’s final ball to Auba completed the goal. Here you can see the wand of a left foot that Pépé had whether it be for crossing or shooting. Here the cross to Auba came against a City side not set in its defensive shape where Pépé’s quality was able to shine through a vulnerable defense.

Southampton also just gave up the ball carelessly and 3 passes later Pépé maneuvered his body between himself and the goal which gave Valery no chance to stop him before he put the ball past the keeper.

Just absolutely annoying we couldn’t get this week in and week out.

CONCLUSION: People forget Pépé had 10 PL goals in the 20/21 season and was absolutely left out of the squad in 21/22. Arteta clearly didn’t favor him. Pépé is a player who thrives on confidence and form and Arteta provided and assisted in none of that. To be fair to everybody involved, Pépé was not brought in by the Arteta/Edu regime which left Pépé vulnerable to being an outcast once Arteta arrived. I never fully disliked Pépé because of the fact that I never felt like he got the fairest chance. from Arteta. Even when Pépé when played well and provided goals/assists, he never was able to fully get into the squad. Not saying Pépé is absolved of all blame, but not sure if there was more he could do at times. Price tag wasn’t his fault. The managers never believed in him. He had glimpses which made you believe but was never consistent. It just wasn’t a right fit for all involved which sucks. Just because we are Arsenal, it is almost a certainty Pépé will thrive at Nice cause that is how like works. Nothing but the best for Pépé and absolutely hopes he proves Mikel wrong. I’ll never give up on him.

Featured image credit: AFP

Twitter credits: NBCSports

Arsenal Preview 2022/2023 (Forwards) – Gabi Jesus Szn

Imagine a professional football team that tried to achieve Champions League football with a center forward that couldn’t run, jump, or move in any capacity. God Bless Lacazette, but that is what Arsenal tried to achieve last year. The combination of Auba, Laca, and Eddie Nketiah last year through 38 PL games accounted for 13 goals. 13 motherfucking goals. 37 year old Cristiano score more himself in a disoriented United squad. Salah had more than 13 himself halfway through last season. It is quite literally a miracle that we were one result going our way from making the Champions League. To the club’s credit, Arsenal have gone on and acquired the services of Brazilian International and multi Premier League champion Gabriel Jesus to lead the line and the change has been nothing short of drastic.

CENTER FORWARD/STRIKER: If you look at the numbers Gabi Jesus produced during his time at City, they may look underwhelming at first but he had a lot of extenuating factors that played against him. The stubborn Aguero refusing to give up his spot, an absolutely crowded front line, and lack of consistent game time hindered Gabi’s time at City. Gabi Jesus spent a good amount of time on the wings and was in charge of tracking back like any winger is asked to do which is something Pep appreciated from him however, that greatly hindered Gabriel Jesus’ chances for goals. At Arsenal, we go as far as Gabi takes us. He’s our star man and what our transfer window was based off of. It’s on him, management and the team to get the best out of him. In just a few games in preseason and against Palace, you can just see the quality oozing out:

He calmly brings the cross-field pass down with his chest and proceeds to pass and then RUN into the box to follow his pass and get the goal. I’d have to end myself before Lacazette did such a thing last season. This goal also shows the flexibility that Gabi provides in being able to play on the touchline if need be, for example if we need to team him up with Eddie for a goal and he has to float out wide.

This passage of play against Palace also shows the all-action footballer that Gabi Jesus is as he muscles Schlupp off the ball, megs Dourouré, and then sends Andersen back to Denmark all in one run before getting his shot block. Gabriel Jesus was absolutely everywhere in the first half against Palace and was extremely unlucky to not have a goal to his name for his effort. He fell off a bit in the second half but so did the rest of the attacking line as Palace grew into the game. He hasn’t seem to fully find a connection with Ødegaard and Saka yet but for the sake of Arsenal, we need them to find something if we want to achieve greater things than last season. 30+ G/A contributions should be the standard for Gabriel Jesus if he stays healthy and I don’t see why he doesn’t reach it. he looks sharp, he’s moving well, he just needs to opportunities. Oh and we also signed Eddie Nketiah to another deal to be our backup striker/CF. I would rather us have let him go after this contract ended personally as I don’t rate him highly but since we were dumb enough to not move him out with time left on his contract, Arsenal probably felt obligated to extend him due to not handling his contract situation efficiently.

WIDE FORWARDS/WINGERS: I will absolutely never give up on Nico Pépé even though his time at the club is more than done it looks like. Arteta doesn’t seem too eager to give him any playing time despite the wages and transfer fee he commanded. I don’t think Arteta has treated him well or given him the fairest chance but in his defense, Pépé hasn’t fully taken his chances despite scoring 10 goals in the 2020/2021 season on limited starts. I’d like to find a way to get a front line of Pépé, Saka, and Gabriel Jesus a chance to grow but we will see. At the moment, it looks like Saka’s and Martinelli’s positions out wide. In a time where the best wingers are getting close to and more than 20 goals a season, we are going to need more end product out of the two of them. Saka did fine last year despite him creating so many chances and messing up the final ball. Martinelli absolutely needs to get 20+ G/A in the league if he wants to be our starting RW. His respectable 6/6 G/A in the league last year came off only a half season being our out-and-out starter but will need more from him. ESR is the forgotten man at the moment as he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. In the first half of the season, he was like a bat out of hell scoring all the goals he did with his timely arrivals to the box. Having him rotate with Martinelli or off the bench would be dope, we just need him to be healthy. Absolutely can not have the #10 shirt Arsenal wasted to a bench/rotation/injured player. Reiss Nelson is still at the club as well and should be loaned/sold off by the end of the window. Love you Reiss.

Featured image credits: Premier League

Twitter credits: NBCSportsSoccer, arsenal_video

Man City owe Arsenal for funding their transfer window, Zinchenko coming to North London

(If for whatever reason this doesn’t happen, it is not my fault and I take no responsibility for it)

Arsenal missed out on Lisandro Martinez and that is fine, he decided to go and play with his former manager on a worse team in United for €57.37 million, which could rise to €67.37m through variables. From an Arsenal perspective, there is no reason we should have spent that much money on a CB who we it looks like we would have deployed at LB (even though he doesn’t play there for club or country, the only thing he has that resembles a LB is his preference of his left boot). We also missed out on Raphinha which I could give two shits about as he has publically and privately been twerking for Barca for months now, no need for Arsenal to cough up north of €60m for a guy who scored 11 league goals last year (Pépé got lambasted and called a bust for scoring 10 league goals the season before, makes you think). But no worry, looks like we got the LB we wanted, according to Fab, Arsenal and City have reached an agreement for Oleksandr Zinchecnko.

Continue reading “Man City owe Arsenal for funding their transfer window, Zinchenko coming to North London”

I can’t stand this Raphinha guy

UPDATE: He signed for Barcelona lmaoooo. At a club that also just signed 33-year-old Lewandowski, 6 months after they signed 33-year-old Aubameyang, resigned Ousmane Dembele, and couldn’t keep their club legend, Messi, due to financial reasons went on to sign Raphinha for over £55 million. You can’t help but laugh. How many promises can Xavi make for a forward line that going into next season that has Lewandowski, Aubameyang, Ansu Fati, Memphis, Ferran Torres, Ousmane Dembele, and now Raphinha?

Growing up in elementary school, we all had that school crush that we were madly in love with and we all probably had a moment when the person we had a crush on didn’t feel the same way. Absolutely shitty feeling. You know the only thing worse than that? Still going after the same girl or having feelings for her when she already said she didn’t feel the same way. Nothing short of pathetic at that point. This exact scenario is where Arsenal finds themselves in search of the soon-to-be former Leeds RW, Raphinha. Arsenal were at the middle of June, the leader in the race to sign the Brazilian but Chelsea and Barcelona stepped in and messed everything up.

PLAYER PROFILE : Raphinha, is no doubt an absolutely brilliant player, a prototypical left-footed RW who loves taking on defenders and maneuvering himself to get shots/passes with his left-foot. He’s the type of player who hate to play against as he is always looking to go at defenders, and not the fake always where some players will do feint and then pass the ball back if the defender doesn’t budge. Raphinha LOOKS for it and is successful a decent amount of times. There’s a smoothness with his dribbling and movement which kind of reminds me of Di Maria as they have similar body types and are comfortable left-footed dribblers. They do both pick up different positions as Di Maria is probably the more complete player however Raphinha, I’d say is the more direct player.

This directness I’d say is the main reason why clubs like Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal are interested in his services, considering the man played two seasons at Leeds with 25 goals to his name at the club, those are more than decent clubs to be linked to.

Raphinha has an absolute wand of a left foot as well. He loves to hug the touchline on the right flank, and then with a quick bit of acceleration, cut in his right foot and deliver crosses to his attachers:

Why did his teammate go and head the ball as if he was defending lmao

The flair and directness of Raphinha in a team at Leeds that had Dan James as a starter make it so obvious why Raphinha stood out so well at Leeds. Like no fucking shit the man was going to look like Robben reincarnated, these men gave up goals like a NYC turnstile, and wondered why they were fighting relegation all season long.

SITUATION: In the spring of 2022, when Leeds was fighting off relegation, it was pretty well known that Raphinha would more than likely leave the club whether they survived or not (they survived). The former Champions League winner with Barcelona, Deco is his agent and was putting out rumors of Barcelona and Raphinha being linked for months now. If that wasn’t fishy enough, it is well known now that Raphinha prefers the move to Barcelona over any English club with Leeds asking for £60million and £65m for the right winger. Like only Raphinha posting an Instagram story pleading for Barcelona to sign him would make it more obvious.

Deco seated with Raphinha on the day he transferred to Leeds from Rennes

Barcelona who are going through their own financial issues (you know, the one where they couldn’t keep Messi, the one where Pique had to take a pay cut, etc.), i.e they are in a shit ton of debt have been in and out of Raphinha depending on what day of the week it is. This waffling from Barcelona caused Arsenal to get in the mix for Raphinha who they have been tracking for some time now. At one point in early June, it seemed like we were the leaders to nab up the talented Brazilian as Barcelona were busy dealing with their own shit.

Arsenal set to make second bid for Leeds star Raphinha with winger ‘open’ to move as Barcelona drop out of race

Then out of fucking nowhere, Chelsea stepped up again as the constant pain in my ass and decided they wanted to ruin my life. This meant they were willing to agree to Leeds demands for Raphinha which Arsenal could not, as well as provide Champions League football to a player that has not experienced that before.

Even though Chelsea thought they had something with Leeds, Raphinha still yearns to play at the Camp Nou, and at this point, it is almost a complete joke with his team for next season still in the air.

KENT’S CONCLUSION: At this point, I just don’t fucking care if Arsenal sign him. I always thought £60 million for a player who only scored 11 goals last year was a bit rich but in this market, it is essentially big teams overspending on players and hoping they work out (Lukaku, Nico Pépé, Sancho etc.). Would I love to have him? Of course I would. But does he take us to the next level? Maybe? Here are the reasons why I don’t care at all anymore about if he comes to Arsenal

  1. We already have Saka: The man is clearly talented and would improve our team for sure, no questions about it. However, £60 million for a player that plays in Saka’s position isn’t the best use of funds. We also have a Nico Pépé sized transfer fee in the RW position that we still have on our books that we haven’t got rid of yet which makes it a little uncomfortable that we would go head first for another RW.
  2. He clearly doesn’t want to be here: Which is totally fine. It’s clear that his preference is Barcelona, Chelsea , and then a long look down to Arsenal. Arsenal have been an utter joke for a good part of the last decade compared to Barcelona and Chelsea, why would any player choose Arsenal over the other two if they had any sort of ambition. Those clubs have had way more success as of late and are playing Champions League football next season, no reason for Raphinha to choose Arsenal for him if money is all relatively the same, absolutely none and it doesn’t hurt my feelings at all.
  3. This situation is all for a Brazilian not named Neymar: Raphinha has every right to take his time on his next club, but for God’s sake, it’s like this guy is the second coming of Neymar. No way is this guy worth the hassle of stringing Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal along for £60 million. Neymar, yes he is worth the hassle for a talent like that. This guy, not even close. At this point, I wouldn’t even want the guy, he clearly rather play at Chelsea or Barcelona. Just take the L and move onto somebody else that hates his club situation enough to come play at Arsenal. 🙂

Video credits: SVMM, NBC, Brazil Scout Premium

GABRIEL JESUS COMING TO THE EMIRATES AND SAVING ARSENAL

They did it, they actually went out there and did the damn thing. Fabrizio Romano tweeted on June 26th, 2022 that an agreement has taken place between Manchester City and Arsenal for the services of Gabriel Jesus for a fee £45m.

Despite my initial concerns with Gabriel Jesus actually coming to Arsenal as stated in the previous post below about Gabi Jesus in April 2022, I feel like the driving reasons how they were able to lure the star Brazilian striker was:

  1. Higher wages/ London lifestyle – at the end of the day, I am sure the man is getting compensated way higher compared to what he was earning at Manchester.
  2. The star man – This transfer fully establishes our attack being centered around Gabriel Jesus which would attract anybody if they are the focal point of a soccer team. With that establishment comes a massive amount of pressure and it is Arteta’s and Gabriel Jesus’ job to make sure that faith is fully paid back on the pitch.
  3. Haaland’s arrival to City: I am sure Pep’s conversation with Gabi and his team sort of went like “Have you seen what this Erling Haaland guy looks like? Let’s make this easy on both parties and get this transfer to Arsenal sorted. We get £45m and you get to play at a joke club.” (So bascially City used us to get the better, younger player while our transfer fee substantially pays for that said better, younger player. Gotta respect it.)
Gabi Jesus to save Arsenal?
Continue reading “GABRIEL JESUS COMING TO THE EMIRATES AND SAVING ARSENAL”

Gabi Jesus to save Arsenal?

(Disclaimer: This won’t be a complete Gabi Jesus analysis blog because I’m weary that Gabi Jesus and team are using Arsenal to get a new contract at City)

Reports have come out this past week about Manchester City forward Gabriel Jesus being linked to Arsenal for this upcoming season with discussions apparently continuously ongoing for the past few months according to transfer guru David Ornstein.

Now there are lots of factors that go into this Gabriel Jesus transfer with many of them being speculative. It’s not lost on me that the game right after the news drops about Gabi Jesus being linked to Arsenal that he goes on and scores 4 goals against Watford. Lmao, Gabi Jesus saw the Arsenal rumors break out and was like”Nah fam, I’m too good for Arsenal”. You can’t make this shit up lol.

All that being said, the things are going for Arsenal on making this transfer actually happen:

  1. We need a CF badly – now whether Gabriel Jesus is the CF we need, I am not totally convinced, I am a huge fan of the player actually which I will talk about in a future post but not sure if he is the type of ST we need. Regardless we do need a CF prototype to lead our line.
  2. Haaland coming to City – now if the City front line wasn’t already crowded with stars, this Norwegian behemoth coming to Man City basically pushes Gabriel Jesus out of Pep’s plans for sure. Gabi Jesus is currently finding it hard to get playing time, imagine what it’s like when Haaland comes in to town.
  3. London>Manchester – We are reportedly are willing to offer close to double what he is making now. I am not naive enough to think that City can’t do the same but why would they when Haaland is coming in to the PL as the highest paid player? No reason for City to put that much resources into a player that won’t be more than a squad player for them in the future.

Now here are the reasons why this transfer won’t materialize:


1. We are still Arsenal – until we make the Champions League, we are irrelevant as a club in European and World football. Why would Gabi Jesus take his talents to a shit show in Arsenal in a World Cup year? You could argue the guaranteed playing time would help him to make a crowded Brazilian pool but is it worth it at a club like Arsenal? Time will tell but I wouldn’t blame him if he and his team wasn’t convinced by the direction Arsenal are going in as a club.

2. Using Arsenal as leverage – the recent example of Vlahović using Arsenal as a catapult to his move to Juventus from Fiorentina is a great reason why Gabi Jesus’ team put out the Arsenal rumors. Vlahović used us like the mid-tier club that we are to get Juventus to pay him the money that he wanted. With Gabi Jesus’ contract coming at the end of the 2023 season, it is the time where teams make moves on players, whether to extend or find a transfer to get value out of the player before his contract expires. Arsenal are the perfect club for Jesus to use to get the contract he wants, we are big enough to where it will get dumbasses like me talking, but not enough to where Jesus will actually come.

3. Other suitors – Now despite the possibility of some truth to the Jesus to Arsenal rumors, at the end of the day, Gabi needs to do what is best for his career at the age of 25. At the age of 25, this will probably be the most expensive contract in his career and it needs to be with the right club, competing for the appropriate competitions with his next contract most likely not coming til his age 3o season.

4. I never get what I want – the most important reason why this transfer won’t happen is cause I usually never get what I want as it pertains to transfers or happiness when it comes to Arsenal. I have spent years and years on us missing out on Luis Suarez, Benzema etc, why would this work out any different? Now granted Gabi Jesus is nowhere near the quality of the two examples I named but the point still stands. I actually really do admire the qualities Gabi Jesus possesses and feels that he got a raw deal at City. Pep planned for him to take over from Aguero when Pep arrived at City but Aguero strengthened his grip on the striker position with Jesus unable to influence the Spanish manager. Despite not being a guaranteed starter, I do feel that his output of 93 goals/46 assists in 203 apps are decent numbers for a player that was utilized the way he was at City. Now is he what I had in mind for a striker like Osimhen, Tammy or Darwin, no, but I would be excited at the prospect of him at the Emirates for sure which means this move will not happen.

Featured image credits: PA Images

Video credits: NBC

Imagine losing a soccer game, could never be me

GET THE FUCK IN FELLAS. Arsenal 4 – Team with no owners 2. Arsenal did it, they really did it. It’s moments like these that make you want to laugh and kill yourself all at the same time. For the past few weeks, I have mentioned that our games in hand(s) aren’t that much of a blessing as they are all games against Big 6 opponents, one of them being Chelsea. Little did I know, that Arsenal would go on to lose 3 straight to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton; and subsequently travel to Stamford Bridge to whoop some Chelsea ass. Only this god forsaken club, I swear. This game puts us right back in the Top 4 hunt which 100% will come back and kill me. Future Kent will worry about that later though.

PREMATCH: With Chelsea coming off a busy week after a grueling Champions League tie with Real Madrid and a FA Cup Semifinal victory over Crystal Palace, you would expect Tuchel to put some rotation in for Arsenal, but little did I know he would have so little respect for us ( I don’t blame him). He put Lukaku back into the starting XI, brought on Malang Sarr to LCB, rested Thiago Silva, and brought in RLC to the CM pivot. Arteta tinkered heavy too by bringing in Rob Holding to CB, pushed Ben White out to RB, put Elneny next to Xhaka in the CM pivot and put Eddie up top over Laca.

SUMMARY: The first half started with Chelsea very much on the front foot with very dangerous corners that Ramsdale didn’t deal with at all (He hasn’t been that convincing for a while now for me). Then we got a gift shaped in a beautiful Danish basket all laid out for us by Andreas Christensen’s misplaced back-pass that Eddie was able to latch on to and put away.

The ability for Eddie to run like a normal human being makes him a net positive compared to what Laca has offered us recently.

In typical Arsenal fashion, legitimately just a few minutes later, Timo Werner got a deflected shot past Ramsdale but who gives a fuck?

I can watch Xhaka bullying Lukaku and Alonso all day long.

Our second goal in the 27th minute by ESR came from a brilliant run by Xhaka who was able to body off Lukaku and meg Alonso in our own box before starting a counter that turned into ESR’s 10th PL goal of the season. Just fucking brilliant by Granit to get us out of pressure. To be fair, he couldn’t have picked two better Chelsea players to just straight up embarrass and dribble past as Lukaku can’t move anymore and Alonso is Alonso. Chelsea were able to equalize soon after as we were sloppy in the back which gave Chelsea the chance to capitalize on a flat footed Nuno at the back post. We went into the half tied up 2-2 with Chelsea and at this point, I just get migraines watching this team play. To be fair, as well as we played as it pertained to the 2-2 score at the time, I thought Chelsea were way below standards as opposed to Arsenal bossing them. Kanté and RLC lost possession so many times. The Chelsea wing backs, Alonso specifically was basically a turnstile that Saka kept toying with like on a busy day at Grand Central. Just no resistance to the Arsenal attack whenever we were able to cross into their half.

SECOND HALF: The second half started with another gift from Chelsea which is super awkward cause Chelsea I don’t think can accept gifts on their end due to various sanctions lmao. With that being said, Nuno capitalized on a loose pass and played it into Eddie who was able to poke the ball in after calamitous defending from Chelsea. Inject this shit into my fucking veins.

Arsenal then did a masterful job of seeing the game out despite the heavy Chelsea pressure to get an equalizer. And then came the beautiful cherry on top.

Arsenal and Kent finally got some luck and were granted a penalty for the vicious mauling Saka took from Azpi. Just a hugely dangerous altercation with Cesar lucky to even stay on the field. There is no place for this type of play in the Premier League. (Between you and me, that is the softest penalty I have ever seen, if this was given against Arsenal, I have no doubt that I would not live to finish the rest of the game. I would have lost my mind and voice but oh well lol, couldn’t be me). Saka converted the penalty and gave us the 4-2 victory as well as a new found look on life if you are a depressed Arsenal fan.

CONCLUSION: Arsenal definitely played well today but it will be a worry to see how easily we conceded those two goals for Chelsea. Regardless, we played well overall and deserved all 3 points. If we played like 50% of that against the 3 previous teams, Arsenal fans wouldn’t be in the mental pretzel we are all in because of this damn team. Chelsea was dreadful. They were poor in all parts of the pitch, if Werner was one of your productive players, you are in for a long one. It was strange to see Chelsea come out so flat in a Arsenal-Chelsea tie but you can most definitely attribute it to the empty seats at the stadium, such a shame. Special shoutout to former Chelsea academy product Eddie Nketiah for scoring his two biggest goals in his Arsenal career when we needed him most. He might, and let me emphasize, might be the reason our season is saved. I thought he played well for this teammates, annoyed the Chelsea defenders when pressing, and moved around the pitch with the speed that is faster than a average human being. What a performance by Eddie.

PREDICTION FOR OUR GAME AGAINST THE UNITED (I swear if we fucking lose): We have an early kick-off with United this Saturday who are coming off an embarrassing loss to Liverpool. With ALL that being said, I am expecting a Man United 3-0 victory over us at the Emirates. Arsenal is the team of life and I am fully expecting us to make Ralf and company feel good about themselves. If Cristiano is able to come back and play from the tragic events that his family just went through, you can bet your ass, 100% he is scoring a hat-trick all over us at the Emirates, book it. This is definitely not a jinx, and will definitely happen this weekend, no way it doesn’t.

MOTM: Thomas Tuchel – nobody helped Arsenal more today than that beautiful man as Chelsea manager. For him to help Arsenal so much by playing a dire squad with absolutely no desire or hunger to win this London Derby is something I can not thank Tuchel enough for doing.

Player I am most thankful for: Eddie Nketiah – being able to move and run faster than an average human being is something I can’t thank him enough for. Looking at you Laca.

Funniest guy: Aaron Ramsdale winding up the Chelsea fans is straight-up gold, love that guy. Just need him to play better

Someone that is going to 100% gets screwed and betrayed in a few weeks: Arsenal fans – I think we all know what is going to happen in the end. However, these types of victories over scum like Chelsea don’t happen often and need to be cherished. I am going to enjoy this game and laugh at Chelsea fans before Arsenal brings me down to Earth in a few days.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BEAT UNITED

Featured image credits: Arsenal

Video Credits: NBC, Random Videos

The next coming of Cavani? (The Darwin Núñez post)

With Lacazette shown himself to being pretty much useless as our lone central forward, Eddie not making the grade since coming from the Academy, Auba being ostracized to Barcelona, it’s almost a certainty that we will sign at the very least one center forward/striker to lead our line going into next season. With Vlahović taking his talents to Turin (Juventus) which is the correct decision and Arsenal not being impressed with injury-ridden Dominic Calvert-Lewin, a young Uruguayan playing for Benfica has come to the forefront of the Arsenal/Premier League transfer rumors.

The player being Darwin Nùñez out of Benfica with an impressive 37 goal campaign in all competitions for his club so far. Arsenal are in dire need of someone with a heartbeat providing some sort of goalscoring value in the center of our attacking line. All I’m asking is for double digits PL goals and someone who doesn’t make me want to bang my head against the wall. I want someone who at least makes the other teams center backs play some sort of defense, I am not asking for too much. Darwin Nùñez at first glance seems full of potential with raw technical ability that needs refinement.

THIERRY HENRY CHANNEL: What Arsenal massively lacks and hasn’t fully had since peak RVP is a striker who can create goals on their own by taking up the half-spaces on the channels to beat defenders. Aubameyang had his moments coming in from the left but he was more suited to getting on the end of crosses, poaching goals, etc. The Thierry Henry channel was refined and developed by King Thierry when he would find himself slightly out wide (right or left flank) with a defender and is able to face him up to either create a shot for himself, dribble past the defender, or find a teammate. That type of play has been nonexistent this season with Lacazette’s physical inability to dribble past players, let alone creating enough separation to even get in those dangerous positions. Below you can see Darwin finding himself isolated against Eric García, then is able to get back on his right and beat Ter Stegen at the near post.

Ter Stegen should have done better for sure and the contact isn’t the cleanest from Darwin but you’ll find me dead before Laca or Eddie do anything of the like. Here, you’ll see Darwin on the right flank using his sneaky athleticism to stop-go past a defender and create an opportunity for his teammate:

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