re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

santi was really rusty. that give away was very poor.

Leeds have obviously hijacked the gunners bid

Pardew's pissed.

There have been lots of rumors that Arsene would go back in with a £50-55mm for Suarez. No clue if that's true or not, doubt Liverpool would consider it anyways.

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Yeah I know, but do they not realize the situation they are in now? They think the solution is to continue to under bid for players? After they lost out on every established player they were in for?

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Or they bid what they think he is worth, and then move from there.

Our situation is bad, but we've recovered from far worse. We need to buy, but we've always needed to buy this summer. The injury situation we have currently has exacerbated the transition to the lean squad that we need.

FWIW, the biggest issue we last Sat. was the lack of Arteta. Wilshere and Ramsey were awful in the double pivot, both lacking Arteta's positional discipline. It's also the first time either has played in the double pivot together, which contextualizes their lack of understanding. Their lack of positional awareness allowed Villa to counter-attack at breakneck speed. I actually think our combo play was fairly decent going forward, and we fluffed some pretty clear chances.

Villa did a good job counter-attacking, but they were somewhat lucky on the goals. The first penalty should have been a red, but Szczesny was unlucky to have the rebound come at Bentake at the perfect height to put it away. The second penalty was dubious to say the least, and the third goal came off a counter-attack when we had everyone forward when we had a man down. Outside of Gabby's run and Delph's shot that hit the post, both of which occurred where Arteta usually operates, were the only moments that Villa threatened on the run of play. That said, Arsenal are closer to Villa than they are closer to the top four in terms of their squad right now.

TransferScoop @TransferScoop

Carragher has come out with a perfect line on #MNF "The only people overspending at Arsenal are the supporters" #AFC

Also, some site I've never heard us says we'll bid on Johannsson.

LINK

Excellent analysis as always.

At some point though you have to look at the market and identify players you are willing to overpay for. It is what it is. There really isn't an excuse for Arsene. This is the same as every other summer and as you say y'all had to buy this summer.

The day Benteke handed in a transfer request arsene should have offered £30mm and gotten the deal done as soon as possible.

I just don't understand how Wenger doesn't see we need a midfielder who can shield the back four. Wilshere and Ramsey can develop into a nice double pivot, but they have to learn to take turns going up the field, as well as learn how to defend as a unit. If somehow we spent the whole preseason preparing those two to learn the double pivot, then maybe we wouldn't have needed another MF. But it's better if we actually use one.

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At some point though you have to look at the market and identify players you are willing to overpay for. It is what it is. There really isn't an excuse for Arsene. This is the same as every other summer and as you say y'all had to buy this summer.

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I understand where Arsene is coming from, but his dawdling in the market has cost us severely for the whole of his tenure. He can't go to a top side and pluck an underrated player for cheap like he did so many times the last decade. It's frustrating to deal with, but I'm happy that he's actually making bids now, as opposed to dithering like we did in June and July.