we took part in a closed door scrimmage vs the orcs from millwall today and it’s being restreamed at 11am est below results of the match are in the spoiler below, so don’t click unless you want to know the result before watching Spoiler arsenal won 4-1 first win of preseason alright!
i’m not a fan of having one of our cm (usually xhaka last year and looks to be elneny this game) dropping to the lcb/lb position when we’re in possession and isolating partey in the middle we seems to just play side to side without much penetration it also seems to limit our potential for attacking down the middle and makes it obvious we’re playing through the wide positions (which teams seem to be more than happy letting us play) imo
Watching the highlights, I’m never going to see the pinpoint accurate cross from Chambers coming. He puts it on a dime every time. also, I’m never gonna know if Laca missed kicked or dummied
The more I’ve listened to it get debated & argued, the more I’m coming around to this not being terrible. Any transfer will likely be backloaded & not impact additional MF/AMF targets this window.
I’m not all about anything for Ramsdale but this is Kroenke’s money so don’t care Just want an attacker. Laca/Auba are dull, ESR still needs time, and Pepe/Saka have the same best position also fine if Chambers/Cedric are our RBs
If I just look at position with the biggest room for improvement, it’s gotta be Xhaka’s replacement. Maybe RB 2nd (chambers is fine unless the left wing is fast). Wish AMN would claim it. just don’t see us paying for an improvement over auba. Did like that Swedish kid though…
Tammy for 40mill? nyah. Tammy under 25-30 mill - sure. He has to improve his hold up play but he's good at finding space and finishing. And he's just 23 and has PL experience.
Pretty good AV pod on him. He’s 23 & weirdly led Chelsea in goals, despite barely playing in the 2nd half of the season Completely agree, Hold up play is certainly a weakness for him < £40M & I’d feel comfortable
I agree with this normally, but... this is a very dangerous strategy if the club fails to get back into the champions league.
Oh, I agree. With all the smoke & rumors about incomings, plus who is already signed… Seems like we might be going all-in, to get there. Like Gunners said, Not my £. I just hope we don’t under commit by 1 player/position of need & fall a few points short due to that (again).
as things currently stand (bringing white in, likely for ramsdale, and not really close to signing any high quality 10s or 8s), i’m not super confident going into this season tbh i’d be surprised if we finish in a europa league spot imo
We were so far behind, by Boxing Day, that there was no chance we would qualify for Europe last year. We played very solid football for the second half of the season. We’ve improved. If we merely maintain the level we ended at, we will qualify for Europe. Top four is still a stretch, unless we bring in someone in a quality 8/10