Arsenal 2016-17: Get Ready For A Xhak-attack

mikeford

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Yeah, anything under the FA banner counts against the ban so assuming he's actually handed a match ban before then, he'd be touchline banned for the FA Cup.
 

the1andonly3003

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I hope Southampton is too happy and tired from today's Liverpool match on Saturday

very annoying that Man United will be the favorite to win the EFL Cup - that is an easy trophy to pick up
 

the1andonly3003

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can someone explain to me the logic of Southampton's lineup? they go for it in the Quarterfinals of EFL Cup, but not try to advance to 5th round of FA Cup - is the money difference that great?
 

ifmanis5

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Great showing from Ox and Welbeck today.

The drumbeat of Alexis' uncertain future continues to grow. I can't think of a good reason not to lock him up.
 
can someone explain to me the logic of Southampton's lineup? they go for it in the Quarterfinals of EFL Cup, but not try to advance to 5th round of FA Cup - is the money difference that great?
It's hard for all but the biggest Premiership clubs to cope with the fixture demands of two cup runs as well as the league. Southampton was in the semifinals - not quarterfinals - with a real chance to go through to the final midweek, and there are league matches coming up on Tuesday as well. Might as well prioritize the cup you have a much bigger chance of winning.

Welbeck looked 100% today, didn't he?
 
Probably would be better for Sutton to go to emirates honestly. Way more money for them.
FWIW, I meant in terms of occasion, not finances. Am I right in thinking that smaller clubs are no longer allowed to give away home advantage in the FA Cup for financial reasons like this?

As for the Watford game...yeah, that's enough to thoroughly disabuse me of any faint notions I had that Arsenal could still conceivably win the title.
 

the1andonly3003

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FWIW, I meant in terms of occasion, not finances. Am I right in thinking that smaller clubs are no longer allowed to give away home advantage in the FA Cup for financial reasons like this?

As for the Watford game...yeah, that's enough to thoroughly disabuse me of any faint notions I had that Arsenal could still conceivably win the title.
same here...let's just focus finishing in 2nd and ahead of Tottenham

really hate to see Chelsea win the league, esp. after those players drove out Mourinho
 

miracleofmidre

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Leave Ox as the deep lying playmaker, for a long spell. That's my one (unemotional) takeaway from today. All the other takeaways are rooted in frustration, resignation, panic, and irrationality. Thus they remain in my head.
 

the1andonly3003

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They beat Chelsea 3-0 earlier this year.
Against current top 6:
L vs Liverpool (8/14/16)
W vs. Chelsea (9/24/16)
D vs Spurs (11/6/16)
D at ManU (11/19/16)
L at ManCity (12/18/16)
L at Chelsea (2/4/17)

5 points out of a possible 18 for Arsenal
OTOH Chelsea has picked up 13 against the current top 6
 

mikeford

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how is Szczesny doing at Roma this season? is he ready for next season to take back his job? Cech only signed for two years IIRC
22 games played, 21 goals conceded, 9 clean sheets in the league. 1 game, 3 goals against in UCL qualifying. Hasn't played any Europa League matches.

21 goals against is 2nd lowest in Serie A (Juventus only 16).

I haven't seen him play at all so I can only go by the stats but those sure look like stats of a #1 keeper.
 

Vinho Tinto

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Wenger has been a good soldier for the suits at Arsenal. He's kept an entertaining squad on the field, while maneuvering around having to use the on-field product to finance the stadium. The budget finally loosened a bit with the last deal with Emirates in 2012. Probably too little and too late in terms of his ability as manager now regressing.

Wenger does need to go and I think he knows it. He's 67 and been with the club for 3 decades. He's at a point where he should be a club executive or international manager. I think it's important that he stay with the club in some capacity. Arsenal's identity has 100% changed from when he took over from grinding out dull matches to exemplifying attacking football. I don't think his core philosophies are outdated, but he's no longer the man to implement them.
 
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Zososoxfan

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Wenger has been a good soldier for the suits at Arsenal. He's kept an entertaining squad on the field, while maneuvering around having to use the on-field product to finance the stadium. The budget finally loosened a bit with the last deal with Emirates in 2012. Probably too little and too late in terms of his ability as manager now regressing.

Wenger does need to go and I think he knows it. He's 67 and been with the club for 3 decades. He's at a point where he should be a club executive or international manager. I think it's important that he stay with the club in some capacity. Arsenal's identity has 100% changed from when he took over from grinding out dull matches to exemplifies attacking football. I don't think his core philosophies are outdated, but he's no longer the man to implement them.
Bingo. He would actually be perfect for the 3 Lions, but I doubt he would get such a high profile job out of the gate. I could see him taking the reigns at a talented but 2nd tier European NT like Switzerland, Austria, etc. where he could show his bona fides then move up to either France or England.
 

blueline

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Think you're underestimating the respect Wenger still commands. He could probably get a top tier international job. They're not exactly the most desirable jobs anyways.
 

Zososoxfan

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Think you're underestimating the respect Wenger still commands. He could probably get a top tier international job. They're not exactly the most desirable jobs anyways.
What job would he get? Deschamps just got France to the Euro final. Low isn't going anywhere in Germany. Spain likely won't go for a non-Spaniard. Same for Italy. He's probably a better tactical manager than Danny Blind, but I would imagine Blind is much more familiar with the Dutch player pool. Santos just WON the Euros with Portugal. Belgium just hired Martinez, although I'd rather have Wenger than Martinez. Croatia probably won't go for a non-Croat. And of course bloody England. The FA has gone outside of the island in the past (Eriksson) and Wenger is a known quantity in England, so I could see it happening. I just think they'll want to give Southgate a chance and it would help for Wenger to get a taste of the international game with a talented squad like Austria or Switzerland first to make the FA more comfortable. I doubt he would get a chance or be interested in a Latin American job like Colombia. A wild card that I don't know enough about would be an African team like Senegal or Cameroon, where French would be an asset.

TL;DR - he ain't getting the France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, or Croatia jobs right away. Best case scenario in Europe would be England or Belgium. Other option would be Switzerland, after which there is a dropoff (e.g. Wales, Poland, Austria, etc.). Don't know enough about the situation of the better African teams like Ghana, Senegal, or Cameroon. Doubt he would be interested in Latin American jobs.
 

mikeford

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Wenger has been a good soldier for the suits at Arsenal. He's kept an entertaining squad on the field, while maneuvering around having to use the on-field product to finance the stadium. The budget finally loosened a bit with the last deal with Emirates in 2012. Probably too little and too late in terms of his ability as manager now regressing.
Dwindling home attendance suggests otherwise.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.

mikeford

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http://www.soccerstats.com/attendance.asp?league=england

Your lowest attendance for the season is 400 short of the capacity of Emirates. Average attendance is 59,988 in a stadium that holds 60,355. Last year's average attendance was 59,944, the year before was 59,992. I'm failing to see any evidence of dwindling attendance.
They're clearly basing these on tickets sold, not actually seats being filled. You've watched a few Arsenal matches this season, I'm sure. You have seen the empty seats.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Wenger leaving would not be as simple as a managerial change at other clubs. He's been in place for two decades, and is basically the last manager to be in the same role at a big club for that length of time.

Arsenal is set up for one man with vast experience and knowledge of the club to be its manager, and is not set up well at all for a manager transition. Nobody in power has ever hired a manager at a top level league before, as far as I can tell. There's no director of football and no sporting director. Wenger is in absolute charge of every footballing detail. If he leaves, then several people will have to be hired for important roles. And who would even be the one to make the decision on who to hire for those jobs?

From The Short Fuse:
"Arsenal do not have a Director of Football, and do not have anyone on the board really suited to fulfilling the role, hence making an external appointment a necessity. Ivan Gazidis is perhaps the closest to the position, but as Gordon Smith explains, the director is really a football pitch related job:

The person who goes into that job actually has to operate the strategy of the club...You're looking at a medium to long term strategy. What you're looking at is to say 'OK we need to put things in place; the club in general has to run in a certain way'. The first team will still have a coach and there will still be pressure on the first team manager to deliver results. But other than that, you need to put something in place for the club as a whole in terms of youth development and the scouting department and everything to do with the media and all that sort of thing so the club runs in a very clear and good operative manner."

From Arseblog:
"There’s a lot more to the changing of the guard at Arsenal than one man in, one man out. You don’t replace Arsene Wenger with another Arsene Wenger. The structures at the club at this moment in time are a long way from what’s required to bring in a modern day head-coach. The almost total dearth of football and Arsenal knowledge on the board that has to be addressed, because if it’s not, the decision-making will be a long way from as informed as it should be for something like this to happen.

Make no mistake, it’s seismic. It might get worse before it gets better, but you’d be hard pressed to make the point that it’s going to get better under the manager as it stands. But we’re in this weird kind of limbo right now where the board would like nothing more than for him to sign a two-year deal, and until the man himself makes the decision, nothing is going to happen."

As said above, Wenger is the one who will decide if he comes back next year, not the club. The team has offered him a two-year deal already, and are letting him decide if he wants to sign it. That pretty clearly shows that Kroenke's preference is to bring back Wenger. Kroenke just wants to keep the money rolling in and seemingly is just fine with the status quo of top 4 finishes with no titles, and Champions League qualification every year and then getting knocked out in the Round of Arsenal. He doesn't want to risk that by making a managerial change. The decision will be Wenger's alone.

Wenger leaving would have a big impact on the players as well. One reason Ozil came to Arsenal was because he would be allowed to play a free-roaming, little defending role under Wenger, and he has said that his future at Arsenal depends on Wenger staying:

"Özil, who signed for Arsenal in 2013 after three years at Real Madrid, said it is not a financial decision: “The club knows that I am here most of all because of Arsène Wenger. He is the one who signed me and he is the one whose trust I have. The club also knows that I want to be clear what the manager is going to [in the future].”

If Wenger leaves, Ozil may well want out too. Sanchez may already want out, but even if he is not at that point yet, if Wenger and Ozil leave, he surely will want out at that point.

If Wenger opts to leave, it will cause a huge vacuum at the club, the two best players might well follow him out the door, and the club does not seem at all ready to bring in the several key replacements they will need.
 
If you could trade four more years of Wengerball for an uncertain future in which 10% of the time things would get better, 20% of the time performances would stay roughly the same, and 70% of the time things would get worse, would you do that as an Arsenal fan?

(For the purposes of that question, let's stipulate that in the next four years a Wenger-led Arsenal would continue to perform each year as it does at present: roughly 90% chance of a top four finish, 5% chance of the title, 25% chance of winning the FA Cup, 20% chance of reaching the Champions League quarterfinals, 1% chance of winning the Champions League.)
 
He hasn't won a title in 13 years why would he get any % chance to win one?
You don't think Arsenal was good for 20:1 odds or better for the title in each of the past 13 seasons? You certainly wouldn't find any bookies that would have been anywhere near that generous. (If you had a 5% chance of winning the title in each of 13 consecutive seasons, strictly by the odds there's only a 48.7% chance of winning at least one title.)

Meanwhile, I can't believe Sanchez has just come on against Sutton with 20 minutes to go and a 2-0 lead. Is Wenger not strong enough to tell Sanchez he can't play in every single match?