Goonerholic

Hello all. Have you had a long hard day or night and don’t have the time or inclination to go through the newsfeeds for your Arsenal news. Let me help you out.

Guendouzi Extension Sought

Numerous sources (originally the Daily Mail I believe) are reporting that Matteo Guendouzi is close to signing a new five-year deal that will double his wages from £35k a week. The young Frenchman has impressed at the start of this season having got that difficult first year in the Premier League under his belt.

Rob Holding To Feature

The Mail also report that Rob Holding is expected to play 90 minutes for the U23s against Everton on Friday night. The central defender played for an hour against Blackburn Rovers at the same level last Monday.

Mesut Offers Advice To Young Guns

Arsenal.com runs an interview with Mesut Ozil with advice pertinent to Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson as they fight to establish themselves in the first team.

“I just want to say that the most important thing is to believe in yourself. Of course you have some days when it doesn’t go so well but you have to believe in yourself, keep working and the most important thing is to have fun.”

…And Returns To Training

Following his carjacking ordeal Mesut has returned to training and should be available for the trip to Anfield on Saturday for the meeting of the top two in the Premier League.

Important Travel News For Saturday

For those of you heading to Liverpool this weekend this from the official Liverpool site.

Fans travelling to Anfield for Liverpool versus Arsenal on Saturday August 24 are advised to plan their journey in advance and arrive at the stadium early to avoid delays.

Let me know if you think the news in brief would be be a useful ongoing feature in the drinks. Thank you.

The first home game of any Premier League season is a social event. It’s akin to Lord’s Friday, Ladies day at Royal Ascot, Wimbledon etc.. Yesterday was no different. I was outside the Twelve Pins at five to ten when Esso of this parish rolled up. An enjoyable few drams and it was on to the Grove to meet another dear friend before ascending in the mercifully not busy lift to take a seat in the West Upper, compliments of another very fine Gooner and friend.

There was a new look to the side. I thought Calum Chambers was unfortunate to lose his place after the clean sheet at Newcastle but David Luiz, about whom I know a lot of us have reservations, had a very solid debut in my humble opinion. These days £8m doesn’t usually buy you much. He looked worth a lot more. I’ll happily eat a portion of humble pie if he performs like that for most of the season.

The other new boy, Dani Ceballos, could not have made much more of an impression. It is probably dangerous to make assumptions based on one performance but he is a proper footballer. One who enhances our chances of at least a top four berth surely?

We are also giving youth a chance. Reiss Nelson did little wrong in a fine first-half display before making way for our record signing, Nicolas Pepe. It was Joe Willock who once again caught the eye and he is making a very good case for further starts.

The only surprise at half-time is that we were not already out of sight, let alone coming in level after the thug that is Barnes had equalised a remarkable Alexandre Lacazette opener from a Ceballos corner. It’s true that Bernd Leno probably made the save of the match from Tarkowski’s header from point blank range, but overall our football was pleasing on the eye and packed with attacking intent, and Pope was by far the busier goalkeeper throughout.

Another bonus was the performance of Nacho Monreal. His legs were reportedly going last season. He was rampant in the opening half but sadly strayed a fraction offside when teeing up Nelson for what may have been our second just before the break. I hate to stoke the VAR fires again, but in the stadium yesterday the information immediately appeared on the big screens and the correct decision was arrived at. What’s not to like?

I’d still like the referee to be mic’d up just so we could hear Mike Dean say “it’s Arsenal, disallow it!” His leniency with the Burnley cloggers, and Sean Dyche’s post-match comments, were a not entirely surprising part of the day.

The second-half offered perhaps less fascination. Pepe showed some glimpses of why we were prepared to pay so much for him, and it will be interesting to see if he starts in the the table-topping dual at Anfield next week.

We secured the points when Ceballos won a dual and freed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to cut inside and fire home a fierce drive at the near post. In truth he should have had a second-half hat-trick, but let’s not get too picky when we have six points out of six.

Unai Emery proved his cautious nature following this point. Sead Kolasinac was introduced for Lacazette, a likely scorer of a third goal. Then Lucas Torreira replaced the excellent Ceballos, likeliest creator of a third goal. It proved ok, but Burnley were encouraged to apply late pressure with the aid of some questionable tactics.

They were however thwarted and we adjourned to our taverns of choice for yet more thoroughly enjoyable drams with wonderful Gooners. A special word also for our very own Bath who accompanied me on a very leisurely, often interrupted, stroll back to the station. I was not a victim of the drams but breathlessness. His kindness will be remembered.

As ever, a wonderful start to the season and hope again springs eternal. How the next two matches will test that newfound optimism.

In 1960, a year before the neighbours won their second and last league title, Burnley won their second and last too. They are clubs at a similar level, it would seem. I will hopefully enjoy us seeing off both in the next fortnight.

Who will run out against the clarets in the Saturday lunchtime fixture? Bernd Leno is a given, as are probably Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Nacho Monreal, but does David Luiz come in for either Sokratis Papastathopoulos or Calum Chambers? That would be harsh after last week’s clean sheet at Newcastle.

I am assuming that Granit Xhaka, one of our five captains, will also be retained in a 4-2-3-1 if he is passed fit? I thought Matteo Guendouzi played very well last week but he knows his place will be under pressure from Lucas Torreira, if not one of the younger lads.

The choice of three will be interesting. Could Nicolas Pepe come in for Henrikh Mkhitaryan? Will Dani Ceballos get a first start, or perhaps Emile Smith Rowe? Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the left if Alexandre Lacazette is ok to return up top? What of Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson? This will be a big test for Unai Emery.

We tend to win handsomely against the visitors these days, and we are looking for an eleventh consecutive win against them, but they have given us some tough moments down the years.

The ‘holic pound

Of course I’m on the home win. 2-0 to The Arsenal at 13/2 is the favourite. Sometimes you just have to run with the first choice. Now, do I have two pounds somewhere? 🙂 I hope to see a number of you tomorrow. Have a great one, ‘holics.

The ABW preview

I offered my availability for this, albeit from the local, but strangely I was not required. Enjoy it nonetheless. Danny and the excellent Simon provide the content.

We perhaps surprisingly started with no new signings at Newcastle but they do have to acclimatise to a new club, and in some circumstances a new league. Steve Bruce had no such reservations about giving a debut to new boy Joelinton.

Not surprisingly it was a cagey start but the voices of the travelling faithful lifted the spirits in the opening minutes, and it was the visitors who were looking to advance for most of the time. Having said that the first goalkeeper to be tested on sixteen minutes was Bernd Leno who had to catch the first decent cross, and shortly after that Joelinton headed a half chance wide of the target.

VAR will play a part in this season. I’m all in favour although I understand this is not a universally popular view. The hosts were rightly denied a spot kick as the tide turned and Shelvey’s effort narrowly missed the target too. All of a sudden we were under pressure.

Midway through the half our first good opportunity was blasted high into the crowd by Henrikh Mkhitaryan. He was accompanied in midfield by Joe Willock and Rhys Nelson, the latter of whom picked up the first yellow card of the contest for a rash challenge. Seconds later Leno denied Joelinton as we again surrendered a shooting opportunity in the box.

On the half hour Mkhitaryan sprang Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who saw his volley palmed away for a corner by Dubravka. The Armenian then started and ended a break which resulted in him seeing the second yellow card of the match. We do seem to get more for lesser challenges than we are subjected to. Is that unfair?

A poor half mercifully came to a close. Astonishingly there were no half-time substitutions. Nacho Monreal had to be alert to deny the hosts an early opportunity in the second-half. Six minutes in Monreal released Aubameyang and his effort was deflected for a corner from which Granit Xhaka’s headed flick just evaded Willock.

The lead was secured not long after when Aubameyang did what Aubameyang does from a superb cross by Ainsley Maitland-Niles. A superb finish to light up a poor game.

Newcastle United 0-1 The Arsenal

Dani Ceballos came on after 64 minutes for Willock and was greeted enthusiastically by the away fans, not surprisingly. The arrival of Saint-Maximin for Longstaff excited the home fans. The match remained erratic. Nicolas Pepe came on for Nelson to an enormous roar from the away Gooner’s. “Super Nic” What has £72m bought us?

Xhaka’s 80th minute yellow card will have come as a surprise to nobody. This wasn’t one of the new skipper’s better days. Rumours of his imminent departure are nonetheless unwelcome. Gabriel Martinelli came on for Mkhitaryan shortly afterwards. He is an exciting prospect for sure.

A tough ninety minutes came to an end with the away fans in good voice. Never was any season without games that were not enthralling, but perhaps we would prefer that the first game of the season proffered more than what we saw today.

Never mind, we are 37 wins from the title!

It has been the most amazing transfer window in a long time. We have undoubtedly signed some serious talent. We’ve lost players as well.

Defensively we do not appear to have improved significantly, and there is still the option of European clubs picking off UK players despite our window closing.

We have confirmed Kieran Tierney for a fee in the region of £25m from Celtic. The lad is said to be injured right now, but this is an area we need to address in the long term and this gives us potentially an exciting successor to Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac. David Luiz is an interesting one for me and could go either way. Unai Emery knows him, so let’s trust his judgement for now.

The loss of Alex Iwobi is balanced by a reasonable fee, but is he really worth just half a slabhead? Everton will prove interesting opposition with him and Theo on the flanks this season. The opportunity his departure presents to his Academy successors is an exciting one. Good luck, Alex, and thank you for your service.

We have finally reached the first weekend of the Premier League season and I don’t mind admitting I’m rather excited about our prospects, but then I usually am. We’ve not spent as much money in a summer window before and Unai is now expected to produce a little more than last season, no? He has his team, by and large.

He won’t have all of them. Tierney is expected to be out for six weeks. Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding (both knee knack),  Dinos Mavropanos, Emile Smith Rowe (both groin), Mohamed Elneny (late pre-season), Mesut Oil, and Sead Kolasinac (both worryingly security concerns) will not be starting on Sunday and their are doubts too about Alexandre Lacazette and new boy Nicolas Pepe.

That leaves a potential starting eleven of Bernd Leno, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, and Nacho Monreal. Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Dani Ceballos, and Reiss Nelson behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Not too shabby, surely?

For the Geordies record signing Joelinton is expected to start but returning striker Andy Carroll is ruled out. Steve Bruce faces a tough return to the north-east.

The ‘holic pound

Here we go again. Confidence is the name of the game in week one. I’m on 1-3 to the visitors at a slightly skinny 14/1. Here’s to a successful start to the season.

Have a great one, ‘holics.

A full house saw the Joan Gamper Cup at the Camp Nou between Barcelona and The Arsenal. Once again some of the youngsters were given a chance to impress by Unai Emery.

What felt like a very good first-half of football produced little in the way of goalscoring opportunities. It was midway through the half before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a whisker away from a flying header. I think this is a good sign for what approaches, but it was confusing.

As the half hour approached we allowed Alba a little too much room on the left and he cut in to fire straight at Bernd Leno, thankfully. We appeared to have set up in a 4-4-2 and as the final quarter of an hour of the half approached we were becoming less dominant. However in the 37th minute Mesut Ozil teed up Aubameyang and with a magical strike of the right foot wand we were ahead.

Of course there were multiple half-time changes. Three for Barca, and two for The Gunners. The game retained it’s remarkable high tempo but few chances tempo. Ainsley Maitland-Niles slid a ball back to Leno who had vacated his goal. The scores were level. The home crowd bayed for Messi to finish the task.

With both teams pressing hard and high it was a tough watch as it developed. You can’t criticise anyone for their performance, but but both teams look solid. Defensively we should take something from that.

Suarez applied the late finish when once again we were undone by a long ball down the middle. It was effectively the last meaningful action of the evening.

The whistle blew and that was it. We had played so well for a half. It’s pre-season. So be it.

The Arsenal visited Angers this evening to help celebrate the French club’s centenary at the Stade Raymond Kopa. The presence of Jeff Reine-Adelaide in the host’s line-up added to the interest. A young Gunners team included only one new signing at kick-off, Gabriel Martinelli.

After a slow start we fell behind after unlucky 13 minutes had passed when El Melali was played in behind Zech Medley and he rounded Emiliano Martinez before slotting the ball into an empty net.

It took us until the 25th minute of a tedious half to attempt a response but Reiss Nelson pulled his effort wide of the target. Medley, enduring a torrid time, picked up a yellow card nine minutes before the break. Angers were denied a second goal from the resulting free-kick by the flag of the assistant referee.

We almost levelled with a Martinelli header from a Shkodran Mustafi cross but the ball slid agonisingly and narrowly past the far post. The young Brazilian then broke up an attack at the other end although was adjudged to have fouled Reine-Adelaide. The shrill blast of the referee’s whistle to end the half was welcome.

Not surprisingly we made changes after the break. Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Granit Xhaka, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Dominic Thompson, and Joe Willock came on for Calum Chambers, Medley, Nacho Monreal, Tyreece John-Jules, and Robbie Burton. The impact was almost immediate. Nelson snapped up the equaliser within five minutes of the restart after an Eddie Nketiah shot was blocked.

The Jeff looked to restore Angers’ lead against his former club with an impressive run but his finish was over the target. How he would have enjoyed that if he had found the finish. He tried again but once more the finish did not match the run.

Just past the hour we strengthened further, sending on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Matteo Guendouzi and Nketiah. Those changes heralded us taking control of the match at long last, but could we muster a winner from somewhere? Martinelli looked set but the bouncing ball in the box wouldn’t come down for him quickly enough. Then Aubameyang slid a Xhaka set piece wide. We were getting closer.

Aubameyang put Nelson’s miskick in from an offside position. What a shame the young midfielder had not put a great opportunity on target himself. That would have been ok. He looked to have picked up a knock and was replaced by James Olayinka. Another wonderful move ended with Aubameyang volleying over. This was a different match from from the half that had preceded it.

Maitland-Niles can consider himself unfortunate to collect a yellow card as the final whistle approached. On or two of the Angers lads had looked to be suffering inner ear infections all night. Aubameyang drove his next effort off target. We were going to have to settle for the draw with only nine seconds added on.

Maitland-Niles, Willock, Xhaka, and Aubameyang all scored in the ensuing penalty shootout before Kanga fired high over the target. Mkhitaryan, however, followed suit when a goal would have clinched it. The Jeff saw his effort saved by Martinez and that was that. A strange end to a strange evening.

It really was. I enjoyed a couple of pre-match Guinni with Matt (good to meet you) and James, and gratefully received a ticket for the Burnley game, for which thanks, Tone. That there were few other people there I knew was a bit of a surprise. Matt and I had intended to watch the second-half of the womens match against Bayern at least, but having watched the first-half on the television we were persuaded by James to have another pint instead.

Inside the stadium there was something of an eerie atmosphere. Most of the lower tier appeared to be taken, but upstairs and at box level there were lots of empty seats. It’s the holiday season and a pre-season friendly which probably accounted for a crowd of around 40,000.

Very much a womens squad team couldn’t recover from going a goal behind to Bayern, unfortunately. The visitors did look worthy winners over the 90 minutes but it will be interesting to see what the result might be if we draw them in the Champions League later this season with a full-strength side.

The men looked solid indeed in the opening half of their match against Lyon. Bernd Leno returned between the sticks and was well protected by a back four of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Calum Chambers, and Nacho Monreal.

We were forced into an early reshuffle when Alexandre Lacazette, rumoured to have started with a bandaged ankle, but was taken off in the 12th minute after treatment and he was later spotted in an air boot. Unai Emery disclosed post-match,

“We are thinking it’s not important, he decided with the doctor and with me that it is better to take no more risk.”

Henrikh Mkhitaryan started in fine form, creating opportunities for Lacazette and Willock before seeing a spectacular volley of his own superbly saved by Lopes. The Lyon ‘keeper denied him another twenty-yard volley moments later. He finally teed up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to give us the lead with another volley. At this point we looked likely winners and only the margin was in doubt.

We had reckoned without the effect of a raft of second-half substitutions which robbed us of much of our first-half fluency and cohesion.Encouraged, Lyon contributed more to the contest and were level with a Dembele header midway through the half. The introduction of new boys Gabriel Martinelli and Dani Ceballos lifted us, and the former thought he might have won it for us only for the referee to award a handball decision against the young Brazilian.

The controversy didn’t end there. Lyon broke from the free-kick and Dembele was one of two players who looked suspiciously offside as he advanced for his second goal. Despite my questioning the assistant referee’s parentage at the end of the day we would much sooner have those borderline decisions going against us in pre-season and not when the Premier League gets underway.

A solitary pint with Steve and young Alex (nice to meet you too), followed by a pie and chips, and I was home at a civilised hour. There will be better results in the weeks to come, especially if we can reproduce the form of the first 45 minutes.

Bed time approaches on the eve of the Emirates Cup. It has been the most remarkable day of the close season. Whilst I am loathe to mention it until we have an announcement on arsenal.com there is something incredibly uplifting about the potential record fee to secure the services of Lille’s Nicolas Pepe, and for less than the asking price of a Zaha who failed in the big pond that is Old Trafford.

I’ll get flamed for this, I’m sure, but also I can hardly shed a tear for the injury that has befallen Ryan Shawcross today. I may regret typing this at some point in the future, but I hope we draw Stoke in a cup tie so we can enquire as to who is walking with a limp in the immediate future. Karma, I love you on occasion.

And now to anticipate what lies in wait on the ‘morrow. There is much talk of disruptions to train traffic because of the gorgeous weather. Added to that my local taxi provider seems to have had their phone cut off so I have had to resort to an unconfirmed online booking for first thing in the morning. What could possibly go wrong?

There is much to anticipate. A cameo from Dani Ceballos, hopefully. What an intelligent use of whatever restricted funds there are to secure the services of a major prospect from Real Madrid if only for a season. Teams in the lower leagues have been using such loan deals to build promotion and title winning teams for years now. I have no problems with us following this model as long as the flow of incoming temporary talent is top quality, and limited in numbers.

Is it too much to hope to catch a glimpse of William Saliba in the blue suit, white shirt, and red tie? Perhaps he is already back in France preparing for his loan season with his former employers? It does seem a strange deal, I agree, but bringing him over a year early might have proven to be an error. We don’t know, do we? His signing is however a sign of our faith in the future and our planning is not just knee-jerk short-termism.

I am determined to catch at very least the second-half of the Arsenal women playing Bayern Munich. A big European campaign awaits the WSL champions and this will give us a clue as to where we need to be.

Other than that I am hoping to run into a number of familiar faces, at least in the pub. I no longer will regularly frequent Block 32 but at least I managed to secure a seat in 31 tomorrow, so may see some familiar faces at ‘the next bar to mine’.

It will likely be a long day so the report will probably have to wait for Monday evening, by which time most of you will have seen it too (It’s on Premier Sports here). Roll on 9am and hopefully the first taxi of a new season.

Have a great one, ‘holics.

A typical game of two halves played out as The Arsenal surrendered a commanding lead and stumbled to a penalty shoot-out defeat against Real Madrid.

We were ahead early when Alexandre Lacazette rounded Navas and pulled the ball back which hit Nacho’s hand with the defender on the floor. Astonishingly the referee decided it was a red card offence and set a precedent that would come back to bite us. Lacazette’s penalty hit both posts before nestling in the net.

Arsenal were two goals to the good nine minutes later as Lacazette’s dummy allowed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to race through and score with a little help from Ramos.

The referee levelled the numbers up with two quick cautions in succession for Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The Arsenal defender first fouled Kroos on the counter before an even softer foul on Modric. Encouraged to reach for a second yellow by the loathesome Ramos the referee did exactly that. Two soft dismissals in a friendly. Ludicrous.

Real finally responded and Emiliano Martinez was forced into an interception to prevent a tap-in for Benzema off a Carvajal cross. Benzema then squandered a fine headed opportunity.

The interval saw the introduction of Bale for Hazard, and it was he who reduced the arrears as The Gunners appealed for a foul on Martinez.

Bale then scrambled an Aubameyang effort off the line following a goalmouth scramble. The Welshman hit another fine effort as the final whistle approached. Would anybody break the deadlock? No, was the answer.