DECLAN COMPARED TO BECKHAM
Oh here you are, Monday morning, in the office, your Arsenal cufflinks on, maybe even the bruised banana away shirt under your dress shirt… a big old turf-eating grin whilst walking into the canteen for a cup of fresh Nescafe. I feel you friends, I feel you, it’s a glorious week to be an Arsenal fan.
Was the weekend exactly what we wanted? Yes. An Arsenal win. We’re in control of our destiny right now and the only way to maintain this vice-like grip on our outcomes is to continue to win comfortably.
Did I look at the Liverpool and City games? Yes, but not on purpose, because I’m that focused on Arsenal.
Unai Emery, on the longest hater tour of Arsenal in history, showed up to Anfield and his big move was to do the exact opposite of what every team who has beaten Arne Slot has done. Unai heard “I hate long balls” and decided a short passing game out the back was the key to the win. Quite bizarre for a manager who spends every waking hour obsessively watching football. Emi Martinez also had a shocker, gifting Salah his first with a shoddy pass straight to his feet. Villa had a few moments, but they were largely a non-entity. I’m still of the view Liverpool just don’t look right. Wirtz is a long way off the pace, the fullback situation is laughable, and VVD doesn’t look the man he once was. The only ray of sunshine in that team is Ekitike, who looks absolutely mustard every time I see him play.
The City game wasn’t much better for the cause. Erling Haaland is quite simply unplayable at the moment. He’s in the Cristiano zone. How he manages to look like a freak in a Premier League packed with freak athletes is beyond me, but he’s quite simply ridiculous and he won the game for City again. That said, City still have weaknesses. Donnarumma might have a great brand name, but he looked Sunday league from the corner that led to their goal and his playing out the back is very unimaginative. Bournemouth also got in behind a number of times. City just aren’t looking as formidable as they once were. They are the main challengers to Arsenal this season.
The biggest story that no one is talking about is that Arsenal are top of the league, handily, without having our attackers properly available for much of the competition so far. Odegaard has been part-time, Saka has only recently returned, Kai has been out for most of the season, Madueke dropped out early, and Martinelli is now out of the team, with Gyokeres following suit.
We don’t have proper attacking flow yet, we don’t have fresh players, this is an Arsenal team that has had a horrible season with injuries, but we’re still playing so, so well.
The Andrea Berta strategy of going wide with depth vs deep with extreme talent seems to have been the correct move. There’s literally no way that wouldn’t have been the move. The only extreme option we had up front was Alex Isak, and he’s looking meek in attack and is already injured. Not every signing was perfect, but when are they ever? The biggest win for Berta is there isn’t a single dud in the mixer. Everyone is contributing, even Norgaard.
I’ll also stand by my comments at the start of the season: we’re bedding in a lot of players, and we won’t see the best from them until January onwards when they really start to connect with the system and what’s being asked of them. I’m looking at Eze in particular. His start for Arsenal reminds me a little bit of Declan’s... good, but not quite where we know the level is. Part of that is arriving late, being asked to play lots of different roles, and adapting to a demanding coach who does not ask simplicity of his players. He’s usually better in the back half of a season. He’d only racked up 2 goals and 2 assists by the end of December last year, then went on a mad one in the EPL dropping 7 goals and 6 assists to close out the season. I’m expecting more of that.
I’m also expecting Kai, Jesus, and Odegaard to come back into the side absolutely on fire, looking to prove a massive point to the rest of the squad. These guys are stat botherers and they need to show that, in the prime of their careers, they can deliver big trophies to Arsenal.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how the system evolves when we have a full raft of attacking options to choose from. I think it’ll be a different Arsenal and I’m certainly of the mind that Arteta is going to continue his rotation kick that seems to have served him pretty well so far this season.
We haven’t got any news on Zubimendi or Gyokeres. Really praying that Lady Luck can throw us a bone here, but even if she doesn’t, we only have to navigate Prague and Sunderland before a two-week break. The most important thing is that those two are in the squad for the big games after the break where we’ll face Spurs, Chelsea, Brentford, Villa, and Bayern Munich. It’ll be pretty upsetting if we have to play those teams with stars looking to build into match fitness, but it does tend to be the way with Arsenal unfortunately. Gotta pray that the subs were precautionary and the precaution saved an injury.
Turkey has just announced that it has uncovered a refereeing bombshell.
“It was revealed a five-year probe had found 371 of 571 match officials have betting accounts, with 152 of those actively gambling.”
“While some had only bet once, 42 had bet on more than 1,000 football matches, with one official found to have placed 18,227 bets.”
In America, one of the biggest betting scandals in sports history has been unfolding, with coaches and players involved in some deeply shady accusations related to the mafia.
I know, I know, the British always think they are above this muck and it could never happen in the Premier League. But it does make you think, especially given the multitude of horrors that have surrounded the only Premier League ref to get truly fired lately.
I hope someone is thinking about these sorts of things and asking difficult questions. Once those scandals rock a league, trust erodes fast, and it can absolutely tank the product. Just look at how Italian football suffered after Calciopoli. Sponsors fled, Serie A’s foreign audience dropped, and the league was stained by the scandal for many years.
Scott Parker called out Declan Rice as a bit of a star of the current Arsenal setup.
“If you don’t have those players you probably don’t score as many as Arsenal are scoring,” the former England midfielder said.
“It’s not just down to those two [Gabs and Big Bill]. You’ve got a delivery taker [Dekkers] and every single time you ask it to be put back post it goes back post.”
Matt said on the podcast that the player he wanted to compare Declan to was… David Beckham. Never heard that before. The two players, in their prime, were very far apart physically, but from a delivery perspective, maybe not. Outside direct free kicks, which Declan doesn’t always take, the comparison is uncanny. What weaknesses does Declan have compared to Beckham? Both exceptional for deadball deliveries, both brilliant at crossfield long balls in games, both loved a diagonal ball, and both have exceptional hair.
I like the comparison. I like it a lot.
Declan’s big move over the next few months is clear to me. He needs to start scoring more goals. He has the power and pace to get into the box, he has the ball striking, he needs to be scoring 15 goals a season with his outstanding abilities. You have to believe you can do that for it to happen, and I’m not sure I see enough selfishness in games for him to fulfill that right now, versus someone like Ethan, who just bangs from anywhere. Still, we must remember, he arrived at Arsenal as a number 6. He showed up at West Ham as a centre-back. Give him some time to adapt to being in the nosebleed part of the pitch.
Ok, big week ahead. Two massive away games. Prague, away from home, never easy. Followed by the surprise package of the season… Sunderland. They could be 2nd by the time they face us next weekend. How often do you play a newly promoted team in October and it’s a 6-pointer because they’ve assembled a title-challenging side? Not often. I’m really excited about that game. My granddad grew up in Sunderland… is my blood part Mackem DNA? Could be. Might be why I’m enjoying Eddie Howe crash and burn this season after taking over as the top dog there and spending that Isak money like someone who has a relative helping him. Sensational to see them lose to West Ham yesterday… and my word, what a gentleman Nuno is. That guy really is a class act.
Ok, that’s me done. See you in the comments. x
P.S. Get your ears on Johnny’s ratings after the weekend.