Scott Drayton

Yeah agreed on that. I also think Spurs’ current hilarious situation will make it even more difficult. Makes it feel like nobody is safe from an atrocious season

This is all true - but still much easier than getting 14/20 turkeys to vote for Christmas.

I think even the top teams are happy with 20 teams in the league as those 4 extra games are worth big money multiplied across the league.

It’s because the cup is achievable. The chances of reducing the league is basically zero so barely worth mentioning

Should be the LW choice over Martinelli for me. Martinelli has been bad for a while now

I think I’m blind to the idea of overpowered passes because for years I’ve watched so many Arsenal players caress passes so softly the whole attack slows down and we see the horse shoe of death.

I actually thought the drifting was pretty decent against Chelsea but his final ball was off on the day.

The really good Eze chance first half came from drifting for example (Eze just took an extra touch that he shouldn’t have done)

Interesting - I find the signing strange if he doesn’t play there though?

Do you think Arteta thought Eze was going to be better at it, is thinking longer term, or always planned Eze to be central more than left sided?

Why do you think Arteta has been so reticent to trying Eze there?

It suuuuurely can’t be just the Aston Villa goal error still?

Anybody who puts more than one thing in the lockers for me.

Nothing stresses me out more than having to put your stuff in a locker behind your seat as yours is full and knowing you’ll have to wait for everybody to leave before getting your stuff at landing.

He also said it after his team scored 3 from set pieces which I like? Makes it feel like he’s clearly talking macro and not specific teams

Why do we insist on going long so often when under pressure? I know it might be tempting to do so but it feels like our front line aren’t built for it and it comes straight back. Isn’t this why we bombed out Ramsdale? #arsecastextra

Wolves have 2 Brazilian internationals in midfield and Burnley took Porto’s best midfielder in the summer.

Add in the added set piece brilliance from most the league and as much as the league often feels worse quality, it’s obviously much much better.

So many chances we won the ball in the final third or their defence was scrambling and we over hit the pass, or fell over the ball etc. Not any individual player - more of a decision making thing with Arsenal

We’ve gotta be the worst team in the league at converting ‘threatening chance’ into ‘properly dangerous shot on goal’.

We bollocks it up all the time. Teams score those against us weekly it feels.

The Super League was obviously a horrendous, horrendous thing.

But they did raise the impeccable point that football’s regulators (FIFA, UEFA etc.) shouldn’t also profit from the sport.

If you were to split those 2 aspects up, it would fix a lot of the problems we see of insane greed I think.

Oh hard to measure for sure but I think there’s a reason some strikers are streaky, we say the best strikers have goldfish memories etc - it’s all about mental strength

Didn’t Jesus admit he was afraid of playing 9 for a few years after the WC? And his penalty record isn’t a ball striking thing.

Okay fair enough mentally weak was harsh.

But I think he’s visibly mentally weaker than other footballers with the way he’s reacted to certain things.

My point is there is a big variance amongst professional footballers, and that variance makes a big difference like any attribute does.

Is there something about the long range goals we concede James?

I’m thinking last night, Krupi, the 2 United goals just recently - as much as they were all long rangers, I also feel they were under very little pressure and had all the time in the world to pick their spot?

Players like Gabriel Jesus I think prove this wrong. Guy is clearly a mentally weak player and always has been

What annoys me about mentality is it’s often viewed as being out of the realms of control which is wrong.

Being weak mentally should be looked at the same way as a bad first touch is imo

I think he’s a reasonable part of the issue to be honest, but not sure Eze in that position is the answer either.

I think I’ve just hit the point of ‘I could see us moving on from Odegaard in the summer’ which is the first time I’ve got there.

Fair but Im not sure he really was the answer himself. If Eze had his second half he’d be banished for a month.

Think Havertz is the only player to perform well in that position for us this year.

Not sure this aged well

Bit of an observation but found myself marvelling at how unworried I was about Saliba even though he got an early yellow in that game.

I feel like it’s happened quite a few times but I’m always impressed by how our defenders manage themselves on a yellow

#arsecastextra

Spotted this on my walk to the Emirates on Saturday.

Now my working self will defend HubSpot to the death.

My footballing self can’t defend the use of an England football phrase when clearly targeting a club football ground.

Also it doesn’t really work as a one-liner.

Him and VdV are the most overrated defenders in the premier league. Real Vermaelen vibes - neither can defend for shit but they score more than the average defender so pundits only remember that.

Like this isn’t a weird rule like with Auba when it was literally a different competition?

Guehi literally played us in this competition and even fucking scored a last minute equaliser 2 rounds ago.

We’d be fucking slaughtered if we complained about this.

I love him

I think for larger clubs, in larger stadiums - the state of the team is far more linked to crowd noise than most like to pretend.

People like to think their ground is intimidating (for the opposition) no matter the situation but in reality I can’t think of many where that’s the case

Ha I think this has been a real Arteta development point to be honest. He’s got better at it but he needs to get better still at expanding that trusted circle of options rather than driving a group of 15 into the ground.

I think it’s changed a bit now more towards a double pivot however (not to mention he’s also our best striker) but yeah I agree it does feel like he’d be next in line