Mailbag - What Can Stop Arsenal Now?

35:29But I also kind of think this player was probably available a year before we got him if we'd really wanted him. Which is not to say I don't think Arteta wants him. What I'm trying to get at is I think he's probably a tool in the toolbox and hopefully a very useful tool that we use quite a lot. You know, nothing too niche. But I'd still expect Game for Your Life Champions League final that Havertz would play up front. I think that is probably who and what Mikel Arteta really wants in his team. However, as we've seen, it's not an absolute catch-all solution, and there are days where you need something else.

36:11And we were absolutely right to go out and buy someone else who does something else, definitely. So for me, I think in the game for your life, or in Arteta's perfect game, Havertz is up front. But as we know, the perfect game actually doesn't come around that often. You need other things. You need other tools. And so I kind of think Jokeres is that, but at a high level, like maybe at like a Trossard level. Again, Champions League final, everyone's fit. Trossard probably doesn't start. He might, but he probably doesn't. But he'll definitely be involved in that game. And, you know, in the run in getting us to that promised land of the Champions League final, he'll have probably popped up with a couple of very important goals like he's almost like good filler I guess and again that sounds pejorative but not meant to be that you know a role player as Paul might say so the question for me is to what extent is Jokka as a role player because it can't be like a 10 to 15 percent of the time when we absolutely have to it has to be more than that but is it a 40 50 kind of thing are there certain types of game are there certain types of situation do you just look at it on the fitness of both players and who's training the best like all of that i think is to be seen are there pairs of wingers for example that might work better with jokeres compared to havertz like for example i think we can see martinelli and Havertz is is a little bit orange juice and toothpaste like I don't think that brings the best out of Martinelli whereas maybe working with Jokeres does for example maybe even Trossard like coming in off that flank and and all of that like that's one of the things a bit like the last question really with Hinkapé that I'm really intrigued to see is do we end up falling on some partnerships because one of the things we have seen this season is just using different players for different games.

38:10So Trossard, we didn't want what happened last year at Newcastle where the whole game's out on the touchline and they just keep smashing us into the advertising hoardings. So play Trossard almost as another midfielder, like that type of thing. I still suspect if you really wanted to pin me down on it, it would be about 60-40 Havertz. And some of that 40 Havertz would probably play in midfield and it certainly appear at some point in the game. I do think Havertz is a really, really important connective tissue player for Arteta in a way I don't think Jokeres quite will be, but my expectations of Jokeres are be useful enough often enough and it will be a great spend of money.

38:58Yeah, as usual, a very articulate and thoughtful answer from you, Tim, but you lost me because after I brushed my teeth, I always rinse my mouth with orange juice, so I didn't get the analogy at all. James, I'll let you answer the same question. I'll just say this. I think Kai could also be an obstacle to Marino minutes because I think that was the original role he was sort of brought in for, and I think Kai with Jokeresh could be a really interesting combination. I also don't connect to the anxiety about Jokeresh's performances so far because I just think if you look at this squad and where all the talent is and where all the spending is, the guy was acquired for less than Eze.

39:33he was acquired for less than Kai Havertz we brought him in to play striker and score goals when he can and be part of the squad but not to be the superstar I mean obviously you kind of hope for that to happen he's got three goals the last couple of weeks I think you've seen real improvement in his performance as his fitness has gotten better and his teammates have learned him and you know if he plays half the games and Kai plays half the games that's a fine outcome so I'm not going to sit here and pretend he's been amazing he hasn't but I think we're top of the league and he's had to play 90 minutes every game and so you can't discount the fact that he's been involved in that success through a very difficult run for a player to come into the league and have to go old trafford opening day and then go to anfield and also play city and go tost james's park where he by the way looked brilliant um i think the guy deserves a lot of credit so i don't know james like i don't want to overstate how good he's been because he's not blowing the doors off or anything but i certainly think based on what he's done and where we sit in league he's earned his minutes and he's earned the right to continue to play minutes to the extent that we can give him a break that probably be good too you know yeah and look 60 million that's kind of the going rate for a squad player if you're competing with manchester you know manchester city i mean god knows nani medueke eberecha eze kai havertz i mean you know similar prices for those players and i didn't see anyone saying nani has to come in and take saka's starting spot you know exactly I I think one of the things that's really intrigued me about the way Arsenal are playing with Jokeres and how this might feed into what games we see as a Jokeres game and what games we see as a Havertz game is that the real extent to which they have picked up the pace with which they with which they get the ball out of play I mean you know the direct speed stats you see for for Arsenal in some of the games they've had this season especially at Old Trafford against Olympiacos as well, they were flying forward because that was, I think, to an extent it's about exploiting Jokeres, but it's also going to be about what does this opponent give us?

41:32Now, you know, like kind of Tim said, I think when you're in those down in the trenches clashes with City and Liverpool, you're going to need a forward that allows you to hold the ball and have your two and a half minutes of possession where you probe for gaps and eventually the ball breaks through and Havertz can help get you down the byline and from there you sweep in. I think, you know, when you are playing a team that wants to play in a low block, I think one of the things we're really seeing from Arsenal this season is how can we get into the final third before the Olympiacos defence, the Manchester United defence, whoever's defence is set to meet us.

42:09That, you know, that is why we've seen Erdegaard so aggressive in his passing, I think, and, you know, why Martinelli looks like quite a good fit next to Jokeres, going back to what Tim was saying. So I think we're going to almost end up seeing this sort of horses for courses, Arsenal 11s, really. You'll always see when they're fit, Erdegaard probably and Saka, because they're so good that they're the best player in either of those approaches. But I think there is certainly going to be games where what's really effective is getting the ball out quickly because Arsenal don't need to fear what happens if it comes back the other end.

42:47They are probably one of the best-placed teams in the world to get into a basketball match because they have Zubamendi, Gabriel, Saliba and Raya. So I think that's kind of just another way of really saying that Jochores could end up just being a little bit of a flat-trap bully. And that's great because Arsenal's problem last season was they went up and sort of threatened to nick the lunch money of the Fulhams and West Hams of the world, and actually they couldn't overpower them. And if Jokorez gives you that, we see it in where all his shots are coming as well, the games that are coming. Perfect.

43:2760 million well spent. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's early, obviously, for any evaluation because this can go down a path where he just gets hot in front of goal and this question seems silly and Kai is backing him up. It could go the other way. There's still some time, by the way. I don't think Kai will be back until November. So we'll just have to see. I want to ask you a question about the Champions League final, around the corner, topical question, about a critical run of fixtures that we have coming up, about Nani Madweke. We got a really interesting question on that, and I think that is one to consider as well.

44:02So all of that is coming. But first, I want to do the sensible thing for the health and wellness of this community, which is tell you about brands.

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46:34Is that enough of that? Indeed. Okay, so lots of questions about lineups and players and stuff. Before we go to another player question, let's do a lineup type question, Tim. PapaBBS on the Discord says, is your starting 11 the same for these three games? And then list these games. 23rd November, home to Spurs. 26th November, home to Bayern. 30th November at Chelsea. Big run, three games, North London Derby, Bayern at home, Chelsea away. Is your 11 the same for that? Does he need to rotate through that period? How does he manage a situation like that? Because you'll see more and more of that as the season goes on.

47:18No way should the 11 be the same for those three games. And we don't need it to either because we've got a good deal more than 11 good players. I think we're at a stage now where we could change five or six players and barely notice um in terms of the level so like of course we should rotate and it don't get me wrong it should be gentle rotation i'm not talking about like wholesale for one of the games but again we can i think we've got enough profiles of player now that we can pick according to the opposition a little bit assuming that um we have good enough health to do that so you know we could we could pick completely different left backs for all three of those games we could pick completely different left wingers we could pick completely different left eights if like madueke is back by them we could you know we could pick three different right wingers like it's it's we do have like a lot of a lot of resource to do that i would fully expect two to three changes per game um for that maybe not like the absolute like the spinal players at the but like i i reckon like saliba and gabriel if fit would start all three of those games i reckon declan rice probably would i think martin zubamendi is very quickly going to become one of those players i think we saw that a bit on saturday maybe where it's like we kind of have to play this guy because he does something um you know quite unique and then like the forward positions again if sack is fit then maybe he just starts all three games because he's really really good um but like the other kind of forward positions some of those midfield positions i'd fully expect them to change so short answer probably three or four players who if fit will play all three of those games i don't even think we'd have to do that if we didn't want to other than that i'd be shocked and and kind of not in a good way if we start with the same lineup for three games like that.

49:24I have to say the least important game of that run, as weird as it sounds, could be Bayern Munich. We could put ourselves in a really good position in the Champions League where that game is a nice to win but not a have to win. You want to win the Derby and you want to beat Chelsea away. So if you look fantastic in the Derby and you blow the doors off a team and you like that 11 and that's the 11 you want to use against Chelsea, I'd be fine for rotating midweek. I think there is going to be this interesting back and forth discussion all season long about we have such a deep squad and look at how much we can rotate.

49:56But also if that's not going well, is this deep squad and constant rotation preventing us from finding cohesion? And that's a balance. It's a tough balance because I look, everybody's sick of me saying it, but I do think the best teams start to coalesce around an 11 and really push the gas pedal on it. We did when we went on our run two seasons ago from January to the end of the season. PSG famously did last season when they went on their incredible run to the Champions League victory. So balancing between using this immense squad, which is our strength, but also finding a cohesive 11 that can be dominant, that's going to be an interesting one.

50:37Let me ask you this from Bukayosaka, sorry, Buyaka, Buyasaka. You know what? From this person on the Discord. James, do you think we'll see the Medueke as a left-wing option again when he returns? If so, how does that impact Leo Martinelli as a left-wing minutes? We got a number of questions on Nani's role when he comes back. Do you think he is the plan for left-wing when he's fit again? Yeah, I mean, when that transfer happened and you sort of ask around, one of the things that Arsenal, people close to Arsenal, people with like a knowledge of why this was happening were saying was Arsenal don't see him as just Saka backup.

51:19That's not why they're spending all this money. And, you know, we don't know what would have happened with Eze if Kai Havertz hadn't got hurt, but we do know that they really did envisage Nani as someone that could play on the left and has played on the left. He didn't play there a lot for Chelsea, but if you go back and watch when he did, he gave Trent Alexander-Arnold to run around against um against Liverpool so what does that mean for Martinelli Trossard and um as a fewer minutes I guess but what I was really encouraged by even in just in terms of the intent of it was Arteta rolling out the rice as a erdegaard midfield against West Ham that there's going to be space found for so many of these players wouldn't shock me if given the right occasion Trossard moves in field we've seen him do that with mixed success I don't think he's going to move Trossard infield against Tottenham against Man City but I think there will be games where he goes yeah yeah yeah we can roll we can roll with that and we can see what happens and it doesn't work we'll have Erdegaard, Eze, whoever on the bench same for you know Martinelli we've seen I think can be pretty impactful from the right wing so the minutes are kind of going to be there to just to spread around because you know like everyone was you've mentioned those three games I believe like three days after Arsenal play Chelsea they're at home to Brentford and then it's away to Villa.

52:40So it's not even like that one block. You can just sort of deal with that and then have a week to reassess. I mean, from after the November international break onwards, it's pretty relentless until brief pause before Christmas. So the minutes will be there in abundance. And I think Madueka, you guys know I'm all in on Madueka. I think he's going to excel wherever Arsenal put in. Yeah, I think the squad is basically like a walk-in wardrobe at this point like I don't think Arteta will be thinking about like what his starting lineup will be like on November the 23rd or anything like that like I think he's just thinking let's see what what I've got on November the 22nd you know what's the weather like what jacket do I have you know do I need to do I need to like team it with a hat or something you know I like I don't think he'll be thinking to i i think the way they've built this out is just like i want everything basically i want everything available to me pretty much at all times and decisions will be made on how how those outfits are deployed like almost on the day tim i'm going to ask you a hard one um and i was tempted not to ask this question because i think it's a question that people will start to roll their eyes at and get annoyed with and you'll understand i'm building it up to be a really fun question right uh but but but let me explain so over on the discord h willis 155 asked this question and then there was some back and forth about the question and i thought there were a lot of really interesting responses which made me think it's worth talking about so do you think it's fair to say arteta has two seasons to win one of the two big trophies champions league of the premier league i am a massive mckel fan he has taken us so far on and off the pitch and i desperately want him to succeed but i think it's fair to say with the players at his disposal the time he has had with them and comparing us to other quote big teams it's a fair expectation to win a premier league or champions league title by the end of the 2026-27 season if he doesn't win i think we need to look at a more experienced coach with a track record winning like luis enrique uh and i like i said i was tempted not to ask this question but what struck me i'm trying to think of another big club that had a manager that did well but did not win the big things and stuck around I know it didn't go great for Alex Ferguson right away when he got there but obviously in our history Arsene in our recent history Arsene won basically right away um so that that made life easier but it is simply the case Tim that let's say we didn't win it this season and let's say we didn't win it next season even if we just kept finishing second and kept looking really good and kept getting deep in the Champions League you wonder how long people can hold on to the idea that we're really really good if the ultimate success isn't there and as a comparison I look at Liverpool and again I know social media is not a reflection of real life there are people that are very frustrated with slot and now writing off his victory last season is just running on Klopp's vibes and questioning whether he has the tactical now to win the Premier league and he literally won it last season.

55:50So we're in an immediacy era already, just as a society. We have a manager who's clearly extraordinary in terms of the quality of what he's built and how long now we've been very good and consistently competing for the biggest things. But if the ultimate success isn't there, can that carry on? And I find myself not sure, even though I've always said that's not the best metric to evaluate how a manager is performing. yeah i think that's a completely fair point of view and referring to the question because i think the thing is like it's difficult to put an exact time on it because you'll know it when it comes basically when that point comes where it's like this isn't going to happen you kind of know but it's very very difficult it's it's like um i've forgotten the proper name of it and i i cite this a lot the paradox of the heap right which is like two grains of sand is not a heap three grains of sand is not a heap four grains of sand is not a heap what is that magic number where suddenly it becomes a heap and actually you can't put your finger on it you just know when you see it but 37 by the way but like so why is 36 not like you know i mean like when does put it that way you know um we need the supercomputer from uh from hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy sir you know what i mean like to to how many grains of sand is a heap and why Yeah, but I have to say, I do think that if after two seasons we've still not won, and particularly if there's no, let's say, Carabao Cup or FA Cup, that might change the equation slightly.

57:25And again, maybe you can say, yeah, but if we get 92 points in both those seasons and someone else gets 93. but I think once you get to the point of four five years of explaining it away you probably have come to a point where you're like okay we've probably hit a bit of a wall here and it probably does need something else it could I think it's unlikely but it could just be extraordinarily unlucky we could put up 90 point seasons and just have another team that does 92 93 and again it's like so who is that person that gets us to 95 because that's incredibly difficult to do um but yeah i i kind of think that's unlikely i think i think what liverpool have shown is if you keep competing like it will drop for you one season like last season it dropped for liverpool right which is not to hand wave what they did yeah but it dropped for them because arsenal and city were were buggered for various reasons but fair enough they put up a 97 point season once and didn't win the league they completely deserve to have a season or two or like the covid season and it wasn't because of covid because they had it well wrapped up before that but it kind of happened then as well like city just fell apart and don't get me wrong they were like i think they got something like 57 or 55 from 57 like they put up like a hell of a pace but you know city kind of fell apart as well but the lesson of Liverpool is keep doing that keep doing that every year and like at some point it will drop for you I think it's kind of unlike that scenario I'm positing where Arsenal get 90 plus points and still don't win it I think that's really unlikely and I think if we don't win something in the next two seasons I think it's more than likely it's because we've come to a point where we need to try something or someone else yeah I mean it's the question the age-old question, is it okay to change for change's sake?

59:25You know what I mean? Because to your point, let's say we finish on 92 points this season and lose the league by a point. And finish on 92 points next season, lose the league by a point. And in both seasons, we make it to the Champions League final and lose to exceptional teams by one goal. We're clearly excellent. So do you just change for change's sake? And where I start to lean is towards what you're seeing with the players because all these supremely talented guys keep signing up. They keep re-signing. And all these supremely talented guys who could go start somewhere else are coming to Arsenal to be squad players.

59:58And I think that's a huge referendum on Mikel because the thing that's most likely to win you stuff is talent. And talent mostly wants to be with managers, other than financial issues, with managers that they like and trust to do right by them. So James, I am sort of of a mind that change for change's sake is not healthy, that you're more likely to be worse than better if you're doing that, especially if the players seem so committed to the project. But I must admit, I can't think of many examples of big clubs that have been really, really good for years, but not quite won the major stuff and just stuck with that same project.

1:00:37I hate the idea of ripping up something that's very good just out of impatience. But then again, I am conscious of the fact that the reason we do all this is ideally at some point we would like to win one of these big things simeone and athlete is probably a fair and and it did happen for them it did happen for them they did win it though i mean if simeone had not gotten to the mountaintop if he'd not won a title would he still be there is is an interesting question um you know klopp famously got to an insane point what was it 96 and didn't win the league 98 points didn't win like something insane like that um but the reason there was patience with him when they fell away after that season is he had already won a title.

1:01:18And so again, he had that in his pocket. You know, James, I'm very clear and I'll be clear again. I don't think just the trophy hall is the way you evaluate a manager. I think there are better metrics, but I also know the reason we do this is to win these big trophies and just continuing to do the same thing because it's really, really good may not satisfy people and may not satisfy the players. I don't know. yeah i would i would really warn anyone that's arteta skeptic to be very careful what you wish for i mean i'm sure there would be in the event that arteta left and luis enrique said yeah i i fancy go at this one i'm sure there'll be a lot of very excited supporters and rightly so but i would remind those supporters that you know luis enrique didn't set the world light at roma for instance and luis enrique has set the world light when he's been in charge of the most talented squad so maybe but i did to an extent i sometimes think we and i'm as guilty of this in the media as anyone because they're the people we talk to and they're the people that are the public face we really overstate the impact of the managers i mean you know i think most sort of analytics people will tell you that a good manager is about the same value as one good player you know so pretty helpful pretty valuable but may not be you know changing them may not be that that crucially impactful and and so i kind of even then i look at it and i sort of say who's going to get the culture who's going to fit into arsenal football club effectively why did a clearly extremely talented coach like unai emery not succeed at all at arsenal i think to an extent because he just didn't get to arsenal and michael arteta in the very fiber of his bones probably even before he arrived at Arsenal, he understood Arsenal and he therefore understood what needed to change culturally.

1:03:10And he understood how to manage upwards. He understood that the fans all hated each other and that the fans hated the players. And that, I mean, he may not have fixed one of those, but I feel like he's, he may not have fixed either of those actually, the more he's at least made steps in the right direction and You know, I think it would be very hard to pull kind of someone off the shelf that knew that and that could, I think we would all sort of talk about how Luis Enrique is going to use Martin Zubimendi. And I would sort of then think, yeah, what's he going to be like if the Emirates is getting a bit antsy?

1:03:51Can he deal with that? maybe he can but it's such a known quantity that I'm kind of to answer the question if Arteta's still putting up 90 point seasons two years from now without getting a trophy I just don't I think the bigger risk kind of like you say Elliot is just making a change unless the players are telling you look the message isn't getting through making a change for the sake of it I just I don't see the value and like you guys said you trust that the breaks will come this is we're more and more in this in the Premier League it's more like the NBA than ever before in the NFL and all that and you know that in those leagues sometimes you have to hammer at the door for an incredibly long time and then it's just your year everything breaks your way yeah a couple of things so one um to your point about managers making less of a difference than we probably think I agree I think that the players decide outcomes more but I think the manager can sometimes decide what players will come and what players will stay.

1:04:53And so Mikel being very good and very well-liked and very highly regarded has meant that we've been able to build a more talented squad. And it also means that the ownership trusts him to spend the money to give him the resources, right? So it all sort of trickles down from there. I actually think bad managers can have more impact than a good manager in a way, by the way. And that would be my only other caution. It's possible you change the manager and that next guy does that one tiny little thing that gets you over the hump or just gets lucky. but it's also possible you get the wrong guy and it collapses in on itself and we're back to being you know in the kind of situation that united find themselves in or we're in eighth or we're in sixth and we're back in the europa league and like however frustrating it is not to win the champions league in the premier league right now this era is 10x what that era was the players are more likable the football is more rewarding and we're competing for the biggest things i think also and i don't think the the original question is guilty of this by the way but i i think there's also like a culture where it is punitive you know I mean obviously sacking someone is punitive but it's like we didn't win it and that makes me unhappy and someone has to pay for that it's almost like sacking someone for a lot of people not not for all is like emotional payoff you know it's like I'm upset about this I'm unhappy about it so someone either has to be blamed and has to pay for that and that that's not always the healthiest way to look at like moving on from a manager yeah yeah i i want to be clear i sympathize with anyone who says but we need to win a premier league or champions league we absolutely do i mean we do it's too long since we've done the one and we've never done the other um although we did win the cup winners cup and you should listen to that series but to the extent that i i think change for changes sake makes sense look at the players, look at their commitment, look at ownership's belief in the manager to spend the money.

1:06:45And I think bear in mind how bad it can be. And, and that those things to me would sort of guide, guide my feelings on the matter. So let's move on from that. But I look, it is certainly a conversation worth asking because I know we live in a, in a moment where it is very hard to be patient. Not that patience was ever in huge supply in football in the past. So totally understand. Okay. James, Dean Shirley asks, if you had to pick a starting 11 right now for the Champions League final based on all squad members being fit and available, who would it be? We can only ask this while Clive is not on the pod.

1:07:20So this is like catnip for me. Let's go. Who am I playing? I don't know that. I don't know. I'm going to pick Real Madrid. Real Madrid. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. you've gotten quite a bit quiet, I should say, James, and I'm not sure. Am I better now? You are better. I'll just, I'll just address the question. Um, not play around with the premises of it much more. Uh, Raya, Timber, Taliba, Gabriel, Calafiore, Zubimendi, Rice, Erdegaard, Saka, Havertz, Eze. Sorry, that's 11 best, near enough the 11 best players wherever I can put them on the pitch. Exactly what mine would be. Yep. Not it along with all of that.

1:08:09I mean, let's say it's Barcelona. If it's Barcelona, you could talk me into Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabby, Miles, Zuby, rice odegaard saka yokores martinelli you could talk me into that and you guys are saying you're leaving as a out as your guy but or nani and over martinelli and my argument is simply that looking at how i don't want to say the word easy is not fair but how effectively you can run in behind a barcelona team and i mean sevilla just beat them for one um they're very very very good but that high line i mean inter not known for their goal scoring look what they did in that game against them in the semi-final second leg last season i mean that tie by the way that's one for the ages so i mean james do you have some idea that like if it's inter for example who's going to sit and be compact and you have to break them down you know you you might want to go a different way um as they off the left makes a lot of sense to me and you know a kai i i sort of understand for linking and combining and you know if it's if it's psg again you need a robust midfield so you you've got to try to win in midfield and we know what it takes to beat them but but barcelona you may want to lean into running in behind and then all of a sudden yokores nani martinelli those players become a lot more important yeah i mean it's why i sort of started with that question about the the opponent only the only thing i would sort of say on that is look you know none of us have ever seen Arsenal in a Champions League final.

1:09:54And I would hope if that moment would come along, and I would trust with Mikel Arteta, that any changes you make to be the best version of Arsenal more, I wouldn't say entirely, rather than thinking about how you stop the other team, because you're not doing your job as a manager very well if you don't plan for the other team. But if Arsenal did make it to the second Champions League final, sorry, my mind blanked on 2006, which it often does, rightly so. But if you do make it there, and it does go back to 2006 a little bit, in that case, it was officiating that robbed Arsenal of the chance to play the Champions League final on their terms.

1:10:34And you would really hope that kind of you would put yourselves in a position where you can be the best version of Arsenal. You're not kind of powering in fear at what Lamin-Yemal might do to you or Dembele or Mbappe or whoever, because you can trust that your players will give them a good game. So yeah, of course, there's a little bit of horses for courses, but I think Arsenal are so good that to an extent, as much as you want, you can just trust your best 11 to go out and win the day. Whatever that best 11 is. I know Clive doesn't agree with such a thing. Yeah, well, but in our, there's no subs allowed in this Champions League final, Clive.

1:11:10I'm sorry. So you have to pick your best 11. You know what's kind of interesting, guys? Can I just make a really quick observation? We'll ask another couple of quick questions before we get out of here. One, I think that's interesting. If you think about the best 11 you guys picked, only Zubamendi and Eze are new additions, right? And I think Eze off the left, if you said we got to do Martinelli there, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Zubamendi, the obvious one. But I think it's just a reminder that we probably massively underrated the squad last season and felt it needed some overhaul or something when what it really needed was fitness.

1:11:45Turns out when you play without Kai and you play without Odegaard and you play without Bakayi Osaka and you play without Gabby and you play without Timber you know, and you're starting players that you had no plan having in the team, and you've got Butler-Erierege on the bench as your only option to change the attack. Yeah, the squad can feel underpowered, but now we look at it, and we're picking Champions League finals where nine of the 11 players were here last season, and maybe 10. So, you know, just an interesting perspective on that. Tim, I don't think we have to go too deep on this, but we did get questions on it, and it is sort of in the news, so I think it's worth addressing.

1:12:17David Barrett asks, would a stadium expansion and a potential move to Wembley disrupt the quote project is another 10 ,000 seats worth the risk of interrupting short-term successes and potential trophy wins i will just point out that we could be five years away from even starting this project on on the stadium by then by that point we very much will be into a new era of arsenal led by ballon door winner max uh downman and elder statesman ethan winery uh as captain but having said that yeah um i was gonna say sesk but i won't say that because i don't want people to get mad so um yeah just pretend i didn't say that uh so yeah i mean but but let's let's set aside the time frame i mean what do you think about that the fact that we're in a really nice era of arsenal it i assume it'd probably be more than one season to do this maybe two seasons i'm guessing i have no idea let's just say i mean what would your thoughts be as a as a season ticket holder as someone who wants to go to all these games having to go to wembley not being in our spiritual home um you know during a period where maybe arsenal have one of the more talented squads in the world i mean it's it feels like the emirates could use a refurbishment and expansion i can certainly see the value of it but what do you think about the trade-offs there yeah it's one of those things it's a bit like moving house yourself it it's horrendous like as as a first world adult problem by the way moving house is one of the worst things you can do to yourself it is stressful it's expensive it's awful but you just have to trust it's a couple of months and then you know hopefully i move into like a nice house that doesn't cause me any trouble um which i didn't incidentally which why i wasn't on this podcast for a few weeks um but it's one of those things it might just have to be done Real Madrid had to do it I think Real Madrid had a bit of a stroke of luck because they did a lot of that during Covid when there weren't fans allowed anyway but Barcelona have had to do it as well I mean but I mean Spurs went to Wembley and they didn't win anything so like that must be the barometer for clubs not winning anything but like not ideal I don't like Wembley as a stadium it's incredibly difficult to get to it's much better than it used to be like because there's actually stuff around it now but still not a place I'd like to go every week um to be honest but if needs must needs must and if out the back of that we get like a stadium renovation that really really works and it works for like 50 years and the club make more money and blah blah blah like I'd tolerate it but I think a lot would depend as well on what are the stadium modifications is this for more like corporate seating for example which would be great for revenue but not necessarily for atmosphere it looks like they're thinking about you know potentially it's all feasibility at the moment I think is is is the kind of message so it might not even happen but they're looking into it but getting the roof a little bit higher getting that up a little bit more of an angle like you know i think it sounds like there are odds and ends that if they can get them all add up to add up to something better and i'm i'm kind of up for that i i think um arsenal were unfortunate at the time they opened their stadium like everything just changed literally at that point in time and now you're looking much more at like multi-purpose entertainment arenas and all of that and when things like concerts come around and a lot of this is local council led as well like you know the tottenham hotspur stadium's getting nfl it's getting boxing it's getting beyonce and all of that there's like west ham's stadium which is kind of their stadium i guess like that gets all of that stuff as well wembley's um done a lot to become much more all-purpose so that like when they have like an oasis concert at the end of september for example they can turn that stadium back around in a couple of days rather than a couple of weeks so all of this stuff has kind of happened underneath our feet and I think it's right that we're at least looking at what we might be able to do and look Wembley holds like 90 ,000 I think so if nothing else probably a good litmus test for what the demand actually is and you know so and it might be as well I think with Wembley there are only so many events that are allowed to hold a year so there might be some games where like the capacity would be slightly reduced but like not much below like 60 ,000.

1:16:51So it might even just be a good dry run for saying like, new stadium's going to be 75 ,000 or whatever. Here's Wembley for a year or two and let's see what we can do with that kind of size of crowd. Let's experiment with ticketing a little bit. How can we be dynamic but not dynamic in a ticket master, again, Oasis concert kind of way, but dynamic in a kind of, ah, it's Brentford at home on a Wednesday night. Maybe we can extend the family enclosure. You know, like it's probably like good grounds to experiment with stuff like that. Yeah, look, the naive me says, oh, more seats, maybe ticket prices can come down and more people can get to the football.

1:17:31Obviously, more seats could mean better atmosphere. This is a really hard one. I mean, could the Emirates use some upgrades and some refurbishment? Like, I think so. What's feasible? Well, the one thing I will say is that we have an owner who is a real estate developer and was involved in developing one of the more impressive stadiums in the world in SoFi. So, you know, there's that. I'm sure you will have access to all the best people thinking about how to solve this problem instead of getting into the naughty issues because it's an international break. We don't need to take that on ourselves.

1:18:07I think there's a question, James, that I'll throw to you about this. Kevin Essington asks, if money, infrastructure, and permitting were no object, what would you upgrade, modify, and change about the Emirates? So instead of is this bad, is this good, how about what changes would you like to see if this project is greenlit and you can go develop the Emirates however you want? that's a it's a very good question um because i think maybe before this recent run of form i probably would have blamed the atmosphere on the emirate of the emirates on the emirates itself and i think we've probably seen that's not quite true it's never going to be a goodison park but everton have just moved out of goodison park it's never going to be an upton park Like, you know, the only way to create that atmosphere is to have 30, 40 ,000 people in quite an enclosed space where, you know, if you happen to be in the press box there and look, you know, I'm in a very privileged position when I'm at the Emirates, but I wasn't in a privileged position when I was in the Cudson Park press box because my knees were breaking every time.

1:19:10I'm so sorry for you, James. I know. Life's a struggle. Terribly sorry. Yeah. But, you know, that was the only time life was a struggle. i think for me one of the one of the things i'm really intrigued by is you know as a relatively local resident to the emirates did the cronkies sort of envisage a new emirates being the place kind of like the spurs did with their stadium that you rock up two three hours you spend an hour in the club shop and you spend an hour and a half in the bars at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the Emirates and then you spend an hour afterwards there I don't think that would be the right Emirates Stadium like for me and you know we can only have our own views of that I I don't love the idea of it becoming a cash machine I know it needs to become a cash machine to an extent.

1:20:05But I think one of the great things about this stadium is it really is in the heart of a vibrant community. And, you know, do you pull in people that you just kind of lock them into the stadium? I know that wouldn't be true for the fans that had been going for 20, 30 years. They will have their routines and they will stick afterwards. But on match day specifically, I hope it doesn't kind of force its way into becoming a mothership that blocks out kind of the wonderful North London environs. My only other, just kind of going back to that question about Wembley, I think it would, I think it would be horrible.

1:20:46I think it would be worse than we think, predominantly because like what Tim said, it's awful to get to, you know, I'm going there tonight basically from near the ground and it's an hour's journey. It's going to be an hour's rubbish journey of kind of going into london to come out and i i get the feeling that those you know those december january night games when people are going to to wembley as much as it'll be exciting to let new fans in there'll be an awful lot of regulars who are absolutely hating it by midway through that season yeah look we don't know how many years we're guaranteed on this earth and every year that you don't get to go to the emirates and be at the home of the arsenal stinks and so if it were two years of being away from the Emirates and being in Wembley, I'm not going to argue with anyone who says, I don't want to do that, even if it stands in the way of progress.

1:21:36But it sure is a thing the club are trying to do. And so I think it is a thing that will become a reality. My only hope is the Emirates is a place that more people can go to when they're done, that it has an atmosphere that sizzles and pops a little bit more. Although, as I've covered on this podcast in the past, I think at all the big clubs, there are always games where it's a bit of a lull when you beat up on the dross of the league and you know in a game that's a little bit boring I don't care if you have 90 ,000 people there you know you're gonna get the atmosphere you get but yeah I think it's a good thing let's wrap up with two good quick questions um the first one Tim from Neil Shannon has any players surprised you so far this season even non-arsenal players as in surprised you by how good they've been playing or how poor they've been coming in any who's a player that that has been a big surprise for you one way or the other, Arsenal or non-Arsenal?

1:22:30That's actually a really difficult one. No one really with Arsenal. I think we know these players quite well. I guess non-Arsenal, I've been slightly surprised so far at Florian Verts. I thought he would have been better. He doesn't look terrible to me by any means. And don't get me wrong, I was aware that it was going to lead to a bit of a change in shape for Liverpool, going more to a 4-2-3-1 and away from 4-3-3-3 and all of that. I was expecting slightly more from him, particularly because they got him quite early in the summer, had the full pre-season, etc., etc. However, I do think there are other issues with Liverpool, Trent being one of them.

1:23:15So I'm a bit surprised that hasn't gone as well as I thought it would. I did also think that Matthias Cunha might be quite good for United, actually, in a way that Coutinho was good for Liverpool at a certain level until they wanted to challenge for the title. I think United have got so many problems that having a guy that picks ball up, runs towards goals, smashes it very hard, was actually quite a good starting point. um for them i think you can question maybe in bumo and and maybe even sesco but i thought kunya was probably a decent fit for a club who were trying to get you know back into the top five top six and i know he's been injured but that just hasn't really happened at all um like izak didn't have a pre-season so i i do think i guess that's one of the things we should have talked about earlier as well in terms of what can go wrong like i do think izak will be very good for liverpool once he kind of once he gets fit and once he's he's up he just is good yeah i mean anyone who's wishing him to not be good is going to be disappointed yeah and and that might um make the salah thing a little less pressing as well it does look to me with like verts and isak that liverpool recognize that salah's not going to do what he's been doing forever so I guess those are a couple I wasn't really that sure about anyone Man City bought this summer to be honest when I compare them to the level of like De Bruyne, Gundogan you know even going back to Sterling Sane like I do think there has been an overall drop off in quality at Manchester City so yeah those are the ones I'd have to think about it a bit more but those are the ones that kind of come to mind.

1:25:07The Arsenal one for me is easy it's Mascara I mean And I just, I would not have expected a player of his age and experience to be able to come in and look as comfortable at Arsenal. And it's not that he's been absolutely perfect, but he's been pretty damn near. I know he gets criticized for giving away a corner, but giving away a corner is not giving away a goal. And it can happen to anybody. But other than that, he's basically been foot perfect. So really impressed by him. I agree with Wurtz. I was all in on his talent. And I just think it hasn't completely worked for him. And we see some of these sort of slight Bundesliga stars come into the Premier League and struggle.

1:25:38Jadon Sancho is another one where I was like, he's just going to tear the Premier League up the way he was playing at Dortmund. And that never happened either. The dribbly technical guys who find the space and time in the Bundesliga to star, sometimes that doesn't translate. I would say if I was going to put another one, it feels like they're all Liverpool focused, but just the extent to which Karakas has been a dumpster fire there too, that has not worked for Mpong, has not really worked. And what do you know, losing one of the best fullbacks of all time has been a problem for them. So interesting stuff going on there.

1:26:07James, a quick surprise, either the good, the bad, or both? Yeah, Jeremy Doku. I thought Pep would lose patience with him, and I'm not surprised when you see how good he is that he's persevered. I didn't know how good Elliot Anderson was until this season. He's very good. And then, I think, is this every Liverpool player, if I say this guy? Jeremy Frimpong? Yeah, there you go. I thought Liverpool knew what he was when they signed him, but they're trying to play a right winger at right back yeah i don't i don't see the point there so and it is interesting because it seems like slot wants to have more control than he did last season but he bought flying fullbacks who want to be up the pitch and it's just a little incoherent to my eye so last question um and i i think james you'll have to come up with one you can pretend you made because yours aren't on record like ours are but tim topside righty in the discord says based on these first few games which of your pre-season predictions are you now most and least confident in who on earth has assumed i can remember my pre-season predictions how about ideas you think you thought and and they don't actually have to be predictions but things you went into the season kind of what do you feel most is still most true or that you would change your opinion on uh from from the start of the season that's really difficult because things have gone pretty much as i thought they might well that's good um in in terms of like points totals and all that and obviously we had such a different context with like the the like we started on the outside lane of the season right so i was always like you know get through this this kind of first bit um and i did like i never thought that arteta was playing with the handbrake on or wanted 10 guys behind the ball that's not the football I've been seeing for the last four or five years and I'm utterly astounded that people think that they've been watching that I find it amazing um so like like genuinely nothing I but I kind of also think it's a bit too early as well I guess maybe I've been slightly surprised at the extent to which Martinelli and Trossard have still been really important players like i didn't think there would be completely like siberiad um you know but but actually they've they've probably started more games and made more contribute like if you told me in mid-august after the ezer signing that like martinelli and trossard i think they lead us don't they for for goals and assists so far this season obviously because sack has been out like i think that would have surprised me um to be honest but obviously there's a context in havertz and Saka being out.

1:28:50So I think it's too early for that. I don't remember everything I said. That's part of it. But also things have gone pretty much as I thought they might. And for me, a surprise would have been someone being really bad. And yeah, I don't think I've seen that yet. So yeah. Look, there's nothing wrong with being a certified genius, Tim. So it's fine. The upsetting thing about looking at our preseason predictions is we did them before as it was signed. And so there's some things there that stand out. You know, when I look at mine, a lot of us picked Nani Maduike to have the most left wing starts. Again, before the Nani injury and before as it was signed, you did have Leo as an underperformer of the season prediction, Tim.

1:29:36And I would say as of right now, I don't think he's tearing up trees, but he's, you know, he's been okay. So that might be one that could be changed. What about you, James? What's the thing you believe at the start of the season where you're like, I was dead on about that or one that you feel you might have been wrong about? Happily working for a U.S. media outlet, like half of what we do is predictions. So I'm quite across everything I thought. Us Americans and our predictions. When will we learn? And I will keep providing them for you. I mean, from an Arsenal-specific perspective, I did not see what Arsenal would get in attack from their fullbacks coming, even Calafiori.

1:30:12I mean, if you look at sort of very early, very small sample size, but you, you know, add up Califurian Timbers XG per 90 in Europe, way over half a goal per 90. I never, obviously, you know, I watch Arsenal, so I know that Mikel Arteta doesn't play four centre-backs and three DMs every game. But I, you know, I've still known that, especially someone like Timber, the quality is really defensive, but the reason we're talking about him as much as we have of late is he's come on leaps and bounds in the final third and is really starting to get in positions to influence the game there otherwise i mean you know i i was i i kind of felt it coming with liverpool but i still said i thought they'd win the league and i thought verts would be the the player of the season because i think sometimes we all get carried away on talent and i you know i firmly believe that verts is one of the most talented players to come to the Premier League in years.

1:31:09And I think we all trust too much that talent alone will just come together and will just make good almost immediately. So I got that one wrong. I did, however, pick West Ham to go down. So I'm feeling really good about that. If a little bit, I was sort of there thinking, come on, Potter, hold on. If you can just make it to Christmas, I will look like the smartest man in the room. Yeah. I mean, when I look at my predictions, I mean, I think so far my top five prediction, which was Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Chelsea, and Newcastle, I still think I'd pick that to be it again right now. The one I'm feeling the least confident about right now is I had Victor Jokras being our top scorer.

1:31:48And as it stands, I mean, it still could happen. No one's running away with it, but I'm not sure I think that that looks good. Maybe my worst prediction was goals allowed. I had us allowing 32 goals. And as it stands right now, we may come in under that impressive number um defensively we look really really good so you know look all things right now being equal this is a really nice moment in the arsenal world we sit in a good place in the champions league we sit in a good place in the league we have a lot of good players we have some that are going to come back from injuries soon we have some that are just going to start to kick on like bukaio saka i will say that i don't think the martin Notre-Gardt injury is serious, in quotes, in that I don't think he'll be out too long.

1:32:30And we're in a part of the season where hopefully we can start to really see the flair side of our game develop as a to be more integrated. Yoko Ress to maybe have a little more of an opportunity to stamp his authority on the league. So I'm really excited for what's to come. We'll have Friday Night Clive tomorrow. If you don't want to go over there and listen to that, you will certainly have the Clive and John McKenzie pod over here. you have additional cup winners cup episodes coming just trying to do a lot of stuff to all be together and and have a nice time and uh if you have thoughts on the logo again i'll give you paul's email you can send any complaints to him but if you love it i'll certainly reach out to me anytime okay uh this one's gone on quite a while for an international break thanks for hanging with us tim i really appreciate you thanks man my pleasure as always um we we will have a one club episode i think coming because there's a lot to discuss in arsenal women world so stay tuned for that little technical glitch my fault on that otherwise it would have been out yesterday James way way overdue but always very much appreciate thanks for coming on thank you ever so much see you guys soon all right everybody we will leave it there so who do we play next Fulham yeah there you go we love you and we will talk to you after Arsenal 10 Fulham now

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