2023-2024 Preseason

[HockeyGuy1964]

Only one winner of the last 12 Community Shield winners has gone on to win the Premier League.

Okay. I'll stop with my overly dramatic celebration & parade planning then.

 

[Chimaera]

Darmstadt are pretty awful

Liverpool defense fell asleep.

 

[S E P H]

Tons of teams wanted Havertz when Chelsea bought him, the only reason Chelsea even got him was because of the pandemic and their post transfer ban war chest. He was considered one of the best young talents in the game when at Leverkusen.

Now I am amazed Chelsea managed to sell him to Arsenal for so much, because he had been garbage for a long time at Chelsea.

Oh I remember the insane hype that he and Werner had and to me, it just seemed "too good" at the time. He was a lot like Pepe, who had a very small but impressive track record and Chelsea went all Perez the Great on him with their shiny new toy syndrome due to the transfer ban. I agree with Chelsea getting so much, but I am more confused that Chelsea would have not taken anything less than 60 million for him. I mean, good piece of business by you lot, but thinking he was a 60+ million pound player after all the rubbish he's shown is a pretty interesting assessment by your front office.

should've used the money on a clear upgrade or to bring in a youngster with upside

Timber's a perfect get, as a fullback he does everything Arteta wants out of his players. Great on the ball, reliable going forward and strong defensively.

I think what screwed us up a bit was Xhaka's indecisiveness until the end of the season when he fully committed that he wanted a new challenge out of the EPL. If he decided earlier, we could've potentially gone in for Nkunku who would've been an awesome upgrade. I am a bit concerned because all of Arsenal's big transfer targets have been sort of failures. Vlahovic hasn't lived up to the hype, Mudryk looked awful last season, and Havertz had serious problems before us buying him. There are others as well like Raphinha (more faith for him to turn it around), Caicedo (who should be good for his price), Musah (at times some rumours said 80 million for him), Lautaro (around 80-100), and Maddison (around 70 million at the time). Caicedo is the only one on that list I would take at his valued price as of now.

I don't think 105 million for Rice was a bad move, but a better one was spending that for Osimhen and then triggering the 50-60 million release clause for Zubimendi. Spending 170 million for Rice and Havertz definitely has the potential to set us back. And it wasn't that Kai was bad yesterday, I thought he looked quite good for playing as a false 9 which seems Arteta wants with Jesus and others, but he's got to score on the second chance he was given (no excuses whatsoever from that position). It is a troubling sign because, for a player who has not very good finishing skills, he didn't give himself any confidence in missing those prime chances yesterday.

Only one winner of the last 12 Community Shield winners has gone on to win the Premier League.

Interesting stat, but Arsenal broke one last year as well when not winning the EPL title after having an absurd amount of point/wins in the lead. If there is a club capable of breaking good and bad records, it is us.

 

[Savant]

Darmstadt are pretty awful

Liverpool defense fell asleep.

That’s been every preseason game. They still can’t defend are are still making the same mistakes as last year

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Comical defending by Liverpool. Allisson comes to the rescue.

VVD visibly frustrated

 

[Savant]

Comical defending by Liverpool. Allisson comes to the rescue.

VVD visibly frustrated

Every game is going to be like this. If they can’t stop 2. Bundesliga teams, I don’t know what they are expecting. They haven’t fixed what they were bad at

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Every game is going to be like this. If they can’t stop 2. Bundesliga teams, I don’t know what they are expecting. They haven’t fixed what they were bad at

Yeah, I don’t know I think you are right. VVD and konate as the only 2 cbs isn’t going to cut it.

This Doak fella is fun tho

 

[Savant]

Yeah, I don’t know I think you are right. VVD and konate as the only 2 cbs isn’t going to cut it.

This Doak fella is fun tho

Doak is a lot of fun. He is supposed to be a secret though

LFC have the smallest squad in the league, have no recognizable defensive midfielders and have a game in less than a week. Our second best forward has to play midfield because half of our “rebuilt” midfield (which has five less players than last year) is also playing out of position because of this

We are fighting over 5m on a transfer fee on a player who people almost unanimously agree shouldn’t be starting, and even if they do get him it will be for the same price that he would have costed three weeks and two training camps Ago. Oh, and there’s no defensive targets either

 

[Evilo]

I picked up Doak in our fantasy league this year.
I like him.

 

[Savant]

I picked up Doak in our fantasy league this year.
I like him.

Maybe he will get some starts after we sell Mo Salah to Saudi (only half kidding). Should ge5 some Europa minutes for sure

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Barca-Spurs today.

Expect a pretty rotated side from Spurs. They played Donetsk just two days ago.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Barca-Spurs today.

Expect a pretty rotated side from Spurs. They played Donetsk just two days ago.

I expect a full strength barca its their last prep game and the season starts in a few days.Should be fun.

 

[Savant]

I picked up Doak in our fantasy league this year.
I like him.

Needs to work on his final ball but has just about everything else. People very excited about him

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Fully rotated side.

With that defense Vicario will have a lot of work to do.

I'd be surprised if Barca don't win comfortably.

 

[S E P H]

Fully rotated side.

With that defense Vicario will have a lot of work to do.

I'd be surprised if Barca don't win comfortably.

Postecoglou is afraid to show his guns. Pretty pathetic display really.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Postecoglou is afraid to show his guns. Pretty pathetic display really.

Or...

Maybe they put out a much stronger team just two days ago and are now resting them.

Grow up.

 

[S E P H]

Or...

Maybe they put out a much stronger team just two days ago and are now resting them.

Grow up.

Playing your best team against war-torn Shakhtar Donetsk, that's quite noble by you lot. You're probably planning a parade for winning the Tigre Cup as well. Spurs are in a golden age.

 

[Savant]

Playing your best team against war-torn Shakhtar Donetsk, that's quite noble by you lot. You're probably planning a parade for winning the Tigre Cup.

I laughed way too hard at this

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Playing your best team against war-torn Shakhtar Donetsk, that's quite noble by you lot. You're probably planning a parade for winning the Tigre Cup as well. Spurs are in a golden age.

I mean it makes more sense to rest the better players during the away game abroad in my mind.

As for why you think we care much about preseason trophies I don't know.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Good play from Lewa and Raphina but that’s a poor goal from the keeper

What a mess Raphina. Lol he really is dembouz 2.0

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Skipp, you love to see it.

This team isn't doing half bad actually.

 

[S E P H]

I mean it makes more sense to rest the better players during the away game abroad in my mind.

As for why you think we care much about preseason trophies I don't know.

Expressions was going nuts for it in DRSports show.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Expressions was going nuts for it in DRSports show.

That's his persona. Obviously being sarcastic.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Did we just injure Araujo? That's sad.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Did we just injure Araujo? That's sad.

I think he pulled something on the run. He’s always injured tbh. The similarities between he and Cuti are uncanny.