From Andy Pinker:
Hey Myles,
Happy New Year mate….hope you and yours are all well.
Unai Emery? Personally I like him, yes he’s making mistakes.
But was Lichtsteiner his choice?
Without going into details, our first defence is poor, let alone our second choice. As a journo wrote this week, Liverpool and the Manchester clubs are shopping at Harrods and Arsenal are looking in the Pound Shop.
Read Le Grove today and he obviously didn’t want UE and that’s fair enough.
But I don’t think most Arsenal fans realise what a mess the French Control Freak left us in.
Liverpool let Suarez and Coutinho go but for big money.
I believe they’ve now got a plan in place that should Barcelona want another Liverpool player, the price now stands at a billion quid, no matter who they want. It’s a club being run by competent people.
Meanwhile, at the biggest club in the biggest city in Europe, we had Wenger, who fucked things up so badly
So while Liverpool were selling Suarez and Coutinho for multi-millions, AFC let Fabregas, Nasri, RVP, Sanchez, Ozil and Ramsey run their contracts down.
I read a report last week that said :Arsenal’s forwards are top five, their midfield is mid-table, and the defence is relegation fodder.
Yes, Emery is making mistakes, obviously. But what a mess he inherited.
Myles says:
The good news today, Andy, is that Arsenal are not playing Liverpool or Man United. They’re playing newly-promoted Fulham, a naive outfit with a good striker and wily old Claudio Ranieri pulling the strings.
Fulham have Mitrovic, a real centre forward who can score against anybody.
The difference between playing Liverpool at Anfield and playing Fulham at the Emirates is huge.
Yes, Leicester have just won at 1-0 at Everton.
But Claude Puel’s Leicester are a far better team than Ranieri’s Fulham.
TEAMS FOR THIS 3pm kick-off:
ARSENAL: Leno, Sokratis, Koscielny, Mustafi, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Iwobi, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Subs: Cech, Elneny, Ramsey, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Nketiah, Saka.
Fulham: Sergio Rico, Odoi, Le Marchand, Ream, Christie, Cairney, Cisse, Bryan, Schurrle, Mitrovic, Ryan Sessegnon.
Subs: Bettinelli, Johansen, Ayite, Vietto, Fosu-Mensah, Seri, Kamara.