morning.
There’s a lot of noise, but today seems like a proper ‘Welcome to Interlull’ morning. Now that I have Bo Burnham’s song playing in my head, I think you will too. (v NSFW!). Over at Arseblog News, Andrew has compiled a list of who is doing what during the break – away players, on the training pitch.
Raheem Sterling is rekindling his relationship with Mikel Arteta after their time together at Man City and I am really curious to see what he gets from him. There is no doubt that he has had a fantastic career for club and country, winning many trophies as a key member of Pep Guardiola’s team during his time at City. Look at the stats: 339 games, 131 goals, 73 assists. Very important goal contribution.
Obviously things didn’t work out as well as he wanted at Chelsea, but I don’t think it’s possible to judge the players at that club properly until Abramovich was kicked out of ownership and Todd, Chad, Chud, Chet and all those hedge fund guys who bought players for a trillion dollars with borrowed money. At some point, you’re going to have to blow the whistle and pay the price. I don’t think hiring a manager is a good idea, but it might be a relief for those individuals. Going to work every day and having to memorize three random guys’ names is going to be tough.
But the funny thing is that Chelsea are still paying the bulk of Sterling’s £325,000-a-week wages, and with his contract running until 2027, they will have to deal with the situation again next summer. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t care much about what’s going on there, and in his first interview as an Arsenal player, he said:
I spoke to Edu and I can see the real unity while Mikel is here, I can see the journey the boys are on, I can see the thirst. Unity is something I want to be a part of.
If you come from a club that has isolated 15-16 players and treated long-time academy graduates like complete garbage, you can understand why it is so tempting to join a club like Arsenal now. This is a united team/squad/club under Mikel Arteta, and an environment where players can thrive even when they have had a difficult time in their careers. Kai Havertz is a great example of that.
Sterling was a little bit different, I think, because in the context of his arrival he felt like a very welcome addition. The deadline was coming up, we needed some extra quality and depth, and he wouldn’t have been anybody’s first choice at the start of the summer, but it was like Indiana Jones running under the door and grabbing his hat at the last minute. Whew! Havertz was a little bit more to overcome because he was a little bit more questionable as to whether he was the right signing or whether he was a player we should be spending that money on.
Still, he has a lot to prove. He turns 30 in December and has had a lot of football on his feet from a very young age. But he sounds motivated.
Being in a football club like this is where you can see their thirst and desire every year. They keep pushing and pushing and pushing. I’m exactly that kind of person as a person. I want to get better every day, and I want to do better than I did last year.
Last year he scored 10 goals and assisted 8 in all competitions for Chelsea. If he can do better at Arsenal this season, I think it will be a successful loan. My hope is that working in a more structured and organised environment at Arsenal will suit him much better than the chaos of Chelsea. His best years were at Man City (clue: he was at his best and Man City were dominant). But there are players who thrive in teams with real tactical definition.
His versatility is also useful. There has been talk of him being a back-up/cover for Bukayo Saka and I think he can certainly provide that. What worries me a bit is that I am not 100% sure how he operates defensively and the wide players in this team have a lot to do in that regard. That worry is offset by the fact that he knows Arteta very well and Arteta knows him very well and what is expected of him in all aspects of the game will be very clear to both of them. He is Forged Standard.
Well, let’s see what happens and hopefully we can get him ready in the next two weeks for a very tough game.
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Arsenal Women’s team face Rangers in a Champions League qualifier this evening. On Arseblog News, the team will be bringing you all the preview content, including Jonas Idewall and Leah Williamson’s appearances in the media, as well as the usual post-match coverage.
Good luck!
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With the clip of Dermot Gallagher circulating on social media, I’m going to tell you the last, last, last story of Declan Rice. What it shows me very clearly is that there is a lack of consistency in the way they judge cases based on who is involved. That means there is a bias in their decision-making, whether it is unconscious or not.
Anyway, as always, here’s some of the Arsecast Extra, nicely animated by Poorly Drawn Arsenal.
