Ole setting up Sancho to fail, Nuno, AMN, Arteta and more mails…

Editor F365
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Jadon Sancho

Send in more mails on Jadon Sancho, Nuno Espirito Santo, Mikel Arteta or anything else to theeditor@football365.com…

 

Spurs
After the Man City game I wrote in to say “let’s not start eulogising Nuno until he beats a decent selection of teams” because his Wolves team were always good against City too. Today we saw a detailed demonstration of what exactly I meant by that.

 

Spurs were second best to everything all the way through that game, and when Nuno should have been making changes, tactical or personnel, to improve matters, he did nothing and it all got worse. Just as last season Wolves were a shadow of their former selves without Jimenez, so Spurs were today without Son. The midfield was crying out for a bit of creativity and the forward line needed pace, but Gil and Ndombele, who could have provided that, never left the bench. Even the BT pundits could see by 20 minutes in that the midfield diamond wasn’t working, so why it stuck around until the red card forced a change I will never know.

That is not to excuse the individuals. Skipp doesn’t look ready for this level yet. Winks was his unimaginative worst. Dele didn’t have the pace or instincts to fill in for Son. Kane was completely anonymous. Davies was at fault for the penalty (the fact that he’d just come on is irrelevant, Rodon was fine under the same circumstances). Any of the senior players should have been in Tanganga’s ear telling him to calm down and hold back for a little while. (Absolutely loved him flooring Zaha though, no criticism there.) Until the red card, Tanganga, Rodon and Lucas were the only players to emerge with credit, and now it’s just Rodon and Lucas.

What kind of response we see to this will define Nuno’s level at Spurs for me. Are we going to be the kind of team that bounce back and fire out a big win to right the course, or does this knock us for a loop? Do we just dig in and grind out a few more 1-0s until the next time we go to pieces and our goal difference gets reduced back to zero?

I suppose I should acknowledge that Romero, Sanchez and Lo Celso were absent, but we’ve known that would happen for a week now. Doesn’t excuse anything for my money.

Fair play to Palace though, they were excellent, constantly hassling and pressing and always looked dangerous. And when they started really pushing in the second half, the noise from the fans was unreal. Gave me goosebumps through the TV. I get the feeling Palace will be comfortable this year and throw out a few more big results along the way. Good time to be a Palace fan, I reckon.
Harry (Edouard for the golden boot?) THFC


Dear mailbox,

Normal service has been resumed.

I’m as shocked as you are, presumably.
Jon, Lincoln

 

I’m angry after watching Tottenham , angry at the players who went to South America, angry that other teams can play their players who didn’t go, angry at abject performance, angry at a ref who gave Moura nothing and didn’t stop play for an  injured player. Angry at having to play 2 full back at centre back and just angry at Davies for being useless.
Paulo (off to walk the dog to calm down)

 

Arsenal manager candidates
A few things…

1. Is there anything more tiresome than the relentless leaking that comes out of people employed by Arsenal? From “asking to be informed about Sergio Ramos’ situation”, to the list of transfer targets linked with us who are way beyond our means (Camavinga to Arsenal – really?!), to the latest “we’re looking at Conte / Potter / Frank “. Is anyone falling for this crap any more?

2. Just because you played for Arsenal doesn’t mean you deserve a job in the media. Martin Keown can f*ck right off, but beyond that do we really need that many former Arsenal stars / aces / English players giving an opinion on Arsenal? Arsenal fans don’t care, let alone anyone else. Just do us all a favour and shut up for a while

3. Independent of all that, hire whoever you want, come up with as many strategies / plans as you want – if the owners don’t care about winning the club will continue its glide path to Everton-ness. Everything else is irrelevant. Replace Arteta with Klopp AND Guardiola and nothing will improve without organisational change

4. Following on from that – the club lost a boatload of money on the last cycle of players (Mustafi, Ozil, Torreira, Auba, Laca etc.). The club shifts almost all of them, with still a ways to go to create a proper squad (4 right backs, the best of which is in Seville, the others who will exist in an endless rotation of mediocrity) at a massive loss. It develops a strategy – promote from within and purchase younger players with upside. Then, when it actually comes to the crunch, we sell Joe Willock. He isn’t a world beater, and won’t lead us to a title, but when the owners had a choice between fully committing to that strategy, or pocketing £20m, they didn’t hesitate. So spare me the story Edu, you know the club doesn’t care

5. Don’t get me started on AFTV. That being said, Arsenal’s official website is now full of content with Frimmy and some other stereotypical Arsenal fan f*ckwit talking to ESR / debuting a jersey. Tip for Management: trying to co-opt / lean in to AFTV is even more stupid than anything you’ve done to the team – clearly you don’t understand anything about football, but if you don’t understand social media and marketing – honestly what skills do you have?

6. This bias stuff is so very, very tedious. You have an opinion. You are biased towards that opinion. Someone has another opinion. They are biased towards their opinion. You could be wrong. They could be wrong. Listen and make your own mind up. If someone chooses to maintain their own opinion, put your big boy pants on and get on with your life, rather than cry about how there is some massive agenda against you and your opinion

7. They say hope is the thing that kills you, thankfully there’s none of that left. 7th is the ceiling for the side this year, so how about we all talk about Arsenal in that context – getting belted by Man City / Liverpool / Chelsea is the expectation, likewise losing comfortably to Man U, Spurs, Leicester. We’re not hiring anyone better than Arteta (Simeone – ha, why the f*ck would he touch Arsenal with a 10 ft pole). How about we all be quiet for a while, see if Arteta’s plan actually comes off. If not, maybe the next guy can generate the shift in mindset these players clearly need to compete with the top/middle sides in the league. If not, back to square 1…

Rant over – for now
Simon, formerly of London

 

Perspective on Arsenal’s win
For everyone who says “it’s only Norwich.” How many of your teams will beat Manchester City or Liverpool this season?Arsenal’s only bad result so far this season was the Brentford one. Arsenal aren’t great but they are not as bad as the stuff written in the last few weeks suggests.
Croydon Gooner

 

Dear F365,

The Arsenal is back. What a performance. Forget relegation, we laid the foundations of a title challenge.
We are not losing another game this season.

P.S. We will sign Mbappe for free in the summer to win the Champions League next year.

Regrads,
Ahmed

Ainsley Maitland-Niles Nicolas Pepe

Maitland-Niles
First ever mail here,

Having read all about Maitland Niles kicking up a fuss over a transfer very publicly, being denied and then very publicly humiliated by the club by being made to train with the youths, couldn’t belive my eyes when he was named in the start in 11 in centre midfield against Norwich. Only Arsenal could operate like this and it shows a lack of cohesion in the club from top to bottom that a situation like this could even happen. Where does the blame lie, is it Arteta, is it the board ot the owners? Or is it the joke club joke manager that is so often written this season already. Whatever it is I’m just happy I am a Leeds fan and can rely on the consistent excellent ebtertainment being churned out by my team.
Ian (Bielsa FC) Ireland

 

Arteta’s project management
Hi I’d like to highlight some of the things that Arteta said regarding the responsibility and decisions taken with regards to the Arsenal playing squad. He said “I think we have tried to explain the project and the decisions I have made over the last few months in the transfer window, the amount of changes in two years is almost 30 players. Edu explained it like I tried to explain it. We have all participated, trying to create and build this project, led by the owners, and it is a project we believe in, that we have to assemble because it is the only option that we believe was best for the future of the club. We all take responsibility because we have all been involved in the decision and we have to make it work”This means that he is responsible for the team buys or sells and there are no excuses for how the team is playing. He should be the one being blamed for on-pitch performances, because these are his players.

Yes, the club is poorly run, but that doesn’t mean that the team has perform so poorly as well and that is the responsibility of the manager. So yes I continue to think that he should not be in this position.

The result against Norwich should not mask over what a poor manager he is.
Celani in South Africa

 

Solskjaer setting up Sancho to fail
Good morning Folks

Ole is setting up Jason Sancho to fail by fielding him as a left winger. Sancho’s favourite, usual, most effective  and preferred position is the right wing and that is where he should be fielded. After all, United signed him to eliminate the deficiency or weakness on the team’s right wing.
Professor (Dr) David Achanfuo Yeboah

 

We are back!
I don’t remember the last time a team would have left Old Trafford losing 4-1 in a game and thinking they should be proud of the performance they put in.

The 4th goal glosses the finish but a 3-1 would have been a respectable result for the performance Newcastle United put in. They really should have been happy with a 3-1.
Shehzad Ghias, MUFC, Karachi

 

Poor Bruno
He scores an early contender for goal of the season and all the headlines are about Ronaldo’s 2 tap-ins.
Jayraj (I’m exaggerating, obviously) MUFC

 

Most exciting Premier League this year…
With Man City failing to sign Harry Kane at end of  transfer window , I am super excited and happy that after many many years we will probably have cracker of a competition.

Man United have strengthened significantly and are now perfectly poised to launch an attack on the premier league trophy.

Liverpool have now a full strength squad. With Virgil back they are gonna be super tough to score goals against and if their front three click they will cruise thru most of the league opponents.

Chelsea with Lukaku and the recently uncovered gem Chalobah have done amazing in recruitment. If Saul is even 75% of the hype we have now the most in-depth squad in league and probably first 11 as good as any.

Man City are Man city. Probably still the best team in league , they would have been unstoppable if they had signed Harry Kane. But that failure in signing a forward may prove to be costly. Especially with other teams strengthening so much.

It’s now going to be the most open league competition that EPL has been for as long as I can remember where just 1 or two teams fight for the Title. And that’s got me really excited esp watching Lukaku knocking in 2 today.
B CFC ( Lukaku to win Golden boot )

 

Covid international mess
So, the players who controversially didn’t travel to South America for international duty and were at real risk of a FIFA ban get to play this weekend as normal while the players who were released by their clubs and actually travelled couldn’t play due to quarantine rules. Riiiight.

Conor (AVFC)

 

3pm blackout
I think we can all now agree the 3pm blackout is absolute bollo**s,

Jamie, Bath (no brackets)