Cameroon timber Morning. A very quick Sunday round-up for you. After a nice, comfortable start to the season for Arsenal, it was good to see some of our rivals enjoy the same when their Premier League campaigns started yesterday. *Checks scores*
Oh. LOL. I saw quite a bit of Hull City’s win over Man Utd, and it was heartening to see a team that wants to be better and improve field a back four that still contains Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw. Which isn’t to say the defeat was their fault, per se, but imagine Arsenal starting a new season with Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner in the team.
It gives me those vibes, and I hope those vibes continue all the way through until May. I was out yesterday afternoon so I didn’t see Brentford beat Sp*rs 3-0, but it’s also heartening to see that despite bringing in a new manager and spending more money than anyone else this summer they remain in the relegation zone. I know it’s early days, but they are bottom and that is where we all know they should be. Brentford, meanwhile, basically just picked up where they left off last season. Today, Man City face Bournemouth. I have been watching a bit of that Pep Guardiola documentary that was on Amazon (don’t worry though, I pirated the absolute shit out of it so Jeff Bezos can swivel), and it starts with that incredible run of defeats they had. Hopefully they’re doing another documentary on Enzo Maresca and we can get more dressing room scenes of them geeing each other up before the games then tramping back in afterwards like the saddest bunch of bastards you’ve ever seen in your life.
Liverpool v Newcastle could be a tasty one later on as well, a first game for Andoni Iraola as Liverpool manager, and I think after all the departures their opposition have suffered this summer, it’ll be a cakewalk for them. The other game sees Brighton take on Aston Villa who no longer have Ezri Konsa because he’s signed for Arsenal. If you wanna know more about this player and why we’ve decided to bring him in, Phil’s profile piece will tell you everything you need to know. I quite enjoyed the bit in his quick questions thing on the Arsenal socials about how he would describe himself as a player, and he said ‘calm’ (which comes across in his overall demeanour, to be fair).
Then when asked his favourite player when growing up he said ‘Sergio Ramos’, who is about as far from calm as you can get as a defender. An incredible player, no question, but also a chaotic, violent, lunatic at the best of times. Still, I guess he’s learned what not to do by watching him. Finally, a small thing, but Bukayo Saka talking about how he feels good physically should be music to our ears.
I suppose it’s quite funny/quite Arteta, that after all the stories about how he and Declan Rice were going to be given an extended break after the World Cup and perhaps not even involved until after Interlull that they both started our opening game of the season. As I said in the post Coventry blog, rather than be concerned about it in the case of Saka, it was encouraging to me that Saka in particular was available. As much as we all know this manager would play Saka whenever he could, I have to think this was a decision made after proper consultation with the player and the medical staff.
We had options if there was any serious risk, so him starting was a really positive sign. Not to mention he got himself on the scoresheet, and hopefully it’s the first of many more to come this season. Right, time to leave it there.
There’s nothing really stirring in terms of transfer news, so let’s not drive ourselves mad on a Sunday. We can save that for the Arsecast Extra which will be with you this afternoon. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com, so fire away using the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. For now, have a good one.
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