What’s everyone’s take on Partey moving forward?

He’s like the ice cream machine at McDonald’s. When it’s working it’s the best thing there but it only works like 37% of the time.

With his abysmal injury record with us, and talk that he’s growing impatient with lack of game time, do we let him go in January and bring in a replacement? And if so who is that replacement?

Rice is starting to play more like Partey with his broadening passing range, playing those line splitting passes from deep that more often than not result in a chance so I’m not worried about us not having that type of player anymore, but is there another holding midfielder out there who can do the same job?

Benjamin White 👍

So, this is going to get me mauled and downvoted but I have a confession to make: Even if I support this club by heart, am I the only person who tries to support some underdogs or smaller team like Luton to succeed in the Prem? I know it’s a lost cause and eventually I could hate them if we got beaten by them. But in the end, I just can’t help but find some smaller clubs like Luton to be fascinating even if I support Arsenal with all my heart.

Latte Firm’s latest video is full of some really weird takes.

Nketiah meanders around the threshold of being good enough for our rapidly increasing ambitions, so I can understand both sides of the argument. But what is not debatable is that he’s consistently improved year on year. He’s never really had that unquestionable explosion into the team like Saka, ESR or Martinelli did. More like a slow, gradual development, maybe just lagging a year behind where we’d want him each season.

The question then becomes if this will continue. CFs typically age well and peak later, and if he continues this trend, he could be very good. I don’t see any obvious limitations in his profile to suggest he can’t have a very high ceiling

Jurrien Timber vs Manchester City…

emery is going to have his squad so g’d up to beat us when we got to villa park in december. that is a massive banana peel game for me, really hope we go into it with the sharpest mentality possible.

I don’t have any stats to support this but it seems like Eddie plays awful when Jesus is fit and in the squad and plays well when Jesus is injured and unavailable

What lineup do we wanna see vs West Ham? Looking at the teams that are left in the competition I think we can win it this year so I dont want to see too weak of a team, but with Newcastle coming after Carabao game some roation will happen.

Worth considering the “diminished” role of the attacking midfielders so far this season. Comparisons to last year aren’t absolute, but they can be helpful in trying to understand changes in the team. While imperfect, I took a look at the performance of Xhaka and Odegaard last season to the current “attacking midfielder group” of Ode, Havertz, ESR, and Vieira.

As a team, Arsenal has averaged 717.4 touches per 90 so far this season. This is an increase over last season’s average of 681. Despite this, our attacking midfielders are averaging less touches - 45.6 v. 58.7. Saka and Martinelli stand out as attacking players to touch the ball more than last season’s average. Creative production, measured as key passes, passes into the final third, xA and XAG from the attacking midfielders has dropped when compared to last season’s averages. Odegaard in particular stands out, he average 2.2 KP/90 last year, but now averages 1.3, a drop of about ~41%. Our current “average” attacking midfielder makes 1.19 KP/90 compared to last years 1.81.

What’s interesting is that “Shot Creating Actions” have not seen a similar drop. Odegaard’s SCA/90 last year was 4.69, this year it is 4.29. That is only a 9% decrease and it doesn’t quite match his drop in XAG, KP, or other attacking metrics. Looking at the “average attacking midfielder” the drop in SCA/90 is barely perceptible, 3.98 this year v. 4.0 last year (this comparison is juiced by Vieira and ESR’s inflated /90 numbers though, Havertz firmly trails behind Xhaka’s production here). Odegaard’s GCA/90 is another example of this trend. Odegaard has one assist in the league this year, a serious drop in his /90 performance from last year on the order of 60%, but his GCA/90 has only dropped by 10% - .44 v .49.

SCA & GCA measures the two offensive actions before a shot/goal. This would suggest that our AMs are doing more to facilitate play rather than being the direct instigator of goals and shots. The eye test matches this - I’ve noticed Odegaard being more involved in wide rotations as a facilitator more often in recent games.

Alternatively, this could all just be explained by Odegaard dropping some form and the other AMs being collectively unable to match Xhaka’s direct contributions last year. However, the divisiveness around these positions, the stats, and what we are seeing would suggest there is a strategic/tactical change. We are less direct than we were last year, are forced wide, and play against lower lines. In this set up, the attacking midfielder - regardless of who it is - gets less opportunity to be a direct influence on things.

Champions league match rolls into penalties and Arteta subs in Hein- when

What would you be curious to investigate for this week’s BBQ?

How would you make of Havertz’s Arsenal career so far?

Do I expect more from him? Yes. Did we overpay? Most definitely. But is he bad? Not at all, decent so far but can be better. Definitely not the biggest flop of the summer.

We know Odegaard massively outperformed his xG last season and doesn’t seem to be on track to do so again. On the other hand, if the same is true of Martinelli then…

United’s fixation on Rashford behind their success or not is hilarious. Post world cup last year was simply a purple patch, not the norm.

This is his 9th season in the premier league, last season was only the second time he has ever hit more than 11 league goals. After 10 league games this year he only has 1 goal so I doubt he hits that mark again this year.

For the body language and the amount he lacks in off the ball movement and effort, he doesn’t provide emough end product. He’s like a worse Auba with double the hype.