INJURY UPDATES + LAY OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE LAND + EXPECT PAIN
Well happy Friday my darlings how are we today?
I am EXCITED that we’re playing the season curtain raiser against Manchester City this weekend. A little scared, but it’ll be a nice early test for the players and hopefully we’ll be competitive at the very least.
The Monaco game and a few grim performances have definitely dampened the excitement for the season. It’s a good thing, I don’t think hard believing ourselves into title-winning dreams is healthy. A little bit of skepticism and level-setting is good for the mental health.
The great thing about this season is it feels every club is going through a transition of sorts.
Newcastle has to deal with European football next season and they haven’t really done too much business. 3 players in – 3 out. I don’t think any of the names they’ve brought in are real needle movers.
Chelsea have taken a sledgehammer to their squad; it’s very young, it is very inexperienced, and the jury is out on the quality they have.
United have spent a boatload of money again, they’ve added a new keeper, changed captain to someone with a bad attitude, and I’m not sure their squad is robust as people think.
City has exited a lot of experience, they’ve lost two assistant coaches, and there is always come-down after hitting treble-level-heights
Spurs transfer window looks pony if I’m honest and Harry Kane is either going to leave (bad) or stay and see out his deal (also bad)
Liverpool exits:
- Henderson > Al Ettifaq
- Carvalho > RB Leipzig
- Milner > Brighton
- Keita > Werder Bremen
- Oxlade-Chamberlain >
- Free agent Firmino > Al-Ahli
- Fabinho > Al Ittihad
That is an outrageous amount of seasoned winners to exit in one go – and jury is out on their new signings. More worrying for them, they’ve shipped 10 goals in 4 preseason games, 14 in 5 if you count the last game of the season in which they shipped 4 to Southampton.
Things to remember:
- Spending money doesn’t mean you’re going to be amazing
- Teams you think will thrive will fail
- Teams you think will fail will thrive
Personally, I think this season is between City and Arsenal. My view is the league could be won by 85 points this season. The big question we need to get on top of early is can we hit the ground running?
Some additional bits you need to know:
Arsenal trained really hard before the Monaco game, and it’s not very inspiring playing in front of strange preseason atmosphere
Gabriel Jesus could be back in two weeks, the surgery he had is not major, so stop messing your pants in the group chats. Unless something horrible happens, he’ll be in the Palace squad.
Zinchenko, the missing link in preseason, will be back in the mixer for the Palace game as well.
Players will sharpen up by Sunday – because the heat will be on.
The most important thing to remember about this season is we’re shifting to a new model.
Predictable > Unpredictable
Last season, picking the starting 11 was easy, this season, it’s not.
Sunday could see Eddie starting through the middle – or we could see Havertz or Trossard. Manchester City are very physical, Kai Havertz probably makes more sense as a 9. Point here – we have options that we didn’t have last season.
The midfield has 3 top, top 6s to choose from.
We have unbelievable options in defence right now.
If this Brentford deal goes through, we have two top talents in goal.
These squad options are there to be used. We have unpredictability against any type of team. The players are fit, robust, and of a high technical level. We can experiment with different formations, players can move all over the pitch, it’ll be very exciting.
But… finding our groove is going to take time. Players need to learn the system, they need to learn about each other, and they need to work very hard to get to the point where they’re not thinking about the notation of the groove; they’re just playing it second nature.
There’s going to be pain.
Arsenal fans don’t like pain.
But we have all learned that under Arteta, we always get to where we need to be in the end.
Think of this squad through a 10-year lense, not a 1 year. When this team bangs, inside the next two years, the average age will be about 25. That means at least 5 years of dominance at the top of the Premier League if all goes well.
Best manager.
Best young players.
Best ideas.
It’ll just take a bit more pain to get there.
The best way to get there fast? A strong start. Winning builds cohesion better than any coaching session. If we start like we did last year, we could push for the title. Sunday isn’t inconsequential for that reason – beating City means beating the last boogeyman under the bed. Players will feel confident. Fans will believe. We’ll have more swagger in our step.
Ok, check out our latest podcast. I have a really great conversation with Faisal from @LatteFirm.
We discuss:
Gabriel Jesus update
Charisma and how we judge players
THAT Aaron Ramsdale blog
Who needs to leave this summer
A muddled squad by design – and why it’s ideal
You can only get the video on Patreon.com – it’s on all other podcast channels.
If you NEED to see faces for added experience – you can only get the video for this on PATREON.https://t.co/ResZqlpzeU
— LE GROVE (@LeGrove) August 3, 2023