[THREAD]. Some tactical observations and analysis of the Community shield between Pep’s Man City and Arteta’s Arsenal.

In terms of top-end quality it's definitely not at the top, but in terms of quality depth, it's insanely good. Safe to say AFC are extremely well-equipped to deal with any injury crisis they'll face this season. It's all up to the manager now ⏳.

What do you want to know?.

I'm comfortable saying it, even with Havertz missing a couple of months potentially, even if you exclude the unwanted players (Jesus, Zinchenko, Reiss etc.):. Arsenal now have the deepest squad in world football in terms of strength in numbers

Unfortunately, if this theory is even slightly true, it probably means Kai’s injury is significant 😕.

They were gonna need to hurry up on the Eze move anyways since Tottenham were closing on him but knew they had the upper hand since he prioritised AFC. We get the club brief on Havertz injury this morning + the news that they’ll buy new attacker. Eze move done a few hours later.

Havertz gets injured on Sunday (as was reported today). Arsenal assess the injury and yesterday decide they need extra cover. They now choose to keep Trossard, but need to give him a payrise (which tbf he deserved) to keep him happy.

Up until a couple of hours before the Trossard agreement was reported, we have reliable outlets reporting that Trossard is set to leave Arsenal. We also knew that they wanted Eze.

I have an alternate theory (assumption) on what actually went on:. —> Arsenal all along were trying to sell Trossard and replace with Eze.—> Havertz gets injured.—> Arsenal then choose to keep Trossard to replace Havertz short term.—> Eze done the next day as no need for exit now.

KSE ARE YOU MAD???.

Merino —> CF.MLS —> LCM.Kiwior —> LB. Jeremy Jacquet, you are a Gunner!.

Totally unrelated to any recent news, but why do people think Nicolas Jackson is bad?.

RT @franciscoftbl: Scout Report: Joaquín Panichelli. After scoring 21 goals for Mirandés in LaLiga2 last season, the young striker earned….

I’d just appreciate some more honesty and clarity from everyone. Mikel is gonna come out on Friday and say we are always looking at the market and are still short. Well, we are clearly not fucking short if you believe the 6th choice forward deserves a big pay rise, are we?.

100% honest here, I don’t think Arsenal not signing elite attackers this season is the end of the world. But the thing that pisses me off is all these fucking briefs every year that the summer is gonna be unprecedented. Just feels disrespectful to the fans.

Does it extend the player’s stay? ❌.Does it increase his market value? ❌.Does it make him harder to sell? ✅.Does it increase his salary even though his role has been decreased following Madueke’s arrival? ✅. Home run contract agreement right there 🔥.

This is the rare piece of football business that has absolutely 0 positive angles to it, even if you love the player and want him at the club. Well done lads 👏.

If the two extreme ends of the spectrum are:. - Sunday’s game.- Happened plenty last season but probably Everton (H)?. Then the optimal middle point is probably the Bilbao game, at the risk of putting too many eggs at the basket of a friendly. Would argue the Madrid games too 👌.

them sit deep comfortably and absorb the pressure, exactly like they’ve planned. So, in essence, Arsenal need to add more transitional threat to their usual style, rather than completely change their approach to something that doesn’t suit most of the squad and is untested.

Having the ability to do that in addition to their control-ball approach is absolutely crucial. Especially against compact mid/low blocks, a great way of beating them is drawing them out and creating “artificial transitions” to exploit the space in-behind, instead of letting….

Still, Arsenal really tried to attack on the counter and constantly opted for risky passes in-behind in attacking transition instead of securing possession with a back pass after they get out of their half like we are used to seeing them do.

Part of the reason why they were so direct is an inability to keep the ball under pressure around their back-line and midfield, as well as their really poor performance on duels throughout the 90 where United looked like the fitter and hungrier side. That cannot be ignored.