Our midfield doesn’t score goals. Joe Willock scored goals. Our midfield needs to score goals.
Of course we sell Joe Willock and keep that house-key merchant fraud.
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Would have preferred to keep Joe just because of what he did with Newcastle in the second half of last season but honestly, I didn’t think he was anything but average in the games he played for us. I mean, it shouldn’t be that difficult to stand out in our midfield, but yet he failed to make an impression on me, unlike ESR.
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What he did for Newcastle was get himself in the box and take shots. That’s just not happening here.
25m would be very nice for an academy player that looks like he has no long term future here.
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And the main reason for that is he won’t even really get on the pitch.
Not saying he shouldn’t, but he won’t.
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25m is decent money to be fair can’t complain. I’d like to have some clauses in there that’ll see us looked after should he get better and better and get a bigger money move in future.
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Yeah, Liverpool made 20% on the £30m Ings fee
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There were loads of players we needed to get rid of before this transfer window opened but I certainly wouldn’t have had Willock, Saliba and Guendouzi anywhere near the top of the list and that’s who has gone.
I presume the 25m we get for Willock will go to pay for Xhaka’s new contract.
Only at Arsenal would be stupid enough to keep a clown like Xhaka and pay him about four times as much as a young home grown English player like Willock.
He has just broken Shearer’s record of scoring in consecutive games, he is the in form goal scorer in the PL and plays in midfield and guess what?
That is exactly what our midfield needs and we sell him for 25m.
What a joke.
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Why’s everyone acting like this is a done deal? It’s 90min.
I swear Willock has signed for Newcastle 5 different times this summer. 
What annoys me is if you want a clear out, then you have to be prepared to take a loss. Selling Xhaka even if it’s for a measly €12m Euros and getting him off the wage bill and out of the Lockeroom and the the team is more beneficial then holding on to him and giving him a new contract. We have a tonne of shitters, so we’re going to have to accept that we won’t be able to capitalise on them, just sell these mother fuckers at whatever cost and get them out of the club FFS.
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The day when we don’t have
Cedric, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Holding, Mari, Elneny, Xhaka, Willian, Lacazette and Nketiah
at the club will be a great day.
So, so many shitters in this squad. I can’t even be happy that some of them are out of contract next summer - we could easily extend the cunts. I’m still reeling from the Xhaka extension. Nothing would surprise me.
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You of all people lecturing others on taking rumours too seriously 
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The sad reality is, by the time we do that, we’ll have another bunch of grade A shitters cause we are just shit at recruiting.
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You’re right - Cedric, Mari and Willian were recent signings under Arteta. Where is the hope?
I’m awaiting news of the Elneny contract extension. Into the last year of his deal - this club wants to inflict 3+ more years of the Xhaka / Elneny pivot on us.
Got agree with @Joshua and others like @Stroller, these deals were bent as fuck. They don’t make any sense at all especially at wages some of them are getting.
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But that’s the thing, Arteta thinks Xhaka is more valuable to the team than most supporters do. Whether it’s because Arteta likes the way Xhaka plays or some soft factor “leadership” stuff the coach clearly loves him.
Arteta is also just indecisive. We kept AMN from
leaving to Wolves and had no plan. We kept Holding from going to Newcastle. Arteta pushed to resign Aubameyang and had no plan for him beyond the left wing.
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Well, I don’t take rumours from 90min seriously.
Midfield options
Arsenal: Partey, Xhaka, Lokonga, Elneny, Smith-Rowe, Ajeez.
Chelsea: Kovacic, Kante, Pulisic, Mount, Havertz, Loftus-Cheek, Drinkwater (lol).
City: Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Grealish.
United: Bruno Fernandes, Pogba, Van de Beek, Fred, McTominay, Matic.
Liverpool: Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Chamberlain, Curtis Jones.
Out of all these teams, Arsenal and probably Liverpool have the weakest midfield. but Liverpool has an overwhelming goal contribution from the wings and strikers.
How does anyone expect us to finish in the top 4 with that? This also excludes teams like Everton, Villa, Spurs and West Ham who can also do a number on us through the course of the season.
Without Partey, it looks like a bottom half of the table level midfield. Some serious high profile players have to be added in this to even give us a shot at top 6
Our starting midfielders are fine tbf. The issues happen when we are down one of Partey, Xhaka or ESR.
Our worst performances last season were with a pivot of Elneny and Ceballos pivot and someone not named ESR ahead of them.
The big question is whether Lokonga is better than Ceballos. Despite some good signs in preseason we really can’t say for sure until we see him in competitive matches.
How many G/A do you think a midfield of Xhaka, Partey and ESR gives a season? Excluding the mistakes by Xhaka which will in any case negate the effect.
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