Q&AFC Fan Question Friday – August 4th, 2021
Each week the writers at DailyAFC will take a shot at answering your questions in a new post series called Q&AFC. It’s a chance for you to ask questions to knowledgable football writers – transfers, analysis, opinions, everything is fair game. Here are the questions for our first week!
1. What does Arteta have to do to keep his job this season?
Frank Hopkins: Top 4. I say this because Arteta seems to have a relatively influential part to play in transfers and he must be fairly confident that we are filling the right gaps for the season ahead. As well as that he’s consistently gone on record as saying he needed a full pre-season with his players in order to reach this goal. He’s had a full transfer window and pre-season so he has to be aiming for top 4.
Dope Gooner: I think there are two main requirements for Arteta this season. The first is to avoid being in the same situation we were in at the end of the fall of 2020. If we’re too many points off the Champions League places by Christmas, which is probably more than 7-8 points, I think Arteta is likely gone. The second benchmark for the boss to hit is to at least make the top six. Arsenal are probably hoping to be in the Champions League next year, but they’re competing with two elite sides who have lodged nine-figure bids for individual players in City and Chelsea, an already star-studded United who have acquired Sancho and Varane and probably aren’t done yet, and a recovered and improved Liverpool. It’s reasonable to expect Arteta to outperform Spurs, Villa, and even Leicester, but finishing above even one of last year’s top four is quite a big ask as things stand.
Sean W: Arsenal need Champions League football back. If the club invests heavily in the squad, then Arteta has no excuse not to mount a serious push for the top four – although it will be a tough ask given how last season’s top four are strengthening.
If the board fail to deliver the signings we need, then that task will be even more difficult for Arteta but, ultimately, Arsenal must deliver Champions League football and the club needs a coach that can deliver that with the squad at his disposal.
If Arteta fails to get Arsenal into the top four without serious mitigating circumstances, the club would be well within its rights to look for a new head coach.
2. Who is the one player Arsenal can’t afford to lose to injury this season?
Frank Hopkins: He’s already injured, Thomas Partey. Now Xhaka is staying and it looks like Sambi is going to feature more than anticipated, we need a fit Partey for that midfield to be functional.
Dope Gooner: Unfortunately, we’ve already lost that player to injury: Thomas Partey (just our luck, right?). Without Partey, our midfield is a lot less dynamic and press-resistant, as good as Xhaka is. Lokonga will hopefully be the man who partners the former captain in Partey’s absence, but Elneny is still around and Arteta still likes him for some inexplicable reason.
Sean W: This is a difficult question to answer, simply because the Arsenal squad isn’t fully assembled yet. Based on the squad in its present state, my answer would be Bernd Leno.
There is some debate as to whether the German is quite good enough to be the Gunners’ starting goalkeeper, but if he was to pick up an injury, we would be left with Runar Alex Runarsson between the sticks, which can only end badly.
3. How likely do you think Lautaro Martinez is to join Arsenal and what would he bring to the team?
Frank Hopkins: I feel it’s unlikely because there is a lot of moving parts in the deal. It’s also a very high profile player, which makes the deal even more difficult. Martinez would bring goals and great positional awareness. On top of that, he often comes deep to collect the ball in order to distribute the ball, in this sense he is similar to Lacazette (who in my opinion plays better in Arteta’s system than Aubameyang).
Dope Gooner: Pretty unlikely. Don’t rule out Arsenal signing a striker just yet, but the asking price for Lautaro Martinez is quite high and Inter Milan already look set to lose Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea (gulp). There’s rumors of Lacazette potentially being of interest to the Italian champions, so maybe a player-plus-cash deal is possible, but I haven’t seen that coming from any of the more credible outlets. If he somehow is acquired by Arsenal, it would make a lot of sense; Martinez is a potent goalscorer but also a player who likes to receive the ball and combine with others. He’d essentially be an upgrade on Lacazette, whose profile I suspect Arteta wants to lead the line more than Aubameyang’s (based on other strikers we have been linked with this summer).
Sean W: Recent reports from reliable sources have suggested that, due to Inter’s precarious financial position and a stalemate in contract negotiations between club and player, a deal for Martinez is there to be done if Arsenal are prepared to make an acceptable bid. The player is also reportedly willing to make the move.
However, if Chelsea’s aggressive recent pursuit of Romelu Lukaku is successful, which it seems likely to be, that puts a serious dent in Arsenal’s hopes of signing Martinez. I don’t think Inter sanction the sale of both their starting strikers in the same window. Furthermore, Arsenal presently have five central striking options and would need to sell in order to make room for a new face, which slows down their approach.
If Martinez were to join, Arsenal would be gaining an exciting young centre-forward who presses aggressively, makes driving runs towards the box and is comfortable dovetailing with another striker – good news for those hoping to see a revived Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Martinez also notched a very healthy 17 goals and 10 assists in Serie A last season.
4. Who is the one academy prospect you’re most excited about?
Frank Hopkins: Miguel Azeez is hard not to get excited about.
Dope Gooner: I’m happy to say that this is a tricky question to answer, because a lot of the academy players are quite exciting. But I’ll go with Miguel Azeez since he’s likely next in line to break into the first team. We need an elite young player in our midfield in the next couple of seasons, and Azeez displays traits that suggest he might fit that mold. He has great technique on the ball, good vision with his passing, a habit of scanning the pitch before receiving the ball, and solid long-range shooting. And he’s bulked up over the summer, as you surely know if you saw that picture of his quads. Hopefully we see a bit of him this season.
Sean W: Charlie Patino. Arsenal scout Brian Stapleton described him as “the best kid I’ve ever seen” in an exclusive interview with Goal. In the same interview, Stapleton reveals that Sean O’Connor, who discovered Jack Wilshere, has described Patino as “the best player who has ever walked through the doors at Hale End”.
The left-footed central midfielder is rated so highly that the plan is to keep his development in-house, not loaning him out but keeping him at the club and slowly integrating him into the first-team, much like Phil Foden at Manchester City.
Sadly, injury has robbed the 17-year-old of the opportunity to impress this pre-season, but I can’t wait to see the classy midfielder in action for the first-team.
5. If you could add one player from Liverpool/City/United/Tottenham/Chelsea to add to the current Arsenal team, who would it be and why?
Frank Hopkins: VVD, Cancelo, Pogba, Kane, Kante
Dope Gooner: For me, I think I would take João Cancelo. In terms of our starting XI, right-back is the area of the pitch we are weakest in at the moment. I think Cancelo is an elite right-back. He can play as an inverted full-back as well as a more conventional attacking full-back who can bomb up and down the flanks. He would offer the proper amount of defensive solidity and proficiency in chance creation that we’re probably looking for in a right-back, and Arteta’s tactics are likely close enough to Guardiola’s that Cancelo wouldn’t have too much trouble adjusting.
Sean W: Kevin De Bruyne. Arsenal are desperate for a marquee attacking midfielder this summer, and who better than arguably the best attacking midfielder in the world? The Belgian is 30, admittedly, but the Gunners need star quality and the Belgian surely has several more years of elite production left.
6. If you could’ve attended any one Arsenal game, which game would you pick?
Frank Hopkins: North London Derby at home (and I will be there, fingers crossed). Nothing tops this fixture. That being said if we need to beat Norwich at home on the last game of the season to win the league, my opinion could be swayed (but this is not going to happen).
Dope Gooner: The 2-1 win in the Champions League against Barcelona at the Emirates. I know that Arshavin goal would have had me celebrating into the early hours of the morning.
Sean W: Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona, February 16, 2011. What a game. Barcelona were the best club side in the world then, with the best player and the best midfield, and we beat them playing outstanding, attractive football. Jack Wilshere’s performance in midfield that night was special and Andrey Arshavin’s winner off the bench… wow. It would have been terrific to be at the Emirates Stadium for that one.
That’s all for this week’s edition of Q&AFC! If you have a question you’d like to see answered next week, comment on this post or look out for our next Q&AFC Tweet on @DailyAFC on Twitter.
