The 20/21 Season

The Premier League has announced its fixtures for the 20/21 season:



Liverpool, United and City away in the first seven games.

well we have to have those fixtures at some point. The way i see it we are still riding on good form based on how we ended the season, so we can take that into the start of the season.

The only bummer is we haven't finished our transfer business yet, so the team isn't any closer yet to Arteta's ideal. But 4 points from those 3 games wouldn't be bad at all. We NEED to beat at least one, and hopefully draw another. Two losses in those games will be too bad of a setback early on in the season.

Opening match away
Last match at home
And getting some of the most difficult away games out of the way early
I Like it

Why do we always play Liverpool in the first 5 fixtures

Ljungberg has left the club to pursue managerial opportunities else where:

I have decided to leave my first team assistant coaching role at @Arsenal to progress my management experience. I have been involved with this club on and off since 1998 and am grateful for all the opportunities they have given me both as a player and as a coach. pic.twitter.com/KZjIeVFaB4

— Freddie Ljungberg (@freddie) August 22, 2020

Ljungberg played a huge role in integrating the current crop of youngsters and helped with loans. All the young players at the club say nothing but good things about him.

It felt like he was the odd man out when Arteta came with his own coaches. This is probably the right move. He should become someone's no 1 assistant somewhere like in Bundesliga

More staff changes.

Brentford's set-piece coach Andreas Georgson has joined.

Assistant GK coach Sal Bibbo has left.

Georgson's work helped reduced Brentfrod xGA on set-pieces by 0.12 per game, which equates to about 5 or 6 goals over a whole season.

We are shite on set pieces so this is good.

Arsenal play MK Dons in a friendly today, 18:00 UK time.

MK Dons are streaming the game on Youtube, but only to UK residents. Nothing a VPN won't solve, though.

EDIT: Arsenal showing the game worldwide on their site and app. They say it'll be a mix of first team and academy players.

Wonder if Miguel Azeez and Balogun will take part

Arsenal: Leno, Cedric, Saliba, Holding, Tierney, Elneny, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles, Saka, Nketiah, Aubameyang

Bench: Macey, Ballard, McGuinness, Bola, Azeez, Cottrell, Olayinka, Oyegoke, Willock, Lewis, Nelson, Smith Rowe, John Jules

1-0. Elneny from about 40 yards after the MK Dons keeper passed it to him.

Playing a back three. Saliba RCB, Niles LWB.

Arteta really wants Saka to get familiar with the right flank

Eddie makes it 2-0

This has the potential to be 10-0

Epic own goal from Holding.

Thoughts on Saliba?

Looked decent on the ball. A couple of good progressive passes. Didn't have to do much defending.

Half-time changes: Macey, Ballard, Bola, Willock, Nelson, Smith Rowe and Nketiah on for Leno, Saliba, Maitland-Niles, Cedric, Aubameyang and Saka.

RealGunner wrote:Arteta really wants Saka to get familiar with the right flank

think he's trying to make him more flexible. A lot of very good attacking midfielders can play all across the attacking positions these days

A monster header from McGuiness and a pen from Nelson completes a 4-1 win.

Next up... Liverpool in the Community Shield on Saturday.

I expect Bellerin, Kolasinac, Torreira, Willian, Pepe and Lacazette to all return for that one.

Video: McGuinness with a thumping header from Nelson’s corner to increase Arsenal’s lead to 3-1. #afc pic.twitter.com/TGceyYafYK

— afcstuff (@afcstuff) August 25, 2020

ffs that's bendtner-esque

How i'd love an Irish no nonsense CB in our team. Give this kid a chance

Liverpool this afternoon lads.

They've trained a week more, have played two friendlies against Stuttgart and Salzburg, and have all their top guys available.

Arsenal have had three training sessions, one friendly, and are missing half of their squad.

This can only go well.

Pre-season gets weirder as after this players will be jetting off to play in the Nations League. For us, that's Leno, Sokratis, Tierney, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Saka, Willock and Nelson (latter three playing for the u21s) unavailable for the week or more, depending on where they're going and if they have to quarantine upon return.

Fortunately, the South American and African nations don't seem to be playing games, so Elneny, Torreira, Willian, Auba and Pepe should be available. I imagine we'll play one or two more friendlies in this period.

yea can only see us getting rolled over later today

Liverpool will be after revenge ffs

Aubaaaaaaa 1-0.

Good passing back to front, exceptional finish.