Welcome to a brand new week, and the countdown is well and truly on to the start of the new season.
I watched a small bit of the Community Shield yesterday, but the weather was nice and I didn’t want to be inside. So, I brought a tablet out into the garden, put it inside a cardboard box to avoid the glare from the sun, and got onto a hooky stream. However, the WiFi was patchy and it kept pausing and I didn’t care enough to make more of an effort.
Crystal Palace won on penalties, adding to their FA Cup win at Wembley back in May. Somehow their win will be nullified because someone didn’t read their emails, and Nottingham Forest – football’s number 1 snitches – will end up with the trophy instead.
“Thank you Mr Marinakis,” Morgan Gibbs-White will say in an unnecessary social media video, as Mr Marinakis stands in a totally non-threatening way right beside him holding a picture of the midfielder’s family and dog just by coincidence.
“You are the most wise and sagacious football club owner ever called Mr Marinakis, Mr Marinakis. And those people who say you’re just a corpulent wanker couldn’t be more wrong. Not me though, I would never say that, Mr Marinakis.”
Anyway, well done Palace. I didn’t see enough to draw any conclusions about Liverpool, who will be one of our big rivals again this season, but there’s plenty of time to do that, and ultimately the Community Shield is just a glorified friendly. The business starts this week in earnest.
Speaking of business, after the game against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, Mikel Arteta was asked about the possibility of more transfers at Arsenal this summer. He said:
Let’s see what happens in terms of where the squad is in the next few weeks, but we are actively looking at options, as well there are a few players maybe that they have to leave as well so we’ll be open to see what happens.
It does feel as if any further arrival would be dependent on departures, and there’s a bit of noise around one or two at the moment. This morning I’ve seen stories linking Oleksandr Zinchenko with both Fenerbahce and Napoli, with Arsenal said to be looking for around €15m for the Ukrainian international. There’s also been a bit more chat about Jakub Kiwior in the last week or so.
I’m paraphrasing a bit but, in his last transfer update on The Athletic, James said something along the lines of how the player likes it at Arsenal, but wants to explore opportunities to play regularly. Mikel Arteta has, in pre-season, used Riccardo Calafiori at centre-half ahead of the Polish international, which suggests that’s the pecking order. So, if you’re being told you’re essentially third choice for the left centre-half position, you can understand why a move would be something to consider. There is, of course, inherent risk with Calafiori’s fitness, but I don’t know if Kiwior can gamble on another player’s ability to be available (or not) when it comes to his own season. After a good spell in the team last time out, I think there will be clubs out there who will happily pay decent money for him, so let’s see what happens there.
None of Kiwior, Reiss Nelson, Zinchenko or Albert Sambi Lokonga got off the bench on Saturday, and there’s also Fabio Vieira to consider too. Is he back with us now, or still in some post-Porto loan limbo? Anyway, there’s work for Andrea Berta to do in terms of selling, which might then be very important if we’re looking to bring anyone else in. Then it’s about who that player is, and where they’ll fit into the team.
There remains a lot of spotlight on Eberechi Eze, but it does seem to have gone a bit quiet on that front. It’s probably not a coincidence that as soon as we sorted out Ethan Nwaneri’s new contract, the Eze chatter died down, but who knows what might happen between now and the end of the window. He isn’t the only player out there, of course. There’s a whole market full of potential additions, but there’s no indication as yet that there’s anyone else on our radar. I think it’ll stay like that until we sign another Chelsea player out of the blue. I kid. Sort of.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you in a little while. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Pod should be out around noon. Until then, have a good one.
