TGIF?
Is that still a thing?
Like I like Fridays and all, but then a lot of people work Saturdays too, so is Friday still that relevant? Well it is to me because for the most part there’s football to look forward to.
So welcome to the weekend
And
WELCOME EL NENY!!!
So we have made our first signing of the transfer window. I dunno if it’ll be our last, but if we do get another player that’ll certainly be the last. We have done some good business in January in recent years with Monreal and Gabriel both January signings. If I remember clearly, Monreal’s first game was against Stoke…we won.
Peter Crouch was a bit of a doo doo head to Monreal and we noticed they looked alike– a lot! Anyhow, we now have El Neny from Fc Basel in Switzerland and he is a midfielder. Now I can imagine that you all know more than I do about the player, I’ve never seen him play, but my cousin tells me he’s fast, hardworking and does the whole Arsenal passy thing.
They say he has a good shot on him too, but I’m sure we’ll get rid of that soon enough. Santi used to have a good shot on him, and now? Well we all know how that’s gone, so goodbye El Neny’s shot. Arsene has commented on the player’s role and strengths:
“He can be box to box and be a holding midfielder so that is for us very promising. We wanted a versatile player and I wanted a player who can play defensive but can as well play to box to box.
“His strengths are his technical level, his vision, his intelligence, his disciplined attitude and his physical attitude to compete at a high level. I think he has the physical qualities to play at the top level.
quotes from Arsenal.com
That’s a lot of strengths. I hope the adaptation period isn’t too long and he can fit in as soon as possible. I wonder if he’ll be available for Stoke and if he is, will he be thrown in straight away? I doubt it, but this is Arsene we’re talking about and I certainly won’t begrudge him if he decided to do just that.
As we could see from the game against Liverpool on Wednesday night, our midfield was bypassed far too easily, it was sometimes difficult to watch. From what I hear though, El Neny is more Ramsey than Coquelin. Now will two Ramsey’s work in a midfield? I think not, but if both were disciplined and were able to compliment each other, then the great engine and stamina both have could serve us really well. I wonder where he would fit in when the rest of the gang come back together. I suspect he’ll start from the bench, but who knows, if he acclimatizes quickly, he could do a Bellerin and the injured player will find himself on the bench upon return (in this case Coquelin).
Well we’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, we play Premier League fixtures say we meet Stoke on Sunday and the boss will have a press conference today from which we can glean team news and all whatnot. We need to win at the Britannia, it’s never been an easy place to visit and we generally don’t do really well there, but if there’s ever been a time to break that jinx, it’s now. We want to challenge for the title, then we have to face down challenges like this. All things being equal we should have Alexis back, which would be a big boost. If he is to participate, I suspect it would be from the bench, but having Sanchez at all is always a good thing.
Let’s hope for the best and I wish El Neny all the best at Arsenal
Till later
