Already a few late, late winners/equalizers. Would have been nice had he missed the pen as we would have gone in to tomorrow's game having our main 3rd and 4th place rivals having all lost (United, Spurs, Villa).

Still pressure does not change. Gotta beat Fulham.

I do not see City and Liverpool drastically improve during the season because City have an average defence that will leak in a lot of goals and Liverpool do not have that superstar players in attack anymore that will guarantee 45-50 goals easily.

If these clubs consider themselves title contenders this season, I do not see why we would not either.

Embarrassingly cringe from Maresca. Such a try hard.

🤣

39 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Embarrassingly cringe from Maresca. Such a try hard.

Hes so desperate to be Guardiola....such a weirdo.

37 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Embarrassingly cringe from Maresca. Such a try hard.

Can see why Cherki looks devastated. You can read on Maresca's lips "Pedro Neto and Malo Gusto will join us very soon".

6 hours ago, All Barco no bite said:

Maresca’s got a suit on in the dug out. Blue Co are going to force Alonso into wearing a white tracksuit on match days, aren’t they

It’s begun. He has to be in a suit tomorrow, I won’t stand for it.

2 minutes ago, All Barco no bite said:

It’s begun. He has to be in a suit tomorrow, I won’t stand for it.

Iconic Pred’s though are bonus points.

None of that pink nonsense we saw at the World Cup just proper Black & White Predators, real bloke out Xabi.

2 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

I do not see City and Liverpool drastically improve during the season because City have an average defence that will leak in a lot of goals and Liverpool do not have that superstar players in attack anymore that will guarantee 45-50 goals easily.

If these clubs consider themselves title contenders this season, I do not see why we would not either.

That's what all the Spuds fans were saying last week.

We should never say such things.

55 minutes ago, guddy69 said:

That's what all the Spuds fans were saying last week.

We should never say such things.

Not saying we are something special. Just that we should not downplay ourselves when others around us look average, yet think big.

On 19/08/2026 at 23:37, Sconnie Blue said:

Still doesn't explain how they never were really victim of the new PSR rules even before the title.

To this day, their most expensive sale is OX for 35m.

It's a bit more complex than that. The PSR rules were essentially written for them, remembering that the model in UEFA's FFP was brought in at the insistence of Wenger and Platini in the first place.

Contrary to Wenger's sook about "financial doping", Arsenal's modern financial capability is entirely underpinned by commercial, off-field and non-football revenue. The decision to build the Emirates was a disaster from a football perspective, as their early 2000s dominance evaporated almost overnight. They didn't spend, and they rarely sold. They made key players run down their contracts and then were forced to sell them for nominal fees (Nasri, van Persie, Fabregas, Sanchez etc.) to direct rivals. Almost every cent the club made in revenue was channelled back to stadium costs. And even though (under Wenger) they were famously spendthrift, their signings were still largely poor quality and did not improve their football.

However, they benefitted massively from the rising tide of the Premier League (because of City and private investment) and the fact that both shareholder loans and stadium investments were magically excluded from PSR rules. Because Arsenal had bought Emirates so early in the piece, it was significantly cheaper for them, and the costs were underwritten by external, private investment. There were no financial consequences for their failures because they had timed their commercial investments fortituously.

Arsenal never had to risk spending to invest in their squad, and they never did, and yet never paid the price because the rules and system propped them up. Essentially, the 'financial doping' they cried about actually underpinned a financial base that allowed them to remain sustainable even in the face of unprecedented football failure. With interest-free shareholder loans now banned and stadium costs far more expensive, the ladders that allowed Arsenal to remain viable have now been pulled up behind them, and that was always by design.

7 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Already a few late, late winners/equalizers. Would have been nice had he missed the pen as we would have gone in to tomorrow's game having our main 3rd and 4th place rivals having all lost (United, Spurs, Villa).

Still pressure does not change. Gotta beat Fulham.

I don't consider villa to be in contention for top 5 this season. They are in cl with 7 new starters

On 23/08/2026 at 00:52, petre ispirescu said:

United were bang average last season as well, but that schedule did wonders for them. One game a week for most of the season and a three-week break from mid March to April. So many lucky wins from goals scored past the 90 minute mark, so many lucky draws and some matches in which their GK made some monster saves. Games against Everton, Palace, Fulham, West Ham just coming to mind at the moment.

To think they would improve by buying Tielemans and Santos it simply is stupid. Tielemans is IMHO just an average midfielder and Andrey Santos might be a good guy as a whole, but he is nowhere near good enough to start at this level yet. They truly are an incompetent bunch if they bench Mainoo for him.

On 23/08/2026 at 00:52, petre ispirescu said:

United were bang average last season as well, but that schedule did wonders for them. One game a week for most of the season and a three-week break from mid March to April. So many lucky wins from goals scored past the 90 minute mark, so many lucky draws and some matches in which their GK made some monster saves. Games against Everton, Palace, Fulham, West Ham just coming to mind at the moment.

To think they would improve by buying Tielemans and Santos it simply is stupid. Tielemans is IMHO just an average midfielder and Andrey Santos might be a good guy as a whole, but he is nowhere near good enough to start at this level yet. They truly are an incompetent bunch if they bench Mainoo for him.

On 23/08/2026 at 00:52, petre ispirescu said:

United were bang average last season as well, but that schedule did wonders for them. One game a week for most of the season and a three-week break from mid March to April. So many lucky wins from goals scored past the 90 minute mark, so many lucky draws and some matches in which their GK made some monster saves. Games against Everton, Palace, Fulham, West Ham just coming to mind at the moment.

To think they would improve by buying Tielemans and Santos it simply is stupid. Tielemans is IMHO just an average midfielder and Andrey Santos might be a good guy as a whole, but he is nowhere near good enough to start at this level yet. They truly are an incompetent bunch if they bench Mainoo for him.

They didn't sign tielemans n Santos thinking these players will "improve" the team. They are in europe, you need numbers.

If emery can still make villa floating again in top 6 this season then he must be truly one of the greats out there.

17 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

It's a bit more complex than that. The PSR rules were essentially written for them, remembering that the model in UEFA's FFP was brought in at the insistence of Wenger and Platini in the first place.

Contrary to Wenger's sook about "financial doping", Arsenal's modern financial capability is entirely underpinned by commercial, off-field and non-football revenue. The decision to build the Emirates was a disaster from a football perspective, as their early 2000s dominance evaporated almost overnight. They didn't spend, and they rarely sold. They made key players run down their contracts and then were forced to sell them for nominal fees (Nasri, van Persie, Fabregas, Sanchez etc.) to direct rivals. Almost every cent the club made in revenue was channelled back to stadium costs. And even though (under Wenger) they were famously spendthrift, their signings were still largely poor quality and did not improve their football.

However, they benefitted massively from the rising tide of the Premier League (because of City and private investment) and the fact that both shareholder loans and stadium investments were magically excluded from PSR rules. Because Arsenal had bought Emirates so early in the piece, it was significantly cheaper for them, and the costs were underwritten by external, private investment. There were no financial consequences for their failures because they had timed their commercial investments fortituously.

Arsenal never had to risk spending to invest in their squad, and they never did, and yet never paid the price because the rules and system propped them up. Essentially, the 'financial doping' they cried about actually underpinned a financial base that allowed them to remain sustainable even in the face of unprecedented football failure. With interest-free shareholder loans now banned and stadium costs far more expensive, the ladders that allowed Arsenal to remain viable have now been pulled up behind them, and that was always by design.

Pretty much every ultra-rich person's strategy.

On 24/08/2026 at 02:33, SydneyChelsea said:

It's a bit more complex than that. The PSR rules were essentially written for them, remembering that the model in UEFA's FFP was brought in at the insistence of Wenger and Platini in the first place.

Contrary to Wenger's sook about "financial doping", Arsenal's modern financial capability is entirely underpinned by commercial, off-field and non-football revenue. The decision to build the Emirates was a disaster from a football perspective, as their early 2000s dominance evaporated almost overnight. They didn't spend, and they rarely sold. They made key players run down their contracts and then were forced to sell them for nominal fees (Nasri, van Persie, Fabregas, Sanchez etc.) to direct rivals. Almost every cent the club made in revenue was channelled back to stadium costs. And even though (under Wenger) they were famously spendthrift, their signings were still largely poor quality and did not improve their football.

However, they benefitted massively from the rising tide of the Premier League (because of City and private investment) and the fact that both shareholder loans and stadium investments were magically excluded from PSR rules. Because Arsenal had bought Emirates so early in the piece, it was significantly cheaper for them, and the costs were underwritten by external, private investment. There were no financial consequences for their failures because they had timed their commercial investments fortituously.

Arsenal never had to risk spending to invest in their squad, and they never did, and yet never paid the price because the rules and system propped them up. Essentially, the 'financial doping' they cried about actually underpinned a financial base that allowed them to remain sustainable even in the face of unprecedented football failure. With interest-free shareholder loans now banned and stadium costs far more expensive, the ladders that allowed Arsenal to remain viable have now been pulled up behind them, and that was always by design.

As soon as the likes of Arsenal etc realised that their cosy dominance could be threatened by the likes of Chelsea suddenly spending money from a wealthy owner they were determined to put a stop to it and protect their status.

Edited Tuesday at 15:275 days by The Rising Sun

Newcastle 0-1 down to WBA. Their GK lets in an ordinary free kick. Lewis Hall no great shakes either.

Final week of transfer window will be interesting.

Curious to see BBC and Sky reporting when Liverpool use a little more the Countinho money!

Sky Sports News are really trying to push this Alvarez to Arsenal narrative lol.

Even though they are lterally the only media outlet talking about it at the moment.

Edited Thursday at 11:403 days by 2211

They are talking about £150m for Alvarez, I really don’t get it. Crazy money.

So its Friday night and City havent secured any of Marescas targets...Fernandez Gusto & Neto. No official offers/bids, yet all readily available ...arent they backing him. Cant they afford it? Very poor show.

Edited Friday at 16:421 day by OTL

30 minutes ago, OTL said:

So its Friday night and City havent secured any of Marescas targets...Fernandez Gusto & Neto. No official offers/bids, yet all readily available ...arent they backing him. Cant they afford it? Very poor show.

TNT are reporting a deal of €140m has been agreed. It’s is said to be a 5 year deal with another .year option.

Edited Friday at 17:111 day by terraloon

Palace were just given over 20 seconds to take a throw, the ref overturned a throw for us against Fulham for taking too long. So we have been used as an example of the new rules for taking too long to take throws and a player taking too long to leave the field when subbed off, but both times the ref don't apply it to other teams.