The mailbox is full of replies to Stewie Griffin after Arsenal's comfortable win against Brighton. Also, are Manchester United targeting the wrong England manager?
Send your thoughts below theeditor@football365.com…
I can smell the team spirit
Arsenal once again visited a difficult venue and got the job done without too much trouble. A ground where the hosts had not lost for a long time. Some might add that to the clean sheet and perhaps even more domineering performance at the Etihad, which ended Luton's humble but awkward scoring record at home.
I was worried about Zinchenko's defensive ability, but he was fine. His defense looked solid and Raya showed his quality with some fine saves (some fans don't realize a keeper's qualities until such saves are made). He is a reliable guardian deity.
The main thing to note about this team is that they have bounced back from that debacle last year and continue to fight. Celebrating that block in the 3:00 stoppage time of the first half is so glorious.
It seems like it won't be long before Arsenal win the league this season. The Liverpool fans I know say Arteta is a fraud… really? i don't think so!
Chris, Croydon
Opinion: Gabriel Jesus is just a supporting player at Arsenal, with title contention brewing around him
Reminder to Stewie “sourpuss” Griffin
Dear Stewie Griffin
After reading your long ramblings (or whining) in your mailbox a few times ago, I realized that your regularly planned '65 million pound milestone' was yesterday evening when the Gunners beat the Seagulls at the Amex. I wanted to remember that I scored when we beat the Reds by three points. Professional performance is 0.
'Arteta's transfer turmoil' also won the MotM award with one goal, one assist, four chances created and 13 sprints. It's very Brighton. Bayern should be in town by Tuesday.
No matter the outcome of that game or what happens at the end of the season, I know there's still something to complain about about this great team.
And even if they “ridiculously finished 2nd behind Liverpool”, this is a real shame because even as a neutral there is much to enjoy about this team.
I didn't intend for this email to be this long. Keep stewing, Stewie.
Sincerely,
Anonymous Gunner – (No statue has ever been erected in support of a critic)
About Stewie and Kai Havertz
Did I understand correctly? Stewie claims that Arsenal won't win the league…he attributes this more than anything to the signing of Havertz, because Havertz hasn't performed against the top seven. , because Arsenal therefore lack the cutting edge. Yet, in the very same email, he admitted that Arsenal are “now much more competitive in big matches”. In fact, we are top of the Big 6 Mini League. So, not sure if you get the point?
By the way, I'm writing this right after Havertz's goal against Brighton. 60 million yen was thrown away, Stewie?
Sean Russell, Berlin
Finch!
The final episode of The Office (UK) isn't about Tim finally getting together with Dawn. That's when David Brent, after years of talking shit and smiling awkwardly, turns to Finchy and says, “Chris, why don't you just stop?”
I would give Stewie Griffin similar advice. Arsenal (at least as I write) have been in great form at the top of the table since the start of the year. Scoring goals for fun, ending Man City's scoring record at the Etihad, only conceding a goal to Ramsdale's Brainfurt, and excelling in almost every metric that can be gleaned. And while we're dreaming, most fans think Liverpool or City are better placed to win the title, and that's okay. We are having a great season.
Stewie – We all know that every team draws or loses games they should have won on paper, right? That's why we watch football, not just let the guys at Opta crunch the stats and declare winners and losers.
Arsenal can lose or draw against the likes of Villa and Fulham, but City (away to Villa and Crystal Palace too) and Liverpool (away to Luton) each have losses and both can beat each other at home. could not. Despite having a Salah-style player in Mohamed Salah, Liverpool did not have a Salah-style player to score against the Etihad, although they had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Anfield. Criticizing Arsenal for this is a mental thing.
This focused, one-eyed, dispassionate analysis is very strange considering the team is having a great season against two of the Premier League's greatest managers. stop it.
I heard that Arteta once threw a kettle at a pub.
Johnny
Will Wiegman join Manchester United?
Just to be quick (Tart said to Bishop), there's a lot of talk about an England manager taking over from Ten Hag, but are you sure you're talking about the wrong manager?
Wiegman is the best England manager since '66, give her the job.
Dave PVFC
Read more: 5 reasons why Sir Jim Ratcliffe should not sack Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag
To Andy D
just reading Email Now, I think you either completely misunderstood what I was saying or I didn't express it clearly enough. So this is my second attempt.
How does allowing owners to invest in their clubs make things fairer? This is fair for clubs with wealthy owners, but what does it do for others? It's useless.
It's great that Luton's owners are allowing 300m of equity to be invested in the club. It's a shame that there aren't any wealthy owners, but it's pure coincidence that this change has left the city unable to continue spending, and at the same time help others who don't have the money.
To begin with, I think the whole discussion about “fairness” is disingenuous. Because if you really wanted fairness, you would set spending limits at the poorest club level. Not the richest. City fans' argument (to be fair, I don't really see Newcastle or Chelsea fans complaining) is that 'we have money and we want to spend it. We can't spend as much as we want. And if there were no wealthy owners, you wouldn't argue that everyone should be allowed to inject unlimited capital. Do you know why fans of the likes of Luton and Sheffield don't make such arguments? They don't have wealthy owners.
So let’s stop talking about “fiscal equity.” Because you're not claiming it. And before you say “poor clubs just need to get rich owners”, rich people don't invest in those clubs. Because a small club in a small, obscure town with a small stadium surrounded by terraced houses has very little room for growth. It is no coincidence that the only clubs that have attracted wealthy investors are all major clubs in cities. If you want to be fair, I'm all for it, but we're not having that conversation from the perspective of the top six, but rather the bottom six clubs who are struggling and don't have the ability to raise money. We're talking through a lens.
Enabling owners to inject capital is all well and good, but it has the side effect of increasing all costs for the club. It's fine when you're wealthy, the owners are still there to pay for everything, but what if they were? They were allowing wage increases because the owners were injecting 200 million in capital every year, but then the owners were forced to leave for legal reasons (like Lazio and Chelsea) and they didn't receive that capital. If you suddenly can't cover the cost because you don't.
Finally, I found it funny how you called my email reductive for discussing multiple points of view, while at the same time reducing the entire discussion to “FFP is a cartel protection rule.” Ta. You'll also notice that my suggestion was to let everyone do whatever they want. Again, do as you please, even if it means Liverpool will never win another trophy, I will fight and win the trophy based on the manager's and team's playing ability. I would like to put it in. Clubs have the ability to be smart in business, rather than just getting infinite oil money and buying success every year three times a year. To me that's as empty as injecting yourself full of steroids and winning a gold medal just because no one else has them…but that's just me.
Lee
VARsity level referee
This year's PL officiating has been absolutely terrible (just ask Kompany). VAR only points out small (and wrong) things, and referees aren't strong enough to overturn them.
One example of this was Wolves' equalizing goal, which resulted in no complaints from West Ham's players, just VAR's intervention in that blunder. You might think that the three referees on the field, although it was clear that the Wolves player was offside, did not consider him to be interfering, but when VAR says so, they changed his mind.
VAR as a technology is not the problem, VAR has value for the game. It's the people applying it who are screwing things up, and we need stricter guidelines as to when interference should occur, and referees have more agency and when it's wrong. must reject VAR interference.
Jason (I hope the title fight doesn't end due to a VAR failure. That would ruin the season)
ah[e] Odegaard and Haaland
I'm a British Arsenal fan who moved to Norway a few years ago. Needless to say, I hear a lot about Haaland and Odegaard. Their names are roughly pronounced holland and eldagot. “aa” in Norwegian is an “aw” type sound.
We English fans manage to guess names like Desailly, Jesus, De Bruyne and Lewandowski, probably through commentators, without simply reading the English pronunciation. Can we not do the same for Norwegians?
P.S for perfectionists, the final D in both names is mostly silent.
Hannah (pronounced exactly as you imagine)
correction
is just the outline of a small dispute with Nicholson's goalkeeping article: Oliver Kahn must have been a better keeper than I remember winning 'too good' at Euro 96, especially when he was on the bench.
As everyone who watched Southgate's disastrous penalty remembers, Andreas Kopke was the starting keeper at the age of 96 (and at the next World Cup).
Khan was mint though.
Ash Metcalf
Read next: Koby Mainu starts for Liverpool: 4 Ten Hag players feature in Manchester United and Reds combined best squad
