This is poetry. I believe in us

Pretty useless article that says basically what we already know, but some interesting tidbits from other clubs. Here's the Arsenal bit:

Recent years show Arsenal are not afraid of doing business in January and they will be alert again — depending on usual considerations such as injuries, profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and opportunities in the window.

Last summer’s spending meant the signing of David Raya from Brentford needed to be done on loan with an option to buy (£27million; $34.2m), which shows Arsenal were in a tight spot around PSR. Once adequate finances are available, the Raya deal must be turned permanent.

Let’s see whether those finances are generated from existing resources or require player trading. Should it be the former, departures could presumably be used to enhance the budget. Should it be the latter, there is unlikely to be a huge amount of money at manager Mikel Arteta’s disposal.

The most obvious candidate to exit might be Aaron Ramsdale. Any goalkeeper in his position will want to regular football, especially given the desire to get into England’s Euro 2024 squad, though there have been no significant movements yet — nor are any certain to materialise.

While plenty of speculation has focused on Arsenal potentially recruiting a striker, that is more plausible in the summer. Nothing has developed regarding Ivan Toney and it would take a massive bid to change that, particularly with Bryan Mbeumo out for around three months with an ankle injury.

Even if Victor Osimhen, Benjamin Sesko and Evan Ferguson are among those admired by Arsenal (and many other clubs), it is not anticipated they will land at the Emirates Stadium soon.

Activity in midfield probably relies on somebody leaving or the fitness situation deteriorating. For both reasons, we should keep an eye on Thomas Partey and Jorginho — but it is more realistic to imagine their futures being decided after the campaign has ended.

Arsenal explored the idea of Martin Zubimendi of Real Sociedad 12 months ago and interest remains strong. However, multiple factors would have to combine to make it happen. Despite his contract including a release clause, the Spaniard would have to agree to go; that has been a stumbling block in the past and may prove a bigger problem given Real Sociedad are in the Champions League round of 16.

Cover at the back offers another dilemma. The absences of Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu at full-back — where Partey has also featured — arguably makes defence the area worthiest of strengthening but when everyone is fit, Arsenal are well stocked. So no guarantees but it would not be a total shock if there was a reinforcement here, perhaps on a short-term basis.

I might be jumping the gun but I think lemmy.world was having issues when the daily thread would usually go up, so I'm posting in it's absence. Apologies in advance if I'm too quick but my poor memory tells me it's about 2 hours late now.

No time today to play around too long so I still need to work on filtering out names, and trying to adjust the shape isn't working properly.

I think this picture sends a really clear message though.

I still have a ways to go eliminating pointless words, but sensiblepuffin and Astrealix were absolutely correct that Fuck and Fucking feature very prominently.

Raya is up there too, with Kai. Does that mean Havertz was as good as Raya was poor?

I think I will exclude anything I recognise as a username in the next one, and I also want to add weighting for how many upvotes the comment the word came from got. I also want to make it look nicer - this is the default for the package I was using.

I feel pretty good about this for a first pass. Let me know what you guys think I can change.

I've been thinking about this a fair bit recently, and hopefully it sparks some good discussion. We're a club with a long history, and a diverse fan base, and it's always interesting to see how people respond to questions like this:

Who are your favourite, and least favourite players? More specifically I'm interested in:

1. Your favourite player in the current squad?

2. Your favourite player ever?

3. Your "what could have been" player - someone you were hopeful about when we signed them, but never quite lived up to the hype?

4. Your least favourite? Maybe someone who seemed to make it in the lineup no matter what when you could see what everyone couldn't - they were shit.

you fuckers are all over my active feed and I'm laughing at shit I don't understand. I refuse to believe the show is this funny, but if, say, a friend wanted to prove me wrong, what incarnation of star trek would they tell me to start from? especially if they knew I hadn't seen a single episode.

Bukayo Saka takes out the PFA Young Player Of The Year! Gabriel Martinelli was also among the nominees. Safe to say Saka is a clear winner, given Haaland took Player of the Year.

PFA Premier League Team of the Year!

🔴 @AaronRamsdale98

🔵 John Stones

🔵 @rubendias

🔴 William Saliba

⚫️ @trippier2

🔵 @KevinDeBruyne

🔵 Rodri

🔴 Martin Ødegaard

⚪️ @HKane

🔵 @ErlingHaaland

🔴 @BukayoSaka87

#PFAawards #PFA50

Plus, what we learned at Selhurst Park: another shape, why Gabriel didn't start, what Rice unlocks, and what to do about the dynamic on the left

Billy's latest is a fantastic read. Seeing the tactical reasons not to start Gabriel the last two games has calmed my heart.

Usually July would be too early to start thinking about this but given how fast we've moved in the market, I've found myself more interested than usual at this time of year.

I'm really keen to hear, especially from those who have watched more of our new players than I have, how we might change our system with our new signings.

I know on Reddit a lot of people were dismissive of playing two inverted full backs together but from what I've read about Rice and Timber, is it possible we could deploy him, Zinchenko and Timber in the same lineup? Rice and Timber could share the responsibility of dropping into the back 3 while the other and Zinchenko sit at the base of midfield cycling the ball to our 5 up front.

I'm also very interested to see how Martinelli adapts his game with a new mainstay at left 8. If we play jorgi/partey (or Lavia/Caicedo 🙏) at 6 and give Rice some games at the 8, I honestly have no idea what he's like as a player there but given that he's more defensive than xhaka I could see Martinelli being possibly more isolated than last season. Havertz, ESR, Trossard could unleash our 11 even further though.

Another thought... Will Arteta play two strikers this season? I know havertz has had some time as a second striker. Is his profile different enough from Jesus, Trossard to allow having two of them up top? I know he's big and could develop as a target man but from everything I've read it's not his style. If he is yet another support striker/false 9 type player then this option is probably off the table.

Anyway, keen to hear people's thoughts and apologies if this isn't the kind of post people want to see. It felt too long for DD but if I get a negative response I'm happy to shift this sort of thing there.