Sorry but no we didn’t match Chelsea’s offer for Mudryk, neither in the structure of payments nor in the actual amount we offered.
Mudryk had been identified as a top talent by our scouts and we wanted to use the tenuous situation Shatkah Donetsk was in, in order to get our hands on a player with great potential.
What you’re trying to do is take your current opinion on Martinelli (which like most of your footballing opinions is best described as querulous, I’ll take this back if it wasn’t you…but weren’t you being ridiculously hysterical about Gabriel last month) and trying to reverse engineer a situation where Arteta being able to foresee this looked to buy Mudryk to replace Martinelli because he thought what he had as a left winger at the time was inadequate. Which was the rationale for signing players like Partey, Rice and most recently of all Calafiori.
RE Gabriel - looking just now, No it wasn’t you, it was Chippy.
With Beetlejuice you have to say his name three times before he appears
Or is that the Kandyman?
I honestly would have no problem starting Nwaneri, but that said I equally would be content to see him come on with a third of the match to go (although I find unless we are chasing a goal, we’ve usually shut up shop by that time)
Leicester have scored in every game this season, so I think whilst they will probably sit deep, they’ll also make the odd foray forward. They scored twice against Palace if I recall
Out of the promoted sides they do look like they are the most likely to stay up. Don’t think Ipswich will get the goals they need, and I think Southampton are hopeless.
Would like to see Sterling in this ahead of Martinelli. Not sure if you’ll get the same work ethic but I imagine he would be a lot more decisive in the final third.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Saka, Rice, Partey, Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard
Subs: Neto, Jesus, Kiwior, Jorginho, Sterling, Kacurri, Lewis-Skelly, Nichols, Nwaneri.
Leicester: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen, Winks, Skipp, Buonanotte, Ndidi, Mavididi, Vardy
Subs: Ward, Coady, Fatawu, El Khannouss, De Cordova-Reid, Choudhury, Ayew, Pereira, Edouard