Football news - What is this odd sensation at Arsenal… is it… optimism?
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Updated 28/01/2020 at 08:59 GMT
There's nothing like a selection of promising youngsters to make everyone absolutely convinced that brilliant times are ahead...
Eddie Nketiah
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Arsenal beat Bournemouth and take another small step forwards
This was in the FA Cup, and it was against a desperate Bournemouth side who at the moment would probably trade you the entire family farm for a handful of magic beans if they thought those beans would turn into a win of some description. But this was another game in which Arsenal took just a little step forwards, inching along the road to Good, and optimistically eyeing the staging post a little further which reads Really Good.
There is hope in this Arsenal squad, and it was on display in their 2-1 win over Bournemouth in the FA Cup fourth round on Monday night. The victory was built around a quartet of youngsters who are on the verge of the first-team and surely very close to forming the core of it already, with the goals coming from Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah, while Joe Willock and Gabriel Martinelli provided more general excellence.
It wasn’t perfect. In the second-half Arsenal dropped off significantly and Bournemouth very nearly snatched a draw. But that’s the sort of thing that will happen with a young squad, and the sort of thing that if all goes to plan, will be sorted in good time.
“In the first half, we were really, really good,” said Mikel Arteta afterwards. “They executed everything that we planned in a really good way. They have courage to play; they have courage to make big decisions. They are important in this side. They are not the icing on the cake; they are probably a quarter of the team at the moment.”
Manchester United aren’t buying anyone… no, wait, they are….
It would seem like a howling scream in the face of all logic that even Ed Woodward, even this crack sponsorship negotiator who looks like Ian Hislop’s younger brother who thinks he’s smarter than he is but who has somehow been in charge of buying players for one of the biggest clubs in the world, would take a look at this Manchester United squad and think “Nope, that looks all set, there really is absolutely nobody out there who can improve this lot.”
But that’s what some reports suggest, that with a few days remaining of this transfer window United have decided to stand pat, that they’re absolutely cool with this hodge-podge of a fourth round League Cup squad that sold its only centre-forward in the summer, didn’t replace him and have subsequently mysteriously seen their remaining most potent attacking talent go down with a stress fracture to his back.
Miguel Delaney reports in the Independent:
Manchester United are prepared to close the window without a major signing, as their pursuits of Sporting’s Bruno Fernandes and a striker have stalled. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the hierarchy realise the need to boost the team and were intent on bringing in at least one signing, particularly a midfielder, but the situations have meant they may well end January without any new names
There of course logic to the notion that a team who have historically overspent on players should probably stop overspending on players. And also that if there’s nobody out there who can improve your team then there’s no point in making a signing just to placate Twitter shouters and early-morning football round-ups. But if they really can’t come up with anyone who can improve what they already have, the Warm-Up would suggest that, at best, they’re suffering from a lack of imagination.
But wait! What’s this?!? Jamie Jackson in the Guardian reports:
Manchester United are considering a fresh bid for Sporting Lisbon’s Bruno Fernandes, with negotiations set to be ramped up before Friday’s 11pm transfer deadline. United had an offer of €45m (£38m) plus add-ons for the 25-year-old midfielder rejected by Sporting, who value Fernandes at €85m. The clubs are prepared to compromise regarding the fee but so far have been too wide apart. Yet the lines of communication are still open and a renewed push by United is expected. A second offer is unlikely to go beyond a base price of €55m
Ah, who the hell knows.
Eriksen arrives at Inter…is this really over?
Time is an odd thing and we can all experience it differently, and indeed have different concepts of how long things actually take. It’s also easy to exaggerate when you think something has dragged on.
But the Warm-Up is pretty sure that the Christian Eriksen to Inter saga has been going on for a billion years and we’re absolutely overjoyed that it finally seems to be over. Eriksen was in Milan on Monday to cross the ts on his move, which helps Antonio Conte in his quest to sign all the good players from his two seasons in the Premier League and also Ashley Young, and somehow stuff them all into the same team somehow.
And perhaps even better than that, we got to see Eriksen lean out of that window at the Inter training ground/offices to wave to the inexplicable number of adults who took time out of their day to wave at a footballer. He gave them the thumbs up, but really we all know that, in recognition of this long, long journey we’ve been on, he was actually giving us all the thumbs up. Congratulations everybody: we made it.
IN OTHER NEWS
BOSH. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment after a goal has been scored, you lose the run of things and celebrate in the strangest way.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: The FA Cup draw
It’s become pretty standard for us to huff a little and grumble about what a rubbish draw the FA Cup has just served up, so it’s thus only right that we should give it a little hat tip when the balls do fall out of the bag nicely. Lots to enjoy with this one: the potential for some roasting hot narrative as Wayne Rooney could return to Manchester United with Derby; Portsmouth rolling back the years by facing Arsenal; Shrewsbury potentially getting another whopper if they can get past Liverpool’s managerless kids; plus lots of other games that you just look at and think “Oooh, I’d watch that one.” So well done FA Cup, you’ve done us proud with this one.
Zero: Alex Low
Occasionally you come across a figure that you’re not sure if they should go in the ‘hero’ or the ‘zero’ category, and this guy very much falls into that one: should we be impressed that Alex Low thought “Hmmm, looks like I’ve got away with one abysmal foul, maybe I should see if I can do that again, 15 seconds later”? Or should we pity his stupidity? On balance, we’re just going with the latter.
RETRO CORNER
It’s a very happy 42nd birthday to Jamie Carragher, so to celebrate here’s an old clip from 1996, featuring Jamie as “one to watch”, featuring Michael Owen scoring some very Michael Owen goals, and some needlessly edgy camera angles.
HAT TIP
In a secret location in Germany, Thomas Gronnemark is hard at work. He has a flight to catch in the morning but before that, far from the club’s Melwood training ground, Liverpool’s throw-in coach is analysing video from the win over Manchester United. Every throw-in will be looked at. For most, this is a perfunctory element of the 90 minutes. For Gronnemark, the man who broke the world record for the longest throw at 51.33 metres, it is something very different. “I am not the first person in the world to think about throw-ins,” he tells Sky Sports. “I am the first person in the world to always be thinking about throw-ins. It is my profession.”
Think Liverpool hiring a throw-in coach is a bit silly? Maybe you’ll think again after reading Adam Bate’s interview with the man himself, Thomas Gronnemark, for Sky Sports.
COMING UP
League Cup semi-final second leg. Aston Villa v Leicester City. 1-1. Finely poised. Nicely poised. Beautifully poised. Should be good.
Bringing you the outcome of that most finely of poised poisers, will be the very poisey Andi Thomas.
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