AFTV News

  By Tom Masters Why did Nicolas Pépé fail at Arsenal?  Arsenal have been flying high this season and ahead of hosting Fulham at The Emirates sit at the very top of the Premier League table after three matches.  There is a feel good factor at the Gunners again after three commanding performances and comfortable victories over Crystal Palace, Leicester City and Bournemouth.  And with the transfer window coming to an end in just a week’s time, there is still yet more time for Mikel Arteta to recruit more talent to his already talented young squad.  But as ever, not everyone can be happy, and with rumours of Arsenal searching for another winger in the mould of Pedro Neto, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Yeremy Pino, one such player who is looking to leave is Nicolas Pépé.  It was announced on Thursday that Pépé would be heading to Nice on loan  from the Gunners, just three years after moving to North London for an eye watering £72 million from LOSC Lille.  Bu...

  Would Arsenal selling Reiss Nelson be a mistake? By Jack Lacey-Hatton A talented, if somewhat mercurial winger, Reiss Nelson has dazzled in an Arsenal shirt at times in the last four years since making his first team debut. Yet last season proved a stumbling block. Nelson didn’t feature anywhere near as much as he would have hoped, making nine appearances for the first team. For a player who has already shown he can play in Europe’s top leagues, thanks to a successful loan spell at 1889  Hoffenheim, this cannot be allowed to happen again. Consequently, speculation is now growing that Nelson c ould leave the Emirates this summer, with a host of clubs queuing up to make him an offer. So would selling the 21-year old be a mistake for the club?   Yes He may not have featured much in the first team last season but Nelson is still one of the most creative forces on the Arsenal books. When he has been in team first team at various points over the last few seasons, he has shown...

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 32 A year on, are Arsenal regretting handing Aubameyang a three-year deal?   By Jonathan Bray   Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 32, has been Arsenal’s star player for the better part of four seasons now.     Having joined the club from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018 Aubameyang has endeared himself to the Arsenal faithful.     He’s scored 64 goals in 114 Premier League appearances, including ten goals in his first 13 games for the club, while he  scored more than 20 league goals in back-to-back  seasons.  He won the Premier League golden boot in 2018-19 season and Arsenal’s Player of the Season award during the 2019-20 season.     However, last season he only hit the back of the net ten times in the league, which would be acceptable for a Chris Wood or a Che Adams, but it was well below par for the Gabon international.     On   September 15 2020 Aubameyang signed a new three-year contract ...

Ranking Arsenal's last five summer transfer windows As we prepare for another summer of rumours, half-truths and actual signings, one thing is for sure - this is a big transfer window for Arsenal. It feels like something we've said on countless occasions in recent years, however, and more often than not they haven't gone exactly to plan. Whether it's big-money signings backfiring, scraping around in the bargain bucket or failing to offload high earners, recent transfer windows have been a mixed bag for the Gunners. Here's how we've graded the last five, including some names you might rather have forgotten… January 2021 - B Let's start with the most recent window, which was mostly notable for those who headed out the door. Mesut Ozil finally departed by mutual consent after an absence which dominated headlines for the first half of the season and proved an off-field distraction amid on-field woes. His equally ineffective compatriot Shkodran Mustafi also went,...

Arsenal's 2-1 defeat to Villarreal in the semi-finals of the Europa League leaves us with more questions than answers  By Adam Le Roux Well, that was a rocky ride wasn’t it, Arsenal fans? After heading into the Europa League semi-final with bags of optimism, the Gunners were brought back down to Earth with a bump within the opening five minutes at El Madrigal, as Manuel Trigueros rifled home Villarreal. And when Raul Albiol made it two on the half-hour mark, it looked like it was going to be a long evening for Mikel Arteta’s side, who struggled to get out of first gear for much of the first half. Then as if things couldn’t get any worse, Dani Ceballos was shown a second yellow card 12 minutes after the break - and with a two-goal deficit and being a man light, we were all left fearing the worst for the last 30 minutes of play in Spain. But this Arsenal side proved how much character they have gathered compared to the flaky side at the beginning of the season, as they clawed themsel...

Who should be the Arsenal keeper for Thursday night's Europa League semi-final 1st leg against Villarreal? By Andy Baber Stick or twist? That is the question Mikel Arteta must answer. Arsenal face Villarreal on Thursday night in their biggest game of the season as they look to move one step closer to securing their place in the Europa League showpiece. But following Bernd Leno’s embarrassing error last time out as the Gunners lost 1-0 to Everton in the Premier League, is he the right man to have between the sticks? Confidence is key for goalkeepers, a position where every error is magnified tenfold, and the German’s fumble has left Arteta with a decision to make for the first-leg clash in Spain. The prospect of being dumped out of the competition by former boss Unai Emery doesn’t bear thinking about - so should the manager keep faith or roll the dice? FROM HERO TO ZERO Arsenal have struggled in the goalkeeping area for years, with no-one quite able to fill the boots of Jens Lehmann...

Pau Torres: Should Arsenal make a move for the Villarreal starlet? By Peter White Unbeaten in six games with five consecutive clean sheets, it’s fair to say that Arsenal have something of a spring in their step at the moment.  A substantial turn in form since Boxing Day has raised hopes of a Gunners charge into the European places, while at the same time turning attention away from what might have become their worst Premier League season since 1994-95, when they finished 12th.  While Mikel Arteta and his men aren’t out of the woods yet, the Spaniard is busy formulating plans to maintain his team’s irresistible run of form.  With the January transfer window still open, could the injection of a high-profile signing into his ranks provide the magic touch required to boost his squad’s spirits and performance levels going into the business end of the campaign?  Much has been said about the need for reinforcements in midfield and attack - with Lyon’s Houssem Aouar and Norw...

A year of Arteta: What has changed since the Spaniard took over at the Emirates? By Adam Le Roux  December 20 2019 was meant to be a turning point for Arsenal Football Club, the day that their recent miseries were meant to be forgotten, and they became a force in the Premier League once again.  Of course, that was the day that Mikel Arteta finally put pen to paper to become the new manager at the Emirates, as the former Gunner returned to the club after being prized away from Manchester City as Pep Guardiola’s right-hand man.  And despite not having any managerial experience to speak of, Arsenal fans punched the air in delight, as Guardiola 2.0 was appointed. He was the Messiah, the man to turn around the debacle that had swarmed across the side with Unai Emery in charge.  But 368 days later, the general consensus seems to be one that is polar-opposite to the days leading up to Christmas last year, with the Spaniard failing to turn around the Gunners’ fortunes, with ...