Transfers

3rd January 2016: Debuchy to depart as Elneny nears arrival

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. I missed this yesterday, but according to Arseblog News, Mathieu Debuchy is close to completing a loan move to West Brom.

It’s far from unexpected, given the defender’s been very vocal about his desire for regular first team football ahead of Euro 2016, but it does mean our squad is weakened depth-wise. So it’ll be interesting to see if Arsene Wenger has a new signing lined up, or will instead trust an internal option to be Hector Bellerin’s deputy between now and the end of the season.

Calum Chamber’s is the obvious candidate but to be honest, I think the former Southampton man is best at centre half and I worry about his lack of pace at right-back, especially after what Swansea’s Jefferson Montero did to him last season. So if we can’t recall Carl Jenkinson from his loan at West Ham, I’d prefer a new signing. Torino’s Brazilian Bruno Peres for instance, if you really want a name.

Anyway, while one player heads for the exit door at London Colney, another should soon be arriving at Arsenal, as Mohamed Elneny’s move from Basel edges closer. Sky Sports reported this afternoon that we’re ‘on the verge’ of sealing his signature, so perhaps they’ve learned that his work permit application has been successful and he’ll pop up in a picture special on the official site as early as tomorrow. We’ll see.

But back to yesterday’s win over Newcastle now and a few words from our match-winner Laurent Koscielny, who spoke to the media after the win. The defender discussed the game and his goal, saying:

It was a tough game. Newcastle were playing very well, especially on the right-hand side with their right back and Sissoko as well. It was difficult but in the end we won and that is the most important thing for us. We started the game well in the first 10 to 15 minutes. We had good movement with good passes. After that we were a little bit tired and at this moment we knew we needed to be stronger at the back to keep a clean sheet. After that we knew we would have the opportunities to score the goal. During the game this was the case and then I scored from a corner to help us win 1-0. Sometimes we need to win like this. I’ve scored against them (Newcastle) before but the most important thing is that the team wins and I am happy with the goal. We need to stay top. I was given the opportunity to score on the second ball and I did it so I was happy. It was important to start the New Year with a win.

Meanwhile, his central defensive partner Per Mertesacker gave his take on the victory, telling Arsenal Player:

We put in everything and we had to because Newcastle were good on the break and could have taken the lead as well. When you dig in and fight for your team-mates you get your reward. We never lost our lost our focus or our passion, and neither did the fans. We believe we can be a good team if we put the effort in. That is what it is all about. That is what I kept saying to the lads. To keep a clean sheet as long as possible and we did it all the way through. We are a threat offensively and could have scored more in the end. We need to share the ball better at times in front of the goal. We are pretty delighted with the performance where we did well and now we are looking forward to 2016 and having a successful season.

I’m not sure about the performance, but I was ‘pretty delighted’ about the three points. In all seriousness though, it’s great to hear both Koscielny and Mertesacker talk about being aware of the importance of keeping a clean sheet. Too often over the last decade or so, Arsenal teams have lacked maturity and attacked with little focus on keeping it tight at the back.

By contrast, our current crop stay compact and keep their shape throughout the 90 minutes and show far more patience when they fail to score early. There’s no mindless, over commitment of numbers in attack and it’s made us a far better balanced team. That said, we haven’t looked quite as secure defensively since Francis Coquelin’s injury so hopefully Elneny, if and when he signs, can be as effective a safeguard for our rearguard, as the Frenchman.

See you next week.

31st December 2015: Elneny reportedly passes medical

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to the last TremendArse post of 2015. The calendar year may come to a close in a few hours’ time, but the January transfer window swings open for business.

Reports this evening say Basel’s Mohamed Elneny has passed a medical ahead of his proposed switch to Arsenal and the transfer is now dependent on him gaining a work permit, which is expected to be granted. Excellent.

ESPN’s website has a great piece on the midfielder, which covers his move to European football from his native Egypt, compares him with his compatriot Mohamed Salah, and offers an insight into what kind of player and personality we’ll be adding to our squad. Well worth a look.

Elsewhere, Hull City manager Steve Bruce has revealed Isaac Hayden will be returning to Arsenal early from his season-long loan deal with the Tigers, because the defender/defensive midfielder wants regular game time – something he hasn’t been getting at the KC Stadium. Bruce said:

Isaac wants to play and I haven’t been able to play him enough. The form of Meyler and Livermore has been excellent so he’s found himself restricted. I’m disappointed and sad that we’re losing him because I do believe he could have played a big part in the second half of the season but he wants to play now. I can’t give him that. He goes back with our best wishes. It hasn’t really worked out for him because of other players in form. When we signed Isaac I was expecting to be without Livermore and he’s similar in the way he plays. Jake coming back into the fold has limited his opportunities.

With Mathieu Debuchy looking likely to be granted a move away from the club as he searches for regular football in an attempt to force his way into France’s squad for Euro 2016, part of me wonders if we’ve actually been the ones to instigate Hayden’s early return.

I mean, Calum Chambers is the likeliest candidate to play Hector Bellerin’s deputy if Debuchy does depart, which would allow Hayden to assume the role of ‘last resort defensive midfielder’ in our squad. I suppose if Hayden is immediately loaned out to another club upon his return to London Colney, we can put that theory to bed, but it makes sense at the moment, in my mind at least.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger has been lavishing more praise on Mesut Ozil, this time enthusing about the German midfielder’s improved athleticism and leadership qualities. He said:

I think he plays in a position that suits him well. He plays in a style of football that suits him well. He is, today, maybe more in a more comfortable psychological position because he’s accepted and not so much questioned than he was in the years before. This season he was not stopped by injuries and I believe that he arrives at an age – 27 – that you think ‘it’s time for me to really be efficient in every single game, and I want to enjoy every single game’. When he was injured for a long period he worked very hard physically. He is a complete athlete. I also believe he has grown in stature and takes responsibilities, leadership in the team and on that front he has improved tremendously and looks determined to lead the team compared to when he arrived.

It’s hard to argue against the suggestion that our attacking strategy at the moment is predominantly: get the ball to Ozil at every opportunity, and in that sense, he’s not just a leader, but the leader of our side at the moment, especially in the absence of Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez.

Right, that’s it from me. Whatever you’re up to tonight, I hope you have a good one.

See you next year.

30th December 2015: Wenger talks team news and transfers

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. So after Leicester City and Manchester City played out a pretty uneventful 0-0 draw last night, Arsenal will enter the new year as league leaders for the second time in three years. Hopefully, this time around, we’ll still be top when it matters in May.

The second half of our Premier League campaign begins on Saturday of course, when we welcome Newcastle United to Emirates stadium and Arsene Wenger held his pre-match press conference this morning as we build up to the game. He provided the latest injury news as well as discussing potential January transfers, plus much more besides.

But first to team news and the boss revealed that “we might have (Mathieu) Flamini back”, and Alexis Sanchez is still unavailable but could be ready to return for the game at Sunderland a week on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Mikel Arteta is back in training but is lacking match practice so won’t play against Newcastle at the weekend, Tomas Rosicky is still three weeks away from resuming training, Jack Wilshere “could make it back for February”, and everybody else in the squad selected for Monday’s win over Bournemouth should be available against the Magpies.

Of course we could also have a new signing in Basel’s Mohamed Elneny vying for selection, should his transfer go through as strongly reported over the last few days, but Arsene stopped shy of confirming the deal, saying:

Unfortunately we cannot announce anything at the moment about this player [Elneny] because nothing has been concluded.

Given how guarded the boss usually is over potential transfers, that’s as good as him confirming the Egyptian midfielder is an Arsenal player. Arsene also repeated that he’d “be busy” when asked how active he’d be in he window, which suggests Elneny won’t be the only new arrival next month. But one man who could be heading out of the club is right-back Mathieu Debuchy, after Arsene said:

It’s not impossible [that Debuchy will leave]. I’m happy if he stays but we’ll see.

Considering how vocal Debuchy has been about playing regularly in order to force his way into France’s squad for the European Championships next summer, a move away makes sense providing we can find a replacement. Hopefully we won’t rely on Calum Chambers to be Hector Bellerin’s deputy because I’m still unconvinced he’d be adequate cover. But as Arsene says, we’ll see.

Moving on from transfers now, and as we approach the end of 2015, Arsene also gave his assessment on Arsenal’s form over the calendar year, pointing out his side have matured, enjoyed success in winning a second successive FA Cup, and are well positioned to compete for this season’s Premier League crown. He said:

From January 1 to December 31 we were consistent and have improved our results. The team has grown in stature, is more mature, more reliable and we won the FA Cup and the Community Shield. We are in a strong position in the Premier League so hopefully 2016 will be better. We are mature enough and we have the requested quality to fight and compete. The most important thing is to feel, at the end of the season, that we have given absolutely everything to be successful. After that, if somebody has been better than us, we will accept it, but we want to fight to show that we have a chance. The public opinion is not always stable, it changes a lot. It is always linked with the final result. We have to rise above that and show that we can deal with it. I believe we have to be guided by playing better football and being a real team in every game and show that we can be competitive.

And the boss followed up by highlighting it’s still far too early to call the eventual champions and suggesting several teams were still in contention, with Manchester City remaining the favourites because of their expensively-assembled, or as he called it, “glamorous”, squad:

We can have great solidarity in every single game and after that we have a chance. You cannot rule us out after 19 games. We have a chance and we want to fight for it. Everybody wants to predict who will win it at halfway but even for the most intelligent people [that is] impossible. Mathematically you cannot rule out anyone down to Manchester United. Can Liverpool still fight for it? I don’t know. We have a difficult programme and we have to focus on ourselves more than we have to look at who will be our main threat. We have to focus on our performances. City are the favourites still because they might have the most glamorous potential and they are not far behind. After that, Tottenham are not far behind and Leicester are still there after 19 games. You have to respect that and they also have no European competition. The gap is not big enough, nine points is not big enough to say that anyone is out of it.

It’s hard to argue with any of that really. City were my tip at the start of the season and although I think we have a great chance if we can get some of our injured players back fit and add a quality player or two in the transfer window over the next month or so, they remain most likely champions in my eyes.

Obviously my heart says Arsenal but at this stage my brain’s still playing spoilsport and reminding me Manuel Pellegrini’s men have the deeper squad in term’s of quality, plus a core of players who have won two of the last four Premier League titles. They have that all-important experience of lasting the distance players that have won it often talk about.

Whatever happens though, it’ll be intriguing to see how this crazy campaign concludes.

Back tomorrow.

26th December 2015: Premier League Preview – Slay Saints and we go top + Elneny deal done?

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. After league-leaders Leicester City lost 1-0 at Liverpool this afternoon, we now have the chance to go top of the table if we can win at Southampton in a couple of hours’ time.

More importantly in my opinion, a victory would also restore our four-point cushion over Manchester City, who eased to a 4-1 home win over Sunderland earlier.

In terms of how we’ll line-up at St Mary’s, it’s unlikely we’ll see any changes to the starting selection from Monday’s win over City, and if we can produce a similar performance, we should enjoy our trip to the south coast a lot more than we did our last visit around a year ago.

On that occasion, we lost the match of course and Wojciech Szczesny was infamously caught having a crafty fag in the dressing room. It’s a game Arsene Wenger discussed when he spoke to Arsenal Player earlier in the week, saying:

Every loss hurts – and that one has not gone out of my mind. It was a bad moment for us but also a turning point because we responded very well and overall, in 2015, we had a very consistent year on the result front.

And Arsene also explained how Monday’s win over City has seen the confidence of his side burgeon as they approach tonight’s Boxing Day battle with the Saints. He said:

The vibes coming out after the City game are that we are a real team who want to work together, play together and are ready to fight to achieve a result. I believe you cannot cheat the crowd. The crowd was maybe better than ever but I’ve always said that to get that, the vibes coming from your team need to be absolutely spot on. We missed passes, we missed goal chances but you could not fault the attitude of any player at any second. As a unit for 90 minutes, the desire to earn your right to win, the desire to commit completely was the most satisfying [facet] of the night. The confidence following a victory like the one against Manchester City of course increases dramatically. What you want to maintain is the urgency and remember how much a defeat hurts. You have to take the positives out of a game to believe in your strengths. That balance between confidence and urgency has to be right.

Let’s hope we get the balance right in every sense tonight and secure the win that will take us to the summit.

But moving away from the game now and onto a bit of transfer speculation with the January window opening in under a weeks’ time. John Cross in The Mirror reports Arsenal have agreed a deal to sign Basel’s Egyptian central midfielder Mohamed Elneny and the deal should go through shortly after the window opens.

I must admit I’d never heard of the player before this morning but having indulged in a spot of YouTube scouting, I like what I see. A lot. Great control, pacey, mobile, aggressive, can pass, appears to have a shot-and-a-half on him from long-range and at 23 years of age, can still develop and improve. Plus if the report is accurate, he’d be relatively cheap at £5m and so we have little to lose.

The Mirror’s report has also been, er, mirrored by The Telegraph this afternoon and they suggest the fee may rise to £7m but talks are progressing well, personal terms with the player should be straightforward and Elneny will be eligible for the Champions League after Basel were eliminated in the qualifying rounds of this season’s competition by Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Right, kick-off is fast approaching so I’ll leave it there.

Back tomorrow.

COYG!

 

20th December 2015: Welbeck set-back + Wenger praises Cech ‘aura’

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. Another day, another surprising Premier League score-line as Liverpool lost 3-0 at Watford to leave themselves languishing in ninth place in the table.

With 24 points from 17 games, they’re comfortably closer to Swansea’s 15 points in the relegation zone, than they are to Leicester City on 38 at the top of the tree, with just shy of half the season played. Amazing.

Anyway, onto Arsenal matters and worryingly, Arsene Wenger has revealed, rather vaguely, that Danny Welbeck has suffered another setback on his road to recovery from a knee injury sustained in April. The last official update was that the striker would be ready to return around Christmas, but the boss now says:

Unfortunately he was injured at the end of April and we are now at the end of December and he is still not available because of a bone bruising. That deteriorated and it is a big blow to us. Especially now we cannot rotate.

Having initially been expected to return in early September, the club announced the striker needed surgery to correct the problem a few days after the summer transfer window closed at the end of August. That obviously caused fans and pundits to wonder why the club hadn’t made more of an effort to bring in a new striker over the summer, and the boss was even forced to deny lying about the expected time-frame for Welbeck’s recovery.

To be honest, this latest update doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me. Firstly, because I did think it was odd Arsene hadn’t mentioned Welbeck when discussing the return dates for other long-termers like Jack Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky recently, but also because Football Insider reported as long ago as the end of October that Welbeck’s injury was not responding to treatment and he could even remain side-lined for the rest of the season!

Whatever your views on FI as a source, they’ve been proven accurate with their reporting of Welbeck’s injury and have been the first to reveal it from what I can see. In fact, they repeated their story from October just a few days ago, again, ahead of everybody else.

Hopefully, they’ll be proven wrong in terms of Welbeck’s season being over, but whoever FI’s source is, they seem as clueless about when he might be back as anybody else, which is a big concern as it suggests the medical staff at the club are stumped and can’t figure out how to remedy his issue.

The news must surely mean we’ll be looking for a striker as well as a new midfielder in the January window, because to risk the rest of season on the hope Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud remain fit and firing would be stupid. Time will tell but I wouldn’t mind Alexandre Pato if the Duck is definitely over his own injury concerns, which blighted the early portion of his career. Let’s wait and see …

Elsewhere, Arsene has been showering Petr Cech with praise, lauding the goalkeeper’s ‘aura and charisma’, saying:

He has brought his experience, his calmness and his leadership as well. He has been good and highly focused. I don’t want to be detrimental to David Ospina because he was exceptional last year, but Petr Cech has done it all, so he is someone who gives you an aura, a charisma that is always important in the big games for the players. I met him before I signed him and we had a long discussion about the game and the job and his position, and I was deeply impressed by his knowledge, by his professionalism, by his detailed knowledge. So since I have not been surprised, because I got the whole package in one go. You always look around you in the dressing room before a big game and you think, ‘Are we strong enough?’ And these kind of faces help you to believe it. Also in the big games, the number of shots on target shrinks. But then the one save can be the difference in the end result. There is no history of teams winning things without having a great goalkeeper. I’m now 30 years in the job and as I said the other day you learn over the years that the goalkeeper is the most underrated position in football – and maybe the most vital one for winning things. For example when Spain won the 2010 World Cup, in every game [Iker] Casillas saved a one-on-one when it was 0-0 or 1-0, or saved a decisive ball. Even in the final against Arjen Robben – and instead of being 1-0 down you are 0-0. And that at the end of the day makes the difference.

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt have  gleaned that I think Arsene’s a truly amazing manager and we’re beyond lucky to call him our own. That said, nobody’s perfect and I wish he’d have felt the same way about the importance of having a ‘great goalkeeper’ when he was subjecting us to the Manuel Almunia years …

Still, at least he’s finally cottoned onto the merits of having a top class keeper, so if he’s still in charge when Cech eventually calls it a day, I’m expecting us to go out and get the best goalie money can buy, and not try to develop unproven talent in the hope they’ll turn into great shot-stoppers over time.

Back tomorrow with a preview ahead of the big game against Manchester City.

Until then.

17th December 2015: Mourinho won’t be missed + Bruno Peres if Debuchy leaves

Posted on by TremendArse

Well, well, well. Jose Mourinho has failed to last more than a few seasons in charge of the same club. Who’d have thunk it?

It’s not like he has previous for taking over a team, splashing big in the transfer market and working his psychological magic to motivate his troops to a few trophies, before his squad grow tired of his childish, egotistical, hypocritical ways and his soul-destroying footballing ‘philosophy’ and can’t wait to get rid of the c*nt. Oh wait …

Good riddance I say, and no, English football won’t miss his ‘character’ at all. Not one little bit. So I hope Manchester United, or any other top-flight club thinking of giving him a call think again. He may bring you silverware in the short-term but he’ll stink the place out eventually. He always does. The bad news as an Arsenal fan is that Chelsea will now start to win games more regularly and won’t get relegated, but I suppose we can’t have it all.

But from Mourinho, to the manager he fragrantly wishes he was more like, and who’s respect and one-club longevity he craves, Arsene Wenger, and the boss held his pre-Manchester City press conference this morning, revealing the latest team news and discussing much more besides.

Pointing out the fact the City game was still a few days away yet, Arsene explained Alexis Sanchez has a glimmer of hope of being ready to return from his hamstring injury and there are no fresh concerns otherwise. He said:

We are quite far from the game but at the moment, everybody who played against Aston Villa is available for Monday night and there are one or two possible comebacks. Maybe there is a slight chance for Alexis to be in the squad again but it is too early to be sure about it. He (Sanchez) is running but not participating in full training.

Given how well I thought Theo Walcott performed in Sanchez’s left-sided position at Villa Park last time, plus Joel Campbell’s industrious contribution on the right, I wouldn’t take any risks at all with our Chilean, despite the opposition being City, who remain the team I think are our biggest rivals in the chase for this season’s title.

We have a busy period after the City game and the last thing we need is for Sanchez to return too soon, suffer a relapse and be ruled out of the festive fixtures. I’m sure Arsene will make the right call and when asked if it would be him who made the call and not the player, he said with a smile:

Yes, because he (Sanchez) says he’s always ready.

Meanwhile, he was also asked about his transfer plans for the upcoming January transfer window and offered:

We are open-minded. We are not the only ones who can decide about the speed of the transfers because we have to adapt to the availabilities and the speed of negotiations and the willingness of clubs to sell. We are open to do something because we are short.

Amidst all the talk of a new defensive midfielder and perhaps even a new forward, it’s easy to overlook the fact we also have a bit of an issue at right-back. Clearly Hector Bellerin is first-choice, as he would be in any team in the world, but his back-up, Mathieu Debuchy, went on record recently as saying he wants talks with Arsene over his playing time.

Which is understandable, as he obviously needs to play regular first-team football to stand a chance of forcing his way into the France squad for the Euros in his home country next summer. So if the boss decides to grant Debuchy a move away, we’ll need a new right-back. Off the top of my head, my choice would be Bruno Peres from Torino.

He’s a lightening-fast, attacking full-back who’s very comfortable in possession and crucially, also a very good defender. Here’s a video showcasing both his defending and attacking, including a quite astonishing goal against Juventus at the end …

Back with more from the boss’ presser on Friday.

See you then.

3rd December 2015: Arsenal send Dead Snake to scout Porto teen Ruben Neves

Posted on by TremendArse

Boa tarde. With the January transfer window on the horizon and Arsenal now just one injury away from having to play Ken Friar as our defensive midfielder, I suppose it’s inevitable transfer links to players from all over the place will begin to burgeon like Diego Costa’s waistline during the off-season.

Supposed interest from the Gunners in Porto’s 18 year old central midfielder Ruben Neves has been reported several times since the summer, but today, an article in Portuguese publication O Jogo claims our former winger Luis Boa Morte has been to watch the teenager on Arsenal’s behalf and that a move next month is on the cards.

For a bit of background, Neves is currently enjoying his second full season with Porto’s first-team, having scored and been named man-of-the-match on his full debut in his club’s opening league fixture of last term. Aged just 17 years and five months at the time, that strike made him his club’s youngest ever league goalscorer. This season, he’s broken another record, becoming the youngest-ever player to captain a side in the Champions League, when, aged 18 years and 221 days, he helped Porto to a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv a couple of months ago.

Christian Tello, on loan at Porto from Barcelona, has likened Neves’ style of play to that of Sergio Busquets, whilst the youngster has also drawn comparisons from some quarters to his compatriot Joao Moutinho. If I’m honest, I haven’t seen him play, aside from a few short YouTube highlights, but judging by his standing in Portugal and the fact he’s reportedly being tracked by most of Europe’s leading clubs, he must be quite a talent.

Having dug around a little online, his standout qualities seem to be his maturity, despite the tender years, as well as his passing, tactical intelligence and aggression. At 18, he’s still got growing to do both in terms of his physique and his overall footballing ability but perhaps he’s the perfect age to share the defensive midfield role with Francis Coquelin.

No matter how good Neves already is, were he to make the switch to north London, he’d learn not only from one of the best managers in the world for young players in Arsene Wenger, but he’d also benefit from working alongside arguably the best out-and-out defensive midfielder on the planet right now in Coquelin. Okay not right now, because he’s done his knee ligaments, but you know what I mean. And yes, that’s how highly I rate Francis.

Neves has a contract with Porto that runs until June 2019, with a release clause of 40 million euros, so if we really, really want him, we can in theory have him, provided we cough up the requisite cash. That’s the good news.

The perhaps not-so-good is that his agent is Jorge Mendes, who Arsene recently revealed he’s never dealt with since narrowly losing out on signing another of his clients, a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, 12 years ago. That said, the boss didn’t rule out future deals with Mendes, suggesting he’s never shown real interest in any other Mendes-managed players since.

The other issue is the likelihood of fierce competition for Neves’s services from other clubs, including Spain’s big two, who you’d imagine would have a far greater pull for a Portuguese player than us. In a way then, this coming January might actually represent our best chance of buying him given how interest will surely only heighten from elsewhere if he continues to progress as a player at his current rate.

There’s also the fact that Porto’s president is on record as saying:

We would like to keep him (Neves) at FC Porto, as a kind of Joao Pinto. That is, he was a symbol and legend of the progress of the club for several generations. I never want him to leave Porto.

With Neves responding:

To hear the president say that he wants to make me a symbol of the club? It’s fantastic. This made me feel very proud. I am under contract until June 2019 and, at the moment, I am only thinking about the club achieving its goals.

‘At the moment’. It’s still all speculation of course, but at the very least, I think we can add Neves’ name to the list of possible defensive midfield purchases alongside the likes of his compatriot William Carvalho, Barcelona’s Sergi Samper, Bayer Leverkusen’s Lars Bender and Sevilla’s Grzegorz Krychowiak, having had to scrub off Geoffrey Kondogbia and Morgan Schneiderlin after they changed clubs last summer.

Elsewhere, the boss ‘updated’ us on team news via the official site, revealing Laurent Koscielny and Theo Walcott “could both make the squad” for Saturday’s game against Sunderland, Kieran Gibbs will be available but how long Alexis Sanchez, Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla are out for is still unknown.

I guess we might get more information at the boss’ pre-game press conference tomorrow, as well as his thoughts on lots of other stuff, maybe even Ruben Neves.

Back on Friday.

2nd November 2015: Arsenal should make a bid for Eden Hazard in January

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. It may technically still be autumn but wintry weather is beginning to take hold, so if you’re feeling a little blue, due to the increasing chill in the air, the shortened days and dark, dreary mornings of this time of year and need cheering up, just take a moment to ponder the predicament of poor old Jose Mourinho. Then laugh out loud.

Because despite lifting the Premier League trophy just a few short months ago, he’s allegedly managed to alienate significant sections of his squad, turn champions into relegation candidates and leave himself perilously close to being sacked according to widespread reports.

Judging by Saturday’s pitiful performance in the loss to Liverpool, some players are purposely doing their utmost to hasten his departure, by flagrantly refusing to play to their potential. The inertia in their defensive line for Liverpool’s third goal for instance, was particularly telling in terms of how little the players cared I thought.

In fact, a well-respected BBC journalist claims he’s been told one Chelsea player ‘would rather lose, than win for Mourinho’. It takes a special kind of manager to be able to achieve such an about-turn in fortunes in such a short period of time. So hats off to Jose.

The hilarious happenings over at Stamford Bridge did make me wonder though. Should Arsenal make a bid for Eden Hazard in January? On the face it, that seems a preposterous suggestion. Why would Chelsea sell? Why would the player want to move and where would Arsenal play him given they have Alexis Sanchez performing so majestically in Hazard’s usual left-sided position?

All very good questions, so let’s take a little look. Well, Chelsea may not want to sell him, particularly to a Premier League rival, but no objective observer could deny relations seem a little strained between Hazard and his manager at present.

So far this season, Mourinho has publicly criticized the reigning player of the year for not contributing enough defensively, just as he did two seasons ago. He’s dropped him to the bench for a couple of games and against Liverpool, substituted Hazard very early in the second period as Chelsea chased a much-needed victory, only to replace him with an inexperienced teenager in the Brazilian Kenedy.

Yet Mourinho continues to hang on in there as Chelsea boss. If they decide to break from tradition by showing faith in the manager and stick with him at least until the end of the season, it raises the possibility that certain players will leave the club instead, whether they’re forced to, or insist upon it.

In such a scenario, Hazard would be high up the list of potential departures given the above, and if he’s the one to instigate a move, he’ll obviously have the ultimate say on where he ends up, as players always do. The prospect of playing alongside the likes of Santi Cazorla, Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, and working under a world-class manager with attacking ideals like Arsene Wenger, would no doubt be extremely appealing.

So that deals with the ‘why would they sell’ and ‘why would he want to move’, so onto the ‘where would we play him?’. My answer would be from the right in a fluid three alongside Ozil and Sanchez. Of course that would have obvious implications on the futures of several of our current players, but nobody could deny Hazard would improve our squad and our first-team. He’s super, super, top, top, quality by anybody’s standards, except evidently, Mourinho’s right now.

We kept our powder dry last summer because no ‘star-quality’ was available in the market, but Arsene is on record as saying he’d sign players for any position providing they improved our line-up. Hazard would certainly do that. His signing would show we’re ruthless and ready to build on what we’ve done in the transfer market in recent summers by snapping up the likes of Ozil, Sanchez and Cech. Hazard would be to us what Luis Figo was to Real Madrid all those years ago in terms of making a statement.

We showed with our pursuit of Luis Suarez in 2013, as well as Cech’s capture a few months ago, that we’re not afraid to approach domestic rivals for their best players when we sense there’s a will to sign on the part of the player. Any move would therefore hinge on the future of Mourinho but if he stays, I’d implore Arsenal to take advantage of the situation and make a concerted effort to lure Hazard from west to north London.

Back tomorrow when I’ll start looking ahead to our game at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.