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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has admitted that he is open to a move away from the Emirates as he looks for more first-team football.

What’s the word?

Having been at the club for nine years, the Argentine stopper has found his opportunities limited.

He has made a total of 17 appearances for the club, with six coming in the Premier League.

And Martinez has now told Clarin that he may leave unless he is not offered more first-team chances, and insists he was told by Arsene Wenger that he would be first-choice, prior to the Frenchman’s departure.

“He [Wenger] always trusted me,” the goalkeeper said.

“Beyond his departure, people stayed in the club that already knew me. When I renewed with Wenger, he told me that I was going to be the number one at Arsenal.

“Unai Emery, the current coach, wanted to see me and was very surprised with me. In fact, I stayed because I knew I had real chances; otherwise, I would have gone to play somewhere else.

“London is very nice, I’m comfortable, but I’m not staying in comfort. And if I had to go somewhere else to play, I would do it.”

End of the road

Martinez has not found himself as Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper at any stage during his time at the club.

Since joining from Club Atlético Independiente in 2010, the 27-year-old has only played Premier League football during two out of the nine seasons he’s spent at the Emirates and has had six respective loan spells in that time with various Championship and European clubs.

The Argentine has never played more than four Premier League games in a season, during the 2014/15 campaign.

Despite a good performance during Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in September, it appears that Martinez has been led down the garden path due to the change of management in 2018.

As a result, it would be best for both parties to part ways.

With the quality at Martinez possesses, he is more than capable of playing in one of the top European leagues.

A number of Liverpool fans seemingly have mixed opinions on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as the midfielder looks to reinvent himself as a player following a serious knee injury which robbed him of a lot of football.

It was always going to be tough for the Englishman – a 2017 arrival from Arsenal – to work his way back to full fitness.

And despite being involved in eight games for the Reds this season, he has failed to contribute a goal or an assist.

The 26-year-old has not completed the full 90 minutes of a game for Jurgen Klopp’s side this term, whilst he has played just one minute of league football for the club since the middle of September.

There are some Liverpool fans who appear to still be behind Oxlade-Chamberlain, although a number of others are a lot less patient as they want much more from the former Southampton youngster.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

Loads of Tottenham Hotspur fans on Twitter have praised Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure following his display against them at the weekend, with some suggesting their club should sign the Frenchman.

Despite his team being bottom of the Premier League table ahead of their short trip to north London to face Spurs, the Hornets were impressive and took the lead early on when the 26-year-old swept home Daryl Janmaat’s cross in the sixth minute.

The midfielder continued to make an impact against the likes of Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko in the middle of the pitch throughout, and his display didn’t go unnoticed by the home faithful.

It was actually his first goal involvement of the season having scored five goals and picked up six assists in the top flight last term, and seven and four respectively in 2017/18, and he will be hoping it will be the first of many to help Quique Sanchez Flores’ strugglers.

Tottenham supporters were certainly quick to hail the powerful player, with one saying “Doucoure needs to be a Spurs player by January”, while another said “an injured Doucoure is still better than Winks and Sissoko”.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Barcelona are travelling away to the Czech Republic on Wednesday to face Slavia Prague in the Champions Leauge.

And even though it’s difficult to see him starting the game, Ernesto Valverde simply has to find some minutes for Ousmane Dembele.

On the chalkboard

The Blaugrana are definitely improving.

After all, they have tallied five successive victories across all competitions and even managed to keep two clean sheets in the process.

Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

As a result, they are now top of the table in La Liga and are level on points with Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. But this clash could be huge for Dembele, in particular.

The 22-year-old Frenchman has been struggling with fitness issues this season and his game time has diminished drastically.

Not to mention that his recent suspension and the postponement of El Clasico won’t really help his cause. For that reason, it’s crucial Valverde gives him a shot tonight.

Aching to play

Dembele is talented and one has to feel that he has what it takes to make it on the biggest stage but he is struggling due to various external reasons.

Injuries, for one, are a big part of that struggle.

The young Frenchman has already missed six games in the ongoing 2019/20 campaign due to various fitness setbacks and has, for that reason, only tallied three games under his name in the Spanish top-flight.

Watch Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale answer the internet’s weirdest questions in the video below…

And then when he finally got the chance to play, he got sent off in the clash against Sevilla with a direct red card from referee Mateu Lahoz, which resulted in a two-game ban for the forward. That suspension, however, is only valid in La Liga which means he can still play in the Champions League.

But it may be his only chance for a long while.

After all, not only did he miss the last game against Eibar in the domestic league but Barcelona will also miss out on playing this weekend with the Clasico being moved to December 18th.

That gives the Catalans a weekend off and when they do return to action next Tuesday, guess who won’t be in the squad due to his suspension? Dembele.

With that being said, if Valverde keeps him sidelined against Slavia, that would mean that he would have been without any football from 19 October until possibly 2 November, missing out on three games in the process.

For a young footballer who is struggling with game time as it is, that is far too much.

Seeing how the clash with Slavia Prague could be his only chance to tally some minutes, Valverde absolutely has to utilise him.

Manchester City fans have taken to Twitter to state that they do not want to see Mikel Oyarzabal join the club after Leroy Sane was linked with a move to Bayern Munich.

According to TEAMtalk, City are prepared to let Sane leave the club to join the German giants, with Pep Guardiola lining up Oyarzabal as his replacement.

The report claims that club scouts see him as the perfect alternative, with his release clause just shy of £70m.

It seems that fans are massively against this move and it’s difficult to blame them given the standard of Sane’s performances since he joined the club from Schalke.

On the other hand, fans have called for the club to targets players such as Jadon Sancho instead, who was at the club’s youth academy before he moved to Borussia Dortmund.

Sane is currently sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury which he sustained in the Community Shield and will miss the majority of the season.

His potential replacement, Oyarzabel, has had a sensational start to this campaign, scoring four times and providing three assists.

However, this does not seem to be enough for the fans…

Looks like things are all smiles at St Andrew’s at last.

For the time being at least, another bad run and the tides might turn back the other way once more.

The Blues are back on a winning streak (if you can call two games a streak), after they defeated Luton Town 2-1 over the weekend.

The victory could have been a little bit more convincing if Lukas Jutkiewicz had buried his chance in the second half, but three points is three points at the end of the day.

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Interim Head Coach Pep Clotet came out with a message on Twitter, praising both the fans and the players for their efforts over the past week.

And Blues fans were more than happy to jump on the bandwagon of good emotions surrounding the Spaniard, with many taking the opportunity to call on the board to give him the head coach’s job on a more secure basis from this point on.

So long as he can keep a number of the fan base onside, then surely he should be in a decent enough position to shed the ‘interim’ part of his job title soon enough.

Charlton fans have taken to Twitter to stress the importance of next week’s south London derby against Millwall to Macauley Bonne and Jason Pearce, following the 1-0 defeat to Preston on Sunday afternoon.

The Addicks suffered their fifth loss of the Championship campaign against Alex Neil’s side, although it seems as if some fans don’t care about that result anymore and have instead set their sights on next weekend’s tasty derby encounter.

The two south London sides haven’t faced each other since they played out a League One clash at The Valley in January 2017, and some Addicks supporters have wasted no time in stressing the importance of it to Bonne and Pearce following the two players’ post-Preston tweets.

One fan ordered Pearce to take the side “into battle”, with another saying that Charlton “can’t lose” the game against the Lions.

Another supporter told Bonne that “all will be forgotten” from the Preston defeat if they beat Millwall.

Let’s take a look at some more tweets…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Arsenal could be set to sell Granit Xhaka during the January transfer window, following the events and aftermath of the Crystal Palace match, as reported by The Mirror.

What’s the word?

It has been a tough time for the Switzerland international, since he used expletives having been booed off during the Crystal Palace match.

He was stripped of the captaincy by Unai Emery, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang taking over the role from him.

The Switzerland international also put out a statement explaining his reaction, which he signed off by saying: “Let’s move forward positively together.”

However, that eventuality now seems unlikely, as he could be sold during the winter window, with Bundesliga clubs said to be admirers of the 27-year-old, while The Times have indicated that Newcastle United could make a move for him.

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A chance to step up

This is an unfortunate series of events for Xhaka, but where there is a loser there is usually also a winner.

In this scenario, Matteo Guendouzi could be the beneficiary.

The 20-year-old has already been an integral part of the team this season, starting all 11 league games, but with Xhaka out of the team it could allow him to become the undisputed leader of the Gunners’ midfield.

He has shown the potential to do that through his performances so far, having an impact both on and off the ball.

The way that he has done this indicates a capability to step up and take over a leadership role in the middle of the park moving forward – Xhaka, who is valued at £40.5m by Transfermarkt, being sold would give him the perfect opportunity to start doing this on a regular basis.

And Arsenal icon Per Mertesacker has already alluded to the youngster’s leadership credentials in an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.

“He’s someone we need to really watch. In terms of can he be a future Arsenal leader and be consistent week in week out? That’s what we expect from him now.

“We’re in a situation where we need players to step up. Everyone is asking: ‘Who is the captain? Who are the leaders?’

“We need players who step up on the field and show what they’ve capable of, and I have a good feeling we have a lot of people who can do that.”

That a player of Mertesacker’s reputability spoke so openly of his leadership credentials speaks volumes about his potential to grow in stature in north London.

On the field of play, the Frenchman has averaged 1.8 tackles, 1.4 interceptions and 1.5 dribbles, while he has also made 1.5 dribbles per game and recorded a pass success rate of 87.9% so far this season.

This is part of his rapid progression since joining Arsenal from Ligue 2 outfit Lorient, a step up in quality that he has dealt with brilliantly, as indicated by the role the midfielder has managed to forge for himself in the team already.

Could he be a future captain in the making?

The departure of Xhaka may well force Guendouzi to take a more senior role within the side and succeed where the Switzerland international so acrimoniously failed.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

Having seen Luke Shaw be a part of the side that trounced Chelsea 4-0 in Manchester United’s opening Premier League game of the season, Brandon Williams may have been forgiven for feeling his time in the first-team squad would have been limited.

But Shaw’s injury – surprise, surprise – has given the Red Devils academy prospect the chance to shine in recent weeks, and boy has he taken it. The 19-year-old played the full 90 minutes against both AZ Alkmaar and Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League, picking up an assist, and completed the full game in the Carabao Cup victory over Chelsea.

And on Sunday afternoon, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave Williams his first start in the Premier League, and in a commanding team performance, the teenager did not disappoint at all.

Lining up at left-back instead of the suspended Ashley Young, the starlet showed United exactly what they stand to benefit from over the coming years. The 19-year-old blended his attacking and defensive duties superbly, and his extra pace and quality on the ball compared to some of the Red Devils’ other options really marks him out.

Coming up against Brighton winger Steven Alzate, Williams didn’t give his opponent anything over the course of the match. He won five duels and made four tackles – with the latter stat putting him only behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka who had six from the opposite flank. But quite crucially for the Red Devils, the youngster showed he can contribute significantly going forward.

His 55 touches of the ball was two more than Marcus Rashford, and seven more than Daniel James, and showed just how confident the side were in getting him involved in the game. Williams provided one key pass and completed one dribble too as he sought to take the game to the Seagulls, and was denied opening his goal-scoring account for the senior side by a stop from Mathew Ryan in the Brighton goal.

It was therefore unsurprising to hear Solskjaer insist the “excellent” teenager is “making it hard to leave him out”. At such a young age, Williams has the chance to become a true Old Trafford stalwart.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Giovani Lo Celso retained his place in the Tottenham Hotspur starting line-up on Saturday but endured a quiet performance as Spurs drew 1-1 with Sheffield United.

On the chalkboard

The Argentine enjoyed an excellent performance as Spurs thumped Red Star Belgrade 4-0 in Serbia on Wednesday.

But, on Saturday, the midfielder was withdrawn in a poor performance from the hosts against Chris Wilder’s well-organised Blades.

Played on the right-hand side of the trio behind Harry Kane, along with Dele Alli and Son Heung-Min, Lo Celso had a total of 84 touches, per WhoScored, the third-highest on the pitch.

He had two shots on goal, though neither were on target and attempted 63 passes, with an accuracy of 83%.

Two of those were key passes, while Lo Celso also completed two dribbles, though he was dispossessed twice too.

Against Red Star, the Argentine won five of his five attempted tackles but against the Blades, he was dribbled past on four occasions and had a tackle success rate of just 33%.

Asked to do too much

One has to wonder if Lo Celso was merely being asked to do too much.

The former Real Betis star is a tricky dribbler, a flair player, but he can also muck in when needed.

The problem, however, comes when the latter is prioritised over the former.

Of course, Mauricio Pochettino wants his players to be multifunctional and to help the team in every phase.

However, Lo Celso’s performance against the Blades could be a worry.

He cannot allow his attacking influence – he scored 16 goals in all competitions last season while registering six assists – to be muzzled by his defensive contributions.

The key, then, is for manager Pochettino to find a way to pair Lo Celso’s brilliant attacking ability with his defensive diligence. Something he failed to do at the weekend.