What a depressing weekend. Spurs beating City capped off a very miserable day that started with a grim draw at Burnley.
This was the first really bad performance under Mikel Arteta. The players didn’t look like they were at the races and our defending, though largely resolute, relied more on luck than good technique.
The main problem for me was our insipid approach in the final third. No one seems to have the guts to play through the lines outside David Luiz. We had a lot of possession, but two shots on target to show for it (13 shots off target). Mesut Ozil just isn’t creating quality chances like he used to and there’s continuation of the balance issue we had under Emery… Lacazette and Auba don’t work well together in a front three.
It is odd that Lacazette keeps landing minutes. His confidence sinks a little more with each passing game. Against Burnley, someone with no physical prowess is always going to be eaten alive. His hold up play was subpar and his offerings to the attacking gods were limited. It was also a rare quiet day for Gabriel.
The real problem for us came when Saka picked up an injury and we had to drop Granit Xhaka into defence again. There was no outlet on the left and we had no one with the confidence to whip dangerous balls into the box.
LT came on at halftime to give us a little more bit, but he’s not really an attacking threat. Matteo had a bit of a stinker if we’re honest, he played a very meek game. Sometimes I think he’d prefer to be fouled because it means he doesn’t have to risk doing something that’ll progress the attack. His default was to pass sideways or behind him. He’s Denilson with better hair. That midfield needs someone that wants to move forward, or someone that can burst through the lines with sheer force of will. When the midfield lacks power and ambition, you get stuck in a rut of purposeless possession.
Mikel’s subs weren’t up to much either. The game was crying out for a Dani Ceballos or a Nicolas Pepe, but neither were called upon. That’s 3 managers in a row that have had misgivings about those two. Makes you wonder.
We did have our chances, Auba pushed a header wide and he fluffed his lines when he was played through by a beautiful Luiz ball. Another day, he’s taking those and we’re having an ugly win conversation.
Defensively, it has to be noted that Mustafi was a beast today. He won 6/8 of his aerial duels and he made 7 clearances and 2 interceptions. Not bad for a player that had to admit he was shite on the .com a month ago.
The usual suspects are jumping to call the Arteta hire a mistake. Again, I repeat, this mess was never going to be solved quickly. No manager had a magic solve for a club with so many problems. The manager will make mistakes while he works out what the right path is, today he made a few, and he’ll continue to do so. What we should look for are the positives. We kept a clean sheet, the team worked hard, and our defensive structure has taken grip far quicker than we’d hoped it would.
Chance creation wasn’t really an area I thought we’d struggle with. You’d think a Pep disciple would have us purring going forward, but it’s yet to happen. The plan seems to be: create a stable base, then move onto balancing solidity with some flair. That’ll need time. Hopefully a trip to Dubai will help the manager work on the next set of objectives… then we can destroy Newcastle 9-0 when we return.
We need some wins, 6 for the season is truly embarrassing, I have faith though… we have good players, their quality will shine when the ideas start to click.
Right, see you in the comments. x
Versus
So you could be talking utter bollocks?
A draw is worse than a loss.
Man City and Leicester have lost the same number of games but are double digits in points in front of us.
Watching the build up to the Superbowl you can see shy the Yanks have never won a war that the English weren’t involved in other than kicking the shit out of the Mexican’s.
3rd Tito’s and soda down the hatch
Pedro has gone from,
Emery not getting top4 last season was failure.
Emery has a squad that should 100% be nailing top 4, and anything else is abject failure.
Onto 8/21 points is progress.
And today was our only poor performance in the Arteta reign….
This blogger is the equivalent of the flat earthers.
Rich
Pedro’s 2 matches from being an “inverted earther”
This is the kind of gap you usually get at the top of the table up in Scottish league……embarrassing
Red
I assume you’re talking about the gap between 1st and 2nd / 3rd.
Where we are is not open to discussion.
“First poor performance under Mikel”
And first really heartbreaking post under Mikel for Pedro.
Can’t accept Arteta, whilst he continues with our worst ever signing. Lacazette. It took Freddie one game to work out Lacazette is toilet, it’s taken Arteta 6 #artetaout
Go on Kansas
Play ball
Can’t accept Arteta, whilst he continues with our worst ever signing. Lacazette. It took Freddie one game to work out Lacazette is toilet, it’s taken Arteta 6 games. Sack him now
Graham
Martinez comes and catches.
Maybe time for him to have a go.
Never seen this KC’s trick play. All five back players made a 180 degree turn at the same time. Then moved up and run the game. The SF defenders were still surprised by that dance move when those KC players hit them.
I see all the limp sock flags are out, waiting to see which way the wind blows. Alex rolls out of bed to stroke his chin and pontificate. It’s as if Jimmy Hill was here with us, spouting nonsense. Then old Red barking and howling at the moon ever more desperate to be heard. Then there are the Siamese twins of doom- Versus and Rich. The football equivalent of Jimmy Krankie. All we need is pre-op/ post-op Bamford / JM Bapple / Susan to join the chinless club. Let me spell it out for you all: Arteta has come in… Read more »
Samir
If he keeps progressing at the rate he is… it’s a reality he could be.
In a few years.
Would be good to seethe kc and the sunshine band playing at half time.
I like this “versus” character.
He’s sticking Pedro’s feet to the fire and keeping it there.
At least Pedro did a mea culpa and admitted that Arteta shit the bed today.
It’s not the first time he’s made mistakes in team selection and his game management isn’t top class.
It is to be expected that a novice manager will make mistakes, hopefully he’s going to learn from them.
He needs to stop the stupid excuses, like blaming the length of grass. Emery’s Arsenal had a 100% win record against Burnley.
Marc
“Watching the build up to the Superbowl you can see shy the Yanks have never won a war that the English weren’t involved in other than kicking the shit out of the Mexican’s.”
What are you on about
The build-up was excellent to the last second. It may not make sense to you if you don’t understands the football parlance and the people that were cheering the kid on to “carry it home”.
The more you look at it , the more you realise how difficult it is to remain at the top and winning trophies for so long . To qualify for the champions league 18 years on the bounce is looking more and more a remarkably achievement by Wenger . He was continually slated for failing to win the league but I think people are beginning to realise what a fantastic job he was doing under trying circumstances when you take into consideration the atmosphere that the Wenger out brigade created within the club . The football we played all looked… Read more »
Pierre
You want a hanky for those tears?
The 49ers just ran through the chiefs like hot knife to butter.
Jeez Pierre but you really are a colossal melt. You have to be the President of the Arsene Wenger Fan Club. Wenger is gone and for all the right reasons, the game passed him by. Move on already, your soapbox speeches are ridiculously embarrassing.
Play balll.
This one is going to the wire…
Holy cow.
You can clearly see arteta has pushed the players for more gamesmanship
Literally overnight since he came through the doors, every time our players get a knock of any kind they’re rolling around in agony for 30 seconds.
It didn’t happen this time but a few times near the end of games we’ve been chasing the players in question have been doing it very late on in the game and wasting their own chances to win
To a clever bunch are they
Now Saka has been injured. Why?We have too many lightweight player.
in the past we had Viraa and company and were not easily brushed of f the
ball in a 50/50 run in. That’s not the case now.
Our little SA terrier maybe full of fight but against a bigger guy he will be 2nd best.
Hopefully Arteta will get some giants for the md and cd.
China
“You can clearly see arteta has pushed the players for more gamesmanshipLiterally overnight since he came through the doors, every time our players get a knock of any kind they’re rolling around in agony for 30 seconds.”
This is something that never happened under Wenger but this is also something that started under Emery and I have commented on it many times.
To suggest that it started when Arteta took over is not true in the slightest.
Marc
“Watching the build up to the Superbowl you can see shy the Yanks have never won a war that the English weren’t involved in other than kicking the shit out of the Mexica”
Can’t shade the SB bro. It’s not for you. The halftime show will certainly be of more interest to you, enjoy! 🤦🏽♂️
Just watched the replay. Saka was injured at around the fifth minutes when he ran past a defender who then kicked his knee. After that, Saka didn’t carry the ball upfield anymore and only played the ball back to Luiz.
Arteta’s biggest mistake today is breaking up the Saka/Martinelli combination. Saka has zero chemistry with Auba. They were standing side by side when Saka tried to run past two defenders. In the meantime, Auba just stood on the sideline and watched.
”Arteta said: “The conditions were difficult – the grass was this long and they didn’t put any water on it, and that’s not a very helpful thing to play football.
I didn’t water the pitch yesterday at the training ground because I expected it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to play.“
Would have sounded brilliant had it been a 1 nil win but….
Absolute shocker of a game. Auba listless and disinterested. Laca a complete fucking disaster. As bad as the worst under Emery (except for modest defensive improvements). I really like Arteta…but can’t make head or tail of his starting 11 and subs today…fucking terrible. A listless and indulged team. No pride, no fight, no grit, no fucking commitment to the badge and pride of this club.
Mahomes wins it. Great game.
Auba
Martinelli. Ozil/Willock. Pepe
Should be the attack for the rest of the season. Laca can play fa cup and home Europa games.
Jonathan Rosin “fucking terrible. A listless and indulged team. No pride, no fight, no grit, no fucking commitment to the badge and pride of this club.” Mate, although we wasn’t at our best, that’s two Premiership games in a row where for a change, the players actually showed pride, fight, grit and commitment. Just like Chelsea, I actually thought our defenders stood up to the test of the long balls in the box. We rode our luck at times, but on another day Aubameyang puts away them two 1 on 1s he had in the first half and we win… Read more »
Truth be told, the pitch looked slippery in some areas. Maybe Burney did that on purpose so as to stop our speedy wingers, but then again they may be doing this to every other side coming to turf morr. I did see a few players slipping just outside the D box but surely it’s not excuse enough for the lack of leadership and quality shown. I’m all for giving the manager time but if he learned nothing from last night, he really shouldn’t be given a lot of time to rectify his mistakes. Arteta has done wonders for the defense… Read more »
That’s 3 managers in a row that have had misgivings about those two. Makes you wonder
Not really.
Freddie was a shite caretaker who preferred drawing a game then really going for the juggernaut.
Emery as has been pointed out, lacked communication and that was the reason he lost the dressing room. He also had his favourites, but he gave plenty of game time to pepe and dani before the sack.
This squad is good enough to get top 4 if we stick with auba in the middle, pepe on the right and martinelli on the left.
Get players playing in their positions. Isn’t that what Sunday league coaches do??
Football 101
We can qualify for top4 with the midfield we have? I cant agree with that. Maybe when the new Viera comes in and gets played in his proper position I’ll be eating my words lol! I didnt see fight yesterday. I saw what we’ve been seeing most of the season. A bunch of flat track bullies who buckle as soon as the opposition lifts their game. Our clean sheet yesterday was down to luck, nothing else! That performance yesterday was more like a team who’s won 4 on the bounce and thought they just had to pitch up to beat… Read more »
Interesting comments about the grass and the watering, plus the wind. I noticed in the first 10 minutes already that our medium and long range passing was going all over the place.
I can’t actually see what Lacazette is giving us right now. For someone who’s job is to be a physical presence, he gives away fouls most of the time. It’s a reminder of what a terrific target man Giroud was.
The biggest problem with the team is lack of ze mental strength/arsenalization its highly contagious like corona thats why characters like Ozil should be out the door even if it means loosing money. When Dozi came to arsenal he played with confidence, now he has been arsenalized. Players like mustafinovs, xhakalson are limited but their biggest problem is lack of ze mental strength. There are similar players in burnely, southampton who give 100% thats the difference. If we are going to keep average players atleast lets have the ones with the longstuff and a pair of coconuts/pineapples. Im telling you… Read more »
Giroud had more balls than a bowling club though limited.
Im telling you this for free!
The root of the problem is when we became a selling club, there are no veterans who would bleed for the team,
Im telling you this for free!
Is anyone still of the opinion that we ‘absolutely have a squad capable of top 4’?Because if they are I would like them to explain why a squad capbale of top 4 can only conjure up one win in 8 league games
Atleast Freddie had the longstuff to not play the sissies, the coaching part would have come or got assistance.
The saucy one seems to have signs of indecision which is worrying.
Im telling you for free!
Altos
Injuries? Suspensions? Recovery from worst run in 50 years under emery? Bad luck? BREXIT????
Morning Grovers, good post Pedro. Great post actually Pedro, a very honest appraisal. Fair play. I’m not worried, I’ve got every confidence in Arteta. What’s more pertinent to me is the realisation and slow turnaround in admitting that a lot of our players are indeed a bit shit. Huge clearout and reset in the summer based on the future under Arteta. Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi, Aubameyang and Lacazette need to be gone. Kolasinac too and don’t bother signing Ceballos or Soares permanently. Jury out on Mari. Ozil is past it and a huge drain financially. Xhaka, Kolasinac not good enough, likewise… Read more »
Willock literally offers nothing when he’s not afforded space to run into like at Bournemouth, no point bringing him on to create when you have Ceballos and Pepe in the bench, sane with the Nketiah, absolute pointless and late sub too… I get he’s a novice manager and will make mistakes but those are things he should be seeing really…Ozil doesn’t work away from home or even home matches for that matter… Playing your best striker on the wings and having him track back all game to accommodate a striker that hasn’t scored away from home since February 2019 is… Read more »
I wonder if at one point this season, Arteta will make the decision that the axis Lacazette, Aubameyang, Pepe does not work and bench all three of them. None of them remotely look like players who could fit into his preferred one touch type of football. The best we played unde Arteta was against Bournemouth where none of them played. I don’t think that it is a coincidence. Özil is trying, working hard for the team, but does not drive forward anymore. He recycles the ball that’s why his completion rates are so high, but it does not go anywhere.… Read more »
Daniel autos “Is anyone still of the opinion that we ‘absolutely have a squad capable of top 4’?Because if they are I would like them to explain why a squad capbale of top 4 can only conjure up one win in 8 league games” One defeat in 9 , 3 victories, undefeated in 7 games , undefeated away from home in 7 games. The time to question the squads capabilities will be by the end of March after the next run of games. The players have had 3 different managers in a space of 4 weeks who all have different… Read more »
One for Pierre..
Ozil Created most chances, made most ball recoveries, 2nd most final 3rd passes and was only on for 62 minutes. The issue is not Ozil.
First poor performance? First?
Deny. Deny till you die.
Daniel
Would you say we have a squad better than last season’s? Take form out of the equation and I think the squad this year is at least on par if not better than last season’s.
Why then is it so difficult not to think we are capable of top 4 when we finished just outside of it last season??
“The root of the problem is when we became a selling club, there are no veterans who would bleed for the team”
@Sid: Is Dortmund a selling club?
Off topic Amber Heard really destroyed Jonny depp’s career and all along she was the one abusing him lol. I knew that bitch was crazy but shitting on his bed,slicing his finger,burning him with cigarettes etc?I think that’s really bad and she should be hailed asap for taking jack sparrow away from me
Batistuta “Willock literally offers nothing when he’s not afforded space to run into like at Bournemouth, no point bringing him on to create when you have Ceballos and Pepe in the bench, sane with the Nketiah, absolute pointless and late sub too…” Our failure to create or score in the last third of games is not a recent phenomenon. This has happened for the last 12 months and apart from the 3 goals away to west ham recently , our goalscoring record in the last 3rd of games is abysmal for the last 12 months. This is more a physcological… Read more »
Daniel autos “Is anyone still of the opinion that we ‘absolutely have a squad capable of top 4’?Because if they are I would like them to explain why a squad capbale of top 4 can only conjure up one win in 8 league games”One defeat in 9 , 3 victories, undefeated in 7 games , undefeated away from home in 7 games.The time to question the squads capabilities will be by the end of March after the next run of games.The players have had 3 different managers in a space of 4 weeks who all have different ways of how… Read more »
“One for Pierre..Ozil Created most chances, made most ball recoveries, 2nd most final 3rd passes and was only on for 62 minutes. The issue is not Ozil.”
Cheers overmars , you obviously have been educated well in your knowledge of the game..
” “It almost feels too easy and too much of a cliche to point to Mesut Ozil in games like this, the German’s languid style making him a prime target for people that think he’s not really doing much. But when he plays like this, it’s easy to see where those easy and cliched conclusions have come from. Ozil slowed the ball down far too much, stopping Arsenal from doing what Arteta wants them to, and stymied or wasted the attacking runs of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette ahead of him. Of the varied attacking talents available to Arsenal, Ozil… Read more »
Let us look at it this way. Burnley just defeated Leichester and Manure and we managed to tie them at their place, it wasn’t a bad result.
The reason why there are so many criticisms is because the performance has declined. Here are the main reasons:
– Our two strikers were terrible yesterday.
– We broke up the Saka/Martinelli connection and played Martinelli on the right.
– Saka was hurt at around the fifth minutes.
– Guen at midfield was worse than Torr.
Finally, let me explain why Pepe was not selected. He doesn’t track back and defend consistently.
“Finally, let me explain why Pepe was not selected. He doesn’t track back and defend consistently.”
Track back?
Attacking players being asked to track back and defend for the team was one of the things the disciples of great football kicked against over the past few months.
What changed?
. GonsterousFebruary 3, 2020 08:17:19 DanielWould you say we have a squad better than last season’s? Take form out of the equation and I think the squad this year is at least on par if not better than last season’s. Why then is it so difficult not to think we are capable of top 4 when we finished just outside of it last season?? Gonstrous players may be the same but a season in football can change a lot of things…Take the Conte squad that won the PL.for example,next season and they were shit.Or the Mourinho squad that won the… Read more »
Daniel
Both teams downtooled and got the manager the sack, and played well for the new manager, which proves the team wasn’t bad at all.
Similarly, the players here down tooled and got emery the sack, which means they are still good enough to fight for top 4 like last season under a new manager, so why can’t we expect them to fight and get points against teams like Burnley and try to over take teams like wolves.
Gonstrous I think we are arguing same point just from different angles.Its not that I don’t expect these lot to get points from the teams we are facing…it’s just that we are the only team who appointed a new manager and still can’t get wins on the board and that brings serious questions about the credibility of our squad especially considering the common theme here that we have a top 4 squad.Hence me asking why a suppossed top 4 squad cant get more than 1 win out of 8 league games.
I give Arteta a pass for not doing the obvious and replacing Laca for Pepe around the hour mark. The problem is Mesut fucking Ozil. He knew he would have to sub him, he cannot be trusted, especially in 2nd half away at a physical side like Burnley. He wont put the shift in that is required. So once he had to replace Saka, he had a problem. Replacing Laca and Ozil would have meant using all 3 subs too early. Disappointed he didnt take a risk and give Pepe the last 10mins or so…….putting on Nketiah was almost a… Read more »
Receding
Obviously this Nicky Millar person is biased otherwise he would have mentioned that Ozil Created most chances, made most ball recoveries, 2nd most final 3rd passes despite missing the final 3rd of the game.
Ozil rarely takes more than one or 2 touches so I’m not sure how he slows the game down, though I’m not suggesting he did anything special .
His performance yesterday was on par with his performance v United that he received so much praise for.
End of march is the time to judge…we are still not rid of the Emery influence.
Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to respond to your “Wenger obsessive” comments. Qualifying for the CL 18 years on the spin should not to be scoffed at. The thing is, the depth and quality of the EPL has changed dramatically over the last few years. Whereas it was basically 6 teams vying for top 4 for the majority of Wenger’s reign, less than that between 1996-2006, we now have a scenario where ten teams are fighting it out and more teams from the lower reaches are better prepared to combat the so called top teams. With the infrastructure and… Read more »
I’m all for giving someone else a go other than Ozil if it works.
Though I do find it particularly strange that Ozil is getting the majority of the flak when it was obvious to any honest observer that Martinelli lost possession of the ball nearly every time he received the ball and Lacazette wasnt much better , whereas Ozil did his usual and kept possession of the ball , possibly not quite up to his 100% pass completion for Chelsea away but pretty close.
It reeks of agenda if you ask me.
Guardiola has identified perhaps the agenda which Arsenal are focussing on for the rest of this season. He suggests that Arsenal will not finish in top 4, but unlikely also to be in danger of relegation. On the other hand he sees them as competitive in both remaining Cup Competitions and focussing also on Champions League via Europa Cup. I agree with Pedro that our performance yesterday was probably the first under Arteta which was poor. Arsenal played with a team which is not well suited to play against teams like Burnley and Sheffield United. We need to build into… Read more »
It is clear to everyone(yeh right!) who knows anything about Football, that Ozil is not fit for purpose.
He never looks for the ball or goes searching for it. He never has and never will. Basically, you’re playing with nine outfield players with him on the pitch. Excusing him for other players failings is a cop out.
He is an embarrassment.
Simple.
Graham
“t. The thing is, the depth and quality of the EPL has changed dramatically over the last few years”
Has it?
Then how do you explain liverpool being 22 points ahead of the field with the title already over at the beginning of February.
Plus city won the league with the record number of points last season .
The passage of Play for that Lacazette header in the first half was very neat. Positive!
I didn’t think Ozil did much wrong yesterday. He played a few beautiful cross field passes to saka between the lines.
opened up the defence for the Laca chance in the second half.
Laca with nearly every attack gave the ball away.
Pierre We’re not paying Ozil 350k a week to recycle the ball. We could have kept Elneny for that. He’s supposed to score and assist and he’s failing spectacularly at that. 0 goals and 1 assist all season is terrible any way you look at it. If he was a youth player playing his first season of senior football he would be sent out on loan to the championship or league one with those numbers. Martinelli is 18 and have been fantastic so far, he’s allowed a dip, he still works his ass off too. Laca has got plenty of… Read more »
I don’t understand why Pepe isn’t getting more playing time, who cares if he’s not great in training, it’s the matches that count and there he’s our most dangerous player and the only one who can do the unexpected.
Call him a flop all you want but he still has 10+ goal contributions thus far while adapting and being benched for no reason. It’s foolish to not play him.
“First poor performance under Mikel”
Just can’t imagine how painful it was for Pedro to write this.
Freddie – I agree. At times he has looked inconsistent but he’s still contributed a lot more than Mesut this season so should be in the starting 11 or at the very least get 20 mins off the bench in the 2nd half of games.
Just did some numbers for the sake of it. Emery: 18 points from 39 (0.46 per game (0.61 per game last season)) Ljunberg: 5 points from 15 (0.33 per game) Arteta: 8 from 21 (0.38 per game) #ArtetaOut Joking… for now. We do need to see some serious signs of progress by the end of the season though. I do think Arteta has a plan for a more defined system than Emery did. I do think that he’ll be able to get a few players playing at a higher level than they were. But we really need to start winning… Read more »
It is blindingly clear to me that the Arsenal Squad is not and has been for a very long time “fit for purpose”. GOALKEEPER Leno is a decent “stopper” but his distribution and kicking is dreadful. If he is to remain at Arsenal this needs to improve. We are being put under constant pressure. FULL BACKS We have played most games this season without recognised full-backs and most opposition teams have focussed on our defensive frailties in this department. I think that Arteta has recognised the problem. CENTRE BACKS Arsenal have improved lately in this department, but we still lack… Read more »
Arteta’s treatment of Ceballos is very harsh considering Ozil has been as effective as a worn down and frayed toothbrush
It’s like Arteta has decided to prove he can raise OIl from the dead.
Wenger famously said Ozil will lose his motivation once he pulled out of the Bermna national team setup. I don’t think we would have extended his deal on such crazy terms had we known he would pull out of the German team selection.
*German National team, not “ Bermna”
“#ArtetaOut
Joking… for now. ”
@Biggles : you don’t fear of being binned. I respect that.
(but be careful, Pedro might be around…)
I don’t understand what’s happening with Ceballo’s. He offers a different midfield option, a bit more guile and creativity in the middle but can’t get as much as 5 minutes on the pitch at the moment.
Could it be Arteta has been told Madrid’s asking price and knows we wont or can’t pay it so no point giving minutes to a player that’s long term future is at another club?
… and what was the point of bringing on Nketiah in the 88th minute?
Did anyone see Mbappe and Tuchel fall out after he was subbed off?
Charlie “To further add to what I’ve said above, speaks volumes there’s a collective on here positively giddy at the prospect of unearthing errors and misgivings from Arteta. Really underlined where the priorities lie for some posters in their quest to be vindicated in their views.” It’s a little ironic coming from you, considering you were among a host of people not willing to give Emery a proper chance. I’ve enjoyed your posts the last few weeks, and apart from this Emery this Arteta that bs we still have going on, I think most; except the overly unreasonable, are prepared… Read more »
*are prepared for the task at hand*
“Did anyone see Mbappe and Tuchel fall out after he was subbed off?”
Kylian has never hide his love for Arsenal, so it might be good for us.
(lol)
I think Dissenter hits the nail on the head regarding Ozil with the term effective.
People can scurry away and give out stats to supposedly support Ozil as a player but can anyone seriously say that Mesut Ozil is an effective player in this side anywhere like enough?
If anyone answers in the affirmative then they are lying through their back teeth.
So keep giving us the Mesut Ozil stats. They mean absolutely nothing when he continues to be an ineffective player for Arsenal FC far too much.
@TheMightyGambon
See a lot of talk about how Arteta is fixing the defence as a main priority. Dont buy that at all. In his 7 games our average xGA is 1.5, for Emerys last 7 games its 1.42
Gambon
@TheMightyGambon
Early days, but i’ve yet to see anything that suggests Arteta is improving the team. Different style of play, same results. Drawing against Bournemouth, Palace, Sheff Utd and Burnley is not acceptable for a big team.
Pedro
I’m sure you’ve seen that tweet from your pal Gambon.
Care to address the issue he raised?
Liverpool are fortunate to have Alisson, VVD, Firminho, Salah and Mane( all world class), along with a core of excellent/physically combative players and, of course, a top top coach. Irrespective of Liverpool’s massive advantage, the EPL standards have improved, whatever you may think. Coaches are more adept tactically, with far more emphasis at playing football rather than sitting back and letting the top teams wear you down. Leicester/Wolves/ Sheffield United/ Burnley/ CP/Southampton/Everton and even teams like Brighton play a different game now. Rather than look at Liverpool, look at the table from 4th to 20th. Whereas, before, teams were dead… Read more »
“It’s a little ironic coming from you, considering you were among a host of people not willing to give Emery a proper chance.“ Define proper chance? I backed his appointment even though I would’ve preferred others, then I backed him in our opening period as a side because we were better, but it didn’t let and the issues I had with the side from the previous few years (shit defence, lack of organisation, wide open) remained there. Also, he was a terrible communicator and nobody had a clue what we were supposed to be about with the only suggestion being… Read more »
Azed posted my commentary from when Emery was announced and took charge, it was both positive and hopeful.
This is true.
Thhink ribbing Pepe is to get him to ask for a transfer ?
Considering our destitute state since we are owned by Kronkledoodledoo they might be expecting a bigger sum from Pepe sale. Plus Pepe was an unnecessary purchase anyway. Saka is better
CC
What if the club doesn’t do the massive clear out everyone here keeps writing about?
What’s does that do for Arteta’s prognosis at Arsenal.
Ozil is still going to be here….and possibly Xhaka plus Mustafi too.
The 3 Stooges.
Only at Arsenal.
“@TheMightyGambon See a lot of talk about how Arteta is fixing the defence as a main priority. Dont buy that at all. In his 7 games our average xGA is 1.5, for Emerys last 7 games its 1.42 Gambon @TheMightyGambon Early days, but i’ve yet to see anything that suggests Arteta is improving the team. Different style of play, same results. Drawing against Bournemouth, Palace, Sheff Utd and Burnley is not acceptable for a big team.” Gambon can be a lot of things but one thing he isn’t is a hypocrite xG and xGA died a painful death on here… Read more »
Dissenter
If we go into next season with Ozil, Xhaka and Mustafi not only still in the squad (we might not manage to shift all of them) but as first choice players Arteta’s goodwill will go down the toilet very quickly.
Did not see the comment on grass,but Stoke used to do it ,to slow the Game down.
How comes Gambon stopped coming here, anyway?
Lots of knee jerk reactions on here without proper analysis or consideration Firstly like it or not Burnley away in windy conditions will always be a difficult game for any passing/counter attacking side, talk less of a struggling Arsenal. Therefore a point is not to be sniffed at – the only drawback being in the context of us needing the three points at this stage of the season in order to make the progress made under Arteta seem more tangible and realistic. The attacking dynamic of our team changed considerably with Saka’s injury, coupled with a match rusty Aubameyang and… Read more »
Since Arteta took over there seems to be a pattern where we start off each game with quick passing and sharp play. Then after about 20 mins it stops and the players revert to tepid panic passing and dropping back .
They do not have the ability to stick to the plan and just make it up as they go along.
Arteta words are not backed up by his actions so far