via @Arsenal Instagram
Well, there we are. Liverpool look quite good and Arsenal have some work to do. Who knew?
We were downed 3-1 away from home to the best team in Europe. It was a less than cohesive performance from Arteta, but certainly more worthy than some of the embarrassing post-game shite-takes going around.
I thought the tactical setup for the game was pretty much spot on. It’s easy to have the exact solution after the game, but I think most of the selections could be justified. Ceballos, fancy haircut and all, couldn’t control the midfield against West Ham. If he was in ‘hold-on-to-the-ball’ mood last night, it might have been worse. Auba through the middle is a tired debate, we’ve seen why he’s on the left and we don’t complain when it works. Saka? Not sure he’s making the world of difference. Gabriel? I think experience wins out and Luiz was pretty decent. Plenty more trips to Anfield for our younger Brazilian.
We went there to win the game with limited possession, good defensive structure, and experience in our front 3 to take advantage of the counter-attack. Call that negative all you like, but please, tell me the starting 11 we have that could have gone to Anfield and bossed a game of expansive football, clue: it doesn’t exist.
Liverpool were utterly sublime at times. Their pressing was debilitating and their movement on and off the ball was masterful. We couldn’t match them, though we tried our best. The fact that we went 1-0 ahead said a lot about our doggedness. Lacazette working wonders to turn in a miscued Robertson clearance after we dropped a familiar ‘play out of the back moment’ again.
We couldn’t hold on, Liverpool retaliated with absolute brutality twice within 9 minutes. First, Mane tapped home a spilt Salah shot. Tierney will be having nightmares about the absolute roasting he took in the build-up. The second, Robertson was found totally open at the back post, and he duly obliged. Willian really has too much experience to be letting great players ghost in without a challenge.
The second half we were all expecting the worst, but Arsenal came out swinging as hard as they could.
The two big turning points were Lacazette misses. The first on 59, he beat the offside trap to latch onto a Willian pass, he opted for an optimistic chip, which was thwarted because the chip didn’t go higher than Alisson’s waste. The second, he was slipped in by Ceballos, he tried to cut some space outside Alisson, which he did, but he snatched at his shot, hitting the keeper. Really poor. You felt for him hiding under his shirt when he was subbed off, but a £180k a week 29 year old international should be doing better than that. Pretty sure Eddie would have converted at least one of those chances.
We didn’t have much else on after that. When you play Liverpool, they don’t gift you much. We didn’t make the most of our important spells in the game, then we were punished late on when a Luiz clearance found the Jota on the edge of the box, the exWolves star buried his shot.
So what did we learn?
Well, beating Liverpool 3 times in a row was always going to be tough.
What is clear from all of our performances so far against them is we need better players if we want to play at their level. We simply didn’t have the talent to beat them in that form without a huge dollop of luck. Over those three games we’ve averaged 20 shots a game against us and we’ve only averaged 6.3 shots per game and somehow managed 4 goals.
The criticism of the tactics still feels rich to me considering we’ve not moved the squad forward. I appreciate there’s an inquisition every time we lose a game, but going to the Champions to play the Arsenal Way™ hasn’t exactly been kind to us over the last 10 years. We set up correctly. We played to our strengths. We were always going to have to defend well and deal with the fact there would be an element of us getting battered. My ask in games like these since Arteta took over is that we’re competitive… and we were. We stayed in the game for a long time but we fluffed our lines this time.
Individual errors cost us and hopefully, that won’t always happen.
Tierney isn’t going to get rolled like an u18 every game this season. I also suspect on another day, Mane is red-carded after a rough challenge on Hector followed by a clear forceful elbow to the face of Tierney minutes later. Those are the margins that change big games. If he’s off, we have an advantage, unfortunately, he stays, and maybe Tierney was rattled in the process causing the lack of focus for his mistake.
Bernd Leno might rekindle that form that had us calling him world-class under Bu-mery. I thought he looked fragile again today. He’s not a catcher, which makes him a weak point in our defence. He looked panicked on the ball, it seemed like Liverpool players were roughing him up from corners. His step back from the cross that led to their 3rd goal wasn’t something that would have happened under Emi Martinez. We have to have a solid keeper if we’re going to play the way we play. Bernd has not looked close to the level of Emi this season.
Liverpool away was always a write-off game. If you genuinely feel aggrieved that we didn’t win, you have expectations that far outweigh reality. They, along with Bayern, are the best team in the world. We’re nowhere near that level. The best we can do is hope to compete and catch teams like that on an off day (which we have shown we are capable of doing).
The good news for our season is there aren’t many teams like that in the league. I’d argue that there’s only one team like that: Liverpool.
What is apparent is that our midfield needs both Partey and Aouar. We lack creative guile and mobility. It’s been clear for a very long time, this isn’t new, but Xhaka and Elneny (4 forward passes all game) against quality sides is only going to take you so far. We need to do better. Our desired targets at least move us into a new realm of possibility. The starting 11 yesterday was basically the same squad Emery crashed to 8th with last year bar Willian.
Regardless of my upset at the result, I was still impressed with the way we came out for the second half. We showed fight and bravery at times. There’s a resilience Arteta has instilled that wasn’t there before. I was also pleased with how energised Klopp was with his team in his post-match interview when he threw serious shade at Roy Keane for calling his side ‘sloppy.’ We asked a lot of questions of Liverpool. He called their performance ‘perfection.’ They were made to think. You haven’t always had to reach perfection beat Arsenal away from home, you’ve mostly just needed to turn up. We might not be at the level of personnel we need to be at, but I think the coaching and attitude is there. Klopp has had 5 years to develop that sort of devastation, Arteta hasn’t clocked a year yet. Trust in the process seems a tired line, but let’s be honest, we have seen more than enough to justify it.
Plenty will disagree with me and I’m here for it… buuuuuut you need to be aware that the new ‘perfection’ merchants are generally the folk that had no standards over the last ten years. I suspect they have a work TikTok dance video they did for a ‘laugh’, think their best life stage was ‘the carefree years at school’, and they’ll have a ‘can’t miss’ opinion on home brewing.
Let’s see what Edu can do to move the midfield forward, then see how we play against the rest of the top 8. Nothing will be harder than that, until we play Liverpool again on Thursday. Then it’s a kind of clear run. Plenty of opportunities to pick up more points, regain confidence, and bed in two world-class midfielders (PLEASE GOD).
Yesterday was a slap back to reality. There’s still plenty of work to do to return Arsenal to the top. Some good recruitment in the next week will give Arteta tools to show he’s the man capable of doing that. We move from there.
Over to you, Edu.
P.S. If you are still enraged, this Phillipe Auclair tweet thread was good.
La sévérité de certains commentaires aperçus ici sur la performance d’Arsenal à Anfield ne devrait pas me surprendre: l’art de regarder un match (celui que possèdent ceux et celles qui vont au stade) se perd. Mais lire de telles âneries…d’où ce bref fil.
— Philippe Auclair (@PhilippeAuclair) September 28, 2020
*PREZZER*
Morning
2
OK cba, here’s your chance..
Tr4phy
Europa league place
Guff.1/10.
If The Hoffenheim players had Artetas and this authors lamemtable attitude,
they wouldnt have won 4 – 1 Saturday.
likewise Leicester City 2- 5 win at Manchester City
Anything is possible in soccer.
Lincoln City have Liverpool a tougher game.
Arteta Out!
The tactical set up of a Swindon Town.
The main thing for me from last night was that we have sold the wrong goalkeeper! Leno cannot play out from the back and the defenders in front of him know that and are all on a knife edge every time he has the ball at his feet! Couple this with his slender frame and his insistence to parry crosses and you realise he just isnt a top goalkeeper and we may well have virtually given one away to Aston Villa for a very small transfer fee! A friend messaged me this last night…”Emi Martinez is the keeper in the… Read more »
We need to build stability, cohesion and understanding more than anything else. The answer can’t always be, spend spend spend, a fool and his money are easily parted, clubs have thrown much more money around than us, and not shown any return on investment. I was disappointed we gave Willian a 3 year deal, blocking Nelson’s path. We’ve got a good core of young players, not all improvement has to be external improvement, we’ve got to see some internal improvements, that will take time. Liverpool didn’t t spend a penny last summer, they signed Minnamino in Jan, and neither of… Read more »
This’ Arteta’s first job at the highest level. Maybe, just maybe, he isn’t that good. I look at Potter at Brighton and wonder…
Top 10
I suggest to Arteta- stop this non negotiables nonsense- and get your Gabriels,Salibas, Sakas Pepes and Ozils ( ie your most athletic and most maverick) players on the pitch and believe in them
Because you are stinking the place out with your conservative and dogmatic ways.
And 10 Just like DB’s no10 shirt 🙂
They say we’ve improved under Arteta. Yes we did but that was when MARTINEZ was in goal!! Now Leno’s back, we’re playing like we did under Emery.
The same line up as last year with the exception of Willian who I was totally against getting. Oh I forgot Elneny…….
Arteta needs to wake the fuck up, selling Martinez, buying Willian, Cedric and Mari, keeping Elneny, not playing Torreira and Guendouzi etc
Liverpool are the best team in the league, and one of the top 2 teams in Europe.
We’re currently one of the top 8 teams in the league, and haven’t played CL football for 4 seasons.
I’d love Richarlison, but he’s likely way out of our price range, hopefully we sell Lacazette and Bellerin, then go and get Aarons and Zaha.
Lacazette is a really good player, but physically he’s not it, Zaha bullies defenders.
The possibly relegated Leeds outclassed our performance. Let that sink in. Lacazette is shit. Period. End of discussion. Auba against a big side. Anonymous again. Flat track player who were playing £350,000 pw at 31 years old. Defender we chased all summer. Man of the match performances, DROPPED. Elneny in the middle? Woah. Arteta is already starting to act like a end of days Arsene and a peak Emery. That was bizarre. 2/10. Liverpool played like you would expect but for Arsenal , with their resources…we played like a pub side. But back to Auba. This is what I was… Read more »
Why arent arsenal playing Reiss Nelson in these games ?? Ainsley looked a bit lost and did not
do anything worth noting, he must improve his short passing asap!! Pepe for the next game !
Cellabos. Another player with Petulance written all over him
Lightweight .
Unable to tackle properly some of his efforts on the edge of his box
where stupid at best.
Pepe sell to buy Aouar.
Oh and as for our £72m superstar. The man couldn’t bypass the first defender at two corners.
Utter and comprehensively shittteeee.
Also, Real Madrid do not let their talent go unless they are shit.
Without kroenke giving us a huge cash injection we will remain a mid table team. Not blaming Arteta as blame is 100%on kroenke. I just wish he’d sell up and fuck off
“The tactical set up of a Swindon Town.”
Strange times we are at when RT and CG are on the same page. Who knew such a thing is possible.
Yesterday, Klopp taught Arteta a lesson. He asked Mane to move around to confuse our defenders. Bellerin and Holding couldn’t adapt. Mane could have scored early but the ball hit Leon. It is clear that the quality of our players are not up to Pool’s level. Auba had no service. Only Ceballos looks decent. The Pool made all our other players looked bad. Before the first Pool’s goal, Xhaka was again chasing Keita’s shadow. This drawn Luiz out. It left Tierney alone dealing with Salah. Leon palmed the ball to Mane. Bellerin had a slow reaction. For the 2nd goal,… Read more »
didn’t go higher than Alisson’s waste
———————-
Pedro, I know it was unintentional but it made me lol!
We played well. When I say we played well,I keep in mind that the goal now is to get top 4. We played like a top 4 team playing the best team in Europe. Klopp clearly respects Arteta,it’s evident that he played a much more aggressive version of his pressing game yesterday since we overcame his press well in the CS. Flip side of that is that is his team’s intensity dropped off slightly after 60 mins. It’s the reason why Ceballos had the time and space to look up and play those passes to Laca. Re our performance The… Read more »
GofH “””””Auba against a big side. Anonymous again. Flat track player who were playing £350,000 pw at 31 years old.””””” Well said (And that cringe worthy ‘Sign Da thing’ nonsense should immediately stop as well.) PEA for another 3 seasons? Good luck with that. (He cant do it on the big stage. Fact!) Willian for another 3 seasons? Good luck with that. (hooked twice after 60 mins in his first 2 games) Cedric for another 4 seasons? Good luck with that( injured) Mary for another 4 seasons?Good luck with that ( injured) Martinez SOLD, ( x 2 clean sheets already… Read more »
Good post Pedders and you touched on all the important matters. It was an improved second half performance and for all of Liverpool’s domination overall Arsenal were still in the game until late in the match and did give Liverpool a few scares at times on the counters. But sometimes when talking about Arsenal playing against a top side like Liverpool we can forget how other teams fare against Liverpool as well. Sure it usually results in a Liverpool win but take for example Leeds. They had a good go at Liverpool recently at Anfield. The team is not going… Read more »
Finally, we have gotten there, where I never thought we could never reach under Arteta – we failed GLORIOUSLY.
Next time maybe we just ask for a walk over.
*where I never thought we could ever reach
“Because you are stinking the place out with your conservative and dogmatic ways.”
You sound like Richard Dawkins in a Church.
What in the hell are you on about
I hope that we sell Lacazette and we buy a striker in the Giroud mould. Somebody who is tall enough and big enough that he can hold the ball on his own against canny defenders. He does not have to be a starter in all game, but somebody who offer an outlet when we are under pressure. In the first half, Our central midfield was scared to run forward, with Xhaka the biggest culprit. Like I have advocated for years now we need a physically dominant agile midfielder. Somebody who is press resistant but importantly who can break lines with… Read more »
People losing their minds after a loss against one of, if not the best team in the world.
What did you guys expect?
Liverpool havent lost a league game at home since 2017 iirc.
Feel like some of the fans(Are you even fans?) just wait for us to lose so that they can push their agendas, I told you so’s and make fun of the team.
I don’t think we played at all well last night. Nervous, sloppy passing. Only when Ceballos came on did we have any control.
I would say that Liverpool had a better player in every position. Shows how much work is still needed on the squad.
CG
Agree 100%. We’ve made another rod for our own backs with these bizarre signings. Millions a week flying out the door.
All of our 30+ looked every bit the waste of money we thought they would be.
They will always do okay against the shit sides but against fast, determined and aggressive sides, we are toast.
Talking about tactics, I thought that Arteta would pack the bus and our two DM’s would stay close to the 3 DM’s. Instead, Arteta asked Xhaka to do high press. That’s why you saw Xhaka chasing shadows again.Klopp has more sauce than Arteta.
Any more performances like last night and questions will be asked as to why Guendouzi and Ozil have been frozen out due to the non negotiables. I blame the non negotiables for the departure of Martinez. He wanted first team football and publicly said so, Arteta wasn’t having that …on yer bike son. Liverpool again on Thursday, basically our 2nd eleven v their 2nd eleven, the kids will show them how it’s done. Of course Guendouzi and Ozil should be starting …but they won’t.. The performance last night was slightly depressing though not unexpected . Trying to pass the ball… Read more »
Agree with a lot of the sensible writings from yesterday, Liverpool were a class above and it was pretty evident much of their tactic yesterday was a result of the previous couple of meetings where we’ve pulled their pants down. You beat what they did to us by having defenders that are good footballers, those that can play sharp incisive passes into central areas: we only had Luiz at this, the hope is Gabriel/Saliba driver options as they settle. Then you need players centrally who can receive, make a yard, and penetrate the pressing lines: Xhaka can’t do this without… Read more »
LIST OF NEGATIVES
Playing out from the back
Bellerin’s throw ins
Pepe’s corners
Negative tactics
Leno’s lack of awareness when playing out from the back
Tactics that invited pressure
Holding, just Holding
Aubameyang going AWOL
The limitations of Elneny
Lack of creativity
Not playing Gabriel
Xhaka, just Xhaka
Bellerins moustache
Lacazette’s poor finishing
Not holding on to a lead for more than two minutes
Leno’s flaps
Not having a midfield
Arteta being pleased with the performance
LIST OF POSITIVES
Ceballos looked lively and actually tried to pass forwards
I actually don’t agree with all these ‘sell Lacazette buy another striker’ nonsense. Ffs, sell Lacazette and let PEA play centrally. We have Pepe, Williams, Saka and Reiss to play on the wings. I don’t see Auba miss any of the chances that fell to Laca yesterday because his judgment when he’s afforded space and time is amazing. The chances he usually miss are the instinctive ones. And BTW Auba can’t dribble his own spittle, why the hell waste him on the wings.
Of the two 1vs1 Laca missed, one was a clear offside. Tho he should have scored the second one and he usually does perform well in high pressure games. Yesterday just wasnt his night. Elneny screened the defense well and helped beat the press a couple of times unlike Xhaka was a major liability yesterday. Ceballos played very well. Created 2 or 3 very good chances. Had Laca and Auba been at their very best we might have gotten something from the game yesterday. Luiz defended well but was partially guilty for the 1st and 3rd goal. For the first… Read more »
Aubameyang has the second highest shot conversion rate in the PL. He is the highest scoring PL player since he signed for us, no PL player has scored more than him, and he’s done it playing in a team that’s really a mid-table team without him. He scored braces in the semi final against City and in the final against Chelsea, and has a goal scoring record over the last 6 seasons very few can match. I agree the signing of Soares, Mari, Willian aren’t good, but all 3 we’re signed through Raul’s friendship with agents. I don’t see another… Read more »
To be fare we were outplayed for large parts of that game and I don’t want to harp on about it but LENO IS A BIG BIG ISSUE and a big mistake and you could say the difference is so big with Martinez in goal we may have got a point out of that game . Leno’s handling is so poor and it is because we have seen a keeper who commands his box just like Allisson does but it is what it is and that raise a concern over what Arteta is actually seeing or maybe it is just… Read more »
Hmmm 🤔 Leeds found ways to threaten Liverpool with some regularity. Yes they went up a gear against us, yes they are a fantastic side but we really could have got a draw. The defeat is not unexpected, it’s the manner which has pissed off a sizeable amount of your readers. I think we’re approaching opposite Wenger levels, the players are getting so overcoached they aren’t thinking. We put up a resolute display of putting men behind the ball but again, if you’re happy for us to play Pulisball all season that’s on you. I’m definitely not. Leno has to… Read more »
Thorough
Lacazette is a good player, but physically he’s not it.
Yesterday Salah and Mane we’re relentless, Lacazette and Pepe don’t have that physical output or stamina.
Pedro, the good old individual errors eh!?
Some of the individual performances last night was really pathetic and piss taking, absolutely trash!
Including Auba the captain!
3rd goal was on Luiz, but we would find anything to blame Leno after Martinez departure
It could have been 5 or 6 without leno’s great saves
Arteta was guilty of not changing much of his tactics after we expectedly went 2 down.
Night to forget in an empty Anfield, and that says a lot of those lots!
Also agree in regards to Leno. Not good enough I’m afraid and it was absolute madness to sell Martinez. He’s bigger more imposing, more commanding of his area and shot stopping as good as if not better than Leno. Arteta dropped a clanger their as Leno should of been made to battle back for the no1 jersey
Our shots faced in two games is Emery numbers. One was against mighty West Ham.
Selling Martinez while keeping the likes of Xhaka, Holding and Elneny – and adding Soares and Willian!?!?!?!?
Pierre If Guendouzi and Ozil started, we would have lost by much much more. The gap was that AMN at LCM was the free man. Leno is not confident of his passing ability so he couldn’t play him there. Leno’s dwelling on the ball is the biggest reason for struggling to build out from the back If he released the ball quicker then Liverpool would have had a harder time covering all the passing lanes. He made Luiz, holding,xhaka, Elneny all their jobs much much harder. We beat the press once,for the first goal. The plan was there, just need… Read more »
Lolz. Auba’s stats are padded against the shitty sides. His amazing talents do not translate into playing good sides. His scoring record is appalling.
Laca was never a good player. Ever. Three seasons in the terrible french league do not equate to being quality in a decent league.
Sorry, but these two are okay but that’s about it.
Thorough,
The issue with Aubameyang is that he can’t hold the ball on his own. So in situation like yesterday, he is less useful than Lacazette on top who will busy himself and try to fight with their defenders. Aubameyang will just flick the ball and it will land at an opponent’s feet.
What we needed was to be brave and go for a 4-3-2-1.
And use Saka on the left to pin down Alexander-Arnold who whilst excellent going forward is a poor defender.
Arteta doesn’t just park the bus and counter,even in the big games he won like the city semi final. He got xhaka and ceballos pressing high there too. He wants to win the ball high up the pitch,makes it easier to score goals if you lack creativity. It’s when the press is beaten,we retreat into a 541 def block. And attack wise,we build up from the back to stretch the opponent vertically,to bait them to press,overcommit and then quickly progress the ball forward. In the final third,goal is to stretch the opponent horizontally,find 3rd man runs or overload and switch… Read more »
It’s not fact we lost to Liverpool but the fact that last 2 games we have been shocking. And we’ve gone into the new season with virtually the same midfield we’ve had the last 3 to 4 years , the same midfield that has proven to be shit to say the least. No creativity and couldn’t tackle a rice pudding
Ozio be sold or brought back in to starting 11, arsenal don’t have much better, likes of willock,Nelson,Eddie nikita all gonna end up in the championship.
Left foot curler Your own imagination is quite something. We get it. You feel the need to defend Arteta. But your hallunicating posts this morning are quite something. The team improves when we get the necessary central midfielders. Simple as that. It means Arteta can have his team more pragmatic and dominant rather than scratching wins over West Ham at home where you don’t even know who is the team that is meant to have a chance for top four is. Arteta has done very well in adapting this team and getting results with the tools he has at his… Read more »
GoH “”””All of our 30+ looked every bit the waste of money we thought they would be.”””””” Our front 3 last night – all over 30 and all have seen better days. Creaking after match day 3. (All of them on fortunes and all now made unsellable.) PEA has now scored 1 goal in 18 away games at the big boys, Willian has now been hooked off in successive games after the hour mark. Arteta , should be attempting to build a mobile and technically powerful young side. Instead he seems to want to do the exact opposite. Potters’Brighton would… Read more »
Remember Gervinho? He was completely shit and it took Wenger just over a season to realize his mistake and then got rid off him. The same should be done with Pepe, we spent a fortune on him, turns out he’s complete wank so let;s get rid of the cunt.
Those 2 corners……..
“The criticism of the tactics still feels rich to me considering we’ve not moved the squad forward.”
Hard to move forward when new signings are either benched or injured and/or are past it. Hard to move forward when the few youngsters with flair barely play, when four or five players are ostracised, and when you back an immensely flawed GK as your #1.
“it’s okay,we played against a top team”…Last season we went to a rocking anfield in the 3rd game of the season,got battered 3-1 and Liverpool had over 23 attempts on our goal with leno in goal and the post that followed and comments by some of the posters here that day are there for everyone to see…yesterday we went to anfield,3rd game of the season and faced like 21 attempts on our goal,and people are saying ‘its okay,it’s all because our midfield is shit’
Of course the previous post should have read more progressive not pragmatic.
More progressive and more dominant with a midfield three
Arteta has done very well on the pragmatic side.
But he and the team have got to advance from that.
What we do know now, above all else, is that Arteta is not a risk taker. A trait that seems to cost Pep when it really matters. No Saka. No Nketiah. I’m a fan of Lacazette but my gut feeling is that Eddie would have done a far better job for us last night and maybe would have converted that chance. We need Saka in the team. End of. To confirm my initial comment, the fact that Leno is between the posts proves that Arteta is circumspect in his decision making. If Emery or Wenger had put Leno ahead of… Read more »
we need to build cohesiveness in the team, we had the fear before going to Anfield which has made every player to shine away from attacking and playing with person, we do not have the zeal to put in strong defend when it come to big teams, so am not suprise what happened to us happened, i expect strong comeback in second half after Arterta identifying the error in the second half but nothing happened, so we should learn to put fear a site and play to win and put any other team on pressure and fear as well.
It will be embarrasing when diet Pep lines up with 3CBs and low block against Leeds
You heard it here 1st!
Its only 3 weeks into the season and this is what we get, wait till the busy chrismas period.
When under pressure Artetas default settings are Mourinhoesque, from tactics to his reaction to Laca.
Question is will Guen and Ozil outlasts Arteta?
Back to you in the studio?
Leno ,before matinez arrived on the scene,I notice leno was always poor during transition bcos he holds onto the ball 4 too long both feet n hand.now my biggest issue wit him is that after that delay he passes d ball towards where Liverpool press is stronger which aved noticed under Emery also …..my point is wit leno we will struggle to pass out from d back bcos his passes tend to put his own defenders under pressure .I miss matinez using his feet to help us beat d press .
“Liverpool look quite good and Arsenal have some work to do. Who knew?”
Ah ah Pedro, apparently not you…. it’s not a secret that love is blind. 😉
Ishola Just re-watch games,low blocks and counter attacks are the best executed aspects of our football so it’s easier to observe. But actually Arteta is trying to dominate all phases of the game. His ideas are quite clear. You will understand that when Partey, Aouar comes and Pepe improves physically and his off the ball movement. As for midfield, I have said many times before that Arteta has overachieved in big games with xhaka-ceballos midfield. It’s not sustainable. For big games,we need a better midfield. But you are very wrong if you think that’s our biggest issue in terms of… Read more »
You heard it here last!
Aubameyang is a world class goal scorer but I don’t like him out on the left. I think we need someone like Zaha.
I think Aubameyang will eventually move into the middle but at the moment we don’t have the players around him.
“When under pressure Artetas default settings are Mourinhoesque, from tactics to his reaction to Laca.”
Totally agree with this.
I don’t know what some of those losers do at training, a part from giggling and joking around!
Clowns!
Bellend should be shipped away for just wearing those rediculous tight shorts!
Arsenal beat Fulham, got a lucky home win against West ham, poor performance, and then got banged out by Liverpool, overall the football is poor to watch, its to negative, sideways and backwards passing,
All the haters are out in force today.
They really need to get a grip.
❤️
Tony Adams about Leno : ““Martínez was incredible in the Cup last season. He was absolutely stunning. But Arteta confirmed, “No, Leno is my number one, I like what he does.” And he put all his trust in him. But I don’t think he is worthy of the top 4. ”
BANG!! lol
Graham, You nail the nail on the head. Arteta is a great coach, but a cautious manager and that cost him. A less cautious manager would have played Saka and Eddie instead of AMN and Lacazette. I also think that he is a very rigid person in his dealing with people. Most good coaches don’t like to have their authority challenged, but sometimes you need to channel that player rebellious streak toward a specific goal rather than taking it personally. Red Nose was a specialist at that. Picking on a player so they try to prove him wrong. He wanted… Read more »
Can we have less naming gorillas and more practicing throw ins? Thank you.
“We were downed 3-1 away from home to the best team in Europe. ”
Ah ah ah ah ah…..the best team in Europe, yeah right.
Left Foot C
When I see you say “We played like a top 4 side playing against the best in the europe” what am I to think.
The perfomance was predictable and improved somewhat in the second half.
No way was it a nailed on top 4 performance. What are you smoking this morning?
Are Leeds nailed on for top four now then because they gave a very good account of themselves at Anfield recently.
Arsenal didn’t give a very good account of themselves overall last night. The domination from Liverpool as said was predictable.
Leeds and Brighton performance since the PL start shows that Arsenal problem is coaching. Yesterday was embarrassing. Passing the ball in your six yard box against the best pressing team in the league is comical. Gabriel should have started, and what’s the point breaking the bank resigning PEA if he can’t play some game as CF. The standard subs is another novice move which other managers already figured out. It’s not looking good for Arteta, the back against the wall football is not Arsenal style. Fans laugh at JM for yrs and Arsenal adopting the same tactics is 2020.
Come now, Pedro. This isn’t people demanding a win. It was the manner of the defeat that was the issue. This was like our performance against West Ham. We invited pressure. Leno had a poor game and nearly cost us another couple of goals by play across his open goal in what you’ve already described as a high press. The midfield had a shocker. They were completely dominated. And we continued to try to play through Liverpool when we had the pace available to try something longer and at least make them think about sitting deeper to deal with some… Read more »
And we didn’t give a very good account of ourselves overall last night again because of a non-existent central midfield.
“What is apparent is that our midfield needs both Partey and Aouar. ”
It will be a miracle if we can get one of both.
Tierney as a left wingback instead of AMN would be defensively solid and better in attack, then play proper CBs.
When we didnt have a proper CB it AMN at left wingback was a good solution, sticking with it is lack of decisiveness.
Jesus Christ this place after a loss to the best team in England.
CG rock hard after having waited for a bad result so he could resume his “Arteta Out, Sean Dyche In” routine.
Boring.
Arteta vs a proper team + under pressure = loooooooooool.
(same goes for Leno the c*nt)
@Jamie : the best team in Europe, according to Pedro. 😉
Pedro Although I get your Arteta love in, it does seem we have suddenly found ourselves at a crossroads. Too many unusable players in the squad and, imo, too many decisions to be made to rectify these problems. This will put incredible pressure on the guy. Of course it’s not his fault that we find ourselves in such a position but it is his fault if he fails to act on the few positives that both the players and the fans can respond to. Saka and Eddie for example. We can easily slip back to our old ways if the… Read more »
Insanity.
Expecting a result with the same players as last year.
We were slow , indecisive , and predictable.
Too much backward and sideways passing which happens with lacking confidence.
He’s a rookie coach and should have offloaded Xhaka and AMN when he had the chance.
Pepe needs to have players working with him on the right but Bellerin is half asleep.
This squad has 6th place written all over it and will struggle playing against the emerging teams like Everton and Wolves.
Thankfully it’s only on Le grove that people are losing their minds over the goalkeeping position.
It’s like Ishola when he gets going with the Xhaka thing
If we have to persist with Tierney as LCB I’d go with Saka as LWB and AMN as RWB.
Imagine if we had drop a loss to an inferior side than Liverpool last night, with all the moaning on here.
if CG is rock hard then we are all ffed as the uk’s supply of Blues has just been sold
As good as liverpool was, i was disappointed at the goals that we conceded. Again individual mistakes. For the first Leno didn’t palm the ball strong enough. Usually you see a keeper putting that behind for a Corner. May be the angle didn’t favor him but didn’t give a strong hand to it though. For the second, Bellerin went closer to Holding leaving space behind him and Willian allowed Robertson past him and never made an attempt to stay close. For the third, the previous cross that Luiz headed, there was no pressure near him or attackers in 6 yard… Read more »
Someone with just a cutlass is bound to be cautious when the people you want to fight have machine guns. Yesterday’s game among many other has shown the need for upgrade in our midfield. 2 man midfield against a team like was never going to work against a team like Liverpool. Arteta is doing is best with the players he has. Ancelotti couldn’t do much with the Everton team he had last season but we can see a lot of difference now he has brought in players he believes can execute his plan and style. Until Arteta gets the players… Read more »
Ishola I disagree. The top 4 comment because I noticed AMN’s movement into the final third without compromising us much defensively. Salah was left 1v1 against Tierney but it wasn’t as bad as it should have been. Against Liverpool. If we can get away with this against Liverpool,we can get way with other teams There is great potential against bottom 14 teams who are far worse than Liverpool. Who can’t punish us as Liverpool can. I have commented before on Saka’s improvement in positioning and movement Also the lack of BTL players against deep blocks last season. If Saka can… Read more »
Batistuta “It’s like Ishola when he gets going with the Xhaka thing” lol the guy is an absolute cock though isn’t he as well as being a hindrance to the side. There was a play in the first half when he came back into his own penalty area and cleared out a cross from Liverpool. It was a decent play from him but he thought he was an absolute hero in doing it. This was when apparently he screamed at the other players “We are scared!” lol Granit you were shitting your own pants for the majority of the first… Read more »
We were terrible yesterday.
We were terrible against West Ham.
Arsenal have produced just 24 shots so far this season, only West Brom have attempted fewer (22)
Chelsea with 10 men played better against liverpool than Arsenal.
Im telling you for free!
Arsenal have produced just 24 shots so far this season, only West Brom have attempted fewer (22).
If we get Aouar,I don’t mind Martinez leaving.
I wanted Martinez as no 1 but there are more important players to buy if we don’t have the cash we have to generate cash via player sales.
Would have preferred to sell Leno but his wages may have been a stumbling block for potential suitors.