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*
“However if we don’t purchase any players and put that money made from martinez to good use I will be fuming.”
You know it LondonG, if they miss on their targets and sold a keeper for essentially no return, would not want to be management .
I’d laugh my arse off if the Spud’s knocked Fat Frank out and then saw their opponents in the next round given a bye because of Spud players testing positive for COVID.
Habesha
Leroy Sane did brilliantly at City, if Sancho can make that kind of impact he’d be huge.
If not for that injury Sane imo would be the best wideman in the PL right now.
If there is a penalty shoot out, I think Spuds will win it.
Yeah Sane was elite. Not even close to flopping.
He was one of their best attacking players before injuries sidelined him.
Also think he had a personalty clash with pep. No surprise the champion league winners bayern wanted him.
I don’t get people I really don’t. Jadon Sancho is a world class footballer.
Frankie will win nothing with Chelsea. Mark my words.
Sane was elite here for City. I felt they really missed him last year and having no lightbulb head at the back didn’t help either.
Huge fan of Sane, agree with WE
Penalties are so fun
Mount looked beaten already before he took it
Spurs celebrating like they’ve just won the Audi Cup.
Gary Lineker has been warned that he will face the sack from the BBC if he breaches new impartiality laws newly introduced by their new director-general. No posting personal political opinions now for Gaz on twitter or any social media.
Thank fuck for that. About time.
The man was getting beyond tedious.
That will be tough on mount.
Ishola
What’s your problem, do you want to gag anyone who doesn’t agree with your perverted views.
That fucking fish n chips advert he done.
Gaz is doubly sickly.
Wenger eagle
Yeah sane left a world class footballer. But in his first season in the premier league he put up 7 goals and 5 assists in all competitions. That’s how much I think Sancho will do in his first season. After that he can do as well as Sane in getting double figures for goals and assists But I don’t expect immediate Impact from Sancho.
Spuds won….
Smarmy, self-conceited up his own arse champagne socialist.
Good riddance.
No more Gaz flooding social media with his self absorbed mutterings.
Anything less than a win to Sheff Utd this weekend will be a disaster to the confidence of team. Lost to liverpool, and next one would be City and Etihad.
We need those 3 points, and we go to City with some confidence.
*at
Have the Gestapo taken over the BBC.
No politics
Alan B’stard is my political hero.
If only we could sign a player who could do all this..
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dc9UtpolOj_U&ved=2ahUKEwjTzOm2pI_sAhWhUhUIHVvOCSUQwqsBMAB6BAgFEAM&usg=AOvVaw3fyIcozFop7t5za6CGZLrm
If only we could fuck the WOFT who’s earning £350k per week off the wage bill.
Ozil can’t even do that anymore
If only Ozil wasn’t a useless sponge eunuch these days. But little mercies and all that at least we don’t have to witness his god awful attempts at being a footballer anymore.
Stroller, austerity was a disaster for this country and many of it’s citizens. Don’t take my word for it, Boris said that austerity was a mistake. Just about every other leading nation invested their way out of the global financial crisis – the US were back up and running by 2013, back in the UK we struggled on for another five years. Gordon Brown? Really? The clue is in the word ‘global’ – you can’t pin it on Labour. And deregulation started earlier with Major, and was also supported by the Tories. After all, many of their mates made a… Read more »
* could NOT get a job as a journalist.
It makes Aouar’s youtube highlights look rather average don’t you think.
.
andy
For a guy who couldn’t get a job as a journalist he seemed to somehow end up as Editor of the Evening Standard.
Pierre
One’s 22 the others a couple of weeks off being 32.
Don’t be a twat.
Arsenal are working to sell Lucas Torreira to Atlético Madrid and Sead Kolasinac to Bayer Leverkusen. Talks ongoing with OL for Houssem Aouar – he’s the main option, Thomas Partey situation is still quiet right now. #AFC #transfers Fabrizio Romano Well I am glad the kolasinac stories aren’t just rumors. 9 mil for him + 20 mil from Torriera will be handy. If we already have money for Aouar we are potentially one more sale away bar Sokratis from getting enough to activate Partey’s Release clause. Any one of Mustafi, Chambers, Guendouzi gets sold and we are clear to sign… Read more »
Marc , Marko , leftside etc..
You have the Arsenal you want..
A team that is lacking in .
creativity
skill
vision
Composure
Comparing youtube highlights. Yeah I’ll take Aouar’s performances in actual games over some YouTube highlights from 2016. Big fucking deal
“You have the Arsenal you want..”
Not really we’re still stuck with Ozil.
“Marc , Marko , leftside etc..You have the Arsenal you want..A team that is lacking in .creativity
skill
vision
Composure
Pierre just means to write…. “a team lacking in OZIL”
Marc
“One’s 22 the others a couple of weeks off being 32.”
Even Ozil’s highlights over the last 2 years make Aouar look decidedly average..
You know it and I know it …he’s not fit to place Ozil’s boots.
I have major doubts over Aouar , I just don’t think he will make a difference.
We need to pitch Chambers to Fulham
C’mon Edu.
Marc,
Everybody knows that the owner of the evening Standard hired George Osborne as a way to curtail favour from the Conservative party.
George Osborne has now himself admitted that he is not interested in being an editor anymore.
Basically it is a lot of work for a small pay comparatively to making a few speech.
Valentin
And?
Dissenter “Pierre just means to write…. “a team lacking in OZIL” Not at all , I would love to see a player like coutinho come in. I would love to see Saka in the starting line up I would love to see Pepe given a proper run in the side and to play with freedom as we know he can. Selecting a team without our 3 most creative players is an error of judgement by Arteta.. If thing’s do not improve creatively , Arteta will have no option but to play our 3 most creative players so the team can… Read more »
Pierre, the Arsenal I want doesn’t include Ozil.
I’m probably one of the few on here with more patience and abit of sympathy for Pepe also.
What we have seen tonight is Pierre not being able to hold back and making clear that if we do sign Aouar he will be critical of everything he does – whether it’s warranted or not.
Anyone perceived as a direct threat to Ozil will be chastised by Pierre. Auoar won’t be a threat to Ozil, he is done as a football player and you are clearly more wedded to him than the club so when he fucks off hopefully you do too Pierre.
Habesha Sane was nowhere near as polished a player as Sancho is when Pep got his hands on him though, in his last season for Schalke in the Bundesliga he put up 8 goals and 6 assists at Sancho’s age. Sancho put up 17 goals and 16 assists in the Bundesliga at the same age last season in less minutes with better numbers across the board in passing, dribbling, chance creation. United would be getting a player that s ready to hit the ground running now rather than his 2nd season. Dont forget that he has the added advantage of… Read more »
Ozil obsessive indeed lol!
https://mobile.twitter.com/GoonerTaIk/status/1311062818955890697?p=v
This guy has been breaking arsenal transfer stories all summer. Hasn’t got any thing wrong yet. Says we made a stride this evening to sign Aouar and He is ours. May be I want to believe him but We might see heated rumors from top journalists tomorrow.
Leftside
Aouar is not actually a threat to Ozil but in Pierre’s eyes he’s going to steal his place in the team and by the looks of it his shirt number.
It’s rather unpleasant that someone would go after a 22 year kid before he’s even signed for us.
With the Kola news we ought to be bringing in a back-up for Tierney though.
At the moment we only have AMN and Cedric, both better at RB and right-footed for cover and AMN defensively is very flawed while Cedric is bang average at best, at worst a liability.
Marc,
George Osborne did not become editor on merit or on ability. He became editor as a favour.
Cronyism is hardly an endorsement of somebody ability.
Indeed Marc, it is unpleasant but lets face it Pierre is unpleasant. Portrays a victim all the while purposely being insolent and winding up posters, obsessively posting about Ozil and then having the temerity to call other posters obsessives if they take a bait.
Nobody talks about any subject on this site as much as Pierre talks about Ozil.
Marc, the ‘and’ is that it had nothing to do with journalistic ability, just access to useful sources.
Anyway, back to the people’s game (until the wealthy saw the money making potential in it anyway). How do you rate our chances of a big MF signing? Still doesn’t look like we have the money to me.
Wenger Eagle. I am not convinced he is polished enough yet to put up those numbers in the premier league. A world class Hazard didn’t do it even after a couple of seasons at Chelsea. I see the same player in Sancho. The only goal scoring wide men that put up those numbers are Mane, Salah, Sterling, Sane and Mahrez for a season at Leicester. That is a tough group to Emulate in a first and even a second season He is good but I think he needs a little time. He will have to move for us to know… Read more »
andy
The world is full of people who got jobs by who they knew not what they knew – and that’s on all sides of the political spectrum.
You don’t like Osbourne – imagine my surprise.
Marc
“It’s rather unpleasant that someone would go after a 22 year kid before he’s even signed for us.”
Having doubts is not going after a” 22 year old kid”
But it’s ok for you to come on here and slag off present Arsenal players on a daily basis ….I think they call that double standards.
Would be nice to sign a player of the vision and class of Ozil though, wouldn’t it…
Sal
Saw the Brozovic comment. Still a firm no from me there for him I’m afraid. Partey is still the one for me
Pierre
What players do I slag off on a daily basis?
Regullon moving up and down the wings for Spurs was a good sight football wise considering how labored it looks for our full backs when we play
Ozil class? Lad invited a dictator responsible for the bombing and displacement of thousands of people on the Syrian border to his wedding. The day that bug eyed cunt leaves this club so many people will be happy. I’mma get a bottle of gin for sure
Bati
Quite possible we may have the Partey, wasn’t optimistic but something has changed perhaps transfer fever has struck. Or fact Torreira is on is way.
In fact i’m starting to entertain thoughts of Laca being shipped with Edouard coming the other way. Yes a beer has been cracked.
Marc, What you wrote clearly implied that George Osborne must be good because he was able to end up as editor of the Evening Standard. That’s not the case. Cronyism is the reason he got the job. Being Dave’s mate and needing easy legal money is not really a proof of his ability. The same Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner got jobs at the White House despite being completely devoid of any ability. By the way those small arrangements are legal in UK, but would be illegal in France. If you get paid by a company to do some work,… Read more »
Valentin
And?
again
Habesha None of that group outside of Salah and Mahrez put up elite numbers in their first season in the PL and they were both 25+. Point is whether or not he is worth 100m, given that he’s 20 and has 2 elite seasons of Bundesliga football behind not to mention CL experience, I’d say he’s well worth the investment. Not whether he’ll break PL goals/assists combination records in his first season over here. Might well be right but given they aren’t far off, I’d say it’s 50-50 as of now. Although apparently only 70m was offered up front with… Read more »
Marc “What we have seen tonight is Pierre not being able to hold back and making clear that if we do sign Aouar he will be critical of everything he does – whether it’s warranted or not.” Hopefully Aouar is the player you all think he is, I’m just not sure he has a good final ball …he flatters to deceive a little for me. Obviously you all know better than me as you have watched him and admired him for the past few years….haven’t you ? Doubtful…. ..I have only seen snippets of him and I like to go… Read more »
Shame that Atleti don’t seem to be budging on Partey.
Would have thought that a Toreirra +20m deal would be good for all parties?
Sancho at ManUtd will be as effective than he has been in the England team. Not very. At Dortmund he benefits from the leg work his teammates do. The well drilled pressing which means that Dortmund retrieve the ball quite high. He won’t have that under OGS. Jadon Sancho is talented, but he is not a generational talent a la Messi, MBappe. £100 millions is daylight robbery even more in those COVID-19 time. If I were Ed Woodward, I would spend that money on revamping on the entire defense including a new goalkeeper, a new CB to play with Eric… Read more »
‘A player without a quality final ball doesn’t do it for me creatively.’
Alex Hleb was absolutely quality for us and elevated our play and yet he rarely was the player to make the final pass, barely racked up any assists when compared to Cesc for example.
Pierre
I have no idea about Aouar – the club have (by the looks of it) decided that he’s the player we want / need. I’ll back that decision and then after having watched him play in the PL for Arsenal for a good period I’ll make a judgement.
I wasn’t critical of Xhaka until I’d watched him waddle round the pitch being worse than useless in over 50 live matches.
Don’t compare my position with yours.
Man City has just signed a 23 year old centre back for £65! We sign a 22 year old for £27m and expect him to solve all our problems instantly. Realism guys, realism. We are not in the same league at the moment.
City are a joke with how much they spend on defenders.
Ake is out of his depth at City and was a strange signing. Ruben Dias has potential and could work out but it’s a lot of money to spend on an incomplete player who physically is nothing special.
Koulibaly or Kounde would have been much better suited for the PL. And I doubt that the latter would have cost any more money than Dias.
What do you do with John Stones as well? 50m bench warmer.
If only we could sign a player who could do this
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DrmNLA5JiLrA&ved=2ahUKEwi8vv6jvY_sAhWVURUIHYTWAooQwqsBMAR6BAgCEBU&usg=AOvVaw0dEOKn7XyuqN6yL6h6Glo-
Kolasinac near to being out the door, and Torreira’s team in talks with Atletico – can see this Partey deal going to the final day.
How about this one
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D6b-3F0diDPU&ved=2ahUKEwi_up3yvY_sAhXJUxUIHR6KBuIQwqsBMAJ6BAgEEAs&usg=AOvVaw1sjFt9I4xW6HsV8v3wX3_e
We’ve seen enough of Toreirra over the last 2 seasons to know that he’s not that good. A 6 min youtube clip can flatter anyone.
You could convince somebody that Chamakh could ball off a youtube highlight.
I hear poster on this blog say “Play Pepe thru the middle” and all I can think of is Yaya Sanogo.
so much love and admiration for a vile example of mankind is repulsive.
Aouar isn’t being brought in to be a “creative genius”. football has moved on, you might wanna catch up.
An unwritten rule of Le Grove.
Do not give an honest opinion of any shiny new toy coming in..
I hear poster on this blog say “Play Pepe thru the middle” and all I can think of is Yaya Sanogo.
Not surprising that really
Curse
“so much love and admiration for a vile example of mankind is repulsive.”
Do you mean a” vile example of mankind “who regularly funds operations to save children’s lives.
How many lives have you saved lately ?
Marko
Some time your darlings don’t work out, reality.
I doubt we’ll get to see an art team until we get those mids in. that is the epicenter of tactics and we have nothing currently capable of executing plan a. decent squad players for the course of the season yes, though I’d entertain a sale of granite or mo. bringing in a player better suited to deputise for partey (soumare, diawara).
would love a laca sale, really would.
Some time your darlings don’t work out, reality.
Yes that’s it he’s one of my darlings and it wasn’t a stupid thing to say.
Chai tea time, hubs has the kettle on.
such a loaded question with many variables of chance, but fine, I’ll play.
none, to my knowledge given the way the butterfly effect works. you seem to know the inner workings of all the children he has saved. you also must believe Oprah is also a good person given she has opened schools in Africa lol. behave.
Curse “Aouar isn’t being brought in to be a “creative genius”. football has moved on, you might wanna catch up.” I said , let’s hope he turns out to be a creative genius which is more in hope that expectation….. Or would you prefer that his final ball is suspect and you are left frustrated that we have spent 50 million on a player which doesn’t address our weakness….creativity. I suppose at a push, we could always bring our most creative players back in to the side then Auoar can do his impression of Hleb and he wouldn’t have to… Read more »
Sal I assume that you never actually seen Sanogo play or Pepe play with the statement you made. Maybe it was tongue in cheek though in which case you’re not funny instead of sounding like a bit of a dumbass. But I dunno
You being a fanny again Marko? Get in the kitchen, peppermint tea is on the go to sooth that soul
Ok Marko when you hear Pepe as a 9 thru middle what do you think of?
Besides unicorns.
I suppose our perception of creativity is different. I believe the days of a creative player in the fly’s mould are long gone. nowadays creativity comes from the system a team plays. the better the coach the better the creativity. yes having a player who is naturally creative will always be better, but only as an additive to the whole. aouar’s all round game, aspects that he brings to the table are levels above the fly.
even he will have his creativity limited if we fail to bring in a partey.
No sal I just thought it was a stupid comment to make in reference to a legitimate point made by someone earlier. You could have made an argument against it but instead made a silly comment. Deal with it.
Pierre
Do you use these ozil YouTube compilations as jerk-off material?
Ok Marko when you hear Pepe as a 9 thru middle what do you think of?
Besides unicorns.
I think it’d be silly he’d be playing out of position and he’s not good with his back to goal which is kind of important for strikers.
You see an actual criticism and not just I think of Yaya Sanogo
Marko you take it all too seriously.
Idea of Pepe thru the middle is about as clever as playing Yaya against Bayern in his second Arsenal start, tripping over his own feet.
Fact this conversation exists is a testament to state of Pepe’s levels at club, don’t see him pulling a Thierry Henry.
Harsh but that the realty.
Christ Pierre, you have even less shame than Ozil!
1) When a team is full of mediocre talent a d you suddenly discover, by sheer luck, one who is a genuine talent, you don’t sell him. But that’s what the hierarchy did with Martinez. 2) When you have a team full of mediocre talent you don’t drop your most creative player. And the most expensive to boot, for non football reasons. 3) Guendozi might be a total prick but again, beggars, choosers etc. 4) Mikel might be full of sauce, but the flavour seems to more Mourinho than Pep. Both in tactics and in man management. More intent on… Read more »
Kola for 11M
is the sky falling
OMG
Given his wages and how poor he has been, Kola for 11mil is an Edu Masterclass. Nothing more, nothing else.
Ah, good ole Alex Helb. The man with the magic feet but can’t really pass or finish. But his dribbling and balance were truly a sight to behold.
Sal
Lol, still a long stretch between Sonogo and Pepe’s comparisons.