PERFORMANCE TIME

by .

Well good morning to you ALL! It’s so damn good to be rolling into the start of the new season with SIX new players all 23 or under. I cannot WAIT to see what they can bring to the table today.

Today IS the new table after Christmas.

Arteta doesn’t have much fan love left in the tank. Today is a mini-run to a North London Derby against Nuno’s Spurs. We have to see a result today, there’s no more time for flapping around with process, we need to see some delivery.

I am not overly nervous about the result, the team will pull something out of the bag today. What I am concerned about is the football. I really hope Arteta didn’t spend £150m on new young players only to play a more secure version of very boring possession-based football.

We need to see a dominant style of play. I want to see our midfielders do more than control the ball, because now it’s time to see rapid-fire penetration. I want to see delicious movement from our front three, because we have the players to dazzle. Particularly of interest is the resurrection of Auba. It’s time for him to show us that he’s still top of the pile when it comes to finishing.

The fans need a huge lift today, Arteta needs to find that sparkle again, and the cloud over north London needs to show some signs that it can lift given time.

We need a performance.

Performances give you time.

Arteta hasn’t delivered one in a very long time.

The weather is decent today, the 3pm kick off is conducive to good vibes, let’s see what he has.

See you in the comments.

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Lacaqualidie

Pepe has no right foot, which is why a) I don’t rate him and b) I’m staggered he cost so much. He gets stick because of the latter. Unless you are going to play him in a system with a tactic to cut inside from the right he’s better employed on the left and let Saka play on the right in his more natural and thus dangerous position. I also rate ESR above Odergaard. I think if you have to play both then play both centrally which means ESR takes up a more traditional #8 position as he can do… Read more »

Mr Serge

Diss turf moor is going to be far harder we need Partey in from the off they will pressurise us

Guns of SF

Lacaquialidee

I would reverse ESR and ODE.
ESR is stronger, and better suited to get into the box and make something happen. He almost scored today…. that type of goal I dont see Ode doing…

ODe is better at longer passes from deep, an area we are lacking in…

Guns of SF

Ode is another one footed pony. Even worse than Pepe….

Mr Serge

Guns don’t agree you can see ode is going to be good and he is always trying to be offensive far different to what xhaka offers

Lacaqualidie

Guns – I see where you’re coming from, the trouble is we don’t have a settled side and formation, so it makes it more difficult to finesse the side.

I was impressed with Tomiyasu although I thought at times a lot of players weren’t willing to pass to him. The elements are there, but I wonder whether the fusion of them all can be done under Arteta.

Doesn’t help when our top striker is old and lacking in pace and confidence.

Mr Serge

LacaqualidieSeptember 11, 2021 21:50:14 Guns – I see where you’re coming from, the trouble is we don’t have a settled side and formation, so it makes it more difficult to finesse the side.I was impressed with Tomiyasu although I thought at times a lot of players weren’t willing to pass to him. The elements are there, but I wonder whether the fusion of them all can be done under Arteta.Doesn’t help when our top striker is old and lacking in pace and confidence They will pass to him more when they know what he does well. The fans were great… Read more »

Guns of SF

anyones take on AMN today?

Ishola70

Guns of SF
“anyones take on AMN today?”

Yeah he wasn’t particularly good.

Certainly not worth the fuss that was made about him recently.

Misplaced passes on occasions.

Spudnik

Pedro,
Best win ever. 1-0 over Norwich is well generational sauce plus the fact that we played like 1970s Brazil. The Artetafraud’s call to arms was heeded. Thank god for a brilliant manager.

Spudnik

Can we please suffer in patience for another 530 years

sly

are there any arsenal players rated on LG lol

Dissenter

Lacaqualidie
‘Pepe has no right foot, which is why a) I don’t rate him and b) I’m staggered he cost so much.”

He’s predominantly left footed but he does use his right foot as well. He takes up a lot of shots with the right foot.

Number of gams played 63
Goals 15
Goals per match 0.24
Headed goals. 0
Goals with right foot 3
Goals with left foot 12
Penalties scored 2
Freekicks scored 0
Shots 108
Shots on target 43
Shooting accuracy %40%
Hit woodwork 8
Big chances missed 6

Tom

“are there any arsenal players rated on LG lol“

Apparently not. But we get are cues from Arteta who proudly stated that no club has ever set out to “replace close to 30 players”………. I suppose in an attempt to illustrate what a shit show we had been until he agreed graciously to come in and save us from the abyss.

Tom

Now finally everyone can see why the American healthcare system is the best in the world.
It took a medical professional 5 minutes to put a bandaid on Raducanu’s booboo.

Bob N16

Radecanu you beauty!

Downundergunner

We lack so much creativity in the centre of the park.
Surely Emile smith Rowe can play alongside partey in the middle as we need someone who can go past players and create in the midfield.Auba left wing, Pepe right wing and lacaZette up front

David Smith

Emma Raducanu , and Laylah Fernandez,, both of them, amazing.
Used to women’s players, and many men grunting at each other, examining the ball for three minutes before serving, boring safe chess player rally’s, but these two! How refreshing to go for the kill so quickly, even if it doesn’t work, good to watch.
They serve quickly with the same ball after a fault, match the aggression of any men’s players.
Incredible.
They should be invited to this club to give a team talk on how to play aggressively

Sly

Problem isn’t the players
Or youth
You can chop and change another 21 players
another 250M+ and you’ll get the same results

Guns of SF

Diss where did you get \those stats??

China1

My take is 3 points I’ll take that. Performance wasn’t great but the second half was better. Lacked midfield control and good passing in the first half and lacked ruthlessness up front in the second. Of the new guys -Tomi didn’t put a foot wrong. It’s only one game against Norwich but can’t ask for more from his debut -Ramsdale was good -Ode was poor -Lokonga was poor in the first half and good in the second -white was fine Other thoughts Man we have missed Gabriel. Our defense immediately looks better with him back. Auba at least worked hard.… Read more »

China1

As for Pepe, he continues his forever he lull and hide dance. Some good moments in a not brilliant performance

China1

Jeckyll and hyde*

China1

Downunder Sambi is very good at running with the ball and can greatly lessen the burden on Partey for that but he didn’t have a very good first half yesterday

Downundergunner

@Chinal i have been impressed with Sambi so far but he still lacks that creativity and I think ESR is the only player who could slot in too that role who has the necessary attributes, he could be similar to Ramsey..

Tony

Morning all Well we huffed and we puffed, escaped scares in defense we shouldn’t have, and really fluffed our lines up front managing a lucky tap in from Auba after a fortuitous bounce off Pepe’s legs that was an assist. Did we deserve the win I think not,: a draw would have would have been the right result on the balance of play of 52% vs 48% from Norwich. Arteta has claimed the last 14 days have been the best of his career, which I had a hard time working out. We were bottom of the table with zero points… Read more »

Tony

As for the woman’s title we have a darling who can go on to the very top. Emma Raducanu might be a scrawny 18 year old now but I see her dominating women’s tennis in the future: our own Sarena potentially. Well done Emma you bring joy at a time in the world when so many are hurting. TR7 and Weagle I understand tennis is one of your favoured sports, but it’s not mine. I love watching winners and Emma is a winner so I watch her and praise her abilities for a girl/woman in a tough sport where she… Read more »

Tony

Goobergooner commiserations for the tanking the All Blacks dished out scoring while they had a man sent off. Don’t think I’ve seen such poor goal kicking in an international before.

S Asoa

” are there any arsenal players rated on LG lol ”

There are those who would be really great playing to their strenghts if so set up by an intelligent coach.
Unfortunately
We miss them because the big elephant in the room, further inflated by the Club’s PR team makes everyone miss the point, except the simplistic bleating of ” So-and-so ” is thrash, give Arteta yet another window to blow money on another serial relegator or White, as Saliba pulls up trees for fun at Marseilles
#FraudtetaOut

DivineSherlock

Great win , a very young looking team and fresh too . There is just one point I like to criticize here why the hell does Arteta not play Saka and ESR together and if he does they are on opposite flanks. One of our best goal last season came with their combination plays . I love Odegaard he made some really great passes but Arteta has to make a decision here maybe bench Pepe and try Saka there with Ode on the left , ESR through the middle.

S Asoa

Divine Sherlock
Good point. ESr and Saka play instinctively together

Tony

Divine, I’d hardly call it a great win, more great we finally got points on the board. The performance was far from great. I touched on this earlier but Arteta seems to be devoid of the idea of creating partnerships. Think SAS: Shearer and Sutton at Blackburn bringing them a fairy tale league title. Keegan and Toshack, Beardsly and Rush immediately come to mind. With the Invincible’s they kind of managed to partner each other all over the pitch. It’s what made them unplayable: the understanding they had with each other. The Busby Babes were another of that class. Wenger… Read more »

Sid

There are players that dont thrive in rigid systems, Alexis/Hleb/Song were unsuitable for Guardiola.

Diet Pep is limiting Pepe.

Sid

Its great to see an immigrant bring glory to England

Chris

It was great to be at the game yesterday, my first since COVID. The atmosphere was generally positive where I was pretty match, very much boosted by Spur’s capitulation against Palace and the subsequent lyrical amendment of the Vieira song. Not for the first time we had a fast start which soon have way to a more laboured build up but I was impressed by Tomy down the right side who wasn’t afraid to get forward and involved in the play. First impressions of him are good. It’s a bit of a footballing cliche but it was just very important… Read more »

Useroz

Between the two debutants, Tomi looked ok for £19m, not a cheap RB, and the £30m rated Ramsdale was hardly tested thou made a stray pass. Overall the defense wasn’t solid vs an essentially Championship level team. If Pukki had better composure and shot a fraction early off 12 yards, we’d have conceded a late late goal if not a last ditch block by gabriel (or white?) Yet, with several decent chances , our shots hardly threatened Krul… wonder what the xG, etc stats look like? The performance was not up to it despite the 3 points ‘cos we aren’t… Read more »

Mee

Pepe cannot be rested. For all his limitations, he can score goals. There is always that one time in a match where he seems to light up and blitz plus players before placing an effort with intent. Without that, we would not have scored yesterday. ESR has to start and I agree with posters who said he should play close to Saka who did not have a good game yesterday. ESR can play eight in a 433 with Sambi and Partey. AMN should play RB with Tomiyasu partnering Gabriel in the CB pairing. White will be molested by Wood vs… Read more »

Ishola70

Regarding Sambi Lokonga the main criticism of him at Anderlecht was that he lacked in the final third whether this being finding a killer final ball or scoring some goals himself. It was an aspect of his play that they knew he still needs to work on. Johnny The Cochrane pointed out in the podcast that the benefit Lokonga could give to the Arsenal midfield is that he drives on the ball from deep in first transition and gets the team quicker on the front foot going forward in comparison to when Xhaka is in there. Pedro was all for… Read more »

Ishola70

If our midfield consists of Lokonga, Partey and Odegaard it is going to be dry in terms of goals from this area.

With Xhaka reinstated in place of Lokonga same problem.

As they mentioned on the podcast the team is still heavily reliant on Aubameyang to repeat his goal scoring feats of a few seasons ago and plenty have doubts that he can repeat.

Saka can chip in on occasions, Pepe is too erratic to be relied upon so if Arsenal do surprise under Arteta Aubameyang has to rekindle that former goalscoring.

Graham62

Why am I envious of Wolves?

Is it because they have an identity?

Kroenkephobe

Chris I enjoyed reading that – thanks. You get so much more background to a game by being there. I agree that the team needed a result and they just about got the minimum that was required. I think even if it had been 3-0 it would have been tempered with ‘itsonlynorwichism’. Norwich really were poor but still managed to look neat in midfield. Pukki got very little meaningful service and watching him create that chance which Soares somehow dived in front of him was pretty scary. I think the general post match mood is, fine we’re off the bottom… Read more »

Ishola70

This is why some were not overly excited by the signing of Odegaard.

They were looking for an ACM that has a much better eye for goal than Odegaard.

It’s all well and good to state that Odegaard can find a pass that will lead to a goal but when this team is so reliant on one striker for any semblance of a good season then an actual ACM with a goal scoring record would have been more beneficial to this side than Odegaard.

Probably yet another error of judgement from Arteta.

Graham62

Why am I envious of Brighton?

Is it because they also have an identity?

kjelli

Odegaard is too slow .Pepe still wasteful. AmN good to have. Ramsdale brings confidence and
eases my nerveosity.. Saka seems a bit heavy..
Partey may need to be rested against Burnley before Spurs. ?
Bring Haaland in asap.

Samir

kjelli

You think Haaland would come to Arsenal? Don’t be stupid.

Moray

Good to get three points but we are barely a top half of the table club. This season is going to be a long uphill struggle.

It’s not immediately clear what value we’ve extracted from our purchases this summer, particularly sin cc’ed it’s goals we’ve been lacking. Having said that Lokonga has potential and the giant jap also has a no-messing appearance.

Moray

Ha the only way we get Haaland is if he breaks his back or loses a leg.

Moray

How were Edouard’s goals? We’ve been after him for a while so I doubt he’s much cop.

DivineSherlock

Tony

Its not a great win in terms of result , its great in terms that Arteta is selecting players based on merit . Ofcourse his hand has been forced with Xhaka and Elneny but still if AMN plays well there and Lokonga + Partey becomes starting XI , we will finally be free of errors at the least . All he will have to sort out is the attack , which might improve the more they play together .

Moray

DS, we thought this a year ago about Arteta: it seemed he had turned the corner and would give the games on merit and performance. Then, as soon as injuries, suspensions etc cleared, Willian, Xhaka et al we’re back stinking out the first XI. The guy hasn’t a clue.

The Bard

A wins a win but means very little in the grand scheme of things. Watching Chelsea yesterday I would say it’s will be decades before we are able to compete again them. Arteta isn’t kidding when he says that this is long term project.

Foxy

Ishola70’s comment about the need for players like Lokonga to bring the ball out quickly was highlighted by Chelsea’s brilliant first goal yesterday. The speed at which kovacic broke out from deep in the Chelsea half with the ball and then put a great pass though the lines to Lukaku showed exactly why we are so critical of Xhaka.

Davi

Unfortunately missed the game, but based on recent form and how it sounds from the comments, it seems like Arteta should be dropping Auba for Lacazette if he’s really interested in picking players based on merit. He’s just desperate to get Auba back into form because he’s the only one with the record of scoring 20+ league goals, but how many more chances is he going to get, considering he’s pretty average when not scoring? (I know he scored yesterday but it was hardly a goal that inspires confidence he’s back to his best) I still think he’s finished as… Read more »

Sly

Chelsea was playing like Arsenal in the not distant past
Coaching matters

Ishola70

Coaching matters but also signing the right players in the first instance counts just as much.

Atm Artea still seems about pass, pass, pass. Control.

It lacks decisiveness, It lacks cutting edge.

It means the team will still labour to score goals compared to other sides and to go along with that we will still see defensive fragility from this side.

RecycledOldSock

March 2014: Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0

Tony

Lot of ‘if’s’ there DS.

Tony

K’phobe the tech’s not that far off where you’ll be able to watch the game from a seat if your choosing in the stadiums.

CG

The Bard “”””””A wins a win but means very little in the grand scheme of things. Watching Chelsea yesterday .””””” Look, If Liverpool win today, they will have 10 points like Man United, Man City and Chelsea. So already 7 points clear off the Champions League places and inferior goal diff. Like it or lump it, for ‘elite’ clubs the modern game is all about the CL revenues and this Arteta simply aint taking us there. And the players he has spent millions on – are not of CL calibre either. Every match, under Arteta since he has been here,… Read more »

DivineSherlock

Tony

Yeah yeah I know but still that team played for the first time together ( Backline and GK ) . Partey and Lokonga + ESR Saka and Odegaard . No willian or david luiz , Martinelli and Pepe on the bench . Honestly though a really good manager can do wonders with this squad .

AFC Forever

Facts are this season injuries & Covid deprived us of players during the first three games. We saw when he came on yesterday how much Partey adds. We’ve bought new players who haven’t played together yet but some ‘fans’ seem unable or unwilling to acknowledge that fact or how important it is. Whether that is ignorance or agenda only they know, probably the latter. Arteta inherited a bloody mess. They’ve identified players and spent money to bring in young players for the future. Over the past few weeks, people have expected us to compete with Chelsea or Man City and… Read more »

Bob N16

AFC forever, completely agree with your post, new players, new partnerships – plenty of promise.

Kroenkephobe

K’phobe the tech’s not that far off where you’ll be able to watch the game from a seat if your choosing in the stadiums Hiya Tony, The way our lot are playing, and given everyone’s incurable addiction to Arsenal, that’s a frightening prospect. I bet they’ll try and charge a hundred quid a pop to watch it as well. I don’t know if you were able to watch it live but that tennis last night was terrific. She’s a real natural and plays her shots fearlessly. Halfway through the first I wasn’t sure how it was going to end, but… Read more »

Kroenkephobe

AFCF A lot of what you have written there makes typically good sense in the abstract but less so when applied to the actual people running the on field activities at the club. How does this apparent strategy and big plan meld with William, Xhaka re-signing, Mustafi being offered a contract (which he thankfully spurned), not seeking to sell Bellerin earlier when he had value, Mari plus some other dumb moves too boring to even remember. My point is that he’s switched directions and not admitted he got it wrong the first time. Plus the team still play together like… Read more »

Tony

K’phobe I read about Emma when she had anxiety/panic attack playing at Wimbledon. She had. Something about her and the way she handled herself that you see in winners. I’m really not a tennis fan but enjoy the odd some and final. Watching Emma in the semi was a wow moment for me as she’s the complete deal at 18. Aggressive in her okay and brutally accurate in her passes along the lines. I’ve waxing lyrical about her since the final and was sure she’d beat Fernandez. I don’t think she dropped a set all the way to the final.… Read more »

Useroz

Auba not exactly in terminal decline I’d think. Likely not top PL striker but still should get 15+ if there’s a half decent supply of ball from MF etc. Instinct still there just the body and mental sharpness that could be a worry a He’d have scored a goal of the season contender early in the game with a 30+ yard shot, from a Tierney long pass, to try catch Krul off guard. Unfortunately rest of his attempts were rather lame ezcept the tap in. Our guys must sharpen their shooting skills promptly. Look at Partey, Odegarrd, ESR, etc. and… Read more »

Waz

It’s football nativity to thing Auba’s form is just down to him. He played in the statistically second slowest team in build up last year and you wonder why a guy that thrives on transition and movement to thrive in an isolated winger or false 9 system which pretty much has suited nobody.

I’m not saying the players are without fault at all but try being elite at something in a set up and culture that’s based on fear and control not talent, thriving and competition

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