Well, here we are, the chance to go into 9th position in the league with a win against Crystal Palace.
This is the sort of high pressure / low expectations game we’ve usually not done well in under Arteta. This was the sort of game we lost last season at this stage. That needs to change tonight.
We’ll have a home crowd.
We are in decent form.
There will have been plenty of work delivered over the break.
We basically have a fully fit team to choose from bar Granit Xhaka. Yes, ever Gabriel Martinelli is back in the mixer.
The key things we’re going to be dealing with:
Wilfried Zaha is a menace and has caused is no end of problems over the years. Tomiyasu needs to be at his best this evening because if you keep Zaha quiet, you keep Palace quiet.
Their press. No doubt they are going to give it a go. Slightly harder for them to do away from home. But you know the routine. They’ll target our midfield like Brighton did. They’ll have a crack at our centre backs with some roughhousing. They will make it difficult. If we roll over and let them do it, it’ll be a tough night. But if we play through them early, then we have a good chances of making something happen. Part of doing well against the Palace press is to stop Villa doing the same on Friday.
The first game after the international break is usually a slow mover, but we can’t have that tonight. The fast starts we’ve had in most games needs to happen this evening. The fans need to be on side, the atmosphere needs to be intense, and that is partly powered by the sort of Arsenal that shows up.
Over in France, Matteo G dropped a beastly performance chalking up 2 goals and an assist. If he wasn’t such a whopper, you’d expect Arsenal to cut short his loan move this January so he could come back and support a midfield that will probably still be lacking a Granit Xhaka who is expected back into full training around then.
Finally, the return of Patrick Vieira happens tonight. Truly, one of the greatest captains that ever wore the armband. I had the luck to go from Tony Adams to Vieira. The French midfielder was something else. An absolute hero. A gladiator of the midfield. People say his technical ability wasn’t rated at the time, but that is utter nonsense. We all thought of him as far more than a bruiser. His rangy legs, tight controls, and the way he bring a ball down and beat a press was magical to watch.
Now he’s a manager. He’s finally made it to the Premier League. I hope it’s not a pleasant return outside the plaudits he’ll get from the home fans who miss his on-pitch leadership.
Right, On The Whistle Podcast will be recorded after, have a great day!
Guns
“why was ben white backing up so much one on one with edouard? Then he made himself smaller when he took the shot instead of bigger. weird”
That’s Rolls Royce babe
Nice to see lacazette knee sliding to celebrate us landing in 12th place. Lmao
So 9 points out of a possible 9 to secure the 10 out of 12 points requirement for fraudeta
More like a busted up honda
How old is auba again?
You would think a grown man would have some common sense not to do that to his hair.
Arsenal captain acting like a teenager after his first pay check, trying too much swag
I’m glad we watched the game this morning as pretty much has been said that’s very evident from the game. The crazy thing is we’ve put Laca on the market and he has more energy than most on the pitch. Laca drew that game from when he came on because we were in the handbrake back passing mode that could be construed as that ‘Patience’ word again; waiting for an opening while Palace were well drilled in defense. Arteta does have a style that’s evident this season. No handbrake for 20 to 30 minutes then apply the handbrake and reset… Read more »
this is hilarious. 4:55 mark….xhaka question
man that cracked me up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c1zuwspTrU
Agree with you Luteo. Tomi had a great NLD and I was waxing lyrical we’d found the answer to Bellerin, since then Tomi has been poor and our players are playing around him a lot. Maybe he had a new team bounce of one game and now is finding it hard to adapt. He now looks a weak link and White doesn’t seem clear on his directives. Tomi will be targeted now and White will have to defend more than goin g forward. It’s the Arsenal way under Arteta we buy a RB who is good in the air but… Read more »
In typical Arsenal fashion we gifted two goals tonight to Crystal Palace. Our mistakes led to their goals. Lessons from this? Odegaard isn’t working. He needed to turn up… especially without Zaha on the pitch. Like it or not Odegaard is one of our BIG players. He needed to step it up a gear and he looked jaded. The same for Pepe. He looked disinterested… after the first ten minutes. You would have thought he would have wanted to make a statement to the manager. He didn’t. Partey can’t do it on his own… but having said that it was… Read more »
I think another manager would get more out of these fellas.
The constant tinkering, and this JDP thing is making the players feel stifled.
Arteta ball is ugly man
I will say that old weng would do much better with this side than mike arteta
#bringthetrianglesback!
Well that was disappointing as fuck. And why did we suddenly stop playing after going up 1-0? Are those the standards set by the manager? Get one goal against Crystal Palace at the Emirates and try to defend it for the rest of the game instead of going for two three or four? We lose this game by a comfortable margin if Zaha played last night.
Steward Robson on ESPN-FC put it squarely Arsenal was too easily to be played against. Gabriel & White are OK CBs but they are not good. They needed to close down the attackers but they didn’t. Arsenal does not only have a midfield problem which was known since the end of last season but they still have defensive problem. Teams can score at ease against Arsenal, therefore the high minus in goal difference. There you have it gents after spending all this money in the TW we are no better off then we were at the end of last season.… Read more »
The only good thing about such a dismal performance by AFC, is that posters like Englandsworst, Error Stroller, Poor Rich and the other Arteta fan boys, they will have to eat crow, if they ever get their noses out of the place where God split Arteta.
Wow when Arsenal plays great football and beat Spurs I didn’t see so much comments. When Arsenal have an off day and concede 2 goals that were clearly fouls against us in the build up and the mob is out in full force to blast the team. Can you all please kindly fuck off. We supposed to support the club on their way to achievement not wait for it to fail so we can gloat about it. What a bunch of crap supporters we have, no wonder the team is not moving forward.
Conor Gallagher is the type of player that many Arsenal fans thought Odegaard would be.but will never be. They play a similar game in a similar position but are worlds apart in their effectiveness on a football pitch. Gallagher has an aggression in his game that Odegaard doesn’t possess , aggression on the ball and aggression off the ball and a desire to make things happen.. Arteta will lose faith and confidence in Odegaard as he represents a liability on the football pitch…weak on the ball and weak off the ball and as i have mentioned before , he is… Read more »
MIKEL ARTETA – “We started the game well, dominant, fluid. We deserved the goal, we were in total control. After that we lacked composure, belief and maturity to manage the game. “
I think that’s part of the problem when you expect your team to start managing a game after having scored one goal in the opening minutes.
You mean to tell me your game plan has already changed barely 10 minutes in because you’ve scored a goal?
“ What a bunch of crap supporters we have, no wonder the team is not moving forward.“
Are we at that stage already…….blaming the fans for how the team play ?
Gun sf
‘ I think this loss hurts a little more as PV4 was the opposing manager compared to the clown we have currently.’
Another silly cunt that doesn’t understand the rules of soccer ball.
News flash: a 2-2 draw isn’t a loss you retard
Diet pep OUT!!!
Berg10kamp The 2nd goal was a foul on Lakonga and the assualt on Saka should have produced a red . That said, to highlight weaknesses in the performance of the team and players when they are poor is a natural thing to do, just like to highlight the positives in a good performance is a natural thing to do… The Brighton performance and yesterday’s performance are a worry for any Arsenal supporter. We look mentally and physically weak and ultimately it will stop us progressing as a football team. I thought a draw was a fair result but it was… Read more »
I dont want to slate any player until I see them play under different manager . The good part about the draw last night , a sliver of hope still is that we are only 4pts off top 4 . But we are deluding ourselves if we think this team will end up there. I dont know what the thinking is of the manager regarding his subs , he has a bigger problem when things dont go according to his plan . He just does random subs . Last night Saka was a forced ,one I get it . But… Read more »
Both goals Arsenal conceded were very similar in that we were caught in possession of the ball and then our 2 central defenders didn’t engage the goalscorers and allowed them to waltz into the area and get their shot away …our centre backs made it too easy for palace on both occasions.
Anyone who knows anything about the game realises we have problems both on and off the pitch. I don’t rate Arteta and after last night I can conclude that unless he is removed from his post we will continue to play this passive, slow, noncommittal style of football and suffer the consequences. PV4 will prove himself. CP were the better team for long periods. Did we deserve a draw? Probably. There is no doubt though that our system and structure is flawed and it will remain this way until Arteta leaves the building. By the way Arteta fanboys, look at… Read more »
Yes we got caught in possession and that shouldn’t happen but it was a foul on lokonga. We can argue that maybe ramsdale could have done better. Not blaming the fans here, we had an off game and we need to support the team as they had the spirit to fight back and claim a draw despite the shyt reffing on display. My concern is that when we win people are quiet but when we lose u see names on LG that u never seen before.
As someone said earlier this is a process and these are mostly young players who will learn from their mistakes and get better. We need to support the club and the players through this period, not be nagtive and break them down. It’s counter productive.
*negative
International break has ended and the players are either tired or rusty. I did not expect a super performance but I cannot say that the boys didn’t give their all in this game.
Winter is coming!
Berg10kamp
“Can you all please kindly fuck off.”
And then expects le grove to take his advice.
Stop talking about young players and process. We are in the results business.
The team yesterday underestimated the opposition like alot of our fans.
Not the worst of results.
“Comedy gold from Pedro…
There’s every chance we’ll win the next three games.”
________________________________________________________
There is always a chance. It is football.
If u on here expecting top 4 then I suggest u get ready for disappointment. This is not my expectation and this is not a realistic target for this team at this stage. Arteta knows it. The owners know it. And most supporters know it, just a few senile fickle fans on here don’t seem to. We will see progression in some games and we will see mistakes and some really horrible games. But eventually it will all click and we will see a team that has played to gether for longer and understands each other better. They will also… Read more »
Samesong, u clearly living a dream my boy
U will not see results this season, and fiting a manager will not bring results immediately either. It will just start a rebuild. So keep dreaming son.
*firing
Samesong, u clearly living a dream my boy
Great response.
Thank you sir
Done with Pepe club record signing will never cut it waste of money!
Arteta is a lost soul.
Samesong You can talk about results but we all saw last night that again the overall performance was off. Yet again. The overall performance last night has been like what we have seen from Arteta a hundred times over before. I think this goes much deeper than just supposedly underestimating the opposition. You can say Arteta under-rated Palace but just having Partey isolated on his own in central midfield. But overall if anything Arteta rather than underestimating teams he plays is overestimating every team he plays which is shown in this everyone retreating in front of our own penalty area… Read more »
“We need to support the club and the players through this period, not be nagtive and break them down. It’s counter productive.”
________________________________________________________________________________
The problem is that Arteta set the system up for them to fail. CP played with 3 midfielders and we played with one DM. Whether he was Partey or Lokonga, he was crowded out. Gabriel had no one to pass to.
Berg10kamp I totally agree mate. I actually enjoyed the game. Two lower middling sides going at it. Low on quality and high on mistakes. I thought we did well to get a point. This is the new reality for Arsenal fans. I have watched Arsenal for long enough to know football clubs go in cycles. I doubt very much whether we will be challenging for a top 4 for the next decade or so. The club must know this and the PR ‘we have along term game plan’ is to keep fan unrest at a manageable level.
All this zonal talk about Arteta’s tactics sounds very Americanised to me.
Like watching American Football.
And it’s not particularly good or convincing.
The team should be able to beat Watford but as we all know the games against Villa and Leicester are toss ups and Leicester will rightly start the game at home against Arsenal as favourites to win that match.
That’s the reality at this time.
I have watched both Palace goals and neither are fouls just sloppy play and both centre halfs are poor for each goal.
It’s not an excuse but MacArthur should have been sent off for the “tackle” he did on Saka last night. Ask yourself – substitute the name MacArthur with Xhaka – would he have gotten yellow carded? Most certainly… cynically because it’s Mike Dean, he might have gone straight to red. I can’t remember now whether that tackle was done before or after MacArthur eventually got his first yellow but if it was after the tackle would have been his second yellow – and Palace would have had a player sent off before half time – and it would have been… Read more »
The reality, yes. That annoying thing that happens that we have to accept to remain sane. Clubs definitely go in cycles. Liverpool did. United did after fergie left. And we will also take time to bounce back. Unfortunately the EPL is not what it was 10 years ago and 20 years ago there were 2 teams challenging at any given time. Now there are at least 4 teams challenging for the title and 6 to 8 teams for top 4.
Aston Villa next in the league…
We are a mid table team at the moment. Accept it and have a less miserable life.
Bergkamp
When people bang on about the EPL overall improving which it has they always forget to mention the obvious regression of Arsenal as well.
It’s a combination of both.
Arsenal are not suffering just because the overall level of the league has improved. They are suffering because they themselves have regressed along with it.
We are a mid table team at the moment. – spending like a top4 club.
@Berg10kamp
So firing a manager won’t change results and will just trigger a rebuild? Why? It works for Chelsea. A chance in manager from Lampard to Tuchel with the same squad saw a turn in fortunes.
And really what is your timeline for things to turn around? This is Arteta’s third season and he’s had 4 transfer windows. It’s his squad. The rebuild is over. I think the only position he hasn’t changed personnel in is centre forward.
Also, why do we always make excuses like being rusty after international break? Crystal Palace were on a break too!
Yes exactly that Ishola. When wenger arrived he was miles ahead if everyone except fergie but he challenged as we had the finances to buy expensive players at the time. After the stadium shift we declined and other teams improved and we are now starting that rebuild. Hence, accept the reality of us being a mid table team and support the players and the club through this process.
Biggles, we don’t have chelsea money my friend so your argument is dead before it started.
Rebuild over? Most of our starting 11 has been here for 2 years or less.
Palace were rusty. Did u see how many chances they missed? How they struggled in the final third? Their goals were cos of our mistakes. Period.
We had to spend money to replace the dross we let go. It’s simple economics.
“”””””NORGOctober 19, 2021 08:44:26
We are a mid table team at the moment. – spending like a top4 club.”””””
Comment of the day!
Spending 50m on CBs and overrated DMs instead of between the lines creators gets you this type of football.
After 69 attempt Partey will score with one of those shots.
You heard it here 1st!
Their goals were cos of our mistakes. Period.
Forced mistakes by pressure from the opposition. Great tactic that I spoke with Teraloon about this before the game.
Wow samesong why don’t u apply for the role then as u seem to know quite a bit…
Palace didn’t out play us. They played well but got away with 2 fortunate goals.
Mike dean what the fuck was he playing at? Macarthur should have been booked for a blatant pull back when we were breaking away. He wouldn’t have been able to assault saka if he’d been booked as he should have. Saka then has to go get off (after he’d been booked for doing exactly what JM had done).
Gallagher exactly the same foul no yellow. I’m all for letting the game flow but at least be consistent you crooked fucks.
Berg10kamp
Simpleton. Keep banging on about process and youngsters. You sound abit like Bergkamp63 wouldn’t be surprised if its the same person.
Samesong, at least I don’t moan about things I cannot change. That is the reality and I accept it. And no we are not the same person.
At least I don’t people to F off because others have opinion different to mines. Simpleton.
tell*
And the British love a moan where have you been? 😏
Lost our first 3 games against decent to good opposition and having covid and other issues. We shit. Climb out of that rut and smash Spurs. We were lucky and Spurs were shit. Typical day on LG.
Well u call people simpletons cos they called out your bullshit
Telling people to fuck off. That’s my opinion.
No I called you a simpleton. Only you. So crack on son!
Telling people to fuck off. That’s my opinion.
Carry on makes you look well hard
Thanks son I will!!!
I don’t think you will though son!
Probably not
No point really
Waste of time
There’s not one person on here who can explain what Arteta is trying to do.
The reason for this is that Arteta himself doesn’t really know what he’s doing.
Please don’t use the words “process” and “patience” in your response.
B10k
Tell me, what do you see when you watch the games?
Are you blind or just ignorant?
Could you explain in 100 words or less, what Arteta is doing?
I cant explain what he is doing. But i can see that the ref killed us yesterday with 3 questionable decisions. I can also see that the boys fought until the end to salvage a point. What u can’t see is that we are in transition and expecting us to be in the top 4 is really really naive.
At this time the match day crowd is accepting the continuing non-descript performances from the majority of the team. If the results and performances do not improve soon attending supporters will start the chant ‘you dont know what you are doing’. It happened near to the end of Wengers reign and surely it will happen again. Arteta has now got the luxury of dealing with ‘his’ team. He has chosen the players purchased and re- signed to new contracts. He and his staff work with the playing staff on a daily basis. He has one of the most expensive teams… Read more »
New narrative by the arteta in boys, we are a mid table team lmao We finished 8th last season and now after spending 150m, it is justified that we can finish as low as 10th. We are a top 6 side. We spent poorly in the summer or else we could compete for top 5. Ode and white were unnecessary signings. Ode never impressed me during his loan and white is the definition of mid table side CB. Saliba and a new CM would have made us a very strong side. Imagine another player in the caliber of partey playing… Read more »
Thierry Henry said he was unsure what direction Arsenal were heading under Mikel Arteta and performances like last night will provide him with no further clarity.
Pedro attacked Thierry for his comments, but now I think even Pedro should be able to see exactly why Thierry made those comments.
Would be good for Peds to address the issue now rather than trying to sweep under the carpet what he tried to do to Thierry on here a few days ago