I sat in and listened to the podcast that Matt and Johnny recorded last night as a fan because I had builders over. I was trying to pinpoint what was so depressing about the Crystal Palace draw when listening to them. I think it’s that Arsenal almost never create joy in bad moments.
The Arteta model has always felt like it’s there to do the bare minimum to get the job done.
Not too much.
Not too little.
We are the Goldilocks of football teams.
We started well again, took the lead, then retreated like we were peak-Atletico.
Except we are not that. Their ex-midfielder gifted Palace a way back in as he tried to run a midfield on his own again. Then we gave away another goal. Then a few things changed, we had more of a go, we were rewarded with a late, late equaliser from Lacazette.
A last-minute goal in the 95th should feel exciting, but it didn’t. The whole game had an inevitability about it as soon as we conceded. You didn’t feel the confidence was there to win the game. We didn’t know how to find the right gears and we didn’t know what to do about the fast football Palace were playing.
Arteta performances are very one-geared. We win and it’s not that exciting. We lose and it’s not exciting. We draw and it’s not exciting.
I’m not sure that’s a vision the fans are going to stand behind for very long.
The players are not the problem now. We have young, athletic, and technically gifted footballers. We can break the lines, carry the ball, we can go short, there’s speed everywhere… but it’s still boring.
Graham Potter finished 15th in his first season. 16th in his second season. He’ll still get the support of Brighton fans because he delivers performances that thrill.
Performances buy you time. Time buys you the ability to make your ideas work harder. But right now, I’m looking at the Spurs game and it feels like it was an exception to the rule.
We’ve trusted in the process, but the question now isn’t about process… it’s about the system. Why is it still sputtering?
Yes, the team is young.
Yes, we have tasted the promised land.
Yes, we could very well win our next three games.
… but something still feels off. It’s a new set of players doing the same things as before. We need more green shoots.
Luckily / worryingly, we have the chance to rectify the shitness this Friday against Aston Villa. A team that knows what they are doing, one that delivers big moments, one that has an identity that is exciting that took less than two years to implement.
Arteta has to show something out there because we need something to believe in.
Palace 2-2 at home wasn’t the sermon I was hoping for, so let’s see what comes next.
Right, listen to the podcast. Johnny and Matt delivered it for the first hour and they slandered me. Absolute slags.
See you in the comments. x
Auba saying on the gram “that we stopped playing after the first goal but we never gave up”
Imagine being fired from a job where you always felt you were unwanted and is able to walk away with 8 million
All the best to Steve Bruce. He was always a chunky fella,m even when he played at the highest level.
Newcastle are probably going to get the likes of Aaron Ramsey in January, just to be able to stay up.
Brentford will stay up comfortably, maybe Watford will squeak past and Norwich will definitely go down.
The Saudis better hope they can keep the club up in the premier league to be able to splash al that money because the championship has very rigid spending limits.
Samesong
“Auba saying on the gram “that we stopped playing after the first goal but we never gave up””
That’s like a boxer saying that I stopped punching after the first round but I never gave up clinching
We never gave up but we stopped playing.
Yes, makes perfect sense Auba. How do you not give up by stopping playing?
We should be going after Paul Onuachu to replace Lacazette. The man will score lots of headed goals in the league from standing jumps.
Tierney will rack up assists .
Auba was pressing but who else??
______________________________________
High pressing will not work with Pepe in the lineup.
Nelson
“High pressing will not work with Pepe in the lineup.”
You seem to have some special bone to pick with Pepe
Why single him out all the time?
The entire team, except for Auba wasn’t pressing so why zoom in on only Pepe?
Rashford took White to town with the diving this way and that way and still could not stop him. I will not post the video but Ben does tend to go down easily. Should have tackled Edouard outside the box. Defending 101.
Guns
Don’t you know what Rolls Royce defending looks like?
Stop it already
Dis
You don’t find you’ll have a better chance to play HIGH pressing with Martinelli, Ødegaard (as attacker) and Laca.
I am talking HIGH pressing. What do you mean by entire team. You don’t ask a defender to do high pressing.
Pepe would benefit from a progressive midfield and a mobile overlapping RB
Arsenal is a left sided team
For some reason mikel likes to isolate him on the right, even saka needs support from ESR and ode on the right when he plays
If Pepe didn’t play yesterday we lose
If he had started against Brighton we would have won
David D
Your 13:46 post says it all.
To the point and 100% true.
Sly
The process is dire….
Graham62
Thanks for your nice words.
i actually miss Wenger and his brand of football. At least it was fun to watch.
Actually felt slightly ashamed and that I celebrated when he was sacked.
However it was his time to go and it was long overdue but boy did he give us fantastic moments and so many high points and fabulous entertaining football.
Few years later and look where we are…..
Sly “If Pepe didn’t play yesterday we lose If he had started against Brighton we would have won” Big Pepe fan obviously. These statements of course despite you doing it can’t be said with any certainty. And when you do state this you are obviously just refering to him in a purely attacking sense but of course we know it can be about more than just attacking if we want to go down the road of stating what an overall affect a player can have in a match. People rave about St Maxim at Newcastle. Yes he is exciting to… Read more »
Pepe is not a top player because despite the obvious talent he has he makes the wrong decision when on the ball too many times. Lacks real good decision making many times.
Ishola Pepe can do with some proper coaching in my opinion. He’s terrible down the right. And is too predictable. He should watch Robben clips
Pepe will be as effective as Sanchez when Mertesacker manages this team.
Diet Pep is damaging him like Mourinho damaged Sanchez
Ish
He’s a limited player in a limited team with limited coaching
He does have a very useful talent that isn’t being harnessed
Alexis was another wasteful player with a unique skill set who failed miserably after Arsenal
My point is get the best out of the sum of your parts as a team
I see Pepe as a right sided CF as opposed to a RW
Imagine what Wenger or a progressive coach would do with him
How do you expect a player whose strength is dribbling to do it in a fixed area of around 600 m²..
Samesong “Pepe can do with some proper coaching in my opinion. He’s terrible down the right. And is too predictable. He should watch Robben clips” Proper coaching could help him but many times with players like Pepe what you see from nearly the beginning is what you are going to get overall across the board. Just the type of player he is. Where Arsenal fell down in the Pepe purchase was that they obviously didn’t take into account Pepe’s character when signing him which is a big sin. And when I say character that doesn’t mean bad or evil character… Read more »
Actually Sanchez style didnt impress Guardiola at Barca
In the Palace match there were warnings in the first half about what was to come later.
Partey being robbed of the ball isolated by multiple Palace players pressing him.
Benteke being allowed to turn easily right in front of the Arsenal penalty area with plenty of space to get a shot off. Gabriel was the guilty one on that occasion not getting near enough to him.
All warning signs from the first half that played out to our cost in the second half.
“Where Arsenal fell down in the Pepe purchase was that they obviously didn’t take into account Pepe’s character when signing him which is a big sin. And when I say character that doesn’t mean bad or evil character of course. Just strong mentality and being switched on.” is that true though? Look at how he was in and out of the side last season, but kept producing whenever he was let back in. Also, look at how good he was defensively yesterday vs where he was a short time ago? If he wasn’t on the full 90 yesterday we probably… Read more »
“The fact that this isn’t obvious to Arteta is disturbing.” That’s the issue right there. There are way to many situations where the above statement applies. I bet the new trend will be the 1 man CM….not
If villa come to the emirates and run the cm and beat us at home then lego head should do the honourable thing. he has a fully fit squad with his own players .The way we got slapped last time at home by villa was probably the most embarrassing defeat of the season