Aston Villa are proving out to be Mikel Arteta’s Bolton. They don’t beat us up, but they have beaten us the last three times we’ve played them. Tonight, at home, I am not expecting anything different.
My expectations for this game are absolutely on the floor.
That is very negative, but you know what, my feelings count and that’s how they are today.
Biggest worry is getting overrun in midfield again. We haven’t found our rhythm with Thomas Partey and a partner yet. Lokonga always looks impressive when he comes on but he’s very young. Mo Elneny isn’t a sexy option. Martin Odegaard really isn’t quite the 8 at the moment.
So who knows?
The big question for this evening: Which Arsenal will show up… and for how long? We’re averaging about 20 good minutes per game. Our issue at the moment is confidence. We can be frightened into playing a different game. In golf, when you are given a new swing instruction, it’s great when it works. But a couple of bad shots and you get caught between the new instruction and falling back on what’s comfortable. That’s where the team is right now. Sadly, the only remedy for that is repetition.
Against Palace, we were great at the start, and we were great at the end. We need to find greatness for at least 70 minutes tonight if we’re going to take anything from the game.
The good thing about playing Villa is they will come to party. They’ll run at us, there will be big openings at the back, if we can break their press, we’ll create chances.
What can Arteta do to inspire a bit more courage in the players? What tactical offerings do we have planned? How do we make sure Villa will have gone a month without a win? They were taught a lesson by Spurs who just ripped them through the middle. They were taught a lesson by Wolves who barely registered a result this season despite being pretty good. We need to pile on the misery for Dean Smith. Not be the gift to struggling sides we usually are.
My hope is that we’re not going to have another day out where all our key players absolutely tank. Watching Saka, ESR, Partey, and Pepe struggle with absolute basics is not a rarity… but it is a rarity they are all shite at the same time.
What I’m really hoping for is a bit more aggression from our centre backs. We cannot allow Ollie Watkins or Danny Ings to get balls into feet like we did against Palace. We absolutely cannot be seeing Ben White back off a striker running into our box. Palace created fuck all against us and came away with two goals. That’s more of last seasons nonsense. We need to have a tighter performance this evening.
Here’s how low I’m feeling: If we’re going to get beaten, let’s at least do it with bit of style. The Goldilocks football needs to go in the bin. Not too good, not too bad… pick a lane. The purgatory is a sign of a lack of progress.
Right, sorry about that, I’m just having a day today. See you in the comments. x
Well done to Edu for bringing in Tavares, an excellent deputy for Kieran Tierney. Hopefully this spell out gives KT a breather that he needs.
He’s looking jaded for a while now.
Lol Tierney is better than Tavares. Lovely to be have two Lbs who can come in & be equally effective tho.
*He’s been looking jaded…
Tee
Tierney has never shown that he is an accomplised defensive player.
You and I both know that Tierney is in the side is for his attacking capabilities rather than defensive ones.
In fact that is the case for many fullbacks now in the game. The time when fullbacks were rated for their overall balance as a player both attacking wise and defensively have gone. Now it’s all about attacking with them.
And Tavares happens to be quite a forceful attacking fullback.
Tho tbf Tierney hasn’t been up to his rampant best in recent games. Still owns the lb spot tho
Vintage GunOctober 22, 2021 23:16:10 Exciting match, Win lose or draw i hope we play front foot football more often moving forwards. The buzz i get from it is immense. .Well done the fans also. Loud, supportive and pressured the ref. Good stuff Gooners.Best mate’s a Villan and after beating us home/away last season plus “stealing” the two Emi’s from in the last two years gave him a weird superiority complex coming to our ground tonight.Well my friend…Get back in your box, And fuck off out of our sight you jumped up SLAGS My best mate is also a villain… Read more »
Who’s this Teebagging geezer?
Tee
“If you are using this match as a barometer against xhaka then I ask you how many matches have we won after his injury?”
What i will say is that we have won more than we have lost without Xhaka.
And i would suggest you are going down the wrong road using results as a barometer for Xhaka.
With xhaka..
Played 4
.won 1
Lost 3
Without xhaka
Played 3
Won 1
Lost 3
Without xhaka
Played 3
Won 1
Lost 0
I’m not Xhaka’s biggest fan but I don’t see the need to run a player down for no reason at all.
Why can’t we just enjoy the win for its own sake?
Odegaard’s PL stats. He’s created 1 big chance in 1,337 minutes.
Love the lad but that’s worse than Willian ffs!
Leeds, exactly. GREAT RESULT tonight. Really enjoyed it. Who went?
I went pedro
How was it Serge? Sounded great on TV
If was the best game we have played this season the pressing and desire was great at least 6 standout players and project youth is exciting
The opposite to the dire palace game and this will happen due to the inexperience. Happy to wait and see what happens but the new signings bring a lot to the table, plus ESR and saka are real talents.
Lokonga will also be superb in a couple of seasons.
I can understand why martinelli does not play as much he has to displace auba and lacca our two most experienced players
The atmosphere was great Pedro lots of singing especially to EMI he was even getting booed a lot at the end all in jest fans were up for it all night. The crowd is buying into the team for sure and we love ramsdale the kid communicates a lot
Don’t feel we were under any pressure at any point even when they scored that bullet shot
Gabriel and white seem a good partnership
The press omg the press can we play like that every week please
Mike Dean taken off referee duty this weekend proves what a twat of s ref he is
Hope he never refs us pawson was far better
Serge, that’s great to hear. Very jealous you got to go. Also, spot on about consistency. This is how it’ll be this season. We need more games like that to keep the faith alive.
I don’t get people on here shitting on Tierney. He was (with Saka and ESR) the reason why we didn’t get involved in the relegation fight last season. He has a poor start to the season and the muppets are out with their “I’ve always said he’s average” commentary. Toxic BS.
Fantastic win
Now for the next 6 points please
Love sausage with you on that I called out the person that said KT is poor he needs fitness to be consistent he is one of the first on the team sheet for me
Serge,
Form comes and goes. But people forget that he’s one of the few natural leaders in this team. And I’m not talking about Xhaka-style leadership where a player makes a big deal out of yelling and pointing. True leading by example, always putting in maximum effort. The man deserves respect. Tavares has earned himself another start but KT will be back.
Crazy how Ramsdale passes like a prime midfielder sometimes.
Game was too late for me. Score line was good. Seems everyone agrees the performance was Avery good too
Smith Rowe seems to be getting the stand out praise
“ I don’t get people on here shitting on Tierney. He was (with Saka and ESR) the reason why we didn’t get involved in the relegation fight last season. He has a poor start to the season and the muppets are out with their “I’ve always said he’s average” commentary. Toxic BS.“ Nothing to get, some of our fan base love waiting for our players to fail do they can appear superior and knowledgeable in criticising them. Tierney has nothing to prove to anyone, his record speaks for itself. When fit and firing he is the first name on team… Read more »
*so
Leeds, what is nice… when KT gets injured, it’s not a disaster
Level on points with United has to be the highlight of the night.
Pedro
That was my point about Tavares being an able deputy. He stepped up and made us better. Actual proper competition.
I hope we see our fringe players and U23s players when we face Leeds.
If I was the manager I would give Pepe Balogun and Martinelli a full game…
There’s loads of U23 players I want to see some given a game time…
Charlie Patino, Kido Taylor Hart, Omari Hutchinson and Karl Hein… just off the top of my head.
*some game time
Interesting games on Sunday. Brighton and United will surely lose. If West Ham and Spuds draw, we’ll have a good opportunity to pick up some ground in the table next week.
Leeds, very exciting.
Leicester a huge game now. Win that and we’re in great shape.
Could the two draws against Brighton Crystal Palace been our mental breather before we kick on? I hope so!
Get Per Mertesacker signed on to new extension before our rivals start sniffing.
He’s doing an excellent job as head of our academy.
With this kind of performance we can beat Leicester
Re watching the game
Great dynamic midfield performance, lokonga needs to stay with partey in the middle and not be pushed back to cover the left. He was immense. With lokonga playing like this who needs xhaka
Loved the pressing and high energy
Laca is playing for his next contract
What we’re seeing now in the table is exactly why I think it’s bad form to set low expectations and targets for the season People always go into a season imagining all the other big clubs will have good seasons. In reality that is very very rarely the case. It’s normally a one-two horse league. A decent also ran for third, then a big jump to 4th, 5th 6th etc Even after a really shit opening few games and a couple of dubious results since, we are still mathematically very much right behind top 4. As well Spurs I don’t… Read more »
Man people are so rude. People here have a habit of overreacting like crazy when they see my dog (it’s only a fucking golden retriever on a tightly held lead, hardly a Rottweiler…) Whenever I am waiting for the lift and the doors open – if anyone is already in there they always do this BS freak out and mash the door close button to try and leave before I can walk in. If people will be polite enough to just say sorry I’m scared of dogs can I go first? Or whatever I’d be like sure for ahead, but… Read more »
Honestly as well retrievers are well established as having one of the gentlest personalities of any dog breed. They were literally engineered to be gentle as they were bred to pick up the carcasses of birds on the hunt and carefully bring them back to owners without piercing the skin with their teeth.
colney gooner called it.
what a game, youngest squad in the prem? crazy to think what this team could be after a season under its belt and a summer window.
oh and after Martinez’ comments, hearing the crowd boo him then watching him literally have a mental break down after the penalty was Michelin star icing.
China1, this is spectacular commentary. So you relentlessly telling us how Arteta is shit, the project is doomed, and we should rethink the Emery tenure was all good motivation for the team who you knew could be mathematically in it after a few games? Your high standards and chatter were actually for the good of the team?
Retrievers are nice dogs, no doubt.
3-1 bosh, get in!
So when I expect us to win, we either lose or draw and when I don’t expect a performance, we win.
Nice to know these things.
Gonsterous, same here man… I should feel negative more often.
Not sure what your point is Pedro, my points are consistent. We are mathematically near top 4 because top 4 is not some mystical level that requires immense quality to achieve – wenger demonstrated time and again that you can blah it by simply having a passable season and hoping for a couple of the other big teams to have a bad year. That scenario plays out *almost* every season. So far this season there’s no indication that Chelsea city and liverpool are going to shit the bed. That leaves Spurs, arsenal, utd and arguably Leicester remaining. Others are unlikely… Read more »
Also I’ve never said the project is doomed not sure what that even means. There’s a decent squad in there which needs a few key changes (CM and up front). I’m not even sure what the project is so don’t know how I can call it doomed.
I’ve criticized arteta yeah, because last season was absolutely dismal and this season has been hit and miss.
My targets for arsenal now are about the same as they were for Emery in his first season. Which is why I wanted him gone after 1 season when he very narrowly failed to meet them.
Now considering this squad is *miles* better than what Emery had and we don’t even have European distractions, I really don’t see how setting the *same* targets for arteta is unrealistic – unless ofc you don’t have genuine confidence in artetas ability as a manager.
China, so if we’re good enough for top 4, then maybe you should be a bit more supportive of the project?
After each bad result. You pop at me, refer back to the greatness of Emery, then ask about standards… instead of saying, ‘the season is a long one, maybe wetting the bed after 4 games is wrong, because I know we are good enough and the form will come.’ < which is what you think, apparently.
I am also LOVING your use of language regarding our table position.
‘Mathematically close to top 4’
One point off top 4 in actuality my friend.
Pedro we both know that isn’t true tho I called for Emery to be sacked for what I have consistently described as failure after just one season. The only defense I have ever made of Emery is that he should be treated with the same fairness and respect you wish to be afforded to arteta – a manager who did much worse than Emery ever did last season. And I do support the club to do well this season. I voice concerns that we might under achieve *again* because arteta has found it very difficult to consistently extract results and… Read more »
‘Pedro have some self respect man it’s 3 games into the season and you’ve already decided it’s going to be the post-Christmas table all over again.’
So amusing you were saying this after 3 games, now you are talking about being mathematically close to top 4, and that you always knew we could be there.
Beautiful work, at least you are happy.
‘Ramsdale is a backup keeper. How much adapting do keepers even need to do…? Tavares is a bench warmer Lokonga is a bench warmer according to edu himself as he said partey and xhaka are the go to Odegaard was here for 6 months already. What is he adapting to??? White we paid 50m which is an absolute premium – one of the most expensive defenders ever and he was bought from within the PL. if it takes him several months to adapt to being an arsenal CB then what on earth were we paying 50m for? Gabriel started last… Read more »
China, you have a pattern with your comments. Whenever something bad happens with this team, you refer back to Emery.
What is your stance?
Is this team of benchwarmers now top 4 material? Or are they benchwarmers and Arteta is expected to be a miracle worker?
Whoever’s decison it was to put up Lacazette alongside Douglas Luiz all game deserves praise to be honest . Douglas Luiz was nullified all night , not sure if this has been picked up . Tactical masterclass , Long it may continue. Just bad for my Fantasy team , I picked Saka over ESR . Fantastic win.
Pedro if your new blog headline does not mention Partey , I’ll be disappointed . xD
I trust that performance lifted your spirits, Pedro; it lifted everyone’s I hope. Arteta going back to basics with 442 could well give him breathing space, but Villa have looked woefully porous over their last 3 games including last night. Looks to me as if Grealish is a huge miss for them where their new signings have had very little playing time together, thankfully for us. Just shows what you can do when you keep your midfield tight and press cohesively from the front. It was a game we needed badly to reboot our confidence after Palace and Brighton. Wasn’t… Read more »
Saka was played in his strongest position, Partey was played alongside someone to whom he could act as a foil for and Lacazette ended up linking the midfield and the attack.
Therefore our attacks didn’t get lost.
If truth be told the score line is flattering to Aston Villa. Had Partey taken all of his chances and Auba’s disallowed goal stood we should have won the game 6-1.
Considering how Villa cheekily chased after ESR last summer with two unwelcome bids I say we return the favour by bidding for Jacob Ramsey. Their best young player… he scored a cracker.
Was it a coincidence that the energy of our team dropped after Laca has removed himself from the match. Laca was the leader of the team in this game. His energy and his fighting spirit energized the whole team.
I would offer Laca an one year extension with the club’s option for another year.
Amen Tony!
Divine, headline is all Lacazette
Nice try but no, you are literally proving my point with everything you add. It was you trying to lower expectations, not me – thus the joke about you and the Christmas tree table you ran with last year. Let’s look at those comments about the players shall we? The comment about ramsdale, what’s your point? Keepers shouldn’t need a log time to adapt to a new team. This has also been proven accurate for ramsdale who took all of 0 matches to adapt and do well. Tavares is a backup. Was that wrong? How many games has he started?… Read more »
Get on the pod
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/arteta-delivers-80-performance-agenda-back-on/id498781996?i=1000539448197
China, it’s ok mate… you are now in a mini-pivot and that is fine.
You didn’t think the new signings moved the needle, now you think we’re all mad for underestimating how good they are.
Just wish you’d been a bit more supportive about the project at the time. It was confusing when you were saying the players weren’t that good, Arteta was shite, and Emery was hard done by… I didn’t realize that meant we should have high expectations of this team because you rated everyone.
The overall state of our transfer window this summer turned out surprisingly very good The only part i have concerns about is I think we paid over the odds for white and ramsdale – however if both have fantastic careers with us this will be gladly disproven or forgotten. Ramsdale has already gone a serious way to justify us paying his premium and I think he’s been excellent. For white I made it well known in the summer I would’ve had that money on hand for an elite CM to partner partey instead. I’d have brought back Saliba and let… Read more »
Nah you’re good at spin Pedro but not good enough to sell this one
Like I said, why would I have criticized the team so much last season if I had low expectations for them then? I criticized them because they fell so far short of the targets I had. We spent 150m on players this summer now want me to justify why my expectations are still high?
Try and explain that if you can…
And you still have not as far as I’m aware set what position or number of points you think would be acceptable this season
Well into the so called project, a fortune spent, lots of decent players which you are very glad to point out, a generational manager as you say.
What are you worried about? Competing for top 4 should be a pretty reasonable ask even if ultimately we come up a little short and accept that
China, now you’ve explained that you shit on the project because you rate it… I’ll know how to engage with you after we draw a game and you immediately bring up Emery.
Not sure you will find many Arsenal fans quibbling over White and Ramsdale fees. Both look like incredibly astute signings with very unique skills. Was always a bit mad that Arsenal fans were worried we might have paid 15m too much for a 23 yr old centre back
Partey at The Emirates would have been a great line , considering you wrote Villa will come to Party.
China, I’m not worried about anything. I don’t have the faith you do that we’ll make top 4 this season. We have the youngest team in the league, we’re not quite there yet. Think top 4 is for next season. It’s a stretch goal this year.
BUT, I do expect to see you being a big advocate for players you rate as top 4 ‘now.’
Ben White against Aston Villa:
94% Pass Accuracy
100% Ground Duels
100% Aerial Duels
2/3 Long Balls
2 Blocked Shots
2 Interceptions
3 Clearances
And White did that superb run. He may go onto score a worldie from one of those runs from the box one day. 😀
Still over the moon with our win!! I am so happy to have gone to see this game at the Emirates!! The atmosphere was rocking from the start. The singing was loud and we didn’t let up throughout the game which really great. I in particular loved the Ramsdale chant which was very loudly sung by the entire stadium. It really seems that we should be playing more often on Fridays!! What I liked is that we effectively played with confidence and we were playing a far more direct game. It wasn’t perfect by any means but this game looks… Read more »
White had a world class game last night. His passes were frankly ridiculous and he made some nice blocks. He’s going to absolutely be a top player. Some here can’t admit they were wrong about him but it’s obvious already
Key to that performance was the switch to 442, we looked far more solid yet at the same time the players seemed to have licence to express themselves as an attacking force. Ramsdale is certainly a crowd favourite in a way that Leno never was, the German barely gets a murmur when the names of the subs are read out. Finally the ESR/Odegaard debate isn’t even a real debate any more, ‘The Smith’ should be the first name on the team sheet when fit. General consensus in my section was that we should have gone like for like when Laca… Read more »
We will need odegaard in deep blocks cos as good as laca is against a team like villa who want to attack he cannot pick a pass like odegaard. We will need both types of players if we want to progress.
ESR not Odegaard makes this team tick. It’s not a massive surprise that our midfield looked more comfortable and composed with him as the creator.
I hope Arteta uses Odegaard to keep ESR fresh and fit and not try to stubbornly fit Odegaard into the starting line up for the sake of it.
Arsenal have a very young team and as I suggested before there are going to be “ups and downs” this season. Yesterday was a very good day for the club, manager and team, although they still need to learn to maintain a performance for 90 minutes +. There were similarities in this game to how we played against Spurs albeit we controlled the game for a longer period last night. It will be interesting to see the team which is being selected for the game against Leeds in the Carabo Cup. Will Arteta give games to Messrs Leno, Soares, Chambers,… Read more »
I liked our signings last summer. And it is starting to pay off. A good manager will have this team ticking on the regular. White was the one I had my doubts about because he wasn’t needed in my opinion and we were overpaying by at least 15 mil. He was very good last night. I don’t know if he will become world class but he can be a good player for us. Odegaard really needs to go back to the work rate he produced against spurs. He has shown he can lead a press when he wants to. If… Read more »
Aside from last 8 min absolutely buzzing. Been a while, feels nice 🤣🤣 now it has to continue. My only gripe was AMN coming on before Martinelli. But so happy for a change 🤣🤣
With Ramsdale I like the fact he’s an intelligent footballer, by that I mean when he has the ball he uses his own common sense and mix’s it up playing from the back or going long.
@Pedro
First apology, I was wrong about Ramsdale, he has all the tools to go further in the game. Very good signing
Also LOVE Tavares , not his shooting 🤣 and love our little Bambi (Sambi)
That 1st half was top draw. We played with pace and purpose. I think it made a huge difference having 2 up front instead of just Auba. ESR was outstanding. His smoothness on the ball is special.
Back to calling out posters who made deserved criticisms after a win and good performance? Literally every team in the world have a dozen good performances in them all season. The key is consistency. And talking about top four after 9 games really makes no sense. Says a lot about your faith in the project throwing I’m the towel before kickoff , against a team on a bad run of results no less, then having a go at posters because the result and performance was better than you expected.. Great performance and three points, that’s about it. No need to… Read more »
Very good in first half.
White was excellent, as was Tavares.
ESR, aka “The Choirboy”, is a joy to watch.
A good performance last night doesn’t mean arteta is off the hook. The performances after spurs have been dire upto last night. It means every arsenal fan enjoyed it and we want to see more of that. I still don’t think this manager is good enough until he proves otherwise. And I still want him out. We could be going places with the right guy in charge.
Tavares may have caused a selection problem for Arteta’ as it was obvious that Tavares created space for smith Rowe with his energy and willingness to overlap with pace. Tierny can’t make an overlap without looking shattered as he struggles to regain his position. Alternately , Tavares looks like he has energy to burn. The team’s performance last night was the one we were hoping to see against Palace and Brighton , especially after the high intensity of tje Tottenham game. It was obvious that Arteta has learnt from tje palace game and demanded tjat the players do not take… Read more »
I think Odegaard should be behind in the pecking order now, but when he plays it should be one of the wide midfield positions. We need fighters like Lacazette in the middle.
Not seen the game yet but loved reading in the papers that we physically dominated Villa.
Last time They said that was re the Invincibles. The prem even more now needs power and pace to dominate the game in particular in midfield it sound like we had that yesterday. I am sure White and Gabriel will have benefited from the Party/Lokonga double pivot in front of him and when did we last have such fast and physical fullbacks.
A quick comment of praise for the referee. He immediately stamped out the Villa roughhousing bullshit and pulled out early yellows. It makes a huge difference when an opponent has to think twice about making a foul.
Our press yesterday was something else. Ode has actually been good at pressing but often he’s the only one doing it. So he ends up wasting a lot of energy without us actually winning the ball back. Yesterday with Laca there were always at least two others joining in. At times we looked like a Klopp team. And you could see Villa players making really dumb mistakes because they weren’t given time on the ball. I really hope this continues. Beats the hell out of passively sitting back and letting the opposition ping the ball around.
The other thing is, we don’t actually have the players for sitting back. Whilst I do like the look of the team and the back 4, Tomi feels like the only Italian-style defensive player we have. No one else has what it takes to just soak up pressure, win duels, and make no mistakes. E.g. White was superb for 80 minutes end then he was passive for their goal and almost cost us another one. So counter press is the only way we’ll be able to make a run for top 4.