ARSENAL FUMBLE AT ANFIELD WITH NAIVE SHOWING. WHAT’S THE DAMAGE?

by .

Arsenal lost their first game since Manchester City away at Anfield to a team that has lost 1 in 27 games.

It was brutal.

A lesson in the true meaning of elite.

Fear not. This won’t be a blog post catastrophising the result because we have moved well beyond that sort of stuff. We’re not at the end of the journey with this squad. We’re at the start. Unbeaten runs are welcome but don’t think they will be the norm for at least a couple of years, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Losing 4-0 to any team is always going to sting, but it wasn’t the same as City at home, there we real positives. The first half was very good as far as I’m concerned. We competed with Liverpool, there was good structure, and everyone was up for the fight (including Arteta on the touchline).

The game didn’t turn on the first goal. We came out for the second half firing and we looked like a team that was going to have a crack. Sadly, the game turned on the second goal. Nuno Tavares, a player that has been very impressive, won the ball in defence, broke forward, and passed directly to Jota who did extremely well to finish past Ramsdale.

Everything went downhill after that. We saw firsthand the difference in experience and quality. Our heads dropped, the game plan fell apart, and we let Liverpool happen to us. Getting spanked like that always hurts, but remember, this Liverpool side turned around a 3-0 deficit at Anfield to a Barcelona that had Messi in it… they’ve been together 6 years, they are a team at the peak of their powers, we are a team at the start of our journey.

There are certainly some areas of concern. Our senior players didn’t really show up when we needed them.

We need to talk about Auba. I love him, he’s changed his game this season, the pressing is notable… but it’s not enough. He can’t become the striker this system needs. He’s not present enough because let’s be fair, his game has never been about that. We’re trying to turn him into something he’ll never be. We can ride it out against lesser teams like Spurs, but we’re always going to struggle in big away games because he doesn’t have the power or the game to be devastating against clubs like Liverpool.

The trouble with Auba and Lacazette is you need one player that adopts the strengths both currently share between themselves. Our team is crying out for a striker with the aggression and link-up play of Lacazette combined with the pace of Auba in his prime. We also need someone that can dominate like Adebayor or Olivier Giroud. Two of our most experienced players aren’t quite right and our younger strikers just aren’t ready. It’s no use shouting ‘GABRIEL MARTINELLI’ because we’ve seen him blow his chances this season against lesser teams. It’ll be baby steps with him and Liverpool certainly wasn’t the game for Arteta to drop on him.

Our biggest problem was midfield. They weren’t brave. The same issues we suffered against Brighton and Palace fizzed up in relevance again. The first half was compact, Thomas Partey and Sambi Lokonga did a really good job. They still didn’t play through Liverpool though. We didn’t really open up the game to our forwards the way we know those players can. We let Liverpool get into our heads, that made it hard for us.

I don’t want to say it, you don’t want me to say it, but a game like that needed a peak Xhaka next to Thomas Partey. He always shows, he never cowers, and he will move the ball forward. I’m actually really looking forward to having him as an option because in certain games, he gives us experience and skills we’re lacking a little bit at the moment. That’s not a sleight on Sambi Lokonga, there aren’t many 21-year-old midfielders in world football equipped to hold their own against Liverpool. It’s just part of our reality. Sambi is going to be a great in 2 years. This season, he’ll be great in certain games, because inconsistency is just part of the mix. If you need reassurance, just read what one of the Premier Leagues’ greatest defenders in Premier League history said about him recently.

‘The first thing I did when I saw Sambi is I went to Mikel and said, ‘You’ve got to watch this guy, he’s the new Yaya Toure.’

“What I like with Sambi – and it’s rare in football, what Yaya did have – is he wants the ball no matter what.

“If the teams not doing well, give the ball to Sambi. If the team’s doing well, give the ball to Sambi. He will never hide away from his responsibility.

“He has things he has to improve… if he remembers the conversations we’ve had, he will know exactly what he still has to work on but at the same time… Yaya was a finisher and that’s a very rare thing to have. I don’t know about that [with Sambi].”

“The point is you need players who are not afraid to have the ball when the going gets tough. As a centre-back, your job stops at a certain point on the ball.

“And you need to be able to give it to people who see the next pass, see the next move, take responsibility, take people on and put that tempo in when there’s no tempo in the game anymore. For me, that’s what Sambi has that makes him special.”

I’ll take his view over @Registorama⁰⁰⁷, 2000 Twitter followers, working at Carpetright in Slough.

Our defence conceded 4 goals, that’s not good, but I do feel confident that the group is going to get better and better. One thing is for certain now, we can play the ball out the back. Everyone is really comfortable. Ramsdale is just so, so elite. What a player. Hopefully, he doesn’t have too many games where he’s that busy. The rest of the unit is raw, but there’s a lot to love about them. Again, remember, the oldest player in our back 5 is 24 years old, there is SO much growth.

The investment this summer will pay dividends, but to move forward, we likely need a revamp of our frontline. If you have a DCL, Isak, Oshimen or a Tammy A in that starting 11, we’re a different proposition.

Games like Liverpool also show you the limitations of a project strategy like the one we’ve embraced. ESR and Saka weren’t at their prodigious best. That will happen. They are incredibly young to be occupying such important positions. That doesn’t mean their lapses don’t hurt us. Bukayo found some great spaces in the first half, there were three occasions when he had a choice to make that could have opened the game, each time, he picked the wrong one. Those moments change games. Simple as that. That’s part of the learning experience and the deal we do as fans when we have exciting kids in the squad. He’ll get better because of it, but that’s the difference between Arsenal and Liverpool. Salah and Firmino are both 29, ESR and Saka are 19 and 21. Want some context on that? Sadio Mane was starting his first season with Metz at 19 years old. He managed 22 appearances and 2 goals that season. Saka had made 85 Premier League appearances and started in the final of an international tournament by the time he was 20 in September. Mo Salah? He was playing for Al Mokawloon, he hadn’t made it to Switzerland or spent time with Jose Mourinho who would bin him to Roma. I really, really don’t want to be reading shite commentary that our Hale-End boys don’t have the skills to hit the highest of levels. You cannot treat Saka and ESR like they’re seasoned veterans, because they are not.

Arsenal is currently a very naive outfit. Liverpool isn’t just an outrageous squad from a technical perspective, they know the dark arts. Sadio Mane is a cheat, that’s why he riles everyone. When he’s firing into challenges, he’s a warrior, dropping elbows, crunching limbs, all under the guise of innocence… when he’s on the ball, someone brushes past him he hits the deck and screams like he’s been hit by artillery shrapnel. Arsenal don’t do that. We’re too honest. Tomiyasu is case in point, he’d stay on his feet if someone was clubbing him with a boot. Most of our players operate that way. We need to grow some fangs and find that edge that all the best teams have. It’ll come, but that sort of instinct for the game needs to be taught.

I did see a few people complaining about Arteta kicking off with Klopp, some journos suggested the game pivoted on that. Honestly, grow up. That for me was a ‘my manager’ moment. The greats kick-off and fight for their players. That’s the first time I’ve seen him do that. I loved it. Wenger did it. Fergie did it. Mourinho did it. Klopp and Pep do it. For 40 minutes, that game felt like a classic Arsenal game of the past. Everyone was up for the fight, the temperature was off the charts, and it felt like we were competing. It didn’t end that way, but look, Klopp doesn’t get that riled for games he thinks he’s breezing. It’s also extremely amusing that the crowd that whines relentlessly about the winnertivity of Guendouzi for having a go at Maupay AFTER a game had finished, are the same complaining about Arteta decorum. For the record, Simeone, Ferguson&Wenger, Pep G, and Mourinho have all been up to worse. If your moan today is Arteta stuck up for his players against a cheat, you need to get in the bin. Also, reference the last paragraph, it’s amusing that a segment of our fanbase is as green as our players. If you’re moaning about managerial decorum as Mane brings Masters Degree levels of shit-housery to the game, I really have to ask if you’re even paying attention.

Losing to Liverpool away at Anfield stings. We haven’t won there since 2012, so plenty of experienced Arsenal teams have dealt with this sort of defeat. We can do better, we will do better, but today we couldn’t do it. The internal target has to be to right the wrong at The Emirates.

The bigger job now is the next game. Arsenal, for 25 years, have always been awful after a great run of ‘unbeaten.’ Wenger’s teams were always clunky after a big run ended, Emery’s 21 game unbeaten run ended and the bad form didn’t stop until he was fired, Arteta had a good start last season, then sunk into hell. We can’t let this game kill our momentum. We have to react. That’s what big teams do.

We’re in Phase 4™ of the season. Arguably the toughest. This phase lasts until January 1st. It’s brutal. It happens fast. It goes a long way to deciding how a season finishes.

  • Saturday 20th November: Liverpool (A)
  • Saturday 27th November: Newcastle United (H)
  • Thursday 2nd December: Manchester United (A)
  • Monday 6th December: Everton (A)
  • Saturday 11th December: Southampton (H)
  • Wednesday 15th December: West Ham United (H)
  • Saturday 18th December: Leeds United (A)
  • Sunday 26th December: Norwich City (A)
  • Tuesday 28th December: Wolverhampton Wanderers (H)
  • Saturday 1st January: Manchester City (H)

There were 30 points to play for. We’ve dropped 3 already. 27 are available. Our target for this phase should be 20 points. If we can deliver that, I suspect we’ll very much be within spitting distance of top 4.

The back half of the season will see our big games played at home. Our young players will have adapted to the Arteta system and will have learned more about each other and the expectations of The Arsenal. The benefits of no European football should start to pay dividends as some of our rivals move into the next stages of Europe.

Arteta needs to pick the players up from this heavy defeat. Newcastle arrives in 7 days, then we have a really big test against a United that I suspect will have no coach by that point. That’s a chance to make a dent in their top 4 challenge to make it impossible for their next manager and it’s a chance for the coaching staff to earn a little fan capital back.

This season is still on track my friends. Leicester lost, West Ham lost, Palace drew, Brighton lost, and United lost. Spurs can’t go above us tomorrow, nor can Everton. We are still 5th in the table, 3 points behind 3rd, 5 behind 2nd, after a game we didn’t really have much of a chance to win. The most important thing now is winning our next game and making sure we stay in the pack.

Ignore the catastrophisers that had nothing to say during the 3-month unbeaten run. If you are a person that thinks there’s an ‘I told you so’ moment after an away loss against Liverpool, you are a f*cking idiot. If you see people calling time on the project today, just think about how sad their Arsenal existence is. Their love is not with the club, it’s with their dead agendas they are trying to resurrect because they’ve forgotten what being a supporter is all about.

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Pierre

Aubamayang receives a lot of criticism for his performances and lack of goals but maybe we should be looking for the reason as to why he has gone from a prolific goalscorer to an average goalscorer.. From when he first arrived at Arsenal in jan 2017 until the artival of covid in march 2019 , Aubamayang was prolific. In the Premier league from jan 2017 until March 2019 Aubamayang Played …69 Scored ….50 =prolific In the Premier league post covid from march 2019 until present. Played ..46 Scored 19 =average. Maybe he and the team are now lacking an experienced… Read more »

Pierre

Azed
“The shocking thing about our xG and xGA is we are not playing in Europe”

Refer to my previous comment as to why our xG is so poor …
I can guarantee you without looking that our XG was far higher with ozil in the side.

azed

Pierre

It’s not the lack of creativity, our manager is a defend first, attack second kind of manager

Words on a blog

Pierre,

Ozil is gone.

The question is now how do we improve our chances created (and converted) without him in the side.

Words on a blog

Cc,

Welcome back.

As a matter of fact, azed’s comment that “This is worse than Emery” is actually not a “suffocating shit opinion” but an objective observation based on his XG and XGA record as compared to Emery.

So please call off the attack dogs.

Words on a blog

Arteta’s XG and XGA record relative to Emery’s

china1

We are absolutely in the mix for 4th

We have the 5th best squad, mathematically we’re right up there and in terms of performances we’ve more than shown we have enough to roll over a large majority of teams, top teams aside.

We may or may not get 4th but unless man Utd turn the corner relatively soon I don’t see any particular reason why we can’t or shouldn’t.

Mb

Liverpool away confirmed that if we replace Auba, Laca and Partey with Eddie, Martinelli and Patino – we will either be same or better.

What do you think?

Mb

And we sold the wrong players, should have kept Willock and sold Niles.

I love the kid, he got heart but Willock is better undoubtedly.

Mb

Good post, Pedro.

I’m in agreement with you after long time. We might see some more 4-0 in next 2 years but these kids are learning and will only improve from here.

We need to keep our heads up. And nope, Xhaka is not needed.

Mb

Btw, for advertisements, I would suggest to go for renting space on your blog instead of the usual monetization ones like AdSense, Media Net etc.

china1

We also don’t have European distractions this season

I’ll be damned if we can have

No European distractions
A much better squad than last season
The 5th best squad in the league
Go into December mathematically right up there
A manager who is supposedly very good

^ if we still can’t get 4th or very close then the season will be a failure. As of right now top 4 is there for the taking if we just land roughly where we should considering the current context

No excuses please.

Upstate Gooner

Unbelievable… So now we lost because we didn’t have Xhaka? Or a striker like DCL or Abraham? Well, guess what? Xhaka is still a bum, and neither DCL nor Tammy A. are playing for Arsenal or coming to us in the near future. Why not add Mbappe and/or Neymar to that list? And calling people effin idiots for pointing out the obvious is really something. You know who else is an idiot? Someone who said that beating teams like Burnley, Norwich, and Watford 1-0, and barely escaping with draws against the mighty Brighton and Crystal Palace was a sign of… Read more »

Matt B

Superb post Pedro

Matt B

Good to see you back CC

Rich

Football isn’t played on paper, but you’ve got to think United still have enough firepower to edge into 4th

They’ve got so many goals in the squad

Upstate Gooner

I was not a fan of Ramsdale signing but he’s definitely proving me wrong. If it wasn’t for him yesterday, it would’ve been much, much worse. He’s the only one who earned his paycheck yesterday. The rest were an utter embarrassment including Arteta who was once again exposed for the fraud that he is.

Chris

I’ve always preferred the eye test overall to stats/xg etc xG and all its sub categories can be useful to a point but football is far too much a chaotic art form as to be broken down into purely statistical reasonings for what occurs on the pitch. That may be a romantic view as such but my eyes tell me we are currently nowhere near as bad as we were under late Emery, but we are at present struggling to present a sustained attacking threat and lack for goals from open play. Our negative goal difference is a stat however… Read more »

Globalgunner

A few of us predicted Aubameyangs demise just before he signed the latest contract. He would have been someone elses problem now but too many teeny boppers here were crying buckets of tears at the prospect of losing him. He cant run anymore, cant head a ball, has a poor first touch and couldn’t battle with an anaemic 15year old defender for the ball. So what exactly was the point?. Arsenal always seem to need an expensive pensioner on the books. The club ends up spending more simply to stay in the same place. Should have gotten rid in 2020

Leedsgunner

Frankly not worried if Brenda goes to Man Utd. He’s a decent coach but he couldn’t get over the line for an EPL title with a midfield general like Gerrard and peak Luis Suarez… so he has choked before and more likely than not he will choke again. Not that it will really matter; he will write off this season until the summer when he can start bringing in his own players. Plus, unless he absolutely tanks – the bar will be so low for him he has no pressure on him at all. The manager I would worry over… Read more »

Nelson

I was surprised to see what a support from the coach can do to a player. Mané made the same fault last game and received a card. Arteta reacted to the fault. Klopp reacted very strongly to defend Mané. The next thing we saw, Mané jumped higher than all our defenders and headed in the opening goal.

Globalgunner

Mane always bullies our defenders. I remember a game when we had Sokratis and Mustafi in the backline and he ran through them like the incredible Hulk. Knocking them over like bowling pins. Shocking stuff

Champagne Charlie

Woab No it’s very much a shit opinion because it’s purposefully removing all context and pretending weight in samples has no impact whatsoever. Azed loves to pull stunts like that, and I love to point it out time and again. Our xG and xGA are low and high respectively because of the 2 heavy defeats to Liverpool and City. Our xG is 15.47 after 12 games, and our xGA is 21.81. Against City/Liverpool combined we offered just 0.39 xG whilst suffering 8.44 xGA – which makes a massive difference to our overall expected numbers given nearly 40% of our xGA… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Cheers Matt, good to see you

izzo

3 seasons in and its still the start of the project. Excuses excuses excuses. Two more years until they BANG. Fucking boring. I’m definitely an “idiot” for not believing in this project that keeps being reset as the beginning. “Oh just you wait we’re on the right path and if you can’t see it I can’t help you”. Pedro works in marketing so so surprise he drops these sort of language to keep you on this flawed project. Still can’t score goals against top half teams. The struggle is there for all to see. Where is the attacking flair and… Read more »

rollen

Lol so we need Xhaka Loreal and Ade . Great insight.

Upstate Gooner

Ernest Reed
November 21, 2021 11:07:34

Spot on

Aaron

If AFC lose to Palace, Villa, Newcastle and manure, Arteta should be fired on the spot!

azed

I love how when it comes to Arteta there’s context.
The season starts after Christmas or after the transfer window or .

azed

Oh let b me just point out that if your remove Liverpool and City, most teams will have improved metrics.

Rich

Aaron

Wake up, we’ve already beaten Villa and took a point off Palace

It’s November 21st

Sid

Didnt Emery make a fool of Diet Pep and his fanboys in the Europa league?

Champagne Charlie

Azed

You remove outliers, or at the least consider them, when sampling – unless you have an agenda to push like you often do.

Emery would concede a goal per game for 5 matches, whereas Arteta keeps 4 clean sheets and then we concede 5. Same numbers over 5 games, but the story is entirely different. You don’t get that though, just out your box after a stuffing at Anfield to push wank “facts” about our xGA being 16th and the like. Transparent af.

Tom

Pedro, if Liverpool “have been together for 6 years” , then Arsenal have been together for 2 years or even more. Only 2 Liverpool players from the 2016-17 squad featured for them yesterday. 2 more from the 2017-18 squad, 3 from the 2018-19 squad, and 4 were last season’s acquisitions. As a matter of fact, the last three important transfers in Klopp’s title winning puzzle were all on defense, with VVD, Fabinho, and Alisson. Arteta chose a different route and he’s building his team from the back , if I’m gonna be generous here. Maybe that’s why our attacking has… Read more »

Aaron

Rich,

Not with the new coaches!

AFC Forever

Very nice post Pedro.

Up to the second goal, we looked well organised and disciplined but mistakes at this level hurt you. Liverpool are a great team, and at Anfield pretty formidable. The younger players will learn from that. However, in the summer we will need to sort out the front line to prevent the ball keep coming back at us against the best teams. I believe that needs recruitment. If it’s half as good as last summer’s, it will transform us with the ball.

Sid

Diet Pep fanboys need better ammo than “good to see you back after a loss”
its weak, im telling you for free!

Aaron

Put this here as a reminder. Do NOT press Do NOT create Set the team up to NOT make a mistake Do NOT take chances or step outside of your lane. This is without European futbol and we only play one game a week. Arteta needs to be canned if we get 8th again-period. 100 games in charge as the skipper and not his fault. F me……… Our xG is in the toilet, period! Shots have improved because Partey is taking 3 from outside the box. Auba is not getting $h*tE for service. And last but not least… wait for… Read more »

Rich

Aaron, what new coaches?

We drew with Palace on Oct 18th 2021, 2-2

We beat Villa 3-1 on Oct 22nd 2021, 3-1

We then went onto beat both Leicester + Watford

If you’re from the past, then I’ll send up future lottery numbers, if you promise to split the winnings with me?

What century are you in?

Karsa

Aaron, the coaches at Villa and Norwich aren’t new, they’ve coached before.

Tom

Pedro, yes our heads dropped, and I’m not inside anyone’s head, especially our players’ , but maybe it’s because they know we haven’t been scoring enough to come back from a two goal deficit no matter how that second goal came about.

Aaron

Rich,
Let’s see..
Viera, Gerrard, Howe, and possibly Zidane.

What are you smoking, wake up and what century are you in?

azed

Pedro

I was here during the game, just as I was during the Leicester game.

I have a baby and don’t have as much time as I used to.

Oh and if you check my comments during the game, I wasn’t concerned about the loss, my worry has been scoring only 7 goals in open play.

Remove the City, Liverpool and Chelsea and our attack is still poor.

Graham62

What exactly does Aubameyang bring to the table, as it stands?

Exactly!…………Absolutely zilch!

So why not start with Nketiah and Lacazette?

Oh yeah, of course, Eddie was not on the bench.

Silly me.

So why not Martinelli?

Oh yeah, silly me, he isn’t good enough!!

Trust in the process folks.

Aaron

Karsa,

As in new club, and experienced, see the point now?

Rich+robbins

We got schooled period. Great first half, youthful mistakes, without no strength from midfield or strikers, can’t win. A great growth education. Another step……toward positive development. Go gooners

Karsa

Aaron. I got it from the start.

You were comparing new managers at clubs with Arteta who is a new manager full stop.

Get it now?

azed

Emery would concede a goal per game for 5 matches, whereas Arteta keeps 4 clean sheets and then we concede 5. Same numbers over 5 games, but the story is entirely different.

Stop doing mental gymnastics, you’ve conceded 5 goals and that column can determine if a team gets relegated or not.

Aaron

Ok Karsa,

100 games is not new mate!

Got it now!

AFC Forever

Pedro, I agree.

Thought the lads did well. We showed good discipline and made Liverpool work hard yesterday. The second goal killed us & we list our discipline through inexperience. Liverpool at Anfield are levels above most teams, they’ve dominated in Europe for that reason. I really don’t understand the need to fake outrage, it’s so unnecessary & unpleasant, however predictable it may be.

azed

Erm

Pedro we haven’t really done well, most of wins in the unbeaten run was down to Ramsdale making spectacular saves..

How many games can you say we’ve dominated from start to finish?

Once upon a time, you hated when Leno was “our best player”
Once upon a time, after every game we heard stories about xG and xGA.

Graham62

When you have a young team, as is constantly highlighted on here, if you’re going to lose it at 0-0 in a game that truly matters, don’t do it at Anfield. Remember some of those fans are naturally versed in giving out verbal abuse. Don’t light the blue touch paper.

In fact, can I suggest that if you’re an inexperienced manager and coach, as Arteta is, you don’t even do it at any away game.

Even Worthing Town FC!

Rich

Aaron, it’s ridiculous to sack a manager for individual results We could lose to Villa, Newcastle and United, but still quality for the Europa league or CL What happens if we beat Newcastle, Villa + United, but lose the rest of our games, Would that be acceptable to you? Arteta’s job this season is to qualify for the Europa League, and to improve the football, if he doesn’t do that, then he should be handed his P45 We’ll lose plenty of games this season, but we should also get our fair share of results I wish things were better, but… Read more »

Pierre

What is worrying is that in our last 3 away league matches , Ramsdale has been man of the match for Arsenal

Brighton
Sbots against 21
Shots for . .8

Leicester
Shots against ..16
Shots for…………….9

Liverpool
Shots against ….19
Shots for …………..5

And probably half of our shots were from lakonga or partey from outside the box…

One would expect that by now under Arteta, Arsenal would at least start to have a modicum of control in our away games..

His main objective should be to try and find a way for the team to perform away from home..

azed

Pedro

If I were to be a manager, I’ll rather win 2-1 than 1-0.

Everyone is afraid of City and Liverpool because of their ability to score goals and that helps them become better defensively because teams are afraid to attack them.

That’s why our heads dropped against Liverpool. We are not so good at creating chances.
What’s our winning percentage after going down at half time?

Aaron

Rich,

See your point, but you do not see mine.

Our futbol is dire, plain and simple.

If we do not get 4th or better, Arteta needs to go along with Edu and other management.

Futbol is about winning and entertainment.

azed

What is worrying is that in our last 3 away league matches , Ramsdale has been man of the match for Arsenal

Thanks for this Pierre.

Aaron

Rich,

If we lose those games we are not going to be 4th….

Pierre

Pedro
“. Think we just took our foot off that gas against a LCFC side we felt we’d comfortably beat.”

Not quite how i saw it , we did have a purple patch early on and then retreated back into our shell and Ramsdale did have to make a number of saves to keep our clean sheet.
Losing to liverpool is not the end of the world , they are an excellent side and will probably go on to win the league if they can keep that intensity up, and keep salah and van djke fit..

Rich

Aaron

We’re clearly not on the same level as Liverpool, Chelsea, City, they’ll very likely take up the top 3 spots

We’ve got an outside chance of 4th, but while United are in a bit of bother, they’ve still got a very good squad, with a lot of goal scorers

We could edge United into 4th, it’s realistic enough, but that would be a slight overachievement IMO

There’d have to be serious internal problem for United not to turn it around, they’ve surely got enough firepower to blow most teams away with a decent coach

Graham62

Pedro

We were actually doing better against Liverpool( at 0-0) than we were at the same stage against Brighton.

Thank goodness our manager didn’t have a set-to with Graham Potter.

Rich

Go Leeds

Nelson

I like this Harrison. He overpowered the right back before setting up the goal.

AFC Forever

Pedro
.
“The idea that people have that our unbeaten run would just go on forever is a bit childish.”

They know, like we all do, that no team has won the PL winning every game. They just use a defeat to Grind their Arteta axe. I will never understand that type of behaviour from a fan. The fact Azed & Aaron haven’t been on here for months, sums up how sad some people are waiting for us to lose a game

DivineSherlock

I think the moment of truth will come with regards to Laca and Auba , just like last season it happened with Willian and Cedric . Once we play Eddie/Balogun/Martinelli with ESR Saka and Odegaard for a number of games . Should happen pretty soon .

Rich

Conte’s Spurs being jeered, then booed off at halftime by their own supporters, brings real joy to my heart

bennydevito

As long as we put in a good performance and get the 3 points against Newcastle that should set us up nicely for utd away. With Carrick as the interim manager I don’t see the utd players bothering any more than they did for COle as they’ll know their positions aren’t under threat until the new guy is in permanently. A draw if not a win will set us up nicely for the 20 pts we should be aiming for in phase 4

azed

Azed, that’s because you like Emery.

Pedro

Why did you say Emery and not Wenger? Wenger didn’t care about the defensive side as much.

bennydevito

*Ole not COle ffs!

AFC Forever

Spurs fans have just boo’d off their team at half time.

Three consecutive games without a shot on target.

DivineSherlock

Conte takes the Spurs offer after waiting for so long for Utd and then they sack Ole . Classic .

Nelson

Carrick was there with Mou and with OGS. I can’t see he is any good running the Manure team with so many star players. You need a coach with strong personality and a proven system to work. Carrick looks like a yes man to me.

AFC Forever

Rich, beat me to it. This is an injury ravaged Leeds team too.

AFC Forever

Nelson

I agree. Man Utd have the lowest running stats not because of OGS but because of their players ego’s. Van Der Beek & Cavani must wonder what they have to do to get minutes. We had similar problems a while back. As good as these players are, it seems like they’re simply not putting 100% in for the team, Players get away with it, Managers pay the price.

Nelson

I am probably watching a different game. After the 1st goal, Sambi Lokonga lost his confidence with the ball. TP was not 100% to start with. Our midfield was so crap and I didn’t see us coming back.

Aaron

AFC, I have been here, just not prolific. No reason to post, for me everyday, as I have been watching the last 100 games in a row, have you? Maybe I am not just your type of “fan.” The team has been playing $h*te futbol, from an entertainment perspective for years, Emery included. We might be in 5th place right now, but AFC will regress to the mean in it’s xG, and we will finish outside of the top 4. That according to the numbers and eye test. Let’s see if Arteta, slots Xhaka, and underperforming Partey right back in… Read more »

Samesong

Is Dan James the fastest in the league? he’s rapid

Terraloon

Ok it’s early in the season but the only time Arsenal have scored a goal after the opponent has scored was in the 2-2 against Palace.

Not quite sure what to make of that but it doesn’t bode well should Arsenal go a goal down. And that has to change

Karsa

In fairness we’ve had a lot of clean sheets.

Globalgunner

I love how every single Leeds outfield player is an offensive player. Anything in sight of goal and “bang”

Champagne Charlie

“Stop doing mental gymnastics, you’ve conceded 5 goals and that column can determine if a team gets relegated or not.“

The ignorance is quite something.

4 clean sheets and losing 5-0 isn’t the same as conceding 1 goal for 5 straight games just because the net amount conceded is 5 goals.

Painful trying to dress that up as some sort of mental gymnastics, it’s basic football comprehension. Like I say, it’s telling you had nothing to say about xGA when we’ve been 2nd for it in the league the last 8 matches.

Terraloon

Karsa

It’s five clean sheets in the league but Arsenal have let in 17 so after 16 goals have gone I. Arsenal have score one. Even Chelsea who have had 8 clean sheets have scored more after5he opposing team has scored

Terraloon

Let’s try that again

It’s five clean sheets in the league but Arsenal have let in 17 so after 16 goals have gone In Arsenal have only scored score once
Even Chelsea who have had 8 clean sheets have scored more after opposing team has scored against them

Spanishdave

Aaron
Nice one
We are so pedestrian off the ball.
Watch the throw ins when nobody moves to create space to receive the ball.
Arteta is doing nothing different

andy1886

Xhaka moves the ball forwards? Are there two of them? Biggest sideways and backwards passer of the ball I’ve ever seen at Arsenal in fifty years. Makes Ray ‘the crab’ Wilkins look like peak Santi by comparison.

Karsa

We need to score more, there’s no doubts there.

Terraloon

Karsa

That’s th3 big issue

TR7

Arsenal do struggle to create good chances. It’s only when ESR gets in to good positions to run with the ball do Arsenal look a bit threatening. This deficiency will eventually catch up on us.