Manchester United vs Arsenal goes down as the most frustrating game of the season. We lost. We shouldn’t have. That was a very hard dropped 3 points.
There are some pretty clear areas we need to improve in over the next 2 months if we want a realistic chance of winning things, and the first I want to talk about is confidence.
Arsenal controlled the opening phase of the game, we went a goal up (hilarious goal), then we replicated the familiar pattern of trying to see out a lead like it was the 88th minute. This is a confidence thing. It’s about the experience we lack at the moment. It is a problem because we let teams back into games when we shouldn’t. We’ve even played like this when we’ve won (Spurs / Leicester), the pattern is the same… we don’t know how to lead in games.
The next difficult topic we have to address is that once again, we’re in December, and it’s the senior players letting us down. Last year it was Willian and Luiz, this year it’s Partey and Auba. When I saw Big Mo on the teamsheet, I didn’t think he’d be bossing TP. But he did. The Ghanaian was at his imperious worst. His control was poor, he was giving the ball away for fun, and he just didn’t impose himself on the game. You can’t have that from your £45m centre midfielder. We’re getting to the point now that when Xhaka is back, it’ll be Lokonga partnering him.
Then there was Auba. Is he trying? Yes. Is he game for the cause? Yes. But he can’t player the Arteta system. He’s built for a counter-attacking side and that is not Arsenal. We need a brute. We need someone that can run the line, bully defenders, actually hold the ball up… finish. Our captain can’t do any of those things at the moment and it’s killing us. If Lacazette isn’t there, it’s like playing with 10 men. He was so anonymous.
Arteta gets rolled into this problem. He gave Auba a huge deal. Let’s be clear, there wasn’t another option. ‘I SAID SELL HIM’ doesn’t really wash, because if we had done that at the time, it would have been carnage. However, Arteta is now dealing with the burden of that decision. His richest player is also his captain… and our coach is shying away from benching him. In fact, he’s shying away from taking him off when he’s killing our game. If he’d removed him on 55 when he should have, maybe the game ends differently. The players don’t trust him with long balls into feet. They know he won’t keep hold of it. We spent 150m on defensive specialists that could hit a striker from 70 yards, now our issue is that the striker can’t hold onto it. The Odegaard penalty doesn’t happen if you have Lukaku upfront.
The last issue is errors. They’ve crept back into our game. All of those goals were avoidable. Ben White gifting United possession for the opener. Tavares and ESR having a total fail for the second. Odegaard with a wild slide tackle on Fred for the 3rd. It’s not acceptable to be doing that at Old Trafford.
All three of those goals were out of character for the squad. The sloppy passing with the most painful to digest because we’re too good for that. Part of the panic came from not killing the game off when United were looking extremely lethargic. We don’t have a kill mode at the moment. Part of that comes from not having a sharp point to our spear, part of that is that this team hasn’t had a lot of experiences together.
A few people were complaining about Mo Elneny starting. I’m with you, I don’t like to see him in the starting 11, but I suspect Lokonga had a tight muscle, so they didn’t risk him. Bit of a shame that AMN doesn’t have the trust yet… but let’s be real, he played well, he was the least of our worries.
We deserved to lose because we gifted a shite United the game for very little. The game was so weird. It was like a training match after 3 nights on the lash.
However, I have come out of that game pretty clear that we’re a much better team. United fans know this as well. We have better structure, our football identity is clearer, and the attitude is there. We just need to grow up a bit faster.
There were some good performances as well. Martin Odegaard is getting better with every game. He made a stupid error for the penalty, but that goal was stunning. He’s going to be good for us, I hope he gets more time on Monday to show his worth. There were a couple of United fans in my Twitch stream saying they were happy when he was subbed off.
Martinelli has his sparkle back. He’s powerful, creative, and he will impose himself on defenders. He was very naive not to pass when he was through on goal in the first half, a goal there kills the game, but he’ll make a better decision the next time. He should start the next game.
There were some good periods of dominance in the game. We controlled United and played some nice football when we had the bravery to do it. Problem is, we didn’t do it with enough intensity when the opportunity was there. Our game jolted back when we were chasing. That needs to get better.
So a painful loss. Some obvious areas of improvement. A chance to show what we’re worth on Monday against a very poor Everton side.
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We can all interpret Arseteta’s instructions cos we all have a real time Arteta cam footage
Terraloon
Not to the manager’s pocket, to the Club’s pocket – which is perfectly okay since if the Club sell him for less than they paid, the Club takes the loss.
Let’s go Teets. Come on!
Starting with Everton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgffRW1fKDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EFiPldOq9s
‘It’s because of a lack of experience’
*Experienced players usually biggest culprits*
Interesting ESPN article here:
https://global.espn.com/sports/soccer/insider/story/_/id/32778146/why-arsenal-weirdest-most-volatile-team-modern-era
The article uses stats from the supposed founder of XG, a former le-grove favourite.
Since the Article requires an ESPN+ log in here are the interesting bits & bobs. “If you want to feel good about Arsenal, you look at the table, and you see the team in fifth place, one point out of fourth. Given that they’ve finished eighth in manager Mikel Arteta’s first two seasons at the club, that’s progress! Well, until your eyes continue to scan to the right and you see that they’ve actually been outscored by three goals over the course of 14 matches. Given that only one team has finished in the top four with a negative goal… Read more »
Don’t understand why so many on here want guarantees about league position. It’s a bit odd.
Someone earlier mentioned arrogance. It’s that and a whole heap more. What is the point in supporting a team if all you’re going to do is bitch and moan and shit your pants if we’re not top 4 throughout the season.
Doesn’t sound like support to me, just non-stop, perpetual moaning
Fucks sake, we are 1 point off 4th! !!
Interesting post MD. The excuses for losses and draws are paradoxical, in as much as Arteta apologists claim we have to be patient, as it’s the youngest first 11 citing experience counts, and then Pedro and his mini-me’s throw the older players under the bus using the excuse of tanking and poor performances. It seems indecision follows Arteta not only on the pitch, but off it as well. We’ll beat Everton if Arteta makes the right selections, tactics and in-game management. Something over the last 24 months Arteta has failed to do pretty much in most games. Auba was a… Read more »
Another interesting point for any Arsenal fan reading that piece: “If you’ve heard of “expected goals,” Michael Caley is one of the main reasons why. Back in 2013, he created his own xG model at the Tottenham Hotspur fan-blog, Cartilage Free Captain“ Nothing like getting statistical hot takes straight from the mouth of a Spurs fan. Quite something that yet again none of the relevant context of the season/squad features in the “analysis”. Glosses over the age of the squad, and mentions nothing of the first XI overhaul three games in. Just pure xG’ing all the way to the projected… Read more »
@Tony
End of October Pedro posted that from the next 10 games Arsenal needs 20 points. in November we got 6 points from 12, which leaves us with 14 from 18. What that means is from these next 6 games 4 wins and 2 draws are the minimum. So going into 2022 we will see who will come out on top, the bedwetters or the dry bedded a-holes. With Arteta in charge you can bet your first born it will be the bedwetters celebrating New Years eve 😆
DCL, is he really worth the price that Everton is going ask for him? I can’t see him moving for anything less than £50m at the very least in the summer and if we want him in January I can see the price going up to £70m to £80m if we really want him in January. However, the longer we persist with Auba the more desperate we are going to get. Any selling club will know that and they will drive a hard bargain. My thoughts are, once you start thinking about spending £70m to £80m isn’t Alexander Isak or… Read more »
Everton might bite if we offered our fringe defenders because they need EPL proven defenders badly… and come to think of it, a new keeper. I wonder if Leno could also be a makeweight…
I still believe in the process, but looking back on the Man United game very disappointing because logically, given that we scored 2 from the attacking midfield we should have salvaged a draw…
Auba really really let us down.
*salvaged at least a draw…
MD tbh those of us with urine soaked undergarments and stained bedsheets will not have anything to celebrate if we underachieve.
I’d much rather be wrong for having doubts than be proved right.
Humble pie tastes rather nice when the underlying reason is good (arsenal doing well). I’d much rather celebrate being wrong about arteta than being right if arsenal do badly
The problems with our attack are not because we had a squad overhaul We have zero new offensive players in the squad this season Ode is not a new player. We have Sambi in midfield – he’s not an attacker but his contribution to our ability to progress the ball up the pitch is a net positive. Tavares and Tomi contribute from fullback but have (especially in Tomi’s case) done well. Tavares has had a couple of bad games and been otherwise good. White has been better than Luiz was last season at starting attacks. So I’m really not buying… Read more »
No rehash of last December. It’s most likely the opposite.
I can’t believe we spent 50m on white and didn’t bring in either a proper mid or a striker.
Absolutely ridiculous the play from the back at all costs mentality though.
It’s so contradictory to Artetas attacking play.
He will feed high balls into the box expecting our weak forwards to get onto the end of it, yet doesn’t want to play a long ball when the pressure is just too much.
That tactic in itself has cost us games.
Happy with the loss
Everyone who watched that game came away knowing. We were the better team. Auba, saka, partey off nights. Not impressed w elnenys game. Sadly, w xhaka in we win
Pierre
“The Bard
“The fact that we play El Neny tell you everything about the depth of the squad.”
I think it more tells you everything about the manager, who preferred Elneny over AMN, lakonga , Guendouzi and Torreira…..all better players than Elneny”
Shockingly bad squad building from tets there. Just makes it funnier he was a cm himself, yet doesn’t want a bar of it
We were never gonna win with TP stinking out the joint and Mo by his side. Not that Mo was our biggest problem on the night. Ode hasn’t shown the willingness…I’ll leave it at that…to own the midfield in a scrap so that further limited our effectiveness. My biggest gripe was that TP and Mo finished the match. I know we’re paper-thin, but AMN, maybe drop Ode back and slide ESR over, something to stop the pain? Instead we just watched the same dire play all night as Fred and McT dominated. How do you let that happen? Sometimes it’s… Read more »
Xhaka in we win 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Xhaka defo would’ve dominated that game just like he has done in all of 5 other games in the last 5 years
Difference maker that one!
My weekend couldn’t get worse. We lost to Manure, then I broke my phone’s LCD, which was launched in my native so I can’t get a replacement. Lolol.
In Xhaka, we trust.
Difference between Pep and diet Pep is the team. City has world class players, play them in any formation and they will win it for you.
To achieve that level, you either should have a billion pounds or 3 years recruiting with a very high success rate. AND A VERY GOOD MANAGER!
I’m all IN for the young motivated team and building a team which will mature in next 2 seasons. However, the game which we ‘should’ have won like Manure one is on the manager.
How to nullify Arsenal 101
1. Mark ESR and possibly Saka
2. Anticipate Benny Biancos passes.
Those are the main chance creation tactics for Diet Pep.
How to nullify Arsenal 101
1. Mark ESR and possibly Saka
2. Anticipate Benny Biancos passes
3. Allow TP time to think.
How to nullify Arsenal 101
1. Mark ESR and possibly Saka
2. Anticipate Benny Biancos passes
3. Allow TP time to think.
4. Play Aubameyang.
How to nullify Arsenal 101
1. Mark ESR and possibly Saka
2. Anticipate Benny Biancos passes
3. Allow TP time to think.
4. Play Aubameyang
5. Press the two midfielders
Hope My Benitez isn’t reading le grove
Mr
You do Not need to press the 2 midfielders, they are under instructions to stay in posición
If you check Auba’s goal for Dortmund, most of the goals were from inside the bor or as we like to call it, tap in merchant.
https://youtu.be/MN20WzGFda0
He needs to freedom to move in the box when he wants, and someone to feed him the ball ( Saka, ESR, Laca/Ode) and he would score any day.
He is dropping down in his own half everytime we defend and it’s quite tough to go back in the box in time with age.
He should be, what Cristiano was for Real Madrid.
The reason we dont tackle is because the opposition players retreat out of the posiciòn assigned to an Arsenal player just when the tackle is about to happen. loool
Sorry about the spellings but I’m sure you can figure out what I’m saying.
At Dortmund Auba had Reus, Gundogan, Mikhi, Gotze and most importantly Klopp as manager.
Diet Pep needs a Drogba/Diego Costa type of CF. Battering ram
His tactics are similar to Mourinho. Thats why there are mumurings of Dominic Calvert lewin
England
Not to the manager’s pocket, to the Club’s pocket – which is perfectly okay since if the Club sell him for less than they paid, the Club takes the loss.
Of course the club will potentially both gain and indeed lose but I can assure you that certain managers have clauses in their contracts that should they bring in a player for £x and that player is then sold for £x+ then that manager gets a % of the profit.
What exactly is our style of play?
What is our identity?
It really pisses me off that folk compare Pep with Arteta.
Chalk and cheese in every way.
MB
“He( Aubamayang) is dropping down in his own half everytime we defend and it’s quite tough to go back in the box in time with age.He should be, what Cristiano was for Real Madrid.”
Exactly, Similar to what I posted yesterday about Aubamayang being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hands up who thinks Aubameyang will start at Everton.
Sorry Pierre I missed the yesterday’s one but most of us can see that, except Arteta.
This is what’s baffling for the ‘bed-wetters’. It’s not about trusting the kids and giving time to the process. We are all behind it.
Playing Elneny against Manure, odd substitutions, sticking to Auba when you can try Eddie, Martinelli getting 3min of game times, playing Saka week in and week out though everyone can see he is fatigued is some other recent ones. List is just growing over 2 years now.
Graham62
I guess he will, but I think he shouldn’t.
Sid
Auba was scoring 20+ a season a year back without Klopp, Gundagoan, Mkhi etc.
Either he is finished, or the manager plays a game that don’t suit his style.
He should be benched in both cases. He is too old to learn new tricks.
And it’s not like we don’t have anyone. I’m sure you play Balogun/Eddie/Martinelli as CF, and they would score not less than what Auba has.
To let you know, Smith Rowe has more goals than Auba this season..and we expect more from the Smith.
“”””Sid
Auba was scoring 20+ a season a year back without Klopp, Gundagoan, Mkhi etc.””””
I will let @Pierre reply to this.
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Can’t wait for our next win so that pierre,sid and their band of no nothing sean dyces obsessed can go into hiding once more.
”””Sid Auba was scoring 20+ a season a year back without Klopp, Gundagoan, Mkhi etc.”””” The loss of Ozil has had an impact on Aubamayang as his goalscoring has dropped dramatically since Ozil was frozen out….Ozil used to create positions for his team mates to supply the cross onto the corridor of uncertainty, something we do not see enough of these days Aubamayang did have a spell during the FA cup run when he scored many different types of goals , his Thierry Henry phase i would call it,, but that was short lived and for the past 16 months… Read more »
The thing that annoyed me about Auba in the Utd game was the way he jumped early and high for high balls played upfield to him and then was nearly back on the ground by the time the ball arrived. It looked like pretend effort rather than commitment.
Raulishuss “Can’t wait for our next win so that pierre,sid and their band of no nothing sean dyces obsessed can go into hiding once more.” Actually , i have said many positive things about the united game and I’m looking forward to beating Everton, which I think we will do uf we get through the opening 20 minutes unscathed. I’m not sure why some think Tavares had a poor game, i thought he played a good disciplined game , maybe a little too disciplined for me as I would have liked to have seen more ambition going forward . He… Read more »
Raulishuss
Are you one of those many snobs?
So many good comments, a lot to agree with. Firstly, Arteta blew it this time. Was a winnable game, and we still could’ve grabbed a point but his subs choices were the absolute worst I can remember going all the way back to Wenger. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, wasn’t Ainsley very good last time he started? Some people thought was motm. So El neny? Only if nobody else can walk, as far as I’m concerned. Save him to rest others vs Everton. Ødegaard was quite good, even detractors here admitted….and after his mistake tackle, he would’ve been motivated… Read more »
We were told on here that Lokonga didn’t play at OT because he had a “tight muscle”.
Fake news folks!
The reason Lokonga didn’t play was because Elneny did well in training and he likes the bright lights of Manchester.
Did he really have a good game?
Bearing in mind Partey was well below par.
Graham
“Raulishuss, are you one of those many snobs?
More like KNOBS…know nothing only bull shit.
Nigel Tufnel
Yes, of course Arteta “blew it” as he tends to do quite often.
Nothing about that in the post.
Just an endless and boring list of excuses.
It’s the modern way on here.
Aubameyang shouldn’t have played.
Elneny shouldn’t have played.
Tavares shouldn’t have played.
Changes were too late.
What more evidence do we need?
Arteta is blameless of course.
Pierre The supply is almost non existent. GIROUD once used to have abiut a gazillion chances before he scored or even going far back as when Adebayor would need a dozen chances created before he tucked one or two in. We don’t have any creativity in midfield hence why we’re heading towards another low scoring season if you ask me. I get the need for a new striker but unless you’re getting some chance creating/ goal scoring machine, most of which are few and far between and are at the best teams, we need to get a better CAM to… Read more »
If we lose tierney that would be mad,
New contract in the summer , this stuff that he isn’t arteta a man is insane. This isn’t a mafia, you work with people who are not family, wenger didn’t get rid of Bergkamp as he wasn’t his man he broght in.
We will regret leaving tierney go for arteta
Eddie and Martinelli should have started up top.
If that had been the case, we would have come away with something.
Tierney is being poorly handled.
Another one of Arteta’s many fine traits.
Pedro,
I didn’t believe you when you used to say that certain guys show up here after a loss, but stay away when the team is doing well.
Example IAT Bamford.
Arteta’s man-management skills are appalling.
Nigel Tufnell “Now we need another bounce back. Partey probably can’t start on short rest, so I hope Arteta doesn’t choose El neny over AMN again.” Choosing Elneny over AMN was a strange one, AMN has played well in his limited game time this season and deserved a chance at Old Trafford. Sadly , these are the type of decisions that makes Arsena fans question Arteta’s decision making. For me , it should alway be about football ability and what a player can bring to the team, but sometimes i don’t see that with Arteta. To play Elneny ahead of… Read more »
People come on here when they want. The thing is when we lose, we lose for one specific reason.
Fear!
Who’s to blame for that?
Pierre
I’m with you on this one.
I also “don’t see it with Arteta”
Those that disagree are blind.
Pierre,
You just don’t understand pressing, and your simplistic statistics don’t apply at all.
You need to watch the game and understand what’s happening to put it all together the way Pedro does.
When Ødegaard was playing deeper at number 8 for example, his smart pressing caused lots of errors from opponents that LED to interceptions by teammates.
Noticing that comes from watching and understanding.
Trying to rush the keeper and defenders playing out from the back is a thankless job, takes tons of energy, and will not show up in your childlike statistical analysis.
Expect Arteta to drop both Aubameyang and Lacazette for Martinelli and Nketiah. He threw the senior players under the bus.
He won’t mention Ødegaard and White with below average performances because those are his guys
Rafa Benitez will play on the counter and try not to lose it early on. Demarai Gray is their danger man. He has similar attributes to Cristiano, so White will be tested again
‘’ To play Elneny ahead of AMN was difficult to fathom”
I’ve tried justifying this in the past on the premise of squad rotation to keep AMN and Lokonga fresh for the January run of games. Mo and Partey won’t be available for 3-4 weeks
That said, Pierre’s point is valid.
When Pierre isn’t moaning about Ozil or Wenger, he is undoubtedly one of the best posters here.
He does tend to veer off back to Ozil too easily.
Dissenter
I agree, Pierre is a great poster.
He is an important part of this blog.
We’ve had disagreements on many things but I really like reading his posts.
Why throw Lacazette under the bus?
What has he done wrong?
Pierre, I have to admit though, I’m still Arteta in, because it’s all about the direction we’re headed in overall. We all expected to be worse off than where we are right now. I’d say the clubs biggest mistakes were going into last season with the WORST midfield group in the league. Worse than relegation fighters. So then, we had to overpay for Partey in January…but we really needed at least 2 good midfielders added, and he can’t even handle heavy minutes. Whatever we did this past summer was good, but as usual we did… just not enough… at least… Read more »
WHU v Chelski should be interesting at lunchtime.
In theory, based on present form, we should beat Everton on Monday evening.
MD Gunner, “There have been a couple of teams like Arsenal in the past. In the 2011-12 season, Tottenham lost both of their first two games (…) All of these teams were, in the aggregate, better than Arsenal, and they tended to play roughly to their aggregate level of performance over the rest of the season” Not how serious or impartial the opinion of a Spud fan can be when he says in the ESPN article that the 11/12 Spurs team was much better than this Arsenal team. For starters that season, their points total was 69 and they had… Read more »
Nigel saying Pierre doesn’t understand football is comedy gold. Pierre is one f the very few posters here that analyses and criticises the play and not the player. Lmao. When we start playing the ball through the middle rather than the aimlessly crossing from the wings you will see a much better Auba. I thought Odegaard was going to do that but so far he seems afraid of trying anything other than spreading the ball wide. ESR and Lokonga are probably the most likely to try to thread a ball through and maybe that’s why Arteta dropped Lokonga and pushed… Read more »
A good manager calls a player into his office and discusses reasons for dropping him. I don’t see why auba would be angry if arteta did that. Bring him into the office and say something along the lines of, freeing him from the pressure that the fans are starting to put on him, or talk to him about being out of form and gradually re introducing him to get it back. I feel there is no communication between arteta and the players outside the training pitch. Arteta should be having a word with Tierney too and explaining how difficult it… Read more »
Nigel’s flip-flopping hot takes are top banter.
Dec 1st: “Don’t criticise Arteta’s vision! He understand football better than anyone here!”
Dec 2nd: “Why did Arteta select Elneny over AMN?! Anyone can see AMN would’ve been the better choice!”
There have been a few thick-as-shit posters here over the years. Nige easily makes the list.
Sometimes I just scroll to Pierres post to see what he got to say. Yes one of the best. I don’t mind his Ozil stuff neither.
“”””To play Elneny ahead of AMN was difficult to fathom””””
Not the 1st time Diet Pep has been spiteful to a player
“”””””:RaulishussDecember 4, 2021 09:04:36
Can’t wait for our next win so that pierre,sid and their band of no nothing sean dyces obsessed can go into hiding once more.””””””
The pleasure will be all mine.
One more thing, its (*know nothing),
if you dont know, now you know,
Horses for courses – unfortunately Arteta’s tends to pick Donkeys.
If we loose on Monday then big questions must be asked . But nothing will happen until the end of the season. The question will become who do we really need to make a better job with the talented younger players we have. In reality we are not getting anywhere, Arteta is weak in the game management aspects and in two years he not learning. Making subs like Wenger in the 67 min is not game management, just routine. Putting guys on with a few mins remaining is just crass. Seeing large gaps in midfield and not doing anything and… Read more »
We really should be beating Everton.
We should beat Everton on Monday Auba needs to be dropped for laca and elneny for sambi as well would put in saka for ode as gabby was excellent the other day and needs a run of games.
What happened to Pepe? Why is Nkettiah getting minutes ahead of him, even after repeatedly refusing extensions? That’s atrocious decision making from Arteta. I don’t understand why Pepe can’t be used to keep Saka on his toes. On Thustday, when Saka came on, he was diabolical in decision making, yet he is guaranteed game time no matter what. I don’t like the way Pepe is being handled. People will write the usual Pepe-is-shite stuff but why can’t the same lack of form apply to Aubameyang who’s probably going to start again at Everton? Aubameyang is missing sitters yet he gets… Read more »
My favorite part of Elneny’s game is him constantly pointing out to whom the next pass should go to when in possession.
Maybe that’s why Arteta likes him so much.
I don’t think we will beat Everton.
I expect us to live up to our reputation of being the rebound teams for teams in crises.
Like people have written, Benitez will get to keep his job after getting one over us.
Hope I’m proven wrong though.
Tom
GeT over this Elneny pettiness
He’s not the reason we lost on Thursday.
It’s not like Lokonga and AMN have never had poor games this season.
Dissenter
I agree.
Arteta’s man-management skills are appalling.
So many players being poorly treated.
Dissenter, the writing looks like it’s on the wall for Pepe, wouldn’t be surprised to see him leave at the end of the month
AC Milan maybe, loan with obligation?
Strong links to Kulusevski, but without a departure, there’s no room at the inn
I don’t mind Pepe, he’s got plenty of end product, he’s just a bit raw In other aspects of his game, but still probably our biggest goal threat
Martinelli did well on Thursday, certainly showed enough to keep his place on Monday
Mike Dean taking charge of the game unfortunately….
I think the cub should be professionally courteous and respectful towards Eddie. He should train and maybe still get sine minutes here and there in cup competitions.
However he should never get prioritized over the likes of Pepe and Balogun.
He’s nit in the same boat as Elneny or Laca who were not rightfully offered extensions.
I don’t even think Eddie will get that many minutes at say..Palace. Benteke, and Edouard will be ahead of him.
I think we beat Everton. In fact I think we win our next 5 league games. It may not be done in style but the fixtures are favourable.
FA Cup 3rd round draw on Monday.
Dissenter, it hardly pettiness when I said the same about Arteta’s coaching style from the touch line.
Don’t recall you objecting much then.
Defenders have eyes and ears too you know.
BTW, Sala better win the AFCON this year with his Egypt ranked 44th in the world and Elneny bossing their mid, so that the accredited baloney d’or journos might actually consider him next year.
Rich
Has Pepe been any worse than Auba?
With Pepe frozen out n recent games , we have only scored 17 games all season.
It’s not like we are scoring fir fun without Pepe.
If Pepe had make the pathetic decisions Saka made on Thursday, there would have been a dozen dissertations written about how poor he is.
Pepe has not been well handled and I hope he gets an exit, for his own good.
Left to Me, I would move Auba out before I touch Pepe.
Salah
Sid,
It’s funny when you refer to him as Diet Pep. I just don’t see how they’re remotely similar. If anything Mikel is more of a Diet Moyes.
Egypt are typically very organized in African football, that’s why they’ve won so many tournaments , even with teams with players from their domestic league.
That said, they won’t be winning the AFCON
Morocco, Algeria, Senegal and maybe Mali have to be contenders, but the best teams don’t win the AFCON.