The chatter before the game with Mikel Arteta was all focused on the dire performance against West Ham.
What about the standards?
Can the players recover?
Are you worried?
Journalists need soundbites and fans need drama. But I am not convinced there’s a major problem going out of the League Cup. You don’t care about the competition, the club doesn’t, nor do the players. So let’s not overdramatize a loss.
The focus is the Champions League and Premier League. Not feelings around a cup exit in a competition that would have seen us doing a double away session against Liverpool.
There’s only so much gas in the tank for this Arsenal team and we’ve already been sputtering more than usual and it’s only November. The League Cup doesn’t matter when you’re in the Champions League. If it does to you, great, you’re part of a very small collection of people, and I’m going to be really patronizing here: I feel for you. You might not want my sympathy, but I’m going to give it to you. In a world of Mike Dean, Richard Keys Arteta slander, and questionable loan deals between nation-state clubs… you choose this issue to anger you? Let it go.
The big game this week was always Newcastle. If we beat them, no one is talking about Wednesday. If we lose, everyone will double down and complain the weakened side against West Ham was the issue.
Don’t buy it. Arteta gave us the best possible chance against Newcastle by rotating heavily. There were some complaints he rolled on big names for 30 minutes. Again, don’t listen to those fans. Sure, it might have been a leg-breaker risk, but 30 minutes keeps the players fresh and stops them doing the warm down sessions after the game. Our boys got into bed nice and early so they should be in good shape.
So what of Newcastle? They’re a mixed bag if I’m honest.
Top of the xG league this season, but when you look at their results, there’s a clear pattern.
They’ve been losing to the top teams and they’ve beaten the teams they should have.
Their thumping of PSG threw me a little, but then they were beaten at home by Dortmund and they were hammered by Milan and got away with the draw.
Eddie Howe has a lot of injuries to deal with tomorrow.
The factors going against us? We have problems at Newcastle. They’re fearless, they have a lot of beasts in their team, and there’s definitely a bit of PTSD from a few seasons ago.
I don’t count the West Ham game as a problem. What I do think is a going concern is the on-going injury pile-up. Gabi Jesus likely won’t make it, Thomas Partey certainly won’t, and there are doubts on Martin Odegaard (though I think he’ll be good).
That means we’ll likely have a midfield of Rice, Jorginho, and Odegaard.
Defensively, it’s pretty clear that a midweek rested Tomi means he’s getting the nod over the impressive Zinchenko.
Up top, you’d guess it would be Eddie – but he had a stinker in midweek, doesn’t do well against brutal teams, and he hasn’t scored in 18 away games. Will the hat trick sway Mikel?
Kai has been going through it. I’d like to see him pick up that 8 role again. However, against Newcastle, he could be our best bet as a false 9.
The job is not to lose. Newcastle is one of the toughest away days in the league. It’s easy to get caught up by the spicy atmosphere and the electric emotions that course throughout the stadium. So a point or more will do me.
We’re a good away side, but we haven’t found 5th gear all season. 10 games in is when peak fitness starts. I want to see our players looking fresh from minute one – but the most important ingredient is bravery. This game is the biggest for David Raya yet. Bigger than City. Away at Newcastle, they will press, and they will try and bother him. If he’s not brave, our whole system breaks. If he’s not in command of his box, Newcastle will be. He could be a difference maker. We need him to show us that he has a level higher in the locker.
It’s a bit of an annoying weekend to be playing Newcastle because there aren’t any other big games. Not sure Chelsea / Spurs really cuts the shape of a going concern. Drop points here and we get pulled into the muck. We could end the weekend in 5th place. Win… and we pull away from Newcastle and keep up with the league challengers.
There’s a lot on the line – let’s see what Arteta brings to the party.
Ok, see you in the comments. Remember to join the On The Whistle right after the game.
We have too many key players missing to perform, perhaps need to look at medics, fitness staff, training regime, squad depth.
We are approaching Wengeresque levels of injuries, with inadequate cover.
Partey and Jesus are never going to be regular performers,, missed both today
Looking forward to the post about what our new striker options are in January cos boy do we need one.
The fact is Arsenal lost todays game due to a refereeing error rather than being completely outplayed as what happened at West Ham in the Carabao Cup
Disappointing result of course, but these things will happen,, unless someone here expected us to go undefeated..
Newcastle play against us like they’re Ukraine and we are the Rusaians invading. Seems like their biggest game of the year.
The fact is that almost all teams have that mentality because they see us as the best team right behind Man City. They of course try to measure themselves and their manly pride by trying to take us down,
Evidence?.. last year when Newcastle was time wasting in the 1st half and got a draw, they celebrated like it was the world cup…. and people give us shit for celebrating.
We’re not even a third of the way through the campaign, we just have to hope that mediocre teams like Newcastle and Tottenham also take points off of Man City, our real rivals for the league.
I’m not focused on the table, I haven’t been, especially with the losers down the road thinking they’re contenders.
It will come down to Arsenal and Man City. We will need some help occasionally to keep them from running away with it.
That’s why I didn’t like the cheap penalty they got handed against United last week. They don’t need any more help with the financial advantage they already have, like buying the best ref in England. He’s already paid plenty of dividends after just one trip to the middle east.
In all my days I’ve never seen such a disgraceful goal given… it was a complete shitshow of refereeing. Clearly biased against us, how can we compete when the officials are a bunch of incompetent twats!
Been a few hours and Im still pissed off. normally a loss Im a bit numb to, but to lose in this manner was fucked up. I mean its completely head scratching.
VAR is non existent. Gabby went flying downwards, ball spurts to Gordon that ugly mug who kicks it in,
Shit of this highest standards is the reffing in England
There have been some poor, lower teams that we played this season, and they never seemed like they were even close to a threat for scoring on us.
That was exactly Newcastle today. We didn’t score because they played their hearts out defensively (good job by them) …
But They barely caused us a worry defensively. Again though… these things happen to all teams on occasions, even Chelsea and Man United…except Manchester City, of course. Never to them.
Ask Klopp about a blatant handball ignored that cost him the league a couple years back, to, who else? Man City.
Germàn Cano, Fluminese’s Argentinian striker looks useful…
VAR audio:
On Bruno Guimaraes elbow: “He’s not used his arm as a weapon, it’s not nice but no more than a yellow card.”
Purposefully whacking somebody above the shoulders (head, face) is Red every time… unless it’s accidental and jumping for a header or something.
He struck him in the head,, cheap shot from behind.. It’s never been a question of how hard, or how “not nice”.
And it’s Never yellow… always red.
Why wasn’t the ref allowed to look at it?
That wasn’t the only time he threw an arm, he did it twice earlier in the game but Sky choose to ignore it – because it wasn’t Xhaka
Not a popular view on here but I thought that Havertz had a good game overall, still not enough from an attacking perspective but then none of our three forwards did much in that regard either. Noticed that Eddie pulled over to the right wing to work with Saka at times whilst Havertz played almost as a centre forward. Kai certainly got stuck in a lot more which in fairness is something a lot of his critics have been asking from him. Now let’s see if he can build on that and put in a shift next time out?
“Anyone still defending Raya here?”
NOOO!!!
Arteta is forced to be working on GK number 8 in the summer.
There were 3 issues with the goal. Ball out of play, no image from above is available so the decision is inconclusive. Being offside again no image that can give a conclusive decision.
HOWEVER, the two handed shove on Gabriel is a foul and the goal should have been disallowed. The head hitting by Bruno G. is violent conduct and he should have been red carded.
Conclusion we got fucked over by PGMOL.If this would have been rugby the TMO would have brought Bruno G’s. elbowing would have earned a red card plus the conversation between VAR and Ref would have been heard by all in attendance and the obvious fuck up would have been apparent to everyone.
To minimize the PGMOL fuck ups you have to have a better attack. 1 shot on goal by us is a Disgrace and Embarrassment. When Arteta took over our attack was problematic. 4 years later it is still problematic, that is on Arteta and no one else.
Arteta is a 5th place manager and on Monday that is where we will be. The GK decision has not improved, the midfield dominance has not improved and the final 3rd without Jesus is a dead place. Again that is on Arteta sticking with Eddie and buying Havertz. The Arteta experiment should be finished in the summer unless KSE want to throw more money at an apprentice manager who is arrogant and stubborn and will not correct the buying mistakes he made.
Have not commented on this fucking match as i’ve just been too livid.
My biggest take away from that 90min is you can only control what you can control and within that is our play,. We can control how we play, 1 shot on target, created next to nothing, with a CF who cannot make something out of nothing is not a recipe for success. In that the extraneious can win over when you leave the margins that open and don’t close the door.
VAR isn’t even worth discussing any more, the deeper we get the more corrupt it feels. At this stage to not think money is changing hands is naive, its more a question of how much and whose funding.
Mikel has some issues we’ve added a competition in the UCL and cannot keep our key players fit, christ we’ve yet to see our best XI all on the pitch at once this season. My biggest worry is we lack dimension, there is no alternative to bring on its all very one note. For whatever reason he subbed Ødegaard on mid week to then miss this match when the game was all but lost is amatuer.
Kofi with a brilliant comment about the var rules.
I’m sick of hearing this “clear and obvious error” bullshit. There is nothing more clear and obvious than the push in the back of Gabriel, and on top of that the ball surely was out. Pube hair in it but fuck me, how that goal stood is seriously beyond a joke.
Enough said about var. Fuck those cunts. And I’m glad tets gave it to them in the presser.
I agree with a few posters that we need to give our wingers some more variety. Zinny needs to go outside of Marti more. The inside left channel with some pace and directness in passing is where we will get more out of Marti.
I’d also like to see the wingers swap sides for a stint. Cutting back inside on their strong feet has been found out. Do something else for a bit and then rotate the plays.
If xhaka can play at left 8 then jorgi can. Keep rice in his best position for me. Even though he was our best attacking player this match.
Oh and I forgot. Fucking ball watching for their goal made me just as angry as the shit refing. There were too many bodies just standing there and jorgi was pointinh and yelling at white. He could have put the pressure on himself but didn’t. All round that was an absolute disgrace of a way to concede.
And I also agree with a few others here. Yeah we were dreadful creatively, but Newcastle are no bums.
It’s like saying city are rubbish because they created jack shit on our turf.
Some people here, it’s a proper laugh
And also I blame this result on Pedro with his headline and the le-grove curse haha
Oh and another thing, I did love how much we can stand up to the thugs these days. Every 50 50 was the hardest of challenges.
Rice is an absolute battler.
The most agregious var mistake was allowing Bruno to run up behind someone and elbow them nowhere near the ball, review it and not even award a yellow let alone worse
Genuinely shocking
Arsenal should be self reflective on what we could’ve done better, but in parallel I would be threatening legal action for that VAR ‘mistake’
I’m getting a bit low on patience with raya
He was supposed to be an obvious upgrade over ramsdale but honestly speaking he’s been making at least one big mistake in almost every match. That’s not a defense of ramsdale who has also been error prone, but that Raya isn’t ticking in particular boxes, we aren’t safer or better with him in goal
BBC MOTD analyzed how New Castle stopped Arsenal dead in their tracks. Whenever the ball came to either Saka or Martinelli they were immediately double teamed, REGARDLESS of who the players were that came on as subs. Eddie Howe did his homework and Saka had an xG of 0.02 and Martinelli having the lone shot on goal.
Again Howe had a successful game plan that worked and neutralized our attack. If opposition managers can figure it out, than it is high time for Arteta to devise a counter measure to have a goal producing attack. But then we are talking about Tets here, so fat chance that is going to happen even with a new striker.
Wow so many narratives. Enjoyed reading all the comments and safe to say nothing left to be said. We are vertically split as a fan base again.
We all agree on one point though VAR is shit.
Come Monday we will have the weekly obligatory apology by Howard Webb, for so far this season’s biggest fuck up by his minions. Before you can sue a ref, qualified immunity jurisdictions require a showing of either “recklessness” or “gross negligence” before the courts will recognize a claim for negligent officiating”. Sounds to me like that this will be very difficult.
The problem with the way VAR is structured there is genuinely a way to explain both sides of any decision. You will see the neutrals and Newcastle fans including the likes of Shearer justifying yeh decision for the goal to stand. Instead of VAR officiating everything they should move it to challenge based verification and to broadcast the entire decision making process.
Im still pissed off fuck
Mark Ogden:
“The £65 million summer signing of Havertz from Chelsea now looks like a vanity purchase by Arteta who overlooked the real problem in his squad the lack of a reliable goalscorer. Arteta chose to sign Havertz as a player who “sees all the pitch.” What Arsenal really needed was a player who could see the goal and put the ball into it.”
We are truly fucked if anyone expects to sign Tony in January because without money coming in, Arsenal will not be able to sign Toney due to FFP restrictions, so Arteta’s decision to sign Havertz may yet deny us to strengthen the attack that is in such dire need of reinforcement.
MG
Unless we sell in Jan, then can use that for Toney
I know some on here do not rate Toney for a variety of reasons but he is a battler, strong like Wilson and not afraid to mix it up and a threat in the box with crosses.
All of that we are missing in our strikers currently.
Pay the 65M and be done. if we keep skidding into Jan, the title race might be over for us, so who knows then, what the team will want to do.
If we are in striking distance still in Jan , get Toney no brainer
What a bunch of useless spineless wankers these VAR officials.
We didn’t deserve to win the game but also didn’t deserve to lose.
It was going to be difficult to create good chances without Partey, Jesus and Ode.
But we did manage to match the rugby tacklers well in the physical battle.
My only gripe with the team was allowing Willock all that time and space to put the cross in.
But that was still pathetic from VAR.
Those guys should be suspended fot the next 5 PL games.
Generational has stagnated
Few things. The loss was bad. When I was watching it felt like the refs has fucked us over. Emotions and team affiliations. But after listening to the explanations on the var decisions, I can live with the decision. We have had such decisions favor us. Even in this NC game. Haverts should have been sent odd if the ref was sent to the monitor.
The United game earlier this season, without VAR Garnacho goal was legit all day all season. The offside decision was the tinniest margin I have ever seen. Same match, Gabriel rugby tackled Garnacho to the ground in the pen box and we got away with it. Had the ref been sent to the monitor, he would definitely change his mind. To then turn around and win, imagine how united would feel? That’s how we feel now. So it’s understandable.
But my major gripe is our play. It’s obvious we don’t have patterns. We also don’t have to the Ingenuity to create individually. Who gave the coaches all the powers in football? This is the reason for the recent rigidity we experience in football. It’s no longer exciting. We could have played for 32 days vs NC and we don’t score.
Eddie is not of the required quality to be starting striker alright but you can’t watch our games this season and not for anyone that’s our striker. It’s a lose lose situation. You will probably get 1 chance all game if you are lucky. It’s so bad. The system is fucking bad. Our players don’t have combinations in them nor seek to forge one because the coach instructs on JDP? That’s bollox.
Bruno Guimaraes, I know he’s the villain for the hour. He should have been sent off quite alright but I love the player. How he played against us yesterday, using dark arts and a bit of nasty, not doing many things obvious but doing enough to scar the opponents while maintaining technical excellence and quality? That’s what I want from anyone that wears the Arsenal shirt. I really love Bruno and I still wish we signed him.
Lastly it’s better we look at the overall picture of where our team is and what needs to be done instead of focusing on var because I know we will soon benefit from it and it’s applications again before the season is over.
Eddie is not of the required quality to be starting striker alright but you can’t watch our games this season and not feel for anyone that’s our striker***
Fuck Guimaraes
No matter how much skill this cunt has, he was seeing red all day with the forearm to the head of Jorg
Has nothing to do with his talent at all. A bad brain fart, for a player who could have and should have costed his team. He got lucky
There was too much going on with the NC game that makes me really think like Sal,
There seems to be some sort of racket going on with VAR and ref results in big games. Like someone is being bought or given enough $ to steer a game a certain way
The reffing in England is some of the worst. An old boys network for sure
Kai had some good runs with the ball, some with him alone going for 10-15 yards down the middle, but looked for an easy pass instead of taking a shot or trying to take on players to get inside the box. Just like Rice, in that one play, should have shot instead of passing last minute. Against NC, its gonna be hard to get shots off. We should have taken all the chances, even a bad shot is better than no shot at all.
Rice was my MOTM. A true warrior and he keeps showing up for the team in all the ways possible
“That’s what I want from anyone that wears the Arsenal shirt. I really love Bruno and I still wish we signed him.”
That’s what I want from our players when the game require it. We have to stand up and be counted in the dark arts and physicality departments too.
Both the teams were missing 3/4 first team players.
Orcs – Isak, Barnes, Botman(special case Tonali)
Arsenal – Jesus, Partey, Odegaard(maybe Timber also)
It was an event content and should have ended in a draw but VAR and the Refs bottled it.
VAR is shit, but it has helped us this season as well, especially in Man utd game. Real problem is one shot on target in 102 mins with 11 players on the pitch. Newcastle away is a tough game but we should do better really.
Mystic you bring a good point aside from Guimares.
Our system does not create chances as much this season.
Jesus out again
Ode slump and now injury
Saka Slump/ overplaying stress
Martinelli hurt and then returning
TP out for injury again ( last season we were lucky)
Xhaka gone, Kai has not been able to score from open play this season
Maybe more reasons.
The overplaying of our boys last season is now coming home to roost. Saka prime ex. Ode now. Martinelli hurt, Jesus hurt again
Keeping our team fit and managing load has been disastrous for us …
This season I hope for top 4 only. no way we are winning the title.
I think its our system as you pointed out that is hurting us. This JDP shit, or whatever.
Sadly Eddie gets the spotlight on him as striker as Jesus is always hurt.
I do however, think as a back up, he is not the right quality for us.
Jesus will never have a stretch of not being hurt. His game is dependent on movements that make him get fouled all the time on top of many pre existing injuries.
Not reliable sadly. eddie is not either.
A proper striker who can get you 15 plus is what we need, and play 80-90 percent of games. Toney or whomever, I dont care.
Kai was a waste. That money could have been so much better used.
Mike was too smart for his own good. Personally, his Kai fiasco and Raya/ rams fiasco is really starting to show now as the season goes on.
EPL is so ruthless that early fuck ups and its curtains for your season. Too much to claw back from being down
I totally agree that we don’t create enough chances to win the games and are over-reliant on ‘magic moments’.
Some of it is down to quality of players we have(Arteta and Edu)
Some of it is on the system/style which is solely on Arteta.
He has admitted two/three times this season that the focus is on controlling the game and conceding less goals.
Basically he is trying to imitate Pep but failing.
Don’t see the Havertz yellow and Bruno “red” the same way.
To naked eyes on slow mo, Bruno’s was an intentional whack on Jorginho thus a red by definition while neither of Havertz’s boots touched Longstaff. Slow mo from behind Longstaff shows Havertz ‘s arse wiped him while aliding on grass and a yellow is justified however nasty it may look real time due to the pace that’s not dissimilar to rest of the robust play of the match
With Eddie the drop off in the way we play is probably too steep but the biggest issue as a backup striker is more so that Jesus is our #1 and injury prone, hence Eddie gets more opportunities than he should do. Considering GJ’s injury record, we probably need a – dare I say it – Raya/Ramsdale Situ where our #2 could conceivably be #1. Eddie’s stock in the PL is fairly high – shopping him for a decent chunk which we can repurpose into hopefully someone cheaper from abroad is surely possible.
It’s fine to give Newcastle credit for dogged determination in defending. I have no problem with that aspect. We didn’t do well enough to get good shooting opportunities, and maybe that pre assist type of linkup is where we missed Ødegaard a little, but I’d never use it as an excuse.. just part of the mosaic.
People acting like their gameplan was so unique have not been watching our games all season.
There’s nothing new in crowding the middle of the park and doubling Saka and Martinelli quickly as soon as they get the ball. Usually we break it down eventually but they were allowed to kick the shite out of Saka so that makes it harder. Burn should’ve seen yellow after 2 of those.
We had lots of corners and that means we were getting somewhere.
Basically it would have been a luxury to have Ødegaard, Jesus, and Partey as a bonus.
Take all 3 of them away, then give our opponents free runs at kicking and HITTING our players… then 1-0 should not be surprising. ….
Also pushing Gabriel to the ground as he’s defending our goal line…….
That goal should not have stood, and Newcastle didn’t threaten us even slightly aside from that tactics.
They’re an expensive squad that plays like a Sean Dyche team against us. Dyche actually beat us better with a much weaker squad and less dirty tactics..
We could’ve played for 3 hours yesterday, and Newcastle wouldn’t have created an honest goal, that’s how solid we were, in a hostile environment.
Doku went off the rails today, in a good way.
why cant we scout players like this?
Aside from Manure by default, NC is now becoming the team I fucking hate the most.
They play shit football, ugly football, with just the physical side in mind. Against us it was clear there game plan. Rough us all game from the start. I said during the game im happy the team did not cower in this regard. I think the Kai foul kinda said it all, that we were not going to play pansy ball with them
I do hope we batter those cunts at our place. Not sure when the return fixture is but I know the boys will be up for it after today big time
On the so called goal, let’s just focus on the push of Gabriel.
How many times such fouls been given involving games and defenders and the goals were disallowed. Ben White allegedly blocked goalies??
Again, slow mo shows from byline angle that forward push by Jokelington . Do we care if it’s 10% force or 95.3%? No.
Another slow mo from kinda Raya side shows before Gabriel dropped, his head was exactly on the trajectory of the ball. Therefore without unnatural interferen. Gabriel could be expected to head out thr ball.
Combine these two angles alone would seem to be able to justify a foul. Let’s not let the pgmol got away with BS explanations that as twisted as the org itself.
*goalies* and defenders
“Again, slow mo shows from byline angle that forward push by Jokelington . Do we care if it’s 10% force or 95.3%? No. ”
Unless people believe Gabriel simulated a dive lol
Big Gab does not get pushed down easily. In this case being airborne and just a slight push will do it, which is what happened with Joelinton that cunt
Rambo hasn’t exactly done particularly well in his appearances since Raya took the #1 shirt but, given Arteta’s clearly disingenuous ‘subbing goalkeepers’ comments and Raya’s shocker in the 10 or so games, it’s clear that Rambo’s stock has his rock bottom w management.
I don’t see a scenario in which there’s a Rambo reprisal but my only fear is Raya’s weird loan Situ. Hopefully Rambo doesn’t see hope it doesn’t get converted into perm and spend the whole season kicking his heels.
One common denominator is Cana, as literally everyone outside Arsenal management seems to know. How TF is he still gainfully employed? Can’t we use our stats/machine learning data people to look at our own coaching to see if they’re ostensibly adding value?
Guns, Doku was hardly an unknown quantity. I just don’t think we were in for that type of player. Why not is a reasonable q, esp given there was chatter previously re Diaby coming our way. My concern in this space is: Martinelli notwithstanding that was clearly an exception, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of system looking at uncovering young talent. We almost exclusively go for tier 2 level players with Pl experience who carry a reasonable premium with the hope they hit tier 1.
Unless we can really establish a deep squad of those (we can’t) we need to dabble in the cheaper, riskier end of the market in the hope that we uncover value.
SF
We can disagree on Bruno but we agree on the greater and more important issues our team has which is lack of creativity.
When Haverts was signed and the whole community was shocked, one of the justification Arteta gave was that we would try to play differently because Haverts has different skillset. I may not know much about football but I haven’t seen a different style since the season started. We haven’t started going long/lump it football, we don’t aim crosses to his head. Haverts just slotted into the 8 position and has been atrocious there. His best contribution yesterday were tackles.
We have actually tried to play the same game from last season but with more inferior players (as regards the style of play). Rice is a monster DM in energy levels and offensive play break up but he’s not partey. He’s not a creative. Partey was tasked with deep playmaking. I’m not asking for Rice to be dropped, I think he has made the DM spot his own but we can then change the dependance on 6 being our creator. Move Odegaard to deep playmaking and play whoever on the other side that can try the shots and do the finishing. It’s not that difficult. In the midfield if everyone is fit, we have more off the ball specialists than on the ball. It’s not sustainable. If you don’t have anybody making play from deep we can’t make combinations in the attacking 3rd.
I know Arteta and the coaches have more knowledge in their fingertips than I do but even I can see these things
1- Fuck VAR.
2- Fuck the refs, all of em.
3- Fuck New Castle. I hope they get relegated.
4- Fuck Zinchenko and Israel.
5- Good night.
1. Making excuses for shambolic ref perf yesterday.
2. Telling everyone how Arsenal were in so many other games
3. Ending it with “I luuv Guimaraes”, the player who was actively shoving and punching and grabbing throats of Arsenal players.
mysticleaves going all out to crown himself the cvnt of the day. Not that we needed this effort from him as his previous work here speaks for itself
Let’s give credit to NC for playing the way they played against us, let’s blame VAR, let’s go on wanking on how we would have won the game with a shot on target but not the fraud that’s setting the team up for utter collapse.
Last season, when some of us were calling for proper player rotation, we were called all manner of names. Some ignoramuses even expected Martinelli and Saka to continue from their last season’s heroic performances but I said it would be rare for these two guys to carry us this season, in fact I said it would be hard for them to score double digit goals this season because not only have the clubs sussed us out, the generational idiot now has us playing handcuffed. The medical guy who did exceptionally well for us last season went to Manchester United and what did we do to replace him? We now have players dropping injured even in training and match warm ups. NC reduced us to a shot on target for 90 minutes but Arteta’s playthings are saying how we would have won. Enjoy playing Raya, the best goalkeeper since the world began as there’s nothing new that’s discovered yesterday, everything that happened yesterday were accidents waiting to happen, the ominous signs were there since this season began but the “we are on top of the table’ idiots wouldn’t see and wouldn’t help you wash their eyes so they could see.
Arsenal celebrated the win against City few weeks ago like we won a trophy as well and it’s not even one third into the season. Enough of Arteta’s dick riding. Funny to see that fans are now becoming realistic by saying they sees us fighting for 4th position, something that is so predictable, no way are we contending or competing this season, even before the first kick this season, I said we are not competing and would be extremely lucky for 4th place. We are out of carabo, we’ll soon be out of EPL and UCL as well. Don’t call people names, just look at what’s in front of you week in week out and pull your head out of Arteta’s ass
Start the season against mighty Forrest with a cagey 2-1 win. Concede a goal at home.
Follow that up with another disjointed 1-0 win over Palace.
Draw at home against the mighty Fulham. Concede 2 at home !
Look, Tets can detract all he wants from the result yesterday. And yes the goal was extremely questionable, but our gameplay has had holes from game 1. And that’s on Tets.
It was Tets who decided to:
– Rice was our new 8. We replaced Xhaka with Kai. And we are suffering because of that. We don’t have a second phase MFer, thus our ability to create from the middle, have a progressive ball carrier, etc is severely compromised.
– he ignored our limited options up top, instead he went and got a hybrid lad like Kai, who none can still figure out wtf he actually does
– unnecessarily got Raya, and currently both keepers are shunned of confidence. Ignored LCM and forward options
– started the season with Gabriel not in the squad, White at CB and Partey at RB. TF was that about. That strong of decisions is directly correlated with our cagey start to the season, our draw against Fulham and arguably, TPs injury
So my beloved emotional and over reaching manager. This one’s on you. We will be 5th on the table at the end of this game week, and this is on you. We have had Eddie as striker 90% of the minutes this season, and that air is on you. We were supposed to phase out TP, have a progressive MF guy, instead we have TP start the season as RB and then spend 80% of his on the treatment table. That Sir is on you. We have a player who has done nothing of note for the last 3 years, we’ve spent 65m on him, and are now trying to shoehorn him into 8/9/10, and he has done nothing significant this season, NOTHING, and that Sir is on you. We’ve had tired performances from Saka and Martinelli, our play looks predictable, slow, uninventive, and all of that Sir is on you.
For mysticleaves. Don’t forget to grab the Kleenex before watching
https://x.com/thejesuszone/status/1720929704297812144?s=46
Pseudo
I love Bruno. He’s a quality player that will improve our midfield
Q: Have Martinelli and Saka become too predictable?
Q: Have manager clued up on our wing play?
Q: Is Arteta doing enough to change our wing play?
Pseudo
Me pointing out how the things we cry about now has made us laugh previously shows that the system won’t change anytime soon but we can change our fortune by getting better players and changing our system/style of play. It’s wisdom to know the things you can change and act.
We will sooner benefit from the ineptitude of VAR again this season. I’m sure if it.
And I love Bruno.
The ball is clearly out – there is a picture that proves it. I’d post it on here if I fuckn knew how.
Arsenal must take legal action against PGMOL. Liverpool must join us. Brighton too……Enough is enough Webb. See you in court!!!
.
PS – RAYA is fucking useless .
We will win NOTHING with him
RJM we are not getting those points back. The picture of the ball being out is all over the papers.
I hope this game has woken us up and we have this us against the world attitude going foward.
As for the ball being out, Dermott made a compelling argument that Wrighty couldn’t reply to. He said when a corner is being taken, all of the ball looks like it’s out of the line but the players use overhanging to get advantages, the lines men check it and mark it ok to go. It’s probably the same reason the ball was not called immediately by the linesman yesterday and VAR couldn’t necessarily conclude because hate it or love it, overhanging is a thing in football.
Us against the world would just put us in more trouble because our players aren’t good enough and our system inhibits us more than the referees do.
We have been lucky to be getting wins and goals since this season started. Some of us have been saying it’s not sustainable. Really, it’s not. We can’t have 1 shot on target against Newcastle and act like everything is alright. Never.
`”Us against the world would just put us in more trouble because our players aren’t good enough and our system inhibits us more than the referees do.”
Kind of disagree. We are not a dirty team. When City got those allegations about the charges they went into different gear.
Arteta needs to find a better way that I will agree to.
Mystic.
Winning games breeds confidence. I don’t care what anyone says here. Losing to West Ham and going into this prem game would of been a hangover. Why is it that this cycle of the players aren’t good enough all of a sudden? They were up until the 30th game last season?
I think we have become too predictable in our play. It’s slow and laboured. Other teams have worked us out. Pierre made some good points yesterday about this team being more of a rugged George Graham-style team this season.
Mick is cringe worthy.
The fact is, Emi Martinez does not allow that goal in. He inherited a world class goalkeeper and flogged him and still has not signed anyone near his standard.
Raya has surprised me. He is actually worse than Ramsdale , who is also shit..
Mick also also bought Kai Havertz , not the refs.
I thought Mick was supposedly , this coach that improves his players, with his coaching prowess., after four seasons , we still do not see much of this.
And he should not have sold Xhaka
We miss him badly.
Samesong
I agree with you. Some players like Haverts are not good enough whether individually or within the system we play. Some players like Rice are good enough but the system we play does not maximise their potentials yet. I also have Ode (this season) in this category, he’s sorely missing Partey who is the staple point of this system.
Then there’s a case to be made about our first and 2nd strikers. A case can be made about the current system being wrong for them too but to me they aren’t good enough even though they would enjoy better gains in a more fluid system.
So it’s not so much that the players suddenly became bad. Even last season I felt if we had a 9 better than Jesus to finish chances (we created millions) we would have won the league. Some of these players that are key in our team can’t carry us more than top 4 and that’s the greater issue.
So if we want to be a team that competes for the league and wins it, we have to find better players in some positions AND fine-tune our system to get the best out of everyone.we must not be wedded to the idea of one style of play.
So if we want to be a team that competes for the league and wins it, we have to find better players
And manager.
Luton have created more clear cut chances than us, this season according to this table lurking around.
And that’s why lost yesterday, nothing to do with shit useless refs.
We lost a Cup final to Newcastle back in the day due to a ball being out so it’s some weird constant like “Bodies”
David “Little Legs” Raya and epithet I disparagingly called him now playing out in front of our eyes. I hope the stats merchants are going back to those and burning 🔥 them !
Arteta doesn’t try to switch things to get results
Saka could switch wings, Martinelli could go inside, dickhead Eddy could go to the wing.
He doesn’t have the capability of switching tactics during games, therefore we become predictable and boring, that’s how he used to play
What you are seeing is what happened to liverpool without Firmnho(Jesus), its easier to crowd out our wing forwards
Our midfielders cannot create chances, they are workhrses like Henderson and co.
What did Klopp do? Get Szos and Mcallister. Workhouses that can create space for themselves.
Kai has to go and what to do with Ode is the big question.
Mysticleaves on bruno
“That’s what I want from our players when the game require it. We have to stand up and be counted in the dark arts and physicality departments too.”
And what you would get is Arsenal playing with ten maybe 9 men as there is no way an Arsenal player would still be on the pitch after his off the ball and on the ball antics.
And when Arsenal are down to 10 men after half hour or so , you would be the first to say the Arsenal player or players deserved the red for a forearm smash to the head, for kicking a ball at an opponent at full speed from 5 yards and for an hand in the throat/face as well as running around like a maniac for a large part of the game.
Arsenal players just do not get away behaving like that , you only have to look at the numerous soft sending offs uner Arteta(and wenger), so try to think before you make such a dumb comment
Arsenal doesn’t like it up there narrative is fully on. I thought going to North of England during wet and cold winters was an issue during Wengers soft banter team. Those years supposed to have ended right. But we still moan about saka getting kicked. Can we make a definitive assessment of where we are instead of believing all propoganda out there. I am still confused of our trajectory this season.
So if Arteta truly is this ruthless genius who will swap out a 7 out of 10 to a so called 7.5 out of 10 what is he going yo do about thd following
Jesus good but terrible injury record
Eddie ok as back up but plays to much because of above
Havertz paid way to much and fits in where
Xhaka replacement
Esr full on crock
Another quality wide man
Partey world class but again a crock
Vierra total shit lightweight
Eight players there, so excuses for the next two to three years while we rebuild🤬🤬🤬🤬
Maybe we should start blooding some new youngsters ready
That mystic fella really is a dumb cunt. Absolute disgrace his defending of var and Bruno. Fucking imbecile
I think some people have gone overboard on here about how amazing our recruitment has been under Arteta and Edu.
Yes we’ve signed some excellent players that have improved us a lot but since Arteta has been here (only 3 full seasons) he has been backed with the guts of 600m pounds.
And here we are saying that we still need a proper GK, a LB, a CM (no.8), a wide forward and a striker.
Eagle because we don’t really need all those, Too many think recruitment is plug and play like a video game. Except for the left #8 position. The players we have there are all good enough if they had stayed healthy.. Therein lies the problem not recruitment.
If Jesus was healthy our striker situation would be acceptable. It was good enough for second last season even with his injury. If Timber hadn’t blown up his knee. Our Fullback depth would be acceptable, Keeper position Teta just needed to make a decision early before season started and stick with one or the other. The drama around it is the issue.
But we aren’t struggling with fluidity because of defense or the Keeper, imo. A wide forward as a luxury sure but Marti and Saka are clearly good enough when in form. We need a striker because Jesus can not stay fit and we have to rely on Eddie too much.
We made a giant gaping mistake in recruiting Havertz.. to link play and create chances. and it has affected our creativity. but it’s fixable, imo. Whether Teta fixes it or not will define this season and probably his career in a lot of ways with only a year left on his contract.
After watching that debacle yesterday… not sure how anyone can not say Arteta was vindicated and 100% correct in his main point which is that VAR system and it’s implementation is an embarrassment to the League
And it’s not very far fetched to conclude that they aren’t getting decisions anymore correct with var then without. Yesterday it seemed like they were going overboard to micro dissect everything to the nth degree where in our match they were like…. nothing to see here move along.. inconclusive evidence.
So which is it? Var not good enough to make hard close decisions..? or good enough to analyze everything with a microscope.. The consistency is unbelievably poor.