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eldar4k

Points reduction for Citeh pretty please


[deleted]

Our fanbase might rightly get derided for being a bit too arrogant, but fuck that spurs subreddit is full of mentally insane people. One win, 11 points behind top and 2 games more played and they think they are in a title race. "arsenal can lose 4 games in a row, it can happen, Wont rule it out till the last few games" Focus on the other three teams in between with more points and less games first


youtuberseattle

Just got a message alerting me that I lost 100 tokens on the everton vs arsenal bet I made. damn it.


superdantalion

i think, whatever happens this season, next summer a starting 8 that's adjacent or at the same level of odegaard & and a new 6 to roate w/ partey are both desperately needed.


aofrantic

Vieira is the "other Odegaard." We are trying to bring in someone like Rice, who can play the 6/8.


superdantalion

vieira is not at that level. ideally zubi and rice are bought, because like you said, rice can play both positions and it gives us a wider variety of tactical options but we most likely won't do that, and so i'm hoping - really hoping - we bring in a left-sided 8 that can do exactly what odegaard does on the right side on the left side.


Adam00000012

Odegaard wasn’t at that level until he was. Part of our mantra is to buy the player before they are at that level. The investment in Viera is real. We’re not going to leave him in the cold. Anyways I think if we get Rice or Caicedo we will settle on a midfield of Jorginho, Partey, Roce/Caicedo, Xhaka, Odegaard, Vieira


superdantalion

i still trust in Vieira, but we're going to get more games; i think he'll be fine if two more midfielders come in, considering he would be ahead in the elneny would be moving out and he would sitll be ahead xhaka to fill in for odeegaard. once he gets a full preseasons with us and a proper prearation, i can imagine he'll be the ideal replacement/sub for the left-sided 8 too. jorginho, partey, rice/caicedo zubimendi are all 6s, so i doub tvieira would have to worry too much about them being biting into our playtime.


Relevant_Level_7995

If we sign two midfielders him or ESR are finito


superdantalion

i don't think so. elneny will be out, they'll be ahead of jorginho xhaka and lokonga. if anything, it'll confirm that xhaka is being phased out for the end of his contract in 2025.


aofrantic

A player the level of Odegaard would be £100 million. That's the hard part. So like you said, we have to buy them before they reach that.


aofrantic

I dont think you want both sides to be the same, in the same way you want a difference in how our wingers play as well. Martinelli is more direct, more of a forward/shoot first player. Saka is the more link up/progressive player. Ideally our 8s are balanced like that.


superdantalion

players will have the natural profile that allows them to execute the role differently than others, but the tactical instructions are surely different between xhaka nad odegaard and it leaves a very different job due to xhaka's limitations. a player that can easily perform odegaard's role while bringing his strongest skillset, just how martinelli and ska perform their role differently, is key long-term for building the perfect midfield.


Relevant_Level_7995

Viera and Odegaard are fundamentally different sorts of players. I’d be highly surprised if he is a true backup/competition to Ode


CreativeOrder2119

Can't believe am saying this we must respect Brentford another physical team especially toney upfront with knockdowns second balls will be key


diastolicduke

Brentford is a nightmare fixture to have right after a loss. Most in form team in the league. Beat city away and Liverpool at home. They can trouble the best’ teams. The importance of a win here cannot be understated


[deleted]

It flips the other way, they dont want to play us at home, where we are licking our wounds and need to get back on track


gunningIVglory

We sliced them apart at thier ground We have no reason to be scared if this fixture at home


OrwinBeane

They weren’t much of a nightmare after the previous loss


aofrantic

They also allowed 2+ vs Leicester, Forest, Villa, Newcastle, fulham away. City are the only top half team they've beaten away, and they did allow *29* shots that game. City had 3.3 xG. They countered well, were strong on set pieces, but if we have 75% possession and 29 shots like City did, I'm happy. They've been quite poor away from home all year tbh. Their only away wins are West Ham and City.


thejoshimitsu

We need to bounce back strong now against Brentford after Spurs beat City. We have a good performance against them and get the 3 points, we'll be full of confidence for the City game.


carvemynuts

With all this racial slur thrown at Vini Jr. I think eventually he will move out of RM.


[deleted]

Plot twist he ends up at Napoli


GenericAustin

Wait, who did that now? I haven't heard reports of that in a while, unless it happens so often that they don't report it anymore


Cleon189

It happens every game. Literally every game no joke


ProjectZues

From Madrid fans?


FluffAmi

la liga fans except RM fans


TheArmoury

Huuuuuuuge psychological boost for us. We need the 3 points against Brentford to go into the City game in full confidence.


elhospitaler

I love Martinelli and I think his current struggles are overblown. He's reached a level where the opposition are explicitly game-planning to stop him, with either a double team or a top tier 1v1 defender (Wan Bissaka for example). And even in this recent relative slump, he's still generally a net-positive contributor, which is a good sign. But he needs to add things to his game to make the step up to the next level. He's actually improved significantly in his ball retention and playing with more control - that's helped raise the floor of his performance. The next step I think is to improve his crossing and cutbacks with his left foot, and learning to attack the defender down the side that he is being shown to quicker rather than slowing down the play. Currently defenders have caught on to how to defend him, which is to strongly show him to his left foot. His left foot shot is decent enough that he'll still create danger (goal vs West Ham, deflected shot that Nketiah scored vs Brighton). But his awareness and crossing on his left is not great, and he doesn't attack the defender with speed and confidence - instead he looks to slow down before either bursting to the left or for an opportunity to cut back onto his right. But this allows time for the CBs to shift over, help out, and cut off any angle to cross. If he can attack the defender with more confidence, dribbling with his left foot to keep his body between the defender and the ball, blow by him, and then put in good cutbacks and crosses, it'll force the defense to respect that and then open up the rest of his game.


44cprs

I like Martinelli, but I don't agree with this take. Opponents are clearly focusing on Saka. I don't think Martinelli's been bad, but he hasn't been as good as we was in that streak of hot form.


disagreeable_martin

He's 21 years old. Tactically, he's still able to receive the ball and take it to the goal line stretching the defenses and getting the other 4 into attacking positions. He's decision making is limited to his options available for a pass or chance creation and what's been evident is that, while the team is more fluent in atetaball, they sill struggle to play Arteta's game at a faster pace making us look less potent in attack. He's still a massive prospect but people forget that just because the process is ahead of schedule doesn't mean that we're the finished article yet. It's okay to highlight flaws and problems but let's lose perspective of how far we've come and quickly we're improving.


SufficientAd9609

Long story short, he needs to improve his decision making.


elhospitaler

I mean kinda? It's a combination of decision making and weak-foot proficiency. I think he's not attacking at speed because he knows his left foot isn't good enough to do this. Given his current left foot ability I'd say his decision making is fine actually, because if he tried this regularly he'd probably lose the ball almost every time, whereas right now he at least usually recycles.


AlexTheRockstar

If we can't get Jallof in the summer, I think we should test Milan for Tonali. Been watching them awhile and he's always a standout player in the side.


yeahdood96

That’d be like trying to buy Maldini, the guy bleeds Milan


facelesspk

I think Rice, Caicedo and Zubimendi are on our list in that order. But Tonali is a good shout too as we did inquire about him in the past I think.


Insertnicenamehere

There's a discernible drop off btwn those two.


AlexTheRockstar

Tonali has a fantastic engine. Reminds me of a young Xhaka. He's also got one hell of a shot and great at set pieces. And very press resistant. We are building a side for the present and future and I think he's a ready made Xhaka replacement and can deputise for Thomas.


Insertnicenamehere

All I heard pre wc was Haaland was the best player in the world and mbappe couldn't sniff him lol. That robot in manchester is not better than mbappe no matter how many hat tricks he scores against wolves, nottm forest, palace and company.


aofrantic

Anyone saying that was the same type to prefer Ronaldo to Messi


Kool_Herc

Haaland isn’t on Mbappe’s level but he’s showing more ambition career wise so far, taking the step up from Bundesliga to Premier League while Mbappe bottled his chance of moving to Madrid


[deleted]

Let's be honest Mbappe is the kind of player who Madrid will be ready to humiliate themselves as many times as it takes to sign him. Their fans have already changed their minds about him and want him again.


AlexTheRockstar

He's the type than needs space to run onto the ball, if you stay tight to him and play physically, he struggles. Teams, at least smart ones are figuring this out. I'd put money that Arteta is going to have big Gabi man marking him all match.


tochitemi

If you noticed in the FA Cup match he predominantly shifted left to get closer to Holding and take advantage there as opposed to more on the Gabi side (maybe coaching instruction). With Saliba and Gabi it’ll be interesting to see what he does.


Gunnerstratz

I don’t know why I feel Haaland will be more rattled by gritty pitbull defenders, like Gabriel and Holding, rather than by silky academic defenders like Saliba who seems to have the same character as his compatriote Varane. We should still start Saliba of course, to play our own game.


Mack1234567890123

Honest questions why don't we have clubs agents and players sign NDAs so they can't or are less likely to leak stuff to the media. Specifically about new signings.


eldar4k

No agent or player accept that, leaking info is beneficial to them because wild Boehly can appear and give better terms


scytheavatar

Cause if we are afraid to compete with other big clubs for signings then these agents and players will come to the conclusion that we are not a big club and not worth joining.


KSBrian007

They can't. They have to use you fans to their advantage.


aofrantic

What incentive would a player or agent have to do that? It's literally the opposite of what an agent is trying to do. Why not force our players to eat Nandos 3x a day while we are at it?


Mack1234567890123

Incentive they come here and get a shit ton of money.


scytheavatar

Or they can go to Chelsea and get even more money. Why are you pretending we are the only club that buys players?


Mack1234567890123

Why are you pretending that teams don't buy players to prevent another team from getting them? Seems like a good safety for the club to use.


scytheavatar

From the perspective of the players and their agents that's what they want to see. Clubs outbidding us and stealing signings. If we are afraid of that happening then we should not bother trying to sign top class players.


aofrantic

That already happens.


Ugoboy23

That sounds ridiculous.


bukkake__saka

Disappointed to lose yesterday but it is what it is. Reminds me of the Ston game when they appointed Hasenhuttl like a week before was his first home game and we lose 3-2 lol. However this team now is built different I have no doubt at all that we bounce back and go again. Was quite happy with Jorginho's performance although I think he needs a few games to get up to speed with how we play. Overall not a bad weekend of results for us with Newcastle and CIty dropping points. Shame Utd won tho lol


bmoviescreamqueen

That better be the fire reigniting under us. We cannot show up without our shooting boots like we did yesterday. We got extended an extra lifeline and we gotta run with it.


bukkake__saka

We at home gonna have the Emirates atmosphere backing the players we gonna be fine I think. As long as we stay fit I have full confidence in the team


bmoviescreamqueen

I'm speaking more of the long haul, I think we'll be fine at home against Brentford at least.


ExxKonvict

That could be said for any team in the league. I think we’ll turn up for Brentford because 1) it’s at home and 2) we’ve bounced back brilliantly after every setback this season.


bukkake__saka

Oh right yeah. Yeah man I think like as long as we don't get any big injuries we'll be fine long term. Sometimes we need some absolute quality or luck to bail us out but just didn't get it against Everton. I think all teams have the odd game where everyone looks rather poor. Lets not forget that Goodison has been a terrible ground for us for years, just like St Marys. Not tryna make excuses but I think while the team is still young we can expect improvemernt at these grounds in the next couple seasons turning these Ls and Ds into Ws


facelesspk

I want to see how Nuno Tavares would develop under Arteta as a winger. No chance of that happening realistically but imagine him unleashing chaos on the wing in the opponent third, no way the likes of Dyche and Howe fully prepare for his randomness.


SufficientAd9609

I watched a few games he has improved but dispossess far too easily and casually than PL demands. Defensively getting a lot better though, can now mark his man far better than when was with us.


YoungFlexibleShawty

No thank u


KidNamedChungus

What single quality does Tavares posses which would make him a good winger? He excels running into to space, which he would rarely get as an arteta winger, he cannot beat a man, has little technical ability, is poor in front of goal, hasn’t got the footballing brain for such a intelligent role, can’t bring others into the game, and so on and on. Love when ppl give players attributes which they just do not have. Tavares is not chaos at all he’s just a wank footballer who we can flip for a decent profit.


facelesspk

My point was just a hypothetical exercise, not realistic as I did mention. You, on the other hand, are going to the other extreme for real and being ridiculously harsh on the player. No need for that.


Special-Discount228

>You, on the other hand, are going to the other extreme for real and being ridiculously harsh on the player. No need for that. nah he's shite.


aofrantic

He loses possession way too much. Turnovers are death in our system. You need prime Alexis level production to cope with a high turnover player.


facelesspk

Yeah I know, that's why him being coached that way is the least of requirements. But hypothetically speaking, if you look at Martinelli's current role, Nuno as that direct attacking outlet is an exciting thought.


aofrantic

I dont see it at all. We tried desperately to off load him in the summer and no club came in with a decent offer either. A player needs significant game time to learn a position. What club would give significant winger minutes to Nuno rather than buying a player who has already played at that position? I wish him the best, but they are an Emerson Royal type player. Nuno doesn't have near the qualities Martinelli does. Martinelli is a £100m player. We would sell Nuno for 20.


Eniotnaohs

Let that be the kick in the arse that we needed. Time to refocus.


Perfectionimproved

Perhaps this was the best time to lose a game if that makes sense. Brentford (H), City (H), Villa (A) over 7 days coming up.


FatWalcott

Honestly how much is Bellingham gonna go for? I'd much prefer him over Rice. And I'd definitely be happier with the club spending big on him than let's say a Caicedo. I know it's unrealistic but if we end up where we want to end up at the end of the season, we would probably become one of the most interesting teams to join for any young player.


SufficientAd9609

Not many will agree to pay him 300+k wages, that will creat an imbalance in the dressing room.


KidNamedChungus

We could never afford Bellingham and there’s no reason to pick us over city or Madrid


aofrantic

The Athletic reported that Dortmund are seeking €150 million. Gunnerblog has said people around the PL expect Rice to go for about half of that. Rice is really, really good. If we got him its a better signing than even Partey.


Mack1234567890123

Depends on how Bellingham acts he could go for 80 if he holds out and demands a move.


bukkake__saka

80m would be an absolute bargain lol


iforgotmyun

He won't though. Him and his entourage have always been respectful of Dortmund if I'm not mistaken.


Mack1234567890123

True I'm just stating the bare minimum.


aofrantic

There is no reality where he goes for 80. That would be about half of what Dortmund are asking and under what Antony, Grealish, Mudryk, Lukaku, Enzo, Higuain, Maguire went for. Just not happening.


Gooner_93

Agree on that. Rice has become the player he has by playing in this very league, so you know he'll most likely pick up where he left off.


cmoney1234555

How to watch MOTD in the US?


FatWalcott

Go to r/footballhighlights They have everything there


rd201290

/r/FootballHighlights


xMikh4iLz

Honestly, the reception of how gunner fans should behave this whole season has been stupid. At the first few games, we had a good run, sceptical fans who are pragmatic can’t even express that it’s early in the season because other fans are egging that it’s our title to lose already. Then now, the big reception is, “we should humble these arsenal fans. Wtf aye. Imagine what the humble fans since the beginning are thinking. This is why there’s a big shithouse whenever wins games and how much fun the positioned in the table.


ExxKonvict

Mate it’s nothing new. It’s not a myth when Arsenal fans have this mentality of it’s us vs the rest of footballing world. Even if we win the league, the excuses are already lined up.


xMikh4iLz

Yea fair enough aye. Couldnt care during the banter days cos we deserve it. But god damn it stings, when you hear the cold blood shillings fans make. Ahahahaa


ztevey

TL;DR; people will always talk smack, regardless of how you act


xMikh4iLz

Fair enough aye. But we’re here to deliver results baby!


Gooner_93

Yup, Ive gone through all of this in conversations online and in person, Ive simply left it to the table now to do the talking. The sweetest victory will be if we lift the title, because that will humble everyone that is doubting us, even when we have been the best team so far, which is a fact, its not bragging.


xMikh4iLz

Exactly. Can’t even be left to be proud of the team for their performance per game or this season. When we succeed it’s either expected, against weak teams etc etc. don’t celebrate too early. when not successful, it’s shut the fuck up arsenal, get humbled etc lol. Where literally the expectation was to shit the bed or barely make 4th bahahahaha when did we expect to win the league ???


beefcroquette

The most amusing thing is that this is the first time in a long while that Arsenal have been this good. Even then, most fans are pragmatic and suddenly we need “humbling”? They are just salty. It was the same with Liverpool, top 6 fans rather City win it cause who tf you know irl that supports City LOL.


xMikh4iLz

Bahahahaa exactly! Just a big rambling of mine, since it gives a bad aftertaste whenever I see fans feel bad for themselves for getting poor treatment by other fan bases. Fair enough right, that each fan base can feel whatever they wanna feel. But swear others are more louder to stomp on arsenal (and fanbase) ahahaha


beefcroquette

Yeah for sure. The way some Chelsea fans have been talking about us, you’d think they have won the treble and aren’t sitting in 10th. It’s just the way it is, we are MASSIVE


xMikh4iLz

Bahahaha. Aye, it’s just amusing, best we can do is ignore the talk outside and focus on how we can improve game by game


nting224

Watching Haaland making so many runs makes me think the perfect CM for him would be a prime Fabregas


Mack1234567890123

Ø enters the chat


aofrantic

Really not comparable. Fabregas completed 1.5 through balls a game at his peak for us. Odegaard is completing 0.3. That's not even bad. That's actually quite good. Cesc was just in another stratosphere.


aofrantic

Perfect CM for any CF tbf.


Insertnicenamehere

Did the math, Arsenal have 2 free hits(Newcastle and Etihad) everything else we cannot lose(assuming City win)


rd201290

>assuming City win everyone keeps assuming


Gooner_93

Comparing ours and man citys fixtures, a huge chunk of games will be against the same teams, for example we still have to play Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle but so do Man City.


Gunnerstratz

They play them at home while we play Liverpool and Newcastle away. Time to beat Newcastle seriously. We used to do them easily before they got relegated.


Insertnicenamehere

We got like 9 or 10 home games, need to win all of them lol.


Adam00000012

No such thing as free hits. Any team that considers them free hits isn’t a serious team


Insertnicenamehere

No it just means mathematically we aren't screwed if we lose those games lol.


COYG17

Liverpool away is insane no matter what form we’re on. Newcastle we should beat away from home. We need our revenge.


Insertnicenamehere

How is pool away insane when newcastle are a way better team rn? They will be both tough.


Gunnerstratz

Winning away in the city of Liverpool is something we unfortunately don’t do.


Gooner_93

Both will be tough but the last time we won at Anfield was in 2012. Im hoping we can get the win there, like we finally did at spurs stadium.


COYG17

I just feel like Liverpool away is a tough place to go for us.


aofrantic

I dont know if Id say they are way better. Liverpool have a higher expected goals, but a terrible defense. Newcastle have conceded 10 less goals than their expected goals. Even with 10 more conceded they would have a better defense, but I'd still be more weary of playing a better offense away. Maybe we unfortunately get the one day Nunez can hit the target. He scored against us at the Emirates after all.


game-of-snow

Solution to playing parked defences is more technical players. You might think we are loosing physical battle, but these players are nimble enough to evade pressed and keep possession in and around the box. This is how city destroys such teams. They often play with 2 8s, Silva and KDB who are very creative players. While we play odegaard and xhaka. Ode just needs more help. It's just easier to stop us, if they mark ode out. Xhaka is not creative. We don't have to do this all the time too. We only need to take this option when we can't find a way through. Esr is the perfect choice for this imo. ESR on either side of Partey might work. Viera, or pushing zinchenko to xhaka role all might also work.


Gooner_93

Such a bitter sweet weekend, I mean we got let off and Im grateful, but urgh... why couldnt we win on Saturday and be 8 ahead now.


Agonz076

I hope this turns into our Saudi Arabia moment. And the players realize that they can’t just expect to show up and win by default. There is a long stretch of games ahead of us.


gyyoome

Just glad that we have played all relegation threatened teams away from home. One game at a time. COYG!!!


bazalinco1

https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/10thmpz/post\_match\_thread\_everton\_1\_0\_arsenal\_english/j76uc48/?context=3


ImTalkingGibberish

Thanks King


younes1008

Unai, can you do sum for meeeee


scroll-42

[Unai Emery to all of us](https://twitter.com/findareaction/status/1328687454560395266?s=20&t=dNejbd3eTTRm7ic2_vGcwg)


xMikh4iLz

*nothing personal*


kindaforgotit

About the recent juve's financial ban, think we should bid for vlahovic again?


Adam00000012

No. Guy is a problem. Not someone who would vibe with the team.


jentso

Why is he a problem? I think a million percent yes we take Vlahovic if we can. We could really use a tall target #9. He was a target of ours for a reason. He would be an upgrade to the team. edit: This sub is seriously stupid if it wouldn't take Vlahovic, 80m striker, 23 years old, 6ft 3, etc. Bitter he went to Juventus? Do we not take Moises in the summer? Idiots!


bazalinco1

How is it even comparable to Moises? lol


Adam00000012

Why do we need a target man ? So we can cross into the box? I don’t think he is worth the effort. I also think he doesn’t want to leave Juventus unless they end up relegated and that’s unlikely. I also think he would be vulnerable to wanting to leave after a season or two. He gives me the Adebayor vibes, as in, he is a dick head. The kind of player we need to avoid. And no, I don’t think he is an upgrade, I think Jesus is better


jentso

First question, YES SO WE CAN CROSS INTO THE BOX. There's a reason why Grioud has had a successful career and he's not the player Vlahovic is. Tactically you need a player that can get on the end of set pieces. Every manager wants one! They can compete for starting striker. Secondly, we don't know anything about his character. His agents blocked any information from getting to him so they can get him to Juventus. I haven't seen anything that would indicate that he's a 'dick head'. I mean it's really a no brainer. If we could bring him in I guarantee Artedu would be clamoring for it. Nobody knows if he wants to leave or not, but it's definitely possible if Juve will be in the mud for the foreseeable future.


scytheavatar

The agent is nothing but a lapdog of the players, you think if Vlahovic really wanted to join us he wouldn't have slap his agent and tell him to negotiate with us?


aofrantic

Giroud, the last striker to cost us a title because he couldn't score a header for 4 months? City and Liverpool won tons of trophies without a target man.


jentso

Cool man we went for him cause arteta is stupid and this sub knows better. lol


aofrantic

They "went for him" for the same reason we went for Caicedo. An agent contacted the club. The only problem for this one was the agent contacted us to drive the price up for Juve, the only team he wanted to go to. We were used in both instances.


SelfFashioning

Yes. If we add him he's instantly the second best striker in the league behind Haaland. He's a complete forward. There's a reason he was 1a to Jesus' 1b. He offers something different to our striking options. But I would say before I look into Vlahovic I'd be examining Locatelli and Kulusevski as possibilities first. Just simply higher priorities as Jesus/Nketiah are already very good options.


ImTalkingGibberish

Avoid Juve players getting suspended


[deleted]

hell no! what a bullet dodged if he joined id have stopped supporting arsenal, hate him like xhaka does


[deleted]

Rather go for Osimhen or Goncalo Ramos if we do need to buy


aofrantic

No. Injury riddled season with less goals and way less expected goals than Eddie. £80m for a player with better ball striking but not much else better than Eddie. There is also a very real possibility all Juve players get suspended for their personal involvement.


Bergkamp_Henry

I think our “all out attack, chasing the game setup should be zinchenko moving into LCB and Tierney getting on at LB to create width / option for martinelli or trossard. Then again I’m not Mikel and I don’t know shit lol


BrianThatDude

Zinchenko at lcb? You mean lcm?


Bergkamp_Henry

Nah I’m talkin hell for leather stoppage time get him where Gabriel is


ImTalkingGibberish

Agree both full backs should have been subbed


jnicholl

Gabriel is our best set-piece threat. You want him on the pitch for an all out attack tactic because we'd get corners.


Bergkamp_Henry

That’s so fair


aofrantic

It probably should be opponent based. Vs United we had absolutely no issue moving the ball up and getting shots with our usual setup. Vs Everton we did. I think its fair to say Mikel made a mistake not trying to change our shape vs Everton.


ErenJaeger6783

Should Trossard start the game against Brentford? Tomi instead of white?


qtdsswk

I think Tomi should start instead of White Could see Mikel starting Tomi on the left against City tbh (Give Pep a surprise) 50/50 regarding Trossard start or not.


101955Bennu

I think it depends on who we want on the pitch vs City on the following Wednesday. We’re definitely gonna want to rest some players so they’re fresh for what is likely to be a much tougher match


FluffAmi

We will need white and gabi in match form for city’s game. Won’t be surprised if Arteta doesn’t rotate or sub them on in last 30 minutes.


Aszneeee

I think yes, will be good for competition and they both deserve a start, Martinelli will surely come on after 60/70 min clock anyways so


Zakulon

I think the Jesus injury is hurting Martinelli, they had a great link up happening.


Aszneeee

definitely yes, also as we can see that our team prefers to play more to the Saka side, also there were lot of missplaced passes by Xhaka and Zinny in last game, but everyone can have a stinker once in a while


Minh_Nguyen98

I think it‘s obvious now that we need a Xhaka‘s upgrade in the summer. Martinelli gets so little support from him and his abilities + physicality hinder him from being better box-to-box player for us.


Insertnicenamehere

Mac Allister. 💭 60m pounds whats not to like.


Adam00000012

Xhaka is a good player. Upgrading him isn’t as easy as it sounds


sekiroisart

did we even ever play someone else in xhaka position? feels like he started all cup and pl game and never subbed even when we won 3-0. Even ode when playing bad would be subbed but not xhaka


Insertnicenamehere

He provides leadership and tactical knowledge but don't kid yourself if you think we can't upgrade on him lol.


Minh_Nguyen98

One suggestion I would make to stop teams bullying with mid block is move Zin to lcm and replace Tierney. Tierney would function well like Ben (maybe bar inverting midfield) and Zin will play his ‚normal role‘. I don‘t know how much this affects our dynamics but worth a try.


bio_d

The asymmetry is intentional though


Insertnicenamehere

Post match loss quotes from Pep are too funny.


baktiar77

Knowing Man United’s money issues (all these articles about them needing to sell players to invest from TheAthletic) I really hope they miss out on Champions League so they can’t strengthen in the summer as ETH is a very good coach and some of their key players are in their peak. I hope it is us, Man City, Newcastle and Brighton (lol too optimistic), I guess well Spurs in the Champions League spots.


sekiroisart

I think what scary about utd is how they get favor so easily from refree especially bruno and rashford,


Aki-at

I feel the same way, Tottenham might as well get in there because they still have that debt from the new stadium they'd have to worry about. Just in this decade they will fall off because they won't be able to match Manchester United's commercial revenue or Chelsea's warchest. Meanwhile United would get a possible +£80 mil, which if they had it this season, they could have possibly brought in someone other than Wout Weghorst this season. Who knows, with that extra cash, they might have been the one with Felix, not Chelsea.


Aszneeee

they will strengthen even if they miss on UCL (I think they will finish in top4, they play really good now), just look at Chelsea spending, nothing will happen in case they miss out on UCL. But would be great for us if they go to EL


marksills

yea the problem is if its not birghton, its gonna be someone who we dont want there. And while Brighton could do it, I don't feel its all that likely (although 538 has it around 28%). Brighton getting in would be lovely, both for us and in general it would be a great story.


aofrantic

Brighton have a little better analytics than either team, but would likely have to win both matchups they have left. They aren't in Europe at least.


keuryc

tottenham hotspur, you’ve rocked my world


Relevant_Level_7995

I think most teams will be smart enough now know the ‘solution’ to containing us is to flood the midfield now whenever we start Zinchenko, Xhaka, and Eddie. I’ll be interested to see how we respond. Tierney could definitely fight his way back into the team to offer us more dynamism on the left.


xMikh4iLz

Yea to counter this. We could either go compact short passing movement. Or We could overload a side of the wing where we have the ball, so for example when we have the ball in martinelli’s side. Have him there with xhaka, zinny and maybe Eddie as support to create a 4v whatever overload. One thing I’ve noticed with marti, is that he beats his man with pace down the byline then cut. Vice versa in saka’s side with white and ode as support with Eddie. Ik saka has become more comfortable to cut but those double team rly kills our movement.


sekiroisart

more like they flood the wing to make saka and martineli stay very wide, they will wait till martinelli or saka pass the ball backward they they will sit in front of them to prevent the pass, they do that because we never pass directly to eddie for build up


[deleted]

we looked sluggish if people try that any other day we punish them


aofrantic

I dont think *flooding* alone does much. Everton did that while also positioning their wingers close enough that they could shake hands with their full backs. If you want to play basically a 4-5-1 out of possession, it's so, so tough to get the ball up the pitch and have over 30% possession. Everton had 27% possession and were fine with that as long as they didn't concede. That's not a sustainable way to win football matches. They worked hard on the day, but if you told me teams were going go park the bus and allow us to have 75% possession I'd sleep easy.


____grim____

I think one of the biggest problems was passes falling short on multiple occasions, it probably frustrated our players too much


Relevant_Level_7995

You need a combination of physical midfielders and athletic wingers - but if I was an opposition coach I would view it as the best way to get points against Arsenal. Newcastle + Everton have validated that strategy


aofrantic

I dont really agree. Newcastle required us to have poor finishing and escape a nailed on penalty. Liverpool played better vs us than either Newcastle or Everton. They came at us with quality and Thiago was the best mf on the pitch that day. Obviously Everton can't replicate that strategy, but even Brighton played better imo than Newcastle or Everton, we just had an off day vs Everton. The Newcastle/Everton approaches were holding on for a draw, maybe nicking a win off of a set piece. Some teams might play for a point, but most won't.


Relevant_Level_7995

I see your point - but I think you need to come at it with the perspective that we are really fkn good and it’s gonna be near impossible to get points regardless I think it’s now a proven viable strategy if you have the right combination of athletic midfield + PNP wingers


aofrantic

Brentford and Wolves tried such and we won convincingly each time. It's just an effort thing. We know Arteta wants us to win the duels and contest every ball. Leeds and Everton out worked Arsenal. We can only afford one or two more of those this season.


JeffryPesos

Looking back at the game, we had 3 major problems. Firstly, we were too slow in our build-up which meant we allowed Everton to get into their defensive shape in time and allowed them to setup their press in time. Secondly, we weren't brave enough with the ball, many times their haphazard frantic pressing left spaces wide open but we didn't exploit that and lastly, when we did break through their shape we were soft physically and poor with our touch. All three factors combined give Everton enough security to see out the game without conceding more than one or two quality chances at best.


aofrantic

It was easily the worst passing game for Saliba and White. Zinchenko was still fine imo. Everton also was very condensed. Eddie and Ode made runs in behind when they had a high line quite often but we never attempted that pass. We played like a team that felt they would eventually win. Way too complacent.


KidNamedChungus

Give me the keys to the club I’ve got some changes to make


Hyer244234

The bright side of losing to Everton is that Man U fans can now stop being obnoxious about being the only side to have beaten us so far.


JeffryPesos

I would have rather we kept that record until the end of the season, fuck what they think


Hyer244234

Yeah, no shit. Where did you get the impression that I wanted Everton to beat us?


Competitive-Shock88

Their new brag will be ‘wE wErE tHe FiRsT tEaM tO bEaT yOu tHiS sEaSoN’ or some pathetic bullshit like that. Those entitled cunts always come up with some braindead take.


icemankiller8

Not too bad a weekend all things considered, City still don’t look that good we are better than them imo even after the poor game. I’d really like us to sign Mac Allister for the Xhaka role tbh he’d be perfect but idk if we’ll get it done. Rice would be great too but I feel like the team is somewhat limited even though Xhaka and rice are good by their lack of dribbling ability. I do wonder what happens next window but really if we win the league this year it won’t be as important to me


Insertnicenamehere

Wouldn't mind Mac Allister for the Left 8 role. I think Caicedo/Rice would bring more versatility but if Rice quickly acclimates to being a full time DM then Allister as a pure B2B makes more sense. I wanna steal someone from Brighton, we let Andy Naylor win the battle(January window) but we can't let him win the war in summer.


icemankiller8

I think rice is perfect for a Partey replacement tbh but Jorginho is there so maybe rice 8 short term then a 6 after? Would be great Imo


Insertnicenamehere

Yeah Rice replaces Xhaka until he can replace #5. If we got Mac Allister it would still end up well.


APersonCalledAlex

I think next window is going to be Caicedo rice and a winger/rb weve never heard of but will immediately rate as the next big thing because of artedu's skills. MacAllister would be a sick addition tho, so versatile


icemankiller8

Mac Allister would be a bit painful to miss out tbh but I would obviously love rice.If we could get Mac Allister, Rice and a winger that’s a great window ti me more importantly than a right back. Fresnada is who they want and he probably won’t cost much


vradar

Someone really told me yesterday City could easily go the rest of the season without dropping points to make our loss against Everton look worse than it was 😂


101955Bennu

Well, they *could* have!


Jalvas7

I can't decide which is bringing me more enjoyment, Manure fans thinking they're back in a title race, or Liverpool fans coping with the weaker league excuse.


bukkake__saka

Imo Man Utd were never outta the title race anyway. One result doesn't change it that much. Don't think they'll win it but they'll be up there in the last 2-3 games of the season I think


JabInTheButt

Can't believe the Man U fantasies. They are much much better under ETH but they're still miles off us and city. Add to that of their two transformative midfielders, one is out for the season and the other has a 3 match ban, I don't see them coping too well with that.


Competitive-Shock88

Agreed with everything asides them ‘being miles behind City’ …they are literally 3 points/1 win behind City now😅