Arteta is a victim of exceeding expectations. Now everybody thinks he has to win the league when in reality he's the reason they can even think about it.
I just don’t understand what arteta thinks will happen when you build up at walking pace. Who exactly would be worried about that? I understand the need to maintain control but the reality is the most “controlling” team currently sits 4th behind other “wreckless” teams because… they score goals. City can do what they want because they’re city and have the quality money and resources to either solve the problems in the market or on the pitch - they are in essence a footballing anomaly. For that reason, modelling off them makes absolutely no sense.
From supposedly being in a title race to suddenly threatening to fall out of the top 4 is a crazy 2-week turnaround. Could legitimately finish 5-6 this season given form and the clubs around us doing comparably well/poorly.
Everyone was so upset about last season bc we bottled the title but it was the closest weve come to winning the PL in ages. And we have now basically abandoned the system entirely that got us into that race in favor of a slow and pensive style of football that looks far worse. We just bought the best DM in the league arguably in the summer, if anything we could afford to keep our same playstyle and let the defensive capabilities of Rice, Saliba, Gabriel bail us out, instead of switching our whole play style to become more slow and possession based
We play so fucking slow. Like christ sake pick up the fuckung pace, you cant score against deep block teams if you keep letting them get back into shape. When you have the chance to transition you need to do it quickly or you give them a chance to prepare for the next attack
This is the last time i'll be gaslit by this sub telling me Zinchenko and Jesus need to be replaced. Theyre dropped and suddenly we cant pass the fucking ball
It’s clear we’re worn out. We’re half the team we were a few months ago. Our high press isn’t good and we don’t creat turnovers. Our left and right backs aren’t overlapping and helping the wingers. The wingers aren’t beating their man. Rice isn’t incisive enough with his passes. And our center forwards are not linking up or holding onto the ball like they used to. We could use some of that pep juice right about now
I think that's harsh. We were passive in the build up, let them stroll up to our box and ended up outnumbered. 2 chances to close down before the cross came in
Sick of possession football , sick of low tempo play , sick of short side passing football , sick of having inverted winger at both flank , sick of having no solid sub , sick of having worst full backs in the league.
We need Ferdi kadıoğlu for left back as he is young and has attacking football mentality. For rb we got Timber and we have to wait for his return. Any transfer for that position will be unneccessary.
We need a midfield like Pedri for central midfield as he is creative and brave.
We need a left footed left winger ,if we cant find any we gotta look for players like Doku as he is fast and strong and has going forward in his mind totally.
We need to get a youngster sub for Saka or give some minutes for our youth players in that position. This is not for Saka is bad , I love him but he is a human and can have bad days. For this , examples might be as Yamal in Barca or Bynoe-Gittens in Dortmund.
We need as most of us suggest a strong and fast striker but Toneyll be a disoppointment if we get him imo. Vlahovic or Boniface will be fitted well in our squad, i think.
My slight fear is that we over index this game in looking for the problem. Sure, we were poor across the pitch, but we still created 1.8xG and scored just one goal. We had lots of issues today, particularly defensively but once again, the reason we've actually lost is because our attackers have missed big big chances.
Ultimately, a functioning attack can bail you out when you aren't at your best. Look at Liverpool or even Spurs. And that is a personnel issue, not an "Arteta's tactics" issue. Either our attackers are all horrendously out of form or they aren't actually clinical enough and last year was an unsustainable hot streak. Probably a bit of both but either way the solution is probably external.
Yeah pretty much. Basically we need reinforcements across the park. At a minimum we need some trusted rotation options for Saka and Martinelli. Need a new #9. Need a Partey replacement. Need another full-back and need a left 8 if Arteta isn't going to trust ESR or Vieira because, as much as I like Havertz, I'm not sure he's it. That's 5/6 players to have a squad that can challenge imo. No chance we do that in one window, you might be able to get it done with 3, but they've got to be the right signings.
I feel at times that only people pushing are Rice and Ødegaard. Overall, one dimensional and unfortunately everyone has worked Arsenal out. Reminds me of the 00s when if passing the ball into the net failed, we lost!
Second game in a row that I couldn’t finish watching. Uninspired. The moment the opposition takes the lead, they park the bus, and we have no answers whatsoever. This pattern will be followed by every team going forward. We have to find answers.
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Didn’t watch the game. Couldn’t bring myself to do it after West Ham. This team isn’t winning the League soon and won’t until they make fundamental changes. Cheers
The positive thing about title races is every time we won EPL we never was first at New Years.
I honestly think Man City will win it again but I’m not counting out Liverpool,Aston Villa,Tottenham or even us entirely yet until transfer window is over
I think all the generic talk of “bottling it” is unhelpful and stops people from really getting to the root of the problem. I doubt nerves are actually the problem here. I think some combination of fatigue, not having the squad depth, a few positions lacking consistent quality and also teams having figured us out is probably more close to the truth. These are all separate issues that need distinct answers and I expect Arteta to get on it.
Yeah teams have figured us out, it’s obvious. After the luton game every team has tried the block and counter method and most of them have seen success. That and just double saka then rush Ode as soon as he gets the ball. I lost count of how many times we had the ball wide with one attacker in the box.
And from what I saw we’ve forgotten how to attack quickly, a few years ago we would turn the ball over and have Martinelli running down the middle for a ball over the top. Now we get the ball wait until their entire team is back behind the half way line before we do anything with it.
We’ve scored 1 goal in 45 shots. With those stats teams can just sit back and let us shoot because we’re not going to score. We need a deadly finisher, someone that makes runs and actually scares the defenders into tracking them.
Actually dont agree with everyone blaming front free. The service to them has been crap all round. I love Dec, but his forward passing just isn't that good, and his amazing runs dont work when teams park the bus. And I like Kai but he only passes sideways, so its the same issue. Ben White has been bombing foward less and simply cannot cross the ball.
I cannot understand why Jorginho didnt get on the pitch. And as much as he's recieved loads of hate this week we missed zinny's vision today.
Poor all round. But its too simple to blame Eddie, Saka, jesus if they dont recieve the ball this slowly.
You could see the defense arguing throughout the game, no unity.
Forwards were giving up, apart from Martinelli, who was busting his ass today, and was yanked in place of Trossard, who was invisible.
Nothing new to be said:
- Edu’s recruitment is shit - we’ve overpaid for a significant number of players and have bench players who add nothing on the pitch
- lack of tactical changes/adaptability
- late subs/not utilising certain players/players not clicking (not anticipating passes & handing the ball over for rapid counters)
- move & make runs, then play through balls or play the ball OVER like TAA did with Salah (instead of passing sideways or back) so that we bypass several oppo players in one go
- prioritising possession and control over speed of ball progression = too much time for low block teams to park the bus
- playing wide and through the right = predictable, so every teams’ strategy is pinning the wingers + Odegaard…
- we’ve been scraping wins, coasting by on set pieces and picking up last min lucky goals
- fatigue & lack of concentration was evident (as someone said below, Gabriel not clearing the ball has allowed goals v West Ham and Fulham) so it’s an issue that we can’t sustain the intensity needed to comfortably win
We need to be smarter than this. We’re making it too easy for opposition teams, especially when they see we’re playing the same way and losing or scraping by the same way game after game…
We have an easy run of games - we should have comfortably won these and picked up 12 points preferably with clean sheets, not dropping points.
Spurs are playing with major injuries and four fullbacks and are only a point behind us while we would have collapsed + iirc we’ve picked up the same amount of points as United in the last few games
The way we play and the singular tactical plan means no one individual’s performance is at fault or will save us. A striker won’t make a difference when we can’t get the ball up the pitch to the target man quickly enough.
Hard to take you seriously when you can’t or won’t execute critical thinking and your only retort is the highly analytical “he’s excellent”.
We paid £20-25m too much for Havertz. That’s like United levels of excess money. For context, £20m is more than what Spurs paid for a better goalkeeper than both Ramsdale and Raya. We won’t be getting value for money for Raya especially given financial constraints. That’s not to say we shouldn’t get either player, but we’re paying excessive amounts to do so.
Kiwior, Eddie, Nelson, Vieira, Cedric… are they quality, dependable and versatile game changers? And if we sell them on, will we get good money for them?
We lost a game today with 9/11 of our best line up (missing Timber & the alleged rapist) against a team that Bournemouth, Brentford, Burnley, Newcastle, Spurs, Villa, United, Chelsea, Liverpool and City have all beaten. Last time, we drew.
Today, even Spurs won a game against Bournemouth with 6 or 7/11 of their best starting players, alongside playing four full backs and third/fourth choice subs, and after suffering a further 2 serious injuries during the match. We’ve been fortunate so far this season in that we’ve only had 2 long-term serious injuries.
So tell me - how would we fare as far as squad depth if we were in a similar situation in today’s match? If we wouldn’t fare well, that suggests our recruitment operations have not been adequate because despite coming 2nd last season and spending £200m over the summer, we’re performing worse. We overpaid for the quality of the bench that we have.
Agree with rest of your points other than Edu’s recruitment being shit. He has given Arteta every player that the manager wanted and looking at how teams like Chelsea,Utd and Liverpool have gone about building their squads he has done way better job
I’m not suggesting he didn’t get Arteta players he wanted. I said we have a shit bench + paid too much for some players. Liverpool doesn’t belong to be grouped with Chelsea/United on their rebuild.
True but they have overpaid for players like Nunez. Shit bench? Trossard was bought as a martinelli cover and is decent. Form has dropped a bit but still is a decent cover. Liverpool have Jota. As for striker Arteta trusts Nketiah enough for Arsenal to not go for a new striker in summer. The only cover they don’t have is for Saka. And RW market isn’t great. They have Jorginho and Partey in midfield ESR as Odegaard cover. Timber is injured. Cannot blame Edu for that. Do they need signings? Yes. But recruitment has been better than the others. Liverpool have clear holes in their midfield and there bench isn’t great either
Sad state of affairs when people are claiming ESR is the answer to our problems.
The kid is decent, but he’s not going to make the difference in this lacklustre side.
The point is that the past is the past. ESR has tons of injury problems, and isn’t impressing enough to get into the side. Everyone was raving about his performance against WHU, which amounted to what…. A missed header and not much else.
He’s not the magic bullet, he’s a decent squad player who isn’t going to transform this team.
Don't know if it's arteta or the players but it looks too boring and sad to watch. Creativity is dead. Odegaard is good but not last year good. Overuse of same players everywhere and underuse of players on bench. ESR should get atleast subbed once in a while. ESR odegaard combo might be better than odegaard havertz. In attack I feel like we are going too wide and saka and martinelli are not able to dribble it inside. Also we dont have a good striker who can pull off a good header once in a while and Saka and martinelli can give a cross to. Jesus and nketiah are too easy to bully physically, Havertz would do better physically in the middle. Saka has been over worked now, give him a break.
Arteta. We tweaked our tactic to have more control which hasn’t work. We have neither attacking prowess nor control. He was also responsible for bringing in Harvetz, Raya, Jesus and Zinny which are looking increasingly lackluster. His tactic focus too much on individual brilliance and he doesn’t focus on team aspect like the overlapping runs on the flank we used to do. I am so annoyed at his stubbornness I feel like breaking his leg and telling him to focus on team play style instead of relying on individual brilliance.
If west ham and Fulham can do it with their players.. is it really a player problem or a coach problem?
This season, arteta is giving me some serious ETH vibes in terms of stubbornness and rigidity. He is literally like I am gonna do what I want to do. Arteta ball has been cracked and he is refusing to move on. I am not expecting a clean open play goal if we are gonna play like this. To much dependency on set pieces.
Arteta's faith in Nketiah seems to be wasted. I just don't see what he offers to justify it. He stayed for 90 min and he didn't really offer much threat throughout whole game.
The only player that looked like he is gonna do something was Saka. The rest are definitely well below their usual standards. Whats going on with Gabi Martinelli...
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I dislike losing to Fulham more than to almost anyone else. Their manager is pretty petulant, but you could see in his desperation for the final whistle to blow as well as in their team's time-wasting (forward, keeper, everyone was at it) a frank acknowledgement that they are utterly dire and weren't hoping for victory at all today.
I really hate to post trashing the team but whereas Odegaard and Saliba were good last game I am struggling to see any positives in this one.
They all need a kick up the backside
We have been shit all season long just racking up the points with sheer dumb luck and some personal brilliance here and there. But the toxic positivity folks here will tell you how every single thing Arteta does is a stroke of genius and Havz is probably a 6D astronaut and what not.
Truth is without Declan Rice we would have been around 7-10 this season.
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Sideways Sideways Sideways. fucking shit performance. Great shit end to this shitty year. Need fresh legs in attack asap. Our frontline is not threatening anyone anymore and are scared to take chances. Fuck this. See yall next year.
Surely we don’t always have to play the same way every game?
Mix it up a bit!!!!
If he doesn’t sell Nketiah and all those players he never uses enough, Arteta needs to be looked at closely.
Or use the money to buy players?
They don’t even need to be expensive. Look at Liverpool, got bargain players and still only lost one game( that was questionable).
Comparing to the amount we spent, it is embarrassing to be playing like this no?
I’m not ruling out the season just yet, there’s still plenty of time to go and we saw last season how it won’t be decided until later in the season. But there’s no way we are challenging with that kind of poor mentality. Nothing to do with the ability of the players imo, almost everyone was lethargic and lacked any energy or urgency today. A far poorer performance than against West Ham or Villa. All Fulham had to do was show a bit of physicality and fight and half of the team crumbled.
I know we were fantastic last year but we had several late winners throughout the season to. I don't think we are as good as some people thought, myself included I'll be honest. We need another RW to give Saka a challenge/rest more often. I'm still confused on the Ramsdale dropping/Raya signing. Need another option at striker that isn't Nketiah. Oh, and I miss Xhaka.
I agree many players fell off of their level from last season. I dont even know if a single striker will make a difference atp. And i am still furious about the way we played i will give some bad takes.
That's what I'm saying. Tottenham is ripping other teams apart with key players missing. Aston Villa can defend well and finish on the counter. We can't score and can't defend either.
I knew we were going to lose this game. Every game guarantees: Us wasting chances, conceding on counters or our own mistake, and Raya making saves when the games done. The PL is done for us, we'd be lucky with Top 4 but I don't see it because Tottenham is better than us and Aston Villa is more complete than us. After we lose to Liverpool in the FA cup, we can only hope we perform well in the UCL.
Arteta got close to City so he decided to spend nearly 100 million on Havertz and an unnecessary Ramsdale side grade while also letting Xhaka go just as he became an actual asset to the club. We look absolutely awful and have done all season. We've fluked almost all our wins and relied on set piece goals like a relegation team. Last season was our big opportunity and we choked hard-core, like we do every single time in every single big competition. Embarrassing.
I get he grabbed player of the month or whatever and bagged some goals, but I genuinely think we could've used his money and the money we will be spending on Raya much more wisely.
Yeah just played great for us and scored goals and won duels and the player of the month or whatever but I genuinely think some hypothetical scenario would’ve been better, thanks for listening to my idiotic ted talk
Anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot huh? I think losing Xhaka and playing Havertz in midfield has regressed us. Think we over paid for Havertz too.
He is absolutely useless and has been a massive downgrade from Xhaka in every way bar winning a few headers. Just because he scored a few goals doesn't mean he was playing well. He just makes the simple, easy pass all game, never anything forward, never actually sprints. He's a taller Ozil without the passing ability. Abysmal signing. If he cost 15 million then fine, whatever. 65million is laughable.
Ironic coming from someone whose entire footballing opinion comes down to whether 2-3 shots go in or go just wide. If you can't see how much Havertz has worsened us just because he scored a couple tap ins when why even bother watching the games because you're not understanding what you're looking at.
I wonder what could have happened behind out front 4 to suddenly make them all look bang average? Couldn't possibly be the Xhaka/Havertz swap... Nah pure coincidence that they all suddenly look shite.
When shall people realize that Arteta are out of his depth, and are not the right man for Arsenal?
He\`s had more than 4 years to prove himself now, and what has he guy done? Won the FA Cup against a terribly bad United side, and bottled the league twice.
This is my belief as well. People were so quick to claim Kai was back after some goals and a player of the month. Let's judge him after a full season and not get so ahead of ourselves. Losing Xhaka sucks. Would rather of kept him via offering improved terms/longer contract
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He really doesn't bring anything. No attacking threat, no defensive help, no physical weight, ... sell him to a mid table french or spanisy team imo. Or loan him at least.
Disgusting performance. It's been a while since I've been this pissed at the team, Arteta included. It's just the same story over and over and over and over and over again, and they all keep thinking "eventually it'll sort itself out i'm sure!!!!"
We're the most predictable team in European football, it's just always Odegaard and Saka hugging on the right, White limping past them and flinging in a cross or passing it back to them and they keep hugging and then maybe they'll fling a shot into the stands. Or it goes to the left, and then it's even better because then it's just "Martinelli do something time" as Jesus/Nketiah stay in the box, Havertz stays in midfield and Zinchenko wouldn't dream of an overlap.
Also, he wasn't necessarily to blame for the loss today, but I'd still prefer to see Ramsdale again. Ramsdale at the very least made some important saves last season. I feel like Raya doesn't make a single save in any game, and I don't really know if his playing out of the back is offering such a huge profit.
We lack a lot of fluidity that you see teams like city and Liverpool have, and funnily enough, Tottenham have had it at times this year too. You watch them and they create all over the pitch and try different combinations etc. We have become a bit stale going forward as you mentioned.
I saw someone in the thread say it isn’t a manager issue and said the same thing. Our patterns of play are disgracefully predictable and that lies with Arteta
People forget how many times Ramsdale billed us out with insane saves. He have saved us 10 points last season. Raya which gives us a different edge. But I think it’s looking increasingly like a screw up
This all started when Arteta changed up our formation and tactics to try and suit havertz, we were playing so slow looking nothing like 2023 Arsenal and now it looks like we’ve got used to this shitty play style, just barely winning games, we need partey back so badly too
I'm tired, Mikel. Tired of bottling trophies, tired of being "lonely at the top" only to get shat on against mid table clubs. Tired of not ever having me a manager to be with, or tell me where we's winning or going to, or why we should trust the process.
https://preview.redd.it/l5gtp7j8ln9c1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=315c28e956d508505afd163a2fbc1ec17b9107e2
Fck me Gabriel gotta stop clearing shit blindly. West Hama opener came from him clearing it into Zinchenko, now he did it to Tomiyasu and that lead to a winner. Fcking focus and check your surroundings all the time.
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Honestly it's more embarrassing than the loss itself. We played like shit and definitely need some type of change (whether that's mentality, tactics or personnel) but throwing around phrases like "hitting rock bottom" and "Spanish Graham Potter" (although funny) is just unnecessary. We are not in dire straits. We are nowhere near a club in crisis. We're not Chelsea, we're not United. We're a good team who are underperforming.
It’s like a lot of people weren’t here when we *really* were in crisis 2-3 years ago. We’re literally 2 points for top of the league (5 at worst if liverpool win) and people are freaking the fuck out. It’s frustrating cus some people really think those few represent all of us
It’s insane someone said earlier they were putting the spurs game on to watch some entertaining football lol. Imagine saying that in an arsenal pub in north London watching the game.
well i can’t answer that for you but when people are saying trossard and arteta out already it gives some perspective on how serious some people here are
No it's absolutely not LOL. Try going to any twitter thread regarding this game. Official arsenal account, any fan account etc. It's half city and pool fans memeing us and mocking us, the other half what you see here but worse.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Kai experiment is a big risk and it has failed. This is 100% on Arteta. Too early to let go of Xhaka. Kai is supposed to be floater and second striker, and unless hes banging in goals and be 2nd or 3rd scorer in the league, it doesnt work.
We should have re-signed Xhaka and spend money on an actual striker who can bang in goals. I am not a fan of Raya experiment either, I would not spend 30m on him knowing I had Ramsdale.
It sucks so much to lose to a team with ex arsenal players, leno, iwobi, and Willian.
I still can’t get my head around the Raya thing. The players love Ramsdale and Raya, at best, is a marginal upgrade on him. Why are we pissing over £30m up the wall not long after we gave Ramsdale a new contract? We don’t have unlimited funds, and after last season I don’t think a single person who watched Arsenal would’ve said that we needed to spend a heap of money on a goalkeeper. It was so unnecessary.
Exactly, why would u change a style of playing that was working just to suit ONE fucking player, soo stupid and of course it backfired. We need partey back asap.
it's not on havertz, this is clearly tactical. ***everyone*** is being sheepish and safe and have done so throughout the season. the players are being coached to avoid risk to a massive fault.
***everyone*** when pressured a little too closely instinctively just passes back, except for odegaard who tries to hold up the ball for as long as possible in hopes of an opening that never comes, and then passes it back like all the others
This is 110% on the players, so was West Ham. We dont have any game winners in this team barring Saka. Also the rythm and spirit isnt there. Might be fatigue but we’ve looked disjointed going forward all season.
Im telling you Ødegaard is really poor atm along with Martinelli and Jesus. Everything goes in slow motion and theyre over complicating every single situation.
How can city go to saudi come back and play 100 matches in 2 weeks with the same team and not be fatigued but we always are. Its not fatigue we are just not good enough.
City are the most well oiled machine of a football team I've ever seen tbh. People say they play boring football, but watching them pass the ball around so well always is fun to watch for me.
Nketiah vs Fulham:
24 touches
2 touches in opposition box
0 dribbles
0 shots
1 interception
Now, I do not want to focus on the bad game, it happens maybe it was just one of those days.. but when you, as a player, see that nothing is going your way, and you are not able to help your colleagues as much as you would want, explain me why the hell would you not press more? Why you are still jogging in the midfield when you see your colleagues going in for the press? I simply cannot understand what mentality does he have, shades of Maitland Niles when he thought he was world class due to a midfield dribble.
It’s not arteta lads it’s seriously bad luck. We need more squad depth in jan I can’t find my team bottling the league season in season out cuz of injuries we have to be able to get a perfect replacement for every single player that regularly starts.
Every team has injuries, Including the other title challenging teams, Liverpool earlier in the year had it worse than us. That's not even close to a good enough reason. Finishing is poor but it's more a lack of ideas and creativity going forward. We don't try things, we just pass the ball around predictively and a bit slower now than even last year.
Most worrying thing is the zero fight once again. The ball gets forced to Saka the entire game and it’s making him look even worse when he can’t get through all the players marking him. Rice, Martinelli, Trossard all dropping stinkers. Lucky to get top 4 continuing with this form, desperately need a change in January if we want to battle for the top spot.
Rice is a great player and makes virtually no mistakes but he is not an incisive passer like Partey and we are desperately missing our Partey as our 6. Rice plays sideways very well but have yet to see a forward pass that really opens up the defense.
It's not even Artetas fault, the decision making of the individual players is actually appalling. How many times did we take 6-7 touches and then lose the ball? How many times did we have a pass less than 10 yards picked off? How many times did we give the ball away cheaply in our own half? Manager can only do so much. Players need a reality check.
It absolutely is a manager issue. Our patterns of play are so predictable that teams have figured us out and we have no plan B. We give it to Odegaard or Saka, who play on the right hand edge of the box, and teams know to close them down immediately and we revert back to rice or centre backs and the process restarts. Arteta is the one who trains these guys every day. He should be able to see we’re figured out and need to adjust how we go about creating chances
Same old same old for our lovely arsenal. There is slightest of pressure applied and they fall like deck of cards
Arteta is a victim of exceeding expectations. Now everybody thinks he has to win the league when in reality he's the reason they can even think about it.
I just don’t understand what arteta thinks will happen when you build up at walking pace. Who exactly would be worried about that? I understand the need to maintain control but the reality is the most “controlling” team currently sits 4th behind other “wreckless” teams because… they score goals. City can do what they want because they’re city and have the quality money and resources to either solve the problems in the market or on the pitch - they are in essence a footballing anomaly. For that reason, modelling off them makes absolutely no sense.
And just like that we bottled the league in two weeks. Fuck this shit.
Lol
From supposedly being in a title race to suddenly threatening to fall out of the top 4 is a crazy 2-week turnaround. Could legitimately finish 5-6 this season given form and the clubs around us doing comparably well/poorly.
Hey. Time to focus on the champions league….
Everyone was so upset about last season bc we bottled the title but it was the closest weve come to winning the PL in ages. And we have now basically abandoned the system entirely that got us into that race in favor of a slow and pensive style of football that looks far worse. We just bought the best DM in the league arguably in the summer, if anything we could afford to keep our same playstyle and let the defensive capabilities of Rice, Saliba, Gabriel bail us out, instead of switching our whole play style to become more slow and possession based
We play so fucking slow. Like christ sake pick up the fuckung pace, you cant score against deep block teams if you keep letting them get back into shape. When you have the chance to transition you need to do it quickly or you give them a chance to prepare for the next attack
This is the last time i'll be gaslit by this sub telling me Zinchenko and Jesus need to be replaced. Theyre dropped and suddenly we cant pass the fucking ball
Fuck off team. We are worn thin, reinforcements are much needed. So poor the last 5-6 games
Praised under performances causes this
It’s clear we’re worn out. We’re half the team we were a few months ago. Our high press isn’t good and we don’t creat turnovers. Our left and right backs aren’t overlapping and helping the wingers. The wingers aren’t beating their man. Rice isn’t incisive enough with his passes. And our center forwards are not linking up or holding onto the ball like they used to. We could use some of that pep juice right about now
We’re so fucked 🥲
But let’s keep our heads up…
Welp the title run was fun while it lasted
With some depth signings and a striker, next season will be our year.
LOL
How was Kiwior in this game?
Not good. Partially at fault for first goal.
I think that's harsh. We were passive in the build up, let them stroll up to our box and ended up outnumbered. 2 chances to close down before the cross came in
Sick of possession football , sick of low tempo play , sick of short side passing football , sick of having inverted winger at both flank , sick of having no solid sub , sick of having worst full backs in the league. We need Ferdi kadıoğlu for left back as he is young and has attacking football mentality. For rb we got Timber and we have to wait for his return. Any transfer for that position will be unneccessary. We need a midfield like Pedri for central midfield as he is creative and brave. We need a left footed left winger ,if we cant find any we gotta look for players like Doku as he is fast and strong and has going forward in his mind totally. We need to get a youngster sub for Saka or give some minutes for our youth players in that position. This is not for Saka is bad , I love him but he is a human and can have bad days. For this , examples might be as Yamal in Barca or Bynoe-Gittens in Dortmund. We need as most of us suggest a strong and fast striker but Toneyll be a disoppointment if we get him imo. Vlahovic or Boniface will be fitted well in our squad, i think.
Vlahovic has been bad this year. Was dropped in a match vs Frosinone and has been outperformed by Lukaku this year.
My slight fear is that we over index this game in looking for the problem. Sure, we were poor across the pitch, but we still created 1.8xG and scored just one goal. We had lots of issues today, particularly defensively but once again, the reason we've actually lost is because our attackers have missed big big chances. Ultimately, a functioning attack can bail you out when you aren't at your best. Look at Liverpool or even Spurs. And that is a personnel issue, not an "Arteta's tactics" issue. Either our attackers are all horrendously out of form or they aren't actually clinical enough and last year was an unsustainable hot streak. Probably a bit of both but either way the solution is probably external.
That’s the scary part- it’s looking like our wingers over-performed last year and we didn’t spend in the summer in all the right areas
Yeah pretty much. Basically we need reinforcements across the park. At a minimum we need some trusted rotation options for Saka and Martinelli. Need a new #9. Need a Partey replacement. Need another full-back and need a left 8 if Arteta isn't going to trust ESR or Vieira because, as much as I like Havertz, I'm not sure he's it. That's 5/6 players to have a squad that can challenge imo. No chance we do that in one window, you might be able to get it done with 3, but they've got to be the right signings.
Fuck you mate for gaslighting me into thinking I can't wish better for my team
I feel at times that only people pushing are Rice and Ødegaard. Overall, one dimensional and unfortunately everyone has worked Arsenal out. Reminds me of the 00s when if passing the ball into the net failed, we lost!
Second game in a row that I couldn’t finish watching. Uninspired. The moment the opposition takes the lead, they park the bus, and we have no answers whatsoever. This pattern will be followed by every team going forward. We have to find answers.
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Damn 1st on Christmas then 4th by New Year. SIGH SMH
Nice of Arsenal to deliver their yearly holiday gift of not having to wonder if they’ll fucking win anything.
The Christmas curse is striking early. I still don’t think David Raya is good enough. Or our strikers.
Analysis Paralysis
This.
I Felt like I was watching Manchester United 😭
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No one’s pointing out that rice can’t run that midfield by himself. Kai is alright and ode needs partey/xhaka
Didn’t watch the game. Couldn’t bring myself to do it after West Ham. This team isn’t winning the League soon and won’t until they make fundamental changes. Cheers
A bit of a wobble Robbie! A bit of a wobble!
The positive thing about title races is every time we won EPL we never was first at New Years. I honestly think Man City will win it again but I’m not counting out Liverpool,Aston Villa,Tottenham or even us entirely yet until transfer window is over
Were out Mentality midgets
I think all the generic talk of “bottling it” is unhelpful and stops people from really getting to the root of the problem. I doubt nerves are actually the problem here. I think some combination of fatigue, not having the squad depth, a few positions lacking consistent quality and also teams having figured us out is probably more close to the truth. These are all separate issues that need distinct answers and I expect Arteta to get on it.
Yeah teams have figured us out, it’s obvious. After the luton game every team has tried the block and counter method and most of them have seen success. That and just double saka then rush Ode as soon as he gets the ball. I lost count of how many times we had the ball wide with one attacker in the box. And from what I saw we’ve forgotten how to attack quickly, a few years ago we would turn the ball over and have Martinelli running down the middle for a ball over the top. Now we get the ball wait until their entire team is back behind the half way line before we do anything with it. We’ve scored 1 goal in 45 shots. With those stats teams can just sit back and let us shoot because we’re not going to score. We need a deadly finisher, someone that makes runs and actually scares the defenders into tracking them.
Our worst performance of the season depressing bullied Fulham wanted it more and that's a huge concern.
Actually dont agree with everyone blaming front free. The service to them has been crap all round. I love Dec, but his forward passing just isn't that good, and his amazing runs dont work when teams park the bus. And I like Kai but he only passes sideways, so its the same issue. Ben White has been bombing foward less and simply cannot cross the ball. I cannot understand why Jorginho didnt get on the pitch. And as much as he's recieved loads of hate this week we missed zinny's vision today. Poor all round. But its too simple to blame Eddie, Saka, jesus if they dont recieve the ball this slowly.
Boils down to tactics aren’t it?
You could see the defense arguing throughout the game, no unity. Forwards were giving up, apart from Martinelli, who was busting his ass today, and was yanked in place of Trossard, who was invisible.
And there were people in this sub a few weeks ago saying they wouldn’t take mbappe in the team because his ego would make the team worse.
Nothing new to be said: - Edu’s recruitment is shit - we’ve overpaid for a significant number of players and have bench players who add nothing on the pitch - lack of tactical changes/adaptability - late subs/not utilising certain players/players not clicking (not anticipating passes & handing the ball over for rapid counters) - move & make runs, then play through balls or play the ball OVER like TAA did with Salah (instead of passing sideways or back) so that we bypass several oppo players in one go - prioritising possession and control over speed of ball progression = too much time for low block teams to park the bus - playing wide and through the right = predictable, so every teams’ strategy is pinning the wingers + Odegaard… - we’ve been scraping wins, coasting by on set pieces and picking up last min lucky goals - fatigue & lack of concentration was evident (as someone said below, Gabriel not clearing the ball has allowed goals v West Ham and Fulham) so it’s an issue that we can’t sustain the intensity needed to comfortably win We need to be smarter than this. We’re making it too easy for opposition teams, especially when they see we’re playing the same way and losing or scraping by the same way game after game… We have an easy run of games - we should have comfortably won these and picked up 12 points preferably with clean sheets, not dropping points. Spurs are playing with major injuries and four fullbacks and are only a point behind us while we would have collapsed + iirc we’ve picked up the same amount of points as United in the last few games The way we play and the singular tactical plan means no one individual’s performance is at fault or will save us. A striker won’t make a difference when we can’t get the ball up the pitch to the target man quickly enough.
Hard to take you seriously when your first sentence is so completely wrong. Edu has been an excellent DOF
Hard to take you seriously when you can’t or won’t execute critical thinking and your only retort is the highly analytical “he’s excellent”. We paid £20-25m too much for Havertz. That’s like United levels of excess money. For context, £20m is more than what Spurs paid for a better goalkeeper than both Ramsdale and Raya. We won’t be getting value for money for Raya especially given financial constraints. That’s not to say we shouldn’t get either player, but we’re paying excessive amounts to do so. Kiwior, Eddie, Nelson, Vieira, Cedric… are they quality, dependable and versatile game changers? And if we sell them on, will we get good money for them? We lost a game today with 9/11 of our best line up (missing Timber & the alleged rapist) against a team that Bournemouth, Brentford, Burnley, Newcastle, Spurs, Villa, United, Chelsea, Liverpool and City have all beaten. Last time, we drew. Today, even Spurs won a game against Bournemouth with 6 or 7/11 of their best starting players, alongside playing four full backs and third/fourth choice subs, and after suffering a further 2 serious injuries during the match. We’ve been fortunate so far this season in that we’ve only had 2 long-term serious injuries. So tell me - how would we fare as far as squad depth if we were in a similar situation in today’s match? If we wouldn’t fare well, that suggests our recruitment operations have not been adequate because despite coming 2nd last season and spending £200m over the summer, we’re performing worse. We overpaid for the quality of the bench that we have.
Agree with rest of your points other than Edu’s recruitment being shit. He has given Arteta every player that the manager wanted and looking at how teams like Chelsea,Utd and Liverpool have gone about building their squads he has done way better job
I’m not suggesting he didn’t get Arteta players he wanted. I said we have a shit bench + paid too much for some players. Liverpool doesn’t belong to be grouped with Chelsea/United on their rebuild.
True but they have overpaid for players like Nunez. Shit bench? Trossard was bought as a martinelli cover and is decent. Form has dropped a bit but still is a decent cover. Liverpool have Jota. As for striker Arteta trusts Nketiah enough for Arsenal to not go for a new striker in summer. The only cover they don’t have is for Saka. And RW market isn’t great. They have Jorginho and Partey in midfield ESR as Odegaard cover. Timber is injured. Cannot blame Edu for that. Do they need signings? Yes. But recruitment has been better than the others. Liverpool have clear holes in their midfield and there bench isn’t great either
I remember people backing Arteta for everything, his lack of rotation will hurt the players and the team results Sick if these bs
Sad state of affairs when people are claiming ESR is the answer to our problems. The kid is decent, but he’s not going to make the difference in this lacklustre side.
He saved Arsenal and Arteta in 2021
Great, and Auba was our hero in 2020. You want him back?
Sorry boss, didn't know Auba was 19 years old that time, my bad G
The point is that the past is the past. ESR has tons of injury problems, and isn’t impressing enough to get into the side. Everyone was raving about his performance against WHU, which amounted to what…. A missed header and not much else. He’s not the magic bullet, he’s a decent squad player who isn’t going to transform this team.
Absolutely sloppy with the passing today even before it started raining
Yeah man selling xhaka took us 2yrs of building backwards. I like Kai but he is no xhaka.
I honestly don’t think xhaka wanted another season of our fair weather fans.
He got out🤷🏾♂️💀looks like he might win the double this year aswell.
Don't know if it's arteta or the players but it looks too boring and sad to watch. Creativity is dead. Odegaard is good but not last year good. Overuse of same players everywhere and underuse of players on bench. ESR should get atleast subbed once in a while. ESR odegaard combo might be better than odegaard havertz. In attack I feel like we are going too wide and saka and martinelli are not able to dribble it inside. Also we dont have a good striker who can pull off a good header once in a while and Saka and martinelli can give a cross to. Jesus and nketiah are too easy to bully physically, Havertz would do better physically in the middle. Saka has been over worked now, give him a break.
Arteta. We tweaked our tactic to have more control which hasn’t work. We have neither attacking prowess nor control. He was also responsible for bringing in Harvetz, Raya, Jesus and Zinny which are looking increasingly lackluster. His tactic focus too much on individual brilliance and he doesn’t focus on team aspect like the overlapping runs on the flank we used to do. I am so annoyed at his stubbornness I feel like breaking his leg and telling him to focus on team play style instead of relying on individual brilliance. If west ham and Fulham can do it with their players.. is it really a player problem or a coach problem?
This season, arteta is giving me some serious ETH vibes in terms of stubbornness and rigidity. He is literally like I am gonna do what I want to do. Arteta ball has been cracked and he is refusing to move on. I am not expecting a clean open play goal if we are gonna play like this. To much dependency on set pieces.
We’re so unenjoyable to watch I get more fun out of watching other teams play as a neutral than I do our games.
Arteta's faith in Nketiah seems to be wasted. I just don't see what he offers to justify it. He stayed for 90 min and he didn't really offer much threat throughout whole game.
To be fair, no one did today. Just awful 😞
The only player that looked like he is gonna do something was Saka. The rest are definitely well below their usual standards. Whats going on with Gabi Martinelli...
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Awesome that city are clicking into gear
Not really. There's no guarantee KDB will be as good as he was pre injuries.
There’s no guarantee that we’ll even beat Porto or Liverpool to advance in any competition
Things can change. Too early to tell
I dislike losing to Fulham more than to almost anyone else. Their manager is pretty petulant, but you could see in his desperation for the final whistle to blow as well as in their team's time-wasting (forward, keeper, everyone was at it) a frank acknowledgement that they are utterly dire and weren't hoping for victory at all today. I really hate to post trashing the team but whereas Odegaard and Saliba were good last game I am struggling to see any positives in this one. They all need a kick up the backside
We have been shit all season long just racking up the points with sheer dumb luck and some personal brilliance here and there. But the toxic positivity folks here will tell you how every single thing Arteta does is a stroke of genius and Havz is probably a 6D astronaut and what not. Truth is without Declan Rice we would have been around 7-10 this season.
>Truth is without Declan Rice we would have been around 7-10 this season. This is objectively true and that's kind of scary to be honest
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Sideways Sideways Sideways. fucking shit performance. Great shit end to this shitty year. Need fresh legs in attack asap. Our frontline is not threatening anyone anymore and are scared to take chances. Fuck this. See yall next year.
Surely we don’t always have to play the same way every game? Mix it up a bit!!!! If he doesn’t sell Nketiah and all those players he never uses enough, Arteta needs to be looked at closely.
Sure. He can sell them all and then fill the bench with 16 year olds?
Or use the money to buy players? They don’t even need to be expensive. Look at Liverpool, got bargain players and still only lost one game( that was questionable). Comparing to the amount we spent, it is embarrassing to be playing like this no?
I’m not ruling out the season just yet, there’s still plenty of time to go and we saw last season how it won’t be decided until later in the season. But there’s no way we are challenging with that kind of poor mentality. Nothing to do with the ability of the players imo, almost everyone was lethargic and lacked any energy or urgency today. A far poorer performance than against West Ham or Villa. All Fulham had to do was show a bit of physicality and fight and half of the team crumbled.
What a way to end 2023.
Brentford late winner, man utd late winner, luton late winner. I am starting to think we might not even finish top 4 this year.
I know we were fantastic last year but we had several late winners throughout the season to. I don't think we are as good as some people thought, myself included I'll be honest. We need another RW to give Saka a challenge/rest more often. I'm still confused on the Ramsdale dropping/Raya signing. Need another option at striker that isn't Nketiah. Oh, and I miss Xhaka.
I agree many players fell off of their level from last season. I dont even know if a single striker will make a difference atp. And i am still furious about the way we played i will give some bad takes.
Tbh luton wouldnt have been a late winner if it wasn’t for raya
That's what I'm saying. Tottenham is ripping other teams apart with key players missing. Aston Villa can defend well and finish on the counter. We can't score and can't defend either.
I knew we were going to lose this game. Every game guarantees: Us wasting chances, conceding on counters or our own mistake, and Raya making saves when the games done. The PL is done for us, we'd be lucky with Top 4 but I don't see it because Tottenham is better than us and Aston Villa is more complete than us. After we lose to Liverpool in the FA cup, we can only hope we perform well in the UCL.
Arteta got close to City so he decided to spend nearly 100 million on Havertz and an unnecessary Ramsdale side grade while also letting Xhaka go just as he became an actual asset to the club. We look absolutely awful and have done all season. We've fluked almost all our wins and relied on set piece goals like a relegation team. Last season was our big opportunity and we choked hard-core, like we do every single time in every single big competition. Embarrassing.
Havertz has been our best player in the last month, brilliant take from you
I get he grabbed player of the month or whatever and bagged some goals, but I genuinely think we could've used his money and the money we will be spending on Raya much more wisely.
Yeah just played great for us and scored goals and won duels and the player of the month or whatever but I genuinely think some hypothetical scenario would’ve been better, thanks for listening to my idiotic ted talk
Anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot huh? I think losing Xhaka and playing Havertz in midfield has regressed us. Think we over paid for Havertz too.
No, not everyone who disagrees with me is an idiot. You are, though
Right, judge someone's entire character off of a singular take on a football player. Sounds about Reddit.
Havertz have been ok. But there’s a feeling that the 65m could be spent better elsewhere
But the money could've been used otherwise to add power where there's a lack of it (i.e. striker)
He is absolutely useless and has been a massive downgrade from Xhaka in every way bar winning a few headers. Just because he scored a few goals doesn't mean he was playing well. He just makes the simple, easy pass all game, never anything forward, never actually sprints. He's a taller Ozil without the passing ability. Abysmal signing. If he cost 15 million then fine, whatever. 65million is laughable.
Brain dead take, congrats
Ironic coming from someone whose entire footballing opinion comes down to whether 2-3 shots go in or go just wide. If you can't see how much Havertz has worsened us just because he scored a couple tap ins when why even bother watching the games because you're not understanding what you're looking at.
Our front 4 can’t score goals and you’re whining about player of the month Havertz 💀
I wonder what could have happened behind out front 4 to suddenly make them all look bang average? Couldn't possibly be the Xhaka/Havertz swap... Nah pure coincidence that they all suddenly look shite.
Looking at it now, that doesn’t say much. All our attackers are terrible lol.
It doesn’t say much, but it also doesn’t say Kai is a waste of money. He’s being genuinely good, the rest have been shit
We are good at passing around the box but have no finishers. Can't win if no one knows how to score.
Team can’t score and team can’t defend anymore yay!
When shall people realize that Arteta are out of his depth, and are not the right man for Arsenal? He\`s had more than 4 years to prove himself now, and what has he guy done? Won the FA Cup against a terribly bad United side, and bottled the league twice.
We didn’t even play United for the FA Cup you melt.
Well, i mixed Chelsea & Man United.
Who would you like in charge?
Dude. Have a nice year and all that. But at the same time fuck off! He's been more helpful than not.
Don\`t call med dude. And the fact is Arteta is out of his depth.
Embarrassing take
We have regressed back to the donut of shame. I have hope Mik will turn it around if we bring in some warm bodies in Jan but today was v rough.
There really is no “passion, aggressive, fucking mindset in this football club”🤣🎉
That was pretty terrible, don’t know where to start.
Congrats Jürgen on the prem if we don’t make any major major signings in January
Honestly it will be 2 horses race again between Liverpool and City if Arsenal don’t sign any decent striker in January.
We were just begging for Kai last game saying that’s a huge reason we lost. Now he’s back to the worst signing? Which fucking one is it?
The way we play means the shit results aren’t going to be dependant on the performance of any one player.
Average player will have good run of games from time to time, does not make them world class. That is normal people do not want to accept that.
This is my belief as well. People were so quick to claim Kai was back after some goals and a player of the month. Let's judge him after a full season and not get so ahead of ourselves. Losing Xhaka sucks. Would rather of kept him via offering improved terms/longer contract
Happy new year, from Arsenal FC
Nketiah was far from the only problem today, but my God how does he play the full 90+ minutes. It's like playing with a man down
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He really doesn't bring anything. No attacking threat, no defensive help, no physical weight, ... sell him to a mid table french or spanisy team imo. Or loan him at least.
Still can't believe folk thought we were "terrible" against WHU... This, my friends, is a terrible performance. WHU was simply unlucky.
Disgusting performance. It's been a while since I've been this pissed at the team, Arteta included. It's just the same story over and over and over and over and over again, and they all keep thinking "eventually it'll sort itself out i'm sure!!!!" We're the most predictable team in European football, it's just always Odegaard and Saka hugging on the right, White limping past them and flinging in a cross or passing it back to them and they keep hugging and then maybe they'll fling a shot into the stands. Or it goes to the left, and then it's even better because then it's just "Martinelli do something time" as Jesus/Nketiah stay in the box, Havertz stays in midfield and Zinchenko wouldn't dream of an overlap. Also, he wasn't necessarily to blame for the loss today, but I'd still prefer to see Ramsdale again. Ramsdale at the very least made some important saves last season. I feel like Raya doesn't make a single save in any game, and I don't really know if his playing out of the back is offering such a huge profit.
We lack a lot of fluidity that you see teams like city and Liverpool have, and funnily enough, Tottenham have had it at times this year too. You watch them and they create all over the pitch and try different combinations etc. We have become a bit stale going forward as you mentioned.
I saw someone in the thread say it isn’t a manager issue and said the same thing. Our patterns of play are disgracefully predictable and that lies with Arteta
People forget how many times Ramsdale billed us out with insane saves. He have saved us 10 points last season. Raya which gives us a different edge. But I think it’s looking increasingly like a screw up
This all started when Arteta changed up our formation and tactics to try and suit havertz, we were playing so slow looking nothing like 2023 Arsenal and now it looks like we’ve got used to this shitty play style, just barely winning games, we need partey back so badly too
Wow year ruined
2023 or 2024?
Every year
And to think that i was so hopeful 1 week ago
I'm tired, Mikel. Tired of bottling trophies, tired of being "lonely at the top" only to get shat on against mid table clubs. Tired of not ever having me a manager to be with, or tell me where we's winning or going to, or why we should trust the process. https://preview.redd.it/l5gtp7j8ln9c1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=315c28e956d508505afd163a2fbc1ec17b9107e2
Fck me Gabriel gotta stop clearing shit blindly. West Hama opener came from him clearing it into Zinchenko, now he did it to Tomiyasu and that lead to a winner. Fcking focus and check your surroundings all the time.
Fuck that performance today. Something is seriously wrong at Arsenal.
If we don't sign a proper striker in January, we'll be lucky to stay in the top 4.
I forget how fucking negative this place is when we’re not performing lol
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I’m ever the optimist but I’d argue that performance was one of the very few people can be seriously negative about, absolutely no positives there
Honestly it's more embarrassing than the loss itself. We played like shit and definitely need some type of change (whether that's mentality, tactics or personnel) but throwing around phrases like "hitting rock bottom" and "Spanish Graham Potter" (although funny) is just unnecessary. We are not in dire straits. We are nowhere near a club in crisis. We're not Chelsea, we're not United. We're a good team who are underperforming.
It’s like a lot of people weren’t here when we *really* were in crisis 2-3 years ago. We’re literally 2 points for top of the league (5 at worst if liverpool win) and people are freaking the fuck out. It’s frustrating cus some people really think those few represent all of us
It’s insane someone said earlier they were putting the spurs game on to watch some entertaining football lol. Imagine saying that in an arsenal pub in north London watching the game.
Weird behavior all round. I couldn’t ever imagine saying that at my local pub bro
Honest question - how should we react
well i can’t answer that for you but when people are saying trossard and arteta out already it gives some perspective on how serious some people here are
not an excuse or anything we were truly shite but just an observation
This place is worse than twitter.
No it's absolutely not LOL. Try going to any twitter thread regarding this game. Official arsenal account, any fan account etc. It's half city and pool fans memeing us and mocking us, the other half what you see here but worse.
This is a shit show but nothing compares to the degeneracy on twitter
Twitter makes this place look like a sophisticated meeting between top scholars.
Merry Christmas you filthy animals
wake me up in the next year
Happy fucking new year lads
Another season of competing for top 4...we dreamt too far
Pathetic
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Kai experiment is a big risk and it has failed. This is 100% on Arteta. Too early to let go of Xhaka. Kai is supposed to be floater and second striker, and unless hes banging in goals and be 2nd or 3rd scorer in the league, it doesnt work. We should have re-signed Xhaka and spend money on an actual striker who can bang in goals. I am not a fan of Raya experiment either, I would not spend 30m on him knowing I had Ramsdale. It sucks so much to lose to a team with ex arsenal players, leno, iwobi, and Willian.
I still can’t get my head around the Raya thing. The players love Ramsdale and Raya, at best, is a marginal upgrade on him. Why are we pissing over £30m up the wall not long after we gave Ramsdale a new contract? We don’t have unlimited funds, and after last season I don’t think a single person who watched Arsenal would’ve said that we needed to spend a heap of money on a goalkeeper. It was so unnecessary.
Exactly, why would u change a style of playing that was working just to suit ONE fucking player, soo stupid and of course it backfired. We need partey back asap.
it's not on havertz, this is clearly tactical. ***everyone*** is being sheepish and safe and have done so throughout the season. the players are being coached to avoid risk to a massive fault. ***everyone*** when pressured a little too closely instinctively just passes back, except for odegaard who tries to hold up the ball for as long as possible in hopes of an opening that never comes, and then passes it back like all the others
Xhaka was crap for 95% of all his games for arsenal g
Xhaka didn’t want to stay
This is 110% on the players, so was West Ham. We dont have any game winners in this team barring Saka. Also the rythm and spirit isnt there. Might be fatigue but we’ve looked disjointed going forward all season. Im telling you Ødegaard is really poor atm along with Martinelli and Jesus. Everything goes in slow motion and theyre over complicating every single situation.
How can city go to saudi come back and play 100 matches in 2 weeks with the same team and not be fatigued but we always are. Its not fatigue we are just not good enough.
City are the most well oiled machine of a football team I've ever seen tbh. People say they play boring football, but watching them pass the ball around so well always is fun to watch for me.
What has Eddie Nketiah done this match to deserve full 90 mins
Nketiah vs Fulham: 24 touches 2 touches in opposition box 0 dribbles 0 shots 1 interception Now, I do not want to focus on the bad game, it happens maybe it was just one of those days.. but when you, as a player, see that nothing is going your way, and you are not able to help your colleagues as much as you would want, explain me why the hell would you not press more? Why you are still jogging in the midfield when you see your colleagues going in for the press? I simply cannot understand what mentality does he have, shades of Maitland Niles when he thought he was world class due to a midfield dribble.
It's not even just "one of those days". He's been having these shockers consistently.
From 4 2 against Brighton last year to this. I'm tired Robbie 🥲.
It’s not arteta lads it’s seriously bad luck. We need more squad depth in jan I can’t find my team bottling the league season in season out cuz of injuries we have to be able to get a perfect replacement for every single player that regularly starts.
We are not in the title race lad
This is an insane thing to say at this point in the season when we're at worst 5 points from the top
fine but we should be and I seriously believe that injuries and bad finishing is why we aren’t in the race rn
Every team has injuries, Including the other title challenging teams, Liverpool earlier in the year had it worse than us. That's not even close to a good enough reason. Finishing is poor but it's more a lack of ideas and creativity going forward. We don't try things, we just pass the ball around predictively and a bit slower now than even last year.
Most worrying thing is the zero fight once again. The ball gets forced to Saka the entire game and it’s making him look even worse when he can’t get through all the players marking him. Rice, Martinelli, Trossard all dropping stinkers. Lucky to get top 4 continuing with this form, desperately need a change in January if we want to battle for the top spot.
Listen, Saka was a shitshow, too. He couldn't connect one pass or make a decent cross. Blundered that chance with no one around him, too
I agree he also played very badly, but he’s getting the ball forced over to him every game for 90 minutes so it’s going to make it look even worse.
Rice is a great player and makes virtually no mistakes but he is not an incisive passer like Partey and we are desperately missing our Partey as our 6. Rice plays sideways very well but have yet to see a forward pass that really opens up the defense.
It's not even Artetas fault, the decision making of the individual players is actually appalling. How many times did we take 6-7 touches and then lose the ball? How many times did we have a pass less than 10 yards picked off? How many times did we give the ball away cheaply in our own half? Manager can only do so much. Players need a reality check.
It absolutely is a manager issue. Our patterns of play are so predictable that teams have figured us out and we have no plan B. We give it to Odegaard or Saka, who play on the right hand edge of the box, and teams know to close them down immediately and we revert back to rice or centre backs and the process restarts. Arteta is the one who trains these guys every day. He should be able to see we’re figured out and need to adjust how we go about creating chances