Dundalk 2-4 Arsenal. FT. 100% win record in the Europa so far . We were in second gear for most of the game, and the pitch wasn't great, but a fairly comfortable win in the end, even if we didn't play that well. ESR looked good for the time he was on, always looked to drive with the ball and accelerate past players. Very inventive player. Nketiah's pressing and work-rate is top notch, hold-up play was good today as well. Sadly he won't be playing Dundalk every week. Needs to do this against better opposition. Funnily enough, he's actually our leading goalscorer in all competitions right now Elneny scored a worldie from 25-yards. Right into the top bins. Happy for Willock to score, and also happy for Balogun to get on the scoresheet with a clinical finish (nice lay-off for Willock's goal too). I really hope we can keep hold of him. Mari looks very composed and dominant, albeit the opposition was poor. I'm yet to be convinced by Runarsson, who should have done better for both of the goals we conceded. Had little to do for the most part, but when he was called into action: slow to react, weak hands and awkward positioning. Onto the big one, which is Burnley now. We absolutely cannot afford to drop points in that...
Strange how we can be so poor domestically and so great in the EL. goes to show how poor the teams are in our group. Burnley will be huge; if we don’t win that, I’m not sure if Artetas position will stay tenable even short term.
These are the teams we could face in the Round of 32: Krasnodar Red Bull Salzburg Dynamo Kiev Olympiakos Young Boys Slavia Prague Benfica Granada Real Sociedad Braga Lille Maccabi Tel Aviv Royal Antwerp Wolfsberger AC Red Star Belgrade
I just want to see us play with a bit more tempo and directness tonight. I don't think we've been playing badly at all, but we have been slow and predictable. I can see what Arteta is trying to do with this team, make us better organised, defensively tighter and to try and control games better, but it's come at the cost of our flair. I'd like to see players taking defenders on, having some more shots and throwing caution to the wind a bit more in attack, rather than always trying to find the perfect pass to tap the ball in. Even if it doesn't always come off, it just raises the tempo and gives the oppo something to think about. If we go into this game in the same way we have been recently, Burnley will just park the bus and try and hit us on the counter or from a set piece.
Played alright but Lacazette and Auba just look completely lost for confidence. Yet again its Saka who looks most likley.
This entire squad is frustrated and you can see that through actions like those from Pepe and Xhaka. pure stupidity again.
Ok so now we’re in massive trouble. 4 home games lost in a row. whatever you believe, you cannot keep a manager at the expense of results. “trusting the process” in the championship doesn’t seem to resonate quite as much.
If we keep Arteta we could be in a relegation fight. *Dont get me wrong my heart wants him to succeed and i want us to keep him but this is actually getting serious. The Club need to start looking at immediate replacements. We are arguably the worst team in the league right now. All our best players are massively underperforming.
Job is too big for Arteta. need to get rid of him ASAP and turn this around before it gets really dangerous.
In an ideal world I wanted to keep arteta until end of the season to see what more signings could do. but we just can’t risk relegation; that’s not something you just gamble with.
