Missed the game because I was working. Great to see us make a last min comeback though and pleased for Martinelli getting the equaliser and another important goal. The lad has come in for a ton of criticism recently and this is the best way to answer it
Ah well - Not happy with that first half but honestly I really don't like Merino in midfield at all. 68% possession - we dominated the game really. Haaland is just next level as a CF, he will break all goalscoring records. People are underrating this City side - they are top quality. They will challenge. Tossard never plays great when he starts - so I have no idea why Arteta keeps starting him. Madueki should have stayed on and Trossard subbed. Eze was good. Martinelli is raising his level again in the face of competition and that makes me happy. Was a great goal.
I have to say - when you look at these fixtures and our injury list, we are actually doing fine. If we can get a win against Newcastle next week - we've made it through arguably our toughest run of league fixtures without Saka, Odegaard, Havertz and Saliba.
We are doing ok, but we've potentially thrown away pts against both Liverpool and City because of negative tactics. I hope it does not come back to bite us - if we can win against Newcastle and finish the first 6 games with 13 points from 18 that would be ok, but we're under pressure now being already 5pts behind. It is early and 5pts is not a lot , especially with Liverpool to come at home, but i really think we could have and should have done better so far. I bet Arsenal fans would prefer us to really go for it in games and see where it takes us as opposed to the negative set ups in big games. All just my view - and i am well aware that we've actually got a decent record in big games - but we need to find a way to come out on top more often.
Haaland struck with a great goal today - and he had one other chance he should have scored but missed. Beyond that he was anonymous and ultimately City dropped more pts. 7pts from 15 is not good for them. They rely too heavily on one player and their system seems totally geared towards him. It's precisely because of this that they are dropping a lot more pts these days. Right now Haaland has over 40% of all their shots at goal this season and nearly 70% of their goals. They are not going to be that successful being that one dimensional.
They arn't one dimension though at all. We've seen Pep successfully play many different styles and setups. To me it looks like they are nearly back to being challengers again.
I'm mostly fuming, the only thing good to come from the game was Martinelli's goal and Eze's pass for the goal. First lets address Gyokeres. It seems people want to stick the knife in because he was a Championship striker not too long ago, so they think 90 odd goals in 90 0dd games for Sporting is false and he isn't that good in reality. Nobody ever said he was, even if he is half as good that makes him miles better than what we have had since Auba left. They criticise him as Jay is doing, tell me what chances have been created for him ? What chances were created yesterday ? We had a midfield of Rice, Zubimendi and Merino, totally ****ing useless creatively. Some dickhead on another forum claimed Gyokeres needed to do more, how ? Nobody is creating jack for him. Its like they want him to be a George Weah/Thierry Henry clone who will create something from absolutely nothing. I had to remind them that Haaland doesn't score his goal without Reijnders driving run through the heart of our team and pass to Haaland. Martinelli doesn't score the equaliser without that sumptuous pass from Eze. Why wasn't Eze on from the start ? You buy a player who clearly knows how to put the ball in the back of the net and you handicap him by not playing any creative midfielders. I have never seen a Pep team park the bus, he parked the bus yesterday 100%. But look who he had in his starting team, Reijnders, Foden and Silva, we were not even parking the bus yet we didn't start with a single creative or attacking midfielder, absolute joke. And people want to criticise Gyokeres ?!!!!
We have seen Pep evolve 3 times at Man City, first the possession game, then with Haaland we began to see a willingness to play longer balls up to him, yesterday we saw him commit to counter attacking football.
I will maintain, I don't rate City or Liverpool, if we get our **** together we will obliterate this league ! We can't do that when Arteta keeps making stupid mistakes week in week out, thats the weakest link in this chain, we have an absolute div as a manager !
It is odd why you'd choose to play Merino and Trossard when you have Eze and Nwaneri available. If Arteta keeps making dull, conservative starting XI picks like this (and the last few years suggests he probably will) then this is why I don't see how we can win the league. But if starts being bolder, then I think we will. But I just don't think he will. So we won't. There's no excuse for playing three DMs, none of which have any real guile. CAM has to be Odegaard, Eze or Nwaneri, no exception. Stick Merino in there and we'll draw against anyone remotely good and grind out the odd win against gash teams like Bilbao.
I do get it - but they ****ed up early by conceding. He's basically keeping it tight - with a midfield that can close down the spaces. He knew the game will be extremely difficult if we concede first - which we did anyway.. because of a defensive error. Eze and Saka were coming on regardless of wether we conceded or not - he just wanted to keep it tight in the first half - perhaps nick a set piece goal or counter attack. Although we can critique his slightly negative thinking here.. Liverpool needed a super strike and City needed a defensive error. Fine margins.
We said the same in a lot of games last season too. The issue is, we're saying this a lot and it's a consequence of our style of play where games are being won or lost by these 'fine margins', as opposed to showing more risk and attacking intent. We don't create enough. We have scored 10 goals this season from an xG of 7. We are outperforming our expected goals currently. We rank toward the lower half of the table for creating chances from open play. Until this improves, we won't be winning the league.
No doubt it's all tactically planned. And if so, and he stubbornly sticks to this, this is why I'm not convinced we'll win the league anytime soon. The CL, with the one-off nature of knock-out ties is possibly slightly more suited to that pragmatic approach. But we, objectively, have some of the best players in the world and I'd argue no club has a better starting XI. Maybe Liverpool but even then I'd argue the defence and attack balances out. Even when we're playing big guns, it's almost non-existent that we're ever going to play teams with better XIs than ours. Worst case scenario is they'll be similarly matched. So we shouldn't be such pussies. We don't need four defenders + Rice/Zubi AND Merino. I know we lost at home and away to PSG but we completely outplayed them both games while only playing two of those defensive midfielders and lost due to Champ Man super-keepr performances from Donnarumma. We battered City 5-1 with only two CMs. There's simply no need for such ridiculous pragmatism in central midfield. We should be the ones to apply the pressure, not worry about soaking it up.
Hmm. We have the fourth highest xG and third highest xGD in the league and that's when 60% of our matches have been Anfield, Old Trafford and City at home. AND that's with playing gash three DM formations in two of those as well. So much potential to be excited about. But we actually need to fulfil some potential now.
Our open play xG is 3.27. 0.28 vs Man United 0.96 vs Leeds 0.33 vs Liverpool 1.01 vs Nottingham Forest 0.39 vs Man City I'm not sure if the numbers have changed drastically this week, but last week, we had the second lowest xG from open play in the Premier League - with Sunderland being the only team worse than us. Whichever way you look at it, those numbers are not good and so far, we've had to break the deadlock in most of our games from a set-piece or the second phase from a set-piece (up until yesterday). There is potential to be excited about IF we play more attacking players and IF the manager enables us to create more chances away from corners.
I'm just looking at this: Premier League xG (Expected Goals) | FootyStats Then again, that shows a different xG (1.45) for us compared to FotMob (0.89) for yesterday. But either way, both of those xG are FAR higher than your number of 0.39 shown there. Actually, looking here has us in 6th for xG (but also actaully above Liverpool on xG), but 1st for xGD: Premier League Stats | FBref.com
The reliable journalists have said there is cause for concern about an injury to his right knee that will keep him out for a little while, but there's been no indication that it's an ACL.
There comes a point where I don't care where xG comes from. If we consistently generate xG from setpieces then whatever. It's not like it's anymore or less sustainable than open-play xG. If anything, open-play xG is harder to come by playing against low blocks than setpiece xG. BUT when you couple that with playing Merino #10 then that's when it sticks in your throat a bit. Just take your foot off the brake pedal and play like we know we can.
