It's the manner of the performance that I am disgusted by. We only played 30-40 minutes of the game. The rest of the time the players were just shockingly bad - no concentration, no energy, no urgency. Hallmarks of the last 2-3 seasons where we simply didn't have the character to take advantage of the situation. This a huge weekend with Liverpool and City playing each other. We can only hope for Liverpool and City to draw now.
If City win tomorrow, they are only 4 points behind us. If Liverpool win, they are only 5 behind us. This is why I didn't understand all these people who were basically crowning us champions after game week 10. An ideal result in that game would be a draw, but I have a feeling one of them will win.
If you look at the players we were missing: Gyokeres, Havertz, Odegaard, Martinelli, Madueki... We win that game clear if we had the whole squad to rely on.
i think we really killed momentum. We were just getting to that position of being viewed as dominant. We were heaping pressure on. We showed everyone last night that we will still lose concentration and drop points we shouldn’t. It was a game everyone said was a potential banana skin and sure enough we slipped. Massive boost to City and Liverpool players… and Chelsea by the way. All of a sudden we don’t look like a title winning side. Far from it.
Well I stand corrected !!! They were nothing like the pushovers I expected them to be. Admittedly had we put away half of those gilt-edged chances we missed the game would've been comfortable, but "ifs and ands" and all that. They are very well organised and their press was unbelievable. Xhaka fits their team so well, fair play to him too.
You're so overdramatic Sunderland have been very good this season and are where they are as a result. It was always going to be a tough game up there and they proved it. We still did enough to get ourselves in front after going behind, and we should have finished at least one of the other chances we created. But football is about fine margins sometimes. Sunderland battled hard at the end and took their chance when it came. It's 2 points dropped, but it's a million miles away from suddenly not making us look like a title winning side ffs. If anything, it's a reminder that we are not infallible and against Spurs we will have to be at our best for 90 mins.
To be fair, we have not been anything special, I wouldn't go as far as to say ****, our defence has been the standout feature of this league season so far, but we have been mediocre in attack at best, its clunky. I've been saying, we haven't even started playing football yet but we are top of the league with a gap, when we start to click, teams will be in a worries ! But I was wrong with my analysis of Sunderland, spectacularly wrong it would seem !
Nah, I don't think so Jay, of course there are various ways to view the result. My own belief is we came through a very stern test, we extended our lead albeit briefly, if Liverpool and City draw then there is no harm done, even if they claw back 2 points we are still top and still have a gap. All this with so many key players out injured is fantastic and we haven't even clicked yet !!! What this result has confirmed to me is all the talk about our great defence has been over inflated. Its a good defence, not a great defence, no way comparable to great defences in our recent past and certainly not on a level with that Chelsea defence. Both of their goals came from ****e defending. Also, we need to improve our gameplay overall, that first half was ghastly, Merino, Saka, Trossard and Eze were absolutely diabolical.
This is a woeful assessment of the game We went to a very tough away game to a team that are well organised, press relentlessly and are riding high on confidence We showed character and spirit to come back from 0-1 down to lead 2-1 We created plenty of other chances and should have put one of them away, Zubi really unlucky to hit the bar and even at the end it was only because of Sunderland's defending that Merino didn't grab us a win at the death. When you look at the game objectively, Sunderland deserved a point for the way they played. Your assessment that 'the players were just shockingly bad - no concentration, no energy, no urgency' is grossly overexaggerated
I'm not having this (senior attackers comment). You had an attacker, you thought him good enough to add some quality to the bench so you included him in the matchday squad. Merino had a poor game, we needed the legs up top that Gyokeres gives us, Merino doesn't have that. Arteta should've taken Merino off and brought on Harrimon-Annous who had a decent game when he played the other day ! Why put him on the bench if he has zero chance of getting on ?! And we all know had Merino got injured Harrimon-Annous wouldn't have come on, so again, whats the point of having him on the bench ?!
Arrogant in the extreme. I really like Arsenal but I'm glad we put you back in your box regarding that post. Haway the lads.
HA was on the bench simply because we do not have any other fit strikers. It's the sort of game you'd bring him on if we were 0-3 up to give him some game time and experience It's exactly not the sort of game you'd throw a 17 year old, with virtually no first team experience into, when we're up against it and needing to defend Merino had a decent game, and could have won it at the end.
It's not representative of how most of us feel. We have been saying how well Sunderland have been playing this season and giving credit for where you are in the league. Which you have earned because of how well organised you are. Also seeing Xhaka doing so well for your lot, isn't a surprise, because despite his problems at Arsenal, he was a very good player for us and proper leader. As soon as Brobbery came on I could tell he was going to be a handful and he'd had a couple of other chances before he equalised. You gave us a really good game yesterday, disrupted our play and caused us lots of problems in the box. Although I was disappointed that we conceded in injury time, overall I thought a draw was a fair result. Good luck for the rest of the season
There is no exaggeration of that first half. The first 30 minutes of the second half showed why. Night and day. No excuses for the lack of focus and effort in the first half. The attitude of the players is off. There is no glory in showing character to come from 1-0 down when it was a total lack of character that put us in the position in the first place. Our basics, effort and focus, needs to improve. Right now we don’t look like a side capable of winning the title or any other trophy - because in the big moments we are failing. The game against Sunderland was seen as a tough one - we failed Away to Liverpool - failed Home to City - failed The only big test we came through was away to Newcastle
First half wasn't great. Maybe if you'd said that in your original post it would have better. All you can do as a team if you don't have a good first half, is correct it in the second half, which we did. Which is why we showed character to come back from 1-0 down The attitude of the players is not off, and imo you are over exaggerating because you're disappointed with the result.
Literally made the point in the original post that it was in reference to a portion of the game! Anyway, you are right about the disappointment , but we will see whether I am being too harsh. I hope I am.
