Well, I'm back. Ain't going to cry over that. We'll make up for it at Chelsea. Be odd seeing us lose on MOTD.
Very odd game, I have to say both teams were fairly poor. We managed to break up Arsenal's play quite well (mostly thanks to Wanyama), but had little attacking edge of our own. We somehow managed to give away two goals that were quite unnecessary, and we haven't really seen this sort of error from a Pochettino team before. I don't know what to say about the penalty really, of course it is a foul in the box, but I feel the away side would never have been given that penalty. Fonte never seems to be too far away from a silly foul like that, which is a shame as he's been very good this season. Unfortunately I feel Pochettino's odd substitutions have cost us this time, playing Ward-Prowse at right back was very strange indeed when Chambers was on the bench, and taking off Lallana seemed to kill off any link between midfield and attack. I'm all for youth players being in the 18, but only if they're there to be used, and I feel our game was crying out for more presence in midfield, but the bench was unmoved, maybe because of Pochettino's hesitance at throwing either Gallagher or Reed (who I feel should have come on) on at the Emirates.
Would be lying if I said I wasn't a tad disappointed, another day that's a draw for us. Thought Jos and Victor did well, Lambert was very poor though. Overall, beaten by the better team though. Could see, especially in the opening twenty minutes, why Arsenal are top of the Premier League. All the best to Arsenal, as I'd much rather they won the title than Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea. On we go... Blue line under it and on to the next game.
At first I thought it looked like a terrible piece of shirt pulling - but it isn't a long drag of the shirt it is a moment's half-hearted tug. Of course, technically that is a penalty - but I have seen that happen AGAINST Saints at least three times this year and no sign of a pen. I don't think it mattered though. Never were going to score.
Dunno about that.thought they were pretty dominant overall. We seemed to have a few players go AWOL and surprised at one substitution. Overall, they are top for reason. Thought J-Rod did pretty well.
I think it's just an inevitable fact when you go from League 1 to top 4 Prem in 2.5 years, you aren't going to have the squad depth of the teams around us who are using double the playing budget. We'll have to deal with it and Poch will probably want another face in Jan to push on to Europe...and Cortese will oblige. Anyway we deserved to lose even though the goals were a bit unconventional, MP took a chance by changing it up after the Shaw injury and it didn't really work, but that's ok. Time for Dortmund-Munich.
I thought taking Lallana off was an odd move, was he injured? Otherwise, i think if it wasn't for your keeper, you probably should have got a point from today.
I do agree Lambert had an off game, but it wasn't just him. We were having trouble moving the ball in general. It can make the forwards look bad because they can't time they runs when the ball doesn't move cleanly (or doesn't move at all) from back to front. Rodriguez was chasing down everything as usual, but all that defensive work prevented him from attacking. Osvaldo and Lambert just seemed to drift about and not find any space. The two goals given up were mistakes and that's definitely a bit frustrating. But overall, Arsenal controlled the game and that's when mistakes happen. They did to us what we have done to others. In the end, we lost to a better side. Good learning experience. I thought JWP put in some good tackles and his game is getting more complete. Wanyama was very good. And I'm happy Hooiveld got in a game, and he didn't look too bad.
I don't see how you can really defend it. If the referee sees that it's a stone wall penalty no matter who does it. An arm around or a more subtle tug of the shirt and you can understand why they're not given but that was blatant.
For me we played too slow in possession. We need Morgan to make a run with the ball into space at the mid line. If he does that some will come to him and open up someone to receive a pass. The back line did well minus two issues. Certainly not outplayed so hopefully a week of training and Dejan and Shaw back and we can get something from our next trip to London.
Just a guess, but Pochettino might've thought that he was tiring, owing to his participation in the friendlies. Whatever the thought, it didn't work out...we'd be generating a bit late first/early second half, but that came to a halt after we brought in another striker.
We had the majority of possession and more shots. I didn't see them as dominant. Other than Ramsay's chance in the first half, and Wilshere's chip they actually didn't particularly threaten either.
Well I am as disappointed as anyone with the defeat but am I feeling negative about it? NO WAY We had no Lovren Shaw off at half time the only way Arsenal scored was through a cock up by Boruc and a penalty. So we lost but we were not really out played were we? Boruc will not make that mistake again and will learn from it. This was Arsenal we were playing and if it wasn't for the cock up and penalty we may have drawn. So I'm not going to dwell on it. Is it 22 points we have? Thats ****ing excellent and we are only in November. COYR
Best team won on the day, but we had good reason to be disappointed, minus 3 of our best players 2nd half didn't help.
Oddly, I think we played pretty well today on the whole. Arsenal's famous midfield were pretty anonymous, and but for two huge mistakes we could have got something. Wanyama our MOTM by some distance I thought, though JWP and Clyne both did well out of position. Rodriguez was the best of our attackers, with Lambert and Lallana a bit below par. Schneiderlin also did well.
