Richarlison is not a replacement for Kulusevski. They're not similar players, so the system breaks down without the Swede. Cheers to their **** of a manager for playing him injured, by the way. Picking a defensive player at RWB behind the Brazilian saps our creativity completely. Pushing Kane further forward doubles that up and we lose the midfield and create nothing. Not sure why Conte's being so slow about this.
I see Arteta is pleased for Partey "after what he's been through ". Been tougher for others I'd wager.
The disappointment hurts because of the opposition but I don't think there's been much exaggeration. We've been poor for large parts of this season but been picking up points, in two of our last three games though we've deservedly been beaten because of our poor play so the "luck" seems to be running out. A lot of our issues have stemmed from the manager too. He's persisting with poor and/ or underperforming players and not adjusting the system to fit the opposition. Needs to do better because top four will likely be tougher to achieve this season with an improved Utd and Arsenal.
I agree but we can’t just write off this loss and performance just because it happens every season against them at the Emirates. Conte got backed in the summer yet doesn’t appear to have a plan b when plan a clearly doesn’t work. Like Dier Hard says, it’s Nuno/Mourinho performances but better results. The likes of Emerson and Sessegnon should not be regular starters unless they improve dramatically (imo Emerson won’t and Sess is running out of time)
Nuno as +6 pts on his "season compass" when he went. Conte is currently +8 pts. So not much "better results" . As I said the other week, Conte made a rod for his own back with the squad performance over the final third of last season. Now he will be (rightfully) judged against his own standards. Similarly I have oft stated the danger of dogma vs pragma with managers. The team selections over august were fully supported given the brutality of this season, and very much "job done" . But the Sporting CP game showed a team that looked somewhat jaded and lacking spine on the pitch. Conte has to get going now, on both serious team rotations + less dogmatic formations. Perhaps necessity will be the mother of invention (the Emerson ban giving Doherty a chance to restore his form pre Villa thuggery etc) .
It was a standard Spurs performance at the Degenerates, not helped by going there with a 2 man midfield which has been dominated by all and sundry for large parts of this season. Hojbjerg failed to close down - he who should be in prison - for the first goal and Lloris and Romero combined to cock up for the second goal. Royal is a car crash of a RWB, but he was unlucky to be red carded today, it was a yellow and no more, and that decision killed the game.
It is dissapointing but it was always on the cards after the highs of the transfers. We have already forgotten the improvements made on players at the end of last season. Dier, Sanchez, Kane, Hojbjerg, Davies, Doherty and the signings of Kulusevski and Bentancur made a big improvement to the team. Conte more or less started this season with that proven team and that surely is fair enough but we have yet to see a performance to match that last part of the season which is surprising and as you say dissapointing.
I disagree re the Nuno and JM comparisons and think we have played some great stuff at times...not enough admittedly but no where near as bad as what those two dished up. Think that's it's too soon after such a poor performance for me to give truly accurate explanation of what I think. So back to the cave it is
We had good stuff under Jose too (not so much Nuno), though when results weren’t coming with the poor performances then he got canned. Conte isn’t anywhere near stage that because we’ve still been getting results for the most part but the football for most of this season has been diabolical. I don’t know why we’ve looked so bad either, we played some really good stuff last season under him and he’s got a significantly better squad this season.
As I've said before, conte doesn't really like to rotate except for his wb (well at Chelsea anyway). He also is very rigid with his formation as he has his team drilled exactly as he wants them to play. You still have special players to produce magic within this system but it's frustrating as you say because the midfield 2 have so much to get through as his 3cbs he likes to sit deep.
Anthony Taylor's record by club: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/anthony-taylor/bilanz/schiedsrichter/847 He's reffed 43 of their matches and they've lost 6. No team that he's been in charge of more than 12 times has less losses, barring Brighton's 5/22. They're better than City when he's in charge, for some reason. Bent ****.
He’s from Manchester and supposedly claims his club is Altrincham FC. There is no logical reason for him to like or support Arsenal, based on where he’s from.
Working nights so went to sleep straight after the game (wish I stayed in bed), so just catching up here. We were awful today, and whilst Lloris and Emerson will be the fall guys for an awful mistake (Hugo) and stupid Red card, its the front 3 that I think really let us down. All 3 of them had no touch or feel for the pass today, we actually created a decent number of good opportunities in the first half only for the move to come an end as each of our forwards failed to deliver a decent pass to put the man through. As others have said Conte takes his share today as well, the subs were clearly made to stop a thrashing and not to get us back in the game, the most puzzling of the subs though was leaving Kane up top on his own when surely Richarlison would have been a better bet as a man to hit on the break. Good to see Skippy get some minutes is the one positive that I will offer.
Theres no reason for scores of fans of United and Liverpool who live south of London to do so but thousands do!
I’ve also just seen that from those 43 matches, just 11 of them were against top-6 opposition. The rest were a mix of lower league teams in the cups, relegation threatened sides and mid-table teams. Arsenal have historically done well against these types of sides. There’s nothing about his record that looks out of the ordinary. It’s a ridiculous suggestion, frankly.