Not having that excuse. Watch the movement. No smart running off the ball. No intelligence. honestly looks like a championship player or a player similar to Chris Wood.
That might have been his first. Martinelli centrally is the option we need right now IMO. A bit of pace and movement in behind. Literally everything is being played in front of City’s defence.
HT. 0-1. This has been horrid - it's very rare that Arsenal fans are in unison about the manager's decisions, but everyone was vocal that this lineup wasn't the right one and that it makes dynamics more clunky. How everyone can see this apart from Arteta is infuriating. So many loose passes, lack of urgency and speed in how we play, a lack of creativity or dynamism outside of Madueke doing all he can. This is going to be another near-miss of a season if the result doesn't change in the second half. Subs needed. Changes needed. Arteta's conservatism is going to kill our chances of winning anything meaningful.
If you start these big games with Merino instead of a number 10 - it's imperative you don't concede first. The moment they scored Arteta should have changed things tactically.
We’ve regressed. The two big signings have been poor Zubimendi and Gyokeres are not as good as Partey and Havertz It’s that simple The other signings are not as good as the players they are competing with to start the only possible plus is Eze. He might improve us. But overall team is weaker - significantly And squad is weaker.
Eze and Saka on. Merino and Madueke off. I think it should have been Trossard personally but whatever.
Cowardly line up cost us. Well done to Martinelli, Eze and Saka who made a difference. If I were Martinelli, I'd be handing in my transfer request tonight. The way he has been treated by the fans is disgraceful and when he is left on the bench in favour of the worst striker I have seen at the Arsenal since Bendtner, it's not a tenable situation for him. We need to wake up - neither Gyokeres or Zubimendi can be part of the starting line up if we expect to win anything. Rice needs to play holding midfielder - because he is **** as an attacking midfielder. Deserved to lose - got a point. We do have a future with this squad - but only if Arteta makes changes and accepts some signings are not good enough and dumps them quickly. One thing is for sure - we need Havertz back badly.
FT. 1-1. Incredible defence-splitting pass by Eze and an incredible finish from Martinelli, but that's still a poor result and performance. A draw is not good enough. We are 5 points behind Liverpool and we have a trip to St. James Park next week where we don't do well in recent times. Not looking good. That first half was diabolical. Second half there were small improvements, but really, we didn't test them or pressure them at all until that late equaliser. Arteta's celebrations were crazy, but I don't know why he was so happy - we got out of jail today and it's because of his team selection and tactics that stifled us for long. City were not that great, yet we still couldn't beat them. If we were serious about winning this league, we would have beaten them. I guarantee Liverpool would have.
I'm seeing these stats doing the rounds: Arteta is now the only boss to have gone five successive games unbeaten against Guardiola in his managerial career. Manchester City had 32.8% possession today. That was the lowest figure any Pep Guardiola team have ever recorded in a top-flight match. Wow, amazing. What a three points for Arsenal that is Why don't we stick those stats in the trophy cabinet? Honestly, I'm sick of all these stats that try to paint things in a positive light. We need to be WINNING. We have the squad depth to go the distance, performances like that are not going to cut it I'm afraid.
Saka is our best player Then Havertz Then Martinelli Goalkeeper and defence is very good. Our problem is in midfield. Eze now needs to own the 10 position Play Rice as a defensive midfield spoiler because he's not good at anything else in open play. Not sure who the third of the midfield 3 should be - maybe Norgaard. This is the team that can compete - but would need to stay fit Raya Timber Saliba Gabriel Califiori Rice Noorgard Eze Saka Havertz Martinelli The rest are back ups Nwaneri Madueke Dowman Trossard White MLS Mosquera Odegaard Jesus - Hincapie Merino - 3rd choice Gyokeres - 3rd choice (offload in January) Zubimendi - 3rd choice (offload in January)
Starting to think Arteta is better suited to the Italian league than the Premier League. I just don't think he knows how to maximise the attacking quality we have.
Getting quite amusing how jayram constantly sticks the knife in Gyokeres and Zubimendi and appears to worship Havertz. So predictable and biased
About the only positive is that Anfield, OT, SJP and City at home last year only gave us 5pts. If we somehow win at SJP next weekend then that’s 7 pts from the same four fixtures. So that would represent a better return and have four of our historic banana skins out the way in the first six games. Though we’ve then got West Ham (h) and Fulham (a) i think, nether of which we’ve won for quite a while if we’ve genuinely got any aspirations for the title then the players have to go to SJP next weekend, be ready for the dirty Brazilians fouling, time wasting etc and just win. Saka, Eze, Madueke and Gyok from the start. Martinelli in last half hour. Done.
