It is worrying that Pepe’s final ball / decision making was so poor. He reminded me of iwobi today in that sense. Hope he just needs time to get it all together.
Annoying that we didn’t win that game. Thought we were the better team. Should have started with Ceballos instead of Xhaka - Emery makes some confusing team selection decisions. Would have liked to see Ozil on instead of Mhiki as well. 4 games in, played both spurs and Liverpool and we are above Utd, Chelsea and Spurs in the table - not a bad start to the season.
Sokratis was very good in both league fixtures of this game last season, but today, he was all over the place. Couldn't believe how naive he was and how poor his errors were. Leno didn't cover himself in glory either. Emery's team selection did not have the right balance at all, and he made some of the changes too late. Also, Mkhitaryan being brought on before Nelson was disgraceful, in my view. He needs to trust the Hale End players more. These guys truly understand the derby and have hatred of Spurs in their blood. Mkhi was useless when he came on. Wasn't impressed with Emery's tactics and plan today.
Front 3 - auba laca Pepe mids torriera Willock/Ozil/Ceballos guendouzi bellerin sokratis/Luiz holding Tierney leno Bench of those not starting out of above names, and Nelson AM Niles should play before we pick miki or Xhaka It looks so much better now that we have got rid of Elneny, Kos, iwobi, just need Mustafi to go. Shame Monreal has gone
Bit disappointed not to win that game, but we showed real fight to get ourselves back into it. Has to be said though, that defensively we are still so ****ing weak. Both of their goals were absolute gifts. The first one was largely caused by Sokratis coming for a ball he should have been nowhere near and then finding himself completely out of position. Also though Leno might have done better, but the damage was already done really. Then the Xhaka pen, wtf was he doing ? He makes these kind of mistakes far too often for me. That said, going forward we looked really dangerous and the whole team showed really good mental fortitude to come back from being 0-2 down at home. The crowd also played their part, not at any stage did they get on the players backs, but instead really supported them and urged them on. That is a real credit to our fans and really good to see, I used to ****ing despise it when the fans were booing and getting on players back in the later wenger years. Great goals from Lacazette and Aubameyang. These two players are immense for us. Guendouzi had a brilliant game and showed us the type of player he is going to become. Pepe did okay, but I would like to see him take players on and shoot. He's got the talent, I think he just needs to find his confidence at Arsenal. Ceballos looked really good when he came on too. We've only got him for a season so I think we should play him as often as we can, ahead of Xhaka for me. I'd like to see a Guendouzi, Ceballos, Torreira MF as our first choice. Anyway, bit disappointing not to win the game today, but equally in going for it we could have thrown it away too, so a draw was probably just about right in the end, but you have to say Spurs were a bit lucky to come away with a point in the end.
How come red didn’t use VAR to look at the tackle on Pepe or the shove on a Aubameyang. Pepe was clearly blocked from the ball and the defender made no attempt to play it. Auba was pushed and didn’t go down easily, but the ref ignored it. ref also should have booked Klaim for diving thoughts on above
3 games on the spin in the EPL that we've dominated them. But we've only won one. They are so fortunate it's unreal. Should have beaten them toward the back end of last season and today, again. They were a bit better than they were last time out, but will still outplayed. We need to be more clinical.
I think Emre made a mistake playing that MF 3. For me if he wants to be defensively solid behind the front 3, Willock-Torreira-Guendouzi was the right pick. Looks more balanced to me. We need pace in the middle, and Willock gives us that! Great to see the team fight back but Emre needs to figure his squad out pretty quickly. Focus on youth. The likes of Mhiki should be 3rd choice at this stage (Also just read somewhere that he's been linked with a move to Roma. I really hope this is true and goes through). I want to see Willock and Nelson trusted. They are the future of our club, not Mikhi!
Mkhi is gone. The clearout continues. How Mustafi is still here I have no idea. Hopefully Xhaka leaves too but that's unlikely.
Some Arsenal journos are saying there's a possibility of Mustafi leaving before the end of the day. There's still hope...
Wouldn't say that, bro. You controlled the possession for most of it but we tested your goal more than you tested ours. Good game though, pissed we let a lead slip but I'd have taken a point before KO, even moreso when I saw Rose was still starting and Sanchez was a makeshift RB, thought it was a fair result on the reflection of the game. Yet again the NLD shows why it's the best in the country.
The game could have gone either way at 2-2, but overall I thought we did enough to win it, got a bit unlucky with the offside goal, although it was the correct call. But yeah agree, the NLD always throws up some great games. Especially as opposed to the LIverpool v Utd derbies, which are generally very ****.
We had 26 shots in that game. 8 were on target. You had 13 shots in that game. 9 were on target. You were clearly the more efficient side in the final-third and, even though we did have some good chances, I thought yours were more clear-cut. I was frustrated with some of our players because we had a few really good chances to score, yet kept blazing it wide/over the bar. We need to get more goals from other areas, as relying solely on Lacazette and Aubameyang again will be extremely risky.
Usually we're the side that needs to improve efficiency mate (still do), so I get your frustration there. Welcome to our world when it comes to good chances being squandered though, more or less every game Sissoko gets into a blinding position but then has the shooting accuracy of Stevie Wonder.