Dowell and Gilmour far too lightweight, so easily brushed off the ball. We aren’t pressing high and yet our midfield still can’t stick to their men?!
If anything I’d say we are looking even worse than under Farke. No attacking threat, we are being regularly muscled off the ball by a team not famed for brute strength, there doesn’t seem to be any commitment there. Gilmour looking weak. Kabak certainly culpable for the opportunity before the goal. Williams guilty for not closing down Saka. Our loan signings are not doing us proud here. We look wide open every time on the right hand side with Williams allowing Saka to cut in every time. It’s looking very ugly. Sorry to sound depressing.
We're the footballing equivalent of the England test batsmen, totally out of our depth, we're pathetic!
Lessons learned, individual mistakes... blah blah Gilmore gives the ball away and then fouls Saka urgh, he looks better when he has Normann behind him!
Some slight positives in the last few minutes - our most creative force looks likely to be the unusual McClean. Placheta once again our best outlet.
That last passage on the 36 minute mark was extraordinary. We were sat off, not pressing, eleven men behind the ball. Arsenal’s centre back puts in a comfortable crossfield pass and suddenly we’re being counterattacked with them in behind us!
That wrestle on Pukki is at least as bad as when Ronaldo was taken down for the penalty, then they go and score the other end FFS. The refereeing is a total disgrace.
I know we have problems upfront, and our defence isn't great, but our midfield is truly woeful. Defensively, teams cut through them like butter. Creatively, we have absolutely no one capable of the kind of pass that Vrancic, let alone Buendia, could envisage. 5m for Gunn, 9m for Sargent, three poor loan signings, a fourth loan signing who was crocked when we loaned him but we went for it anyway. Webber has dined out for far too long on finding Buendia and Pukki. He got lucky and in the Premier he has got found out twice. After this performance, I think we just get to 12 points so we don't get Derby's record, and after that we start to plan for next season.
For some good news, Zaha has been sent off for two yellows so he won't play against us. Arsenal look like a side that has won their last 4 games and we look like a side that has lost outlast 4. Sargent is our highest ranked player on WhoScored with 6.4 and McLean is next highest on 6.2.
