Starting XI: Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Monreal, Kolasinac, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Iwobi, Alexis
Subs: Macey, Debuchy, Elneny, Wilshere, Walcott, Lacazette, Giroud
__
Arsenal couldn’t stop Manchester City extending their Premier League unbeaten run as Arsene Wenger’s men went down 3-1 at the Etihad.
The home side squandered several chances in a dominant first half taking the lead on 19 minutes through Kevin De Bruyne’s clinical finish. Sergio Aguero doubled the advantage from the penalty spot three minutes after the break after Nacho Monreal was harshly adjudged to have fouled Raheem Sterling.
Substitute Alexandre Lacazette did reduce the deficit with a cool finish only for Gabriel Jesus, off the bench, to put the game to bed on 74 minutes.
First half
Arsenal didn’t have to wait long for a first warning of City’s attacking prowess as six sky blue shirts charged forward in unison after Arsenal lost possession from an early corner. Aguero flashed high and wide of Cech’s near post.
Francis Coquelin’s inclusion in the starting line-up appeared to signal an intention to return to a back four, however, it became clear immediately that the Frenchman had been asked to operate in the heart of defence between Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal.
Arsenal were bright enough in the opening stages and showed an eagerness to press up the pitch but clear cut chances were few and far between despite some good movement in the final third. Iwobi skied over from range, Ozil scuffed wide and Alexis messed up a free-kick from 30-yards.
Initial optimism soon wore off though as City slowly started to take a stranglehold. The home side really should have taken the lead on 10 minutes as Aguero and Sane combined to put the ball on a plate for Sterling. Three yards out from goal, under pressure from Kolasinac, he couldn’t connect and the chance went begging.
Nine minutes later, after a succession of poor passes by Arsenal, De Bruyne made City’s pressure pay. He’d just had a snap shot saved by Cech but after Sane kept the ball alive, the Belgian came back into play, dodged a tackle on the edge of the area and fired a low shot through Koscielny’s legs to the far post. Cech got his fingers to it, but it wasn’t enough. (1-0)
City might have been out of sight by half time had they been more clinical. David Silva flashed a ball across Cech’s goalline, Sterling miscued a pass to Sane that would have left the German one-on-one with Cech and Koscielny nearly put a Walker cross in his own net.
Arsenal’s best moment of the half came in stoppage time as Ramsey forced keeper Edersen into a decent stop at his near post.
Second half
Three minutes into the second half, City doubled their lead. Fernandinho found Sterling with a chipped ball inside Kolasinac and although Monreal did well to get across the England international, both men went down inside the penalty box. Michael Oliver had no hesitation pointing to the spot (it looked harsh) and Aguero, who earlier in the week became City’s highest ever scorer, converted off the post. Cech, as usual, went the wrong way. (2-0)
Iwobi came close to reducing the deficit on 54 minutes as Edersen fumbled his effort from the edge of the box. Ramsey took the opportunity to barge the Brazilian and the ball into the net. A cheer from the away support went up, quickly met by the referee’s whistle. A clear foul.
Needing goals, Wenger replaced Coquelin with Lacazette and we went with four at the back. Our record signing went straight into the book for pulling Silva down after a poor pass. Soon after he helped himself to a goal with a deadly low finish to polish off a decent through ball by Ramsey. (2-1)
City were sparked back into action. Bellerin blocked a Sane volley at close quarters and from the resulting corner Cech made a superb stop to deny Gabriel Jesus, on as a sub for Aguero. The veteran keeper had to be alert at the next corner as De Bruyne tried to catch him out at his near post.
With 16 minutes remaining City killed the game with their third. Silva looked offside as he ghosted behind the Gunners defence and while the hands of the men in black went up in unison the Spaniard picked out Jesus who calmly tapped home. Xhaka, incensed, got booked for complaining. Replays showed it was very tight and probably offside. Not that that is much consolation. (3-1)
Defeat sees Arsenal fall to sixth on goal difference below Liverpool and we’re now 12 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side who appear to be running away with things right now. We’re into another Interlull now and then it’s the North London derby on 18 November at the Emirates.
Opportunities against Citeh aren’t necessary clear goal scoring chances. They’re those moments they always give you when it suddenly becomes 3 on 3. You can usually guarantee you’ll get 5 or 6 of them each game. We were so toothless in these situations, poor passes, mistimed runs, bad decisions. It’s a shame because this Citeh team are far from untouchable. Ozil MIA again. Lacca from the start please Mr Wenger. He’s quite good at scoring.
Ozil was never MIA. Stop this personal bias.
Ozil was great. Sanchez was awful. We should have got rid of him. He takes way too long on the ball and can’t pass, his off the ball runs always seem to take away the space rather than create it, and lastly he wastes too much time moaning about other players playing making an error when he himself makes more. There was a moment where Iwobi chose to play it out to Laca on the break instead of Alexis. Alexis then just chose to stop and be a wacky waving inflatable tube man instead of running into the box to… Read more »
“Ozil was great”.
Was he fuck. Kept strolling around and missing easy passes. Weak player
i dont remember a single notable thing ozil did all match long. lacazzette did more in his limited minutes than ozil. iwobi was better than him , hell even the much maligned ramsey had one good shot and the assist
I’m a big fan of Ozil. Just saying he doesn’t do much in these big away matches. Can’t remember him carving them open or making an important interception all game. For every Ozil critic, there’s an Ozil apologist.
It’s not Ozil’s fault he plays with a bunch of shite.
Nothing new. Same old nonsense from Wenger. Wrong team selection, Ramsey back to his clownish inept self. Iwobi, I don’t even know what business he has being in the XI, and the shiny new lethal striker on the bench.
Fortunately for Wenger there was a dodgy goal, so it will be blamed on the ref, nothing to do with him and his mismanagement.
Yes he didn’t carve them open but he didn’t let us down either. He had more fight in him than most. Let ‘by the numbers’ come in. This game was lost partly on team selection/tactics and partly by players. Bellerin was certainly MIA. And well Xhaka! I think enough has been said already. I don’t know what to say. 🙁
agreed. you expect more in these games.
Ozil is not the problem, ozil at arsenal is the problem. With Germany he was voted best player 6 years in a row (for a reason) he has the right team, structure, and tactics behind him. He can’t produce magic if we can’t hold the ball long enough. You need a great DM with good defense and a CM who can hold the ball and pass to the right team and I suspect ozil would produce magic every time. Sadly, not the case.
Is that because you have to turn up first to go MIA?
Not just him, but Alan Smith on Ozil… “He’s gone missing in a big game again and hasn’t justified a new contract offer from Arsenal”.
But as I say, others were also not great. The fact remains that we have some good players, some average players, but the manager can not get them to play well.
Sheffield Gooner, Alan Smith talked shite from the first minute till the final whistle. In fact I’m sure he has given me a headache.
Fair comment Deano, but personally I think Ozil is a little overrated. He is definitely. Good player, and no doubt can be world class in some teams, but not in ours. He has good stats, but doesn’t do enough ont he field. I can see how people argue it both ways, but I’m now in the “wouldn’t be sorry to see him go camp”. Especially for 250k a week.
I think we either create an environment for him to do what he is best at .. the stats don’t lie he is one of the leading chance creators and assist men .. But his flaws are obvious.. and they aint going away. So either we let him go or we keep him and add some super athletic ground covering fast player that’s capable of roaming the midfield enough to cover up and prwss and defend behind him.
Had to suffer Andy “Tactics Truck” Townsend on commentary.
Kept banging on about how Kolasinac had pushed Sterling in the back on one early chance. “Very clever how he did that on the sly” he said about 15 times in a row.
Horrible little man.
Actually thought Townsend was slightly favorable towards us. There was none of the usual “this is what you always get from Arsenal vs Top 6” commentary getting rolled out. I had to provide it myself. Haha.
I really couldn’t bear these idiots a lot of times, there were really having an orgasm talking about Manc – the offside is a ‘tough decision and a marginal call’ for the linesman though he’s standing with a clear sight of what’s happening. All is forgotten is about the 2 slightly fortunate goals and they say City could’ve easily had another 2 or 3! Whores! I’m not saying we deserved a win or even a point, but at least say that City got lucky with 50-50 decisions. If you can’t call a spade a spade then don’t call yourself an… Read more »
in the studio in my part of the world was tim sherwood and les ferdinand. i cant believe the arrogance of someone who so resolutely failed as a manager to be so forthright in every stupid, asonyne, and irrelevant points he (sherwood) made.
there are so many good pundits. it is patronising to viewers that these clowns get selected time and again.
Some forgetting the Cup semi-finale and finale here. Sad from a guy who is paid for that.
Özil worked hard but was poor. He was not the worst, not even close. That’s impossible with Xhaka, Coq and Ramsey in the pitch.
Sanchez
There are plenty of players who can and do work harder than Ozil, that’s not why hes paid top money that should be a given, hes payed to produce opportunities and goals and he didn’t yet again. Sanchez was disgusting. I don’t want to criticise other individuals too much because they’re set up to fail by the boss in the main.
We need to talk about Cech too. Looking very average as time goes by.
Could not agree more Dr Strange
Ramsey ! What game was that !
Outplayed outclassed outthought outkroenked outwengered
Outmoderated??
Not sure which way you’re going with this, but I thought Ramsey played fairly well. One of our brighter spots.
Bombing around as a striker, when you should have a disciplined performance in cm supporting the slowest player on the pitch, is not a good performance.
another usual insipid performance by Ramsey. like playing with 10 men
Seriously? Ramsey was better than Özil today easily. As often happens the only actual goal mouth action for us attacking seemed to involve Ramsey.
Ozil did nothing. Doesn’t want to be here. Compare him to KDB.
Wake up
Ozil was never in the game, Bro.
He may not have been MIA.
But he was clueless as were all the front three ,one to many touches for me.
I’m sorry..but he was.. I defend him a lot here and think he is a very talented player but he had an awful game as did Sanchez who was way more visible bit.. had a stinker.. If they are doing this to make us miss them less when they eventually fuck off.. Bless their hearts..
It’s working.
Also citeh were the better side.. but they looked tired around Laccas introduction and had they not been gifted those goals things could have ended differently.. I rather excuse my team than referee mistakes.
Maybe not MIA but he had a poor game.
MIA defintley hes at fault for citys first goal
It was criminal not to strengthen midfield. Wenger could have left with some dignity after fa cup. Ramsey was his usual self, he did get assist today and shot at end of first half but overall one of most over rated players in league.
Again, we get it You don’t like like Ramsey
And
Your constant bashing and hate for Ramsey is boring.
the constant playing of Ramsey “but he netted two FA cup winners” is worse than boring, it is the very thinking that has us playing Europa league
To be fair, his decision making in the counter was REALLY slow which stifled our attack. We had a couple of good chances where we could have punished them.
Ramsey was our top player behind wilshere and we were honestly outdone by the refs and ozils poor heart
2 gifted goals really. Not a penalty. No chance. And a clear offside. It’s not often I am pissed at the refereeing but Oliver is one of those whenever we play and it’s him refereeing we tend to lose against the bigger teams.
agree 100%, but of course, because Man City are amazing and we’re crap it doesn’t matter that neither of those goals should’ve stood.
Seriously ?? City were very poor today. In fact I don’t think they’ll have a worse game than this one all season… We really should have done better in the first 20 minutes, they were all over the place.
We of course, were worse.
Also the commentators were really rubbing me up the wrong way – “Silva was just offside.” Are you kidding me? Lacazette’s hair follicle costing us a goal earlier this season was just offside, this was a good half a yard offside. It wasn’t even close.
I was more upset at the Monreal penalty. It was an amazing challenge considering the work he does to catch him. You can see Sterling dragging a leg, why are the English media not talking about the dive there…
City will drop points sooner or later, we just have to makesure we win most of our games against big teams… Not going to well that
Yup, actually it was 2 players offside…
Oliver fucked us over today.
We didn’t press them with enough energy. They looked far more energetic. I counted more than 5 occasions where we were just jogging back when they countered us. You can’t win matches when you do not want it more than the opposition
It’s maybe the biggest flaw in our style, we rarely put the opposition under pressure. Works well against teams that can’t keep the ball, but against the big guns….
Esoecially when ozil is in the
Good point you’ve made. And to think these were the players rested in midweek to face a man city side that went to play away at AS Roma. No busting of gut to take this game by the scruff of the neck.
Questionable officiating or not, we we never really looked like a team that wanted to win.
True in general although city faded a bit and we had a chance to get back in the game – I didn’t need feel our lads let us down today as they kept working until the end. I notice City, like Spurs, work more in little pressing units of 2 or 3 whereas we just send 1 guy in. Not surprisingly City’s won most of those scraps.
Sanchez was worse and kept giving the ball away but still you pick on Ozil ?
Ozil MIA? Such a lazy comment. Nobody was MIA. Ozil showed true discipline and put in a shift for the club.
We played fairly well once we got up to speed, and our comeback was undone by one 50/50 call and one piss poor one.
Ramsey, Kos, Monreal, and yes, OZIL were especially good today.
MPLS, were we watching the same game? Running around a bit does not mean you’ve had a good game, or that you’ve made a telling contribution. We were short of quality all over the pitch, and Ozil was as guilty (if not more so) than any others. Look at the speed of Man City’s attacks vs the slow plodding attempts from Ozil, Iwobi, Ramsey and Xhaka…
The speed of our attached were mostly to do with Sanchez. Try watching it without your blinkers on.
As for starting with that line up, what the fuck.
You’re right – Sanchez was as guilty as the others. Doesn’t make my point wrong though. If we think that we were good enough after losing 3-1 (and let’s not fool ourselves, it could easily have been more on a different day), or that any of our players deserve special credit, then we really have started to accept mediocrity.
Sanchez was MIA.
Alexis has got to learn from Aguero in these kinds of games. Aguero did so many simple things well, taking up wide positions, holding up play, and laying it off for the full-back on his side.
We rarely saw Sanchez and Kolasinac able to combine, because Alexis was impatient, kept trying to switch play and City were ready for that (led to a couple of counters for them).
But they annoying thing is our coaches don’t intervene. These flaws are costly if not spotted early in these big games.
The more I see of Alexis, the more I can’t understand why he’d want to go to $iteh just to sit on the bench..
Exactly! He is just too predictable and that makes it easy for city to frustrate him to play nonsense. Aguero, messi, suarez play with their team mate
Ozil was good, but he wasn’t a gamechanger or an X-factor. Compared to KDB, he looked toothless.
This! When people say Ozil was MIA they’re saying this based on the caliber of footballer he’s often advertised as. He’s supposed to be a talisman , or at least a player who can have a great impact in the game. He was neither of those things today. And when compared to KDB, you could even say he was poor. And this is nothing new for Ozil. He’ll give you the odd glimpse of excellence but you can’t rely on him as a consistent performer. He has not justified his price tag and I hope it’s not too late to… Read more »
He is one notch below World Class. He’s on par with KDB and Silva. The difference is Ozil only has Sanchez to play. Occasionally Ramsey, OG and Laca when they are in form or playing. While KDB and Silva have Aguero, Jesus, Sterling, Sane and rest that are very good. I have no idea why Laca didn’t start today instead of Iwobi.
Agree with this. However I thought Alexis was awful today. I counted 5 times he lost possession from the wing, with the team pushed forward, by playing daft passes rights into the feet of Man City players centrally.
That’s just criminal considering how good city are on the counter.
I agree. Sanchez was awful today. The many times he lost the ball or made bad passes today.
We know well AW cannot figure out how to beat top 6 teams, and today we faced top of the table City on winning streak. I do not expect too much. It turn our we played not too bad. For city’s first, I think Chech should’ve done better, I don’t have any complaint for their second, but the third was a terrible mistake by linesman. And we scored a great goal But still AW can’t figure out how to beat top 6, so we still have mountains to climb.
Ozil at fault for the first… i csnt wait to see him
I doubt Sanchez’s intentions a bit.. didn’t seem fully committed.
Wenger said this team would show they had the ability to compete at the top level. Well I hope he now sees what we all have been saying. This team is good but not close to the level they ought to be.
We’re further away from competing with top clubs than at any time during AW era. That includes the Denilson, Song, Bentner, Galls times. So sad. Please just go Wenger.
Could to the people who are down voting Cagooner please explain why they want to keep wenger?? We are just getting worse and worse and he hasn’t a clue anymore
Totally agree, we got the luck, rub of the green etc in the Semi final, otherwise City may have gone on and won the cup. Then maybe just maybe Wenger would not have ‘AWARDED’ himself a new contract. But then again the selfish old fool would still not have gone.
Please can the down voters explain why they want winger to stay?? We are going nowhere and he is ducking clueless…..he is Stan’s man and the epitome of incompetence
Their front 6 have such silky first touches they can attack instantly at will. Most teams only have a few people who are that class on the ball. Thought we did ok, but it’s the toughest game in our fixture list of the season. Lacazette showed instantly what a good finisher can do. Their 3rd was offside which is fucking annoying as they don’t need a hand scoring. Thought Kolasinac could have carried on tracking back more after he lost it and maybe he would have been there to put Silva under more pressure. I’d take Silva or De Bruyne… Read more »
Put Silva and De Bruyne in our side in place of Ozil and they would produce fuck all!
Quite possible under Wenger’s guidance
I didn’t want to say it today specifically but De Bruyne is the best offensive player in the league in my opinion. Guys a Fucken baller. That low driven pass he curls in behind defences is a thing of evil. Surprised he actually butchered the chance he had today to play it for Jesus, not that it mattered lol
He has quite a supporting cast Xxxrob, I guarantee he wouldn’t be ripping up the league in our squad.
By the way Gooner I don’t think De Bruyne and Silva are on fucking peanuts
Depressing. I’m sick of this Arsenal team Andre that Arsenal manager. Most expensive club to watch. This club does not deserve my hard earned cash. What an embrassement of a club
I’m sorry, but whilst I wish Kroenke would just fuck off, its just as well that we charge what we do in order to at least TRY to compete against teams like Man City with their unlimited finances, and who are able to routinely circumvent FFP regulations.
No, I’m sorry but Silva and de bruyne earns more than what Özil wishes. Sorry…
Surprisingly they aren’t both on £150k. Ozil want some £250k which isn’t what KDB wants on husband next contract.
They aren’t on peanuts but Ozil wants the very very top dollar Andrew I think only the best game changers in the league should be on that. Keep Ozil on around £150k
I just came here today to say Fuck off Micheal Oliver and his shitty sidekicks !!
Except for Sterling. so glad we didn’t do the Sanchez swap with them..
Ozil on that club. All the chances he would create. Look at his chances created this season with the players around him and the games he’s missed. Imagine if he had the finishers that MAn City have.
Alexis needs to be dropped. He’s been garbage all season and doesn’t seem to be into it mentally.
Are there any depression support groups for Arsenal fans?
This ain’t a bad one.
A couple more years of this and i might need proper therapy
Don’t be depressed. To be honest, we didn’t play any worse than we did against Chelsea. The De Bruyne goal may have gone in against any Arsenal team. The other two were down to the referee. We are told to be ruthless but when Monreal is, it’s a penalty. The third was offside and frankly, I don’t care if it was marginal because Lacazette had the same offside given against him at Stoke which cost us 2 points. The score should have been 2-1 at the most really and my main 2 complaints are: Wenger was incorrect for not starting… Read more »
It wasn’t even marginally offside. How is it that in this day and age of technology, a sport like cricket and even rugby are lightyears ahead of football in terms of video replays and making correct decisions? I do not buy this argument that a stop in play would affect the overall flow of the game. I would rather a correct decision be the determining factor than having referees practically decide a game for you.
Yeah they have video replay in MLS and it doesn’t really slow things down much.
Agree…everyone hadn’t seen the replay confirming that it was offside before the game was restarted at the centre circle, so it would not have cost any time at all to use replay in this instance. The other thing that made the penalty decision even harder to swallow was that city had only gotten the ball a few seconds earlier because of a very soft free kick awarded against Özil.
*had not hadn’t (obviously)
What do you mean a sport like cricket?
Secondly, if they do introduce technology driven decisions how will the cash rich clubs innocuously win “big game winning” decisions that will get lost in retrospect by everyone?
Also, do you truly believe the reasons they put forth are the reasons that actually exist for not introducing technology?
Are you saying the bigger clubs put pressure on officials to not introduce technology as it is not in their personal interests?
By a ‘sport like cricket’, I mean a sport which is not known for its financial power, nor for its popularity, especially in comparison to football.
Well said G-Man. However i also think the penalty was harsh so with a bit of luck it could have finished 1-1
Let it go man, we don’t need to get depressed this season. Just let it go,
Thanks, lads! I’ll try to keep it together.
Things I learned
-Our Coq is decent at CB
-The officials love Man City
-Jack should start more
Cow decent at cb? What were you watching?
*coq
I counted about 6 times Coq held his hand up to apologize after gifting the ball away or making mistakes. He was far from quality at Cb
Oh please. Offside or not, they should have played the whistle. It’s basic shit that should be one of the first things you learn playing football. Should be obvious to players on 90k a week.
Fucking joke defence as per fucking usual.
What’s absolutely clear is we are miles away from Man City and those challenging for the league now. City barely came out of second gear and had plenty of chances they missed yet still scored three. Wenger will now shift the blame the the officials but lets not forget City were toying with us for the last part of the game, and dominated the first half, we were never in it so lets not pretend A lot were excited we were going to revert to a back four although it quickly was apparent that wasn’t the case. Coq is not… Read more »
Couldn’t have said it better myself, spot on
Looked better when we did go 4 at back. No tracking back by players when ball lost (and that includes Tank I’m sorry to say). Passing poor in comparison to Citeh’s fast crisp pass and move (whatever stats say). Tackling poor even if I don’t like the Pep niggling fouls that stopped us so often. Not a penalty in my mind – lots of midfield challenges like it went un-whistled. Media bias reigns again as Laca toenail was clearly offside at Stoke but Citeh whole legs were quite reasonably onside. When we did press forward, we looked OK but we… Read more »
I have no problem with Sanchez starting. What I do have a problem with is Iwobi starting ahead of Laca. How can you put your high priced striker on the bench over Iwobi? He’s not even playing well to justify it.
And…
-The offside rules mean different things for different teams
Coquelin is not decent at centre half. He is not a centre half. Why did this idiotic manager decide to sell his centre halfs in the summer?
No – he kept them all but then got them injured!
I was worried with Coquelin’s inclusion particularly with the mid week performance but I thought he did good for us.
I would have preferred to have kept him on but Wenger sacrificed both him and Iwobi and kept the insipid Ozil on.
I would have not started Ozil, maybe swapped Jack in for iwobi later, had Lacazette on from the start.
Poor choices by Wenger again
Can’t be fucked anymore.
Let’s hope for a Chelsea loss to keep Top 4 alive.
Yes…
… We have sunk that low 0_0
All those dislikes. Well Man Utd went and let Chelsea win, so now we are even further from the top 4…
Genius Wenger sitting our best striker AGAIN against a top team. Laca showed he can “play” from the start by scoring a good goal…..but hey, that’s what we have now, a has-been manager against a top one. Hope we get a top manager iin the summer
But he didn’t score the goal after starting. He scored it after coming on as a sub. So how would that show he should have started?
I suppose the thinking is based off goals per minutes playing time… Lacazette is up there with the best in the world.. and we only just spent 46Million GBPs on him…so fucking give him decent playing time to give your team (and yourself as manager) the best chance of winning. Simple stuff really
Can’t really have it both ways…going with all three of Lacazette, Özil Andy Alexis would have been too attacking and naive from Arsenal away at city. It was clear in the first half that we played 5-4-1 out of possession, and Alexis is better suited for that lone striker role because of his dribbling and ability to create something out of nothing (on a good day).
You do realise we lost the game?
A – Because he scored. B – Because we bought him to score goals, especially in big games. C – because we looked much better going forward when came on.
If VENGA had started Lacacacazettette, the referee wouldn’t have given that penalty that wasn’t and would not have allowed that offside goal to stand, and the game would’ve finished 1-1.
VENGA AHHT
How can anyone defend wenger? He is a joke
Sanchez- shit, xhaka- shit, coquelain- shit, ozil-shit, ramsey- pretty shit, not my favourite game from koscielny or monreal either. Always gonna be difficult against this city side but we really didn’t help ourselves giving away the ball so easily and defending like morons.
Harsh on Coquelin. Yes, gave the ball away a bit but he made some terrific tackles that very few in our team would ever have even attempted. He’s definitely got fight in him, which is more than I can say for a several others.
It’s not the tackles which were shit it was his positioning, with him there our back line was all over the place, he and monreal kept flying into tackles leaving koscielny exposed and they held no kind of line
“IF I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”
Paolo Maldini
School boy defending. 1) No one tracks their runners 2) Our heads are not on a swivel (kolasinac for Sterling’s goal) 3) We stand off too much allowing them to pick passes. 4) Ozil is useless defensively. So why not start Laca with Alexis so we have a balance threat and can assert pressure higher up with more bodies? 5) Play to the bloody whistle. Its basic. Its not drummed into the players which is why we have to (not) learn our lessons over and over again. Wenger will shield the players, deflect criticism and blame the officiating but in… Read more »
Absolutely terrible refereeing but: Don’t clatter through the back of some in the box and play to the fucking whistle. Other than that we were decent.
What game were you watching? It was a 50-50 shoulder challenge
See that’s my issue with the penalty decision; the initial contact was side to side and it looked very much 50/50 with sterling going down under any contact.
A game we never looked like winning if were honest but fuck sake the penalty and offside goal killed it as a contest.
Team selection was wrong. City just looked like they had another gear or two they could go to if they wanted. Ehhhhhh fuck. It’s now 3:12am and I’ve work today. Pray for mojo
Nothing to take away from this game really. We did quite ok, but they are simply a much better side – both tactics-wise and quality-wise.
But I want to point out one thing. Take a look at KDB talking tactics with Redknapp on Sky Sports before this game:
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/18932/11107061/match-zone-jamie-redknapp-with-manchester-citys-kevin-de-bruyne
He seems extremely aware of what Guardiola wants them to do on the pitch – I’ve never seen an Arsenal player talk like that. So, it’s not just that Guardiola is good at planning it, but he’s also very good at selling it to his players.
That’s the sign of a good coach. Being able to coach players.
We can moan and groan about the decisions of the match officials, and with some justification given City’s offside goal, but in all honesty Arsenal are so far apart from this Man City team. Had they been clinical, the game would’ve been over at half time. Our best spell of the game came at 2-0 down, when City sat off us and Wenger finally decided to put on his best striker in place of a journeyman midfielder who is nowhere near this level. Even then, with the goal back, City exposed our backline time and again, and you get the… Read more »
Man city are very good at this association football malarkey, we are not.
Not going to comment on the performance, it wasn’t that bad. But I’m done with Alan Smudger Smith, never heard so much shite come from a former gunner.
Have you never heard Lee Dixon?
“Tight decision”, “making a fuss about nothing” when you’ve got the benefit of a replay clearly showing Silva was offside. I’m not having this ‘marginal’ bullshit either – when Lacazette’s toe was offside against Stoke every pundit pointed out (correctly) that it was offside. The same applies here, but for a glaringly obvious call.
What made me even more sick was when the so called experts said the defenders should carry on with the play instead of appealing.
Every Arsenal player appealed for offside and it was a clear tactical play from us. The least the ref could have done is think before making a call.
What do they do?
They give Xhaka the yellow. Clearly someone from upstairs instructed the referee to allow Man city the goal. I have no doubt referees are being pro City this year. Just go back and watch Bournemouth vs City.
Meh
You’ve got to play the whistle and you give yourself a chance to stop them scoring. It’s really simple
Alan “Should have gone to Specsavers” Smith = I turn the sound to mute. The ref’s decisions were decisive as City weren’t on top form today. We are a pretty ordinary side without the ref’s help.
Would have helped to play a striker like Laca if you want there to be a point in playing Ozil as Sanchez is horribly off form. And Monsieur Wenger, Coquelin is not a CB. Bizarre time to experiment with your already shaky defence.
I mean we are pretty ordinary without the ref helping them!
Yes, but there are loads of teams that are ordinary or aren’t the best team on the day but they get a point or even a win. Without the ref we’d be moaning about the way we played but end each comment with something like ‘but at least we got a point’.
who exactly were those that said there were some surprises or something coming against city . defeats like this has become a norm now , it doesnt surprise me anymore . only thing thats surprising is some of our fans constant optimism
Well I for one was sure hoping for a surprise. And I think they played reasonably well. They put up a fight at least. Nothing wrong with a little optimism.
i dont know what is a measurement for good performance for arsenal anymore . a little fight doesnt mean a good performance , time and time again city carved us open . if it wasnt for sterlings poor finishing we would be 4 or 5 goals behind . the only three chances arsenal created were two half chances by ramsey and iwobi and the goal.
i’d imagine pep is seriously reconsidering whether he wants to sign sanchez after today’s performance. he must have ceded possession 10-15 times.
21 I believe i hear on the radio
The ref is a fucking cunt but playing Coq in cd, or wherever he should play, is stupid as fuck and sums up our delusional manager.
Except for that it generally worked. Others clearly found wanting on DeBruyne’s goal and (non) penalty extremely soft. Chances created just not taken, save Laca. Hardly a replay of the Liverpool debacle.
They get given the softest of penalties and later score a clearly offside goal. Commentators telling us how bloody marvelous City are.
Without Michael Oliver and his team that would have been a draw 1-1.
No, it never would have been a draw. They are so so superior to us right now its ridiculous and thats the most frustrating thing, not the whole Wenger in/out or Ozil & Sanchez contracts – no, the most frustrating is the fact that we’re not even competitive anymore against quality teams. Can’t wait for Tottenham game.
And FFS stop hating Ozil – he was one of the few today who showed some anger and determination. Give him better players beside him and some tactics and he would be better than Silva.
Rubbish… city were cruising and if they hadn’t had those decisions go their way then they would have upped the ante at the end and got the result anyway. We sound like a bunch of mid table fans these days complaining about big club bias and if only the linesman had flagged we could have nicked a point. Remember when we were a big club, behaved like a big club, did business like a big club and got results like a big club. The manager and Board talk about our values but i never hear them explicitly state what they… Read more »
City just so much better both with and without the ball.
Our midfield is a mess and Arsene doesn’t have an answer to the problems we face.
We had a period after we went 2-0 down but other than that we were toothless.
I’m not going to blame referees for this defeat because we would’ve probably lost anyway, but they score from the most obvious offside position ever right infront of the referee just when we started to believe we could turn it around.
Jack was really good, love his close control, short passes and his little runs with the ball.
Time to play Wilshere in the premier league and Shaka can play Europa and the caremel cup…. even when Wishire was under pressure he never just gave it away or aimed it long to no one…. like Shaka.
Was painful to watch but was expected…. Sanchez and Ozil might aswell leave now as neither turned up today….. and Ramsey just needs to quicken his mind as got got caught dwelling on the ball to much….
Was a soft penalty and third was offside….
Come on you gunners
I nearly put a bet on Sterling falling over in the box to win a penalty that Cech would inevitably not save.
We are not clinical enough. Too many misplaced passes. Too much dawdling around the box. Lacazette should’ve started. Özil was woeful.
When I saw the first goal, I said “fucking Ramsey” to myself. I think the lads tried hard on the pitch, but we are simply not on the same level with teams like man city right now. This a sad fact…
If Pep had some of his Barca/Bayern players it would have been as embarrassing as as Euro night. Citeh could afford to miss 10 chances/breaks and still looked better than we’ve been for years.
good effort. zero points.
I think we are going through the painful phase of becoming a top six team from a top two team
You know, I thought I myself after that first goal went in against us, ‘why do I feel so bad about conceding, like, that’s it…it’s over…doom…’ I mean, hundreds of thousands of people support teams that ship goals regularly, get relegated, don’t compete for honours – why do they bother if they feel like this every time they concede? Then I thought, well…at some point this season a team like Burnley might win here. Their fans follow them because of the EFFORT, the effort that never goes away. It’s all part of the fun of an ‘equal’ competition in the… Read more »
On a lesser note why bring on two center forwards if you’re going to shunt Lacazette onto the wing. I know 442 is dead but Lacazette is useless on the wing.
Problem is 4 at the back negated our fullbacks from coming out wide. Alexis did not get the support he enjoyed with Kolasinac usually. Having two up top with Alexis and Lacazette adds an extra body and afford Alexis ability to attack from left giving us more width. Lacazette consequently will also have to shift right slightly. This isn’t a problem as he scored from that position (almost immediate impact) BUT what’s missing is we need someone from the tip of a midfield diamond then to penetrate from the middle. That player should be Ramsey who is good at ghosting… Read more »
I have to say I was quite shocked at how many posters were happy with the line up and the lack of Laca. Wenger put out a lineup that had no goalscorer besides Alexis (Ramsey doesn’t count. He scores because he takes a crapton of shots), and behold, a lack of goals.
Just another day where one wonders what the manager was seeing that led him to eschew the seemingly obvious options available.
The only mistake today is trusting Mesut Ozil. Its time to stop rewarding failure. A bit of heart is better than a ton of talent. Who would have taught that the clubs best players in Ozil and Sanchez messed up the most in this game. Arsene has done it a few years a ago at City where all the players played behind the ball, what changed this season other than City being 10 better than they were. They hit ont the break, what about that did you not understand????
City better players better coach, can’t expect anything other than this until we have major changes
The worst thing about it is that City didn’t really need to get out of second gear. I’m left almost happy with a 3-1 defeat, could have been a lot worse.
Reality is its Champions League quality agianst Europa.
All those enjoying the Europa ‘adventure’ should take note of the accommodation they are making for a drop in standards.
You can call it an acceptance of what is already there but clearly we are not good enough and now flatter ourselves with wins in a lesser competition.
That is a very dangerous road to take but hey, some people are content with winning cups even if they are mickey mouse ones.
Mickey Mouse cups that get you automatic qualification to the Champions League. We’re unlikely to get top four, and even if we scrape 4th place it means a qualifier (potentially against someone rather good) as opposed to direct qualification. Besides that, what is fun about another group stage in the Champions League where we just about qualify in 2nd place, only to get beaten by the first decent team we play? I’m sure people would rather we competed at a top level, but dwelling on how shit we are with a has-been in charge is enough to depress anyone. At… Read more »
Not surprised, just glad to get that game done with out a toothless spanking and with out feeling really depressed. Hopefully no injuries in the interlude and a few players to come back and we should be good for a victory in our next game..
Next game’s with the Spuds
Thought we played ok – City just have a better squad and manager than we do at this point. If we play them 10 times we probably lose 9 so despite the offsides goal I thought the result was disappointing yet fair
City played like we used to do. Smooth passes, quick thinking. Our guys?
-Not much from Özil. A yellow card for frustration, that’s it.
-Ramsey had one good chance, almost tackled the goalie and had an assist. And fluffed the ball in the final minutes. Frustrating.
-Xhaka needs 2-3 touches to control the ball. Too many. Frustrating.
This is not our season. Again.
Poor tactical choice based on having to accommodate Ozil who was again absent. Should have started with two up top Alexis left and Lacazette right to put pressure on them. Ramsey should have been in the hole (on work rate and ability to ghost in) Iwobi and Coquelin I had no problem with. Granit at the base of the diamond. Putting Alexis on his own up top effectively negated our strength on the left with Kolasinac who was also poor today not keeping his head on a swivel to track Sterling. In fact the whole team defends too passively allowing… Read more »
Fuckkkkkk. I wish the time comes soon when Arsene aint charge of us anymore. Cant playing like dudes one week and dumbwits the other. Ramsey seems to have got Xhaka influence , cant seem to sort out his legs to make a decent pass sooner , yes he did provide the assist for laca but still looks like for a guy trying not to slip when he is on the ball. Xhaka doesnt seem to sort out his pass sooner. Without Alexis , ozil we would have been a relegation team. I love Koscielny but miss vieira days when captains… Read more »
Granit and Koscielny guilty of NOT playing to the whistle. Kolasinac like many others did not have his head on a swivel. Sane and Sterling (and De Bruyne) love to make runs but we had no one following the runs and picking them up. Its basic stuff which we have neglected to coach into the team. Its not a poor team we have but we continually play like zombies passively watching because of the coaching. It doesn’t matter who we bring in cos the manager will either let the wrong sentiments influence him or we will coach them to not… Read more »
If the plan today was to lessen City’s interest in signing Sanchez then it worked perfectly.
That’s one positive.:D
Ramsey will always be there to take a shot instead of doing his fucking duty covering the defence.
He’s not there to defend today but he wasn’t tasked adequetely where to attack.
Coquelin was included with Iwobi to add more bodies and track City but we hardly did our job.
They could have scored another 3 more goals.
I’m not sure if switching to back 4 was the right thing, we looked less organised.
Getting beaten was the right result over the whole game. But for me, never enough to give a penalty and the offside was harsh too. Lacazette should have been starting and Wilshere was worth risking over Coquelin.
Boo to football. That is all. Thx.
Anyone know what position Kolasinac was playing last 20 mins or even what Formation we had going on. Absolute shambles of performance again.
He is blending into become a real Arsenal player.
This sport called football is loosing integrity by the day as big matches continue to be decided by arguable referee decisions, while FIFA still refuses video assistance. Doesn’t change the fact that we are shit but losing like this makes me more mad at the sport itself than Arsenal (kind of used to getting let down by them).
Play to the whistle.
Basic stuff.
Video assistance is being used in Italy for the first time this year and I assure you, it comes with its own set of problems. However, when the mistakes from the officials are as bad as today, it’s hard to argue against it.
That team selection was ridiculous. We are becoming such a daft club
Well City are probably going to win the league, so the result isn’t that surprising.
Was concerned when I saw Sanchez starting and Lacazette not. Wenger down through the years has always put blind faith in want-away players, usually starting them in big games like today, I guess, to make some kind of statement.
I’m not even sure I would have started Sanchez today. His head is clearly turned. He’ll chip in with a few goals but that will be it.
He should have either bought Mahrez or Pastore last summer. Effectively one of them would be shoe in replacement for either of Alexis or Ozil respectively should they (very likely) leave. Its the same with the Ox. He gave him way too much leeway and it in some ways affected our start. Frankly Wenger has always been prey to his own sentiments. He should have forced Ox to either put pen to paper or promoted Gnabry in two seasons ago. Instead we lost a very promising Gnabry and inevitably we also lost the Ox. Now with both Sahnchez and Ozil,… Read more »
Ox wants to go to Liverpool so I’ll play him against them
Sanchez wants to go to Citeh, so ditto.
Not sure what the psychology is here?
I really hope Ozil doesn’t sign new contract. Seeing him blamed for every Arsenal lost is disheartening. Maybe it’s just me, but I saw him tracked back and making tackles today, yes he didn’t create chances today, but he was there and he contributed.
tbh I was expecting more focus on the blatant offside for the 3rd goal. I was watching a stream from a language i didn’t understand but i assumed the focus would be the farce of that goal. Not only the arsenal, but also the city players appeared to stop, expecting the offside. Having said that, the replay showed it to be less far offside as I initially thought. I guess it’s another lesson in “play to the whistle”. Very frustrating in that to concede the 3rd in that curcumstance as I felt we were applying a bit of pressure on… Read more »
Jesus goal was the major setback. We were playing good until then and could have got the second. their third was a damn offside goal. those referees should be sacked instantly. the lacazette goal against stoke was not offside, it was close but man the referees should have spotted this. shit referees.
As expected this one. Whats annoy me the most is our sunday league style of defending. Setting a straight line? Not us.
Dribble out through a high density area of Cityplayers? Yes, of course.
We have absolutely no idea of the relation between risk and reward, we take high risk where there’s no reward and low risk where the reward is high. Why not try a shot instead of all those failed dribbles and passes just outside the box?
We’ve just to live this agony until a modern manager takes over.
Jurgen Low, where are you?
Liverpool fans(some of them) have the same complaints against Klopp like we do against Wenger
We have great difficulty getting the ball out of defense. Until this is rectified we will always be on the back foot trying to react to opposition attacks. Such a good squad but such a badly managed team.
A frustrating game because we clearly came with a plan and started with focus and discipline. But this Premier League of ours has turned into a real beast of a competition and beating the press is key. The team that wins the league this year will the best at playing out of that initial press, and we really suck at it. We have to be more confident playing out from the back, our midfielders have to be ready to receive the ball under pressure, and everyone else has to position themselves so that we can play beyond the initial press… Read more »