It was tough going at the Emirates this afternoon, but Lucas Torreira’s 83rd minute winner ensured Arsenal took all three points against Huddersfield, as well as extending the unbeaten run to 21 games in all competitions.
The Uruguayan’s second goal in as many home games was a spectacular way to grab a win, but there are defensive issues for Unai Emery with injuries and suspensions stacking up as we head into the busy festive period.
Read the Arsenal 1-0 Huddersfield match report and watch the goal here
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I would hate to play against Lichtsteiner, he is a prick, but he’s our prick!!!
Only 2 players that can come away from that game & say they weren’t sub par, Big papa & Lil Terrier.
I thought Mickey T Ryan was especially poor…
I actually think that Bellerin, Xhaka and Kolasinac were really good too. They played well even in the first half, but Huddersfield pressed nicely & we badly lacked a proper attacking midfielder to hold the ball upfront. Introduction of Mhiky + Iwobi unfortunately didn´t really solve it as they actually were sub par.
This game really lacked an in-form Ozil.
3 games in 6 days. Of course some will be sub par
Mkhi hasn’t played the entire games, he should be better
He should be, by and large. But he and Iwobi did somewhat change the game when they came on. We were more purposeful on attack and forward possession with them on the pitch.
I thought Guendouzi was very good, he produced two outrageous passes in the first half, was involved in the goal, should have had a pen and covered a lot of ground, he’s a real baller. Torriera+Guendouzi for £33 million is exceptional business, hats off to Sven Mislintat.
Thought Xhaka one dodgy moment aside was really very good today as well, he’s really growing as a player, and other than the Watford game he’s been very consistent this season, and off the back of some very good form at the back end of last season.
I thought Xhaka looked rusty to be honest, and I’m not sure the 3 man midfield suited him, but the captaincy really seems to have brought out the best in him this season. He was made captain at Mönchengladbach at the age of 22, so it’s clearly something he thrives on.
Helps having someone alongside him to knows how to play too.
(Personally I thought he did dive for his yellow, which wasn’t great to see, but then I was on a crappy stream so…)
Agree, thought he was mostly excellent in recent weeks but today was a bit of the Xhaka from last season. Often too careless and I also think it was a dive. As good as he has been lately he needs to be on his toes as Guendouzi is really knocking on the door and Torreira is probably the first name on the team sheet at the moment.
When players lose the ball in midfield (or anywhere else) these days, they very often use any contact or near contact to go down and spare themselves blushes and maybe even buy a foul. Yes, Xhaka could and should have kept his feet. But if what today’s ref did is the new FA policy, the yellow cards will be raining down. I don’t see Guendouzi’s yellow as at all justified, but Mustafi was trying to con the ref into a penalty so I have no problem with that one. The whistle and card should have stayed in his pocket for… Read more »
I still remember people saying that papa is bit out of shape and slow..but I love it when our players prove critics wrong..with respect to miki..his work of the ball is better than Özil but you expect CAMs to unlock defences that’s where he fails everytime.
Every game, Sokratis amazes me by outrunning some opposition forward to a through ball. He’s not slow!
According to the speed tests at the beginning of the season, he was the 3rd fastest player on our team, after Bellerin & Aubamyang. So yeah, not slow.
Should watch just the 2nd half ?
Second goal in as many games? Did he get a sneaky winner against Man United I didn’t hear about?
Oops, forgot the word ‘home’
I actually had a notification from arsenal.com that he did score at Old Trafford in the 87th minute! It was a mistake, alas…
Torreira, whoa-oh, Torreira, …..
Love that guy.
Well that was awful to watch…but a win is a win. Might have to bring back the inanimate carbon rod for cb cover at this rate.
We can’t catch a break from shit refereeing. The commentators hate us, we concede offside goals, we concede dives, our goals are disallowed, injury time added at Emirates always seem to be less than 4 minutes when we need a winner. Yet we keep going. Can’t wait for VAR.
The commentators annoy me most. I think they hate us because we don’t have many English first team players and they never expected us to be where we are
Not to mention, we are accused of getting high blowing balloons at a kid’s birthday party. *smh*.
Torreira woooooah!
Kudos to Lichs and Sokratis stepping up to the Huddersfield’s players.
Let’s keep fighting…. The battle is a tough won
Im curious as to why Emery took Laca off, I always feel that we can get a goal with him, I can’t say the same about Aubameyang.
Iwobi just is not good enough for arsenal football club I am sorry (no I’m not)
I think you forget Auba’s goalscoring against Sp*rs
I think you also forgot how Iwobi has played this season and looks like a player transformed as compared to last season.
I wonder if your downvotes are for your comment about Aubameyang or your comment about Iwobi.
Because I agree entirely with your view about Iwobi. And I see where you’re coming from with Aubameyang, but I (respectfully) disagree
I fully respect opinions, I have been watching all the games this season and have seen the best of iwobi, but really he is a player that doesn’t make sense for us. He has no dribbling ability, can’t take on a man or two, can’t get himself into positions to take good shots on goal, can’t cross. Back passing all the time and trying to play playmaker on the side, he’s not going to make it as into cm position to do that so why keep him. With Aubameyang its just that he is missing sitters every game that I… Read more »
Iwobi.. no dribbling ability? You do realize he gets marked way more now? And he’s still a young, developing player. Not every player will be a Messi or a Ronaldo.
Auba has always been this way misses more big chances than any other striker in Europe. Still scores boat loads. He admits he doesn’t feel 100% give him time.
None of the players ‘deserve’ criticism from spectators. There is a coaching staff that gets paid to do that and by the looks of it they do it frequently.
Good to see Monreal back in the side. Perfect timing as I think we should now revert to a back 4. I would love to see a lineup with Ozil, Mhiki, Auba, and Lacazette. Will be difficult to fit them all in the team, but a frightening attacking four.
Who is the Ozil chap of whom you speak?
Oh please…
@ Tennessee. It’s that guy that plays number 10 for us but only once in a while. Apparently he plays around 5 hours a day in front of the telly (video games) and that’s why he – most often than not – has a backache. From my personal experience, that deemed to be true even if you play for 2 hours. The difference between me and him is that I don’t call in sick at work and I am not on £350K a week. Disappointed with him. That’s the legacy of AW and Gazidis. Keep players that are not fully… Read more »
Can someone please tell Bellerin to stop ‘having a go’
His shooting is well off and he keeps wasting opportunities going for long range goals he’s not going to score
Or maybe improve his shooting? He gets into decent positions. A shot on target would give keepers trouble. He hits it with enough venom
I tried to buy into the “Iwobi better under Emery” narrative, but I can’t see any real evidence of it. He’s had great spells under AW, too, his main problem being his lack of continuity. We all know what he is capable of, which is why displays like today’s leave me puzzled. While decision-making has never been his strength, where did all those heavy touches and technical mistakes come from? Such a shame, because when he does play well, he really can add something to this team!
To be fair iwobi did do some good things in the game, and there were many who were also only managing a few quality moments, so if we’re gonna go at iwobi, may as well slate the rest, more so as he is younger and less experienced, he is merely struggling with confidence. Has tonnes of ability, still raw, let him grow. Look at Bellerin, iwobi needs another season before we deem him not good enough for afc.
We were really poor today. The least you could expect from Auba and Laca is for them to be on target those two times in the first-half…we could have killed the game off there and rested some of the overworked players for the second half. Lack of creativity is also a bit worrying…very poor final passes from Mkhi and Iwobi, no coordination between the forwards and midfielders, something that was manifested in the Man Utd game as well. Having said that, fatigue must definitely be a factor here with the team not up to 100% with games coming thick and… Read more »
Fatigue is a factor for every team, Huddersfield included. One thing that made us look ordinary today was the constant fouling. If that ref needed to brandish cards, it should have started with persistent fouling every time we had the ball in that first half. Wagner clearly wanted to have an ugly game, and that’s what we saw. They grabbed and tripped in the middle third as a matter of course.
Of course Wagner wanted an ugly game, same as Moaninho. They know that they cannot take us on in a straight football game. They’d get battered. But we make it really hard for ourselves and our players don’t seem to realise the fact that by being clinical and taking our chances, we give the opposition no hope in hell to come back at us and so they get deflated. The game becomes easier to manage and we don’t have to burn so much valuable energy which can be used the next game ( with so many injuries and games every… Read more »
Mustafi didn’t dive, he was kicked in the foot.
Yes. It should have been a penalty. Instead the ref gave a yellow for diving. And when xhaka was fouled the ref gave a yellow for diving. When the huddersfield striker went looking for contact and took a dive the ref didn’t give a yellow.
It’s okay to call us Arsenal FC.. Aka Second half FC.??. We are the second half king, I never get scared going into second half even when we are losing..
Am I the only one upset that Lacazette came off??? I understand him and Auba didn’t link up as well as we would have liked in the first half but I feel like he should have stayed on and give him, Auba, and Mkhitaryan a chance to do something before bringing Iwobi on
Frankly when Ozil recovers from spasm, would like to see him in an inverted triangle with Auba and Laca up top supported by Granit and Torreira.
I don’t agree totally about the ref…….thought he was average just, but not a Mike prickface Dean.
I don’t agree totally about Torreira………he was perfect……10 please.
This ref was so bad he made Dean look good, and the linesmen were no better. It was disgraceful and totally biased
performance and the sooner VAR comes the better.
Var is only good if ran by good refs. Its been shit when the fa have used it.
Strictly speaking, I think Laca was offside when the header went toward him BUT I’m still not sure at what point the flag went up. If not immediately, then the back pass did not put him offside. Salah was definitely offside for his first goal yesterday but not given. Auba was caught offside too much today and with his speed I don’t think he needs to be. I think 2 of our dives were just stupid, Mus did get a touch but really…..? This ref seemed to want to make a point with cards but certainly wasn’t consistent in approach.… Read more »
Surely a more complimentary chant for our diminutive Uraguayan has to be :
Torreira, whoa o-o-o, Torreira,
He comes from Fray Bentos,
He plays football like a boss,
Torreira, whoa o-o-o, Torreira !!!!!
Or . . .
Torreira, whoa o-o-o, Torreira,
He like to play one-twos
When he scores we never lose*,
Torreira, whoa o-o-o, Torreira !!!!!
* True at time of writing.
Okay, so I might have got carried away with this one.
Good god man, that’s indescribably shite!
City’s invincible aura is gone wrt to defeat with Chelsea. Off topic but that shows what a difficult feat Wenger achieved for us.
Right, now all we need is somebody to beat Liverpool !
Wouldn’t it be nice if we were the ones to hunt them down just after Christmas !
I can’t agree less
If no one does it, I’d love it if we were the ones to spank them and rid the whole second coming nonsense, expose Klopp for the fraud that he is.
Liverpuddle get too many decisions gifted to them by Refs.
iwobi is useless, every single time he’s got the ball he’s got to do that thing where he moves his legs like he’s got an epileptic seizure, losing the ball or just passing it backwards. mikhi is playing bad, nothing ever comes off for him and should be dropped. both auba and laca are inconsistent: they score amazing goals all the time and then miss a sitter every game. for all the praise he’s been given, auba has missed at least one sitter in all of his last games. kolasinac is making amazing runs, but no matter what the play… Read more »
I agree fully with what you are saying, iwobi and mhki useless, auba is missing sitters even tho he is top scorer. Just imagine if he put them away, I have much more trust in Laca than him but he has slipped every time he has taken shot recently.
People will downvote and idek why but everyone can criticise the defence and not the attack which is absurd, I mean I was pissed that mhki and auba couldn’t have finished those chances against man u.
Big Papa who unnecessarily got a yellow for a silly foul to commit in their half?
And half wit decision to shoulder barge De Poitre which could have given them a penalty and earned him a red given the nature of the Ref? Not to mention unnecessary nonsense at the striker which again could have warranted action from the ref?
You’re having a laugh.
Is Huddersfield the PL’s new Stoke? Chippy and plain unlikeable. Poor Lacazette with a perfectly good goal ruled out because the linesman doesn’t know the rules. While I hate to bring him up it reminds me a lot of a goal Adebayor scored back in the day which was also ruled out despite the interception of a back pass.
Linesman and Ref completely clueless plonkers.
And second game in a row we have had card happy Refs who have affected the game’s fluency.
0/10 for Tierney. Really looking forward to VAR next season and to see the back of these make-a-wish refs.
I thought that ref looked like Iniesta. A police sketch artist?
Ref was card happy.
Got two offsides completely wrong (Laca latching on to their poor back pass and Auba on to Mustafi’s fantastic ball over the top)
Also ridiculous yellows for Mustafi and Guendouzi in the box but mysteriously nothing for LePoitre.
Had it been Liverpuddle, we would have got penalties.
BOLLOCKS.
I think it was a clear dive from Guendouzi.
If the opposition did this sort of thing in our box and got a penalty for it, everyone would be furious.
However, this was about the only decision the ref got right yesterday!
There was one moment when xhaka was surrounded by 2-3 of the opposition players and they tried to get the ball from him but he somehow managed to retain the possession and pass back. In previous seasons, this would have led to a goal for the other team. Xhaka has really transformed into a good player and he can get better and better.
Lucas Torerra and Papa is our heal
He has improved a lot. Partly he has better assets now around him in Torreira and GUendouzi. BUT he has also responded to the coaching and improved his awareness plus ball retention skills. Still a couple of poor decisions passing out when we were under duress but same can be said fro Torreira and Guendouzi. Many players are improving under Emery’s tutelage and attention to the details. Mustafi another on who is improving his game and adding a threat releasing balls form over the top from deep, one which found Auba who took it down brilliantly but the linesman (not… Read more »
Not the most fluent particularly in final application. First half selection of 3 midfielders was interesting. We controlled the game and Lacazette very unlucky to be incorrectly penalised for off side for his goal. Second half switch to Iwobi-Mhki supporting Auba paid dividends for a while then it got quite scruffy in part due to ref. Leno – Solid enough today. Came out bravely to stop the ball, alert to dangers. Bellerin – Plenty of output first half with Auba or Lacazette drifting wide to help. A bit more scrappy second half but some great first touches first half and… Read more »
Actually very well balanced and positive, well done
Auba and Laca need to take their chances. Auba has missed some absolute sitters in tye past few games. Laca also missed a great chance….although his goal should have counted.
Tierrera..what can you say!!!!