Calum Chambers, on his 100th appearance for the club, was given the man-of-the-match award for his performance in Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Everton at Goodison Park.
The centre-back, one hiccup aside, was a composed presence in a defence that has had plenty of problems this season.
After the game, he told BT Sport he was thankful for a first clean sheet in 15 games.
On how the point will be received…
Very well. A clean sheet away from home at a place like this is never easy. I think we’ve put in a great shift today. There was a young team out there and everyone put in 100 per cent effort. Everyone can be proud of their performance. There are still things we can work on but it’s a good start.
On Mikel Arteta’s pre-game message…
He just wants us to be brave, to take responsibility and work hard for each other. Those were the messages from him and I feel we did that today. Now we go back to the training ground and there’s a lot more we can work on. His philosophy, what he wants to bring to the team, I’m sure we’ll work hard on that this week.
On a scrappy game…
We knew it was going to be tough. We knew that it would be a fight, that there would be long balls. We had to be up for that challenge. We were saying before the game to each other we needed to be ready for a challenge, to win our fifty-fifty duels and to earn it today. I feel we did that.
On the defence standing firm…
This is important for us. It’s something we’ve been working on. I was pleased to get a clean sheet today.
On a new era dawning…
I like to think so. It’s a promising group. We just have to work hard, build on that performance, work on things on the training ground and keep going.
MoTM performance by Chambers, he is staking a claim to the CB position.
Also, what’s credible is we put out a team full of young players and they didn’t lose the game.
Something for Arteta to build on and still an useful role for Freddie.
They could be like the Ajax team of last season
Well done but we have to be realistic. Everton were absolutely abysmal and a more confident team would have thrashed them
I mean, Everton aren’t at their best right now…but they did just beat Chelsea, draw with United, and came back against high-flying Leicester 0-2 to go to penalties. If Arsenal had turned in those 3 performances in a row, we’d be much happier. It’s not like they are pure trash, they are always tricky.
Everton were abysmal, but their last 3 result were
2-2 Leicester
1-1 United
3-1 Chelsea
So maybe it’s not as easy as you think.
Man of the Match…well deserved!
Martinelli, Saka and Xhaka big kudos to you too!!! Very strong performance today from al four
I like Martinelli very much but to me he looked jaded today and thought that Laca should have been brought on for him.
He did look jaded from about 65 mins on, but still kept going on willpower it seemed. At 91 mins he was still sprinting forward on the break and someone tried to pick him out. The kid’s relentless. I’d imagine that is inspirational for someone like Bukayo playing behind him on that flank.
Do you really think this was Performance was any good? Everton was abysmal, so was Arsenal. Big amount of shit passes and no offence, static buildup play again….especially midfield. Really dont know if Arteta has it to find a fix !!!
Not many quality players sadly…
We had very young inexperienced side out there and they held their own, with a little more time things can happen lets try and be positive.
I’d bring Holding on his side and just go with it. Did see Luiz put some tackles in for a change instead of holding off. Those early penalties knocked all his confidence out..
Luiz is not terrible. Neither is Sokratis….but together they are just awful. Centre half partnerships are all about balance. One of Luiz/Sokratis & one of Holding/Chambers is the way to go for me.
(I’m not saying they are great but just nowhere near as bad as they make each other look when playing together)
Chambers is bringing the best out of David Luiz.
Which is?
Starting the attack from the back.
Luiz still needs to be shipped out.
We have Willam Saliba coming in the summer and Arteta would (or should) be looking to bring in more central defenders either next month or in the summer.
Luiz, Sokratis and Mustafi are simply not good enough.
I’d imagine we would sell first or else every team would hold out on us knowing we have so many Central defenders. Not like they already don’t, but it could get worse if we buy first. We sell the three above, get one more PL quality talent and give Mavropanos the cup competitions next year with whoever’s not playing.
Well that would mean Raul will bring in a another expensive winger lol
Lots of hard work ahead.
But everything starts with a first step.
It will be interesting to see how things progress – some very big home games coming up this month.
Then the task of rebuilding this squad begins, would be nice to see some of the talented young players being given the chance.
Arteta’s background and philosophy comes from Pep Guardiola and Manchester City – not exactly noted for giving young players a chance…
But time will tell….
Not a disastrous result today – and a clean sheet is a confidence booster…
We have an attack of auba, lava, pepe and ozil and only auba started. Pepe was one game removed from a great performance.
We basically suck
Nice job Calum. He’s never been a right back, so hopefully he’ll continue to play in the center, where he usually does a solid job. Shame that he is suspended for the next match, we’re going to miss him in that one.
Someone should photoshop Centurion Chambers’ face onto this:
https://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/v22vodart/8070286/p8070286_v_v8_ag.jpg
If i get 5 minutes, ill do thr honours ?
Clean sheet but turgid display. Energy good from the kids who stick to their task better which is likely why Freddy decided on them but I thought we needed to be more nuance and have Guendouzi instead of Smith-Rowe bc Torreira-Granit tend to cancel out each other neither being as adventurous carrying and going forward. BUT also preferred Laca on at 60 minutes for Nelson (who had a good run). Would have liked to see BOTH Auba- Laca. not sure why we are so resistant suddenly to that being we need results and points. On evidence, Everton very happy with… Read more »