Result: Man City 3-0 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 17 June 2020
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Starting XI: Leno, Bellerin, Mustafi, Mari, Tierney, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Willock, Saka, Aubameyang, Nketiah
Subs: Martinez, Luiz, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Nelson, Pepe, Martinelli, Lacazette
Manchester City coasted to a 3-0 win against Arsenal at the Etihad as David Luiz produced a nightmare performance on the Premier League’s return.
In a comically bad 27 minute cameo, the Brazilian, a first half substitute for Pablo Mari, made terrible mistakes that led to both of the home side’s goals and managed to get himself sent off in the process.
Just before half time, the defender let a through ball bounce off him which Raheem Sterling despatched past Bernd Leno and four minutes after the restart he hauled down Riyad Mahrez to concede a penalty. As he received his marching orders, Kevin De Bruyne tucked home to double the lead.
Phil Foden rubbed salt into the wounds in stoppage time, calmly slotting home a third.
After more than 100 days without football, it was a disappointing night for Mikel Arteta who cut a forlorn figure on the touchline on his first return to his old club.
Pre-game
Within minutes of Arsenal stepping off the team bus in Manchester, the big talking point was the absence of Mesut Ozil. Even with a 20-man matchday squad, the German was left at home. There was no explanation forthcoming before kick-off but we know he wasn’t injured. The other notable absentee was David Luiz. He was part of the squad but had to settle for a place on the bench. It meant a central defensive partnership of Shkodran Mustafi and Pablo Mari; the latter returning to his former club. Kieran Tierney, making his first start of the year, and Hector Bellerin took up the full-back slots. In midfield, Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi were given the job of shackling City’s creativity. Joe Willock took the number 10 role with Bukayo Saka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Eddie Nketiah making up a speedy front three.
First half
After a minute’s silence to remember those who have lost their lives to Covid-19 and the taking of the knee in a show of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the game got underway in eerie silence and pouring rain.
With the ball skipping off the wet turf, Pablo Mari flew into a rash challenge on the edge of the box which sent Raheem Sterling flying inside three minutes. Anthony Taylor pointed for a free-kick and hearts were in mouths as Kevin De Bruyne lined up an effort. He went high, around the wall and forced Leno to tip over.
Our haphazard start continued as Xhaka twisted his ankle before falling into Guendouzi. With less than seven minutes on the clock he was replaced by Dani Ceballos.
De Bruyne’s ability to play through the lines on the run was a constant threat in midfield and on a couple of occasions he sprung breaks that had us backpedaling. Eventually we settled down and heading towards the 20 minute mark we’d had an equal share of possession and looked bright building play on the flanks.
Another injury brought us further disruption. As Kyle Walker broke into our box, Pablo Mari pulled up clutching his calf. While we were thankful City couldn’t take advantage of the ensuing cutback, it was pretty depressing watching another player limp off when the ball went out of play. David Luiz came on for the Spaniard, who looked as disgusted as Xhaka at such a short cameo.
There were half chances for Nketiah, hitting a Saka cross wide, and Aubameyang, who fired over after a defensive mix-up, but nothing to seriously worry Edersen.
At the other end, Sterling cut inside Bellerin and tried to find the far corner with a curler but Leno parried clear. The German got down brilliantly again moments later to make a big stop with his left hand as City’s intricate football worked a chance for David Silva inside the six-yard box. He had to make a third stop with his feet to deny Mahrez at close quarters. A fourth big chance in quick succession fell to Sterling who tried to dink the keeper. His effort went just over. As you might have guessed, by this point, the home side were very much in charge.
It looked like we might just scrape through to half-time but then Luiz had a brain fart. Stuck in two minds about how to deal with a through ball, the Brazilian let it skip off him and Sterling, second-guessing the mistake, took advantage to race through on goal and hammer home. (1-0)
Second half
David Luiz’s evening managed to go from bad to worse inside four minutes of the restart. After Mahrez cushioned a header past the Brazilian to race through on goal, the Brazilian decided to pull back the winger inside the box. Not only did he concede a blatant penalty, he was also, quite rightly, shown a red card. VAR double-checked the decision. All it did was offer every Arsenal fan another opportunity to swear at the TV. De Bruyne took responsibility for the penalty and sent Leno the wrong way. There are 13 days left on Luiz’s contract, any confirmation of an extension is going to be awkward. (2-0)
At this point, playing against such an accomplished side, you feared for us. It really felt like a game of attack versus defence, with us sitting deep trying to minimise further damage. Tierney partnered Mustafi in our latest defensive reshuffle with Saka covering at left-back.
I’m not sure we made it past the halfway line for about 15 minutes, a state of affairs that left Aubameyang looking noticeably disgruntled. If there was a positive, it was the fact there wasn’t a packed crowd baying for blood. City, far from match fit themselves, seemed happy to take it relatively easy, knowing full well the game was won.
Taking advantage of the chance to throw on three further players, but having to do so in one go following the enforced changes in the first half, Arteta switched Willock, Guendouzi and Nketiah for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Alex Lacazette and Reiss Nelson.
Leno denied De Bruyne a second goal of the evening with another decent save before Guardiola removed the midfielder with 20 minutes remaining. With no fans present, you could hear our players breathing a sigh of relief. The Belgian is a mighty fine player.
There was an injury scare for the home side when Edersen was involved in a nasty collision with youngster Eric Garcia that left the defender poleaxed. A lengthy delay followed as the medical team assessed him. He was carried from the pitch on a stretcher after six minutes.
In 11 minutes of injury time, Foden added a gloss to proceedings, finding the net after fellow sub Sergio Aguero had hit the post. (3-0)
The score might have been even worse had Bernardo Silva and Aguero not been profligate with further opportunities. In the end the final score flattered us.
So football is back. Arsenal are back. But many of the same problems remain.
On the plus side, there’s not much time to dwell on things. The squad return to London tonight and have two days before heading to Brighton on Saturday morning. We really can’t afford to drop any more points in the coming weeks, so they need to compartmentalise the disappointment of a very bad night against a very good team.
For ffs. All i wanted to see was some fight. Ignoring madarchod luiz, All we passed were leno-luiz/mari-mustafi-luiz. No build up play at all. This is so horrible. I want to see progress this is bullshit
No midfield bro
Only plus is that we have played a competitive match and Brighton haven’t. Not much comfort but better than none.
Couldnt really call it competitive
Why the hell cant we string passes together. This idiots should be made to play blind-fold in training.They are so afraid to take even 10% risk in passes. I mean seriously, city gk is better than our whole team in terms of passing.
Watch us make them look like Barcelona.
The team needs someone to the hold the ball up in the opposition half. a giroud, Alexis. Alan Smith, kanu etc.. I do not understand the throw in tactic, a FB in the opposition half throws ball into a CB to pass back to goal keeper . This is not Arsenal. Maybe merson and parlour saying bring in A target man like Chris wood is a good idea. He has a brilliant goals per game ratio. Lacezette can hold it up ,some times . At For me play ozil as a false 9 . He can hold up ball and… Read more »
Heh. I wish I could upvote you more than once for calling Luiz a madarchod! ???
Needed someone to hold the ball up and bring people into play. Missing since giroud and Alex is went. Ozil as a false 9 – ball into his feet , going down winning free kicks would have been better today .
Well at least we can be sure that Luiz won’t be getting a new contact after that.
Two players injured
Player sent off
Lose 3-0
In these strange times at least some things never change!
Mari looked like my gran could beat him in a race too. Mustafi might be the best of all 3….wow….
I think that’s harsh. Mari dealt with everything he had to until the injury, and he also looked comfortable on the ball. As soon as he came off, I knew we were in trouble, and that’s when the game changed
Conceded a dangerous free kick with a mistimed challenge. And his injury from nothing like Xhaka questions the whole training, medical team and methods.
i think our training should be very similar to city’s considering arteta was from city.
At least now we understand why we have 6 CBs
Can we be sure he wont get a new contract? The decision makers at our club have proved themselves to be incompetent time and again
We had an absolute mess of a squad when Wenger left & an extremely old one at that. We have added quite a few young players with the potential to be the backbone of the squad over the past 2 years (Leno, Tierney, Saliba, Gendouzi, Torreira, Martinelli) + a crop of promising young academy graduates (Saka, Nelson, Eddie). The jury is out on Pepe but we have a squad heading in the right direction. We needed some experienced players to help with the transition to youth – that’s really what Papa & Luiz were. Give it another year or two… Read more »
Give it a year or two and half of those promising players you’ve mentioned could be off, starting with Saka! Our “strategy” needs serious revision if Ozil, Luiz and co are meant to guide our young players. Given their contract situations I think it would be very generous to suggest that this is all part of some kind of plan.
Ozil simply refuses to leave and is an absolute headache to leave out of the team. We simply can’t get him to leave. Luiz was kos replacement
Luiz contract extension to be announced tomorrow.
Luiz just spoke on Sky. No real apology there. Some incoherent talk about uncertainty over extending his contract. Really?? FFS! And Arteta sounds like he wants him to stay. That is worrying
Mari and Mustafi nicked, don’t bet the house they don’t sign him. God help us
Isn’t Luiz supposed to be “experienced”?
All the fallout will be at Luiz’s door but I feel Arteta is falling into the Emery trap of hard work over talent. You’re not telling me ozil, Pepe and lacazette on from the start would have done a worse job out there. Some of the decision making in possession was woeful.
But it is ridiculous to expect multiple teenagers with less than a season of first team football to go away to Man City and make the difference in the first place. By all means play 1 or 2 but it looked like the under 19s out there.
I felt similarly at the beginning, but I’m not quite sure now. I don’t remember a team that outplayed city recently but I do remember some who “outworked” them. Until the first Luiz mistake they dominated and were better – yes, but we were absolutely in the game… I think Pepe would have been better than Saka but Willock vs Ozil and Nketiah vs Laca were right calls in my view
I agree. Every single top team has quality players they pander to because of their quality. Vieira was notoriously crap in training, for example. I just wish we’d play our best players, in their best positions, for 3 games in a row and see what happens
‘Senior’….Far cry even from Mertesacker on his worse day.
that was him showing his experience.
Imagine being Arteta and having to look pep in the eye after that piece of shit.
Luiz…. must be a chelsea spy lol
He looked genuinely embarrassed doing the fist bump with him at the end
Pep was like, were you paying attention when I was teaching you
Same old Arsenal, could have written the match report before kick off. Welcome back football, yea…
I did. ?
The only positive is that David Luiz wont be @Arsenal next season
Dont bet on it mate
AMN IS DONE OUT HERE! He wants to play midfield, but can’t even track back? He doesn’t even care out there. Switched off 110% of the time.
AMN is not a good player, never has been. He did a job at RB, was terrible until manager told him to do nothing but focus on not getting abused on defence. Bellerin has been much better but at least he knows his role.
He is a liability at midfield. The same strength of being relaxed on the ball is also his biggest weakness. I said it before he is best to be used as a back up to Bellerin at Rback (his natural side), we don’t really need Soares. BUT in midfield, one mistake and you pay for it. So it befuddles the mind why Arteta bothers to try and experiment with this at such a late stage in season and tries to push Sokratis to Rback when he is our stronger option at Cback. I don’t think… Read more »
To all Arteta worshippers, he got everything wrong today. I am not even going to say “dont get me wrong”.
Basically playing Emery ball, with less intensity
And the ref was doing a favor for Arteta by taking off Luiz for him
He may or may not be good, but what I don’t get is why so many people think he’s amazing based on the things he says (just listen to the Arsecast Extra every week). Let’s see if he gets the team to play any better before proclaiming him the second-coming.
Today was a perfect wet shitstorm against a $1billion team.
And that’s the first league game we’ve lost this year buddy.. so I guess he had got the team playing better.
ffs emery had us 19 unbeaten. We were lucky then and we were lucky now.
Arteta got everything right besides putting AMN on.
He didn’t want Luiz on the field and was forced into the decision.
He started Xhaka who had to go off in the 5th minute.
You can’t blame Arteta. Need to look at the players.
Com’on! Arteta had to bring in Luiz because of an injury who then donated City 2 goals and one player advantage. After the penalty the game was basically over…
Dude shot him self in the foot with that horrible line up. That’s 100% an Emery line up so ofcourse you gonna get an Emery performance. He is overthinking this. Just field your best players ffs.
Within 6 minutes he lost his most important midfielder, and the first two goals came about because of mistakes by a player he’d chosen not to start. I’m not saying he got it right today but it’s not really one where he should be taking massive criticism. He was let down by bad luck and certain players today.
Not to mention with only two days off between away games (after so many months off), he absolutely had to plan for rotation. While the inclusion of guys like Willock and Saka and Nketiah may have been a bit surprising, I’m sure it was strategic–and not just based on playing Man City in a vacuum.
Legitimately one of the worst, most dispiriting, terrible games I can ever remember having seen. Not in terms of our performance – I can remember worse there – but in sheer overall shitness. Injuries galore, an absolute farce of a performance from Luiz, the guy we paid 20 million quid for for a single season, never looking for a minute like getting anything out of the game after going 1-0 down, etc etc. Just utter shit.
Fucking 2020, man.
Folks, the David Luiz deal may go down as one of the worst deals in the history of deals, maybe ever. SAD!
Never buy players from Man U or Chelsea. They don’t do charity
It’s not may. It is a very poor deal celebrated by some people who prefer to think he was an upgrade. And the worse thing is we ‘may’ keep him on for want of better choice if a number of players should decide to move on. And in his defense, Holding isn’t any more convincing, Saliba at 27m is still largely unproven (10 games this season 20 the season before) I don’t think we are making good choices in market. As mentioned in Jan rather than Mari (another band aid), I would have spent on… Read more »
One mistake I can understand. I can imagine coming to this match not thinking he’ll play. But making a 2nd mistake and that too a pen?? Mate take a seat at home.
Don’t forget the red card also. Although that probably nets out in our favor.
Those 90 minutes felt longer than the previous three months.
I couldn’t understand why people were so excited for it to come back like this season had been anything but absolute shit.
It’s funny how they did but shorter than the previous two hours watching Aston Villa and Sheffield United. Do I even like watching football??
100 min
0 shot on goal
30% possession
2 injuries substitution by the 20 min mark
Conceded at 45 min with a comical error before half time
Conceded a red carded penalty right after the break
Total joke of a team
Welcome back Arsenal!
Same issues with Emery bc assets are lacking in key areas. Midfield lacks a player who can hold the ball with authority since Santi. Torreira isn’t it. Wide players we have some interesting younger hopefuls in Nelson and Saka but we need a more savvy operator like a Mahrez. I mentioned Fekir or Ziyech last summer instead we spent 72m on Pepe who has been unconvincing even if he has weighed in with a number of assists but its not saying much with us. And as mentioned, Cback we are throwing numbers at a problem as band… Read more »
A terrible game. But it was great to have something different to do (drink a lot of beer in the middle of the afternoon), and I’m thankful that I’ll have this shit show to waste time thinking/reading/listening about rather than the same depressing shit we’ve been mired in for the past few months.
That might have been the worst game of the season. I knew we would probably lose, but not once did I feel any remote feeling of excitement to anything we did. We touched the ball about 5 times in the second half. So depressing
Bad starting line up to begin with.
So given the many glowing profiles on Arteta during quarantine, I have to ask: what has he really achieved in his 6 months, particularly relative to Emery? We are still less than the sum of our parts, our midfield continues to neither attack or defend, our defense is still incredibly porous (don’t let Luiz’s errors fool you, but for Leno we would’ve been down by at least a goal before he got involved), and our attack doesn’t seem to do anything but chase long balls, we still aren’t competitive against real teams. And we play game after game with no… Read more »
Wenger. Emery. Arteta. The problem is the quality of players we’re bringing in. Bargain bin options failing to be enough to support a few quality players.
Point me to he ones who were bargain bin!
Lets not judge him until he gets players in the team that he wants. I imagine thats what he was promised and thats why he left City.
More than anything the lack of fight was for me the most disappointing.
I’m definitely not here to judge him yet, but I do think it would be extremely possible to do more with this squad than he currently is.
NOT judge him?
We already had January window wasted.
We could have got Emre Can if we were serious instead we opted for a loan with Mari another band aid.
Soares also a useless addition when we really need a midfield.
Poor decisions and lack of clout means he can’t really push back against Sanlehi/Edu.
I agree, different manager same football.
what has Nketiah done that both Gabriel and Laca hasnt?
what has Willock done that any other midfielder in our team hasnt?
weird team selection, to say the least
Willock’s inclusion was strange. I really hope to see Gabi & Laca earlier or somewhere in the starting
Willock will not make it. I really wanted him to, but he doesn’t have it.
Let’s see what he can offer against someone other than Man City after like 100 days off. Not saying he will turn out to be great or anything, but it’s certainly in the best interests of the club to give him that chance and see what he can do.
Yeah like he’s never played any other team before Covid, our problem is that we have settled for mediocrity as the norm, hence why we are just an average team getting absolutely steam rolled by the big boys. The reality is some of these youngsters are not up to it, we have overhyped them because of what they have done in the under age teams. I would say only Saka and Martinelli are the only ones who might step up.
I just don’t know how they can be so bad. I get that City in possession are excellent. But even when we had possession we has no idea what to do. No cohesion. <30% possession. City knew, I mean 100% knew, that they would win. There was zero fear of an upset. You can’t even say that for lower level teams who at least cause City some trouble. We’ve shown that our kids aren’t good enough. Even with a proper tactician as manager they look rudderless and the strikers were left with nothing to work with. City consistently strolled through… Read more »
I feel for Aubameyang out there. Not only is he sacrificing himself on the wing and getting no service, he’s literally playing with kids. Who’s decision making is at best a work in progress. I would actually be happy for him to get a move to Barca. He deserves so much better than this joke.
He didn’t look as if he cared much today.
He didn’t exactly cover himself in glory either.
Not switched on enough too easily dispossessed.
Lets not make excuses for favorites here.
When playing with a man down, the wide or forward players needed to be far more economical with what scant possession we received and make things happen on their own.
I struggle at times to see where this mythical pace of Aubameyang is hiding.
its on fifa
Honestly wasn’t expecting much with such a short time to prepare and going against a team that can dominate possession like City, but this was worse than I expected. Two quick injuries and then the red card not to mention no fans and the heavy rain made it just a miserable experience to watch.
Honestly… The defence had a good game. Luiz was the weak link. Tierney is a great lad. Let’s say Luiz didn’t make those mistakes, what would have lost us the game is a poor midfield with no creativity. No service to Nketiah and Aubameyang.
So we need a new Number 10, a ball playing DM and a new CB. We’ve been saying this for a long time… Right?
Are you being serious? How many extremely dangerous shots on goal did they have before Luis fucked up? Was it 3 or 4? You’re not having a good game as a defense when your keeper is making great saves to keep you alive.
Playing City away, I’d say facing shots like that is expected. My problem is that we were not giving the same back! I’d definitely say that Bellerin, Mustafi and Tierney had good games, not great but good.
I don’t agree that we necessarily had to face those shots, especially with so little interest in going forward. I hear your opinion though.
Midfield already lost function before the sending off and was conceding way too much space. There were four of five shots Leno saved before Sterling put it in just at the break. Ceballos-Willock-Guendouzi worked hard but it was too helter skelter and they were not running off ball enough for each other or dropping deep to collect when need be. We have MASSIVE issues trying to play out again. Zero midfield. And this was before sending off. This is a conundrum Arteta has not solved. Torreira I felt could have been useful in this sort… Read more »
Absolutely right. I’d love us to get Dunk. I know he’s not fashionable but he clears things. He likes defending. Saliba’s coming but he’s young as well. We need someone who’s going to shout and let opposition strikers know they’re in for a battle before the game even starts.
Then, like you say G-Man, a ball playing DM and a 10
At least Luiz won’t play for a while
never!
1 or 3 match ban?
hoping a 3 match, he’s the resurrected version of silvestre/squillachi
Now I see why we spent £24 million for just one season of David Luis. We just have to renew him for another year.
Pathetic performance; we are light-years away from City and Liverpool.
Did Aubameyang play?
Hopefully Arteta puts him at striker against Brighton and not the wing..
Auba had a bad game but what service did he get. We’ve no midfield. It’s got no creativity, and no defensive ability. Put that in front of a poor defence and the likes of City will destroy you if the play at 50% of their capability
Don’t manufacture a pass for Auba. Granted he likely won’t be around next season but you make your own service if you were truly world class. TH14.
Vardy would have got 2 or 3 shots away despite having to work alone and a man down. Just saying.
Just making a hyperbolic statement.
More to the point is why the manager played him out wide instead of upfront, seeing as how the only reason he seemed to play there in the first place was to allow both him and Lacazette to play in the same team. His technical level is nowhere near good enough against top teams. He’s a great goalscorer, not a great wide player.
What a sad peformance by the team, didn’t help that Sideshow Bob had to get sent off again.. A really stupid mistake.
But still, this is the our first game back and Man City are just miles ahead of us.
Hopefully we can get back to winning ways against Brighton on Saturday.
I want Pepe, Laga and Auba to start.
On the positive side, we have to admit our players were very quick to get back to pre-covid physical and technical levels.
You can always rely on stupidity to maintain consistency
Our central defence needs a complete and utter overhaul. Luiz, Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding, Chambers have all been given plenty of time to prove themselves and they have all failed, some more so than others. Its time to change it completely. Also Mari looks too slow. We’re 9th and potentially could drop to 11th and the same problems with Arsenal never seem to go away so I’m struggling to see any progress unless the club can find a better way of being ran.
I think midfield needs an overhaul too
Oh and the strikers will be leaving so maybe we should overhaul attack too.
Midfield is a problem. Cbacks we have 8! Mustafi, Sokratis, Mari, Luiz, Holding, Chambers, Saliba and Mavropanos. Its band aid solution and numbers over quality. That Mustafi and Luiz were playing says it all. Where is Sokratis? Seems an issue at the moment with him not even included and played at Rback against Brentford just before. I feel he is also leaving which is why we went and got Mari on loan as a hedge. The thinking in this department as far as the purchasing dept is concern is very muddled. Saliba brought… Read more »
Leno, keep him at all costs!
I wonder if he is disheartened for being the only player in the team who excels at his job or if he is excited to be in a place where he gets to demonstrate how good he is every week.
Auba is a world class finisher while Leno is an all-round world class keeper in my book. One gets to demonstrate his class because we’re just not that great at the moment while the other doesn’t… because we’re just not that great at the moment. Whoever said try to buy Lewis Dunk is spot on – big, ugly and not overly cultured – playing alongside any one of our 8 cultured CB’s would be better than we have! We won’t get him, but Thomas Partey really would be lovely at DM, and I think we have enough up front (with… Read more »
We suck don’t we.
yes….yes we do
Full Arsenal bingo after 50 minutes. You have to be a little bit impressed with that. I had no appetite for football to return in this capacity and we all know that we are a shower of shit, so I could see the funny side. Honestly, with regards to 95% of the senior players I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire. Never have I resented an Arsenal squad so much.
I was so excited for football to return. I’m still excited but i’ve got my feet back on the ground after this knock-out. Hopefully we can bounce back against Brighton and hopefully some of the players who performed badly today will be replaced.
A postive from this game, atleast in my opinion was Tierny.
I think he had some positive moments and i’m really excited to see what else he can do with a more balanced team around him.
I just wanted to see something….different. Yet i just watched the same away day movie for the last 10 years. Luiz is finished. Has been finished since the 7-1 in his home country. Mustafi who has been decent last 3 or 4 games is trusted more. Midfield is shocking even worse state than the defence. Too much potential and not enough ready made generals or wide players. Absent Ozil while refusing to run and participate in any defending is still our only player who knows how to link play between the lines. Feel for Arteta. This mess would be unfixable… Read more »
Even a team like Leicester constructed at less cost than us would have shown more fight with a man down. Vardy would have himself got several shots on target despite.
Which is why they are where they are and we are wallowing still in mid table.
I have seen Vardy be useless on numerous occasions but your point stands.
Our midfield is has been an abomination since Gilberto and its slowly slid away when hopes like Diaby and Song got injured or too big for their boots and Ramsey Fabregas and Wilshere never replaced with players with even half their skillset or talent. Even when we were lightweight we still had the best ‘footballers’ around in midfield. Now teams like Watford Sheffield utd and Palace have better centre mids and wide players than us.
Everyone knows Luiz is a liability so there are no surprises there, i have to say, i don’t rate nketia at all, he doesn’t seem to have that killer instinct in front of goal, it seems like he panics. Aubamayang or Martinelli should have started up top. I’m not convinced by Joe Willock either, i know there young and we have to give them time but with some players you can tell that they just have it and i don’t think those two guys have. We were absolutely horrible tonight, very Emery esque. I fear for this club, its such… Read more »
Anthony Taylor was very quick with his decision and VERY SLOW in the first when a Man City player did exactly the same to Nketia. When is the premier league going to do something to address the problem. The Sheffield United decision was laughable even WITHOUT technology. The Premier league is back and it is back with substandard refereeing once again.
Willock is not a 10. Why so hard to grasp? Jeez the kid is not some wizkid. Overhyped!!
Somehow that felt more humiliating that the reverse fixture… I forgot Willock was even playing, more than once.
I kept coming to the realization that Arteta believed we were never going to win this and just threw the kids out with a smattering of seniors protecting Pepe, Martinelli and Ozil for Brighton. I am probably wrong about that but what it looked liked was pre season game.
Just awful.
But every point for us is precious right now, that would have been a stupid approach if that was the intent.
That’s my thinking too. The travel plan was terrible and pitch wasn’t great either. The 2 injuries dampened any momentum Arsenal had. I can’t fault the defeat much on Arteta coz his initial plan was working somewhat well
Lying in bed, reading all the negative comments on Arseblog…and I’m loving it! A part of my culture is back! Yes, poor performance etc but God, I’m loving being back in the quagmire.
Positive: we all hoped things would go back to normal soon. Arsenal duly noted on that ?
This isn’t something new though is it. The stat in the tv showing 0 wins from the last 26 away matches vs the top 6 shows this. We were always going to lose tonight.
No point talking about Luiz…enough said already!
I didn’t even know if Joe Wilock was playing today…very poor.
We were better under Wenger.
At least we could pass then.
Fourth and CL not good enough for some. And here we are.
As mentioned then, Be careful for what you wish for, as much as it could get better, it could very much also get much worse…
Wenger was 5th and 6th his last two seasons actually so that’s that argument out the window.
David “Disaster” Luiz. I am sure he would have sent a message to Benfica President knowing his affair with Arsenal has unofficially ended today. I doubt a bulk of these current players can execute Arteta’s plan. And I am still find it hard to understand why we keep playing Auba on the wing. Also not encouraging that the next 2 PL games are away.
2020: Global pandemic, nuclear war between China and India
Arsenal: reassuringly shit
Where’s Rob Holding and Calum Chambers? Can we not have Saliba now since the French season is over? Is Mertesacker registered to play? HELP!!!!!!!!
I can only assume that you can’t use any players that werent registered to your club before the covid crisis for the remaining games. Apart from that, I would hope that Saliba is already with us and training. French league was cancelled like 2 months ago, so I wouldn’t know why he shouldn’t be with us. Obviously unavailable for any games. Did anyone see him on training pics?
Lolss.. this willock replace ozil as a 10 u Said… Ahahaha… Arteta is following emery full steps… It will end up one way…. arsenal fans aren’t th most patient fans…. Of all the squad we have ….arteta chooses to go to Etihad…. With these confused set of players.. Stupid lineup… Martinelli is better than any kid in our squad.. The fact dat arteta rates nketiah ahead of him.. Says something weird about the coach.. Xhaka willock guendozi…I was really waiting to see th em play….. The funniest midfield trio ever…. Forget Luiz… everything wrong today was started by arteta… Goodbye… Read more »
If i had to choose between Arteta and Martinelli, I’d choose Martinelli every time.
He’s not really got a lot of other options in centre mid though has he.
Did Arteta ever address the “Özil situation”? A pot-game comment was promised but I never saw any coverage of it.
Tactical reasons apparently
Really? Well, he certainly got the tactical selections spot-on today.
Spent Force. Arsenal will find it MUCH more difficult this summer without VERY likely European football. We will lose Auba. I’m failing to see where we are going with the team, same lack of character and as predicted, Arteta not strong enough to push for the right additions in the January window. Accepted Soares whom we do not need. Mari more indication that Sokratis likely will leave in the summer too. We needed to put some money into midfield with Ceballos also likely not continuing. We should have made a move for Emre Can.… Read more »
Also for the 3rd goal, did anyone else see Mustafi fall over in the most Mustafi way, and because of that he didn’t get the follow up and Foden put it home.
Not that it mattered but it sums up a complete shambles from the masters of shambolic behaviour that previously used to be called The Arsenal
Didn’t help that he was running straight towards goal instead of being on the half-turn.
Let’s not forget AMN standing dead still watching Foden run for the tap in.
That was fairly awful. No attack to speak of. Pretty poor defending. Injuries. Luiz seems a nice guy, but has made us worse, for quite a bit of money.
We’re basically screwed.
To early to judge anything, 1st game back against one of the most talented teams in europe, undone by injuries. See how we perform over the next couple of weeks, and we can judge the team.
As far as match was concern… Understand Arteta wanted energy with younger players ommitting noticeably a number of senior names – Lacazette, Pepe, Sokratis, Ozil, Torreira With new five player sub, made some sense. But 1) Sokratis not even on the bench. Interesting he has been pushed to a Rback berth considering he is one of our more dependable Cbacks. Looks to me he is leaving in the summer. Otherwise, it seems daft to be using him as a fullback and not even have him as contingency, instead lumping the liability David Luiz on… Read more »
I keep hearing that David Luiz is a good influence in the dressing room. Hopefully I would be a good influence in the dressing room also and like Luiz I cannot play football. Unlike Luiz my salary is genuinely affordable for a club struggling to finance the signing of new quality players. If you want a mascot just get a cardboard cut-out of Side Show Bob. Luiz is too old, too slow for Premiership and was only decent in a back five with two good centre backs either side. Do not renew his contract and sign a quality 20-25 yr… Read more »
So where to start with this? No, screw it, I’m going to bed, maybe I’ll wake up in the morning and think this was just a really bad cheese nightmare.