Arsenal lost. It was absolute garbage.
I can’t be arsed writing any more about it than that until tomorrow’s blog.
Read the Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal report and see the goal here
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Ratings
The ratings are now hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Emi Martinez. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Let’s go relegate deeney and win the fa Cup and then never talk about this season ever again
Waste of £9.99 for Now TV pass. We were garbage tonight.
People still pay for TV? TIL
I go halves on a monthly pass with a mate, 17 quid each and 4 licences between us. if you only want to watch it on a single device you can get four of you and its 8 quid a month each.
£8 a month For NowTV. Then plus BT. Then plus Amazon.
I know mate, it’s an absolute piss take! However if someone wants to legally watch a game that’s only on Sky in the UK and are prepared to pay a 10er for a day pass, then split it between two and you then have a the month for 7 quid more.
But surely bombing Cojones out the league and beating Chelski makes it worth remembering!! Cups are rare!!
Good lad Djgooner, absolutely spot on. Good signs for the future, but this league season is just pants. Good riddance. Let’s win the cup now and never talk about it again ?
Agreed. The only thing to truly praise about this season is the jerseys.
And deny Europa league spot to Spurs!
Would’ve rather relegated John Terry than Deeney (and Welbeck, who I do not want to see relegated at all)…
I admire your sentiment but somebody convince me that we will put up more of a fight than we did in Baku.
That’s my worry too. Hopefully Ozil will sit this one out too.
Crap
I’ve got a real feeling Saturday was our cup final.
All those instagram selfies and squad twitter posts left a very sour taste. You’ve won nothing yet lads. Nothing.
One semi final and they think they’re all that. Dear me, that is not a winning mentality I want to see at the Arsenal. I’m all for squad harmony but this is the 4th successive season finishing behind that spud bunch of cunts.
It is not good enough at all, we are tenth. Wake up and finish the job.
Well said.
I was personally livid when on the replay I saw Auba joking around with Mings when he was supposed to be marking him. It was no surprise the Villa centre-half was able to flick his header onto Trezeguet’s path.
It’s like these guys are forgetting that this is STILL our worst season in 4 decades and they are the team at the centre of it. I really hope Arteta surprises us when we see the departures at the end of the transfer window.
Spot on. I don’t want to sound like roy keane or souness, but if I was the coach I’d say if you post one bloody selfie online then you’re not playing in the final. I don’t care if it’s a generation thing, it is a universal sporting no-no. The great teams do not do that, the great players do not do that, not after a semi final. You can bet your house fat frank will have them pinned up on the wall, as if they needed any more motivation. When are we going to shed this small club mentality? We… Read more »
You do sound like Keane and Souness. “The great teams do not do that, the great players do not do that.” Really? And you know this because you follow the Barca and Bayern players on Twitter (as I’m sure Roy and Graeme do)? Raheem Sterling? Virgil Van Dijk? Do you actually have any clue what they say?
think you can read too much in to that stuff. Most of the players don’t run their own twitter accounts, or it’s just “PR” to them if they do. Most of the “we’re back” stuff has come from fans, not players. Arteta knows we aren’t there yet and Luiz and Tierney said themselves we played the way we did because we know we are miles off city. Let’s be honest, most of these players have been crap more often than not this season. Our best 11 with the right set up and everyone pulling together we can get a result… Read more »
Exactly. I thought the celebrations after City were excessive. It showed a small club mentality. The feeble followup performance against Villa was predictable. City’s demolition of Watford shows how much work Arteta has to do.
Utter Garbage tonight
Awful.
I missed the game as its shopping night. looks like I dived a bullet there.
dodged
I missed the game because I took my 9 year old golfing for his birthday. The young lad hit a birdie on a par 3 and I’m not letting this utter crap toothless useless piece of shit Arsenal performance bring me down.
Arteta got the selection woefully wrong.
Apparently you are
Holy Fuck
Don’t know if I was watching the same match if Holding was supposedly the best of the 3 centre halves. Passive all game, scared to pass it and got turned inside out by some bloke I’ve never heard of, who should’ve scored to put us out of our misery (at least you could’ve turned off at that point without the faint hope of us getting something out of the game).
I think Kolasinac was quite okay-ish in the 2-men defence. Surely better than Holding.
Not saying much. He was dreadful as well.
At least Kolasinac offered his trademark head down charge through the inside-left space every now and again. I was seconds away from a severe stroke watching Holding play sideways passes all day, and then Torreira giving it him back on the odd occasion we got the ball forward
It is very sad to say this, but we missed Xhaka a lot in the first half and we missed Mustafi throughout.
Imagine if it was Mustafi who pulled that Mustafi. We wouldn’t have heard the end of it.
Very true. Holding was actually the least proactive of the centre backs and actually lost a number of aerial duels despite being the tallest. I never thought it would get to a point where Mustafi now attempts more forward passes in match than Holding. Chambers can’t come back soon enough.
The constant in and out of the team is killing holding confidence. I have never seen him play this negative with his passes.
Worried about Holding tbh, I know he’s had the injury but he looks slow and erratic
ive been saying this for a while, hes not upto this standard , yet as an english centre back is wanked over by most in case he turns into tony adams,
mustafi wouldve got slaughtered
Never thought I’d say this but without Mustafi, we were pummeled aerially.
We were awful, the ref was awful.. We were worse than the ref.
Hope Watford go down.
I’m going to bed
Why? Because we proved Deeney right that we don’t have cojones?
No because he’s a cunt
The only positive, and I know it’s clutching at straws, is at least we have given ourselves the opportunity to relegate troy deeney on Sunday
Why would you leave the right wing without a right foot if the only tactic we use for the last 20 minutes is crossing??
Is it just me, or is Tierney getting a little too much praise? Outstanding against City and Liverpool last week, but how many times did he just run the ball out for a goal kick tonight? 6 is very generous
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the lad, but don’t think he showed his quality at all tonight
I don’t understand the downvotes. He was good defensively but quite poor offensively tonight. The Villa RB (the substitute) gave Tierney zero space and virtually all his crossing attempts were futile.
I think the team looked exhausted after constantly running against two possession based teams in the space of 7 days. The second team should have been able to give the first XI a breather but sadly they were not up to par tonight.
He needs to be a bit cuter in attack than simple push and run
should have read this before making the same comment a lot less succinctly.
The problem is his usual trick is making some space to cross, or playing a nice pass. Since Villa had parked a 2m tall tank in front of their goal (and Nketiah and Lacazette are hardly target man) he had nobody to cross to and no movement for a pass, so he was forced to go to the byline and cut it back. It’s not his main strength, and he was up against a very physical right back so it didn’t come off. Would have loved to have Gabi in the place of Nketiah today, as he’s the only attacker… Read more »
I’ve noticed that Tierney thinks he’s faster than he is. Maybe in Scotland the old push it into space and run onto it worked, but there are very few slouches in the PL. Overall though I like his game, he is very alert on the cover, proper old school defender, but with good technique to match. Needs to get to the byline with a dribble or 1-2 though, because his sprints aren’t cutting it.
Dean Smith did his homework well. Their defensive-shape didn’t allow Arsenal to bring the ball into the final third through the middle. The only way towards the goal were wide positions from where we could only cross. For Villa that was very easy to defend. As long as we don’t directly replace Ozil we won’t have the luxury to not have him in the squad. One thing is to play counter-attacking football against teams who control the possession and another when we are expected to set the pace of the game. He don’t have to play every game but we… Read more »
Agree on the “replacing Ozil” moment. But, as you say, and if we only speak for that position, we can’t head into the next season just with replacing one AMF with another. That says we need more. We need more players than just adding a player or two. We also need to transform the team. And, by the likes of it, we again come to the point of “will the kings and queens” back that up. And that is the point where we should just end the discussion. I just can’t understand why we can’t get rid of the dead… Read more »
Well we need squad players too. I think one of the main things why the drop in 2017/18 was that big was that we sold to many players who were important in the dressing room. With that we broke the chemistry inside the squad. The outgoings were just as poor as what we have bought in the last 2-3 seasons.
I agree that we need squad players too but you will also agree that a squad player in a team of Arsenal’s stature should be a player that has potential for development. For example, we can’t say that for Kolasinac or maybe Sokratis. Kolasinac is with us a couple of seasons and no significant development is evident. Also we can’t say that Sokratis will be better in a year or two. So if we have squad players that push for a place in the first team, then there is competition for places and that can bring us to a better… Read more »
Kolasinac was in very good form before the lockdown. Which team has better LB backup in the PL atm? If you count Saka too then he is 3rd choice LB. Let’s not forget also that he is not CB. I think we should sell him only for good money and not just for the sake of selling.
As for Sokratis I agree he is the one who should be sold but again as it currently stands he is 5/6 CB on the order.
I agree. People focus too much on the defence (although it is obviously an issue) but City won the league twice playing Otamendi/Stones, who were previously as erratic as our CBs),and Delph/Zinchenko, neither of whom are left backs. The odd defence lapse can lose you a game, but consistently being a threat going forward earns you more points
Those were not their first-choice centre half pairing in their record season. That was LaPorte and Vincent Kompany (whenever fit); rather a different story than Otamendi.
Kompany was rarely fit! He played 34 matches across the two seasons – under half of all games. It was Laporte +1 for the majority of games, and this season it’s Stones/Otamendi/Fernandinho since Laporte’s injury and they’re still streets ahead of us
jesus. the boys must really hate watford.
“After the Lord Mayor’s Show”. When they’d have to shovel up all the shit left by the horses on parade. Just about sums it up.
Watching Terry managing a victory over us was excruciating.
Both Luiz and Holding deserve a solid 4. Nothing more nothing less. If you keep on retreating back to your goalkeeper everytime the opponent wins the ball instead of winning it or trying to win it as close to your central midfield as possible, you end up with that huge space between your defence and attack.
Luiz was trying, in fairness. He seemed furious with Torreira for constantly dropping in, and he did try a few progressive passes only for the ball to be recycled back to him
True. He tried but he doesn’t have the legs or aggression to push up anymore. In terms of playing progressive passes no arsenal defender matches him. People here keep asking why Arteta is not playing Holding regularly and today’s performance was the reason why. His style of playing is extremely safe but at the expense of those around him.
I think you might be right about the legs, especially after two such draining performances. With no movement ahead of him he could only really drive through the middle himself, and Villa (Grealish especially) looked very sharp making tackles and charging back, so it’s understandable that he didn’t
Unless we get creative midfielder chances will be almost zero.
Running from side to side for over 80 minutes !we need number 10 or strong number 8
I think the plane irritated us like these dogwhistles irritate dogs
Of the last 4 games: won the 2 I expected defeats in, lost the 2 I thought would be at least 4 points. Oh Arsenal…
And still in 10th not much better than Emery at his very lowest…and this with the same squad available to Unai or better since Arteta had some additions in January as is.
Take the City performance away, I am struggling to see much of an upgrade on Emery. Still the same horseshoe attack, still a defence that looks like they met in the carpark and still the nagging feeling that the opposition have got us sussed.
There was no football for nearly four months, Mikel has had what a quarter of a season so far? How much do you think he can change in such a short space of time!
He could have an idea of his best XI and stick to it.
Bear in mind the Arsenal XI are playing 100 minutes virtually 3 days. That’s 10km per every 72 hours. Yes it’s their job but Arteta was right to rotate to mitigate. It’s just a shame most of the 2nd team were bang average and couldn’t be relied upon
You cannot play the same 11 every three days for over a month, especially after every player has lost match fitness. This is not a normal season.
The formation and way of playing we have developed recently is great against teams who attack us but doesn’t work against teams who sit off. The spuds showed it and so did Villa…we really struggle badly to break them down and never ever looked like it.
Too true. But we also lack enough technical players and options.
We have Pepe who is erratic, Willock a younger player, Nketiah prob had the only chance for us today with the header but he lost the easy balls a number of times.
If we go into next season believing we can bank on younger players to carry us, we are in for another rude awakening.
Once again we fail at set pieces. Giroud will be licking his lips..
Amen.
sp*rs tactical naivety
Liverpool tactical masterclass
Man City tactical masterclass
Villa tactical naivety
Such a strange run from Mikel and the coaching team. Hopefully he can complete the sequence with:
Watford tactical masterclass (Deeney in tears)
Chelsea tactical masterclass (No St Totteringham day this year, but one more trophy to the pile making it 23 more than the spuds!)
We have issues with teams that park the mini bus. Not surprising in the least. We have mor ejoy against teams that open up and come at us, particularly if we do not make silly mistakes. Those tend to be often the ‘better’ teams… With the less luminary opponents, we have problems transitioning quickly form the back into attack. Instead Arteta prefers to play this 6 yard box risk game….which is a disaster waiting to happen IMO. \We do not have sufficient players beyond Granit and to the top end that can carry or hold the ball sufficiently. nor are… Read more »
It’s pretty clear that as an opposing team you just have to let us have the ball and we won’t do anything with it unless it’s in transition
We were tired, but the near total absence of creativity embarrassing and, going into the cup final, dangerous.
Embarrassing. Humiliating. Laughing stock. Things really can get worse. This is new territory now which after 25 years of general contentment is really hard to take. It’s a new low. A new experience despite the writing on the wall all season. This is actually happening. Harbouring the hope of finishing 7th in the past few days was a distraction whilst it was possible but the cracks are well and truly exposed now. Of course it has been on the cards for a long while and all we can do is hope that when everyone starts on zero again at the… Read more »
As mentioned when WengerOut brigade were clamouring about better be out of CL and win cups, be careful for what you wish for. Then later something about 5th in europa a better deal bc it will allow us to push for title without CL….again as much as it could get better, it could also get much worse. They never learn. Currently in 10th. Not expected to get much higher given mighty Watford will be up for the closer…FA cup is the one slim sliver of hope left but its a cup and as much as it is ‘ours’ if lady… Read more »
Dull…dull…dull! Yea, I know there are better words to describe our crappy performance but I’ll stick with DULL. The ball transition was so flat. Ceballos did his best but the midfield was nowhere to be found.
Absolutely awful from everybody, including Mikel. This might just be nostalgia/frustration talking, but all I could think of is how Iwobi/Auba//Pepe, or Auba/Lacazette/Mkhi is a much better balanced forward line that what we have now. I really think we either need a Pires/Nasri/Hleb type “facilitator” on one of the wings, or a Firmino/Benzema type false 9 in the middle if we want Auba and Pepe playing wide.
This was a bad game for Torreira, but I really hope the club don’t sell him in the summer (unless he wants to go, then he’s welcome).
Agree with all the ratings, the wingbacks were woeful today, and starting 3 centre forwards really didn’t pay off with all of them occupying similar positions
That was horrible to watch and really started to wind me up, right from the slow start, bad passing, lack of movement and so on. Such a poor effort in a game that actually mattered to us as well as villa, sadly its not the first time this season we’ve stunk the place out. Now I’m worried we might serve that shite up again in the cup final?
Not even going to bother my usual lengthy rating. We were so insipid and slow in build up. As mentioned last game, I’m not sure this play around the 6 yard box is a great idea. We simply lack midfielders that can translate us quickly into attack and enough options to bring on with technical ability to exploit the half pockets of space between Granit and the attacking line. …many times, our touch also sorely lacking, Tierney heavy on the left, Nketiah towards the end losing balls, Pepe seems so messy. If people think Arteta is doing good things, they… Read more »
In fairness the table doesn’t lie and we are 10th yes fucking 10th!! If we only tinker with the squad over the break maybe we finish 9th next season. Arteta won’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear no matter how good he is. We need a major overhaul over 3 or 4 windows… buckle up folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…
Laca, Auba, and Nketiah had no chemistry, no creativity. They worked hard but we needed a spark
I caught a lot of downvotes for saying we probably need to improve on Ceballos when the loan rumours came out after City but my god do we need better midfielders.
i dont think any of our midfielders are up to arsenal standard. but ceballos is the best of a very average bunch.these lot make flamini look like roy keane
kolasinac, pepe, nketiah, they have been completely useless the entire season. at least i have a few highlights for pepe, whilist nketiah just scored a few tap ins, but kolasinac… oh boy, tell me one thing he did alright this season. lacazette was awful today too, i don’t remember him doing a good transition for us this season, and we absolutely never seem to shoot on goal from the middle when he’s playing. willock, what can i say… i don’t know where he plays, what he does, or what he’s supposed to do. at least laca’s got a good match… Read more »
I understand that matteo and ozil are on their way out. It’s troubling that it came to this because matteo could be a special player with an attitude adjustment.
Regardless, when the players are exhausted, and risk injury, why not play matteo and ozil. The club pays them.
Not saying they should start over ceballos or xhaka, but those two were totally spent and needed rest.
Oh, well, at least xhaka got a half off.
I say rest all the starters on Sunday.
We’ve got our Arsenal back!! Gave the lot of them 0.5s. Utterly pathetic.
I can try and understand the result, being leggy after the intense week we had, and the fact we were up against a side scrapping to avoid relegation, but to have zero shots on target is just really not acceptable. It’s not so much that we lost but the manner in which we did it that is very concerning. Just entirely bereft of creativity and guile up and down the pitch. Ceballos maybe the only one that looked sharp but not enough quality to influence the game in any significant manner.
If Arteta deserved s 10/10 for City, this was a 0/10. You could see from the off that we were off and ridiculously tentative with the many substitutes. Given the importance of this one for possible 6th or 7th, and the need for goals to boost the GD, you put out your most experienced and energetic offensive side, and in particular keep the Xhaka Ceballos pair on. Get a goal or two then rest and pull back.
We just do not have a squad… the replacement options whenever we try and rotate are just not up to par. We seem to really struggle in games like this as well, we really really need a creative midfielder in the summer.
A steamy bag of shit.
Fortunately, we dont have to wait for ages for another match.
Lets just move on.
Soares looked really bad.
Since Wengers time,Arsenal always had a problem playing teams
which park the bus. The worst was the fm playing the same style ie gung ho attack and getting injured in the process. His awful record against the top teams is testimony to this.
How do you attack teams playing anti soccer. ?I think by attacking from the wings and crosses. Arteta is paid to win games.
Against Watford ,another anti soccer game could be the theme
Maybe we should play counter-attacking football against everyone, if we can’t manage the slightest bit of midfield creativity or movement off the ball to break down a defense. We had how many attackers on for the last 20+ minutes and nobody was making runs or moving, every one of them was just standing in a line with Villa’s defenders. Embarrassing!
Pepe added absolutely nothing to our attack. Tried a couple dribbles, failed, kept passing backwards. Ugh.
I, like you, was mystified by Pepe’s performance? Presumably he’s there to carry the ball forward but instead he’d simply lay it off sideways or backwards? Was he under instruction to play safe, is it simply a part of the team’s general creative failure and endeavour or is he simply not good enough? Bar the odd highlight he’s been a big disappointment.
I hated that 4 forward setup we had at the end. It didn’t play to any of their strengths, except maybe Nketiah, who is probably the player we should least accommodate. Lacazette was often dropping deep but, as shown, his passing is nowhere near the level required to play a number 10. Auba and Pepe were pushed too wide alongside Laca and Nketiah; both are best running channels, not playing outside fullbacks. And Xhaka is too immobile to play a 2 man midfield. Taking Luiz off was also an error – Villa just invited our remaining CBs into space in… Read more »
More reactivity in the comments as usual. The boys were tired. We’re a work in progress. We’re in a final. Life’s good.
Generally agre, but the lack of creativity …
We were in a final last year too and look how that turned out
Don’t see how Aubameyang will sign an extension. Even with FA cup, we are sneaking into europa not CL. At 31yrs, he will want a last chance to earn some money plus win at the highest level not with our piddly horizon at the moment… Which means banking on Nketiah along with Lacazette a risk without some insurance. Martinelli also in frame but two young players one of whom may be delayed returning next year… I mentioned we need an experience player, someone older content to come off the bench more and also on a short term deal or loan… Read more »
We don’t need Auba. He’s toxic to be honest. He socres goal that a striker should but seems to think he is too go for Arsenal. Nobody is too good for this great club. If he wants to be in Europe he should be getting us into Europe, not doing summersault celebrations for scoring a penalty against Norwich. People say where would we be without Auba, well, we wouldn’t have played for 10 men for the whole season would we?! Someone else would be there scoring goals and they would be scoring more than 20 in a season! I’ve had… Read more »
Are you having a laugh? He is one of the most cheerful players I have ever seen! Big smile on his face half the time. Not seen anything, anywhere to suggest he is a toxic player or thinks he is too good for Arsenal, he always says he loves it here and none of the team or staff have a bad word to say about him! And just who do you think would be scoring 20+ goals and winning the odd game for us instead?
Can’t complain after two big games but we need to build on the consistency. That should come with better squad depth. Sure, the players mostly had disappointing performances, but they weren’t helped by the system or the personnel. Setting up the same way against Villa that we did against Liverpool and Man City? Why not start a bit more on the front foot? The Villa forwards weren’t really going to trouble the heart of the defence. The rotation didn’t lead to a cohesive team either. This was the perfect match where Nelson could’ve played on the right with Eddie up… Read more »
How can a group of players go from 2 performances like last week to that dreadful showing???? Just stunned & I don’t buy they’re fatigued – he changed half the team! You wouldn’t see City or Liverpool deliver a performance / result like that & that is where the problem lies, the squad has no depth & no consistency, plus, it’s now clear that we’re only capable of playing with a low compact block & counter teams….. but 85% of teams want to play that way, so when we have large amounts of possession too – we’re clueless & incapable… Read more »
Why no Sokratis? OK he’s no world beater but I seem to remember solid no nonsense defending, plus he is good in the air, in the absence of Mustafi that was totally lacking.
I have seen speculation he is one of the three to refuse a pay cut, Ozil and Guendouzi are reportedly the others.
All three frozen out.
I suppose the quicker we move them on, the better.
Thoroughly disappointing game. Dreaded such a performance! At least in the Spurs game we tried to score. Thankfully we can end it on a high by winning the Cojones derby and a record 14th FA Cup!
I was most disappointed in Pepe. The guy was so unbelievably predictable with every touch and his expression looks like he’s just going through the motions. Our most expensive player ever.
Apparently you don’t get a right foot for £72m these days.