Mikel Arteta says David Luiz’s injury and the onset of fatigue were both factors that contributed to Arsenal’s poor second half in the 1-0 defeat to Leicester.
The Brazilian played an important role controlling the tempo of the Gunners’ play in the opening 45 minutes often encouraging his teammates forward by spraying long diagonal passes that pinned back the visitors.
Despite creating a number of decent opportunities early on, Arsenal paid for a lack of ruthlessness in the box and were found wanting when Luiz went off with a thigh injury on 48 minutes.
Having weathered the storm, the visitors sealed all three points late in the game with a thoroughly predictable Jamie Vardy sucker punch.
It made for frustrating viewing. Afterwards, Arteta was asked about a lack of aggression in the second half.
He responded: “I think fatigue had a say as well. We didn’t look as sharp on the ball. We didn’t have as much purpose on the ball to create.
“Obviously, David was giving us something different when we had to attack the low block with his ability to attack the line and provoke, always threatening in behind. We lacked that a little bit in the second half.
“Still, credit to them, they are really organised when they do that. It is really difficult to create the chances. We created a really good one with Hector [Bellerin’s volley] again and we didn’t convert.
“That’s the difference at the end, in the box, what we are able to do. Certainly, it’s an aspect that we have to improve.”
Having lost Rob Holding to a hamstring problem last week, the Gunners look short of options at centre-back; a quite remarkable state of affairs given the number we have on the books. While Shkodran Mustafi made his first appearance of the season last night, Calum Chambers and Pablo Mari are still working their way back from injury, William Saliba is seemingly out of favour and Sokratis hasn’t been registered.
“I don’t know [when he’ll be back],” said Arteta about Luiz. “We’ve lost a few players in the last week or so. David had a muscular problem and he couldn’t carry on – we’ll have to assess him in the next 48 hours.”
How about accepting that your tactics have been rigid and hasn’t been working at all?
End of your honeymoon period Mikel. It is time to get serious.
Arteta out
Ozil in.
Sorry, I had to!
You didn’t HAVE to…
I absolutely did!
If liverpool’s manger had arsenal supporters as the fan base for his 4 to 5 year rebuilding programme. Liverpool would not be in the position that they are in now because the supporters would have called for his head after 18 months. Does that sound familiar ? Come on Arsenal supporters, support ! Look at the positives. The new chaps that we have of quality and to build with them going forward. We will always be in a negative spot when we have Mustafi to fall back on. I just cant wait to see an Arsenal team that consists of… Read more »
He keeps all the quality out of the team, never plays them all together and your not telling me Saliba could be worse than Mustafi, I watched him in friendlies and he had the same qualities as Gabriel, its all bullshit
Yeah yeah yeah, Arsenal supporters suck bla bla bla. Tired of that nonsense. Most Arsenal supporters didn’t want Wenger to go. When he went it seems he took the club’s values and class with him, as evidenced by the bung-taking Raul and Trump-supporting Kroenke. Now 2 years out, what did we give that class up for? Feckless overlaps in the channel and crosses and corners that don’t clear the first man? The one player who can create in the between the lines banished from the squad? We’re entitled to have our say, especially considering what we’ve given up for this.… Read more »
Top post. Well said.
The players who can create between the lines but does it one game out five in the last three years, who is busy dragging the club into political dispute, who wouldn’t accept 12% salary reduction while the club was losing massive revenue, who doesn’t care during a Europa League final that would put the club in the position to pay him 350K a week?
The funny thing is Klopp and Liverpool had the opposite issues to us. In his first 18 months they were fantastic going forward but awful at the back. They got to a EL and CL final in that time, finishing 8th and 4th in the league. It was clear that their issues weren’t tactical, they were with personnel, so they got VVD and Allison with the Couthinho money. It’s different with us, Arteta has made us much better defensively but the issues are in attack. Rather than having question marks over the squad, fans are questioning the tactics which are… Read more »
The whole let’s fire a manager after any poor result crowd exists at every club – look at how often Barcelona change managers despite winning the league virtually every year (thanks to Messi). That said it’s perfectly reasonable to question why we’re sticking with tactics that other teams have clearly figured out how to nullify. Our biggest period of success (the cup run) came in a knock out competition against larger teams where we largely just did what Leicester did to us. That’s not a viable plan for an entire PL season however.
Well said. I love Arteta and I want us to stick with him and I think he is going to be brilliant for us for years and years to come, but the guy is very young, and learning on the job, and since he has the support of the higher-ups I don’t worry about him feeling the heat from fans and critics — he should feel a little pressure to move us on to the next phase of his rebuilding project. We’ve improved our defensive play dramatically, but it has come at the cost of our ability to create chances… Read more »
Vieira used to create goals and actually scored some himself. Henry used to create plenty of goals. This is why he still holds the record of assists in the league. Ashley Cole creates goals through his crosses. Gallas used to score the crappy goal with his knees when we really needed it. Goals can come from any of the 10 outfield players. That’s what we are missing right now.
Bergkamp was a key player during much of that period, and his creativity was essential to Arsenal’s winning ways. His play in between the lines is the kind of playmaking that we are missing — perhaps his son is ready to step up?
And Welbeck used to score with his shin.
Platt used to score with his chest, ljungberg with anything, just throw your body towards the goal
And the classic: “Liverpool fans would never boo their player…”
https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2017/11/anfield-negativity-is-not-a-new-sensation-liverpools-boo-boys-down-the-years/
That line always made me laugh.
Every club has fans like that, they want their team to win and are frustrated when they’re not doing as well as they think they can. We shouldn’t be putting Liverpool or any other club on a pedestal.
The only teams I can think of that have won the league with “reactionary” football recently are Leicester and, to an extent, Conte’s Chelsea. Leicester perhaps had the benefit of having a smaller reputation and were routinely underestimated, they were also resolute in defence and sensational on the counter. Chelsea had Costa, a lethal bully-boy target man of a striker. An absolute weapon in both senses of the word. With their width they could easily bypass low blocks in midfield and dink it in his vicinity. If that didn’t work, they had Hazard to make things happen for them in… Read more »
Exactly. We are basically asking Laca to do a poor man’s impersonation of Giroud. If this is genuinely how Arteta sees us playing, we should have gone back in for Giroud this summer
We also didn’t sell our Coutinho…we signed him to a £350k a week millstone.
Oh give it a rest.
If we had ‘Our Coutinho’ in the side at the moment, our front line might just have a legitimate excuse to time some runs in the channels.
But it was quite clear what klopp was trying to do. Is it clear what Arteta is trying. Did you see klopp playing around with player positions? He kept filling specific gaps slowly. I don’t know what Arteta wants but the lack of play through the middle is our Achilles heel and he was a top midfielder. You’d think this would be an area he wouldn’t struggle with. For all of xhakas strengths the pace of the premier League is his undoing. That’s not his fault. No fluid team has slow mammoths in their midfield. Build and try new things… Read more »
I think Mikel would ideally like 3 new forwards and 2 new cms/cams
Liverpool’s manager had a track record when he was hired. Arteta has managed fuck all
#artetaout
Overreacting much?! What has a joke about bringing Ozil in got to do with Arteta out or even not giving him the chance over a sustained period of time to work on his project? Seriously?!
Btw the reaction to Liverpool’s false starts is what got them Klopp and what got them to where they are… so don’t under-estimate the power of supporter power. But this isn’t one of those situations. It. Was. A. Fucking. Joke.
One crumb of comfort from this weekend’s results is that with Everton’s defeat, The Invincibles record of going an entire league season undefeated remains intact as ever.
Bigger picture stuff, I know, but even so, the record remains. Keep the faith. 👍🍺
Man, I hate it when I’m right. This is what I posted just after the Ozil statement last week (to rapturous downvotes I might add!) And it only really took one game!
Arteta’s two biggest decisions have arguably been Ozil and Martinez.
They could theoretically both blow up in his face depending on others performances.
If we continue to win football matches and play well then things will go smoothly enough. But if, perchance, we start struggling, particularly in the creative side of our game, this decision could get rather ugly for Arteta.
and so it should, if you have a good game one week you are taken out the following week, he needed to get his strongest 11 then only change if there were injuries. Saka should in no way be playing before Pepe, if i was Pepe id come on and not try
Leno gives me that same feeling I had with flappy almunia and szczney (can’t spell it) in goal. I do not feel confident at all with leno in goal. First time in years I felt confident with Martinez and I think Arteta bottled a big call
You do know that Szczęsny kept Liverpool’s world record signing on the bench at Roma?
Did you see Martinez parry the ball straight to a Leeds player Friday & score when losing 0-3?
I don’t care what he does for another team.
I don’t think anything is going to get ugly for Arteta for quite a while, and hopefully never — the majority of fans have seen enough from him already to know that this guy is going to be a top manager, and we’re very fortunate to be on that journey with him. He has the constitution and the communication skills to handle this, and most of all, the patience. He’s in it for the long term, and so are the club, and think most of us understand that. This was a winnable game and he needs to feel the heat… Read more »
So I’m sensing that people don’t like partially earned smugness.
Interesting.
The concerns voiced on here largely have nothing to do with those 2 particular players but more revolve around the system. Martinez wouldn’t have stopped the goal scored yesterday & Leno’s stop on Vardy’s 1 on 1 was excellent. Per Ozil I think a lot of fans have decided the issue isn’t so much that we’re lacking a creative presence as it is that Arteta is setting us up in an overly defensive manner. Do you think Ozil would have made much of a difference if he was instructed to play the way our CM’s were yesterday? I don’t.
Leno’s stop on Vardy’s was excellent. If you rewatch it, he actually saves it with his forhead. Leno was faultless yesterday. Others, less so, sadly in particular I find myself coming back to tactical decisions from the coach in this one – which includes the team selection. Not Mikel’s best game in charge, let’s just put it that way.
Mate, there’s too many fairies at the bottom of the garden in the minds of a certain section of ‘fans’ on here.
There’s nothing like a few home truths to spark a thumbs down fest.
What did this Ozil do when he was playing? remember Arteta played him earlier, he’s such a liability to the team and he was dropped. This Ozil issue is becoming so boring, let’s talk about registered players and incompetent coach we just hired please.
They’ve not just been rigid, they’ve been rigidly wrong.
It’s incredibly naive. You just cannot go into a premier league game with 4 or 5 players out of position. It is never going to work and at a certain point it is going to catch up and bite you right where it hurts.
The underlying metrics have been clear for months now. So I can only hope yesterday is a serious wake up call and not another false dawn like that slick, balanced 10 minutes against Sheffield where the front 5 were in logical positions.
From my perspective this whole situation is clear as day. Arteta’s clearly got his favourites. I’m shouting into a void here but bench Xhaka and Laca (and I wish I could say Mustafi) for next game. Get Auba down the middle with pepe and saka either side. Get three in midfield and GIVE PARTEY THE BALL.
I’d argue those 3 players are the sole reason we are in this mess as a club right now. At a combined cost of 120 million they’re just not bloody good enough.
Give Partey the ball?? We have decided that Partey is the new Banega now?
Simples…. *Rolls eyes and shakes head*
Is he actually mad ne dosnt play Auba down the middle, then adds insult to injury by bringing NeKetia on up front, like he will make a difference. I wonder why Auba didnt have that in his new contract play me down the middle because that where he needs to be. Ceballos not great either not the calibre of Ozil it is all weird and I dont like it. People call Pepe but when he has a great game he dosnt start the following week, but is then expected to change things from 70 mins on he should be playing… Read more »
Like little Theo told Wenger he was really a striker?
Its all on arteta now- youve got your players– got rid of whom you dont want and had a full season or thereabouts
lets see what happens now-
i don’t expect us to win the league but we have to be serious contenders for top 4
and wish to play the arsenal way- not boring boring possession with no end product
To be fair Arteta did acknowledge we were poor around their penalty box, identifying that as an area to improve. I was more than frustrated after the final whistle yesterday, and having let most of that out on previous threads and sleeping on it – this interview from Arteta actually gives a good change to my mood overall. Don’t know about you guys. My take is you’re spot on about the honeymoon period being over, but I would prefer another solid transfer window before we really lay down the anchor. But as well let’s practice some caution and not overblow… Read more »
Exactly. I hope he knows where to improve and willing to learn from his mistake but it is clearly to me that he will not learn anything and will keep the same until we become successful like a miracle or fail miserably. Isn’t it certainly that as a young manager he must be willing to learn and has a very opened mind? I haven’t seen anything like that.
It is actually quite similar to how Arsene was in his final years when he just wouldn’t adjust his tactics and also a trace of Guardiola who often seems to overthink and overcomplicate his tactics.
Both Wenger and Pep are successful and aged with many years of experience so being unwilling to change is understandable. Unless someone say Fa cup and Community Shield are enough to treat as successful, I think Arteta must be opened mind and learn where and how he failed. What I see is a guy going around and trying to blame something else other than himself for many wrong decisions.
I just think that Arteta should not really follow Pep’s idea becuz even Pep’s overcomplicating tactics, in the end, he still have Messi in Barcelona and KDB in city to help unlock defences. What we have is Xhaka and Ceballos… That’s the difference.
I prefer the approach of fans (like myself) who maintain the same moderate level of criticism of the manager at all time than the approach of those who switch from worshipping him to virulent criticism after a couple of defeats.
I think I have just shared what I feel. Isn’t that what these fan forums exist for?
Moderate level of criticism is what I think I have done. I don’t think I have called for the manager to be sacked yet. That would be heights.
Anyway can’t be satisfying everyone and can’t really be arsed about what you prefer. What would be the point if you can’t speak out your minds hey?
Lego tactics.
Like not to start getting on Mikel here — but citing David Luiz, a 33 year old centre back, going off injured, as the reasoning behind us not be able to lay a single glove on what was a weakened Leicester City side, at home — is seriously concerning.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
After Mustafi joined, we went out of the ECL.
And we haven’t been back. There’s a reason for that….
Then try to drop out from all the cup competitions ASAP and we will have more time to rest. CL football would be only an unpleasant thing, disturbing our siesta.
Perhaps not playing the majority of the first team against rapid midweek? Having saliba available for Europe squad rotation?
Madness.
The whole reason Luiz got the injury last night. He’s 33 ffs. 180 minutes in 3 days.. While Saliba’s on his sofa. Fucking idiotic management.
is he registeredfor europa league squad
No.
Looking through our Europa League squad list, it really is hard to see where Saliba could have fit in. The only spot I really see for him would be in place of Mari, since he’s still recovering. But it seemed like he was expected back around this time, and I imagine they’d like him to get some action in the EL before possibly returning to play in the Premier League.
Not sure I agree with that, but it’s at least fairly easy to see the logic of the situation, as frustrating as it is.
So register Sokrates who is actually fit or William till Christmas over Mari. Who can play in league .
So we can rest and rotate Luiz ( age) and Gabriel ( fresh Ness)
Then rethink at Christmas , not include the injured in both squads.
Dies Chambers count as home grown
is saliba registered for europa league?
Unfortunately not. Marvelous move!
also people have worked out you just need to sit back against us and not allow space to counter?
That, or just press us in our half and mark xhaka when he plays. So basically both distinct schools of approach are our Achilles heel then. Comforting knowledge.
You’re outdated pal. We’re able to work our way out from high presses and progressing the ball quickly to Auba – this worked wonders in the run to our FA Cup win. Nowadays teams just sit off us, not minding to press us and let us play passes in front of them. We’re back to Wenger’s issues again; team defending with 10 men in their halves and us not being able to do anything about it. The same issues currently City are having; and they have one of the best attacking line ups in world football. Bottomline we gotta ditch… Read more »
If teams are defending like that why worry about ozil defending. No one at city worries about marhez, Bernardino Silva lack of quality of in defence !!
Yes against the six team who may attack us and have more of the Ball.
Or playing 3 deep lying midfield and bypassing them during every attempt at getting the ball forward was a bigger reason. Arteta is becoming adept at blaming other things. Look at yourself and your own tactics before using tiredness as an excuse.
Right. Fatigue as an excuse? We play again this Thursday and Sunday so no sale there. He played for Moyes and this is what we look like. Keep solid defensive position in place of any attacking midfield(but still get beat on the break), no overloads, nor quick passing in the offensive 3rd. We need more plan against this defensive set up, obviously, as we will see it more and more. Would it help to quick tinkering with your front three and make a definite decision so whoever can start feeling comfortable with each other?
His team was denied a penalty against City when most pundits reckoned they should have had a penalty when on the same day Chelsea were given a free kick just outside the penalty for an identical incident.
And the officials refused to say why Lacazette’s goal was disallowed when the studio pundits reckoned it should have stood. Saka has also been denied a penalty in an earlier game. The standard of officiating is out of his control.
If you have a spare pound or two put it on Arsenal receiving the fewest penalties this season in the PL.
fatigue ? why not give nelson,willock,elneny,nketiah,niles start in europa instead of playing full strength in europa !
Yep, AMN has played about 5 minutes in a month. Yet a half-fit Cebellos comes right back into the team to play a kind of RCM role that Ainsley is born for.. It’s poor rotation and poor management all round
Yep, AMN’s absence is stranger with each passing game. No one’s suggesting he replace Tierney, but why can’t he spell Hector or someone in midfield like you say? Late in the game he could at the least offer some real energy and pressing.
Because then we would have lost against rapid Vienna. Oh lordy
The negative points at Arsenal these days: It’s either a certain defender/ midfielder/ striker, or the tactics, the focus of widespread discussion. Our darling (for many at least) Arteta is no immune after all.
Nobody is immune to criticism. Even less so when the whole world can see the solution staring you right in the face.
This dogged stubbornness to keep trying the same failing formula is as baffling as it gets.
What is the solution?
Leno
Bellerin Luiz Gabirel Tierney
Partey Cebellos
Willian
Pepe Auba Saka
Tell me that team doesn’t beat the majority of this league.
Arteta’s real problem is the lack of creative players in midfield. Ceballos is the only real creative passer in the middle of the park that we have. I said at the time of the transfer window that we needed a Bruno Fernandez-type player and was poo pooed. Partey was a great signing but he can’t open opposition teams up. I agree with the way that Arteta has dealt with Ozil: our German friend’s attitude stank and it’s right that he was left out. I only saw the highlights on MOTD but it looks like we were unlucky. We dominated the… Read more »
What’s the use of getting Fernandez for a team unable to win penalties! lol
Arteta needs to work on movement and passing in the build up of our attack, it’s missing right now! Either the midfielders are not drilled and have no idea where the runners will move into so they simply pass backwards when pressed, or they have no ability to pick the runners out.
We have midfielders? Could have fooled me.
Idk man.. no idea what to class xhaka tbh, neither a defender as he doesn’t have a nose for danger Nor a forward as he’s got lead for legs and slow mindedness.
Arteta am disappointed that you are refusing to play Ozil, there was no creativity in your midfield yesterday and he could have provided it. I thot you were ruthless in selecting the best fit for the game but as stated you seem like you have your favourite. Start allowing the players to fight for their position and right to play for Arsenal. Auba was not the best yesterday and you kept him on. Common wake up, its not going to get easy in the next couple of games. What about the trainers to work on the physical strenght and conditioning.
So Leicester are much fitter than us. That’s a bit worrying as we are a month in to the new season and it’s a real damning assesment of Arteta himself.
Sure Luiz is a important player but you’r game plan can’t go to shits when a centre half goes of.
Admitting that the performance of a 34 year old centre back (who let’s not forget was set to be dropped from the XI until Holding pulled up in a pre match warmup) was the pivotal factor in your team’s performance should be embarrassing.
Even if this is a roundabout way of saying Mustafi wasn’t a suitable replacement, you’re the guy who’s got him on the bench, maybe you could have given him more of your borderline neurotic tactical instructions instead of Pepe?
My worry is that we’ve made huge investments in the last few years in a desperate attempt to return to the Champions League (both player purchases and bumper contract extensions), and don’t look anywhere close to achieving this.
Disturbing parallels with some Championship clubs that bet heavily on reaching the Premier League, and fall into long-term decline when this bet fails.
You could say that our global fanbase is a firewall against a dangerous collapse in revenues – but these supporters are fickle, and aren’t likely to stick around if we continue playing such dire football.
We are nowhere growing our fanbase at the moment. I mean why would a kid follow Arsenal? Unless it comes from a friend/family or National Hero I don’t see why Arsenal would appeal to searching football fan. We are far from the Wenger ball that made me fall in love in 2009.
Our one saving grace this season is that most teams won’t find much consistency. Will still be a big ask to scrape into top 6, especially if we’re playing like this
Time to start playing William Saliba and Gabriel together at the back. That is what they were bought for after all.
Literally anyone instead of Mustafi is a good pick. Even academy players would get some valuable experience and may surprise us with a good performance. With Mustafi, there are no surprises, we know exactly what he is capable of!
I hate when managers make excuses. Just admit we were shit and try to fix it. Dnot blame var, fatigue, and David Luiz injury. We are not stupid, we have a big squad, they also played on Thursday, and luiz is not our Messi or Ronaldo. We need a new plan to play teams other than man city and liver pool. We were absolutely shit against vienna for tge first 60 min onThursday and we can’t play like that anymore. Fling fix it!!!!
I’m a bog standard average football player, can’t run and tackling is shocking. I can however pass a through ball between the lines, taking out a couple of defenders. It blows my mind that none of our overpaid players are able to do this!!!!!
As much as the midfield has its problems we also need to look at the attack. Barely any movement so in some cases what’s the midfield supposed to do. The whole offensive part of our team is disjointed and static.
The words “straws” and “clutching at” come to mind. I wasn’t aware that we’ve played more games than any other club so our players must be weaker than the average PL player. Also, I thought we had a squad and not just a “first eleven” that’s always has to be used. I’m afraid Arteta’s remarks are uncannily like some of those from Wenger when things were going badly for him. Personally, I think he is realising that being a manager week in and out in a full PL season, with all the obvious unrelenting pressure, is different from being an… Read more »
Granted, his hands were tied a little by the injuries to Luiz and Saka. But some of the decision making seems pretty puzzling. It’s hard to fathom that Leicester is starting Fofana, and Saliba can’t even make the bench in the side competitions.
And while I’m reasonably happy with Ceballos, it’s not like he’s been so good that he’s undroppable. We need to either try one of the youngsters in there, or move Xhaka up.
Sokratis!😂😂😂😂
He went to a back four, but because of his inherent conservatism, he packed the midfield……..and the midfield just looked lost to me, including Partey.
Big learning curve here Mikel……but I for one am still with you.
For all the frustration surrounding the current loss and everything, we have to support the manager, comparisons to his non-temporary predecessors aside (yours truly being very guilty). Most of the expectations are based on his association with Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal (that had the lack of exactly 0 (zero) creative players), and Guardiola, who has always had the best team in a league to manage. As much as Arteta’s tactics feel wrong, it is just as likely that the team did not execute it properly. It reminds one of the “caviar” comment AW once made. Then again we consider 4th place… Read more »
I believe they execute his plan: minimum risk taking + Xhaka as a leftback, dictating the game. Not a very good tactic unfortunately and not well suited for our best players.
If the problem is fatigue, it makes the Europa League selections even more baffling. The reliance on David Luiz is also a real worry. Lots of questions to answer ahead of a surely must-win against a poooor United side at OT.
I really think we need to start playing through the middle and try to establish midfield dominance, If we play a 4-3-3 with an diamond midfield consisting of Partey, Elneny & Saka/ceballos/willian as no10 or 8s with the idea of actually creating triangles I am sure we would start to create a lot more chances, go in centre, play it short before putting it out wide. Variety is key, we are way too easy to read.
COYG!
Except none of those 3 are suited to the advanced midfield role
I am positive that willian and saka could be quite effective from that area with their ability to run with the ball, show up in the box and deliver passes.
I don’t think this will be the season we all hoped for. The lack of creativity we saw last season has simply carried over. Look at the stats. We’re close to bottom of the league for shots taken, chances created, big chances. Yesterday we didn’t create a single big chance so when I hear Arteta say the problem was we didn’t take our chances a little bit of my confidence in his abilities drains away. Lose at OT and he’ll really be under pressure as Leeds and Villa not to mention everyone else are going to go for us. In… Read more »
Some of us, no names, no pack drill, weren’t getting as carried away as other Gooners were from the start actually. Some of us have consistently said that expectations were too high – top four finish, even winning the PL etc. were often posted on this site – there was another spate of them after Partey signed. Well, it’s still early days of course but this team, this squad, doesn’t strike me as being good enough to justify that optimism, even with Partey. There are still too many passengers (we all know who they are – the ones we couldn’t… Read more »
Leeds and Villa would easily beat us the way we’re playing.
I dread to think what Son and Kane would do with Mustafi.
Can’t even be bothered commenting yesterday. There are still those in the ranks who like religious cult Liverpool fans prefer to project some sort of divine status to certain players or believe the current gaffer is the chosen one. I prefer more objectivity. I mentioned he has his good points and he is tactically astute which is what made him suceed at City as an assistant and that he has good promise. But that he will obviously have a learning curve and that 1) he has benefitted from the protection of Pep’s giant shadow at City. Managing your own team… Read more »
With regard our play yesterday, it was pretty OK first half and had one of the opportunities been converted, we would be singing a different tune. 1) I did not think Auba was in the best position out right. But if Saka was to be employed, then I suppose the issue was shifting the more experience to the less common flank which is reasonable. What that says about faith in Pepe is open to discussion but we know we’ve already added Willian to cover (with risk on an exorbitant long term contract on an older player) 2) Some prefer to… Read more »
I think the flaw in Arteta’s tactics just got exposed. He is beginning to prove he doesn’t have it. His negative, pass sideways and backward negative play couldn’t beat that Leicester B team. The team is so used to that negative play that Partey was completely ignored. Get Messi and Ronaldo and that style of play will still fetch us a loss. It was so hard to watch. I wonder what they do at practice. Shameful display!
Respect to Arseblog. Hard to find places for fair-minded fan commentary, but this place holds on. Regarding the match: Have we given up on give and go’s? So many long balls and forced passes. Playing Xhaka / Ceballos / Partey confused me, did not seem to work and seemed like a “too many cooks” situation from start to finish That moment when Lacazette “played” a long ball off his back summed up the match (and his play) for me Arsenal core = Leno / Gabriel / Tierney / Bellerin / Partey / Saka / Pepe / Auba. Put them in… Read more »
Say AALL you want. Mustafi not signing and Saliba not playing is primarily due to current Arsenal fans and general missing fan environment towards growth and improvement vs being deemed failures. The whole fan base has eroded…here and in society in general.
Any oppinons here on James Maddison as potential addition??
He seems to be Leicesters’ “creative force”, also homegrown and young.
I would love to see him in red, and it would definitely screw with Leicester. Big pounds, so maybe out of our league at this time.
Arteta tactics are now same as Mourinho. Have 8 at the back defending, then lump the ball to Auba, who scores, and we win.
Now Auba has got his shiny contract, and seems to have retired his scoring boots, and we are f*cked.
No one else scores any goals, so will we start booing Auba now….
Fatigue? Is he having a laugh?
He demands that the players chase around like Mo Farah on speed and then complains of fatigue?
Try implementing some passing where the ball does the work. And by that, I don’t mean Route fucking One, either.