Result: Arsenal 0-1 Leicester
Competition: Premier League
Date: 25 October 2020
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Luiz, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Ceballos, Xhaka, Saka, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Subs: Runarsson, Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Elneny, Willock, Pepe, Nketiah
Jamie Vardy came off the bench to score a late winner as Leicester weathered early Arsenal pressure to secure a 1-0 win at the Emirates.
The Gunners dominated the first half and created a number of half-chances but fell away after the break as Brendan Rodgers’ side came to terms with the Gunners fluid formation.
First half
Existential dread is what most of us are used to on a Sunday evening. In this case, we got experimentation. And lots of it from Arsenal. Our formation was a curiosity worthy of a museum. At one moment Xhaka was anchoring the midfield, the next he was playing as a left-back. Blink and he was a centre-back outside of Gabriell.
Bukayo Saka, nominally starting on the left of the attack, floated inside regularly, even swapping sides with Aubameyang on the right. Tierney hugged the left touchline and bombed forward whenever he could. For the most part, Partey was trusted to marshall the entirety of the centre of midfield with Ceballos trying to work pockets alongside Bellerin.
Most impressive was that we looked like we knew what we were doing. Having struggled to create chances all season, this was arguably the most fluid 45 minutes of football since we beat Fulham on the opening day of the season. Using the long-ball accuracy of Xhaka and Luiz we regularly looked to switch the ball from one side to the other and then used runners to create overloads and space to get balls into the box.
An early long-range effort by Maddison aside, Leicester, without the benched Jamie Vardy, were contained with ease. We very much controlled the game but lacked a killer instinct.
Alex Lacazette did put the ball in the net inside three minutes when he headed home a Dani Ceballos corner but it was ruled offside for interference by an offside Granit Xhaka who had taken up a position in front of Kasper Schmeichel.
Crosses from the left were a common theme and both the Frenchman and Aubameyang should have done better when Tierney found them in the six-yard box with delicious crosses. Saka also came close on a couple of occasions as he tried to work the inside left channel.
Second half
We really struggled to get going after the break and weren’t helped by David Luiz picking up a thigh problem – he was replaced by Mustafi inside three minutes – and Fofana going through the back of Saka who was left limping. He made it to the 65-minute mark before being replaced by Saka.
In between, neither keeper was unduly tested although Maddison did try his luck three times in quick succession. Leno collected an audacious lob, Gabriel deflected over a curler and a free-kick flew over the bar. The visitors were far more comfortable and increasingly confident, especially when they introduced Jamie Vardy off the bench.
Bellerin did force Schmeichel to parry when he connected sweetly on the volley with an Aubameyang cross but it was a fleeting moment of quality as our play disintegrated.
Time and time again we struggled to work the ball past the halfway line. Honestly, it wasn’t much of a surprise when the visitors broke the deadlock. Even less that it was Vardy who did the damage. The build-up was slick. Tielemans freed Under behind our defence and his cross was headed home by striker from close range. It was his 100th goal against us. (1-0)
Arteta sent on Nketiah for the final 10 minutes hoping to rescue a point but the visitors sat back in numbers and we continued to play tepid, side-to-side football. Vardy came close to doubling Leicester’s advantage but was foiled by Leno’s head when he tried to dink the German.
After a promising start to the season, we’ve really fallen apart in the face of tougher opposition. This was not a good day at the office and leaves Arteta with a lot of thinking to do ahead of games with Dundalk and Manchester United this week.
Doesn’t matter whether it’s three at the back, four at the back, a false nine or a £45m man in CM. We have zero creativity and frankly the chance creation against a timid Leicester side was embarrassing. I think me and Biggles could have played CB for Leicester tonight and kept a clean sheet. There’s no point lamenting the Aouar missed opportunity. That’s happened. But it’s clear that between Xhaka and Ceballos, the creativity is close to nil. They couldn’t make one key pass between the two of them with all that possession Leicester allowed us to have. Once David… Read more »
If this is the process, then where the fuck are we heading to?
That was utter shite
CEBALLOS LOL WOW What a sht player. EVEYR single time he kept passing the ball SIDEWAYS and then to the opposition does he even have a eyes to see wiling runners ahead of him??? GUENDOUZI WOULDVE CAME UP WITH SOMETHING. HE CAN ACTUALLY play a defense splitting pass. WE should send him back to Real Madrid. Against all the big teams he plays so TIMID so scared passes sideways raises his hands up to apologize EVEEYTIME I get once or twice but wtf play the BALL forward!!!! SHOCKING
Drugs are bad, kids.
I’m getting tired of this whole “this is the process” spiel. Arteta has had this team for about 10 months, he’s had a summer transfer window, yet we’re still playing absolutely terrible, bland football. No chances created, no goals scored. Woeful.
Bellerin got into good positions a couple of times, but it reeks of desperation when your RB has to cover all that ground to be in a good position to score. This 3-4-3 is really doing my head in. We field the personnel to play 4-3-3 today yet it’s still 3-4-3 with Xhaka at the back. Such a waste and we had nothing in midfield. Absolutely nothing. Mendy looked like the second coming of Makeléle, abysmal.
Yeah, it’s horrifying to note that when we finally add that extra midfielder, another shifts back to become a defender to negate the addition.
Arteta is heaping the pressure on himself with his conservative style. When you over-think it, you take the blame.
This 100 passing on the center circle and nothing else reminds me of Wenger’s last days I had serious flashbacks watching this
In Wenger’s last days we were steamrolling teams at the Emirates
Back when we had creativity in the side … just too much of it.
C’mon man. No we weren’t…
Last 8 home games under Wenger:
v Crystal Palace 4-1
v Everton 5-1
v Man City 0-3
v Watford 3-0
v Stoke 3-0
v Southampton 3-2
v West Ham 4-1
v Burnley 5-0
21 points out of 24
27 goals for, 8 against
Wow … that can’t be true.
People like you, who revise history to suit their agenda, are part of the problem.
Even at the end of Wenger’s tenure, our creative and attacking options were vastly superior to the utter shit being served up now.
Arteta’s been shielding himself too much by taking about how Klopp took years to build his Liverpool team.
Except Klopp had his team score loads of goals from day 1. He took years to make the system work defensively, yes, but their fans had faith because at the very least they got to watch entertaining football.
But this team is more boring than Emery’s.
I actually fell asleep watching that shit
I did.
Mind you, the wife cooks a lovely Sunday lunch and the half a dozen beers might have had a hand in me nodding off.
That, and the relentless sideways passing. It’s gone beyond a joke now.
He won the FA cup in our worst season since god knows when. He’s had one challenging window to alter a squad full of holes, in a year like no other. He’s a young manager with a lot to learn. But he’s a great communicator, understands the values of the club and we have played attractive football under him before and beat big teams. Yes, he’s got problems to solve but I’d give him a chance for a good 2 or 3 years before I start calling for his head. It’s nonsense to think just because we’re not the invincibles… Read more »
See actually they have games in hand on us, but really there is very little difference in terms of results at this stage.
Feeble excuse.
Who gives a shit if other teams are playing poorly? We should be capitalising in that, not hiding behind it.
I agree almost completely. I do think this is a concerning datapoint though, given how completely predictable their tactics were and how little he did to counter them.
Embarrassingly reactive fanbase once again.
No. A few pennies have dropped tonight, that’s all.
You’ll learn.
It makes me cringe
The ‘Arteta Out’stuff is just plain childish and something I predicted would happen on this page ages ago.
But let’s not kid ourselves here, there has to be a cause for serious concern. And I’ve said time and again that leaving out Ozil entirely was/is a massive gamble. Ceballos, Willian and even young Willock are not and never will be the answer.
I couldn’t agree more, it’s pathetic….
In some big games we’ve had ‘attractive’ moments but in the main it’s not good to watch or entertaining at all. He’s IS a great communicator. He DOES understand club values but neither detract from what should be clear and obvious…..we are terrible at attacking. It’s not personel. It’s set-up, the approach. It’s the directives given to players. These players play how they’re told. That’s absolutely clear by how they build up. They go forward as they’ve been coached. Players run where they’re told. They pass where they’re told. They play at the pace they’re told. This is arteta’s vision.… Read more »
Ok, he needs to improve our attacking movement and find a winning combination. It hasn’t been good enough this season, I agree and he plays a big part in that. But sometimes it is players not executing the vision, a bit of bad luck, a tricky opposition. It’s too much to say ” you’ve had 10 months, if we’re not where we want to be, you’re not good enough”. As we know from our last 10 years, most of football isn’t successive wins on the trot and infallible performances. We’re all perfectionists dreaming of going back to the early 00s… Read more »
I’m not suggesting a change of manager. I’m suggesting that an intelligent man and clearly a very good coach, has a rethink as to how he wants the team to attck. I’d back him to execute any strategic way of playing. I’m suggesting that his current vision isn’t anywhere near effective enough and doesn’t bring out the best qualities of the players we have. There’s potentially a very dangerous very dominant team that he can pick from if played and coached in a different way and shifts personel about slightly. I have no doubt we could go very far this… Read more »
Spot on. This is not going to change overnight.
This pharse ‘overnight’, what does it mean? I hear it all the time. So far it’s about 6 months playing time. Our structure, build up play, defensive set-up have changed and pretty quickly. That’s good coaching. That was set before the season ended. Keep tweaking it for sure but we’re very solid and I’ll wager well have one of the top 2 defensive records in the league come may (or whenever this season ends). Our problems are attacking. I don’t expect us to be fantastic right now. I don’t expect it in 4 or 5 months. I would however, expect… Read more »
I don’t think anyone’s calling for his head just yet, but you have to admit there have been some serious question marks over the way we’ve been playing recently. We’ve clearly made progress, especially in defence, but the cost going forward has also been obvious. We have basically no creativity, we keep going with a 3atb formation and relying on overlapping fullbacks to create space, our £180m front 3 are struggling to produce a single goal between them and we’re consistently failing to create chances. Quite simply, we’re not playing good football. Our failures of last season were papered over… Read more »
Yeh we’re struggling for goals. Was a problem under Emery, was a problem under Wenger sometimes. So was dull football. I’m frustrated with that, maybe a back four would work better, Auba in the middle, who knows. However, we’re 6 games into Arteta’s first full season after a cagey transfer window – it’s not his squad. I could understand if we were 2 or 3 years in and you thought ‘process’ was just a spiel but suggesting 10 months ( fewer if we minus the lockdown, the break) is enough time to start holding Arteta to account is nonsense. Particularly… Read more »
He’s also a manager who has ostracised our STILL best creative midfielder, plays our world class striker on the wing and still plays a hapless joke of a centre half who should have been put out to grass years ago.
Talk about getting rid of the wrong German.
You’re all scared to mention Ozil’s name. But whether you agree or not, out of nothing in a game like this, he’s able to creat 1 or 2 clear chances.There’ll be some form of movement up front and at least he’ll get someone else in an advance better position to creat a chane.I dont know how some watch football, but Ozil is not the type of player who sticks his foot in for a tackle. Its a team work and everyone has a role to play. I for one woundn’t allow the player who creat the goals for my team… Read more »
Must be a different Ozil to the one that Arteta played or the one that Emery played. That one could not create anything in the matched he played either.
That is if both managers played him to his strength.Go back and watch the games he played under both managers again and pay attention to Ozil’s positioning and getting runners into good positions to create the clear cut chances for our goals. Not so much under Emery, he had no Vision to play that type of football anyways and I,m begining to thick Arteta Has the same mentality as Emery. It’s FREE to watch on ARSENAL.COM
Sorry but you can see from the games he played he hardly did anything going forward and was a liability defensively. If only he played as well as you imagine he would be worth a place in the side. There is no getting away from it we have been rubbish for most of the last 3 years but it is going to take ages to change as we don’t spend the money we need to have a good side plus there are a lot of players that are not up to it and we need to get rid of but… Read more »
https://youtu.be/ZHxFXQ3zQ0M
Watch and learn a thing or two. This isn’t 2013 or 2014, or 2015, or 2016, or 2017, or 2018 or 2019.
This is THIS YEAR before lockdown.
Bruh Xhaka does little going forward and is a liability defensively. Has no pace has no weak foot and is a starting CM in the EPL lol what a joke. He just isn’t on 350k a week so he don’t get blamed for every loss like Mesut did. Oh and he actually plays CDM a position where defending is of paramount imp unlike Mesut who plays CAM. We’ve spent far more money than Leicester ever did yet Mikel got outcoached terribly by Brendon Rodgers. Because just like Rodgers, Mikel is too predictable. Stop changing systems/player’s positions every other game week.… Read more »
This premier league has changed a lot since ozil first arrived. There’s not a single player playing in any team who plays with his lack of defensive intensity here. If they did they’d be ‘hooked’. That’s the game today in england. Another league maybe he’d be able to impact games without weakening a defensive structure but he’d have to be playing at his peak from 6 or 7 years ago to play nowadays and he’s demonstrated over the last 3 or 4 he’s nowhere near those levels even on a semi consistent basis.
We agree to disagree. That’s the beauty of the game of football hence WHY we spent so much money on Partey and others behind him to give the team the balance it needs and to give anyone of Ozils QUALITY the free range to cause damage to the opposition, be it Ozil or someone of the same calibre. But hey, football hasn’t changed, but tactics and Managing the game has.
We are.
The Europa League conference if I’m not mistaken
Good ebening 2 electric boogaloo
Honeymoon over for our coach. We were pedestrian through out. Everyone’s pushing a single creative player would make us potent but it doesnt work like that. There are no mid-field transitions, player stationary, no off the ball movement. This all comes from coaching !!
Don’t agree with the coaching but…these lads are not good, can’t beat their man, retain the ball or pass
Either Arteta has got it horribly wrong with Ozil or the club have ordered him not to include him because of tv money from China, probably works out more than ozils wages. How on gods earth would we not be more creative with him in the team. Tonight was utter garbage
Ozil would be perfect for such games & would have been good to have him just for the sake of being pragmatic. Cheer up, we played our strongest line-up today. That’s a positive surely…
This forgets all those games in January/February where we created nothing and removed Ozil after 75 minutes having contributed nothing.
https://youtu.be/56rUySpSXE8
Sadly there comes a time when our heroes no longer are able to cut it at the highest level. This has happened to Ozil for some time now including earlier in the year under Arteta where he did nothing.
BTW would you like some links to more of our heroes such as Charlie George, Liam Brady, Dennis Bergkamp or Santi Cazorla in their prime? All brilliant players in their day but sadly no longer able to play at the top level.
Videos of players ‘in their prime’…..? That link that I posted of Ozil was 2020…!!
The fact of the matter is that Ozil was nowhere near as bad as you Anti Ozil Brigade keep bleating.
And certainly nowhere near as bad as the utter shit that Arsenal have served up in the Premiership since his exile.
That’s right. Ozil was creating and doing nothing, game after game. He has lost it and people are still going on about him. It’s so frustrating! Forget about him, he’s finished.
Rubbish. Look at the link I posted of him in 2020 – that’s right, prior to lockdown. He was linking up play between the midfield and the forward lines , dropping deep and fetching and carrying.
This tired old lie about him ‘doing nothing’ is becoming boring now.
Chances created per 90 minutes last season 1. Mesut Ozil – 2.3 2. Nicolas Pepe – 1.9 3. Joe Willock – 1.5 Between the 3 of them one will get zero minutes and the other 2 are getting close to zero minutes. Not saying playing these 3 is the cure to our woes but what is most damning here is that our most creative players last season were in and out of the team and probably made a load of substitute appearances, making it difficult to get any real momentum in their play. No entrenched first team regulars in the… Read more »
For fucks sake Hank…….Ozil can’t fix this
Yes he can!
https://youtu.be/56rUySpSXE8
Sadly there comes a time when our heroes no longer are able to cut it at the highest level. This has happened to Ozil for some time now including earlier in the year under Arteta where he did nothing.
BTW would you like some links to more of our heroes such as Charlie George, Liam Brady, Dennis Bergkamp or Santi Cazorla in their prime? All brilliant players in their day but sadly no longer able to play at the top level.
Hahaha. That month back then when he gave half a shite. I remember.
Maybe not completely Colin but like I said, from a pragmatic point of view I’d have included him in the squad. Horses for courses until we addressed the issue properly in January or at the start of next season. All irrelevant now as he won’t be playing for the club again but we don’t have anyone else who is a natural fit in that role and we will face plenty of other teams who will defend with everyone behind the ball. Hopefully we can find a way to break them down.
Neither can Ceballos, Willian or Willock.
Wake up!
That Ozil is staying at a club knowing he can’t play regardless of what happens shows his motivation for football has gone completely.
No. It shows a player who has stated on an incalculable number of times that he is ready to play.
It also shows an inexperienced manager who has a lot to learn and who has taken a massive gamble that is already backfiring on him.
Ozil had countless chances over the last 3 years with little effect. How do people suddenly think he is the answer?
Too early to change coaches, but this is the third game in a row when we had no control in midfield whatsoever. The other two were against Liverpool and City, which can be understandable. But against Leicester there really is no excuse, Rodgers was laughing at 80 minutes, probably didn’t think it’d be this easy. Against United I’m fairly certain it’ll be 3 at the back again. But if against Villa it’s still this shite 3-4-3 tactics with no midfield control then I’m really not buying into this whole Arteta is a genius deal. Especially when we have Ozil, Auba,… Read more »
I only saw the first half but we looked to have total control of them midfield then, no?
You can’t say we controlled the midfield when all our plays came from long passes from the cbs.
‘Controlling’ one half of a game without scoring is not going to get us back into the top four.
We are absolutely boring to watch. And kinda sad when it’s our central defenders who are the most creative! High chances leaving Ozil out could prove to be a really stupid move. It would have been justifiable if we were creating enough chances without him. We are creating absolutely nothing.
Btw,I have no idea what Nketia offers.
Thought the same, looked like Emery team when he didn’t play him either. Three holding midfielders today at home. ( I know Partey can play more positions. ) – if trying to be like Liverpool xhaka not got legs like their three But Dani today , nothing creative, second half , is he really a 10 . Would the German gave had to defend. Against a low block , no .. Or bring willock or Nelson on . Team looked tired second half , which is why should have played willock, Nelson on Thursday or even ozil..Eddie would love playing… Read more »
With this approach Arsenal, forget about top 6. They have found you out; sideways, no pace extremely ponderous. Where is our help gonna come from?
Aouar is not the answer when you miss so many opportunities. Also the team look like they are asleep again when we should be chasing.
Define “so many opportunities”
Just from memory, Lacazette had a golden chance, Aubameyang managed to head over and Bellerin was the only one to make a good effort that was saved.
12 shots apparently.
And one disallowed goal. Again, those stats don’t tell you that we went to pieces in the second half when we should have stepped up and put them under pressure. We were supposed to be at home!
That’s three. Hardly peppering their net.
We created very few good opportunities.
Such average performance. Ceballos , auba looked under the weather, we have zero depth on bench. Too much defensive. Didnt understand tierney substitution at all, he offers more than Xhaka be it covering or bursting forward. I love how Arteta has got us the defensive stability but would be interesting to see how he builds forward with 433 with the disastrous Mustafi in the defence. Where was he for the goal.
Mustafi was ball watching when Vardy header crossed the line.
He did more than that. He dropped a fellow team mate in the shit by losing his player and just standing there leaving Gabriel to choose who to mark between Under and Vardy. Gabriel chose to try and prevent the cross but you could see him telling Mustafi to cover him and take out the runner – and Mustafi could barely be arsed to trot into the box and give us his usual oscar-nominating shout at the sky performance, as Vardy left to celebrate. I’ve said it a billion times and I’ll say it again; until we’re rid of Mustafi,… Read more »
Sokrates is our fastest c.b. , it was widely reported this year in the annual time trails at training. Better for marking Vardy or reacting and getting back in position . Can not see the logic on the pitch! For not having him in the squad rather than chamber injured more than not for last 2 season ( he is decent, a bit slow , but injured ) or Mari ( injured) , even if up to January. I know Arteta wants to move Sokrates on eventually. Mustafi instead rushed back from injury. Looked less than fully fit
Generally agree although I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s feeling a bit Emery. I feel like people know their jobs now, we have structure and are defending well as a team – until we try to create (which we can’t) and then they were in. With Emery it was just chaos.
Not quite Emery but there’s a genuine danger that it could easily go that way in the next few months.
Ceballos? Willian? Mustafi?
No thanks…
Feel sorry for anyone who paid £15 to watch that. Yeah the goal should’ve stood but after that we were poor and pretty one dimensional. Hate to say it (and I’m by no means a #freeozil type) but that really was a game where we desperately needed that kind of creativity, at least off the bench. My hope is that ESR is that man and once hes back fully fit will be given some opportunities but I’m nervous to pin all our creative Hope’s on him. Definitely the next signing we need to make is someone to fill that role.… Read more »
Even if we bring CR 7 or MESSI there is nothing they’ll do.Auba is among the stop scorers in the world.now hes there WASTED.no creativity in th final third.no killer pass.no penetration.in fact there is nothing to watch from Arsenal.I can swear i went to sleep only to wake up to see what i had anticipated a LOSS.Please i dont wish to look biased bit MO10 would open any team’s tight defence with a KILLER PASS.Sorry to mention MO10 but credit should be given when its due.
Our midfield is a donut that we refuse to address. Occasionally we played as a 433 and those were our most impressive moments. 2nd half arteta got schooled by Brenda. Leicester (smartly) pressed xhaka’s every touch and made him a liability and a target when we had the ball. Took away our control of both momentum and possession and playing xhaka as a hybrid CB/LB is just waiting to be burned. There is no less mobile player in the EPL. The goal is on arteta. So is our refusal to consistently play 3 in midfield. I said before the game.… Read more »
Pinning all your hopes on a youngster who only had a solid loan at a championship team last time out will do you, nor the boy, any good.
Terrible, terrible. Sideways and to the left. Nothing through the right, nothing creative in midfield as you said. We had more creativity with Benayoun in the team! I’m sick of this now, it is boring, it is lazy, it lacks sharpness and for all of the defensive solidity that we’ve have of recent times, we can always rely on Mustafi to be out of position when it matters most. Is Saliba really that bad?? I can only pray that Arteta learns from this and bloody changes it because this is depressing. We have lost 3 in 6 and it is… Read more »
Bored the shit out of me that game! No creativity whatsoever, bar the Auba to Bellerin chance, and Tierney atleast trying things! Laca missing chance after chance shows why Aube needs to play in the centre!
Gutted Luiz went off, he was our biggest outlet, from defence of all places! Even worse, Mustafi allowing Vardy all that space, then throwing his hands out as of it was someone else’s fault.
I’m all for Arteta and his ‘process’ but would like to know where the process is taking us!
Auba in the center! Agreed
Ceballos was disappointing. A strange player, sometimes looks class at other times bang average.
I though he got subbed off at one point. It’s like a hole opened up in the pitch and swallowed him up.
Not fit . Play mo.e. or willock or amn
It’s not fantasy football. If players not fit don’t play them or put in premier League squad , chambers Mari.
It wasn’t four at the back though. This was ostensibly the same formation with Xhaka at LCB instead of Kolasinac or Tierney. Arteta set’s all his midfielders up to be essentially screens for his CBs to ping long balls into the channels. David Luiz got the injured and suddenly that’s not feasible anymore, in as much as wasn’t really successful before he was injured. And Arteta changed nothing. The impetus moved more towards Xhaka to do the pinging, but he showed, as he has done for the 4 years since he’s been here that he can’t produce shit at PL… Read more »
That’s on Arteta. 1) play Auba down the middle ffs. It’s his best position and Lacazette can’t currently hit a barn door. Please don’t be so bloody stubborn. 2) Foffana played pretty well tonight for LFC tonight didn’t he? And his old playing partner Saliba (Same age) is where exactly? 3) Arteta got tactically schooled by Rogers tonight. 4) no creativity, no chance. Anyone who thinks this team will make top 4 is in fantasy land. Sort it out Mikel, that was worse than Emery.
I agree with most your points but always find it funny when the manger of the team who are mostly on the back foot but win “schools” the other manager.
I think we all knew Rodgers would sit back and catch us on the break. We had to break them down and if we didn’t, we could get caught.
Simple enough tactics. Nothing particularly sophisticated about it.
Teams will do this all season.
The press is seen as the only important thing for Arteta , but we only will need to do it for Liverpool, city , maybe Chelsea,
All other teams will sit back on us
Including spurs and utd
This is our way. When your team lacks creativity, exclude the only player who was once capable to create something different.
Arteta is over thinking Auba’s position. He is clearly our main goal threat, with not much involvement in build up play. Hence, needs to be closest to goal. His movement is clever enough to create problems for the back line.
Our defence was terrible for their goal. Only Gabriel was aware. Xhaka as usual was putting his arms up, as was Mustafi. Vardy is the new Drogba against us!
For me the issue was that Leicester were very good at the tactical foul. With a packed defence like they used, chances to break them down will naturally be few. Those we did create were broken up at the cost of a bunch of yellow cards, and also led to our most creative player on the night going off injured.
Well said, J4H. First of all, he needs to stop pissing about once and for all and play Auba as a central striker. End of story. Secondly, I don’t quite know how many more Premiership points Mustafi is going to throw away before people finally WAKE UP and smell the coffee – especially Arteta. And as for our lack of creativity, this high pressing game is all very well, but if you don’t have someone who can pick opposition defence locks, then you are going to struggle. We had that player – and now we don’t have him – and… Read more »
This result is on the players.
Individual errors compounded by baffling tactical decisions.
How was tactical though. We played 4-3-3 that everybody’s been crying out for. It doesn’t matter what formation we play, the players ain’t good enough.
That was as clear a 3 at-the-back as I’ve seen Dave..
We had 2 midfielders, and nobody between the lines. Again.
Semantics. Makes no difference. Players didn’t play with any intensity at all. We can’t keep blaming coaches when it’s the players who under-perform.
It’s not semantics when it’s two distinctly different things.
Oh my bad. That’s what we needed to be a top four team. For Xhaka not to drop into defence. Or for Auba to play as a central striker. Thanks for clearing that up.
You discuss things like a ten year old. Constantly changing your argument, arguing against straw men exclusively.
Nonsense. Square pegs in round holes again. Auba cannot build the play, especially from the right. Xhaka is glacially slow, so don’t play a high line with him in a back 3. They literally scored because he couldn’t catch up his man. Either put him higher up the pitch or leave him out entirely. He takes 4 f-ing touches every time. And I’ll say it again, there’s nobody between the lines for the midfielders to pass to. Only a double man-marked out at LW.
It’s clearly not semantics when a 433 and another body higher up the pitch for the first half in particular would have been a huge help in breaking down their low block.
That was not a 4-3-3
Good one! It’s the players that are asking Auba to hug the touchline and lump long balls over the top to Lacazette.
When you can’t progress the ball through midfield, it doesn’t matter where your striker plays.
Who did they have to progress the ball to? A man-marked Laca with 2 centre backs up his arse? Just the wide ball to Auba hemmed into the touchline. Great. Auba up top stretches defences and puts them on the back foot. Laca works hard, but his constant dropping deep is so easy for their defence, they are automatically on the front foot and clean up every time.
Yeah, he’s begging the question here. You couldn’t ask for an easier setup for a deep block to defend than what we showed up with today. There was no effort to work through the midfield, just the same left wing overlap again and again, to the same result as usual.
the coach….he coaches them to play that way, he picks them from a group of many
So Wenger, Emery and Arteta have been coaching them this way? There’s only one constant and that is the players.
Mhm not a single change to the squad in years. If only.
Mhm not a single change to the coach in years. If only
You made the claim that the players were constant. You can’t just discard an argument when we can all still see it above.
The point I’m making is. You can argue tactics as much as you wan’t. If the players under-perform it makes no difference.
And if the tactics didn’t put the players in a position to succeed?
It’s impossible to perform to your best when you’re not put in the right position to.
A wise man once said if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.
You do realise this midfield is different from the one Wenger had? So its not the players its the coaching, if we all agreed Wenger was finished and Emery was useless, Arteta..? You can blame the players all we want, none of you know anything about Arteta’s style of football. What if this is his style?
if only we had a creative player to fill the void 🤔
sorry the manager has to take some responsibility–save saka and tierney the rest is a shit show going forward
creativity non existent
1 cross and shot in second half
are we the home team and then he says he could get the guy to perform
all lies and bullshit
at least honour the principles you played with at arsenal– attacking attractive football–then if you lose at least the supporters haven’t wasted 95minutes of their lives watching drab sideways projects your trying to copy off your mate
we will end up mid table for some time to come
kroenke out
Nope, it’s all on Arteta
It’s on the players, but the biggest buck stops with the manager.
He chose to select Mustafi.
He chose not to select Ozil.
Fucking hell.
There it is again.. the Ozil shaped hole
Yep.
Oh I’m definitely worried about Auba now.
The big contract strikes again.
I fucking hope not, but I’m not entirely sure how he’s supposed to perform in this tactic? Same goes for Pepe. I’ll reserve my thoughts on Laca lol
Don’t talk rubbish, it’s got nothing to do with the contract and everything to do with the guy being played out of position, time and time again.
Calm down. It was a light hearted comment because if Arsenal’s past. I would 100% agree he is always played out of position and Pepe is starved of the ball recently.
Here’s another light hearted comment.
Check out our league position and then get used to it.
Yep, yep and yep
If you’d play him in the middle, maybe something would happen. Madness.
Just when you thought we’d go 433, there it is again, this 5 at the back horseshoe shite. Thank god I didn’t spend my hard-earned on that.
Playing a high line with xhaka is absolutely idiotic. We needed another player in midfield, not a liability at the back.
I feel so sorry for those who paid the extra £14 for PPV. I would never put a dime on a shitshow like this. This is so unacceptable. There is absolutely nothing to watch from this team. I don’t really see the plan here. Are we a defensive team? (then why do we sack at defending). Whom r we trying to be. Honestly this arsenal team makes me really miss the Wenger days. Hopeless gooner here.
in fairness, in don’t think it’s that bad. We completely dominated the first half. thats promising. we could have taken one of those half chances. yes, it went to shit in the second half so that stays fresher in the mind but that first half was decent. they only had one crappy shot in the whole first half
Sorry mate, but with the exception of that opening day win against a poor Fulham side, we have become predictably piss-poor.
And you don’t have to be a latter day Jimmy Hill to decipher why.
Glad I paid the £14.95 to Charity but not that I watched free stream of that predictable performance
We’re just so boring.
I got told to go support another club for saying that last week. Arteta is learning on the job and will probably end up a very good manager but a lot of that will depend on whether he is brave enough to change something which isn’t working. If he carries on stubbornly doing the same shit, he will be remembered as a guy who spoke well and nothing else. Over to you Mikel. And yes everyone in the world knew Vardy would get the winner tonight
Yes. Sorry, but letting Vardy beat us on that type of break was just stupid. Let some guy named Under shoot.
Sokrates is fit , and our fastest CB. Should have been available not 80% fit mustsfi, injured Mari and chambers. Sokrates. Should have been in the premier squad I agree with you in part learning on the job . Does Mikel have any one over 50 with premier League experience on his staff
Left field suggestion David platt ,ex player , ex city and won league helping Manchini understand the league ..
I don’t know in which dimension Arteta thought Lacazette deserved 90 mins. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but imagine swapping him for a Pepe at half time and playing Auba centrally
I think that was the plan but Saka was hurt and had to come off. Why we can’t play Nelson I don’t know, he’s been good before and can put the ball in the net but Arteta doesn’t seem to like him, the same as he didn’t like Martinelli and wouldn’t play him before he got injured in training, and Ainsley hasn’t been playing either. Saka has played a lot, I hope his ankle will be alright.
We tried to bored them to surrender. Didnt work out. And while Lacazette was walking from 56th minute, Rodgers came up with the brilliant idea to introduce some speed to test Xhaka. Our brilliant plan to play with 3 DMs out of the window. Maybe we should play 7 defenders and 2 DMs and 2 Gks. This will do the trick.
Doesnt seem like they rate Runarsson though.
He looks rubbish on youtube, and that’s really hard to do.
It looks like we got what we deserved. The only question is how we have such a high wage bill for this.
Thats a valid point with a fairly straightforward answer. The real tragedy though is in the fact that just as we were getting fairly close to clearing the books we’ve added the high wages of Soares, Willian, Luiz and Mari, none of whom seem likely to be différence makers.
Yes, this repetition of past mistakes is particularly difficult to swallow.
Ask Guendouzi!
Ok, I’m gonna say it. I hate watching this Arsenal team play.
I’m still behind Arteta, I’m still holding out hope that we’ll improve and soon, but we are just woeful to watch right now.
I would love to be this optimistic but some of Arteta’s decisions are driving me away. I believe that he likes to play like this. This is his style – just as Simeone likes to play conservative. This is the reason why Arteta dropped Ozil and Martinelli even though they’d been the most creatively productive players in the team right before they were dropped. Unfortunately, there are not many players in the world who can ace both defending and creativity simultaneously. Yet, every team in the EPL wants to deploy a system (the so called modern football) with only such… Read more »
Nothing to add
It’s a shame the fans weren’t there as I would have liked to have seen the team booed off the pitch. Woeful.
Sadly I felt exactly the same. The kind of pressure you can’t fake
It’s better for the club there was no fan or they would have probably sung Özil song as they did under UE short before the previous coach got sacked…
Chance creation now becoming a major issue for the squad. Boy can we defend – until we try to score and then we can’t. Taken to school by big teeth himself.
But with Mustafi fucking about, even our defending is suspect – and that’s putting it politely.
Pretty obvious our attack simply isn’t working. Teams have figured out Artetas system now – Leceister was more than happy to let us go sideways and backwards. Laca simply isn’t playing well and we need to think about going to a fast dynamic front 3 with Auba central
Really frustrating. Leicester used the rope-a-dope routine, which worked so well for Sp’r last year. If some of those chances went our way it could have been quite different. Guess this is payback time for the luck we had in the early matches.
Laca really looks so poor alright. Striker is next on the list for sure. He looks to be on holiday. It’s so strange how it seems like he has lost it all. I honestly think if we had a good striker, we would have been 2 up at half time
We have one of the worlds best strikers – we just play him on the wing which means he’s the guy crossing instead of being on the end of them
Playing with the handbrake on. Anyone remember? This is exactly what it means to play with the handbrake. Different season, different players, same problems.
We should’ve sold lacazette when he still had some market value and play one of the best strikers on the planet on his position
A striker and/or attacking mid seems like a January priority now, yeah
Laca is tonights scapegoat.
He had what, 3 great chances and he put one in the back of the net, for it to wrongly be flagged offside.
Laca is t the problem. Ceballos, xhaka, and pedestrian tactics are the problem. And mustafi. How many time has mustafi not doing the basics right cost is 3 points? How many times??
WTF was MA thinking putting him in.
Mustafi is a walking calamity. Yet Ozil isnt even on the team … for footballing reasons.
Give me a fooking break.
Kind of shameful how we created so little in a game where they gave us so much space.
Boring, boring Arsenal is back.
The difference being that back in Terry Neil and Don Howe’s day we had Liam Brady. And in George Graham’s day we had Rocky.
Who have we got now? Ceballos. 😂
Unfortunately, the old references to “boring, boring Arsenal” were from home teams that we shut out and then scored a single winner against. This is a new boring Arsenal.
Have to say a rather flat display from the team tonight..
And its such an unpleasant TV experience. Commentators constantly hoping for Leicester to grab a goal and shitting on Arsenal, wtf!
“rather flat” is very diplomatic.
Fuck me, this one hurts more than any other defeat.. Everyone knew what Rodgers’ game plan was and still we couldn’t contain that one bastard!
I love the man but this one is on Arteta.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. We deserved everything we got for playing exactly into the opposition’s plan. Contain pressure, Bring on Vardy, force a turnover, isolate one of our CBs and cross to Vardy.
It was so obvious that was Rodgers plan and the team still fell for it.
The only thing we didn’t deserve was our disallowed goal.
I am not surprised we’ll see Leicester lose in their next game and wonder why we didn’t what that team did.
Just predictable.
Lethargic. Lacklustre. Headless chickens with no creativity. 170 mail forward line who couldn’t score one goal at home!
Mehhhhhhh…..The records have started tumbling
That was a pretty dismal watch. We have no cutting edge at all.
Terrible. Take a lap.
Is it time to worry that Arteta is incapable (or unwilling) to pick an even vaguely attacking line up? We are so insipid going forward.
Not sure I think it is a line up issue (although many of us would have tweaked the squad, i don’t think it would have been by too much).
I think we are seeing Arteta’s personality on the pitch now – disciplined, organised, structured, hard-working. However, also lacking a bit of flair.
Nobody likes it up ’em…and we have to be taking these games (AT HOME) right to the opposition.
Interesting – but there’s not much room for hope if you’re right!
That was arguably our best starting 11. About the only thing you can do from here is stick Laca on the bench, play Auba centrally and put Nelson / Pepe on the other wing. 4-3-3 will only work if we have the creativity and speed of ball movement. As it stands we have the back 2 midfielders sorted and depth there but no obvious first choice for the advanced position.
I’m not sure. I think we need to reconsider the midfield personnel and maybe the structure too. The midfield three today was far too conservative. We shouldn’t need three deep lying midfielders at home (or at all really, except perhaps against Liverpool/City etc). Arteta needs to pick two of them and put an attacking midfielder in front. And, as much as I hate watching Laca, the system we play really makes playing CF a really miserable, thankless task. And cos his legs have gone he looks even worse than he is.
Depressing. After a promising start, we’re seeing the same frailties over and over again. No creativity. No real pace or incisiveness. Made for pretty sad viewing.
Auba wide, pushing Ceballos and Xhaka to the wings – smacks of a manager trying to make a reputation.
He’s not learning, and that’s what got Wenger and Emery in trouble. Younger managers are supposed to be more open to changing what doesn’t work.
Same shit different day. What has changed since emery left. Awful football no style and void of any ideas. That second half was one of the worst I ever seen. Arteta supposedly models himself on pep but the football he sets the team out to play is very negative. Pathetic performance against a very average Leicester side
Yes the second half was shit but the first hald was pretty good imo. We won the first half easily, they won the second. A draw was a fair result but we also could have won it from the first half if we had a decent striker
An average side who stuck 5 on Citeh at the Council ground but pathetic none the less.
Its a weird season all around.
Auba played on the wing instead of centrally and Mustafi somehow being allowed not only in the squad but on the pitch.
And as for our ‘creativity’……
uncharacteristically loose from Ceballos and Laca doesn’t look up to it at the moment. Would have gone with Pepe or at least Nketiah
Sheesh, that was, frankly, some boring shit. Once more.
Process here, process there. I don’t see anything. No progress, no courage. Just the same old lackluster shit.
Stayed up until 4AM just to see Mustafi in red and white again. And he was do*s*it. That linesman was also a cunt, unless Kasper is blind there’s no way Xhaka was on his line of sight.
Been saying it all along that Arteta is learning on the job!
Absolutely pathetic bunch. Our play is monotonous, predictable and so, so boring. It is clear we lack creativity in our midfield. We need to sort out this situation with Ozil, currently cannot see anyone else getting that right for us and Ceballos is definitely not the answer!
You look towards our bench and honestly…its laughable!
Yeah, we need some creative players like Jordan Henderson and Giorginio Wijnaldum.
Outdone by Brenda. Pathetic.
Undone by Stan. Depressing.
That was just like watching Arsenal during late Arsene and Emery. Same old story getting caught on the break yet we cant seem to break the offside trap ourselves, no movement up front and no one to break through the lines. I feel like I need to rant, but I don’t have the enthusiasm anymore – said it too many times over the last few years.
Also late Graham and Neill eras when we’d play CBs in midfield and play workhorses in place of talent.
Too often when we were 1-0 down, there was no way to bring the play forward. Xhaka’s forward passes take an age to execute, after he’s made it clear to everyone what he’s about to do. Often passing backwards unnecessarily when we were past 80 minutes – back to the keeper on 87 becuase the midfield was too far from Bellerin. Rubbish.
ARTETA OUT!!!
Stop it. You’re making my sides ache. You fickle lot on here are so predictable. 🤣
No. Not yet.
Shite. Bag of. One.
Already 3 losses this season.
Missing creativity.
I don’t get what we a fans can do. Whole game we kept possession and they did not had a single shot on target with 1 only 1 chance created. Suddenly they cross ove the head and bang goal.
We neither have luck nor creativity. This season gone too.
I’m starting to have serious issues with Arteta. Lack of imagination, lack of intensity and lack of comprehension of the clearly fucking obvious tactic Leicester were going to use. Probably alot to do with Mustafi having the awareness and aptitude of a lame donkey, but still. Someone definitely needs to have a word in Arteta’s ear and say “Instead of trying to be so fucking clever, how about playing the best players in their best positions, eh?” Chucking all your attacking players on after going down to an easy to predict goal is not having a proper plan and clear… Read more »
Nketiah needs to go out on loan and learn how to be something other than a tap in artist
I don’t think it’s fair to judge him on 10 minute cameos and being played out of position, it’s not like Lacazette is offering anything better.
And I don’t see anybody complaining about Vardy.
The only thing this players are good for is losing the ball, once they start passing in the opponents half it is a short countdown to them losing the ball….keeping it on the ground in our half then start looping it once they get into the opponent’s half to the wing where we try to cross to our very tall striker who is widely known for his goalscoring exploits with his head like we some fucking STOKE CITY!!!!!!
Somewhere between the FA Cup win and the end of the transfer window have been some truly baffling decisions, with everything signed off by Arteta (technically). The hesitation/indecision on Saliba earlier this month, coupled with the Luiz extension puzzles me about the focus on Gabriel early in the transfer window. Don’t get me wrong – even considering the extensions, I think he is probably the best signing of the transfer window. But as tonight’s game highlighted, we don’t have the numbers, never mind quality, in midfield (at least in the attacking sense). I think the Willian conversation is over, since… Read more »
i mean saka is good but is he good enough to replace himself?
George Graham’s side (boring, boring Arsenal) were considerably more entertaining!
I wonder where we’d be if we’d signed Mourinho.
Fuck that shit.
We’re not that desperate.
Agree with other comments here. We were: Total. Effing. Shite.
A big fat zero for incisiveness, creativity, penetration and looking like we gave a f*ck.
Hmm. Seems I got moderated on the last thread. For using the word f u c …K.
Though others seem not to have been.
That’s fun, thanks Blogs!
Mustafi! A wildcard indeed.
I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve warned people about him. And yet they still support him. Utter lunacy.
Let’s be honest, we just haven’t been good enough since the opening game. We’ve played well in spells in a few games but, overall, it’s been very disappointing. We don’t score freely and we almost always concede, a deadly combination – for us! Clearly, Arteta needs to do something. We’ve spent a lot of money (for us) in the past year or so – Pepe and Party cost over £120 million between them. Hopefully, we will improve, and pretty quickly. If not, and some other teams finally get their act together, we will be in a desperate fight for a… Read more »
And you were so happy about Ozil’s omission – chirping on about keeping the champagne on ice and corks popping next May.
Well, fill your boots. Come May, the way things are going, we could very well become embroiled in a relegation dogfight.
We have absolutely zero creativity. Absolutely zero. Everything we do is rehearsed and methodical. We don’t make any risky passes, no balls in behind from midfield, we almost never cross the ball into the box, preferring to cut back the ball every time!! We don’t use our pace at all, our wingers don’t use any of their dribbling skills. We are absolutely wasting all the attacking Thaler we have. Saka, Pepe, Laca, and even Auba are all wasted because we create almost zero situations in which the ball is ahead of them. This is Emery with a better defense. Many… Read more »
Why can’t we dribble with pace like everyone always does against us? Boring watching Arsenal right now.
THIS. I also don’t understand it
We have the players for it. Makes no sense!
I agree, it’s a huge issue, but other than Saka, we don’t have any dribblers. Pepe should be one but he’s pretty shit. Pepe HAS to work though so I would keep playing him. Drop Lacazette and get someone for the left. Give Nelson a go
Pepe can work, but he’s playing from the wrong place. Pepe is a high risk/high reward dribbler – he commits defenders and beats them 50% of the time. When he’s in their final third, it means half the time he loses the ball in the least dangerous part of the pitch, and half the time he’s through on goal, so it’s well worth it. When he’s playing as a RWB, it means half the time he loses the ball in a place we’re very vulnerable to a counter, and half the time he goes straight into another 50/50 challenge against… Read more »
‘Give Nelson a go.’
This is what it’s come to and we’re not even out of October.
For fuck’s sake, this is Arsenal Football Club, not a virtual reality game show. Nelson is not the answer.
We have no one who can do it, except maybe Saka, and he can’t do it consistently. Bellerin tries sometimes, but he charges forward and has no control. Pepe seems like he could, until he runs into a defender and coughs up the ball.
Because we have an experienced one time world class player, who could still do a good job for us, being paid £350k a week to train – and nothing more.
Passing sideways and backwards until we lose the game…good job Arteta