Result: Rapid Vienna 1-2 Arsenal
Competition: Europa League
Date: 22 October 2020
Venue: Allianz Stadion
Arsenal: Leno, Cedric, Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac, Saka, Partey, Elneny, Pepe, Nketiah, Lacazette
Subs: Runarsson, Macey, Bellerin, Tierney, Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Nelson, Willock, Xhaka, Aubameyang
David Luiz and substitute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were on the scoresheet as Arsenal stumbled to a 2-1 victory over Rapid Vienna in their Europa League group stage opener.
After a tawdry goalless first half, the Gunners deservedly fell behind when Taxiarchis Fountas, pouncing on a poor pass by Bernd Leno, fired home from close range.
Going behind seemed to spark Mikel Arteta’s side into action and two goals in quick succession, first from Luiz’s head and then Auba’s tap in, secured three points on the road.
Pre-game
Thomas Partey was handed his first start for the Gunners as Mikel Arteta made seven changes from the side that started the defeat to Manchester City. Our new signing lined up in the centre of the park alongside Mohamed Elneny with Eddie Nketiah, Pepe and Alex Lacazette, captain for the night, in attack. At the back, Bernd Leno retained his place in goal while Cedric and Sead Kolasinac made their first appearances of the season alongside Brazilian duo Gabriel and David Luiz and Bukayo Saka.
First half
The first half was boring. Really boring. A level of boring that rivals being invited to a three-hour work meeting that has nothing to do with you and they’ve banned the use of phones so you can’t even pretend you’re sending an important email while you’re actually scrolling Twitter. REALLY, REALLY BORING.
Vienna were more than happy to sit back in a compact unit and soak up pressure. In response…well, there was no response. We went from side to side and, in open play, created no chances whatsoever. Sure, David Luiz had a tame header from a free-kick saved but that was the sum total of our attacking output.
At the other end, Leno made a couple of stops to deny Fountas, the home side’s tricky Greek striker. They were the types of save you’d trust your gran to make, but not our reserve keepers; both of whom the boss left on the bench to doze.
Other things of note? There were some fans in attendance. Hard luck for them. And the ref was a total bellend, booking three of our players, including Lacazette who seemingly smiled at him too aggressively.
Second half
Having been a right fussy bastard in the opening 45 minutes, it was quite impressive that the Czech official missed Nketiah, already on a yellow, introducing himself to some lad’s face with his elbow. With VAR not in operation in the group stages of the competition, we kept 11 men on the pitch. Saka was similarly lucky a few moments later when a ball hit him on the arm in the box.
Vienna looked the more adventurous of the two sides and on 51 minutes they broke the deadlock. They didn’t have to work that hard for it; Leno laid things on a plate for them, making an absolute hash playing out from the back. The German’s attempted pass to Partey was intercepted in the box and Fountas fired home on the angle. (1-0)
Leno wasn’t done wearing his clown mask. Just before the hour mark he misplaced another pass and was forced to make a desperate save. Clearly irked, Arteta sent on Aubameyang and Bellerin for Nketiah and Cedric.
Whether it was the substitutions or a mild sense of panic that kicked in, we got a bit better and with 20 minutes remaining we grabbed an equaliser. Having been taken out by a guy on loan from Barnsley, Pepe dusted himself down, swung in a free-kick and Luiz headed home. (1-1)
Leno continued to play like a man protesting at his inclusion in the team. Racing out of goal to sweep up a ball over the top he swiped a clearance against Gabriel and was lucky that Vienna’s effort at his open goal was high and wide.
Just to rub salt in the wounds of the home side, we took the lead seconds later. Elneny found Bellerin with a defence-splitting pass, the Spaniard rolled the ball across the six-yard box and Aubameyang tapped home. (2-1)
Arsenal were happy to hold Vienna at arm’s length in what remained of the game. Pepe tried a curler that went over the bar and Leno capped his evening with a booking for time-wasting but otherwise, it was uneventful.
Europa League football. It’s just as you remembered it.
mehh
Amazing what happens when we actually start playing some football though. Game was absolutely dead until the 60th minute, then we started putting pressure on and the goals came. If we’d sustained that pressure, I’m not sure Vienna would have finished with 11 players on the pitch.
Yeah, it’s been a problem at Arsenal for years now — we just can’t seem to play for 90 minutes, and we take forever to get into a game. That’s up to the manager to fix, and I’m sure he’s working on it.
I know Elneny can look a little boring sometimes, but he’s just rock solid, and today, our creative mastermind – what a pass!
Partey is good.
I don’t expect the team to necessarily play at top gear for the full 90, but some signs of life before 60 minutes are gone would be nice. Hard to even call our spurts of form sporadic when they only occur once a match.
At least we’ve got Cedric until 2024
Right guys? Guys..?
Raul’s legacy
lol, this made my day! What a signing!
Real glad we registered Cedric, our third choice right back, over Ozil, our only number 10, for the squads this year. Even if you have doubts about Ozil, there’s no way that any creativity he brings to the team is worse than the absolute nothing we get right now.
Probably because he would look really stupid if he abandons the player he had a hand in bringing in? I mean, his loan move was made permanent after Arteta came in I think?
If you don’t have to, don’t. Fixture on Saturday. Elneny looked solid on that pass, and it just goes to show that there was no need to be physical, and the space was there for someone solid to take advantage of. Get him pressed by top 10 EPL opposition, and he’ll be the safe guy again…
In other words, it was good that they didn’t try so hard and won. Leno seemed to have a bad day though. Maybe he’s really nervous about covid or having a proper centerhalf pair ahead of him.
Were Arteta having balls as purported, he shoulda made Martinez no.1 period! Anyhow, a win from a rather dull boring match. Let’s say we count our wins one by one; one day at a time!
Really,Martinez played 11-12 games last season,and all of a sudden he’s the next Lev Yashin, before we anoint him as the second coming, let’s judge him on a full PL season.
Leno had a mare today, but it happens to players all the time.
You deserve an upvote just for the Lev Yashin reference. A lesser mortal would have settled for Buffon or Cassilas.
Lev Yashin is one of those players whose abilities are unquestioned cos only a handful of people who are still alive have actually seen them play. A bit like Sir Stanley Matthews.
I lost. Bet my missus someone would bring up Martinez in the first five comments. Had to wait a whole 10 before this one. Zzzz
Oh no! You shouldn’t bet your missus. it is never that serious. You should your sleep instead.
I felt the same when we let Szczesny go, but you can’t look back now.
Exactly. It’s a pointless argument.
I really like Arteta but he needs to ditch the conservatism. Why do we need to play a back 3 in the Europa League? At some point we’ll likely need to think about a back 4 to kickstart what’s a pretty anemic offense. This is the place to start that process
I think it’s because Davis Luiz is downright terrifying in a back 4, but is usually pretty good in a 3-man back line.
If we ever get a couple more central defenders healthy, we could try pairing Gabriel with someone better in that formation– Holding, Chambers, even possibly Mustafi.
This is the answer
Luiz doesn’t have the legs or concentration for a back 4
Agree totally with this, but believe Arteta is just waiting for the right personnel to play a back 4 – Musti was just coming back from a long term injury today and Holding was out. I think if Holding hadn’t picked up that injury we would have played a back 4 today with Holding RCB and Gabriel LCB. We can now do that with Musti too at RCB, but it doesn’t suit Luiz (though he is a quality player in the right formation.) I would expect Luiz to be saved for games against the top 6 and later in the… Read more »
Arteta is doing a great Emery impression.
I felt this as well. Unnecessary tinkering.nketiah at wings is such a waste.
Why didn’t Nelson get more than 60 seconds? Should have had Nketiahs spot. Yet another unbalanced and poor team selection has cost Arteta. He got away with it this time.
What cost? Supporters uncritical praise?
Laca can’t even generate a shot on on one with the keeper. He needs to be sold Asap.
Dude it was 4-4-2, not 3-4-3.
Did you see how high up the pitch Kola was and how much deeper Pepe played today. Pepe was part of the midfield today.
We are the quantum team: both things and neither at the same time. Nobody can stop that. It’s genius from our lego leader
He just needs to get that message through to the players now
3 at the back against Vienna is just not the right approach. We keep getting overrun in midfield and until we drop one of the defenders for an extra creative player, that’s not going to change. Maybe the number 10 role is dead, but at least have someone like Willock or Ceballos in there to make an impact going forward.
The decision to start Nketiah on the left was, putting it simply, a mistake. Our 5-2-3 system struggles to link mids to attack, with Nketiah on the left and Laca up top, I think a two-way radio system was needed to provide even the faintest connection.
Funny thing is, I didn’t even watch the game, only got notifications from Livescore, saw starting lineup and went off our last game against City.
The system we play always pushes the ball wide – just look at any stat charts or maps and this is obvious. The only problem is that 1) our crossing is terrible and 2) noone actually gets into the box. It’s no surprise that Pepe, as a left footed right winger struggles in this formation. If you want to cut inside, you need options in the middle, but playing with just 2 CMs, one of whom usually drops deep to cover the fullbacks, this just doesn’t happen.
Oh absolutely, that is why I was so big on the partey signing because it SHOULD allow us to bring in another midfielder because we finally have some drive through the middle. BUT to remain tight and not become the shipwreck we were at the back last year, he needs to be partnered with mobile mids. Ceballos-Partey-Saka is my dream trio, and Saka can give us the creativity we need through the middle and link the mids to the forwards. I mean, I’m sure Arteta is well aware of this, but wanted to play it safe midweek on the other… Read more »
Think Arteta is beginning to believe his own hype. His team selection are really baffling. As if it’s a crime to do the obvious. They say we more solid, yet we can’t keep a clean sheet no matter the opponent
I don’t think we got overrun in midfield at all. Any “threat” they had was on the counter. (Any “threat” we had, at least until the substitutions, was entirely in my imagination.)
Commentator: “Nelson only has a minute, I’m not sure he’ll get a touch.”
Thomas Partey: “Still a whole minute to go? I will get five more touches.”
What a player this guy looks.
Who needs Ozil when we have Elneny! That thru pass was a thing of a beauty my man
He played the pass, and he barely made it. He was as bad as everyone else until the equalizer. Running around is so overrated.
I thought Elneny was really good, as was Partey. Saka, Eddie, Cedric, Pepe, not so much.
Eleney, over rated….behave.
He had a good game , made the match winning pre assist, which can be the most important pass, give the lad a break.
Arteta likes him because he can play to a strict system, does what he’s told and gives it to players who can do more.
And he can pop a pass out like that every now and then.
Goal… v Barcelona.
That was straight from a training vid around 2 months ago, just before the new season. That exact move
Mesut Elneny
That’s a bit like saying who needs a Ford Mustang when we have a Ford Capri.
An old rusting Mustang which doesn’t start on cold days, perhaps
A bit like our current midfield then.
what’s the point of having a ford mustang if it’s motor is busted and runs at 50% of what it used to?
Or the driver simply doesn’t know how to fix it and get the best out of it.
It doesn’t want to be the best anymore, it wants to play fortnite long into the night, fight silly PR/ego wars and act as a saver of humanity but only in specific causes, while turning its head the other side on others.
Fully behind Arteta, but our football is only marginally more attractive under him than it was with Emery. Obviously we’re so much better at the back, but going forward we haven’t improved at all. A slight worry for me to be honest.
I’ll go as far as saying it’s not more attractive. We just look much more solid tactically… We are playing some horrendous halves of football at the moment. First 60mins were god awful. Let us never experiment with Nketiah and Laca ever again. Completely ineffective is an understatement. A win, but yeah… let’s hope that is a signal to shift to a 4-3-3 systems.
truly agreed.laca after 60 min is just like us plying 10 men. cant wait for gabi to get fit.
Totally correct my friend. Watching Arsenal at the moment is uninspiring to say the least.
Give it time, right now foundation is in the works!!
Under Emery we were horrible at the back, horrible going forward. As long as we’re not conceding 20 shots against mid table teams, I’m happy, no matter how ugly we’re playing. We’ve played pretty football for too long, without getting any positive results. I don’t mind a bit of boring but pragmatic football to stay in the game, then turn it on for 10 minutes like we did against Sheffield and today, score two quickfire goals which consist of a defense splitting pass, and then go back into our shell before our opponents realize what has happened. I think that… Read more »
Top top avie and that picture – well done.
We need to start dominating games and creating more chances. I’m not even gonna mention the ‘O’ word but creativity has to come from somewhere and beyond our wing-backs and Saka there ain’t much of it…
I’ll mention it.
Until we sign a player of Ozil’s quality (that’ll probably require Stan to add another £70m-£80m ‘loan’ to our outstanding debt next summer) we’re going to remain exactly what tonight’s performance was.
Bang average.
You must be O’s best mate, his sister or a wife to be so blindly devoted to a lost cause.
Typical childish Anti Ozil Brigade post.
Mate, I’m just an Arsenal fan – like you. Who knows a quality attacking midfielder when he sees one – unlike you.
Bang average ..which is what Ozil has became since he conned the club to give him a big fat contract…what a world class artist…
It was Gazidis decision to give Ozil the contract. And name me one outfield player who was at the top of his game in Wenger’s final few months and the entirety of Elneny and Arteta’s tenures thus far….? Martinez has been the only player we’ve had on the pitch during the last few years who approached anything like consistently good performances.
Kolasinac has got to be the least mobile player we’ve had in years. He looks like he’s running through quicksand. Even Andre Santos used to look more comfortable on the ball
A win to get us going in Europe and boy o boy, did Partey show flashes of his all round game. Quality, simply superb. Gabriel extremely solid as well I think. Headed clearances are his thing it seems. Up the Arse!
Ref was trigger happy! Cards for no reason.
Also, bad day for Leno.
He was poor, very poor
And no cards for real reason (Nketiah)!
I feel so bad that I could not watch the match cus our cable TV provider does not cover EUROPA League but I’m excited at lsst that we won.
There’s a site for that 😉
you didn’t miss much sAMa…
Poor sAMa, how about some quick research into the matter.. or are you going to be a sheep all your life.
Calm down there, big wolf
Point taken, it’s not even full moon
Just preaching some independent thinking!
Dodgy feeds are not everybody’s cup of tea.
Dominant.
Protagonists even?
Handbrake off, please!
And sell it for scrap while you’re at it!
Rubbish game and an awful turgid performance. We struggled to be a mid-table Championship side. Again, no midfield creativity. Thank goodness for Auba.
Is it too late to bring back Martinez?
Can we not with Martinez
Why not? He’s better.
Martinez is clearly so driven at this point in his career, he wants the No.1 Argentina shirt, and he’s going to get it.
Leno is drifting with no-one behind him to put pressure on.
That’s an opinion, not fact.
This thing about the GK is my bug bear, if players in other positions make a mistake,unless it leads to a goal… nothing said.
Leno has saved us more points than he cost, since he has been at Arsenal….that’s a fact.
I am really grateful for what Martinez done last season, But can we have some perspective, give him a season.
Regardless, he’s not our player anymore.
He’s certainly not better.
And, you can see the future, eh? That’s clearly why you comment under an alias on a fan cite.
Good heavens.
I can. Here’s a prediction for you.
Martinez starts the next world cup.
We don’t win anything with Leno.
See you in the future homie
I’ll make another prediction, you can’t predict the future.
Emi will win the Golden Glove if he carries on like he is now. He’s much better than Leno.
It’s great how you expect everything to change from one day to the other. Try to appreciate what has been done, e.g. A strong defensive record, an FA Cup win…
Seriously if all you’re going to do is be critical after every single game, you might as well stop watching
Bollocks. We have a real problem creating quality chances. If we don’t improve then this season will be a massive disappointment.
Wtf do you expect??? Improvements don’t just suddenly appear.
And before this season we had a real problem creating chances, stopping the opponent from creating chances, holding on to a lead…
He’s been here 11 months…
Come on, he is spot on.How can somebody be not critical of this performance? Yea, hope it gets better but that doesn’t make today’s performance a positive one.
A strong defensive record?
Clearly you didn’t watch Leno going for the ‘Mustafi Of The Year’ award.
I don’t mind the old glass half full nonsense when the glass is, in fact, half full. But please, spare me the forced jollity.
We were rubbish tonight, no more, no less.
People round here tonight tending towards the “Glass half empty and some git spat in it” variety.
Well you thought George Wood was an excellent goal keeper.
I bet you were the only one in the ground cheering for Eboue, Silvestre and Sanogo.
Glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
Is Martinez your response to solve creativity problem!! Oh wait you want to fix that we don’t concede 😀
Can we stop the Martinez love in, he’s not even played a full season in the PL.
But he had a mare, it happens.
He’s higher up the table than we are.
In a side that only a few months back were fighting relegation. Go figure.
Figure what?
16-17 games in the PL and suddenly he’s the one we missed.
When he’s done a season we can judge.
If it turns out that after a full season, at the top level,Martinez has more clean sheets I’ll say I was wrong.
Don’t worry mate, Qwaliteee, is a plastic fan and Ozil fanboy who will find fault in everything. I believe Qwaliteee needs a bit of love to overcome the frustration 😀
And here we go YET AGAIN.
To back Ozil equates to being a ‘plastic fan’ or someone who doesn’t support the club at all, or – as I have been called on this page at least three times – a Spurs fan. Despite that, in all probability, I’ve forgotten more about Arsenal than the abusers in question will ever know.
All keepers have crap games once in a while. We saw Liverpool’s all-conquering Alison hand us a ridiculous goal. We saw the captain of France (I think he plays his club football in England, but we won’t talk about that) make a similar mistake in the World Cup final. The final! But France won, so no one cares. Ok, beating Rapid in the group stage of the Europa League isn’t quite the same but, you know, Arsenal won.
Pants. Really pants. We’re relying heavily on individual moments. For the rest of this game we offered no offensive threat. Lacazette looks like he’s running around wearing concrete. Its not happening for Nketiah either. Gabriel and Partey are great though. We’re really boring under Arteta, if a tough harder to play against.
Football is 25% planning and 75% individual moments to make the plan work.
“Partey after Partey after Partey after Partey”
If you know, you know.
That pun is now only slightly less boring than our football.
That pass from Elneny for the winner was fantastic! No idea how the rest of the game was…
Leno, seriously, kedu?
What was that?!
Anyways, onwards.
#EndSARS
And buhari fucked us over today, #Endsars Nne
We sold the wrong Goalie.
Partey had a good game.
That pass from Elneny though!
Working late so missed the match apart from the odd mins here and there. How was Partey?
Partey was a very bright spot on a pretty mediocre night.
So let’s see what did we learn?
Partey can really play
Elneny can pass the ball forward occasionally
Bellerin is better that Soares
And Leno should drink less Schnapps.
Auba is better than Eddie
And, dare I say it? Leno is not better tha…
George Wood.
Don’t you belittle George Wood. Plenty of appearances at a time when our No 1 was Pat Jennings, who he kept out of the team for almost an entire season because of his performances.
No. I’m not having that. George Wood was utter shite.
An FA Cup Semi Final defeat to Manchester United in April 1983? George Wood in goal.
A 5-0 defeat to Spurs at White Hart Lane, also in April 1983? George Wood in goal.
He was shit – and every Gooner was unanimous. Except you. 🤣
Why you call them Vienna?
fair point actually. in vienna they’re simply called rapid. never “vienna”, it’s not even part of their name (like arsenal is only called arsenal london in germany and austria)
If somebody called us “London”, I’d be offended.
Why offended? There is only one team in London
COYG!
There’s nothing wrong with London, pal.
This means nothing to me
It meant enough for you to comment on it.
It’s a joke – a reference to an Ultravox song from the 80’s.
When bands were actually bands, musicians were real musicians who could actually play musical instruments and write their own songs.
Unlike the crap of today, where, for the most part, a good many ‘artists’ rely on auto tune and stealing bits of melody from the 80’s classics to get themselves a hit.
About as much original ‘creativity’ as Arsenal’s current midfield.
At least three people got this.
I wanted to.
That’s why I was gutted when we sold Emi. We won’t win anything with Leno in goal, he goes to pieces. What the fuck was he doing floating about on the centre line when he’s already made two almighty cock ups? It’s not hating Leno, it’s seeing him as he is, a liability. We now have a goalkeeping problem because Runarsson looks terrible even in his highlights on youtube. Gabi was excellent and so were Thomas and Mo, but we really are terrible to watch. Disappointed that Reiss didn’t get more minutes but I guess the game ended up being… Read more »
Partey was great. Imagine if he had an Ozil in front to give the ball to. Elneny and Luiz did well, Saka struggled and Nketiah still looks as if he needs to go on loan. Hopefully Willock and Nelson will get a chance next week.
There’s a huge ozil shaped hole in this team. Absolutely no-one between the lines, no creativity no spark. He should be in this EL squad at least.
2014 Ozil maybe. Certainly not 2017- Ozil.
And absolutely not 2020 Özil – he’s not even a footballer now, just a really well paid social media pundit.
And STILL better than the crap we’ve currently got on the pitch masquerading as attacking midfielders.
In any case he is still better than the TV pundits, I have to give him that.
This.
I did imagine the same when we first brought in speedy Auba and Laca to replace the immobile Giroud. I actually bought the talk back then that with them ahead of Ozil, he would be firing on all cylinders and we would be serious title contenders. Fast forward to now – All these suppositions that Ozil would be great IF he is able to play now (albeit with pretty much the same front line as before), simply won’t work on me anymore. Coz pretty much of the times, Ozil would just flatter to deceive whenever he is actually on the… Read more »
We may have won but that was very poor from us, was it playing in front of fans or playing 3 at the back I don’t know but we really need to up our game. What was up with Leno today!? I think knowing he will play week in week out has made him a litt complecent which is not good for us.
Was Eddie really on the wing with Nelson on the bench? Arteta is good but he really needs to stop over thiniking his tactics or things might go south very quickly.
A win is a win is a win, but the performance was utter shite.
Unconvincing.
Pepe a one rubbish trick pony?
No. Actually a very good right winger, currently missing the benefit of having a decent number 10 to play off.
The best thing about this game was Mesut liveblogging
Other than that, Thomas, Gabriel very good, 3 points, just an EL game, bring on leicester
Arteta must think Auba is a shit central striker?
He’s not though…
We need a CAM… Oh wait.
Best part of the game for me was hearing real crowd noises.
I’m glad that Leno’s mistakes didn’t cost us the match. The referee had an interesting game.
At least the goal contributions came from the right-sided players this time around. I don’t why it took the boys so long to get in gear.
Thomas Partey is a class act.
When that man settles in, he’ll take the EPL by storm!
Unlike Willian and Ceballos….
Headlines after today’s game:
Emery exposed as Skrull, usurps Mikel Arteta’s place for game night. “I am not gone yet, bitches! Good Ebening!” were the former Arsenal and PSG head coach’s words as he left.
It was a good Partey.
Elneny stakes claim on vacant creative midfield role, splits Vienna better than any divide in the UN.
Leno protests exclusion of fellow German Özil, claims he has been a fan of Emi Martinez all along.
Partey was good and Auba scored (at last) but overall we weren’t convincing – yet again. Still, a win is a win. We’ll have to play better though to make real progress in any of the competitions we’re in. Arteta and colleagues have a lot of work to do with this squad.
Partey looked damned good and he has that steely look of a leader/winner about him Gabriel solid Elneny did well Leno does not inspire confidence at the back Great shot stopper but poor with his feet and catch a ball occasionally Bernd eh? Is it okay for me to think of a cavalier Rosicky & Santi (especially Santi I loved Santi ❤️) back in an attacking Arsenal team ???
I’d like that please oh and can we go back to being a tad more adventurous please ???
Genuinely worried now about our boss. Is this how he wants to play permanently? Does he know how to coach attacking football? I’m not sure. We labour. We created hardly anything. We went behind and then there was urgency. Even then it was with little structure because I don’t think there is one that’s been worked on when it comes to putting the other team under pressure. Maybe it’s still to come but the foundations were laid a while ago. Everyone of those players gets how to play that initial phase. They do it every match. They do it well.… Read more »
They are Rapid Vienna. We are just Vapid.
What is the objective of any football game?
We achieved it last night.
We top our group.
Would you rather be Rapid Vienna today?
A flashback to pre-Arteta times this one. Slow passing and slow movements , only superior quality in single players won us this game. Partey good, Gabriel impress , Elneny should tru to do his today passing
forwards more. Kola is not good enough and why Cedric is in the 25 man squad baffles me. What have Mesut done, killed Artetas pets?
Killed Arteta’s pets and stolen his tub of ‘Lego Head’ hurricane proof styling clay.
As mentioned before, not entirely convincing the moment we drop some first team players, even against this level of opposition (No disrespect to Rapid Weiner) I said it yesterday I am not entirely convinced by Arteta’s approach. We tend to be Unai Emery but with better attention to detail. However we are over cautious, over eleborate and over static. There is a lack of forward thrust without certain players Plus playing out of the back around 6 yard box a recipe for issues. Particularly as Leno isn’t the most gifted with his feet, why insist he try and play like… Read more »
Arsenal taking a shot on goal is starting to become such a rare event! It’s been a trend for a while now that we simply are not getting into positions from where we can influence attacking choices and drive anything above semi quality shots on goal. It’s a difficult question to answer for the manager, and we can all keep saying that we’re more defensively solid under Arteta, but football matches are about both defending and attacking. We’ve seen solid managers come in with decent squads (similar / worse than Arsenal) and turn them around with specific styles of play… Read more »
I tend to think Arteta was employing a strategy of containment. In tonight’s match, he was quite risk averse, and I think you could clearly see that in the way we played up to the 60 min mark. We were waiting for a mistake, rather than creating an opportunity. The irony of course is that Vienna prompted Arsenal to make a mistake and duly profited. Once we fell behind, we suddenly were forced to go on the offensive and effectively took risks in search of not just an equalizer but a winning goal. Is it a case of fortune favoriting… Read more »
In my mind, I tend to equate managerial philosophy in football to the same in business (different parameters etc., but a key part is to deliver competing outcomes). Containment as a strategy NEVER works beyond short term. However, containment combined with macro improvements across parameters over a period of time can drive great outcomes, presuming one can pivot to aggression from containment once a sufficient number of these macro improvements are in place. I do see the incrementality of Artera’s vision in many places (culture, structure, individual improvements etc.), but a transformation will require a strong pivot to aggression in… Read more »
It is fascinating to watch Arteta re-make Arsenal, and it is easy to forget that he’s only been in the job less than 12 months.
This project will require time – and I’m sure his influence will grow. I’m very much looking forward to our game against Leicester and I’m curious to see what kind of game plan we employ against a team that has injury problems with clouds over Vardy and a few others?
Will we be aggressive?