Result: Arsenal 1-4 Manchester City
Competition: Carabao Cup
Date: 22 December 2020
Venue: Emirates
Arsenal: Runarsson, Mustafi, Gabriel, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Ceballos, Cedric, Willock, Lacazette, Martinelli
Subs: Leno, Tierney, Mari, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Balogun, Nketiah
Pep Guardiola piled the misery on former assistant Mikel Arteta as Manchester City ended Arsenal’s Carabao Cup hopes with a 4-1 win at the Emirates.
Gabriel Jesus and Alex Lacazette traded goals in the first half before Riyad Mahrez, benefitting from a terrible mistake by Alex Runarsson, restored the visitors’ advantage.
Without having to get out of third gear, City created chances at will with Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte adding a gloss to proceedings.
Pre-game
Having come through a 20-minute cameo against Everton unscathed, Gabriel Martinelli was handed a first start March. His inclusion was the high-point of a heavily-rotated but pretty bland lineup that afforded minutes to the lesser spotted Shkodran Mustafi and Cedric. Emile Smith Rowe and Flo Balogun were welcome additions to a subs bench that also included Nicolas Pepe, Eddie Nketiah and Pablo Mari.
First half
City set the tone almost immediately. Inside 3 minutes, Foden played a pass out to Zinchenko who had all the time in the world to whip a ball into the six-yard box where Jesus, darting between Mustafi and Gabriel, headed home in front of a flapping Runarsson. To say it was disastrous defending was an understatement. (0-1)
Arsenal heads were quick to drop as the visitors enjoyed almost total possession of the ball. That said, aside from a Fernandino shot from 20-yards and a Laporte header that went wide, the visitors seemed happy to toy with us rather than go for the jugular.
It has to be said, we looked very nervous. Runarsson twice played passes straight out of touch and Elneny and Mustafi both went into the book trying to deal with Jesus. It felt like only a matter of time before City doubled their lead but then, out of the blue, we grabbed an equaliser with our first attempt on target.
Out on the left, Martinelli whipped a great ball into the box which City keeper Steffen punched clear. Ceballos nudged the rebound back to our Brazilian and this time he worked the ball onto his left foot and picked out Lacazette who headed home. (1-1)
City should have restored their advantage when Jesus, thanks to a bit of pinball, found himself through on goal but Runarsson, to his credit, second-guessed what the striker was going to do and clawed away an attempt down to his right.
It looked like Martinelli might not make it to half time when he was caught by Steffen as he chased a Maitland-Niles through-ball. It was hard to tell exactly where the contact was made, possibly the shin, but he was initially in agony. Thankfully, he realised soon enough it wasn’t serious and after a bit of treatment, he hobbled back on.
Second half
Our 19-year-old Brazilian only last three minutes of the second half. After a couple of full-paced sprints, he hit the turf and this time Arteta decided enough was enough. Pepe came on in his place.
City weren’t really looking that threatening but when Gabriel clipped Mahrez’s heels on the edge of the box on 54 minutes, you sensed danger. Runarsson lined up his wall and invited the Algerian to go over it. He did the exact opposite, firing straight at the Iceland international. It should have been an easy catch but instead he palmed the ball into the roof of the net. It was wincingly bad. (1-2)
Within five minutes, Guardiola’s men had put the game to bed. Fernandinho played in Foden down the left and without breaking stride he clipped over Runarsson. Had VAR been in operation it would have been ruled out for offside, but that was scant consolation for Arteta who pursed his lips on the sidelines. (1-3)
Any hopes of a comeback were extinguished with 17 minutes remaining as Laporte headed home a Foden cross while Mustafi waved for an imaginary offside. (1-4)
Smith Rowe and Balogun came off the bench to inject a bit of energy and Pepe had a couple of half-decent efforts but otherwise, it was the same drab, one-dimensional football that we’ve been fed far too often since the start of the season.
If I ever see Mustafi play for Arsenal again it will be far far too soon
Also could Elneny and Ceballos be the most underwhelming, least intimidating midfield pairing in recent history? Opponent teams must be rubbing their hands together when they see their names on the team sheet
thats a midfield for the championship
Atleast we are getting ready
I quite enjoyed the Mustafi Kola double act but approached it expecting a comedy. Runarsson rounded off a worthy comedy trio.
Arteta is at fault for all this. change my mind. Stubborn ESR on bench Balogun on bench smh
Pretty soon we will have Gabriel brought down to that level. At times I thought Gabriel was really nervous as he didn’t know what Mustafi and the GK were going to do when defending.
Three stooges!
In any comedy fooftball league this team would be on top atm. Runarsson’s fumble got quite the chuckle out of me. Genius level.
Mustafi the improv artist, and also Nico ‘hobbling-on-one-leg’ Pepe have that special appeal.
Kola’s clumsy muscle-man act, Luiz’ often-bloodied sad clown: top draw.
Ceballos and Bellerin both quality jesters, etc…
Mustafi is not the problem, as he is on his way soon. What worries me is the quality of the players just signed on high wages like Soares, Mari and Willian. God help us if Luiz gets another year, but I wouldn’t put it past the current leadership.
On their first goal, Cedric allowed the cross too easily, Mustafi was not well-positioned to block it, and Gabriel did nothing when Jesus went up to head it. And none of those three errors (I think Gabriel’s was the worst, but I understand the need to blame Mustafi, who is leaving and has a history) would have mattered at all if our keeper had made a fairly routine save.
To be fair we haven’t seen enough of Mari to rule him out completely. He has height and can’t be worse than Mustafi
Same trash, different week. About 7 of the players starting today belong in the bin as well.
Arteta seems out of his depth. I like him, but seems very stubborn. I miss Wenger, he would have given the youth a chance rather than playing players who will soon not be in the club.
Such poor management and poor decisions.
It doesn’t come off as stubbornness to me, he’s just got the stink of failure all over him. It feels more to me like he doesn’t even know where to start to turn things around, not that he’s taking a principled stand on the value of Mustafi.
In fairness he did many of the same things last season and it worked
I think he thought last season that he had to be pragmatic – trying to build on the players he had. But in the new season he started to upbuild his own style. Unfortunatelly at the expense of the things that seemed to start working last year. (Auba, Özil in the middle, Counter attacks, solid defending etc.).
He looks like someone who fell between two stools…
Thank you!
I don’t mind the stubborn. Stubborn is good right now, one way or another. Wishy washy volleyball rotating front three’s, etc. are much worse. Arteta gives as much chance to youth as Wenger did. Le prof would have stubbornly insisted that you need experience and youth in the same side, etc. Arteta seeming out of his depth was always something we accepted at first mainly because he is. We knew he was. So was Emery. I don’t think Arteta is the problem, or at least all of the problem. The only problem I see is that we have two teams… Read more »
Wenger would never have made a signing like Willian at his age profile
Wenger would not have got us to this position – you get what your thoughts ask for!
Worst Cms in the league,
Not too long ago and many defeats ago, Elneny was the leagues 2nd best midfielder, after Partey haha
Mustafi was his usual self. You know what you’re gonna get. Some really decent play, some annoying hand waving and a couple of major errors. Like Luiz, he’s a liability, a player that will cost you points. Didn’t even jump when balls coming in right over his head.
I know it’s easy to pile criticism on criticism at the moment. Bad luck does play a part. But Partey is rushed back. Martinelli is rushed back. Martinelli is left on the field after injury, as was David Luiz. It speaks of a team and a manager that needs things to happen *now* so much that it has no concept of the future or even the safety of our players. It’s pure desperation and it perfectly shadows Arteta’s desperate attempts to keep his finger in the overflowing dike (giggity). And how much did Martinelli look just like a player we… Read more »
Arteta out
It’s painfully clear by now.
Martinelli didn’t get the memo to take it easy and just collect his wages. He puts most of the 1st team to shame.
Really poor by Arteta to let him come back on and risk him further, only to haul him off after three more minutes. Things like that, really make me believe he – Arteta – is lost.
Why didn’t Smith Rowe and Balogun start ? Why ? Why….???
It’s the weirdest thing about this whole situation to me. He’s transparently desperate, but his only idea is to keep doing what doesn’t work over and over and over again.
Isn’t that the definition of insanity?
No, that’s a meme.
Same thing
Mad wasn’t it. But then they let Luiz play on and then drive home after nearly being decapitated so it shouldn’t be a surprise.
Arteta needlessly risked Partey and he got reinjured. He needlessly risked Martinelli and he got reinjured. You can’t do that. To me, that is a “non-negotiable.”
No evidence that martinelli was rushed back—kid looked fast and in good shape physically. First knock might have been painful—but it seemed largely like a ”phantom injury”; bit of pain on the shin—gabi panicks because hes worried hes reinjured himself. Medical doctors took their time; stayed with him. Pain subsidies. 2nd time around, Martinelli gets winded/knocked back from an aerial battle. Arteta decides not to risk him further + he is winded and still a bit short of stamina so marginal returns. Puts pepe on. Gabi walks off a bit bruised, but probably happy to have played well. Hi 5s… Read more »
Martinelli was a huge positive, as was ESR and Balogun. These youngsters showed up the senior players! I had high hopes for Pepe but Martinelli had a much higher impact on the game than Pepe. Having played the previous tie against Liverpool, Leno should have started this game as well. Arteta has to find a way to make these players actually fight for the club and each other. We were so toothless for about the 1st 30 mins, backing off and letting City have the ball even in the final 3rd. The 1st goal was a good example and no… Read more »
I honestly think Pepe showed what he was good at in the last five minutes when people started giving him the ball in situations that suit why he can do.
Totally agree on the youngsters. It seems like there’s a group of players who always turn backwards and that can’t be the coaches idea. The youngsters don’t do it. And Lacazette was shifting the ball much quicker when surrounded by them rather that when Ceballosnfor example was in charge of the buildup
Pepe was actually trying to be terrible, walking around not marking, not trying to dribble. It was quite funny in a sad way that he is Arsenal’s biggest transfer but it fits so well.
Pepe is the quintessential one trick pony – standing still with a bit of space he has an occasionally wicked left peg. It’s unfortunate that the rest of his game doesn’t compare well with that of any starting winger for any Prem team. A half fit Martinelli showed up our record signing. I’d like Pepe to come good but he looks another of these fatally flawed signings our transfer team unearth and pay at least £30m for. A winger who can’t beat a man, to sit alongside a central defender who can’t tackle, a central midfielder who can’t turn and… Read more »
Feel sorry for our goalkeeper. He looked like a 10 year old kid, scared shitless rabbit in the headlights.
Agree. It reminded me of when I was about 8 and round at a friend’s house – his teenage brother forced us to take turns in goal while he wellied the ball at us.
How long does a honeymoon period last?
This was an express process, now the lawyers are preparing the divorce papers.
Oh the honeymoon ended with the capitulation at home to Villa. I expected a loss tonight. Next 3 PL games: I do not expect us to beat Chelsea and Brighton and WBA are good old fashioned relegation 6 pointers. We do not have the fight / heart / spine or gumption for that. Lose to the other relegation candidates and Mikel has to step down by Jan 2. He does not appear to be the man for the job. No idea who we bring in but as long as we finish 17th or better… Let the new manager be part… Read more »
Pretty disappointing it took so long for anyone to go and see if Martinelli was OK while he lay on the floor injured having just been out for so long. Sums it up for me.
Absolutely. And then in second half when he went down it was city players who were consoling a young player just back from a long injury. Sums it up for me.
Fuck me I missed the start of the second half. I can’t believe that actually happened. Horrendous. How on earth did he come out for the second half? That’s gross negligence. I haven’t wanted to get rid up until now but I think that’s swung me.
Well okay but consider that there are a load sports medicine experts in the dressing room. If he shouldn’t have come out they would have told the manager. It seems most likely they told him to have a run and see how it felt when back under pressure
Shambolic spineless two faced team
I thought exactly the same. Shoes the amount of leaders/characters we have in the team. Language barrier no excuse (and anyway we had at least two other Portuguese speakers in that 11)
Maybe it had something to do with COVID-19 protocols the players and staff have to follow? Just saying.
I remember when only the best players had a chance to play for Arsenal. Now just wear the full kit around the emirates and you might get pulled in for a game
Apparently nowadays, if you sit next to Pep Guardiola you can manage Arsenal too with zero experience.
Manage? Hell you can run the whole footballing side of the club if you’ve been hanging around an average Brazilian national team (Edu) and achieved nothing with them. There is no requirements at this club anymore
Frauds the lot of them.
Don’t forget that you can become the CEO for the club if you’ve done commercial work on one Olympic Games. No prior running a football club experience needed apparently.
Gazidis was highly involved in establishing MLS
Particularly enjoyed when the commentators were talking about how Pep said that the learning had gone both ways at City – that Arteta learnt from him, and he from Arteta. Pep learnt something all right – what not to do.
What took me so long to see this said by somebody here?
Perhaps Saliba only got the training kit
Well that went as expected. Keeping Martinelli on was reckless. Not giving ESR and Balogun a run sooner is a disappointment. The rest was predictable.
Chin up!! We got a goal and no red cards.
A goal from open play, no less. Christmas truly has come early!
Good play from Martinelli, but also an excellent header from Lacazette–who played well in his last two matches.
And its from a cross
and Willian was rested.
Yes. So you can guarantee that he will be back for Chelsea.
He’s vital. Would have been a big miss.
Balogun must be of. The tiny bits I have seen of him he looks better than Nkethia but he doesn’t get a chance. Why would he sign a new contract?
He’s different class to nketia already.
We weren’t going to beat City with the second string, but Arteta doesn’t seem capable of doing anything but the worst possible thing.
Players with no future get the start while the best promising talent can hope for is 10 minutes after the game has ended.
Our manager is not good at anything. Clean house.
Yes, needs to leave, Edu too, Vinai is a nice fellow but way above his level and not with the right profile to run our club. Needs to be demoted and a proper CEO needs to be put in place, along with a serious football director like that guy from Juve, Rangnick or Ocampos.
I think it has to be Rangnick since he likes the club. Just a brutal period, and I don’t want these idiots in charge of another transfer window. Doesn’t seem like building Arteta a team is in our short or long term interests at this point.
Yep, one of most promising young defenders in Europe, Saliba, can’t get a look in, runnarson who is pants gets a chance and Mustafi gets a game. Why.
Well that was a bit shit. Again!
Anyone else starting to actively dislike Cebellos? Antics staring to resemble Eboue at his most embarrassing
Yes, I don’t like his play acting. But neither do I like Tierney’s
And I don’t like his lack of athleticism
But he plays with heart, and an ounce of quality.
That is what we need
I never really warmed to him, but yeah, he has no right to feature further.
Well, the sad part is that I really thought he was one of our better players tonight. And that tells a lot.
One good decision we didn’t buy him, so he can leave at end of season and if we can be ruthless cut the loan short. Saved 40 million pounds there.
We might still buy him. BTW who is his agent?
Eboue was loveable tho. YOUVE ONLY COME TO SEE
I dislike him more because he is shit. All smoke and mirrors
I still think there is a good player in there. I remember the start of last night and he was dazzling.
But since then, he’s been well and truly Arsenal’d. The worst part is, he’s still better than the other two Arteta picks of Elneny and Xhaka.
Ceballos tonight was alternately very good and pants. Not sure what to make of him.
I was supposed to write last season…..he offered nothing last night in my opinion. Apologies.
Has your team been poor of late?
Have your struggled for form?
Not been a great season?
Then we invite you to play The Arsenal.
A team where goal keeping coaches turn scouts and agents decide the players mood, backed by a very stubborn coach.
Play against Arsenal get your Mojo back.
that was shocking from Lacazette Kolasinac Mustafi theyre a joke Runnarson does anyone remember when he criticized Wenger as a stupid coach?
Laca played ok. Kolasinac was fairly crap in defence. Mustafi his usual self, costing us dearly.
We seriously considering giving transfer funds to a man who bought Willian, Rúnarsson and Soares. Arteta is the most clueless manager i have ever seen, destroying my club more and more each day he remains employed.
Wasn’t the worst we have played this season. Some promising signs going forward. Smith-Rowe seems the real deal.
I don’t think Maitland-Niles is good or fit enough for centre midfield. Didn’t track back enough, quickly enough.
Hopefully the goal give Laca a bit of confidence, but I don’t see him being at the club next season.
Elneny has lost his early season spark.
Difficult to judge anybody at the moment, they look broken
Yeah actually the game was not too bad: if you take away one or two of the Arsenal goal keeping errors and the offside goal, it would have been clearly closer score line.
The first 20 mins were truly awful and I feared the worst but the players did then get into the game, led by Martinelli.
Willock and Balogun and AMN looked good, and ESR and Martinelli looked real class.
Gabriel had an off day I thought.
Amazing that when some players passed quickly and moved forward we actually looked moderately decent. Then it got to one of the slow down players and it all went backwards and stopped until Mustafinwhacked it long.
Gash
Arteta making the same mistakes is he this davit ?
Comedy gold. We are a social experiment aimed to see how much torment a football fan can take. I literally cannot think of a professional club run so badly, potential and reach vs result wise.
I laughed so hard at the goals and the performance tonight think it’s my brain trying to keep me from going insane from too much madness coming from our club over the years.
Either Arteta is incompetent or appointed an incompetent staff.
Who really recommended the goalkeeper when we had Macey!!!
I believe someone is taking kickbacks on our signings because some of our recruitments have be awful and useless.
I dont trust Arteta with our funds in January.
Tough game for the kid: feel bad for him and hope he can bounce back.
No idea where you get the sense that Macey is somehow a known quantity? You think he is immune to having a 1-4 against manCity?
He’s playing at his level, there’s nothing to bounce back to.
This is the fucking end of the line. Arteta needs to go. While this team personal wise today isn’t a true reflection of arteta, the spirit and commitment are. The team looks worse than any Emery team. The fact that Mustafi and Kolasinac are starting while Ozil rots is indicative of the poor decisions this entire managment team has made in the last 12 months. This as a chance for arteta and he failed. It’s time to move on.
Arteta’s one of the few people in this setup for whom I feel sorry. At this point I almost want him sacked just for HIS sake (and to put an end to comments like this one). Bring in whomever you like, start Ozil every game, and wake me up when the Championship season cranks up in 2021.
Ozil deserves to rot . No amount of wishful thinking will turn the 2018 and forward Ozil into the 2015 version. And he should be joined in the compost bin by Kolasinac and Mustafi.
If that goalkeeper is any indication of Inaki Cana’s judgment and that of coaching team, we are in more trouble than we realise and without a scouting team in place, these signing are that more likely to happen again. It really is all very depressing
Hope Martinelli’s injury isn’t serious, and he’s back quick. He definitely is a savior this team needs. This team can attack if it wants to. Apparently the key to that is play a few more of the forward thinking players who like to drive into the box. The team is really low on confidence right now. But an injection of fresh blood will help.
Really looked like a broken leg to me.
Think the second fall down was just him getting winded/knocked back from the fall and arteta deciding to take him out. Good effort and pretty sure today will go a long way towards getting Gabi up to speed.
To those who clamored for Wenger to leave, I hope you’re satisfied now.
Didn’t care too much about how this one turned out – either we made a cup semifinal, or we got fixtures off the table to focus on more important things, plus a defeat to City is no big shame, providing the scoreline is kept respectable. Runarsson is another in a long line of iffy, dodgy backup goalkeepers (who can forget Mannone forgetting he could use his hands in the box that one time?) – hopefully we don’t have another Leno injury like last season. Luiz, Partey, now Martinelli…I don’t like the snap decisions being made on our injured players. I… Read more »
Not just you—but can everybody please calm the eff down when talking about medical issues unless they have some basis or capacity to comment.
I got scared when Martinelli went down as well—but that doesnt give us the right to imply anything negative about our medical team and Gary O Driscoll (who both Arsenal and Liverpool wanted). These people have spent 6 months of their lives helping Gabi rehabilitate—might very well know him better than any of his teammates
I’m pretty calm – I just don’t like it.
Kolasina is a pain to watch with his back passes his first instinct is to look back smh im done with these players Mustafi Kolasinac Rnnarson Lcazette couldnt be bothered shocking tactics shocking formation inn the beginng
In fairness Kolasinac actually run behind and put some great crosses in the box. Sadly no one took advantage of it
Another disasterclass in how to give yourselves no chance of winning a football match. Doubts are growing exponentially. Really wanted to MA to succeed but this looks awful
The body language was so bad near the end
Yes, it’s Özil who has infected the team!
Yes it is Ozil. Is that what you want to hear?
sarcasm.
TBH, its hard to get sometimes in this UI
Please, it is about Arsenal FC here! Not about Some Player FC. I really don’t like it when a defeat is used to prove a point that he shouldn’t have been dropped. How many more defeats do you hope for to prove that point? I hope the team overcomes this challenging period as soon as possible.
Ozil would neither improve or disimprove this team. He would just be another vastly overpaid player coasting through games. He wouldn’t be any better or worse than the majority of arsenal players at present.
I agree with you on the basis that your opinion is based on what exactly?
Spot on. So since he’s gone in June, no need to bother anymore.
Sick of this, we’ve been so bad for years now. I have followed Arsenal for 32 years and this is the worst I’ve ever seen them.
Was disappointed that Martinelli was not taken off straight away. Hope he hasn’t made his injury any worse by staying on. He could potentially be one of our best players and we need to look after him better given he’s just coming back from a lengthy injury. Chelsea next!
Is Arteta sabotaging our players on purpose now, first Partey, then David Luiz(blood head) now Martinelli, it’s taking him too long to learn not to take a player’s health for granted
Arsenal needs to sack Arteta now. He’s so desperate that he injures players and that’s just not acceptable. On top of that the transfer business in the summer looks more and more like madness. Runarsson for Martinez… What a fucking joke but I could have told anyone who wanted to listen that Runarsson was not even near good enough. How come Edu and Arteta doesn’t know? Or did they and took a gamble on Leno not breaking down despite being injured a long period last season? Madness. Mustafi gets the nod ahead of Mari despite Mustafi being crap and out… Read more »
This is unfair, the club was offered too much money for Emi to have him sit on the bench for another year. The fact that they replaced him with one of the worst goalkeepers I’ve ever seen is unforgivable, but the two things aren’t as related as they seem.
”So desperate that he injures players and thats not acceptable” What universe is this? Good to know you dont think coaches should injure their own players…I honestly wonder if the commentators on Sky have Fox News type influence on viewers. Its their kob to talk. Gabi lying down so obv. They are gonna say ”looks like hes taken a hit there” etc etc. Doesnt mean theyknow anythin more than us at that point. They are just fillin the empty air time. Just like when they say ”thats a clean tackle” before the replay shows otherwise. I get it. Hurts that… Read more »
board are a joke if they dont sack this clown of manager soon!
You are frustrated with the situation at the moment. That’s understandable.
I hope he can get the team winning again quickly, to buy him some time until the next transfer windows, to ship out a few players and bring in one or two to help.
ive seen no signs of this inexperienced manager being able to turn this around. Probably sign more Wilian type players
Need a better back up goalie on the evidence today.
Well, Citys B-team are better then our A-team and a so much more drilled side. The result is just a reflection of that. I couldn’t give a fish’s tit about this cup but I really excepted the players to be motivated to prove something. After the 1-2 (and I never hope Leno gets injured) it just looked like all the spirit was long gone. It’s really the biggest question now – can Arteta get the spirit back or is it dead forever for his part? I don’t really believe in the changing-manager-strategy but this is spiritless and looks like a… Read more »
Okay, so that was so not our A team.
Leno lets in neither goals 2 or 3.
There’d be no mustafi. No Cedric. No …whatsthefuck his name, the other twat in the back 3 that is crap…kolasinac.
So lets not overreact here. It was shit, yes. But was not our A team.
TBH, our A team is as blogs calls them, ODB bar a few exceptions.
Sorry I meant that our so called A-team would still struggle a lot with Citys B-team. Painful at it is.
Smith rowe, martinelli and Gabriel.
Why can’t Arteta be brave and just play the kids. the kids are hungry Martinelli Balogun ESR all did more in the short time they were on the pitch than the likes of lace willian Pepe all season
We are in deep shit ladies and gents.
Willocks runs from midfield is important, but in the second he was to deep. AMN looked like he has totally done last 15-20 mins.
Well he played three games in a week. It’s not like there was anything can be salvage fr the game
I’m so used to watching this shitshow week in week out. Doesn’t even hurt / bother me. Earlier I’d be depressed worrying about the match whenever we lost. But now I just hope that we stay up in the league. #ArtetaOut
So what is point of including Saliba in this squad then? Arteta is acting like a high school prick. Just taunting the supporters.
We knew we would this game so why not start EMR, Saliba and Balogun. After all, the present squad have useless anyway.
Arteta would rather wait until the game is well and truly lost before giving them game time. You know, so they feel really wanted and sign contracts.
I hope Arteta now rewards positive play. Good to see AMN drift into more central areas even though he did lose it a few times, he took chances. He added positivity and energy. Willock and ESR did well too. Our youth look more brave. Would liked to have seen Balogun and Saliba start. Doesn’t look like Arteta is getting the man management part right.
Is Ceballos the slowest midfielder in PL closely followed by Elneny ? Yes.
Should the keeper coach who recommended Runarsson be sacked? Yes.
Should the club file a lawsuit against Sanhelli for gross negligence and perhaps worse? Yet again Yes.
Should we all fear relegation ? YES.
Kroenke must open his purse in January and ban this Kia fellow from any contact with Arsenal
No Xhaka is.
Sorry, forgot him. Then we got the three slowest midfielders in PL…
slow physically, slow in the mind as well…
There was a reason that Wenger would not do deals with these so called “Super agents” ( for “super agents” read greedy fuckin’ parasites.)
We need a clear out. Starting with
Edu- For almost everything he did apart from Partey deal
The goalkeeping coach- For bringing in Runarsson. That’s on him and turns out he was just doing a favour to his former student.
And then Arteta- Nice chap, really wanted it to work, but I don’t think he is experienced enough to turn this around now.
The Partey deal was easy, Edu just paid out the clause. When it came to negotiating he fucked up badly with Aouar, and whoever signed Willian should be shown the door.
Complete horseshit. Just when you think things can’t get worse then we manage to find a keeper who’s a complete joke. Why the fuck did we sign that clown? And why did he play tonight? Arteta must have seen in training just how shit he is. I’m in a cold sweat worrying that Leno gets injured. We absolutely must sign a new goalie next month. And then send this clown back to Zippo’s circus.
The rest of them weren’t much use either. Mustafi another joke.
Chelsea next: oh no!
I remember not too many years ago, competitions like this one, FA cup, and a game or two of the CL group stages saw “The Young Gunners” go out and give other teams real fight, often beat them. Tables well and truly turned. Hard watching this mess. I mean can anyone truly say MA has made the club play better football, by any objective measure? I know what I see, and its dreadful. The club is in fate’s hands right now. I really hoped, suspended disbelief really, that former almost/not really club legend like MA (I know, he never was,… Read more »
Arteta out
Why do I have to watch Nicolas Pepe try to dribble 100 yards away from the opposition box and near the byline every time? When he so easily can cause chaos if makes those dribbles in around the box? I hope Arteta can look into that. That is one of the difference between Mahrez and Pepe. Mahrez dribbles on the edge of the box, players are afraid of touching him there. While Pepe is dribbling nearby the center circle and out wide. Please Arteta, work out a way to get Pepe to receive the ball in and around the opposition… Read more »
My main concern after tonight is if Leno gets injured we’re really fucked. Surely someone like Randolph who’s 3rd choice at West Ham would have done for the season. Smith Rowe needs to be involved more
It felt like we went down to ten men when Martinelli went off. Pepe is that bad.
I’m worried that the players around Gabriel are quickly bringing him down to their level also.
It’s a mess
Actually Pepe attempted a few shots and tried to do something. It does help the whole team in shambles at the moment.
We were lucky though that we didnt lose anyone influential.. More importantly Willian was rested for the weekend.