Result: Sp*rs – Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 6 December 2020
Venue: White Hart Lane
Starting XI: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Willian, Aubameyang, Lacazette
Subs: Runarsson, Mustafi, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Ceballos, Willock, Nketiah
First half goals from Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane saw Sp*rs beat Arsenal 2-0 in the north London derby.
The home side did the damage in the first half on an afternoon where the Gunners also lost the returning Thomas Partey to injury.
Defeat for Mikel Arteta’s side leaves us 11 points behind our neighbours and languishing in 15th place in the table.
Pre-game
The inclusion of Thomas Partey – absent for a month with a thigh problem – was the big news when the teams were announced. The Ghanaian partnered Granit Xhaka in the centre of the park. In terms of formation, Mikel Arteta returned to the familiarly flexible 3-4-3 with Bukayo Saka and Hector Bellerin working the flanks. Following last week’s head injury, David Luiz dropped out to be replaced by Rob Holding. In attack, Willian and Alex Lacazette, both with decent scoring records against Sp*rs, were given the chance to support Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who returned to a left-sided starting position.
First Half
It’s no secret that Jose Mourinho trains his sides to sit deep and then hit on the counter attack. They’ve done it repeatedly this season. Kane to Son. Goal. Son to Kane. Goal. It’s boringly inevitable and bloody effective. So how was Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal going to cope with that?
Well, we didn’t.
It was a scrappy affair throughout the first 45 minutes with both sides making niggly fouls to break up play. Kane and Xhaka had a coming together. Lacazette and Hojbjerg went at each other. Partey got angry at a couple of nibbles at his heels.
We had lots of the ball. But with Spurs staying compact and happy for us to have it on the flanks. Like we did against Wolves, we tried our luck with a number of crosses but never seemingly aiming at anyone in particular.
On 13 minutes, Dier cleared one of those crosses, Bergwijn worked it to Kane in the centre circle and he in turn spread the play to Son. The South Korean was a long way from goal, but he immediately set off at speed, edging onto his right foot so that he could open himself up for a curler. His effort from 30-yards flew past Leno. It was a fantastic finish, but you’ve got to ask why he went unchallenged on the ball. (0-1)
Would Spurs go for the jugular? A quick-fire second. Of course not. They sat deep again. We lumbered around, our passing lacking zip, trying to find a pass that might split them open. There were bright moments – a Partey run through the midfield that had shades of Vieira – and a couple of crosses from either flank that forced frantic clearances, but no clear cut chances. It was the same old story from a set of players who seem devoid of imagination when they step over the white line.
In contrast, Spurs know exactly what they are doing when they attack. In stoppage time, we worked a half decent opening, freeing Bellerin to play in Aubameyang. For some reason our captain ran away from the ball in the box and then, to make matters worse, didn’t take out Aurier when it would have stopped the counter. In the space of 15 seconds, we were two goals down. It ended with Kane, played in by Son, rattling a shot home off the underside of the bar. (0-2)
To rub salt in the wounds, Partey walked off the field injured and was immediately replaced by Ceballos. We have to assume that he’s done further damage to his thigh. If that is the case, you have to question the decision to risk him.
Second half
With nothing to lose, we were full of urgency in the five minutes after the break. Lacazette had a header saved after flicking on a free-kick and Tierney put one on a plate for Aubameyang whose header went over. A woeful effort. Bellerin then got into another great position but couldn’t pick out a player in the six-yard box. Spurs immediately broke but this time couldn’t find the net as Ceballos swept up the danger.
Arsenal continued to dominate play and to pen the home side back. But you never really sensed that our neighbours were anything other than comfortable. Arteta barked instructions, desperately hoping his players might produce something. Anything.
A Lacazette header on 67 minutes did force Lloris to make a save at full stretch. It was promising, but not enough.
The frustration got the better of Xhaka who decided to plough straight through the back of Son. He picked up a booking for his troubles. Bellerin was replaced by Nketiah who went up front and Saka moved to right back.
We continued to work the ball to the flanks before lofting balls into the box. We even started to throw men forward but we repeatedly failed to beat our opponents in the air. It was too little, too late. The game was lost in the first half. The players knew it.
After lots of positive talk this week, defeat further exposes us to the reality – we’re miles off being where we want to be. And the distance is widening not closing. Things don’t get much easier in the coming weeks. Sure, we play Dundalk and Burnley next but then it’s Southampton, Everton, Chelsea and Manchester City. We need a Christmas miracle.
I’m sorry but when I see players do well in the Europa league and not get picked and then players put in poor performance after poor performance in the prem and continue to get picked then I can only say Arteta has brought this on himself. Not the worst performance today but we did exactly what Tottenham wanted us to do. Want to give him time but time really starting to get fed up with this
Anybody want to manage Arsenal??
Nope.
Me of course…
We are the 16th best team in the PL! No more time for Arteta. What is next?
Xhaka, captain coach.
Pochettino said he would consider the arsenal job!
well i dont mind if they paid me a million a year and sign a 5- year contract with me. they can sack me and give me the payout. i only have 2 conditions- that i wear a mask and my identity be kept secret throughout. wont want to be slaughtered.
🤣😅😂
I thought ARTETA was supposed to be the no nonsense ruthless coach we needed? Where’s the ruthlessness when its needed to bench WILLIAN and play more exciting players like Reiss Nelson. If Nelson plays so well inn europa and he doesn’t even get a chance . HE ARTETA HAS NO FAITH INN YOUTH ONLY SAKA. He didn’t like Martinelli when he first arrived. Wenngee would’ve played Nelson over Willian, infant WENGER would’ve never bought WILLIAN
At this rate Ozil is joining Spurs!
At this rate Ozil will remain at Arsenal longer than Arteta
Arteta has to go. Sorry we all love him but much as he might still make it as a good manager, he’s finished at Arsenal. At least for now.
We are playing with so much fear and doubt. We are losing games on fine margins I admit, like he says, but the players have doubt and over think simple things now. No freedom, no instinctive football, just an urgent need to play it back and avoid errors.
Can’t go on because I too see my negativity but we need to watch results from the five teams below us carefully
Willian being played week in week out, worries me what Arteta sees in him and makes me believe club signed because Mikel wanted it. Auba needs to get serious now, he can’t be so comfortable. First time crosses hardly comeby and then when you just waste them without even meaning to have a real go, the team is only going to struggle. The right wing sucked on the ball, there is a just too much over thinking and no zip in the play. And to top it all off being Stupid hardly helps.
And you are narrowing it to Willian and Aubameyang, who by the way should stop pulling out of 50-50s if he’s playing central.
But even with Willian out of the team we would still be rolling those passes at the back nice and slow.
I thought I was the only one who noticed this – Auba gives up if there is an opponent anywhere near the ball.
Is it possible to give him a vacation until the next season. So he can develop, and bring in someone who can create confidence in the squad again?
Yes, a loan move would do him good. Perhaps Ligue 1 or something.
Lol for a moment i thought you were referring to mikel
If Arteta continues to play the likes of Xhaka and William he deserves the sack. 4 years of Xhaka and still no idea what he adds to the team, just sick of these players still in our club after years of perpetual underwhelming performances.
Another fan with another pair he thinks are the problem. Wait till others mention Willian plus everyone else( bar Gab, Tierney and Saka)
I wish they were the problem then it would be an easy fix. They are an example of two experienced players that have consistently played this season and in Xhaka’s case for the last few years and offered nothing to the team – but yes we have other such as Bellerin, Aubameyeng, Lacazette, Holding that have been poor too. The problem is we have too many players in the squad that are no where near good enough to get Arsenal to where we want to be, yet are happy to stay on their big wages.
This is not a Xhaka or a willian problem, There’s something wrong with Arteta’s tactics. Regardless of signings, The players we have now should not have 10 goals combined in 11 pl games. That’s criminal. Dominic Calvert Lewin has scored more PL goals than ARSENAL Football Club this season. That’s really shameful. I wouldn’t be surprised if we fail to score against Burnley
Xhaka is the most ill suited midfielder to the premier league. No coincidence to me that his arrival coincides with our drop out of top 4 (not only reason of course).
I’ve always said Xhaka is the weakest link for years, don’t know what people see in him, he had been around for very long and has played a lot o 90 mins game but never been man of the match, never injured either because he does nothing, not that I wish that on him. I have watched AMN in a couple of positions and he is better than this fucker at any slot
Let’s all be honest and say it how it is.
If West Brom had our players, would you expect any manager in world football to get them finishing in the top 4 or close to it?
No. But if they had Leno; Hector, Holding, Gabriel, Saka; Partey, Xhaka; Willian, Auba, Lacazette and they were going games without nicking a goal in open play and were in good company of teams with Wood and Barnes I’d be worried whichever manager they had
There was a moment with about 15 minutes left when gabriel had the ball 10 yards in spurs’ half. Arteta shouting ‘Dani Dani’ who was standing square 10 yards to gabriel’s right. He ignored it and passed an easy ball to eddie on the edge of the box. Nothing came of it as eddie then passed back and safe but a perfect illustration of not just his micromanging but the negativity in his mindset.
Yeah, I am fully behind Arteta and the team and know they will sort things out sooner rather than later, but the manager persisting with sub-par players after sub-par performances while our young guns actually do well midweek is shameful. This notion that players earn their starts is crap, and it can really start to break morale if you don’t reward good play — Nelson, Willock, and Elneny all deserved to be in this game at the start or at the finish. What must Ozil be thinking each week. Man. Happy to see us progress the ball much better today,… Read more »
Managers like Mourinho doesn’t tolerate bullshit and drops you for 1 bad performance. Teams like Chelsea sell players who don’t perform. Then you have Arsenal who gives chance after chance and gets the same result.
That’s why they’ve been serial winners, and we’ve been a laughing stock in that time
Agreed. There is very little meritocracy here. I think he knows who he wants to play and plays them regardless. Everything he’s says are just words (excellent words but ultimately worth nothing).
Fully agree.
Maitland-Niles for Xhaka. Nelson for Willian. Arsenal could be much more dynamic, but instead it’s slow, telegraphed build up.
It’s like Arteta is trying to mimic City with the play to the wings and then crosses in, except Arsenal wingers aren’t the same quality as City and City have midfielders that run through opposition lines to receive those passes. And City sit one defensive midfielder.
How often do you see Xhaka or Ceballos try to make runs into the box?
Neither Xhaka or Ceballos are nearly athletic enough to make runs into the box, and also recover, and then do it again. So they don’t.
It’s time to go with AMN and Elneny in MF, assuming Partey is out for a bit. Past time. And Pepe and Nelson both ahead of Willian. But I do think our poor movement is the root of the problem plus trying to play a way that doesn’t suit our attackers.
The players are a lot more confident going into those EL ties with no pressure though. I don’t think the results would have been that different if you had switched the starting 11 for each game tbh
Changing the manager won’t change a thing. It will just cause one more change of direction, and more squad confusion. What Arteta needs is back up from the owners. And from the executives. This isnt all artetas fault, this is the combination of years of financial neglect, incoherent transfer decisions, and general mistakes from executives and owners. Changing the manager will cause us to go further backwards without any guarantees for going forward. I still think he’s shown that he can do good things with this team. He just needs patience and smart transfers.
I would say that paying for Pepe, Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, et al – despite the dodgy prices by Raul – and Auba’s and Willian’s contracts, already shows the board has stepped up.
Sooner or later, the head coach must act like one.
Painful. We aren’t much of a goal threat and 15th and they are top. Let’s hope both don’t continue.
I hate to be the one that says this, but Aubameyang looks finished at the moment. Completely off the pace almost every time, hardly gets a touch of the ball, can’t create, can’t score. Feels like we’re carrying him right now.
It was summed up when he received the ball with one to beat. Last season that’s an effort on goal, this it’s a lazy left footed shot.
He looks like he can’t be bothered.
Spot on! But I think this is only partly his fault. Before the start of the season we played our most influental matches against teams that dared and were willing to come on us (Chelsea, Liverpool, City). We counter attacked them and Aubameyang played as our own Vardy, Son etc.
But in this Man. City like low-cost/low-risk tiki-taka he just can’t express himself.
Not the point. Hes not even trying.
Not a captain. Not even a player at present.
Fuxking useless the lot.
I think that’s right on the money.
Totally agree, but I want to know why…?
He was brilliant through August and between August and September, after signing a new 16m pound contract, our talisman and captain abruptly loses all skill and motivation. Just don’t see it…that scenario doesn’t make sense to me. Has to be something else going on…
Dunno but heard it’s summit to do with j Terry an his mrs
No goal threat whatsoever. I hate the potatoes and I despise their moronic manager. Just depressed right now. We are in a rut and god only knows how we are going to get out of it.
If the players do support Arteta, they are doing quite a good job of hiding it. We need more Gabriels’ that don’t accept defeat lightly.
They could at least do us a favour and stop Hector taking throw ins! When will the set piece guy have a word?
I hope Gabriel’s rock comes from outside Arsenal
The set piece guy should be given his cards. They were shit before he came and now they’re even worse.
Yup. It takes 10 minutes to train a professional footballer how to do a no-foul throw in. Let’s not talk about a good throw in. Just a legal one.
Takes ten minutes? I can train a child in three. Maybe you are talking about the professionals that we employ.
Most of us leant the throw in rules from a book and that took three seconds. Hector is too stupid.
Must have been said a thousand times, there is a huge gap unexplored in the number 10 position. Laca doesn’t come into the gap between the lines when Xhaha/ Ceballos carry the ball forward. The Sp*rs defenders do not need to break their lines and the only way Arsenal passes is out to the flanks, where Saka and Tierney overcrowds themselves with 2 Sp*rs defenders. It is one thing to focus on our strengths which lie in the left flank, its another to be predictable and giving Sp*rs such an easy game to close out. And I choose to believe… Read more »
There a gaping huge gap in midfield. The usual Xhaka and Ceballos (our playmaking defensive midfielder) standing around the halfway line pointing to where they wanted people to pass instead of showing for the ball.
Their defenders had the easiest night of their lives. Aubameyang was timid *cough* and Laca was Laca. No wing play because Nelson is an asshole or too young to play two games in a row.
We are fucked.
I honestly think the one man in our squad who can play that role in the way we need at the moment is ESR, yet for some reason Arteta seems completely against giving him enough minutes to show if he can do it or not, even in dead rubber Europa League games. I get hes young, and if we had a more senior number 10 who was doing the job I’d say yeah ease him in to it, but we’re desperate and we should be trying to find solutions where we can
And AMN – Xhaka gets picked ahead of him, or Mo’Nenny? WTF.
And then we substitute Hector and leave the shambling, disinterested oafs that are Willian and Xhaka on the pitch? WTF.
We have a perfectly capable number 10 that isn’t even in the squad. In the case of ESR he’s only recently returned from injury. Ideally and assuming everyone was fit and if the goal is 433 I’d have been partnering Partey with Elneny / AMN / Willock and rotating ESR and Ozil.
He’s less recently returning from injury than partey where there was clearly a risk taken. He plays who he wants and I think prejudges what he’s going to do well before a game is played. Nothing to do with form. Just an idea that he has in his head. For instance, I think he decided before season started that saliba wouldn’t be ready. Then proceeded to deny him chance to demonstrate otherwise. Taken off 45 minutes into his only ever involvment when not putting a foot wrong. Stinks to me as not wanting the guy to play really well and… Read more »
Can’t disagree with any of that. He really doesn’t seem to have much in the way of flexibility in his thinking.
I suspect contrary to what arteta says ESR moves too much for his liking. Too free form. This guy wants total structure. Look at how they moved (regardless off quality of opposition) on Thursday. None of those guys got a look in today. He doesn’t want that level of spontaneity. I think he’ll coach the things that make him so effective out of him. Same as with pepe.
toothless… toothless… toothless
After Leicester, Wolves and Villa, I really didn’t see us getting caught on the break today…
Teams are giving Arsenal the ball and waiting. Why wouldn’t you think the same would happen against Spurs?
Easiest team to play in the PL.
Never mind.
Johnny was being sarcastic.
Thanks man.
Xhaka makes sure to give the opposition a pass or two to help them out also.
How on earth did Willian last the full 90 minutes? Honestly that should be the final straw now. People were hyping him before saying this is the game for him to show what he’s made of and he didn’t impose himself whatsoever. Looks half as interested as everyone else, plays backwards mostly, doesn’t get into scoring positions and gives the ball away. Arteta needs to stop trying to play him into form because it ain’t happening
To be fair he seemed to be doing his most. Not a lot he could actually do.
Not enough for £200 000 per week and a great fee for signing his contract.
What’s your source for that wage?
Not true. He looked as if he wanted to press then chose not to come closer to spuds players, always stopped around a yard or two. Doesn’t give a sh1t.
I don’t think this is a time to start calling names, Something (if not everything) is definitely wrong with Arteta’s tactics or instructions. If I’m correct, we’ve gone the longest now without scoring from open play in the league. Does that mean we have the worst attacking players? Hell No! Agreed we need to sign better players but he’s not getting the best of what he currently has.
Mourinho’s anti-football won!
However, when we start with Xhaka and Willian, its like starting with a man down.
The rest of the team did put up a good fight. A goal would have been good to deserved.
Mate we’ve not exactly been playing easy on the eye stuff either
That I agree. The table is a good reflection of our performance this season.
Perfect reflection actually
Mourinho’s “anti-football” scored two brilliant goals from open play.
If Tottenham are anti-football, what are we?
Those goals come down to individual quality. The truth is Kane and Son are both several levels above what we have at our disposal this season.
I hate to say it because I like Arteta a lot.
But he is so naive, almost verging on immature.
We did precisely what Jose wanted. And any pundit in Britain could’ve told Mikel that was exactly what Jose was planning to do.
+1
Same thing as the Vardy winner a few weeks back
There was a moment late on when Auba was released in the identical position and with identical ball to Kane. Tame shot into defender’s feet as opposed to a rocket into the top corner.
Says it all, really
HAHA.3 thumbsdown.So Asshavin isn’t stating facts.Yes he fucking is. In front of goal they are ruthless we ain’t.
That’s not True, Auba has outscored Kane since he came to England. It’s our tactics/system that is faulty. Bring Kane into this mess and his goals will dry up too.
Well what we produced today wasn’t good enough, obviously. We weren’t unlucky either.
However if you prefer Mourinho’s tactics, ofcourse its your choice.
I like tactics that win football matches for Arsenal and dislike ones that don’t.
Still blaming individual players? We have started Willock, Nelson, Elneny, Pepe, and the results are still the same. We’ve benched Laca and played Auba thru the middle and the results are still the same.
The problem lies with the tactics and the instructions being given to these players.
Starting with 2 men down
Xhaka was ok today, Willian is a disaster but nothing compared to our retired captain.
Don’t think Xhaka was anywhere close to what a central midfielder for Arsenal FC should be
My comment was based off his on-ball performance and tackling and more visible parts of the game
Just saw the replay of the second goal. The lack of awareness on his part as he sprints forward like a slow-mo Frank Lampard while there’s 4 Spurs players behind him (or even 5, considering one is at the same position but likely faster)
He could literally see everyone but the CBs and Partey ahead of him and he still chose to keep sprinting, man oh man
Nah. Arsenal’s naivety won it for them.
We are slowly becoming Arsenal Soccer Franchise. Shocking decisions followed by staggering decisions followed by stupid decisions. Ozil is a commercial, footballing and financial suicide. In Mslintat we had a top tier asset, spurned by a middling “manager”. Arsene hamstrung and the strung up to dry facing the wind alone. Who in our team is more talented than Ozil? Who has a better track record than Mslintat? How was Emery (and Arteta) a step up from Arsene? We are run by a naive lot, who have never been passionate about the game, let alone Arsenal; and Edu. We were heading… Read more »
1. If Arteta wants that to work, he needs to think about buying TWO Giroud-type players and going 4-4-2
2. What is the point of Willian.
3. Bellerin is starting to annoy me.
4. Weirdly that was the loss I most enjoyed our performance from this season.
5. We are 15th and I’m not sure any other top club would tolerate this very long.
On point 4, we actually didn’t play terribly, at least compared to a bunch of other performances this season. But going down to Son’s wonder hit and a terribly timed injury to Partey and we are always going to struggle against a counterattacking team. We really need our attack, especially Auba, to start putting the ball in the net. Switch him and Laca with Kane and Son, and we win that match. They have the same problems as us: they rely on goals though a limited number of highly talented individuals. Recently ours have been misfiring and theirs are at… Read more »
I thought we brought Partey back in too early. Either I was right or he is another player in the Arsenal mould – injury prone.
At last someone who understands football.
I actually thought we played pretty well today but, quite frankly, we have no striker that suits this team. It’s all well and good launching ball after ball into the box, but unless you have someone who can head the ball in the middle, it’s going to be futile. If we’re going to persist with this gameplan then we need a big man up top, simple as.
This exactly. What is the point of 35 crosses a game?
I find it infuriating
I think we were trying to ‘give service’ to the strikers? So now we can say is that they were unable to deliver.
Borges was too expensive to get a new contract. He wanted to stay in London, his agent is friend of Gaspar, Gaspar doesn’t give a sh** of Arsenal, he and Mickey Larteta pretended WE NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDTHIS GUY TO WIN THE CL (sic), he came, got a huge fee for signing the contract, gets £200 000 per week. Özil, Reiss, Eddie… are out for this.
To be honest Eddie is pretty average aswell, I like him but he’s not great at the oul..you know, football thingy.
Think about two things
1) were you thinking about 5 or even 2 things Emery needed to turn it around or because of his non arsenal connections your judgement wasn’t clouded by emotions?
2) No matter how bad things look, they can always get worse
The point of Willian was to give him three more lucrative but comfortable years in London while satisfying his agent who has the key to the executive toilet.
I wonder if Edu gets a cut out of the lucrative contract he got for his countryman.
We didn’t play well and that wasn’t even near a good performance. Thing is: Sp*rs knew we wouldn’t do damage, so they let us have the ball, which leads to a sense of “arsenal dominated play”. That is not true. That lot dominated the play. We just played to their tunes. To me, that was an abysmal performance, not so much because of the lack of goals, but the lack of inspiration. Arsenal spent about 40m basically passing the ball to the left side and trying to hoof crosses. That was it. That was the whole performance. A couple players… Read more »
This might work great… with Giroud up front.
Remember when even drawing vs these cunts used to hurt? How we’ve fallen
Makes me appreciate Arsene even more now
Arsene before project British core at all costs.
There is no way that Arsene is blameless in where we are now. This is not an “Arteta thing”, this is not an “Emery thing”, this is an “Arsenal thing”. An Arsenal decline which started very much on Arsene’s watch, which we all saw coming from around 2010, which he stubbornly refused to acknowledge or do anything about. So no, I’m not blaming Arsene for where we are now, but it’s revisionist nonsense to suggest that Arsene would have done any better than the incumbent or his predecessor with THIS squad.
100% better then arteta, was arsene–even with the likes of denilson,song,cygan,bendtner,sanogo etc etc he delivered year after year, even when we were not competing for titles we played one of the most attractive games of football out there, we scored goals like wilshere vs norwich because that was the arsene way, now we are shit and have no direction or style of play, just a waste of 90minutes watching this shit show- arteta was a gamble as he has no experience- it hasnt worked- time to move on did you hear redknapp trying to tell us to stick with the… Read more »
Mate he used to get us to play GOOD FOOTBALL with Denilson, Song (before he had his 2 seasons), Chamkah, Squillaci, Theo (not the best passer for all his strengths) etc. Hell, even Bendtner was scoring worldies from outside the box (vs Blackburn on Arsha’s debut)
Did we have problems? Sure. But atleast football used to serve as an escape from real life shit, vs now where we need to find a way to escape football lol
True, fair point. At least we would lose with at least an element of gumption. But on various occasions Arsene passed up opportunities to buy quality players who would have pushed us on because it would “kill” [insert average youth player who never made the grade]. But I don’t want to look back to Arsene when we have enough sh*t to deal with now!
He wasn’t perfect of course, and I’m sure he’d agree he made some mistakes as well. Unfortunately it’s hard to figure out how much of it was tight purse strings vs reluctance on his part. It’s been my strongly held belief that had we got a couple of more seasons out of Nasri and Cesc along with some investments we would have been close to being a top name in Europe. I look back at Arsene to remind myself that things were not as bad once, so maybe they can get better as we move ahead as well. There’s not… Read more »
People denying the fact that the decline started under Arsene just seem plain deluded. Arsene left us with a squad that really was a bottom half squad at best and all of this happened under his watch, he did nothing. I absolutely love his style of football, it’s what got me hooked to the game, but I can also say the above.
AW at his worst is better than this.
So, tell us all, how many Wenger teams did you ever see pile in cross after cross as the only means of attack…?
You’ve absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
I’m sick of no penetrative drive.
I’m sick of poor finishing.
I’m sick of Bellerin taking multiple foul throws, risking his positioning as a defender to attack and then leaving himself open to the counter after poor crossing
I’m sick of backwards passing
I’m sick of Gabriel being the only one that runs into the midfield to lay off passes… He’s the defender!?
We gambled with Partey now he’s out again.
What does Xhaka bring?
We are in a very serious situation. This is the worst I have seen our team for decades.
Gman they are coached as such. The buck stops up there
Sick of Bellerin and Saka being the only players willing to run at opponents after our 1000000th pass rolled slowly at the back
Can I get an AMEN!
This is not about todays defeat more about the this season as a whole. We are absolutely clueless. Auba looks so miserable. Bellerin can’t even take a throw in. Willian for 3 more years.
A club going nowhere and without direction.
We are in serious danger of going down we are that bad.
70% possession
2 shots on target
Painfully predictable…
That’s what really gets me – the lack of shots. You can’t expect to score headers against tall defenders, you can’t expect 1-2s to work often against packed area. At least shooting means defenders have to expect something different and maybe a lucky bounce.
We knew what Mourinho will do and just fell into the trap…
As a cherry on top is Partey out til February…
Nice touch by the Sp*rs fans booing Willian for us at the beginning.
It’s fucking embarrassing that he plays for us. If I were a Spurs fan I’d think it was a fucking riot that we have 2.5 more years of that fucker.
Never disliked an Arsenal player in 30 years, but I can’t can’t stand him.
Can’t blame him for accepting a sweet contract like the one we gave him. What I’d like to know is who the fuck authorised it. Authorise may not be the correct term. Doctored it more likely.
What fucking cunt did that? And why?
Don’t worry. We still have Dundalk.
And MA will spin it like we turned the corner.
Is there anything left to say anymore?
Yes. If he can do this and that, if we can stop doing this and that, if we …. aggrrrhhhh why bother? we can’t. We won’t
Why did Leno wonder that far for the first goal? Is he as good as we have been made to believe?
Let’s not forget so quickly how Auba and Leno carried us throughout the Emery period. Auba’s struggling to score and Leno will make mistakes (he’s a keeper, they literally all do). But, for me, they have a lot of goodwill build up for what they have done so far, so let’s not be too revisionist on their qualities!
How many times have we seen Auba put in that kind of goal for us? Can’t really blame Leno for that kind of goal now, can we?
We as a fan need to be more positive now, more than ever. Surely they will sort this out soon.
It’s shocking how clueless Arsenal looks. A slow, steady tempo of low-risk passes into wide areas which converts with a cross which usually do not go behind the first opposite player or pass back to the middle of the pitch. Eventually, someone loses a ball easily (someone often means Willian). I remember how bad I felt during some Wenger-era games (Bradford ’12?) or when I traveled to London to see my beloved team play a dull game against Swansea (0-1 in May 2015) but well, these weak Wenger periods were a. short b. levels ahead in terms of football quality.… Read more »
I’m so desperate for Arteta to succeed but I really fear you could be right.
Not only have we made no progress this season but we look to be going backwards.
Too many of our players are poor, no doubt. The coaching is making them worse.
Come on Arteta, sort it out.
A bunch of people STILL blaming individual players and falling for the drivel that our squad is simply “not good enough” whatever the f*ck that actually means. Good thing the spurs squad is full of amazing “World Class” talent such as Lo Celso, Aurier, Dier, Davies, Ndombele, Sanchez, Begwijn, Hojberg, etc. All these players would definitely take us from 16th to 1st in the league even if our tactics stayed exactly the same Our number one problem are the manager’s tactics! Plain and simple. This squad is performing way, way below their abilities because the manager insists on playing rigid… Read more »
We may be bigger than them.
But they’re way better than us.
Let’s just watch F1, everyone. Perez gonna win the Sakhir GP 👀
Arsenal Football Club: a disaster 10 years in the making!
Stan and his useless son out now!
How Tf is anything currently happening Stan’s fault?
Stan? Really?
Fuck off. You and your anything but Wenger piss. You wanted this.
When did we become David Moyes United, putting in 40 crosses per game with no target man of note. Don’t score goals. Not guaranteed to beat anyone on the league. Those are qualities of teams trying to avoid the drop.
cunts
Lol
Time for Arteta to show some fucking balls and put Willian and Auba on the bench. They are dreadfull.
How are you still blaming individual players? How the f*ck is Auba supposed to do anything when we literally play the ball in our own half for half the game?
You’re falling for Arteta’s drivel blaming the players for not being “good enough”. You think if we had Begwijn, Hojberg, Davies, Aurier, Dier, Lo Celso, Regullion we would win this game playing the way we currently are?
They have Kane. We have Auba. Was why they won and we lost.
If we took the lead as early as they did, and had Kane and Son as opposed to Auba and Willian (given now to Sp*rs) we would win the game too as they’d be just as ineffective with Sp*rs.
It’s too late
No. They aren’t. We’re 20th in the league in creating chances. 19 other clubs are better than us. You don’t create chances don’t expect to score goals. But, when your only way to score goals is through putting 44 crosses from left / right and hoping that a shot might get deflected ending in the back of the net, that depends on luck.
Am not saying this is all his fault, but Arteta can’t even get his player to cut out his stupid foul throws. That worries me.
Crosses. Crosses. And more crosses. That’s obviously the game plan. And it hasn’t worked all season. Give me a break. That’s the best mini-Pep can game plan?
Didn’t know it could get worse than Emery, but my God can it…
Doubt whether Arteta can fix this now. We’re boring and poor. Yawn
I know some don’t want to face it so I will put it like this. If the organisation I work for suddenly suspended one of my colleagues for not doing anything wrong and it was clear as day it was financial decision. I’m pretty dam sure the rest us would lose trust and respect for the organisation, I doubt I would want to give my all for them. It would have big effect on all of us. It could be me next.
just wait, someone’s gonna pop up to explain why Ozil is not useful in the way we press….like that’s doing anything for us lol
Even if you’re gonna make that argument there’s still no excuse not to at least have him in the squad. Freezing him out completely doesn’t make any footballing sense at all whether you like him as a player or not.
I 100% agree. Bench him if you want for the likes of City and Liverpool where we have to sit in, but if you think Ozil won’t add anything to us not scoring non headed goals from open play in forever then idk what to tell you
Perhaps MA is taking his revenge after years of envy at what Ozil could do a midfielder that he couldn’t.
Entirely predictable. Same old Arsenal. I hear knives being sharpened. Feel sorry for Thomas Partey.
Bellerin. Yikes, what an awful match. Culpable on both goals. The whole team were naive on both though. Zero awareness to mark Kane and Son, and to repeatedly leave massive gaps between the back three and midfield. Xhaka is the least athletic player in the PL, and a huge liability. Ugh.
Giroud and Santi Cazorla, man I really miss those guys. Auba and Laca couldn’t head a ball if their lives depended on it.
Santi was just so good at spinning and losing men in midfield then opening the game up with an amazing pass. We really need that now.
Europa is all we have this year and maybe an FA cup run.
Start playing the kids in the league, can’t be worse than this.
Oh and someone, for the love of God, teach Bellerin how to do a throw in!!!!
Yes on Santi, but Giroud, man… We could have had Higuain, that was the one we needed, not Giroud who was never top class. Was glad when he left, we should show more ruthlessness with other players we have – mustafi and xh for instance and go for players with higher ceiling. But for that we need a proper scout and a technical director, which we had in Sven, but we don’t need that. Contacts/networking, agent shmoozing, that’s the future.
Giroud needs 7 goals to tie as France’s all time leading goal scorer. If he does it in 15 games, he would’ve taken the same amount of time as current #1 HENRY
I know, and that’s a fact. But please think of the time he was with us – did you seriously think he was the best guy for us, that world class striker after we had bergkamp, henry, rvp? Remember how he missed crucial chances, so many? How easily he went to the ground for a guy his size? The constant complaining to the ref? He was a sub for us at best.
He wasn’t world class for us sure, but imo a lot of it was to do with the style of football we played…he’s never going to be the kind that can be put through or one that would dribble past defenders, but if we put him in our current system, who knows?
Facts are facts, and the fact that he’s even in the same vicinity as Henry for France shows a lot of us (including myself) underrated him
The last time I saw this team playing so consistently badly was pre Arsene! So many of those players need dropping until they get their form back, Auba, Laca, Xhaka for starters and I never want to see Willian in an Arsenal shirt again, what a monumental fuckwad of a footballing decision that was signing him! We will be in a relegation battle before long and I like Mikael but unless he makes some brave decisions, drops the underperformers above and gives the youngsters some game time I can see him gone by new year because this is just fucking… Read more »
Absolute bag of wet squirrel farts, this team are atrocious. We are such a weak team with a manager completely out of his depth. We have no midfield, I know Ozil is lazy but surely he would offer something different to this bunch. Xhaka needs to be taken out back and put down, he is so slow and does the same thing time and time again. I remember he used to take shots at goal. Aubamayang has lost all confidence, when he doesn’t score goals he becomes just an average player. I’m having serious doubts about Arteta now, pochettino is… Read more »
Fuck Pochettino, you think this is negative? Look properly at that negative bottler. What has he ever done? What has he ever won? The reason Pochttino is still available is because he’s rubbish.
I am not sure if Arteta has a plan. It looked like he had one at the end of last season, but as soon as results went bad we seem to have ditched it. I have absolutely no clue who will play the game against Burnley or what formation.
Auba looks gone at the game??
Did we rush Partey back too soon? For me Arteta got it wrong there, should have never started. Cant say I’m surprised at the final result, upwards and onwards. Coyg
Willian Xhaka belerin aubamyang stealing a living
Another dismal performance. I have lost the faith of scoring, we can’t seem to find the net. We should have the quality in Auba and Laca, but they just don’t get in the danger areas.
Saka, Gabriel and Tierney did well. I hope others can copy their efforts.
Bellerin has not matured. He looks too weak. Throw fouls at this stage???
Willian doesnt look interest. He could nt even get pass a man.
Xhaka brings nothing to this team.
Auba is a flop. Time to bench him.
Bring back Wenger as a technical director. We weren’t this bad under Wenger at least.
You lost me at the last line
Despite having more possession, especially in the 2nd half we still looked bereft of creativity, invention and any discernible style of play. Whether it’s the players Arteta has at his disposal or his decisions to allow no creative play whatsoever in his team, it’s on him. When the tools are down, he lacks knowledge and experience to figure out what to do. Arteta may prove to a successful manager, but it won’t be at Arsenal. This is a learning curve for him for sure, but he needs to look at himself and his failings as a head coach. The Europa… Read more »
How I miss Rosicky. Receives the ball, turns and runs at the defence. Not our worst performance this season. But wrong to start with Xhaka and Willian. Should have played Willock or started with Nketiah with Laca dropping deeper. Auba needs a run out in a Europa game to regain confidence.
At this point I’m starting to miss Denilson. Would atleast score the occasion beauty from outside the box and would keep the ball ticking forward
Xhaka has the athleticism of a middle age cafeteria lady and we still want to put him in the most important part of the field. Madness.
Mourinho (the horrible prick) identified a weakness on our right side with Willian and bellerin and they went to town down that side. They are so far ahead of us it is unbelievable. I swear to fuck, the idea that a right back continually commits foul throws is doing my head in
More foul throws than any player has goals. Also more than the team has wins.
Have up watching at half time. Never any hope after that.
Just all too static and slow, no pace, no one touch, no breaking the lines and a sucker punch on the break………seen this movie before, too many times.
Xhaka – he is so irreverent that no one even bothers to discuss him anymore
Xhaka – He is so irrelevant that no one even bothers to discuss him anymore
As much as I know we need better players, I think the ones we have are better than 15th in the league. That is on Arteta.
Or the players themselves? There’s plenty of blame to go around, but when Auba gets in good positions like today (twice in the box with one defender to beat, plus a free header from 6 yards) and never even tests the keeper, surely that can’t fall solely on the manager.
Ozil, Ozil, Ozil
Yeah, the solution we need is a player helping us out by begging the boss to skip two training sessions a week . He would probably have been “sick” for this one too if memory serves us right
So, what would your solution be?
Willian? Ceballos? Willock? 🤣
If you say his name three times in a row does he magically appear in the next EPL matchday squad?