Result: Arsenal 0 – 2 Chelsea
Competition: Premier League
Date: 22 August 2021
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal: Leno, Cedric, Holding, Mari, Tierney, Sambi, Xhaka, Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Martinelli
Subs: Ramsdale, Chambers, Maitland-Niles, Tavares, Kolasinac, Elneny, Balogun, Nelson, Aubameyang
Fans filled out the Emirates for the first time in a year and a half but was treated to a tepid display by Arsenal who lost 0-2 to Chelsea.
Romelu Lukaku and Reece James scored in the first half and Chelsea rode the game out comfortably. Arsenal had some chances to score, with a penalty shout and a Rob Holding header almost going in, but were outclassed for most of the game.
Pre-Game
In lieu of illnesses and injuries, Arsenal had Cedric and holding returning to the backline while Martinelli started upfront. Captain, Aubameyang, had a place on the bench as he makes his return from Covid-19.
New signings Ramsdale and Odegaard were on the bench and in the stands respectively.
First Half
Despite having Chelsea’s number in recent seasons with a back three, Arteta went with an enterprising back four with Tierney and Saka pushing high up and Smith Rowe in support of the front line.
And it was the latter two who combined well to put a marker on the game with a good first attempt on goal within the first minute. Xhaka’s long floated pass found Saka in space and the English international headed down for Smith Rowe to strike from outside the box. The shot was struck with some power but Mendy dived well to prevent Arsenal’s new number 10 from scoring.
It had been a spirited opening 15 minutes by the Gunners who were strong in the tackle, quick to counter and intercepted well to block passing lanes to Lukaku. Unfortunately, that strong start faded really quickly when Lukaku came to life. He dropped deep to hold up the play, laid off the ball to Kovacic and spun away from his defender. Kovacic pinged the ball to James who was free on the right. James crossed in low for Lukaku who powered past Mari and tapped in to an open net. 0-1 to Chelsea
The goal stemmed from the Arsenal defence playing narrow to crowd out the middle which left Reece James in acres of space. Switching the play to their vacant wing back was a tactic Chelsea attempted time and time again as Arsenal had their eyes on Lukaku in the middle.
Things got from bad to worse when it was this tactic that caught the Gunners out again. A skirmish on the outside of the box saw Mount receive the ball and distribute it to James who lurked along the right wing. The wing back lashed the ball past Leno to make it 0-2 to Chelsea.
It could have been 1-2 just minutes later but some questionable refereeing meant that James’ trip on Saka in the Chelsea box was not given, even after VAR called out for it. Despite cranking up the pressure, Arsenal ended the first half without a goal and a mountain to climb.
Second Half
The game started ominously as Chelsea took the game to Arsenal with Lukaku looking imperious in and around the box. The Gunners came back with some energy and verve but only for a few minutes, before Chelsea grasped possession and controlled the tempo.
Chelsea’s possession was punctuated when Rob Holding threatened to get Arsenal back into the game with a glancing header from six yards away during a corner kick. It was at that point Arteta where looked to shift the gears by putting on Aubameyang for Saka who looked unfit.
Immediately, Aubameyang looked to be a threat, getting behind Chelsea’s high line and forcing Mendy with a clearance high up the pitch. That momentum was snuffed out when Tierney got substituted for Tavares due to an injury.
That was as good as it got for Arsenal as Chelsea comfortably finished the game and even had a chance to extend their lead through Lukaku and Havertz if not for Leno’s saves.
A poor day out for Arsenal who couldn’t raise their game despite hosting fans in the stadium for the first time in a year and a half.
That’s two losses from the first two games and Arteta has got his work cut out for him to get this team performing again.
going into this summer I thought an upgrade on Xhaka was crucial, and when the Roma links happened i thought it was for the best, the perfect opportunity to sign a press beating, forward carrying CM. now that we’ve kept him, i of course want him to succeed, but it’s so so so frustrating seeing him pick the backwards pass so often when there are clearly options ahead of him. Yes they are more risky and we may lose the ball but perfect possession is not the way forward, especially not with this team. his euro performance vs France was… Read more »
also don’t know that I’ve seen a CB so utterly outclassed as Mari vs Lukaku today. He was absolutely demolished, he looked like a fool honestly.
Pablo Mari is joining such luminaries as Pascal Cygan, Phillip Senderos & Igor Stepanov.
And mustafi 😆
Really, that sort of thing didn’t happen to Mustafi. He made catastrophic mistakes that led to goals, almost all mental mistakes. He was rarely bullied by an opposing striker or regularly beaten in the air.
Gus Caesar.
I’m telling you, Gus made Mustafi look like Beckenbauer.
He is universally loved in Luton Town for single handedly giving them the 1988 League Cup on a silver platter.
He was that shit, that George Graham really had no options that summer but to sign Lee Dixon and Steve Bould and form The Famous Back Four.
They went on to win the title in 1989 and Gus didn’t.
You forgot Sebastian Squillachi.
Oooooh lets play the player blame game from our armchairs!!
Mari was utterly destroyed and his corpse decomposed by Lukaku. As terrible as those defenders were i never saw them be dominated by their direct rival over 90mins. Stepanovs was simultaneously destroyed by Cole and Yorke at Old Trafford while i thought Senderos was decent against anybody not named Drogba.
I honestly think he is worse than Mustafi. Most of the time Mustafi was actually quite decent but then he’d do a Mustafi every now and then. Mari just isn’t very good at anything, I don’t know if he’d be starting in any EPL team.
Mustafi at least competed. Mari just not up to premier league level.
Which is why he was in Brazil and not wanted by any top club
Mustafi is still a free agent. Should we sign him up?
I say YES! 🙂
Can we bring saliba back, see what he can do
Lukaku does that to defenders. He’s a beast on the ball. I wouldn’t blame Mari too much.
He was no better last week against Toney of Brentford
Mari wasn’t Strong
enough
Stop looking for individuals to blame. Please all of you?
It was Drogba v Senderos all over again.
The crazy thing is, people here have been saying since last season that he’s a quality defender and better than Gabriel
The argument between him and Gabriel is absurd. The obsession of playing him last year when Gabriel was fit and on the bench was infuriating. Mari is a decent player, nothing more. Gabriel has the potential to be a world class defender. WhyTF anyone would chose to block a guy that is already good and has potential to be great with a cultured, slow, run of the mill guy is rather puzzling.
I’d play Azeez instead of Xhaka, showed more in a shirt cameo than xhaka has in 5 years
Why not?! Only Arsenal would resign a guy they were trying to sell all season, but couldn’t get their desired value for. The market just showed us that a player like Xhaka should NOT be indespensible. If Arteta continues to treat him as such he’s going to lose his job.
I would too, in a heartbeat.
Mikel knows
That’s Arteta for you!
So you haven’t seen Vermaelen vs Drogba?
Just a reminder that he is one of 3 centerbacks signed by Arteta
At this stage it’s not even reactionary to say Arteta out. Our tactics are really poor, after nearly £200m worth of investment, almost all of which his own choices. And this is no slight on the player, but rather on the Manager, Xhaka is central to why we look poor. We can’t even press as a unit, but at the same time can’t defend deep. Which is it Arteta? Our defense are a shamble and at the exact same time our attacks are also incoherent AF. Chelsea is vastly superior to us in so many ways any logical manager would… Read more »
Arteta plays boring losing football and our rivals play attacking winning football until he’s sacked we will get worse. You really can’t blame lack of investment from the owners on this shower of piss. You can buy the team of the season, but if the plan is always to pass it backwards in league that plays pressing football then we are utterly ducked with a big F
While I agree we were really bad, mentioning the £200m when we had £104m between White, Ødegaard and Ramsdale which either were incapacitated, or arrived at the club only days ago, is a bit harsh on the manager. Let’s see what he does of this money before blaming it on him.
I have to disagree. None of his 200 mil pound players were playing the game except for Lokonga. Partly, Gabriel, White, MØ and Ramsdale all were unavailable. I believe at least 3 of those players would have vastly improved the performance (Partey, Gabriel and White) today. You can’t use that excuse of not performing better just because we spent 200 mill when in fact he didn’t have most of the players that he bought. Nor can we blame the owners this time for not backing up the manager. This time I believe it is sheer bad luck. We don’t have… Read more »
I get what you’re saying but Arteta didn’t set up the team in a way that had any chance against Chelsea. If the prime chances had all gone in, it might have been 6-2 Chelsea. The goals were just too easy. We were all over the place. Even the beloved Tierney left his position wide open for the goals and other times.
Tierney was busy trying to play LB and LCB at the same time, because Mari was so useless. Dude is good but even he can’t cover two positions at the same time.
TBH, Arteta’s persistence with Xhaka is going to be his undoing.
That bit in the second half when Saka and ESR were attacking, Xhaka got the ball and immediately turned backwards, the roar from the crowd said it all
Xhaka was horrible today.
Lokonga embarrassed him today. 21 years old on his home debut and he made Xhaka look like a lost pony.
What does he actually offer this team? Useless. F’ing useless.
Who gave him a new contract again? Dumb and Dumber.
No-one. Its extended for a year
Who exercised the option to extend?
We didn’t
Lokonga was everywhere, spraying 50 yard crossfield passes and taking responsibility. In his second game.
Captain Xhaka? Nowhere
Agreed, let’s hope him and partey play ahead of granit
He did the same in his first game too. In two games Lokonga has shown more ability and mobility than Xhaka in 4 years. If Arteta picks Xhaka over Lokonga when Partey is back, I’m done…
He will
Were told on here that Xhaxa is the least of our problems and he has good leader ship and has the best passing from deep in the league.
You can expect Arteta to bench Lokonga and play Odegard with Xhaka next week, despite everything. I really hope I’m wrong, though.
Would not be surprised. Man gets me confused with his decisions.
Xhaka wasn’t horrible just today. He IS horrible, always. He only does one of these two things: pass the ball backwards or pass it to Tierney, when he is attacking on the left wing.
Agreed. As a player , I cant stand the dude.
Simply unbelievable that he plays for arsenal and is our captain.
Denilson was better than him
The fact that Arteta makes him captain is how out of touch Arsenal management are with the fans. He literally told the fans to Fuck-off and tossed the armband at Auba’s feet. I can’t stand that he is picked (because he limits us so much and watching him is kinda masochistic, making him captain is flat out antagonising.
Remember this is the Arsenal ownership and management that pushed Arsenal into the ESL and then did a sorry, but… but… but…
#KroenkeOut
#ArtetaOut
#EduOut
#VinaiOut
Well.. may be the coach. It looks to me that he plays according to what the coach says. Probably the reason why every coaches likes him.!
Legit no coach tells a midfielder to turn and pass the ball back always. The coach says “if there isn’t a clear passing opportunity relax and recycle the ball”. Now deciding when that is or creating space depends on the player. Lokonga gets the same instructions I’m sure.
Didn’t expect to win today. Missed Gabriel at the back and I’m sure saliba would be better suited than Mari and holding. I don’t imagine he would get bullied so easily. Toney last week lukaku today. Liked the look of lokonga, can’t wait to see him alongside partey we will be so much quicker turning defence into attack. Lastly I’m not sure Martinelli is gonna make it at top level, I hope he does but very doubtful. His touch is hit and miss and he doesn’t get his head up.
Mari is rank bad
His euros performances were mostly looking to counter attack. Again which is what his strengths are. Not this bullsh*t beat the press, press their defense high up the pitch that Arteta is trying to instill. He signed Xhaka on an extension yet persist to play this sort of style. Just bl**dy watch how our front 4 press, ESR, Pepe, Saka, Martinelli runs their socks off but the passing channels behind them are left wide open. Xhaka just standing off them 4-5m away in no man’s land. As soon as our press is beaten, Kovacic, Jorginho or Havertz have all the… Read more »
This is how the manager played his football and how he trains his team. It’s not Xhaka’s fault for playing backwards and side ways. This manager needs to go.
Doubt that he tells them to play backwards when Sambi was out there spraying passes forward and diagonally. Clearly shows it’s a player issue
He hasn’t had enough time to have it trained out of his game. Only a matter of time don’t kid yourself.
Xhaxa was awful under Wenger.
Our exit from champions League football and fall from grace coincides with the signing of granit xhaka, go figure……
And Mustafi.
Every coach has liked Xhaka…. that’s why they’ve all been fired. I have played football before, I have seen these types of guys. The ones that ball out in training but they are just not spectacular on the pitch and these coaches are not seeing it. Some players are just practice kings.
I think it’s no more the fault of Xhaka, but of the manager who keeps picking him and made him captain. Even in the second half, when it was apparent Xhaka was doing nothing as usual, he wasn’t replaced. The new kid has overshadowed him in just couple of games, hopefully when Partey comes back Xhaka will be benched.
The captaincy I’d prefer being elsewhere too but we don’t see how the squad interacts on the daily. Who would you replace Xhaka with though, Elneny, nahh.
I’m excited for the Sambi-Partey too though
Could be he is playing according according to the manager’s instructions.
The reason in one word – Arteta. Xhaka is capable of passing through the middle. But Arteta wants low risk passes out to the wing for his trusty endless horseshoe.
After two games it is becoming apparent that going forward nobody is going to be afraid of playing Arsenal and that should really raise alarm bells throughout the club…our problems are deep and they are many……
Most good managers in the EPL know how to deal with Xhaka. Just press him as soon as he gets on the ball. Do that and all the value added from Xhaka is taken away and he basically becomes a slow midfielder without the strong passing range, which he needs time on the ball to utilise. If opposition managers target Xhaka, he will be shown as a very average player because he cannot break a press, that is basically a no-risk tactic to press Xhaka’s every touch. He’s not going to turn the press. Why every team doesn’t do it… Read more »
Testify
You don’t even have to press him..Just restrict his passing lanes..Some idiot on here told me Midfielders don’t need to create their own space with quick feet or a drop of the shoulder they just need movement in front.
Nah, you have to press him. If you give him time on the ball that is where he can be useful. If you take that away he’s barely even EPL standard.
But, but, he was man of the match against France though
Xhaka being brilliant for Switzerland and shit playing for Arsenal is surely a reflection of the role he is given by the respective managers and the instructions he gets from them
Exactly. Not sure I’ve seen a player more averse to risk than Xhaka. My problem though is how everyone else sees this but not the manager. Sad.
I’d like to see Odegaard tried there next to Partey.
Dictating the play deeper like Cesc did and allowing us to have him, Saka, ESR and Pepe on the pitch together.
Failing that hopefully Sambi takes Xhaka’s spot this season.
This looks like Wenger 2.0 again. Lots of tricky lightweight players that are easily pushed off the ball. Plenty of effort, but the recruitment feels naive at best.
Tactics are absolutely appalling. Still slow ponderous possession, leaving enough time for the opposition to regroup, while Chelsea just rip through us at speed. Leno looked exasperated as he wanted to break quickly and the team stood still.
Things have definitely deteriorated under Arteta with hundreds of millions questionably spent. Arsenal are easy to play against and if nothing changes, we will struggle for 8th!
Wenger 2.0 still had pretty triangles and once in a while wonder goals. What we have now is just bleurgh…
Arteta has the odd moment too, but Wenger 2.0 meant the passing of pace & power in the team. Replacing that with small players will more often than not result in being overpowered in the Premier League.
We were only ever make weights with the new philosophy.
Tricky lightweight players? Hell no. Under Wenger at least they were technically good. Now we have lightweight players with average techniques.
We lack creativity
We await the inevitable excuse.. what’s it this time? Ref? White absent? Auba didn’t start? What a joke club we are. Let’s keep waiting for the stars to align before we put up a display befitting of our status. The earlier we cut our losses with this coach the better. We sit 19th on the table.
I have a feeling it could have gone worse with White in the side. At least Rob Holding had some physicality and showed some fight.
Chelsea has plenty lightweight tricky players, not doing them any harm though is it? Their midfield duo today is lightweight as h*ll but they ran us ragged.
It’s the tactics, and putting square pegs in round holes (in this case putting Xhaka in a supposedly high octane high pressing midfield). Arteta is a joke.
Didn’t see a lot of effort today. At some point we have to accept that our talent isn’t as good as the other big 6 teams we need to beat them by out working them. We couldn’t do that today
We don’t have the talent to win the league but we certainly have a squad capable of pushing for the top 4 if actually managed appropriately.
We don’t have the manager to being pushing for a top 4 finish. Today’s limp performance against a bitter rival at home confirms it. At least bloody compete, kick the fuckers, do fucking something instead of feeding everything through Granny Xhaka only for him to be closed down and pass it backwards again. Useless.
To be honest, our opponents were better than us in every aspect of the game including technical ability, experience, tenacity and what not! There were times in our attacking play that I thought was promising – Pepe & Sambi had some nice passes along with Saka & ESR. But we need goals from other than our strikers too to take some pressure off them. At the moment, the CB’s have our strikers in their pockets and all Tierney crosses are just wasted and Pepe hardly gets any service within the box on the other side. We badly need a Tierney… Read more »
Wenger 2.0 made Alex Song the assist master. He had a team made of Arteta, Santi, Coq and Mertesacker play some great football. Wenger was an artist and wanted all his players to be one too with the football. Yes, he was obstinate and perhaps lost touch with the modern game. But atleast we played beautiful football a lot of times. Now, we have a team of so many young players who hardly press in a coordinated fashion, passes bounce of them while attacking. They pass backwards when they smell danger. The lack of confidence shown by Cedric was shocking.… Read more »
Premier league years is the most depressing show ever, Fuck Vieira, Fabregas and Cazorla. I would bite my hand off for fucking Song, glass Diaby and Denilson.
Arteta has managed to outdo his previous mentor. Pep wanted to play without a striker and Arteta has made that dream a reality. Whether it’s Auba, Laca, Balogun or Martinelli, the position of striker is basically to run around like a mad man after CB’s as they casually pass round you. The system doesn’t work if we can’t supply the players whose only talent is putting the ball in the net with chances. What is our striker supposed to do? What is his role? How is he expected to effect play? Yes Odegaard is coming in. But Arteta has had… Read more »
These tactics would make Lukaku look like Sanogo.
Never mind the attack, I was screaming at the amount of space we gave them down our right hand side. We got a warning real early and then two goals came from an unmarked Reece James.
If Arteta can’t stop that happening with some pretty basic game management, then he’s a worse manager than every fan watching that car crash happen in slow motion.
Sorry, their right hand side.
Not that our right hand side was better, Cedric couldn’t win a tackle. The second goal, he misses like three attempts one after the other.
I took snapshots on my phone for the times we press. Front 4 of ESR, Saka, Pepe and Gabi will move in, somewhat coherently. Then Tierney is some distance away from Reece, and on the other side Cedric some distance away from Alonso. Sambi tries to block the passing lane, either blocking out Jorginho or Kovacic, but then Xhaka stays back just ahead of our defense. And that’s how Havertz just drops deep, and suddenly Sambi is outnumbered and they beat our press as easy as day. The way we press like this on a consistent basis is to me… Read more »
Look at the defence : Soares not up to standards, Holding is not the solution, Mari is slow, Tierney’s defensive mistakes forgived because he is a real attacking threat. And Bellerin is the past, a shadow, Mustafi was a disaster, Mavropanos unknown, Luiz was sometimes a public enemy and of course Kolasinac have to leave just like Chambers. Gabriel is young but….????
But just give some more time and money to Arteta.
” Tierney’s defensive mistakes forgived because he is a real attacking threat”…Hopefully people start noticing this, I love Tierney but alot of goals come down his side. Positionally he is awful and its not all down to being asked to Attack.
I just realised that Xhaka could plausibly end up playing left back in Tierney’s absence even though we have a backup left back. It made me laugh. That’s where I am at….
Arteta had his last chance today for me. This was it. I don’t see any improvement and the tactics is poor at best.
Arteta is not good enough.
I think you might be right bud. But that was a very good Chelsea team. They will beat most teams this season.
Last Friday was just so costly. I still can’t believe we didn’t turn up. Mikel has had some bad luck but it’s been tough for other clubs too. We need 9 points from the next four games or it’s time for Conte.
Conte won’t come to us. The team is not good enough, the club is not good enough.
A top manager would have a better chance of getting a team to do the basics, we can’t blame those at the top when they’ve given a lot money to two managers since wenger left and nothing in return €70 million on Pepe who looks like he’s running in boots that are two sizes too big for him.
lol it took you that long
Arteta seems more focused on impersonating Guardiola than anything else. We should’ve gotten rid of him in 2020.
He is fast becoming the Pep cover band.
Shitty taka.
If we actually plan on going this season with Cedric (or Chambers tbh) as our RB, now is the time to get very worried.
Plan? What’s a plan?
I have nothing to say for the players. I’m way beyond criticizing them. We know where we need improvement in terms of that but what are we setup to play like? I am beyond sure nobody can tell me. I remember making a comment last season against Crystal Palace about us taking only 6 shots in total and Pepe somehow banging 2. It hasn’t changed. One game of 22 more or less speculative shots doesn’t change it. Arteta isn’t the one and I for one have never been optimistic about him because I had no idea how good or bad… Read more »
Hope Tierney is all right.
He’s becoming worryingly fragile…
Painful and with City next. Probably in the bottom 3 after that match.
Already in the bottom 3 – we’ll be bottom after that match
We’re in the bottom two.
At least we’re not last. Huge game against our rivals Norwich coming up in a few weeks.
Imagine our first 3 matches with 0 goals and 0 points. Arteta is a legend.
The numbers aren’t looking goodly!
Been breaking negative records since the moment he stepped foot into the club…
It’s a must win for Norwich as well. Have a feeling we might f*ck that one up also.
Sorry Arsene, didn’t fully appreciate you when I had the chance.
Go watch Liverpool 5 – Arsenal 1 highlights. You will remember why Wenger left. Never seen a thrashing like that in my life.
Then go watch them beat inter Milan 5-1 and remember how good they were too.
Yes this is bad, but the rose-tinted nostalgia is misguided. This decline, especially in poor recruitment, started with AW.
That was one game – this is game after game of the same incompetence and tactical mistakes. I would take Wenger back at the drop of a hat than keep Mikel Arteta at the club. In fact, despite becoming a laughing stock I would take Fat Sam or Neil Warnock over that incompetent idiot…
Fat Sam’s 90’s/00s Bolton team is much better than us right now. Shit they were even entertaining to watch.
One game? Or one decade of same old same old handbrake and mental strength, but worse with every subsequent iteration? Remember Bayern walloping? Remember dreading playing Man Utd or Mourinho’s Chelsea? I member.
Wenger stayed years too long – but he has legendary status unlike lego man who never will get it.
Please Arteta, apply your non-negotiables rule to yourself and get the fuck out. Year and half and I don’t understand what he is trying to do!
Arrogant, poor at motivating players and inept at coaching, what a winning combination – who would have thought he could be this bad?
Arteta copying Pep without the player quality is like one of us having a quick listen to Beethoven and banging out a symphony.
It gets more complicated if he actually believes he is doing as good a job as Beethoven.!
What a f*cking grea analogy. Here’s a like.
Hes useless and needs to go NOW
If he doesn’t get the sack now, we might as well be called AFC – Arsenal football circus.
I actually think we’d be more of a circus if we sacked him now. This has been his transfer window so there are no excuses now. However, things haven’t really settled yet – people to come in, come back from injuries. We were playing the Champions League winners today and next week the other finalists. I’m not a fan of the football we’re playing or some of the personnel decisions but I’ll reserve judgement until Christmas and by all means if things haven’t improved, then, it will be Goodbye Mikel, no excuses.
I understand the sentiment, but if we don’t improve on these performances until Christmas, survival in the league might be genuinely difficult.
If a change was made now, we might be able to get our season back on track earlier. There’s an opportunity cost involved.
First time we haven’t scored in our first two league games since a century ago.
I dont understand your thinking. Hes awful, why wait 4 months –
He needs to be shown the door now before he does any more damage
They’ve just let him spend an absolute fortune. They will give him a chance to make a fist of things, rightly or wrongly. It’s almost a sunk cost now where they have committed to Arteta and have to perserve. I understand where you are coming from but we’d look like complete fools if we sacked him a few games into the season after outlay that has been made. The optics would be of a club in complete chaos. This just needs to run its course. Continued poor results and performances will result in more pressure from the fans and sufficient… Read more »
Think after the number of signings he’s made last year and this he’s here for this season at least.
I mean its fair to give him a few games, but nothing really seems to be getting any better, back to back 8th places do’n’t help much
I disagree with giving him more time. To allow more time there has to be something tangible to start with. Player availability aside, his tactics are piss poor. A year in and I still can’t see what and how the f*ck Mikel intends to set us up. And especially on our offensive output you can pretty much say he’s done f all. Contrast that to Klopp, a year in and you can see a high pressing game. Ole gets his team to break with speed. Fat Frank, while he was there got Chelsea playing highly offensive football with most of… Read more »
This is the most woeful Arsenal team I’ve ever seen. No real tactics, not a sniff at goal and walked over time and time again by the opposition. I wonder what will happen if we don’t win against Norwich? At this point I’m completely writing the City game off.
I just hope when Partey is back, Arteta has the balls to play Sambi over Xhaka.
Also Jim Beglin is insufferable.
Aside from the usual ESR, Saka, Tierney good performance, Lokonga is the only other standout. He looks really good and his composure in his first few pl games bodes well.
Saka was bad! Really bad first half
Thought saka and Tierney had poor games today.
Pepe was the good one
We are going to do well this season – think we’ll make the top 4 – impressed with what Arteta has done in a season and a half. We are showing real potential with a great young group. don’t be down gooner’s – we’ve been undone by corona and bent ref’s (WWE tackle on Leno for the second last week and stonewall penalty this week) Shame on the Arsenal Boo Boys at the final whistle – the fans that were singing we love you arsenal a couple of minutes before full time are the real fans – this club has… Read more »
Is that you, Edu?
You must be trolling. That performance was as pathetic as your comment
Even if it was sarcasm, it was shit.
The final cope
Allright, this might be a little to ‘half-full’ and I’m not letting Arteta off the hook but you could easily say Arsenal were missing 6, maybe 7 starters today (White, Gabriel, Partey, Odegaard, Auba mostly, Laca possibly and whomever our RB is Bellerin/Chambers) and I’m not sure how to properly assess a team that is more than half missing.
right, but then why didn’t we adapt out tactics and approach to the team we had? like why didn’t we fix our left side? What is going thru Mari’s head when he plays football and why pick him over Saliba? What is a central midfielder and why do ours play left back or run around like nutters and leave acres of room? Why do we cross the ball so much when HFB left ages ago and we have no aerial threats?
I tend to agree with you and as I said, not letting Arteta off the hook. But to use your examples, if Gabriel is available Mari is an afterthought. If White was available, would we employ a back three of White, Gabriel and Tierney to address the space Reece James exploited all first half. If Partey and Sambi are pushing the ball up the middle to Odegaard and ESR, does that actually allow us to bring strikers like Auba and Laca into the game instead of simply employing them to chase defenders on the press. You are right to say… Read more »
The gap left for james was due to tactics not formation. Whichever formation we would have played, it would still have been tierney’s responsibility to cover
Damn, I thought I was the sarcastic one.
I’m not being Sarcastic – we are trying to build something that will be good for years to come, and as gunnertacks said, we were missing most of our first team through corona and a couple of injuries – and bad decisions have gone against us in both games too. Lokonga and Tavares look great, money well spent and time will tell on White but his distribution is excellent as he showed in the first game though he had a couple of shaky moments. Add to that ESR, Saka, Balogun (hopefully) – and I don’t think it will be too… Read more »
ESR, Tierney, Lokonga, Saka and Pepe played well.
I’m not mad we lost against champions League winners who added Lukaku, I’m mad we didn’t show this fight against Brentford.
That’s all, I love ESR.
Elsewhere, how would £50m Ben white have improved our performance, I felt holding did well.
Saka was trash
You’ve got to have a few months of him being crap for anyone to notice.
Sambi played well.
Saka had a mare.
There’s nothing positive about today
Leno did well.
He made a couple good saves indeed
He should have blocked the pass to Lukaku on the first goal, it was a bad pass that was too close to the keeper, but it went right past his arm. (The defenders are more culpable than him, but he still should have made that play.)
He made up for that with the spectacular save later, but if he could have kept out that first goal, the game might have gone differently.
Ifs n buts
Tierney left Reece out wide first goal. The ball kept going to that side and not once he thought let me not tuck in so much? Then boom second goal. Lokonga and ESR were the only decent ones.
Tierney seemed to be so focused on helping out Mari and Holding against Lukaku that he forgot his role put wide🤦🏿♂️
Funny that he clearly did not pick Ben White so as not to expose the defense even further against Lukaku… and then Mari couldn’t handle him. Much work still needed to be done with this squad, even with the potential talent we have.
Well we can only hope we see good things when Partey and Gabriel come back.
Ramsdale
Chambers Gabriel Ben White Tierney
Lokonga Partey
Pepe ESR Saka
Aubameyang
I’m waiting to judge how this team does.
Ainsley Naitland Miles PR Chambers?
Odegaard?
Ben white had covid…
White tested positive for covid.
He tested positive for coronavirus so wasn’t involved
Oh, ok then, nevermind
Saka was horrible, did nothing in attack and didn’t show up defensively.
I disagree on Saka and Tierney. Saka didn’t look up for it today, fumbled a good counter-attack opportunity and he left Tierney exposed on both goals. Tierney, himself, looked caught in two minds. I don’t know whether it was Arteta’s instructions for him to stay so narrow but too many shots came from his side.
If anything our best performer was Leno. Besides the saves to keep the score-line respectable, he played some good long balls today
White would be better than Mari, what was his attempt at a dive on the first goal? Agree that the fight seemed better today than last week
Chelsea didn’t get out of 3rd gear tonight, believe me. After the game it was like when dad gives a hug to his son for trying. Someone replaced Tierney with a stunt double since the start of the season it seems. Very lackluster performance.
Woeful. Arteta has to go and the Kroenkes need to sell up and fuck off. There is no defending the state of the club. The only redeeming feature has been Edu’s signings this summer. He has shown that he has a plan and a style for the club going forward. Arteta is simply not the man to implement. He is terrifying out of his depth.
Until the Kroenkes sell up I’m done with the club.
They’re not selling anytime soon so I guess this is goodbye
Real shame we couldn’t bring on Auba for the last 30 minutes or so
What do you want him to do? No chances are being created for the strikers. Martinelli had the same issue while on the pitch.
Look closely at Chelsea’s play today and see how many times they created chances for Lukaku. Did you see the same for our strikers?
We are absolute shite
I’m not blaming Auba- as someone else raised above it’s almost pointless having anyone play in his position at the moment. Just seems such a waste to have a player of his ability being completely nullified by whatever kind of a stupid system, or lack thereof, that we’re trying to employ.
Creatively speaking we are a husk of a husk
He had good movement when he came on, I’m really upset about a lot of things with Auba (lack of goals, lack of captain character, etc), but today it has nothing to with him. He could’ve even had a couple goals had the team been able to surpass Chelsea’s defense.
We looked like we were playing with ten players, which is down to tactics.
Annoyingly predictable.
IF arsenal still has ambitions of any kind, this man, masquerading as a football manager should be sacked in the morning. Talks a good game, but is obviously out of his depth. Horrible man manager, average tactical competence and lately petulant with no credit for such behavior. It’s going to be a long season with this chancer
All the best ones are “people persons”. Arteta is a good guy but do I believe he is a people person? No I don’t.
I think we really fked up against Brentford. If they had put in half as much effort against them, we wouldnt be in this situation. How come we look so lightweight against Chelsea?? l Next up, the Mancity… Oh well, its gonna be a long season.
What did people expect? This was actually a better performance and result than I anticipated. All for nothing documentary going to be fire.
Yeah, it will be fascinating to see that. I mean the team is terrible right now, but maybe they’re waiting to be reality tv stars? Real Housewives of London…
I agree with you. I was expecting a 4 or 5 goal drubbing today…
Does anyone sincerely believe that buying “better” players while keeping Arteta as the coach with the same tactics would improve us?
yikes
Arteta is amazing.
Xhaka is amazing.
That’s for the deluded ones who think that an average slow midfielder and an inexperienced manager (who insists on selecting the slow and average player and making him captain) with naive tactics will see us through.
Start thumbing down….now!
We were getting ripped to shreds on the left.Tierney had no help whatsoever.. when he came forward we had no one covering him.
Piss poor tactics if any actually existed.
Surely this can’t carry on, we seriously will be in a relegation fight. As a team we just can’t defend and Chelsea made it all look so easy.
Saka had a mare
If we lose or draw to Norwith Arteta needs to be sacked immediately. We have a lot of young players and if we continue to slumber games after games under Arteta, relegation can be a possibility.
then i hope we lose or draw
I hope we lose 10 nil every game until he’s fired.
Don’t worry dude with his tactics and personnel it’s likely
No structure, no fight, no new ideas, one of Europe’s most lethal finishers that can’t get any service, some good young players that deserve to be managed by someone who has a better grasp of building a team. We really are in trouble why wait till Xmas to pull the trigger on this mess. I’d grab a case full of cash and head straight for david Deins place and plead for him to come back and dig us out of this.
Made it too easy for them. Lokonga was pressing so high in the first half thus making space in the midfield and they only had to make one pass to Lukaku. I’d say this was one of Artetas worst games tactically. Wasn’t expecting a win but a goal would have helped.
Hmm, we all knew how they were going to play and yet we played into Chelski’s hands. Pride, arrogance or naivety? Any of those is worrying to have in the manager.
Happy enough that we didn’t loose 4 or 5 nil. I was worried before the game.
If you took the spine out of the Chelsea team and we had a full squad to pick from we would have won that match.
I wont start to judge this team unlike the press and negative morons out there until we get our players back. I would expect our season to start realistically after the city match.
I presume you’re being sarcastic? How do you explain being shiite and losing to a newly promoted side, oh right….
I think the only moron here is you. But I am glad that you are happy with just a 2-0 defeat and being hopelessly outclassed at home. We had our best players out there – our only decent players ESR, Tierney and Saka and we were still garbage. Our season should have f*****g started by turning up to Brentford. You are the WORST kind of supporter – content with mediocrity. I bet you buy into that idiots “process” don’t you ? I bet you believe that the players he has signed are going to propel us into the top four… Read more »
Much as I disagree with the OP, I don’t understand this idea that fans not getting annoyed with how shit the team is has anything to do with the decisions made by the club. The culture is led by the owners and filters down. The buck stops with the Kroenkes.
The buck does stop with the Krankies.
I wonder if they are happy with the average signings that he has made..
Surely you don’t think a side without White-Gabriel at CB and without Partey at CM and Auba up front is our best?
To be honest it would not have made a jolt of difference to todays score.
Simply not good enough..
Sounds like you trust the process
I thought Arteta once said Arsenal were playing poorly because covid 19 prevented fans from coming g into the stadium. He further implied that the return of the fans will make arsenals performances improve.
I guess I was dreaming.
I didn’t feel any anger when those goals went in. Just no point getting angry anymore. It felt like we were the away team in this game. Our shape was so narrow, which is basically suicide against a team with flying wingbacks.
Match went exactly as most of us expected it to.
Questions for Arteta:- 1) Were all your players been double vaccinated against Covid-19? If not, why not? If some chose not to have the vaccine who were they? 2) Do you have a right back good enough for Premiership? Will you now give ANM another chance in that position? 3) When will Gabriel be fit? 4) In terms of physicality and speed is Mari good enough for the Premiership? 5) what is wrong with Tierney now? 6) when will Partey be fit? 7) Performance at Brentford was by your own admission not good enough but today Elneny ( an experienced… Read more »
You have no right to know the players’ personal medical records. Double vaccinated players are coming down with covid, so it’s irrelevant.
Whilst I agree with you I suspect that some Clubs have pressurised all staff to have both vaccines whilst others have not. I also, suspect that the former have less ( not none) players out with Covid
I’m
Not saying it’s right but a suspicion that I have
10. Will you resign now or will you wait until things get so bad that you’re fired?
You can still be double vaccinated and test positive and have to isolate.
Do you pay any attention?
Number 4 is a question I’ve asking myself. How is a 6’4″ 90kg CB getting tossed around like a rag doll in our games.
Our squad is actually decent and has so much potential. But the tactics are just negative and overly cautious. Xhaka obviously slows the game. Our press doesn’t work. Arteta keeps repeating a style that hasn’t been successful and yet he persists. That’s extremely naive and honestly makes him look unable to adapt or that he has no clue what to do because he only knows one way….Arteta deserves the sack because of the perfomances not the results.
Well, we move unto the next game.
It can not get worse
Yes it can, we will no doubt be humiliated by city.
Oh my sweet summer child…
Winter is coming.
We were never ever close to winning this one. Outclassed and Tuchel didn’t have to outsmart Arteta. Arteta managed that all by himself.
That seems to happen a lot. Personally the ill-fated ESR false 9 is my favourite
I am at ease.
I knew this was always going to be a transitional season.
No team hits it off the first season it shifts to project youth.
The absence of Partey, White and Laca was felt.
This team will get better as the season goes on, but fans must know they are not going to see the best of this team this season.
No no no.
Not having this transition excuse. Arteta has been here long enough, and we have spent more than any other team in the league for 4 seasons.
We need to improve now and get arteta out the door
It might actually get a lot worse before it gets better. He’s been there 18 months and we seem to be getting worse.
What did we expect. We had no fight, no drive. This is what happens. Lukaku overpowered our defense and left us with no answers. Martenelli couldn’t touch the ball for the entire first half. Some good saves be Leno in the second half and hopefully we have a fire lit under him now. Could’ve been 2-1 I really thought that was a penalty, but what can you do? Really no excuses here. A summary of the match: another mediocre result for a mediocre team.
I hear ya, but that would have been a soft penalty
We need forward and a right back. Add in Partey, Odegard, White to come back.
Turn it in, mate.
What we need is a new fucking manager.
Oh the excitement.
Partey, Odegaard and Shite coming abck.
Cannot wait…
Guy plays one admittedly rough game for us and you’ve already nicknamed him “shite”, toxic behaviour
Very funny tbf!
The lack of quality in this team is scary. Put aside your Arsenal bias, none of our players start at Chelsea, Man U, City, Liverpool, even Leicester. Anyone who think there’s quality in this team, please explain where it is. Yes, Saka has a high ceiling, as does ESR, but they haven’t even begun to get near the level of these Chelsea players yet and don’t be surprised if they reach that potential with another club, because why would they stick around for this fucking mess of a club. I know this team is just as bad as it has… Read more »
I completely disagree with this and see a squad which easily has the capability to have 4-6 points by now. Top 4 IS a big ask as you have to decide who exactly out of City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Utd are going to let us take a spot.
But it doesn’t work like that – you have to go out and make your destiny like we used to and like Spurs did on opening day.
I have no doubt these players need better coaching
Some dickhead is going through and downvoting all of the sensible comments in here today 😂. Come on man, give it a break!
I’m going to downvote yours , as they are probably right.
Probably those idiots who believe in the “process”
The question is how long do they give Arteta now.
He should never have been given the job in the first place
The second best time is now!
Dispiriting
Arseta (not a typo).
In Arseta we rust (again, not a typo).
Won’t bring out the pitchforks yet. Our main midfielder, striker and defenders were missing and we were up against arguably the best team team in Europe.
With that said, it’s just so disappointing so see how sterile we are when we have the ball. Why is Arteta always overthinking tactics? Just play to our strengths and be a counterattacking team. After more than a year at the helm, it seems to he obvious to everyone but him.
Next up man city *sigh*
Arteta was allowed to sell willock and waste 30 mil on a back up keeper worse than the last back up keeper we sold for 18 mil. Please sack him now so he can’t do anymore damage. The man is not a genius. Artetaball is abysmal. Enough now. Eddie Howe would set this team up to play so much better.
Think Eddie Howe isn’t a bad call.
I have been telling my son Arsenal have a five year post Wenger plan to get us back into the top four . Three years down the line and I might have to change it to seven.
No, let him learn disappointment early.
Dude, I’m his dad, disappointment runs in his veins…
An average player and a below average manager. This isn’t even a legend, it’s ARTETA. Why are some of our fans so pathetically in love with him?
They are artetasexuals
You know, I actually think it started during the – very stupid – Arteta v. Coq debate.
For some very pretentious, stat-reading people, Arteta was a player you either liked, or “didn’t get”.
I believe there’s a lot of that happening now, where people will happily parrot that we were second in the second-half-of-the-season table and that we had the third best defense, while ignoring the fact that during the same period, the actual football that we played played was slow and shit and we created hardly any chances.
See also the Xhaka is good, actually debate.
When Lukaku has a dump tonight he’s going to shit out all the Sky Sports pundits. Ugghhh.
I thought we played bravely, sometimes there are teams who are better than you and it’s hard. Chavs buying up every decent player they can so their bench is stronger than most teams starting eleven, they’re disgusting. Well done Gunners, and those fans singing “We Love You Arsenal” at the end, we fight another day.
That was not bravery, that was inferiority.
Sounds like you’ve accepted this mediocrity
I’ve been saying it for ages, mate. There are people that do. Especially on here.
EVERYTHING IS SHIT
Including Arsenal fans who take the piss out of other Arsenal fans who have every right to be angry.