Thursday, March 28, 2024

Report: Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal (inc. goals)

Result: Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 28 August 2021
Venue: Etihad Stadium

Arsenal: Leno, Cedric, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac, Tierney, Xhaka, Smith Rowe, Saka, Odegaard, Aubameyang

Subs: Ramsdale, Okonkwo, Tavares, Mari, Maitland-Niles, Lokonga, Elneny, Martinelli, Lacazette


Manchester City coasted to a 5-0 win over 10-men Arsenal as Mikel Arteta’s terrible start to the season continued at the Etihad.

Goals from Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres put the reigning champions in a commanding position within 12 minutes before Gabriel Jesus extended the lead after Granit Xhaka was given a straight red for a reckless challenge. Rodri and Ferran Torres added to City’s lead after the break as the torment continued.

Three games, three defeats, nine goals conceded and none scored. We’re bottom of the table. Arsenal supporters knew it was going to be a tough start to the new season and it’s playing out as many of us feared.

Pre-game

Sead Kolasinac, rather than Pablo Mari, got the nod to play alongside Rob Holding and Calum Chambers as Mikel Arteta opted for a three-man back-line. Cedric and Kieran Tierney provided the width. Granit Xhaka was tasked with anchoring the midfield on his own – Sambi and Mo Elneny started on the bench – with Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard providing the creativity behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Amongst the subs, Gabriel Martinelli and Alex Lacazette provided additional fire power. Nicolas Pepe missed out due to illness but the boss made clear it was not Covid-related.

First Half

It’s no secret that fan expectations were desperately low coming into this game but it’s still fucking annoying when players wearing Arsenal shirts are made to look like a pub team. This was us at our worst.

Terrible defending, confusing tactics and ill-discipline were the ingredients for an absolutely shambolic opening 45 minutes. City barely had to break a sweat for their 3-0 lead.

We buzzed around in the opening five minutes looking like we might cause the Blues a headache but sure enough with their first attack, the home side broke our brittle resistance.

Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus exchanged passes on the right flank and when the ball was floated to the back post, Ilkay Gundogan stole in behind Calum Chambers to head past Leno from close range. It was a ridiculously weak goal to concede. (1-0)

Gundogan, who seemed to have a force field around him that meant Arsenal players weren’t allowed within five feet, nearly doubled the lead with a header two minutes later. It sounds crazy saying our heads had gone inside 10 minutes, but they had. We were all over the place.

Xhaka gave away a cheap free-kick on 12 minutes and we were so focused on maintaining a line in the box, we barely blinked when the ball was played short. Bernardo Silva, unchallenged, clipped a cross into the box, Cedric tried to head it with his leg, the ball bobbled to the back post and Torres tapped home. In the middle of the box, Chambers was left in a heap by a jab in the face by Laporte but VAR ignored the contact and the goal stood. (2-0)

The game was gone and the players knew it. In situations like this, you want to see a bit of fight, just not the type that leads to red cards. Of course, Xhaka went full Xhaka, jumping into a two-footed challenge on Cancelo that left referee Martin Atkinson with little choice but to send him off. Contact was minimal but he was reckless. It was a hot-headed, gutless challenge and one that left his teammates in even deeper shit.

City just toyed with Arsenal for the rest of the half. Edersen, who nearly dropped a clanger with a back pass that Smith Rowe came close to diverting into the net, played a number of unchallenged passes straight through the lines that immediately had us on the back foot. A ball to Torres a couple of minutes before the break allowed the Spaniard to charge forward, he found Grealish who made a mockery of Chambers and a pullback was converted by Jesus. (3-0)

Second half

Elneny’s introduction for Saka was obviously an exercise in damage limitation. It didn’t work. Leno did well to stop Bernardo Silva but the German was picking the ball out of his net not long after as Rodri curled home from outside the box after a prolonged spell of home side possession. (4-0)

More shots peppered our goal. Holding blocked a Zinchenko effort and stopped sub Sterling. In the five minutes past the hour-mark, Arsenal had 3% possession. That’s not a typo. We might as well have had 11 scarecrows on the pitch. As it turned out, we didn’t manage an attempt on target all game. 

Sterling’s personal mission to pile on the misery continued. Leno stopped a header from the England international and then stood rooted as the winger’s curler whipped past the post. The German came out on top again as they went one-on-one. 

Despite Leno’s best efforts, City did add to their lead. Torres’ headed home his second of the afternoon with six minutes remaining as he connected with a beautiful Mahrez cross. (5-0)

Arsenal’s squad will now head off for the Interlull before regrouping for a home fixture with Norwich on 11 September. The football world will enjoy their two weeks poking fun at us for being relegation fodder. 

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Over to you Josh

goongot

I still trust arteta ❤️ He is the next pep. once he goes bald we will see the true arteta.

Jfmgunner

Nice, he should be bald very soon at this rate

Too Drunk To Be Offside

Look it is only 3 games. Two games Arsenal were going to lose anyway. So if Arsenal tear it up, sack Arteta, this season is not unsalvable.

With Arteta in charge, relegation seems like a possibility right now, almost a foregone conclusion.

Vincent O’Carroll

Sorry there is no way we should ever allow ourselves to say that these were two games that we were going to loose anyway…our mentality is completely wrong and won’t change under Arteta…after the Munich air disaster United didn’t say well these are games we are going to loose….It really is coming close to the time when we have to face genuinely unpalatable realities as to where we are………And The Arsenal should never ever go into a run of games saying “ well we expect to loose these next two games, regardless of any circumstances “……

Heavenly Chapecoense

Agree, smaller teams don’t seem to believe they were going to lose their games at the Emirates anyway.

Too Drunk To Be Offside

No one is saying expect to lose before the game. But one has to accept realities after the games.

Chelsea and Man City have better squads than Arsenal. If Arsenal loses those games, you accept it and move on. Even with another manager, the result may have been the same.

However, the insipid nature of the displays is horrifying. The team shows no desire to fight. That is on Arteta.

He needs to go.

Thierrys_Tears

No, everyone is saying this before the game. That is the point. It’s unacceptable to assume this, ever, for Arsenal. You can probably add United and Liverpool to the list, meaning you are conceding 24 points before playing the likes of Sp*rs, Leicester, Wolves and a few others. This is us and it sucks.

Teryima Adi

Whether you like it or not, Arteta will stay and we shall salvage ithis mess together. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Proverbs 24:10.

Fabulous

Well said. On top of that, the manner we lost to Chelsea and City is inexcusable. Totally outplayed, completely dominated.

Alan Sunderland

Agree totally, do we include utd and liverpool, if so we looking at eight defeats beforeha ball is kicked. If that’s the case we might be lucky to not be drawn into a relegation battle.

Alan Sunderland

Why the downvotes? From people that have been posting the Chelsea and city games are a free hit. If that’s the case we’re bottom of the league, how can we win another game?

Teryima Adi

I love the spirit, Bro. You can’t expect to go into a football match and expect to be a punching bag for the opposition- that’s a very wrong mentality. We are the Arsenal, we may be down but we are not out. COYG!!!

Too Drunk To Be Offside

Or at least the Arsenal fans would be bald soon

WayBackWhen

Big thumbs to the away fans btw – showed some character.

Cultured Determination

last i checked, it’s gonna be MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY years before he goes bald. we’d all go bald before him cos we’re tearing our hair every week. (once a week to be precise, cos we’re not in europe)

Johnny 2 Bad

Ha ha! Thanks for that!

Teryima Adi

@when he goes bald😄😄😄😄😄

Bob's Mexican Cousin

For once I don’t think KSE is the main culprit. Arteta is way out of his depth, small club mentality to be waiting for him to lose his training wheels.

Qwaliteee

Exactly.

Not even I can moan about the Kroenkes after parting company with £130 million.

But that just reinforces why Arteta has to go.

The Premiership’s biggest spenders are bottom of the table….? Not a good look, Mikel.

Comedian

When going gets tough, get a red card. That’s Xhaka for you. Such wise decision makers at the club.

Fabulous

Xhaka extension, Cedric, Willian, Mari, Runnarson all on Arteta’s and Edu’s book.

Even Norwich put up more of a fight than us. 19% possession to Arsenal, 9% in the 2nd half is inexcusable.

Matt P

I have said it for years, Edu is a fucken phoney.
And we have a manager totally out of his depth.
Total joke.

Anders Limpar

Noooo Xhaka is the best midfielder at the club, he keeps the midfield ticking, he has such great vision etc etc etc.

Didn’t you know you aren’t allowed to say anything wrong about the toxic idiot who repeatedly lets the club down, tore his shirt off and abused the fans. He’s a lumbering brain fart of an idiot and it says everything about the state of the club from top to bottom that we gave him a new contract rather than take a couple of million less than we wanted from Roma!

Paul

So true.

Dave Cee

How do I give this 1 billion thumbs up?

Ben EagerBeaver

This. Still does my head in how we didn’t let him go even for less money.

Cultured Determination

yup. edu should have just announced how many million was lacking to make the deal happen, and started a crowd funding page. We gooners would have raised the $ to help Roma.

Qwaliteee

👍 to the power of a Trillion.

Jfmgunner

Yeah but you don’t know anything, you don’t see him in the locker room where he is a really inspiring leader. Thats the important thing and why he got a raise and a sweet new contract .

A P

That’s what I think as well. Xhaka wanted to hide.

Bleeding gums murphy

To not accept 12 million for Xhaka and then extend his contract give him captains armband for opener and talk about how important he is to the team deserves Arteta to be sacked. We are a complete and utter shambles from top to bottom.

Disarmed Gunner

Let’s not forget William. Shipping out Saliba. Arteta has more than his share of f ups.

Maniac

That was genuinely the worst Arsenal performance I’ve seen in my life. I just have no words for how bad that was.

Adrian Drum

Tbh I felt same against Brentford.

Maniac

It was bad, but today was something special. How can a group of professional and obscenely well paid footballers be completely incapable of stringing literally two passes together all match. Forget Championship, today’s stats make us look League 1 quality, and even that’s a stretch.

Reiss Neverseen vs DicTetaBall

I’m not convinced this man hasn’t lost the dressing room, performances like what we’re seeing aren’t what you’d expect from players playing for their manager.

The “outspoken” guys have been shipped out and what is just left is just have a group of well-behaved lads. It’s just maintaining optics at this point.

Verdant

An absolute sh!t show. No one is expecting you to win this City team. At least, keep the score respectable.

Which coach sets up defensively only to concede two goals in the first 10 minutes?
Who uses Kolasinac and Cedric in defence against City, use Xhaka as the only DM against City?

It probably would be worse if not for Tierney’s exploits on the field. No fight. No spirit. Nothing. Just spinelessly running around the pitch.

Matt P

I agree. Worst I have seen.

Mick Malthouse

Serves Arteta right for sticking by Xhaka.

Rummy

Be excited!

Jeremy DG

In all seriousness if Arteta had any professional pride and self reflection he’d step down before the inevitable push and find a smaller club to manage. Fans would actually respect this. There’s no shame in admitting the job is too big for you as an inexperienced manager. What will actually happen is that he will hang on to the bitter end, get abused my the fans and lose all credibility in the game before he has even started his coaching career, and that my friends is called ego.

Verdant

This has to be one of the worst games any team has played in the English top flight in recent years. Imagine managing only around 150 passes (against over 500) in 70 minute of football. 1 f*$cking goal attempt all match against 25?? Defenders can’t block the ball with any part of their body. The keeper won’t move to collect the ball within his space. No pass will get to the front men. No pattern. How can a whole match get f*cked up in just 10mins with to way to salvage anything. Arsenal fans deserve way more than this. This… Read more »

Quentin Quarantino

Remind him of Daniel Ek’s phone number.

Arteta Tots

Haha we’re fucked 🥲🥲🥲

Reality check

Said the same during preseason but many said its just preseason..

Datguy Lauren

Hahahaha….. Did so too. Saw the weaknesses all over. Now the narrative is let’s wait for Partey

Reality check

Nearly 2 years and we are still waiting for a style to develop, or someone can tell me what it is? It’s not just football, it’s his faith in certain players. Forget Xhaka, he brought in a Southampton reject and a guy who couldn’t find a club in European leagues.
He doesn’t like Saliba but has done him a favour, at least he’ll develop under more stable conditions.

Maniac

On the bright side we don’t have to watch any more of this trash football for the next two weeks. International break, let’s go!

karl

After spending so much money this summer, the only new starter signed is Ben White when the team were obviously struggling last term. Arteta decided he was willing to die on the Xhaka hill instead, and it didn’t take too long!

Henkamp

How fans can see that Xhaka doesn’t fit this league and the decision makers can not is a fucking mystery of the ages.

This summer was the chance to revamp our midfield, but we bottled it again and now we have to pay the consequences.

Bleeding gums murphy

Apparently he’s really important to how we play. He was ahead of the forwards at 2 nil down trying to close down on his own with all the speed of a sloth on largactil and leaving acres of space behind. No club in world football was willing to pay more than 12 million fo him.

Lula

in fairness, arteta is right. xhaka is very very important to hiw we play.

thats the problem.

Fabulous

And the fact Lyon is practically begging for us to take Auoar is even more appalling.

Reiss Neverseen vs DicTetaBall

Xhaka is the grim-reaper of managers😂😂😂. If there is a new manager this season, I sincerely hope he takes a good look at his time here.

Jules

Xhaka has to be behind lokonga in the pecking order now, jeez. Not signing a number 8 in our so called “rebuild” was a fuckin shite decision. so so stupid.

Lula

same hill that emery died on. fuck knows why. hes a coward.

Jack

Arteta, do us a favour now please, drop Leno for Ramsdale, get a decent RB on loan, and never play Cedric, Chambers and Kolasinac in the same starting line up ever again.

karl

It’s all academic. I don’t think personnel will make any difference now.

Henry

You give this clueless guy a dream team like City or PSG he will still finish outside top 4 and call it a ‘long term project’. I hate this guy a thousand time more than I hate Emery, at least the later is more honest.

etp

Cedric should never play for the club again. And that’s not even a top 3 problem from this game. Laughable.

karl

His and Mari’s signings should be looked into. Something isn’t right and I guess there was money involved for a number of people without Arsenal’s interests at heart.

Javoroncov

How about Arteta doing us a favor and get the fuck out of the club. I am sure the players aren’t as shit as we think.

kinghenrythe14th

Thank you

Michael Blogg

Oh they are!

Fabulous

Our players are at least top 8 but they’re playing like they’re bottom 4.

Qwaliteee

No they fucking aren’t.

Most of them are full internationals. They didn’t achieve that by playing for Mikel Arteta.

Ever heard of ‘tactics’……?

They’re down to the manager……🙄

Maniac

Fully agree. More than a few managers in the league doing a lot more with a lot less.

Alex

There’s no need to have a moan at Leno. Donnarumma or Neuer could have played in goal and we’d still have conceded these goals today.

Leno had looked shaky, but nothing today was his fault. The defence are wide open and the midfield aren’t helping them.

Reality check

Saliba starts over all three centre backs who started today. We didn’t even try to sell chambers for some reason, why not?

Sauce

I absolutely do not get the hate on Bernd Leno.. shocking that you still want Arteta to be coach. I can’t even bother to say more

Qwaliteee

Well said. 👍🍺

Qwaliteee

Are you having a laugh…?!!

Leno was our best player today. His saves in the second half prevented City attaining double figures.

Dave Cee

Why is kola even anywhere near the starting 11…and as a CB. This is ridiculous. I wasn’t Arteta out but this is seriously hard to defend

Gamblah

Amateur Reductive Tenuous Emasciating Tolerated Atrocity

Anders Limpar

Arteta Really Turns Everything Totally Arsehole

Fireman Sam

Nicely recursive!

Don't Dada

A slight edit:

“Arteta Really Turns Everything Totally Atrocious”

I think this sounds better.

Goonerink

Arteta Reacts, talks eloquently, Tactically Anonymous.

Bishop

This is a very painful result because eventhough we can point to our woeful defending or Xhaka’s stupidity, the buck stops with the manager. Arteta is slowly becoming the tinkerman and what we need is some clear philosophy. The bad decisions that the club has been making in the recent past (I.e Willian, Saliba, Pepe, Don Raul, etc) just exposes how incompetent the people running the club are. It has become very obvious to every man and HIS dog that the club hierachy are all learning on the job and need some help and guidance. IMO we need to bring… Read more »

No foot Norbert

He’s always been the tinkerman, how many times has he played the same 11. Also where are the xhaka lovers now expecting a different outcome from the same stupid player.

Anders Limpar

The sad thing is when he gets back in the team, which he will if MA is still in charge, it will only take another average display where he basically doesn’t drop any major clangers for the fan boys and girls to return.

assistantref

Xhaka is going to be Xhaka, we know that by now. If you’re going to sign him to a long-term contract, you need to have a plan for what to do if he does what Xhaka does. The manager had no plan today, other than to abjectly give up and let his players get massacred.

Qwaliteee

I thought you wanted to give Arteta three more years…..?

Badaab

weren’t you saying earlier this week that arteta deserved two more years?

Bishop

I am not advocating for the manager to be sacked. I still believe he needs time to work with all the players he has brought in.

The disappointment today is not from loosing but from the manner of the loss.

I am advocating for bringing in a director at board level with the experience our hierachy is clearly lacking.

El Mintero

Men against boys today. Worst I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve backed Arteta since he joined but today first time had me thinking this is going nowhere. I’ll give them another 3 games to see improvement but if none then I think over. But let’s not kid ourselves the problem lies with the ownership of this club.

Qwaliteee

What part of £130 million spent do you blame on the owners…?

This is Arteta’s mess.

And you’re in denial.

El Mintero

It’s fucking edu’s mess as much as it is arteta’s but ultimately it’s on laurel and fucking hardy who could not organize a piss up in a brewery. And by the way, don’t be fooled thinking the 130mil came from kroenke’s personal fortune…came from a Bank of England loan supposedly to get them out of the hole they’ve dug themselves last 2 seasons. Fkn useless cnts.

Der32

Any decent director would be calling Arteta on Monday morning to give him the sack.

goonerrah

Bishop is a perfect name you’ve chosen. All faith, no logic.

assistantref

Arteta needs to tender his resignation. Today he did the one thing a manager cannot ever do – he gave up. From the moment of Xhaka’s red card until halftime, the manager did nothing, leaving Martin Odegaard as a one-man mid-field against one of the best teams in the country. You cannot do that. How can you ask your players to soldier on when you give up yourself?

Jules

I don’t care who you are, what players you have, how good the opposition are, how unlucky with ref decisions – anything – if you can only get your team to muster 1 shot in a 90 minute game you do not deserve to be arsenal manager

Scott P

Honest question – is that one shot ESR’s block from Ederson that went just wide?

Jules

nope, a saka shot in the first 5 mins. and then nothing. literally nothing…

Lula

Who had it easier? Us against West Brom’s U23s or City against us?

Play a guy famous for bot veing able to deal with pressure along in the middle of the pitch. Real perceptive from our manager.

Maybe another years extension on his contract too? Afterall, hes an exemplary professional when things are easy…

Shit floats, folks. Arsenal prove it. The further up in seniority and the club hierarchy you go, generally the shitter it gets.

Really pissed off.

Bob's Mexican Cousin

This!

Swifty

WHEN WILL THIS SHIT SHOW END?

The Ghost Of Reiss Nelson

Never with arteta as our manager

Henkamp

In so many ways, this is beginning to be reminiscent of Unai Emery’s tenure; encouraging displays at the beginning slowly morphing into spineless, toothless, and limp displays towards the end.

In the twilight of Emery’s tenure we became EASY to play against. The likes of Watford created an unbelievable number of chances against us.

That is the state we are in now.

Injured/sick players returning wouldn’t make MUCH of a difference if we continue being this easy to cut through.

Fabulous

Thing with Emery is the board never really backed him. He wanted Nkunku so bad, which wouldn’t have even been that expensive, and never got him.

Arteta and Edu has pretty much been given a near £200 million outlay, and not much to show for in player sales, and still serve the same abject sh*tshow on the pitch. If Emery only got a year and a half with no financial backing, why is Arteta afforded more?

Kareem Mohamed

Because one failed project is easier to stomach than two.
The issue is that our board will come to rue this by the time they eventually realise Arteta is the wrong man for the job.

The longer we take to sack Artera, the longer it takes for us to be restored to our top 6 status…

Crash Fistfight

The only reason I can think of is because he’s mates with Josh.

Good Grief

Stop the train, I want to get off. Now at least we can at least start winning some games

Goonerink

Fuck getting off, can someone derail it with me at the front?

Omash

It hasn’t worked and it can’t work. Best thing is place a bet against arsenal. At least you are guaranteed of a win on that.

American Gooner

I do not understand the point of Cedric or Kolasinac. Play the new signings or the kids surely, at least when we drop points they get valuable minutes instead. It reminds me of watering fake plants, or turning on the AC and opening your windows. Arteta got this one horribly wrong.

rhal

If you plan on playing three at the back at ANY point in the season as a reasonable plan, wouldn’t it make sense to keep Saliba instead of resorting to Kolasinac as a CB???

And look, the worst part is Kola wasn’t even the worse thing about our defense, he was somewhat composed throughout, while Cedric and Chambers just couldn’t keep their shit together (because the midfield couldn’t press)

Just awful

SarcasmB0T

He hadn’t planned on it. It’s just that the back four wasn’t working and he tried a back three out of desperation.

Remember Wenger’s last seasons?

Same thing.

American Gooner

Saliba for unknown reasons was not included for the season which feels particularly damning at the moment. I imagine the manager assumed we would have sufficient cover, however, with injuries and illnesses he has had to do some reshuffling. My utmost concern however is the selection, is it really unfeasible to slot in Tierney/Xhaka*/Mari* into the third center back position while retaining players who are nominally more functional (Tavares/Bellerin/Chambers/AMN/Saka/Kola*) out wide? Cedric is a real mess at the moment for all sorts of reasons and while I have been a Chamber advocate in the past I think this might be… Read more »

Bertieme

Apparently we were bright for the first 5 mins but I missed that and then it was 1 nil, then it was 2 nil, then Xhaka got sent off, then I turned it off. It is going to be a struggle to watch this team this year.

No foot Norbert

We used to be bright for the first 60 mins, then 40 mins, then half hour, 20 mins…. now 5 mins lol that’s a blip not a bright spell…

Fabulous

I stayed on to watch City instead. The bl**dy levels this club has sunk to.

Freezedawg of Sweden

Good times!

入肉肏

To survive as an Arsenal fan, you have to be a masochist

Zenithreptile

Shameful

Rick_Sanchez

Wake me up when September ends. Or if we sack Mikel!

magazine_gap

Wake me up when Kroenke is gone 😄

bob

First goal was shit defending, but the second. How the fuck are they allowed to punch our lads in the face and score? Tell me how that isn’t a foul. Then Xhaka does Xhaka things and the game is gone. Have to say though, how is that a red? We heard how this season challenges will be left to let the game flow, well he got the ball, then the man, so let it flow? They’re happy to let the opposition do it vs Brentford and Chelshit. That game was a free hit and we got well and truly hit.… Read more »

Indiegooner

Two feet, studs showing. Anyday, any ref, he was walking.

Fabulous

Placing the blame on the ref is the very definition of barking up the wrong tree. There’s a grain of truth to it but it’s the last of our problems currently.

WayBackWhen

It could’ve been given for us but I never saw Keown, Adams, O’Leary, Bould, Campbell, Toure, Mertesaker, Lauren, Dixon, etc. etc etc. go down so easily under that type of challenge. I like Calum Chambers and I’ve really wanted him to succeed but you’ve got to question the character and culture of him and some others in the team. He’s an experienced Premiership player. He was out of position leading goals twice and he was bullied. Have a listen to Joe Cole on BT if you can. He gave a fair assessment. Football at this level is a tough, contact… Read more »

Qwaliteee

Blaming the ref after that…..?!

Mate, you are seriously in denial about this manager.

SarcasmB0T

I don’t think a grown man should go down so easily when his face is touched (that was no punch).

Chambers tried to buy a foul when he should have been defending.

The players have given up and are taking themselves out of games.

Paul T

 
Some people say that Leno is part of the problem. I saw this on the Arseblog Live blog today that suggests they might have a point.
 
30
Leno takes it

29
Corner City

Hank Scorpio

5-0, that’s a paddlin.
After going easy on us in the 2nd half I have images of Pep yelling ‘Mercy is for the weak’ at his players and the team yelling ‘yes sensei’.
We should have been buried. There’s no point being angry or critical really. Events just need to take their course until Arteta’s likely sacking.

Javoroncov

I’m sure it’s Edu’s fault. He held Arteta at gunpoint and forced him to sign White for 50m, start Xhaka for the new season, and give Kolasinac play time.
TRUST THE PROCESS!

Public Elneny

The order of idiots currently associated with Arsenal, who are to blame for It All is as follows (most to least):

Stan Kroenke
Josh Kroenke
Arteta
Edu

At the end of the day, until Stan goes, him and his idiot son will just keep hiring more Artetas and Edus

magazine_gap

Kroenkes downvoting lol

Fabulous

Exactly. Everyone at the leadership level has either zero or very uninspiring track records. Vinai, Edu, Arteta – f*ck has the lot of them done in the football world?

pound4pound

Arteta took an awful situation – Partey, White, and Gabriel all out vs the best team in the league – and made it infinitely worse. Cedric and Kolasinac in a back 3 instead of AMN and Tavares is inexcusable over-thinking. And the central defense still having no plan for man marking is equally mind-boggling.

I’m not even mad at the players on the pitch. They had no chance.

etp

To be fair they were all shit as well. Holding, too.

Disarmed Gunner

So much to dissect, so I’ll just ask this: Why did we change our system strictly for this game? Any fool and his dog could tell you a back line with Cedric, Kolasinac and Holding is like waving the white flag. We always look clueless, but doubly so today. Unfamiliar with systems and after 2 years we reached a peak level of ineptitude today. 25 shots against our 1…

Arteta, dressed all I’m designer black, was basically attending his own funeral today.

Abdirahman Abdullahi Salah

I can’t trust the process

Arsene's Coat

Why on earth do everytime we start a game do we pass it back to a cb who boots it to the forward left of the pitch, and back into possession of the other team? Not out most pressing issue at the moment, but why?!?

Gunner Thesaurus

I hope we don’t put it on Xhaka too much. I don’t think it was even close to a red. I feel resigned with Arteta. This cannot get better with him here and before anyone says it’s City and what do I expect, I expect better than this. I expect much better than this and he has resources to do better than this even with some players missing. I don’t think he has the skill to and how much more evidence our board and some of our fans need is something I cannot comprehend. I would like not to feel… Read more »

Kentish Gooner

I stopped reading after you defended Xhaka.

Gunner Thesaurus

I don’t mean to defend Xhaka, although I see why it’d sound like that. What I mean is that it should not take away from the biggest thing to draw from how we played. Maybe now you’d read the rest if you get a chance to do so.

Qwaliteee

Rubbish.

That loser is the epitome of this football club at the moment.

I’ve no sympathy for him or indeed those who advocated his contract extension.

Public Elneny

It was an idiotic challenge. At the point he leaves the ground and pushes both feet out in front he can’t possibly know where his opponent’s leg will be when he lands. Could easily have been a career ruining challenge, pure dumb luck it wasn’t

I do sincerely feel that we get more than our fair share of harsh treatment by referees, but not on this occasion

Dom47

Fuck xhaka, even refs can’t stand him, that’s why it’s a red

Graham

i’m sorry but no way should he have dived in like that… as soon as he ran up i thought no..no.. please no..!
he did.

Lula

Xhaka checked out. as the only midfielder older than 23. as an example to our young midfielders, he took the cowards way out. and he can sit on his nice, new contract.

This is who he is. We should have known better. Vut the club didnt. It worrying.

Greenbeetle

On the bright side, it was only 5.

Qwaliteee

Leno our best player today by a country mile.

Graham

should’ve been 8

Flash

Leno had the most passes in our team today…

Torterrier

And they say he’s bad with his feet

Qwaliteee

Without Leno it would easily have been double figures.

Perhaps those who have been so quick to slag the guy off need to think again.

That said, even he cannot be expected to dig this club out of its current mess.

That will only begin with a new manager.

Reiss Neverseen vs DicTetaBall

What?! You’re joking

xanat

We’re so fucked
Shit outta luck
Hardwired to self-destruct

Andy

Xhaka is the dumbest player ever to wear an Arsenal shirt.

Disarmed Gunner

Most hated without a doubt. And he is probably gonna get a testimonial in a few years. Madness.

SarcasmB0T

Possible, but I’d like to see him in some kind of clown-off with Mustafi to be sure.

Tomaury Bischfeld

I didn’t know Xhaka was a player who loses his shit under pressure!

Mootilated

Now that is how a captain should act,
especially after signing a new deal! Calling for togetherness then jumping in to the opposition two footed and getting sent off. What a role model. Great stuff!

Sagebrush

Ya leading by example, declaring war on the enemy

Mikolaj

I dont think these players are as bad as they look together on the pitch. Disorganized, lost. It must be a coach’s fault and an international break is an Ideal moment to change it. If not, this wonderful football club will be bottom 10 at the end of the year.

Mr manager

Hahahahahahahahaha kolasinac at cb. Absolutely mental. If the players dont all mutiny and get rid of him after that i’ll lose all respect for them.

Deano

Sadly getting stuffed by Man City is becoming the norm. Another grim season awaits.

shokim

Admittedly we didn’t play well (what an understatement) but the refereeing was shambolic.

Best of John Lukic

Ok, I normally don’t go off on the Internet about these things, but that’s it for me. Not watching another Arsenal game until Arteta is gone. Seen some crap since I became a Gooner in late 70s but this crop is the fucking worst. (With a bit of luck, I can stick to that pledge and still watch the Norwich game).

Fireman Sam

I predicted we’d lose 5-0 before the game. After 2 goals down I switched off as it was clearly going to script. Literally don’t care anymore. How can we care when this tit head plays Xhaka and doesn’t have the faintest clue what he’s doing? It’s like handing the keys to a highly modded Nova to a kid who’s just passed his driving test. Naturally he’s going to stack it into a lamp post on the first roundabout he comes to. Not one person would be surprised looking at the football results tonight or even bother to comment on it.… Read more »

Best of John Lukic

It’s not that I don’t care, more that it’s simply making me miserable and I don’t want it. I read Tim Stillman’s excellent piece on happiness and thought about what I can do for myself. The obvious No. 1 thing to do to be more happy is stop reading about football on the Internet. Second, no more televised Artetaball.

Merlin’s Panini

Well… it’s very Arsenal to go down to ten men and get absolutely smashed on the 10 year anniversary of going down to ten men and getting absolutely smashed.
Can’t say I didn’t see it coming. We are shit and still can’t control a game in the midfield. We need more players who will just say “fuck this” and exert some authority.

Badaab

while i agree we need some players who have on-field leadership qualities, those types of player would never be brought in under the current managerial setup because they would be seen as a challenge to the manager’s authority.

Reiss Neverseen vs DicTetaBall

Spot on. Arteta can’t complain about leadership on the pitch when he ostracizes the first assertive (not aggressive) player who speaks their mind.

Merlin’s Panini

If we don’t win our next league game I think Arteta is out the door. I was expecting after Partey got injured that we’d lose the first three games but this was humiliating. I’m going to make delicious burgers now.

Fireman Sam

Enjoy your burgers mate

Heisenbird

No passion, no fight and no clue. If the Kroenkes are serious about the club they say they really care about, they would use this two week interlull to to sack Arteta and replace him with someone who actually knows how to coach a football team.

Utterly embarrassing from top to bottom.

Arsenalista

But but but but…..we were so good in training. We are absolutely trash. Arteta should resign and take Edu with him. This is the lowest I’ve ever seen us.

prvhc

As you sow so shall you reap

Arslet

I was thinking last year that a manager that has to scream his instructions to his players every single minute of the game probably is pretty rubbish at coaching his instructions. Arteta is a rubbish manager with rubbish ideas and even worse tactics. The players look lost on the pitch. No one seems to know what to do. And it doesn’t get better with Arteta changing the line up every fucking week and picks players like Kola and Cedric who he knows is no way near good enough. No one can convince me that AMN couldn’t do it better than… Read more »

ArseCannon

You were expecting us to fight?
Knowing our recent history you should have been expecting us to fold quicker than Superman on laundry day.

Brady’s bunch

Time for change lads there’s no process here we’re in major trouble and it stops at the coaching for me. Absentee owners are one thing but but they’ve put the money up and we’re slipping fast, we’ve backed the wrong horse time to move on and quickly, we all knew not to expect too much from today but for Christ sake show a bit of something we’ve become a laughing stock and it’s done for me.

Fireman Sam

Next time let’s try to find a manager that has actually managed a football club before. And maybe won something.

Badaab

same on-field problems, arteta is going to give the same off-field excuses. relegation form.

Xhaka Kaka

We are Man Citiy’s West Brom 😭

Arslet

Yeah WBA:s U18.

ObiKing

Let’s not panic. Manager needs time.

Sagebrush

Until?

Badaab

he’s had nearly 2 years, how much more time would you get in your job if you performed this poorly?

Reiss Neverseen vs DicTetaBall

Sarcasm guys. I’m pretty sure ObiKing wanted Arteta out before the season started.

Sauce

Why the downvotes??
Aren’t we being too negative
The manager needs time guys 😁😁😁

ObiKing

hahahahahahaha!

The_Golden_Wrigglesworth

Time to go?

Henry

For fuck sake. Just sack this talking manager and get a better one.

DefaultGray

Respect to the whoever kept the live blog going, that was painful!

Grabs

The 3rd and 5th goal says everything about where we are ,

JM99

Arteta doesn’t know what his best team is. We cant afford another season of a manager learning on the job. Yes we will probably beat Norwich and win some games but we aren’t moving forward…..not at all 🙁

SIVAKUMAR

Ask Arteta to resign himself

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