Arsenal’s miserable week continued after a lacklustre home display saw us go down 2-1 to Brighton at the Emirates.
In truth, Martin Odegaard’s late goal added some gloss to the scoreline, because on the day Mikel Arteta’s side were a long way from their best. The manager’s decision to start Granit Xhaka at left-back backfired as we lacked midfield control, with Trossard’s first half strike a consequence of that.
There was a long VAR check to disallow a Martinelli goal just before half-time, Mwepu doubled the lead midway through the second half, but there just wasn’t enough about our performance to take anything from this game. Disappointing and frustrating.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the Arsenal 1-2 Brighton report and see the goals here
Arsenal 1-2 Brighton – Player Ratings
The ratings are hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
I think it looks like the decision to not strengthen in January is now coming back to bite us in the arse!
Yeah, already seeing knives sharpened for Arteta about this. Can only assume that the people who are angry have insider knowledge about private conversations between Stan and Mikel. If so, please indulge the rest of us who don’t have fly-on-the-wall information.
Stan is a robot whose speech chip malfunctioned years ago. Even a fly on the wall would’ve been bored silly.
Please don’t compare Stan Kroenke with robots.
Robots can do wonderful things.
Stan Kroenke lives a room that is covered in dust and cobwebs and is rolled out for big NFL matches which mean a whole lot more to him than we do…
That’s true. After all, even Cheesoid could smell petrol on the right setting.
Why is everyone picking on Stan? To the extent that he and his son are in any way involved in any of this operation, it’s through funding. And last I checked, they provided lots of available funds over the last couple of years. If we wanna pick on “the management” pick on Edu and Vinnai.
It is all good to complain about Stan others, but the players should show that they are ready to fight. They have no fights in their belly and they seem to have no clue about what is at stake in such a game. Very shameful!!
Stan is a prick but dont blame him for january. Arteta made the decisions that window.
We don’t need “fly on the wall information.”
Whatever was said between Stan and Arteta is now irrelevant; the fact remains that we didn’t spend in January, we allowed a world class striker to depart and put a bag of cement wearing a red and white shirt up front in his place.
I said months ago that not strengthening the squad was folly and that selling Auba was one gamble too many for an already paper thin squad.
Don’t forget to downvote now.
It would have been good to get a few more players in after all the departures – a loan or two. However I do like the approach that we don’t just sign future deadwood as panic buys and end up with a bloated squad full of players we can’t get rid of to damage future seasons.
Yeah never mind that 1-2 of our good players will be picked off by CL level teams because they will WANT to move and they would be dumb not to.
And the result is the same with a bloated squad of deadwood or with our threadbare squad of players which also contains a proportion of deadwood. A 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton and rapidly vanishing chances of playing in Europe… I mean. Would Chelsea or even Spurs suffer as badly simply from losing a central midfielder or a left back? Two players and our system of play falls apart. There is fragility and then there is this… Arteta has to take responsibility. All this bollocks about courage and what not is just rubbish. Its getting shot of players and… Read more »
Sure, we needed to offload some deadwood but to leave the squad as exposed as it is now is criminal. Are you telling me there aren’t some players who could’ve been brought in to do a job in January? We are told by Arteta that we will only bring in players who are at the right level. Just look at some of the gems uncovered by other teams. Mwepu looks a real find. And if Arteta is happy to take the gamble of leaving himself with a limited squad then he has to be able to make better use of… Read more »
I really don’t understand that argument. Of cause we don’t want deadwood. But why is it not an option to buy or loan nice quality players. It can be done. Just look at Odegaard last year. Truth is that we went all in on Vlahovic and it failed. Failing to address other issues such as midfield.
True. Need a striker badly but is it heresy to suggest that Arteta needs to swallow his bullshit pride and get Guendouzi back in the summer. Feisty squad midfielder. And Saliba must come back – consider a back 3 of white, saliba and Gabriel with tommy and tierney wing backs.
Can I say something quite controversial here — I think the reason why they didn’t replace Aubameyang and others in January were because they aren’t really worried about top 4 this year. I think their primary objective was to get back into the Europa League, which they were (at the time) on track for, I think top 4 was definitely seen as a bonus, it wasn’t the actual target. Obviously I don’t think that’s the right decision, and they should have adjusted the infamous ‘plan’ and moved the needle to get in a few players that would have gotten us… Read more »
🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵.
Every time it rains, it rains Pennies From Heaven…
🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶
The pennies are finally beginning to drop.
i have a big pennies
10/10 for the bonus rating. I was expecting us to come out angry in the 2nd half with a point to prove. But deep down in my heart I knew the game was lost, it’s the kind of game we’ve seen too many times at the Emirates.
0/10 for Arteta’s team selection. How did Xhaka at left back work towards the end of last season?
Should have started, I don’t know – a left back!
Arteta has many strengths and is doing good things turning the club around but he’ll never be a top manager, his team selections, substitutions and in game management is just poor, how is laca starting and finishing every game
Far from finishing every game, Laca isn’t finishing at all.
Agreed! Still to be determined if turning things around if we’re still 8th by end of season.
Lack of option I guess? 🤷♂️
This is true, but it also isn’t why we lost, which is perhaps more depressing. Everyone looked average.
Right, it didn’t work. Assuming that the decision not to play Tavares was pretty soundly based, then what? Cedric on the left and Ben White on the right with Holding (which completely disrupts the way we’ve been playing)? Saka as right back, with maybe Pepe on the right wing (which puts our most effective attacking player far from the opponent’s goal and in an unnatural position)? Three at the back with wingbacks (again, very disruptive plus Holding offers little in moving the ball forward–a crucial issue in Partey’s absence)? How about Martinelli, which turned out to be the second-half formation?… Read more »
Easier to downvote this than discuss actual tactics, apparently.
Rather than create a problem at both left back AND midfield, maybe just play Tavares?
That’s what I would have done. But you can be sure if Nuno had made another error for a goal — not at all unlikely, given recent history — we’d have posts on here saying “How could you play Tavares *again* after his previous errors? Now we’ve ruined a young player’s confidence when anyone with eyes can see he’s not ready.” And those posts wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. Managing is hard.
Lacazette’s main contributions to the team seem to be (1) Throwing his arms up in the air after scuffing a shot wide (2) Complaining to the referee (3) something something something but with his back to goal.
Are you saying he’s the Mustafi of strikers?
Being one of Arteta’s biggest supporters in the dressing room.
Lacazette doesn’t improve any team in the Premier League. Fact!! He’s Pukki level. I can’t look at him anymore.
That’s an insult to Pukki.
People said this about Auba and what’s he doing now for Barca? Laca went from being Arsenal PotY in a two striker system to being a poor mans Firminho under Arteta. But yeah let’s all blame Laca because Mikel knows best.
And yeah let’s all say Auba would have saved us because we know best. lol
I didn’t say Auba would be the solution here. Especially not under a manager who’s proven he can’t get a tune out of him.
And this “fans know less than the manager” bit is so dumb. Every man and his dog called that Xhaka decision a mistake and it was the direct issue to the goal in the first half and largely part of the midfield shit show we saw the rest of the game.
Name a player who wasn’t bang average today? How many do you count?
If the entire squad plays below their standard twice in a row, surely that’s on the manager?
When the entire squad plays at exemplary standard post-Auba, is that on the manager, too? It goes both ways.
I thought playing at a high standard was supposed to be non-negotiable.
As some would say, “It’s their job.”
If you think Arteta deserves a cookie because he made professional athletes perform in a way they are expected to, than sure, job well done – for part of the season.
Of course, by “post-Auba”, you need to exclude January, because he was technically still here, right?
That, and it doesn’t fit the narrative.
“everybody was bad so you can’t criticize Xhaka being picked at lb”, not sure I subscribe to that logic.
People said that Auba improves no Premier League team?? Who?
Arsenal POTY because he “runs hard”. We all know how he got that fucking vote
I’m not saying he’ll go to Spain or Italy and start scoring again. But I wouldn’t be surprised.
By the universal law of irony I reckon he’ll go back to Lyon and get them back into the CL where they’ll be knocked out in the group stage and set to face Arsenal. Unai Emery will also inexplicably be manager for just those 2 games.
So basically you’re saying he might or might not?
You’re covering your bases at least
We could have had TH14 upfront vs Palace and again today. Unless he’s putting a screamer into the top corner or beating 2 men to score, he wouldn’t have had a sniff either.
The pressure has gotten to this young team and all you can do ia blame Lacca…
“The Pressure” could be a good WWE name for Mikel.
Or maybe “The Process”
Watch the first 20 minutes of the game again. Everything bounced of him and his lack of pace then made him look terrible in the second balls. Awful performance. And the cheek of you to suggest Thierry Henry wouldn’t be the difference at home to Brighton. SMH
We’ve conceded 5 goals in 2 games. He’d have needed to score a hatrick vs Palace and a brace today… Lacca isn’t offering enough to carry us to top 4 obviously but he was in the team when we were playing well so blaming him alone or even for the most part is ridiculous. It’s 10-15% him but the rest is on the rest of the team…
He would have. Isnt that what a top striker in a top club is supposed to do?
You’ve pretty much summed up Henry there.
It’s looking ominous. Our confidence looks shot, and not having Partey makes a huge difference to the way we build up.
I hate to say it, but if we don’t get win our next match, top 4 might be out of our hands with the fixtures coming up.
Top four is already out of our hands, that was always a pipe dream.
Turns out it was the kind of pipe dream where I was getting beaten with one.
It’s literally in our hands. We beat Spurs and match their results elsewhere and we’re 4th. Not saying it’s likely but it’s not over yet.
If we’re not careful we’ll be lucky to make even the Europa conference the way we’re playing.
It pretty much is out of our own hands now as the shits from up the road are smashing Villa. I can’t see us catching up their goal difference.
Forget top 4, I’m genuinely concerned now for our European hopes given our injuries & run in. I really hope we can stay in the mix obviously, but I’m struggling to see how we fix our lack of goals.
I’d have given Laca lower than that. He’s a waste of space at this point. To think we let Giroud go for this?
Frankly I’d have given a bonus low score to Arteta for poor lineup choices, and to Areta and Edu for a failed gamble that we didn’t need reinforcement in the winter. We’re going to be lucky if we finish in the EL places, and it’s going to cost us far more than we would have spent.
Yeh, why wasn’t he back defending when we conceded those 5 goals in 2 matches, it all his fault…
Actually he was back defending for the 2nd goal today. He was standing right next to the eventual goalscorer before deciding we needed an 8th man in the box and dropped level with the penalty spot for no obvious reason, leaving the guy free on the edge to spank it home.
Oh my goodness we need a new striker!
We need a striker, period.
We could have signed Wilshere on a 3 month deal and played him up front in a classic self-loathing ’11 era Wenger move. Sort of a giga-LANS move.
Make that two please.
If the last match was on the players this one was mostly on the manager (I would have said all had it not been for added time where the players finally started playing with more urgency). When Arteta has his first choice 11 all playing, the team can play well. However just a few injuries have reminded us how completely inept he is as tweaking his system to best suit the players he has available- instead he shoehorns players into positions and hopes for the best. Either Arsenal have to completely back the manager in the summer and give him… Read more »
Who would you have started?
Personally i would of backed tavares at lb. I mean, he is a lb after all. Play xhaka in the middle to guide sambi through the game. Unfortunately xhaka needs partey to guide him through but still, play your players in the positions they play in. Arteta seems tactically unaware when it comes to these games. I dont get playing xhaka at lb when tavares is fit, even if hes out of form. He wont get into form unless we play him. Smith rowe is off pace atm, saka is leggy and tired. We cant rely on young players to… Read more »
For me Xhaka (as the most senior and experienced CM we have) has to start as a CM/CD. However as he is not as mobile as Partey, for me he would have to start in a midfield pair alongside either Elneny or Lokonga. Obviously this would mean a change in formation to either a 343 or 4231. My preference would be a 4231, we played this a lot just before Christmas and had a good run of form with it. I also believe this formation would get the best out of Laca, as it allows him to combine and interchange… Read more »
Its always on the manager – always.
You don’t see teams being fired for not following the managers instructions.
I cannot blame him for the injuries to our players but I can blame him for squad rebuilding.
For the loss of two first team players to have such an impact on the way we play simply because we had no suitable back up is inexcusable. Not for a huge club like Arsenal.
Eighteen first team players.
Simply not good enough…
No one was clamoring for a Partey backup or another LB in January. You can make the argument for striker.
It’s the pressure, they’re a young team struggling to deal with it.
2/10 for Arteta. Nuno should have started. Laca should have been subbed. Team looks like a bunch of strangers since the break. Can’t string any passes together. No feel for where teammates are going to be. What’s going on during the week?
Could even have played Cedric LB and White RB with holding CB. Xhaka was needed in midfield, odd decision.
In hindsight you’re absolutely right. But if Nuno would have been caught out of possession like Xhaka was, they (player and manager) would have gotten slaughtered.
At least he could have subbed Nuno for Laca, or even ESR.
Can we get a manager rating. This time I think it’s on him. 2.5.
Sambi was poor, but did play. I like his ball carrying but his positioning, especially when we have the ball really frustrates me, what a difference partey makes.
@arseblog
Sambi isn’t on that list.
Where’s Sambi. I thought he was probably our best player, even if he was given a conservatve role.
No wonder we lost. That’s only 10 players…….
Lacazette didn’t play. But yes, Sambi should be there.
Apart from the last 8 minutes, Odegaard dropping a 3/10 performance for the second game in a row.
He’s not ideal deeper in the midfield like that. Especially not paired with Sambi.
Yeah, he’s a similar player in some ways to Cazorla, so in theory could play deeper at some point. But Cazorla was what, 29/30 when he moved there? And had time to develop that well rounded positional intelligence that you need as a deep lying midfielder, especially when you’re not especially athletic
I don’t think Sambi did too badly considering the circumstances, not only did he have to try to replicate Partey’s performances, he had to spend the 1st half covering a player who was positionally a bit lost. And that’s another reason why moving Xhaka to LB was crazy
I think Ødegaard could be good on that ‘free 8’ role. Just not in this team. Why not play Elneny with Sambi and keep Ødegaard higher up? Strange.
That’s being generous! Really didn’t look good for their first.
Odegaard needs to get the Ozils out of his system. He’s an outstanding set piece taker, long shooter and crosser. But has a tendency to play low percentage cute passes (that no one else sees because they’re not on) when there is an obvious route to goal, and today especially deferring responsibility of set pieces and crossing opportunities to lesser players (like Cedric ffs!)
The importance of Partey is obvious. Especially in the first half, his absence changed (a) Ramsdale’s distribution; (b) White and Gabriel’s movement and distribution; (c) Odegaard’s effectiveness as a creative influence; (d) Saka and Smith Rowe’s ability to get the ball quickly.
His crap performance against Palace (he wasn’t alone, obviously) disguised the fact that he was the single biggest factor in our hugely improved play–and results–in the weeks before.
Let’s not underestimate Tierney’s importance either.
We qere shit with both of them vs Palace. The pressure is getting to them, which is understandable given their age. That said Arteta should have started Taveres, how will we ever know if he’s up to it bext season if he’s sat on the bench?
The question now is: will we even qualify for the europa league?
Yes. Next pls.
Considering we just lost to Palace and Brighton, and some of the remaining games are Chelsea, West Ham, Manure and sp*ds, I’m a bit concerned
Seriously, who cares? I dont want us too. Thats only more chances of players getting injured.
I’m starting to worry tbh
Arteta so, so poor. Yet we will persist with this man without any good reason.
Yes we’re persisting with The current manager of the month 👏
You arteta defenders make me laugh.
Hes not up to it and needs to go now
Laca hasn’t scored in 100 games. Meanwhile, Auba moves back to a club with a clue and scores 7 goals in 525 minutes.
Arteta is a genius!!
Arteta needs to go for the shameless way he injured Partey and Tierney! Our form from January to March was because of leprechauns!
Our form this season hasn’t actually been that great. Most teams are terrible this year. ManU and Tottenham have been having an atrocious year, Chelsea has been on and off, every other team has been worse than last season. It seems like virtually every team apart from Leicester, West Ham, and Wolves has been in a relegation struggle for at least part of the season (Wolves are actually pretty shit). A large part of Arsenal’s success earlier in the season was that we had a full squad for most of the season, while the teams we were playing were missing… Read more »
The whole of the Premier League has been sh*t … except for Liverpool, and maybe Man City.
Never mind the points total and relative competitiveness saying otherwise.
The competitiveness is due to every team having periods of poor form.
That’s literally my argument.
A much more telling metric would be the number of managerial changes.
Out of our top four rivals, which team is better this season than last? What about the teams in the top half? Palace? Pretty much everyone below 10th was in a relegation scrap at one point.
And that’s not even going into the covid-imposed absences which made some games all but farcical.
Easy to blame the manager – doesn’t help when at least three players don’t turn up – ESR, Laca, and Odegaard.. Can’t understand why he keeps selecting Laca, though. Eddie has had more attempts on goal in two sub appearances than Laca has had in two whole games.
He is paid to take responsibility.
We should start martinelli up front or even nketiah
Should’ve given Pepe at least 45 minutes. We chase the game, and the teams’ only natural goalscorer hardly gets a look in.
If anyone wants some mental health tips, @StressSessions on Instagram 👍🏻
Bonus bonus rating:
0/10 – Xhaka’s brainfart on 1st goal.
0/10 – Pepe returning the ball to a player in offside position instead of swinging it in the box in the dying minutes of the game.
At least Pepe tried to do something for 15 minutes.
Managers fault putting Xhaka not in midfield.Worst 1st half I have seen Arsenal .
I give zero to Arteta for both Crystal Palace and Brighton game.
Manager is a disaster.
How was Xhaka at fault for the first goal?
Some guys out here just rant for the sake of ranting, everything Xhaka did yesterday was good. Most guys didn’t notice he was playing dual roles he played more of midfield than LB because there were spaces in the midfield exploited by Brighton.
1/10 for Arteta for repeating the same mistakes from last year. Xhaka at left back is wasted especially when you have no presence in midfield. If tavares cant get a game at home against a bottom half i am not sure he ever will. ffs saka was not having a good game against cucurella, just fuckin move him to left back where hes played before instead of making half the team play out of position.
Putting all things in perspective, Arsenal has punched beyond its weight this season. How much that scenario is down to Arteta and Edu is subject to debate.
Every man and his dog knew our team was down to bare bones by January, like an unfortunate impala by hungry hyenas.
Why were there no reinforcements in January?
Was the decision to rely on Lacazette and Nketiah forced on Arteta?
We must invest heavily on the team.in the summer.
Let’s hope the cutting of wage bill is preparatory for that.
Not strengthening is one thing.
Weakening the squad is another.
True.
Deserved nothing from the game. Slow and pedestrian football. I didn’t see any proper game plan out there. What hurts most is that those bunch of c**** (you know what I mean) will now take the final Champions league spot instead of us. Disappointing…We have missed out on such a great opportunity.
Absences, knocks, rub of the green, thin squad, questionable set up. Given. But I also see mental fatigue. They’re weary of the relentless concentration and emotional balance required to be a consistent winner.
As an aside, Europa League next year is fine with me. Even with reinforcement, this team won’t get past their first knockout tie in the CL.
Mental fatigue?
Worrying where they can fill their new Aston Martin up?
I agree with the CL assessment.
Arsenal have no business in the Champions League with that team…
The only benefit of CL is that the prize money and prestige can get you better quality players to enable us eventually to challenge for the premier league title.
It’s just pressure getting to them mate. First 2 games of the season with any pressure on them and they shit the bed
This comment pleases me.
We charge the highest prices in Europe, we knocked down Highbury down for this. I’m not happy with Europa qualification only.
Our standards are too low. Get this manager out and get someone up to the task.
They only play once a week. There are players under much more pressure and stress than this squad
I think we have the youngest squad in the prem? Sitting 5th with a chance for top 4 isn’t the worst. Our team just isn’t deep enough. Big summer for the club. Need a striker, obviously. Also a box to box midfielder and Saliba so there is competition at center back. Plus we need a winger as pepe is obviously leaving.
Spurs are getting so many lucky breaks today and are winning by 2 when they should be losing. It’s disgusting. I hate sports.
They’ve got a manger who gets the job done
Waiting for that Laca fans who come crying that he got 0.5 less than they expected.
Your fucking role model is a liability, he always has been since he was bought for 50mn in 2017 .
At first I wanted to blame this on getting rid of so many in the January window. But I actually don’t think the issue is down to the players who left. We looked like this at the beginning of the season with a fuller squad and were bottom of the table. Who from January departures would have gotten us a win today? The issue is that the quality of the backups is not good enough for a top 4 side. This will improve some with experience as we are quite young across the board. But we also are missing a… Read more »
Disappointing result. Brighton are a decent side but at home losing to BHA when you’re in a race to finish 4th after needing to bounce back from Palace result maybe means that our brief spell at 4th was perhaps flattering to us. I hate to pick on him because he’s working hard but there’s really no point in starting Laca anymore, give Martinelli or Nketiah even a short run up front and maybe bring Saka to the left and play Pepw on the right. The man’s goal threat is 0 right now, just gamble on something at this stage.
If only Arsenal did the Jan business like spurs did. We need some players.
There was a time when the historical prestige of Arsenal alone would get top players in the door but we’re now seen as an underachieving sleeping giant whose pressed the snooze button once too many times.
top four is gone now… arteta could have gotten a lot more out the players at his disposal, but seemingly his ego is invariably more important; top six seems like a best-case now (those who disagree please check back in may)
I think arteta inexperience in man management is beginning to show at a very critical time in the season. Why not play saka in lb and play Pepe on the right, why play a slow xhaka on lb? Also time to experiment martinelli on the striker position I don’t think he can do any less than lacazette. I’m still optimistic of a top 4 finish but arteta ego and inexperience worries me.
Players not at fault. Direction given to them perplexing. Not worth rating players. but Arteta ZERO and Edu should have been sent packing by now but for lack of ambition by owners (and preference for junior people whom they can control under their thumb) nothing new…as I mentioned many times if we had any sense of ambition we would have made a play to get proper footballing people in to work the market like Overmaars or Campos. Contrast Spurs. Conte brought in Bentancur and Kulusevski for free. We neglected obvious requirements in January. but some people prefer to cast blame… Read more »
I know sambi lokonga isn’t great but jesus didn’t even get a rating 😕 🤣🤣
Jesus plays for Citeh, mate.
And like Lacazette, won’t go anywhere near a cross
Jesus Saves But Henry Gets The Rebound
Let’s be honest we have incompetent
manager…. approaching every team the same tactics is lack of experience.
I pray Tottenham didn’t eon their next game…..
Where’s Lokonga?
No Lakonga?
There now
We will finish where we deserve to but patience is important. The dead wood are out. Recent signings including entire first choice defence have been good. Problem now is striker and genuine depth of squad. Need a striker, reserve left back, would class central midfield and world class striker. Personally I would rather buy in the summer than a sixth choice panic buy in Jan. At present we would not have a big enough squad for Champions League. We need Europa League as minimum but most important of all squad strengthening in Summer which I think they will do.
Calm, reasoned comment – well done.
We screwed it. But lets be happy about one think. Man U is missing cl leauge too. 😀 The image of all the faces of disgust at the theather of dreams always put a smile on my face. Its like winning a trophy for me (one that matters)
Is this the new trophy for the unsuccessful: schadenfreude?
Couldn’t find a stream to watch the watch however, after the shambolic capitulation on Monday against Palace, I saw Lacazette up front and thought, “Well there goes the attack”
No attack, Why not play Saka at LB and bring on Pepe. Might not have scored but Saka can play at LB, Xhaka is wasted there and we might have had a foil for ESR. Seems lost at the moment. No attack and no manager it seems. Very disappointing. Should have invested in the January window and the Yanks are liars.
KSE have their issues, but the US teams are doing reasonably well, and they have spent money. At some point this is down to the football management. Unless we want the owners to be like those at Chelsea and Spurs with a constantly rotating manager door.
Stop blaming the owners for bad recruitment decisions made by people handsomely rewarded to know better
Hard to compare the last 2 ‘performances’ of this squad with the group who’ve shown such character to get themselves into such a promising position. Surely, surely… they won’t/can’t bottle it now? Just praying it’s youth/nerves/inexperience/fatigue and that they will settle back into a groove – although home vs Brighton was the ideal opportunity to do just that! Things we learned today: Sambi is some way off Thomas’ level – cannot be left to handle midfield alone Granit cannot be left-back – he did his best but it unbalances the entire team ESR seriously needs a rest/refocus/something – the sight… Read more »
There’s hideous parallels to the end of season capitulation during Emery’s final season where we lost to Palace and drew with Brighton in consecutive games to miss out on top four. Unai actually achieved more with less than Arteta if you compare the relative squads they had available. That said, neither were the appointment required to take Arsenal forward
0/10 to Mikel Arteta. It seem he does not learn from his glaring errors. Everytime he has had issues at left back and chucked Xhaka there the team has suffered greatly for it. The younger and more mobile though raw Tavares is better at left back than Xhaka. And Saka could certainly play at leftback creating an attacking nightmare with Martineli in front of him.. Xhaka from midfield could then just oversee that side of play. The loss today is squarely on the manager
At the game earlier. Obvious early on that it just wasn’t our day. Stay strong everyone, close but no cigar. Most of these lads will get us there.
A generous 3 for Laca. He mived like a Sunday League player with a hangover; it was embarrassing. How he remained on the pitch when he offered absolutely nothing is truly baffling.
*moved
Is Laca the new Willian? Consistently performing poorly but somehow never loses his place?
If Willian is Spartacus, then Laca is Willian after becoming a Hare Krishna.
Runs through treacle too.