Result: Arsenal 1 – 2 Brighton
Competition: Premier League
Date: 9 April 2022
Venue: The Emirates Stadium
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Cedric, White, Gabriel, Xhaka, Lokonga, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Saka, Martinelli, Lacazette
Subs: Leno, Holding, Tavares, Ogungbo, Swanson, Elneny, Hutchinson, Pepe, Nketiah
Arteta’s tactical reshuffle backfired as the team succumbed to a 1-2 loss to Brighton at home. The team looked disjointed in attack and were punished by excellent goals from Trossard and Mwepu either side of half time.
Arsenal had goal disallowed by VAR just before half time but managed a consolation wonder goal by Odegaard just before the end of the game.
Pre-Match
Arsenal’s attempt to bounce back from the 0-3 defeat to Crystal was further complicated with injuries to key players in Tierney and Partey.
Arteta’s solution in the home game against Brighton was to move Granit Xhaka to left back with the young trio of Sambi, Smith Rowe and Odegaard controlling the centre of the park.
Martinelli and Saka flanked Lacazette up front while the rest of the defence remained unchanged from the previous match.
First Half
With Arsenal recovering from the shock of their recent loss while also trying to accommodate players in unfamiliar positions, it was no surprise that the start of the game felt disjointed.
Players were not in the best position to receive the ball (Xhaka often floated into central zones), movement was static and passes often went back to the centre backs.
It wasn’t until the 23rd minute when Arsenal got their first attempt on goal. Martinelli’s dribble down the left provided a cut back into the box only for Smith Rowe and Saka to get in each other’s way. Saka eventually got space to strike but the ball was easily blocked by the defence.
It was 5 minutes later when Brighton took their first attempt but unfortunately, they executed their play much better than the home side to open the scoring. Arsenal were exposed by a long diagonal from deep towards the left side of defence. Xhaka was caught out and the ball found Mwepu who pulled the ball back into the penalty box.
It evaded every one except Trossard who side footed the ball into the top corner. 0-1 to Brighton
It just looked like it was never going to be Arsenal’s day. A poor performance was coupled with some poor refereeing decisions too. Cucurella had gone unbooked for multiple fouls but Odegaard was given a yellow for his first tackle.
The officials were again in focus as the first half came to a close. Martinelli bundled home an equaliser from point blank range with what seemed to be the final kick of the half. However, VAR ruled it out, taking 5 minutes to assess the infringement which looked almost impossible to call.
Despite the disappointment of the decision, the home side’s performances was the bigger issue in the game.
Second Half
With Xhaka constantly floating into midfield in the first half, Arteta switched the formation to have the Swiss move infield to partner Sambi with Martinelli moving into a left wing back position.
The ball moved with more zip and energy. Sambi made progressive dribbles, Xhaka passed upfield and the urgency returned. Despite all the hustle, Arsenal didn’t have an outlet upfront who could make all that possession count.
All that possession was in vain as Brighton punished Arsenal on 67 minutes. A few clever exchanges on Arsenal’s right side and soft defending allowed Brighton to loft in a chip towards Mwepu just outside the penalty box. Mwepu struck the ball sweetly with his side foot. The ball evaded the defence and nestled itself into the bottom corner. 0-2 Brighton
The substitution of Martinelli and Smith Rowe for Pepe and Nketiah seemed to have killed the momentum of the team. We reverted to sideways and backwards passing and ironically, less attacking threat.
Arsenal went close multiple times with a Sambi long range shot and an Odegaard free kick which hit the bar. Nketiah’s rebound effort unluckily hit the same spot too and it just didn’t look like Arsenal’s day.
The Gunners were given a lifeline on 88 minutes when Odegaard’s speculative shot from long range deflected off Welbeck and looped into the far corner. The home crowd were reinvigorated with the score at 1-2.
I have to say, if we’re two injuries away from playing shit like this, I wouldn’t want to see us in the CL next season!
Our £50m number 9 is the falsest of false 9’s. So false he really doesn’t deserve to be in squad. Just not a striker. No idea what he is anymore.
Yep, we need upgrades on Xhakazette
You can’t blame Xhaka playing totally out of position. Saka should have been played as a fullback and leave Xhaka in midfield. Martinelli in the centre and Pepe starting. Why Arteta persists with Laca remains a mystery
Nothing to do with today. My minds been made up about him for a while
We looked most dangerous with Saka at LB
We went from Xhaka at LB to Martinelli, than Pepe at LB..
I think Arteta needs to learn fast from these last 2 games. He’s sticking to what’s got us into a good position on the table. At the moment, it’s not working.
Eddie should start up front against Southhampton. He looked good when he came on
But he’s also terrible in midfield
Tell that to every manager he’s played under, including 2 managers of Switzerland who have always selected him . Our improved results occurred when he came back from injury and formed a great midfield partnership with Partey.
I wouldn’t blame Xhaka this time, it’s just not his natural position. The manager put him on that position which Xhaks accepts professionally. We just don’t have a decent backup for LB position.
I’d take Pepe at lwb over Xhaka. Thought we learned last season it doesn’t work
Laca is a modern farce 9.
Yup. Lacazette ambles about pretending to get stuck in, pushing opposing players around, 40 yards from goal. He is a poser, much like late-career Rooney. He has to be benched for the next game. No two ways about it.
What really grates my shit with Laca are his half arsed, ambling attempts to close defenders down. He sort of does a half sprint to within 5m of them and then gradually slows, till they make the pass he’s supposed to prevent.
He’s closer to an inanimate carbon rod frankly
Don’t worry. We won’t even get into Europa league
The most painful bit for me is all them cunty pundits were right. We ain’t good enough. Arteta took a massive gamble and it’s backfired terribly. To go with Lacazette and nketia ffs. Xhaka 😫😫. Oh well it’s the hope that kills ya.
Nketiah played for 20 minutes and did not do anything wrong.
He didn’t score
At least he had a shot, which is a shot more than Laca.
I’m not sure scraping the barrel is helping. We can all admit Nketiah doesn’t have the quality for us. But sure, congrats on the shot, son!
The question isn’t whether Nketiah is great, he isn’t. But he probably is an upgrade on Laca at this point.
Maybe. If he is, he’s certainly not much of one. Nothing I’ve ever seen from Eddie suggests he can make it at this level.
Calling January a gamble is like calling Russian roulette gambling. The person may survive, but it doesn’t say anything good for their desire to.
Lets face it we haven’t been good enough, we picked up some lucky points on the way without being outstanding and i think we all knew our bumpy road to being in top 4 would come to an end not being our last 2 defeats, Miki out Pat in..
To be honest I’m not a big fan of seeing managers popping and jiggling on the sidelines after goals or at the end of matches.
But why the hell are they unable to do the same after seeing a first 20-30 minutes of this tepid tikitaka-like bullsh@t week in week out?
We looked a completely different team when Pepe came on.
HE IS DANGEROUS.
Why the fuck can’t Arteta see this
He probably can, but he isn’t predictable enough for him.
This articulation *perfect*
Pepe? Did you see the last corner? he set the play for him to receive the ball, yet he wasn’t ready to for it. If he had set himself up correctly, he should have a shot at go in 2 touch and look at what he did, passing the ball to Odegaard. Players at this level should know passing back to the corner taker will definitely be an offside.
Having Partey, Tierney & Tomiyasu all out exposes how thin the squad is. They are all key to us being hard to beat.
I’m an Arteta fan, but it was obvious Sambi would need Xhaka next to him, so he’s gotta take responsibility for that.
Fuck knows where we go now, this was the easy game to regain some momentum…..
That’s right. You don’t go into Europe’s biggest competition with a paper thin squad. Can you imagine having to play three times a week with a bench like ours? I hate to say it, but a lesser competition is about right for this squad at this stage. Tavares needs games. Sambi needs games. These are good players who need more development, and it’s not helping them when they barely kick a ball for months and then are thrown into the thick of things when the inevitable injuries happen.
Perfectly said. Unless our CL group is Europa level clubs we wouldn’t stand a chance. And that’s even if we get in, which looks more and more unlikely. Could do more harm than good if we are embarrassed in the CL. I can see players wanting to leave, new players not being as attracted to Arsenal. Maybe I’m being fatalistic, I’m just horrified at the thought of Saka, ESR, Tomi, Odegaard, Gabi, Gabi, White, or Tierney wanting to leave. I’m sure at least a couple of them will it this continues.
I think Arteta knows that and has spoken about spending big this summer. Trouble is, the budget and the quality of incoming player will be less if we don’t make CL.
I guess EL was the target at the start of the season, and you’re right, it probably would be the right level for these young players to develop next.
Fucking Spuds are 1-0 up….I’m going down the boozer x
Ah, sweet booze. Soon I won’t remember this game, how to control my sphincter in my sleep, or anything else.
may be out of topic.
why saka was given a yellow card ?!
Diving
We were always a couple of injuries away from disaster.
The bright and intelligent move of shipping so many players out of the door but not bringing any in would have been comical if someone had been so stupid, but no it was us.
Seriously manure screw up again giving us a great opportunity of drifting away from them, but no not to be. Going to really piss me off if, sorry when the potatoes finish above us.
Young players don’t win you things they impress but cannot manage games let alone season.
Good players win you things, whether they’re 20 or 30. I’d sooner have a 20 year old Cesc than a 28 year old Xhaka.
It’s obvious that the international break has ruined our form and could possibly derail our top 4 fight. The lack of depth in our squad was ourown design during the mid-season transfer window. I can’t think of how are we going to face Chelsea, Sp*rs, Manutd.
Getting rid of Aubameyang looking like a massive mistake now.
Except he looked like a lost soul when he was with us. He’s doing well at Barca with the change of scenery, and good for him, and I don’t think his form was going to improve had he stayed.
Partey also looked like a lost soul four months ago but turned it around.
Easy to surmise in hindsight but Auba instead of Laca in this team could have been enough to push us into a top 4 finish.
We just aren’t scoring enough goals.
Sure, whatever, I just can’t see the point of this kind of hindsight and what-if analysis. Pining for a striker who wasn’t at the races for us when he left isn’t my thing. But go for it.
The whole team was a mess during the period that coincided with Auba’s poor form. Any striker who is completely starved of chances over an extended period is going to lose confidence and start snatching at the ones they do have. You say the change of scenery has done him good, but why did the scenery at Arsenal become something that he needed to get away from? We should have dropped him for a few games, brought Laca back in for his annual little burst of good form, then restored Auba to the starting xi when Laca inevitably waned. Stripping… Read more »
I think you can look at Auba’s history to know that he was the issue there. Same thing happened at Dortmund.
Every player of his level leaves Dortmund by their mid-late 20s. He felt time was running out to get his big move and went for it.
Not great but a large proportion of players at big/rich clubs have done the same, including several Arsenal legends, doesn’t mean they’re unmanageable and flighty
A manager is paid to motivate his players. It is not about taking them to a restaurant. Playing systems that allow them to thrive is the answer.
Some managers take players to the cleaners. Some to the restaurant.
No player is bigger than the club, and sometimes divorce is a good thing for everybody. But remember, managers are forever.
This narrative is EXTREMELY flawed. Loved Auba with us, but even Steven Wonder could see that in those final months he wasn’t at the races for us.
But, but, the team cohesion!
I must be one of the few who totally agree with you.
Rubbish. Auba was a total liability playing for Arsenal. And he wasnt scoring sitters.
Auba was a toxic presence. Good riddence to that flat track bully.
Laca is bullied on the flat track.
Putting Xhaka on LB is a sackable offence.
And keeping Laca on and take off ESR when you need a goal. Arteta was a fucking idiot today but kids makes mistakes so I hope he learns.
ESR was down getting treatment at one point. I can only assume he is being protected and couldn’t play the full 90, otherwise its madness. Our bench looks very thin
Yeah, I was angry at first, but it was clear ESR was taken off for physical reasons, not tactical ones.
Granit Xhaka’s signing was a fucking curse
That’s why every manager he’s played under always chooses him including 2 managers of Switzerland where he is now captain. Why on earth are you singling him out playing out of position. He was far from the worst player today and was obviously missed in midfield
We all know I love Xhaka. Massive respect to him for going back home for his dead grandmother, and returning to training the following day.
At this rate, we’ll be lucky to make top 7
Not sure that was the difference maker. Too many underperformances all around.
classic Arsenal end of season meltdown. I saw it coming
It’s frustrating alright. 3 of our next 4 games are away so we really needed 3 points today. Try and keep the faith though. Hopefully Villa do us a favour.
Lacazette just has to go. I’m no fan of Eddie but at least he contributes something. I would pick Eddie or Pepe ahead of him in the next game.
I would rather play my dad than nketia and he’s been dead 20 years.
Ok. So what’s your alternative, stick with a guy who hasn’t scored from open play for 20 hours? A guy who doesn’t even offer the “link up play” which was the sole justification for his selection – any pretence of him being a striker is long gone.
Give martinelli or Pepe a run up front. Nketia is fucking useless.
That would be my preference. I just can’t see Arteta doing that. If he does drop Laca, which he won’t, he will replace him with Eddie.
Hope you don’t have kids
I think he gave you his alternative. The ghost of papa murphy.
😂😂
Give Eddie a start! He gets into good positions with the limited minutes he has. He’ll bag one
To think our closest rivals for top four have Kane and Ronaldo
Yep I suspect we’ll see the reset button pushed next week at Southampton.
True. It’s the only button left to push after the self-destruct one.
Pepe is just frustrating, always take the wrong option: just see the last corner, the kind of mistake you don’t see in weekend leagues.
anyone posting here can give more effort than nketiah
Well, Tomi has to start. We can get away with imbalance in the midfield but this left back void killed us today. Didn’t help that the ref had an absolute stinker and our forward/captain has decided to take an early retirement.
Even if it means risking another injury to Tomi so be it. We are risking top-4 here
Dude, he’s a human. Get your shit together…
Bringing him back too early was how he ended up out for so long in the first place
Top4 went, if it returns it’s a miri
Risking top four? I think that ship has sailed my friend. Carrying this form into a tough run-in = Europa or worse.
Top 4 is gone, brother.
But Tomi is a right-back. Unless you mean Cedric switching to the left?
Wasted
..
If you can’t do it against Brighton when you need to, you don’t deserve it I’m afraid.
Goodbye top 4. Hello EL.
I hope it won’t be the other CL.
I know everyone will talk about how we were poor today, but I am disgusted with the way referees officiate our games! Cancelling what looked a legit goal at a crucial point in the game contributed largely to this loss. Why can’t someone do something about this? Even some sensible neutral fans are beginning to see the plain bias.
Agree with you on how shit the refereeing is, but we complain about decisions after every single game we lose.
And they can’t do anything about it because all the PL refs are shit.
I thought the referee was crap, but not especially biased. The yellow card on Saka was absurd, but the choice of which fouls deserved yellow seemed almost comically random.
You can’t blame the crap referee for the offside goal decision. That was tbecause of the way VAR is used in England–to suck the life out of a football match to get the “right” decision. For decades, assistant referees’ decisions have almost always been correct or so very close as to be just part of the game.
I’ve always thought VAR should have a timer because if it takes longer then 30 seconds to a minute to make a decision then there’s clearly nothing wrong & when it does take that long, you’d expect the 4 minutes wasted to be played rather then half time blown for straight away . Only thing that made this defeat worse was Sky making the insufferable Michael Dawson watch it on Soccer Saturday
VAR is supposed to fix obvious bad calls. If you have to take five minutes to find one imaginary molecule between Martinelli and the defender, you’ve completely lost the plot.
In real time it looked offside. There was no way of finding a second defender behind Martinelli. The time was doing us favours, trying to find a second defender. With a time limit that was offside nine days a week.
The call was goal on the field. So the burden of proof was on VAR to find definitive proof that GM was offside. If it takes you five minutes, and none of the camera angles on TV are conclusive either…
On every replay I saw, the back foot of two defenders (one was the keeper) looked either (a) even with Martinelli, (b) closer to the goal than Martinelli, or (c) possibly not as close to the goal as Martinelli.
In other words, there is no way to tell. The idea that you are “either offside or not” and it is an objectively verifiable fact is just arrogant nonsense.
This is exactly right.
As I said on another comment
I’ve always thought VAR should have a timer because if it takes longer then 30 seconds to a minute to make a decision then there’s clearly nothing wrong & when it does take that long, you’d expect the 4 minutes wasted to be played rather then half time blown for straight away
We should have had Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles available for this
3 players injured and we’re right back to being as rubbish as we’ve ever been
AMN yes PEA nope. PEA was spent for us. We may never know why, but he had downed tools and was a drag on the team
The team was never set up for him. Giving him the contract and not even playing him in his best position was the original sin.
The team is set up to play with a false nine. Auba was getting maybe two chances a game, that’s not enough for a volume striker like him.
It was unadressed by the manager and Auba got all the blame. After a while, it became self-perpetuating – until Arteta finally threw him under the bus.
He only downed tools after being stripped of the captaincy. He ran just as hard after his contract as before, if not more so, and his physical level didn’t drop very far at all. His problems were all to do with confidence.
Perhaps with a better man manager he wouldn’t have experienced such a dip?
Also, don’t mean to slag off Arteta or anything, but he still shows some streaks of inexperience. We really didn’t have to move Xhaka to left back today. But moving him and dropping Odegaard deeper than usual ruined us in midfield.
And that decision to not add some fresh legs in January is beginning to look costly now. Saturday ruined.
Yep, Xhaka could’ve been worse, but Saka just makes so much more sense there. Should’ve been ESR/Gabi/pepe front 3. Odegaard at 10, Sambi and Xhaka behind. Saka at LB. Maybe better is ESR in the middle. He and Ode could switch places through the game as dual false 9s almost. Would at least be more interesting than whatever that was today.
We are not ready for Champions League. 2 first teamers out and we look like a bottom 3 team.
Many fans raised their eyebrows at us not getting at least a couple of additions in January. Looks like they’d be proven right.
This feels like 2016 all over again, where the failure to sign players we needed cost us dearly. This club has hurt us too many times, man!
We’re going to need to spend big regardless of Europe. Last summers recruitment was good, need to build on what we’ve got
Well said. 👍🍺
We may well not be ready for the Champions League yet.
But, here’s an idea.
We finish fourth and then go out in the summer and buy in a top drawer striker, a decent defensive midfielder (cover for Partey) and a decent left back (cover for Tierney) – and make ourselves ready for Champions League football.
Still with me..? 😂
Fuck off, Arteta and Edu. Arsenal is too big for either of you. Failure to make those signings in January have fucked us up, just like I said if would.
Let’s go for Potch in the summer.
Poch. Lol. He is beginning to look like a massive fraud in France.
I agree with the first paragraph, we all said we are only one injury away to f**k this up!!!
Which signings in January are you talking about?
Vlahovic who didn’t want us, Guimaeres who choose Newcastle’s Saudi cash, or Isak for 75million? Melo perhaps would have added something but the game wasn’t lost today because of Sambi.
Keeping Auba would have been the sensible option to get us through to the end of the season.
No, plastic fans like you should fuck off. Just because mistakes were made in January doesn’t mean we need to fire everyone you child
If only they had listened t you.
Go for Potch he says. The man who hasn’t won a single goddamn thing except the garbage Uber Eats league? The one who can barely get a tune out of the 24 world class players at his disposal? He looks disinterested on the sideline and can’t help wonder if he’s just content to be an overpaid circus master at this point. But you must be right, Fatgoonstradamus.
“Let’s go for Poch”….?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Stay off the cough mixture, mate.
Not sure how we expect to win games without putting in a single tackle on the opponents. Couldn’t bear to watch our players half heartedly tracking the Brighton player with the ball.
As for the xhaka at left back bollocks – God give me strength.
To play Xhaka at LB last season was terrible management. To do it again this season having watched what happened last season….well, I don’t know how to describe that. I like Arteta but fuck me he deserves a lot of stick after today.
Can somebody explain why white is taking so long to find a pass? Just to improve is passing accuracy stats? He was leathargic to be precise..even at 81st mint..and 2-0 down!
There’s almost zero movement off the ball. We’re struggling to go through the middle of the pitch
That’s not a new issue
Well, because when he is moving the ball quickly, White typically either passes to Partey, or to Gabriel (who quickly passes to Partey or sometimes Xhaka in midfield), or to someone–Odegaard typically–who has gone into the space that has been freed by opponents’ attempts to cover Partey.
I think Lokonga has a real future, but he simply does not offer what Partey does. And that changes White (and Ramsdale’s and Gabriel’s and Odegaard’s) effectiveness too.
Laca needs to go. His assists don’t mean anything anymore. Like Mikel says it’s in the past so why wasn’t he taken off. Pivot this pivot that. Could’ve left Smith rowe on the pitch I know he hadn’t been the best but not worse than Laca. Also, Cedric back to being Cedric.
Really thought we’d win today. A poor first half clearly cost us. Laca has to sit out the next game. Need Villa and Leicester to do us a big favour, but we need to win ourselves to make it count. Huge few games left.
To think that Lacazette is 4 years younger than Benzema! Has he no shame? Ambling around the park. He has never been an elite level striker and he was a signing I wasn’t fully behind. Nonetheless he’s had moments of brilliance but the experiment needs to end now. We spent £50million on a Giroud downgrade.
Well, Auba is thinking of winning La Liga and we are thinking of how to qualify for Europa League. That sums up Mikel.
180,000 reasons a week that suggests Lacazette is currently nicking a living at this club.
Threadbare squad = thread-stitched dreams. I genuinely fear for us.
Poor Xhaka at LB decision. It screwed up the midfield as well as the left back position.
That being said. All the players looked at 80%.
Too many players not taking enough responsibility. Hopefully missing out on cl, wont have too big of an affect on getting a new striker and midfielder. Honestly see no point us cl outside of more cash to spend.
In playing cl*
Also Lokonga…. dont get the hype, seems way out of his depth. Not that it was solely his fault today.
Maybe my stream being down a fair bit missed the really poor stuff from him today, but from what I saw, he drove forward, he offered himself as an option, put himself about a bit and a few inches off a wonder strike. He’s no Kante, but he filled in well for Partey in a midfield that was a bit all over the place today with the Xhaka switch up.
Its about everything he doesnt do. His main job is to keep the game flowing and he ruins that by constantly looking for the “killer” pass. There is a reason why Martinelli and Saka spend so much time in midfield.
Sambi hit more passes than the entirety of Brighton’s midfield. The only players who made more passes than him today was Xhaka, Gabriel and White (who mostly just passed to each other).
I think you’re reaching for a scapegoat in Lokonga. He looked a lot better once he had Xhaka as a partner, and granted, he’s no Partey, he is some 8 years his junior. Bit of slack could be cut I think. Other players massively disappointed today.
How fekking shait was that? Will spend time with my family for the rest of the season and until the Lego hair moves on. No excuse
Things fall apart
The offside infringement wasn’t near impossible to call. It was impossible to call. The goal line angle was inconclusive, but Martinelli certainly did not look offside. VAR took 4 minutes looking at this angle and couldn’t find anything wrong. Then looked at an angle from far behind, drew some lines and called offside. Chris Kavanagh was looking for any justification to call offside. PGMOL is corrupt, and you can’t convince me otherwise. How can you rule out a goal without a single evidence to prove it was offside? Incompetent at best, but it’s obviously twisted.
To be fair I thought he looked like he was probably offside – though it is not what the offside rule is meant to prevent. But the main point is that though probably offside, the blocked view meant that I don’t see how it was ‘clear’. It was not, and for this reason should have stood.
Agreed.
It probably was offside.
But there is no definitive proof that it was.
Can’t fathom how VAR can intervene in a situation like that…
With no Tomi and no Tierney, back 3 with Tavares wing back, don’t concede and hope to nick one. CB is one of the few areas we are not short of players.
How about this?
A solid back three of White, Holding and Gabriel.
Saka and Cedric as attacking wing backs, able to track back in defence.
Xhaka and Sambi in midfield, a twin pivot of defence and attack.
Three up front. Martinelli on the left, Pepe on the right, Odegaard behind them in the number 10 pocket.
All experienced players in those positions – no fuss, no dramas, just a team with pace with seven in defence when out of possession and seven in attack when in possession.
ESR, Eddie and Laca on the bench.
Job done. Over to you Mikel.
First ever time I went to see Arsenal live. my goodness do i feel like shit
You should have gone in 1981/82 after Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton had both left in consecutive seasons.
Ray Hankin, John Hawley, Brian Sparrow, Chris Whyte and George Wood all running about in a newly sponsored JVC Arsenal strip.
Now THAT lot would have made you feel shit.
Two of our easiest games this run in and we’ve bottled both of them spectacularly. Arteta showing he’s got no idea how to setup an actual midfield without one cheat code player doing the job of 2 men. We’re finishing 8th again in a campaign where Sp*rs and United have spent protracted periods being dogshit.
It really is the hope that kills you, as an Arsenal fan.
I get that we lack squad depth. But how to get this bad after two injuries?
It is truly horrible. This is a season where we have a really good chance of getting into the top 4, because all of our closest rivals have been somewhat bad and then we just throw it away. 2 games against Brighton this season. One of them 0-0, the other a loss. Truly abysmal
If you add the 2 games against Palace, a draw salvaged at home at the death, and a 3 0 loss. Against these two teams 10 points dropped in four games. “Small margins”.. Probably a stat like that confirms what we need to know about our top 4 chances.
Another case of 2 bad results and comments go to sackings. Disappointment with the performances sure, criticism on particular points certainly, but being level on points for 4th, 8 games to go. I don’t want the team to give up, and I don’t think fans should either.
I would agree. But in truth, this was the easiest game we had left and we looked way off the pace for the 2nd game in a row. If it was an isolated result, you’d have reason. But we are now 1 win in the last 4 games, and we have some much tougher games ahead.
True enough, but Spurs have had poor spells this season, we have had good ones, so even if a neutral might favour the former as it stands, it is still all there to play for.
Annoyingly, they are now beginning to hit a good patch of form. We’ve lost ours. What we need, is a team that rolls over and gives out of form teams a boost. Basically, Arsenal need to play against Arsenal.
Well said. 👍🍺
Absolutely agree.
We’re all hurting at this result, but we do not want to run our club in the way others do or make rash, reactionary decisions. Pundits make their living but spouting emotive hyperbole; fans shouldn’t buy into this.
The players know what they’re up against in the coming weeks and they know what’s at stake. Let’s have some faith. We turned it around after the Man U and Everton results.
Spot on. 👍🍺
Wonder why we couldn’t play the first 20mins as we did the last. Do we always have to trail first before we can show some urgency?
Can we all agree now that we know Arteta’s ceiling.
Maybe it’s time to start scouting for a new manager along with players.
Vieira?
Not yet, my friend. Now is not the time. One day, maybe.
Ooooh, to be a goober!
*gooner, let me downvote myself
‘Goober and the Ghost Chasers.’
Classic 70’s cartoon from Hanna-Barbera.
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. 😢
No mention of Laca says a lot about our performance.
I’d be interested to see Laca’s conversion stats in comparison to other strikers
I was going to take a look, but due to him not being in the top 20 goalscorers for all other strikers, I took a comparison of him to other positions. Good news, he’s ranked 2nd this season in comparison to the Premier League defenders this season. If we counted his goals from open play only, he would drop to joint 13th in the defenders list.
Small squad for reasons we understand however lack of cover has caught us out…
1.Why does Martinelli spend too much time in the 18yard box just turning around while his team mates are waiting for a pass? 2. Lokonga is not good enough, just didn’t know what he was supposed to do in the match. 3. Smith Rowe was not in the game and thinks tracking back is not for him 4. Odegaard not good in CM 5. Lacazette is not a goal scorer 6. Gabriel has not been his best the last two games 7. Xhaka was not disciplined enough, there were moments I thought he was playing in midfield. 8. Arteta looked… Read more »
1. Martinelli runs himself in circles 2. Lokonga looked like someone who hasn’t played a lot of football since early December 3. Smith Rowe had a below average game, as did everyone
4. See above
5. Agreed. Lacazette can’t score
6. Maybe it’s the haircut?
7. I think that was the plan for Xhaka at LB 8. Arteta got a lot wrong today. El neny shouldn’t have started, nor Tavares. Saka at LB, Pepe in his place
Really infuriating performance, or rather lack thereof. 🙁 Where’s the fight and the urgency when we need it the most?
Odegaard didn’t bother to make the defensive run for their first, hence Trossard was totally vacant in the box. After the second it’s pretty much a mountain to climb, isn’t it? 🙁
I understand all the frustration here. But there’s really nothing more to read into this match other than a paper-thin squad that was always a few injuries away from unraveling. It’s the same at the beginning of the season. I’m between we’ve seen what arteta brings to the table whenever he has the right players. For me that’s some consolation. It’ll surely get tougher till the end of the season. Let’s keep the faith. Hopefully the teams around us slip up more badly than us.
*In between
If you have a paper thin squad and you get injuries, then it’s not too much to ask for your manager to not pick the worst possible solutions to your injury problems.
He did that so there is more to it & that’s why people are angry.
My point is simple…. If arteta doesn’t make top four this season, he definitely has no business being here next season. Emery started a process which was going well in his first season even with the poor players we had.. he failed along the way… ND then arteta has come in gotten some better players conitued the process ND even developed it…with some sweet style. But there’s something still missing, (MENTALITY). The last six games of emery’s first season.. showed his failure to toughen up the team as we lost 3 of 5 matches ND failed to qualify for ucl.… Read more »
That VAR decision should be scrutinized..no way can officials just guess where last man may have been. Also Ramsdale not winning us his 12 points a season (cech) lately
Arteta must be itching to call out VAR and the refs for the blatant bias against us. It’s becoming more apparent by the week, as to be farcical. Only a matter of time before the rest of the football media cotton on too. The numbers don’t lie. Saka gets booted up in the air, yet receives a yellow himself for practically nothing. It’s laughable. If I were Arteta, I’d be putting a dossier together on the quiet to put forward at the end of the season. Let’s see who tops the iffy penalty against, iffy red card against and iffy… Read more »
Any chance of getting Miedema into the Men’s team?
If it takes 5 minutes of review to overturn a call, there is absolutely no way it can be a clear and obvious error. The whole system is a complete joke. That review was all about “We’ll do this until we find something to justify overturning this goal.”
Nketiah has hit the post now what, 4 times in the Premier League this season, without a goal? And was robbed by the keeper today as well. If he had any luck at all, he would probably have 3 important goals and we’d have several more points.
So incredibly frustrating.
Bring me my captain Mr Vieira.
We were poor today. We came to life after Ode scored… I mentioned earlier that we make teams struggling very good. Brighton scored two goals today after just scoring a goal in 7 games…. Our thin squad will cost us right about now.. At this rate Arsenal may not even make Top 6. That winter window bad business now biting hard If Arsenal fail to finish 4th from here, It’s gonna be hard on the fans after believing due to the good run we had recently. Will Arteta be sacked if we don’t finish in top 4 or allowed to… Read more »
Watching Ben White dilly dally for ages, then play a short backwards of square ball to Gabriel for the umpteenth time when we were chasing the game I just couldn’t stand it any longer and switched off after 60 minutes. Season over.
I just typed the same thing John. Ben White kills our urgency the same way David Luiz used too by being so casual. The kick off to the 2nd half began with him walking the ball. That there showed me all i needed to know as to how much we will push them. Tepid. No urgency. Gabriel and White sets the tone and they failed miserably . . . especially White. Too f**king casual.
How can he play a through ball if no one is making a run to find space or lose their marker….?
It’s not all down to the centre backs. It’s a team effort that requires improvement here.
And if that’s the case (and not a case of a lack of courage) where was the infamous Ben White bringing it out from the back with his runs? Ceratin players are protected even when they put in bang average performances . . . i’m looking at you White and Tierney. He is slow and needs a kick up the arse.
Maybe.
But if I had to kick these players up the arse, then Ben White would be far down in the queue.
Behind – from the front – Lacazette, Tavares, Eddie and Xhaka and possibly at least one or two others.
Keep the faith, this is just setting up for the ultimate spursy, it’s final form!
Well said.
It ain’t over yet. 👍🍺
No urgency! It’s like it means nothing to them. The speed of the game is dictated by the rear guard and how quick they move the ball across the back line to shift play before Brighton slides across. Ben White is too f**king casual and for me that kills our speed. The kick off for the second half showed me all i need to know when White received the ball and just literally walked with it because Brighton refused to press. Lump it in the first few minutes god dammit. Create havoc and pressure early to set the tone! There… Read more »