Arsenal are out of the FA Cup after a 1-0 defeat to Man City at the Etihad this evening.
A much changed Gunners side were far from outplayed, and did have chances to score, but in the end Nathan Ake’s second half strike was enough for Pep Guardiola’s side to go through to the 5th round.
We face City again in the league on February 15th.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Man City 1-0 Arsenal report and see the goals here
Man City 1-0 Arsenal – 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.
should have caused them more problems with the possesion they had, but still not a bad loss. come a long way this season. the difference in presence in the second half when partey switched with sambi was obvious.
Nothing about this match has me worried about Feb. 15.The away support was fantastic. City is not ready for the Emirates.
We ‘battered’ them last season and lost
Won’t happen again – it’s our turn… it’s our time.
It’s a soulless stadium all you could hear was the Arsenal away fans all game.
Yes I noticed that. Literally only one audible set of fans the whole game.
Although we lost, we still put up a fight. We didn’t blow over compared to previous years. Which was good to see.
There was a big difference in the middle from when Partey came off. Unfortunately, Lokonga is just not up to the task. Vieira is another player I’m yet to be convinced over, he’s not shown enough for me.
Hopefully, this shows to the board we need reinforcements.
Gutted we lost, but not pissed off..
we are definitely heading in the right direction .
Come on Arsenal!
some players need to be told what to do, others know what to do and takes decisions on the fly. Vieira looks like someone who’s most comfortable with being told. You could see the difference when ødegaard came on and organized midfield. looked like he also gave lakonga a good lecture in positioning in the final minutes.
Vieira hides from the ball all game. Look at him when we’re in possession his immediate reaction is to get in between defenders effectively making himself marked. Saka gets the ball and he’s nowhere near to combine. If that’s what he’s been told to do by Arteta I can’t make any sense of it.
You can’t make any sense of it because you have no sense
City have an entire squad, more or less, of premiere league winning players, starters. We don’t. No criticism there, it’s reality, different finances and points of the squad building cycle. Surely the difference is that they can sub a serious international level CB and bring on one that’s better, to change KDB for Silva while we started Chambers and bought on Sambi. I’m not writing us off by any stretch, but their squad is so, so deep. It’s the Mariana Trench of squads and we’re just not there, yet.
Hard to see why this is an unpopular take…?
what are people disagreeing with here?
Chambers?
We sold him to Villa already!
Refreshing pragmatism. City have the deepest bench in the premier league. Arsenal: not so much
chambers?🤨
We go to any ground in the World and hold our own now.
I feel for Lokonga. He had a difficult game tonight
Very few first team minutes & playing against the possibly the strongest team in Europe, he did OK.
His positioning wasn’t the best but good experience for him.
I thought that Lokonga was much improved compared to his (admittedly very poor) performance against Oxford. I can see him covering for Xhaka but not for Partey, for much the same reason that Xhaka is far better in the advanced midfield role than as a DM. If Partey does get injured, and Elneny hasn’t recovered, we might have to push a ball-playing defender into the role. We have a few of those!
Lokonga is not better than Azeez or Patino or that young 16yr old that played against Juventus. That’s his level I’m sure if any of those players I mentioned where on that pitch they would give more in performance and intensity. Lokonga needs to go
Sounds harsh but I gotta agree, Lokonga just looks lost at this level. I’d opt for a loan and see if he improves elsewhere with regular game time, but honestly I’ve seen very little to suggest he could cut it at Arsenal
Hey did you see Azeez play for Ibiza in the Spanish second division? How many times has Patino played for England u21s? We make comments but sometimes we have to be more realistic than this. Lokonga did not play bad and had some lovely passes. Vieira on the other hand was very poor again today just like at Oxford but got the assist to save his blushes. Against Oxford lokonga had a clear penalty not given to save his blushes.
I suspect Lokonga will go on to have a distinguished career post Arsenal in much the same way that others who failed to cut it in the premier league did: Diego Forlan, Morata, Veron, Di Maria etc
This is good! I actually dont care one bit as long as we didnt get any injuries. Lets go for the leauge 100 % now! Ill take a win against man u over this game any day.
Fingers crossed whatever knock Partey took is minor.
yeah! i wish we never had started him given that he is our only defensive midfielder right now except lokonga. Transfers has to be made now. Its good its only everton next game.
And Lokonga is not even a defensive midfielder. And respect every team cuz they the ones we take for granted and end up with 1 or no points
yeah. ur right. everyone has to be on their toes.I think arteta will make sure of that. Us fans can afford to be a little bit more optimistic somtimes. 🙂
“It’s only Everton’: be careful what you wish for. We kick started their winning battle against relegation last season….In other news: fuck Mudryky and sign Andre Gray
yeah i know no game is easy especially away. im only saying id rather play everton than liverpool or some other top team if i must be without our most important player which i think Partey is. Mudryk, yeah. To be honest im still gutted about that deal that never happened for us.
Liverpool? Top team? Can we really put Liverpool in the ‘top team’ category this season?
Not really but they have some real good players so it wouldnt be such a big suprise if they started winning more regulary than they do now. What im saying is that im more worried about playing them than everton at the moment. Especially away.
Despite the loss, a tight 1-0 against City shows just how far we have come.
Our full strength side would probably have won that. We only started with one first choice defender. Good to see how well we coped against Haaland in general.
Still, it’s something to build on and we’re still in the Europa league.
I was a bit worried with our tactic of going toe to toe physically with Haaland on the halfway line.
It was a bloody effective way to stop him, but you just know that the EPL refs will send off Saliba for denying a goal scoring opportunity if they even get half a chance
Our centre halves all deserve 1 point higher. Dealt outstandingly with Haaland and City’s attacking in general and weren’t to blame for the goal. Really encouraged by our defending in this match against a full strength City team, and much of the time without 3 of our best back 4
Agree. Mahrez, De Bruyne, Haaland were rendered fairly ineffective. I think we should be confident of taking 3 pts at the Emirates, assuming Partey is back.
I was personally proud of Holding tonight.
Yes, he went toe to toe with the most dangerous striker in the league (and the strongest) and ‘took one for the team’ for the card – exactly what we know they’re told to do. He won’t play many games but I’m not worried when I see him start a match.
I feel the opposite about Holding now. He’s always been dependable, but I thought he was a real liability against City, and I can’t forget how overmatched he was at Sp*rs last year when it really counted. I do worry now when I see him play in games that matter.
When the opposition are behind and resort to an aerial bombardment to salvage something, then Holding seems a sound investment as a squad player. Otherwise, not so much.
We did, indeed, deal with the threat of Haaland well. But the intensity of the game was about 90% of premiership levels. Saka and De bruyne both played well within themselves.
Like most of us, I am sure Saliba is going to be a “top player”, but his defending for their goal is shocking. Why the hands behind the back and the turning sideways, just stick out your foot and stop the sho.
Saka went towards Grealish and left Ake unmarked for the goal. Nothing to so with Saliba
Pretty sure Mikel used this game to work out how to smash them in 2 weeks time at the Emirates. I belive. 🙌
Team selection was surprising. I always hate going out of the FA Cup, so I’m left more disappointed than most tonight. Performance had many positives, nonetheless. Impressed by Trossard.
Like you, I hate going out of the FA Cup as I feel it is a special trophy for us. But, looking at the bigger picture here, I was somewhat relieved at the end of the match, considering the great chance we have in the league and how we don’t have anywhere near the squad’s depth required to compete on three fronts.
I totally agree with you and I was very disappointed. I also think we could’ve easily beaten them if we’d fielded our first eleven, it’s over a week to the next game and that’s Everton. I just hope that we do manage to do well in at least one of the League or the Europa League, we could end up with nothing at this rate, and I’d rather be in the Cup.
Given the paucity of the City performance, even with the number of changes Arteta made, this was maybe a missed opportunity
I don’t like the City guys, there’s sth fundamentally wrong with them
After so much success in recent years they have an unhealthy sense of entitlement. Whining to the ref about every decision that didn’t go their way.
It’s ok, as we know they’ll be fined by the FA for surrounding the ref…….
What really annoyed me was that they kept kicking the ball away when it was our free kick or throw, but the ref never even gave them a warning, never mind a yellow for it.
You mean like every other successful football team since the dawn of time?
They speak very highly of you (in English to boot)
Really strange game tonight considering it was 1st v 2nd in the league. Looked more like a pre-season friendly to me and a lack of intensity from both sides. Don’t think the next two Arsenal v City games will be played at such a mundane pace. With our priorities, not a bad result.
Felt like a stalemate, tactically.
The Man for Man tactics from Arteta effective turned City into Stoke..But Pep nullified Saka and restricted Xhaxa’s forays but got lucky Lucky Trossard didnt score or assist. We dont have the players they do but tactically Arteta turned it into battles all over the pitch,Some we won some were lost.It was a brave tactic. I know what everybody was thinking when they saw that back four line up before the game.
Arteta change his tactics at half time, was weird as he had won the first half , but didn’t trust Sambi to pick up loose balls coming of Haarland or city break. And so moved Xhaka back into a two pivot , which gave city the room to pass ball around .
Yes..even pep himself was surprised the Arsenal deploy man to man marking
Man City = Stoke must be the dumbest statement ever to appear on a English speaking forum since the advent of electricity and freewill
When did freewill start?
Isn’t he that useless winger we ‘signed’ from Chelsea, now at Fulham?
4/10. The FA Cup. Nice to win back when we were shit but who really needs a bunch of fixtures at the business end of the season when we’re winning the league and the Europa League?
precisely. if going out of the FA means we are winning the leauge, well who cares. 😀
But it doesn’t, does it. We could quite easily end up with nothing.
I’m sorry but it’s time for Holding to go. Lokonga as well, thanks Kompany but this guy is not ready for top level football. He panicked in the games he played in our runnin last season against Newcastle against spurs he was scared shtless today he was so scared when he came on didn’t know what position he should be playing too slow in recovery can’t tackle can only pass sideways and switch play. No physicality or intensity to his game. Just jogging back like he couldn’t be bothered I’m done with him. Viera needs to add weights to his… Read more »
A defeat that I strangely don’t mind accepting.
Not a bad loss given it wasn’t our strongest 11. Think we would have seen more chances if Odegaard and/or Zinny had started. Trossard looks promising and I thought Tomi was impressive. Vieira and Sambi not yet ready for prime time.
Honestly quite confused about the ratings today.
Viera was very poor, have the ball away several times and simply did nothing positive. Got one chance at goal and he snatched at it when he could have taken a touch.
He’s not up to the level, looks great in the Europa group stages though.
Tierney, tomi and holding also poor. Eddie and saka just coasted, hard to blame saka with all the football he’s played.
You can assess Viera (or Lokonga) when he plays with our 10 regular starters, not in a heavily rotated squad with changed tactics. It’s good they got game time but it’s not a like for like experience.
I was rooting for Holding while he was on. Thought he walked a tight rope but generally speaking Haaland didnt get much out of him, i was also proud of the shithousery, he wasn’t afraid to meet him head on when i have seen defenders this season just melt and fold because its him. Not to mention he has hardly played and was nowhere near as sharp as he could be. We ll done Rob. Big fan of Matt Turner, Solid. Even in his shakier moments im not essentially worried. Seems a likeable character and a brilliant backup to Ramsdale.… Read more »
Excellent summation mate.
Don’t really give a flying fuck about this, we have won the FA Cup so many times. The league is a much higher priority. Would have been a bonus if we went through. That’s just my view, anyway.
I do give more than a flying fuck about what is the greatest knockout competition in the world irrespective of how the top clubs (and below) disrespect the trophy. It’s the epitome of everything everyone who is fighting against the European Super League stands for.
Really sorry but!!
If Eddie doesn’t score he’s anonymous
This seems knee jerk gratuitously harsh. His link up play has improved immeasurably from last season.
He actually produced a big chance for Viera, who should have scored. Sometimes you have to park your biases.
Well, i think hes workreate is really good. And if we get that plus some goals from a backup striker i think we should be happy about that. Of couse we miss Jesus but Eddie has done just fine.
As much as I like Sambi Lokonga and really want him to succeed, unfortunately I don’t think he is up to title contender standards. He needs a loan spell at a lower league club.
If Martinelli could look up once in a while he would be unplayable. For me rob holding is one fuck up away from conceding a goal every time he plays, I have always rated his effort but we now need better back up for Saliba. Stating the obvious here! a super star central midfielder would be nice or just one that can defend better would do too please Edu.
Hey – we kept the league’s most feared striker scoreless… not many teams have done that this season.
And we did it with a 70% strength side, at best.
Bring on the Emirates lads… it’s our turn next.
It’s our time now.