A draw snatched from the jaws of victory left a bitter taste in the mouth of Arsenal fans as Fulham escaped Emirates Stadium with an unlikely point having been reduced to 10 men.
The Gunners did the hard work bouncing back from Andreas Pereira’s opener but despite Bukayo Saka’s penalty spot equaliser and Eddie Nketiah’s slick finish, it was left to Joao Palhinha to have the final say with three minutes remaining.
Here’s what the players and coaches had to say about a roller coaster afternoon in the North London rain.
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Mikel Arteta on whether he’s worried about the crowd’s reaction to Kai Havertz and whether the German will win them over…
“No, I saw an action when he played backwards and he could have turned but that’s more I think the demands of everybody to play forward and to impact the game in the final third because we have the urgency to win it.
“Yes, I think so [he will win them over] and I think he’s done already really good things today. It was tough for him in certain moments, he got in great areas again and the ball didn’t arrive. He had a lot of situations and he should have scored a lot of goals already this season and that’s the thing that he’s missing there.”
Source: Post-game press conference / Hayters
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Mikel Arteta on the impact of his substitutions…
“All three substitutes changed the game. Fabio [Vieira] was involved in everything we created and I am really happy with that. To see players with the ability to make and take chances with quality. The same with Eddie [Nketiah]. It is my fault that Fabio has not played more and today he gave me reasons to play him more.”
Source: BBC Match of the Day
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Eddie Nketiah on not playing and trying to improve…
“Every player is disappointed not to play and I think I’m in good form, helping the team. These things happen but you’ve got to respect the manager’s decision and be ready in case the team needs you.
“Individually, I’m contributing a lot to the team, towards the goals in each of the games. I’m just trying to do more and improve. I just want to win more games with the team and help the team as much as possible. I’m just going to keep improving, learn from the mistakes today and come back stronger next week.”
Source: Arsenal.com
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Fulham boss Marco Silva on Arsenal’s quality and how pleased he was by his side’s resilience…
“Arsenal, in my opinion they are going to be even stronger than last season. The quality that they have for their squad is impressive and I have to say that they are going to be clear contenders again because [of] the quality, the manager and all that stuff.
“After we equalised the game we showed the resilience, the braveness and the organisation with five at the back, 5-3-1 to defend our box and we did it. Of course, we had that chance from Adama [Traore] in the last moments of the game [to win it] but we showed the resilience and the organisation to defend well our box.”
Source: Post-game press conference / Hayters
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He knew. pic.twitter.com/mITgPGUBgT
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) August 26, 2023
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Mikel Arteta on the final week of the transfer window…
“The window is still open and you know that there are certain players that we are close with, analysing some deals, we can’t announce anything yet and when the right moment comes. Obviously we have quite a lot of numbers of players right now but we try to do things in the right way and find places that players are going to fulfil their careers and dreams which is important.”
Source: Sky Sports
If I wasnt such a sane person I would say Ateta is losing his mind! What is going on with Gabi being exiled, Partey as right back and persisting with Havertz! We need him to recover his senses before tje United game!
There must be something serious going on behind closed doors regarding Gabriel as he was always one of the first names on the sheet.
Have we received a big offer? Has the players head been turned? Has he requested a move? Is Arteta under pressure to lose quality players to balance the books because we cannot shift the likes of Pepe on?
I suppose everything will become clearer later in the week.
I reckon they are keeping him available for a ridiculous offer, should it arrive.
£100m +
In my opinion, he doesn’t have Steve Round now to give good advice! Maybe the reason Steve had to leave was because MA refused to listen to his advice? Just a thought…..
Really feel for Trossard.
Had an amazing pre season, scores the ‘winning’ goal against Man City and then we don’t see him for 3 weeks. Today he’s thrown in at number 8 where he’s barely played, and gets hooked at half time. Yet again he’s been ignored – remember last season when he came out and our season collapsed? It’s no surprise he’s now out of form. Terrible squad management.
I suspect you’ll see Gabi leaving this week and being replaced by Eric Garcia from Barca, who Arteta knows well from Citeh. Whether this is to balance the books or for football reasons is, outside of the insiders, anyones guess.
A disappointing result, but hopefully the manager will now revert back to our current best starting XI
Ramsdale,
White, Saliba, Gabriel and Zinchenko,
Partey, Rice,
Odegaard,
Saka, Jesus and Martinelli.
After today, it’s staring him in the face.
I really hope you’re right, Q. But Arteta strikes me as a stubborn mule who’ll keep playing Havertz in an attempt to prove that we’re all wrong.
I don’t think that will be why…
Willian
Yes!!!
Two points dropped. It’s frustrating to say the least. We should have won it with the chances we had, but it wasn’t to be. That is done and dusted now; we learn from our mistakes and go again on Sunday. United must fall, and they will. They were quite lucky today against Forest. Narrow misses by Forest and a dubious penalty gave them the three points.
The early goal was down to tinkering with our right back position…TP isn’t a full back…you can’t shoe horn all the players into the squad at once….use your 5 substitutes early if you must but play your best players in their positions….Our back 4 worked last season….not sure anyone apart from timbre will improve it….better to learn these lessons early though….just an unnecessary loss of points in a league with very little margins
Always Utd with the dubious penalties
What chances?
Close to certain players is surely interesting. I’m betting Gabi M is a goner, sadly.
One other positive aside from the obvious ones – for everyone who’s been saying Eddie never scores when he comes off the bench. Well that was true, but today he has, so it doesn’t seem like he’s completely incapable of it.
Eddie seems to be improving, which is good
I liked how Eddie played today. Showed desire and put pressure on Fulham.
He made a marked difference.
While there are options, he is the only out and out striker in the squad, and gives the attack focus.
Jesus, of course, has his own strengths (and is injury prone). Could be a big season for Eddie (Eddie, Eddie).
Also Eddie doesn’t fall to the ground as if shot when someone breathes on him. Jesus goes to ground far too easy imo
He does and he also moans a lot.
Based on his comment about Viera “It is my fault that Fabio has not played more and today he gave me reasons to play him more.” would not be surprised to see him start for Havertz soon. He looked much more confident and assertive today than he did at any point last year which is a great sign, he can be a really good player for us, but like ESR is going to need minutes to get confidence, match fitness and timing down and just don’t know how much of that will be available to either of them though both… Read more »
I don’t even think the absence of Gabriel has been our biggest problem. Would I rather have him in there? Yes. However, we’re playing a LCB as a LB, a RCB as a LCB (asking him to move central), a RB as a RCB (asking him to move into RB and a DM as a CB (asking him to move into DM). I recall a quote last season where Arteta didn’t want to move too many pieces out of position and here we are playing an entire defence out of position. It’s so weird and it hasn’t worked. It’s not… Read more »
Havertz will be the new Pepe.
FFS, we’re only three games into the fucking season.
Get a fucking grip.
Havertz being the new Pepe is Havertz being Havertz.
You’re calling him that after three league games? Listen, I know it’s a free country and everyone is entitled to an opinion (blah blah fucking blah) but a good number of this fanbase nowadays haven’t got a fucking clue. The trouble is, the rest of us now get tarred with the same brush by equally stupid rival fans and the media. If a player doesn’t assist five times and score five times a game, he’s a failure. If a team doesn’t win every game fifty nil, the manager is a failure. It’s bad enough in May but fucking August…….?!! Shit… Read more »
The same people were saying the same about Pepe after a few games and years later he was the same.
Stupid is failing to recognise or being oblivious to the obvious. In this league a few dropped points due to stupid players choices or formations means you lose the title, look at last year.
You keep dreaming that we have the luxury of sticking with Havertz.
We lost the title last year due to injuries sustained to key players – Saliba and Tommi. I actually warned about this before they were played unnecessarily in a Europa league game back in January – and then had to put up with people like you telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about. We dropped points on Saturday due to the absence of our best starting back four – White, Saliba, Gabriel and Zinchenko. It had nothing to do with Havertz. Still, think what you want to think, be my guest. Just don’t think you’re convincing me… Read more »
Ok will do.
Just remind yourself of that when you’re deludedly still thinking he’s going to remotely make any kind of difference as the season continues.
Well that makes both me and Arteta deluded.
And I’ll gladly take that, given what you pass for being informed and intelligent.
Willian
Last season he looked like the only player at the Chavs who gave a shit and might make something happen.
This season he looks like a decent player who needs to realise that he’s no longer surrounded by a bunch of lazy thundercunts.
He’s got out of the habit of looking for someone in a better position than he is and who can do something useful with the ball and he needs to get back into it.
Very true but is he £65M worth of a player?
Does he deserve to start in front of players like ESR?
Certain decisions by Arteta hasn’t worked out yet but I think we need to show a bit more patience. It has only been 3 games so far and sometimes you have to make changes to a successful team to improve further. Some of these changes might not work out in the long term but I think we need to wait a bit longer to find out. I think Arteta wants more flexibility to adapt to different teams and circumstances and it makes it more difficult for the opposition if we become less predictable in our tactics and formation and have… Read more »
Agree with you, Arteta has stated that we must be more unpredictable this season, but Partey at right back must stop. Should be back up to Rice.
Yeah Partey doesn’t look comfortable at right back so I wonder how much longer he will persist in playing him there. Such a shame Timber got injured as that may have been his best position.
Patience? Gooners have had more patience over the years than any other supporters.
Leaving Gabriel on the bench and severely changing formation when that was never an issue, is not about patience. It’s arrogance.
Today’s blog suggested that Partey at right back is a consequence of Gabriel being dropped, but I actually think the opposite is true. Arteta wants more bodies and dominance in the middle, especially against low block sides, so he’s sacrificed Gabriel to do it. There are parallels in that Pep dropping Kyle Walker caused consternation at first as well. But unfortunately for us this seems to be a misapplication of Pep’s tactics, given that they have Haaland and rely less on their wide players for generating and finishing chances. It may have been because of game state, but it was… Read more »
Arteta might be under pressure from above to sell a big name player to balance the books. He may have no choice in the matter!
And as Gabi is the only player that has garnered any interest.
I hope not though and would like to see a back four of Tomi/White/Bill and Zinny or White/Bill/Gabi and Tomi/Zinny for Man U. I never want to see Partey as an inverted defender again 🤣
If we have no choice but to sell Big Gabi, who doesn’t want to go, because we spent so much money on Rice and Havertz when there were cheaper and possibly better players out there, then Mikel and Edu can go to hell as far as I’m concerned. I’ll wait and see, but there’s no sensible reason for dropping Big Gabi. Either Mikel is being a tosser or there’s something up, it’s bad either way.
Bad news all around. Arsenal has lost ground on City..
Arteta’s reference point on team selection “you are as good as your last match” why is havertz always ahead of ESR or Fabio Veira. Talk of preaching water and drinking wine. I’m not blaming havertz for the dropped points but arteta himself. Arteta should give him time to learn otherwise starting him over n over again inorder to prove your point will only serve to destroy him mentally but also hurt our chances of winning anything this season. Please forget about his price tag and use him sparingly i swear he will come good.
At this moment in time, Arsenal’s dominance and control of the game state is not being reflected in the scoreline. It sounds like that’s a huge frustration for Arteta. That said, it’s also undeniable that things are looking forced in an attacking sense, and I think there are clear reasons for that. On the left hand side, Havertz and Martinelli are both primarily off the ball attackers who make runs for others. They do not combine well with each other yet, or with Nketiah who is similarly direct. In the forest game, the corner from which Saka eventually scored his… Read more »
Yup ..this….and additionally I think Jesus when he becomes available will also help improve interplay/playmaking on the left….FV gives a good performance this time out as a sub on the left but he would need to give a similar performance a starter for me to be convinced. Its the same with R Nelson on R or L wing. Meanwhile ESR I am not sure why we haven’t seen him yet becoz he looks quite good and ready in pre season matches. Hope he will make a comeback and flourish this season coz I think this will be a make or… Read more »
I’m not really worried about Havertz. The Gabriel issue is I’m balancing the team and needs sorting out. The knock on effect is losing the the White, Saka connection.
You need a settled defence to do anything in the EPL.
Yup, fucks up Arteta’s beloved “automatisms”.
Best example was Saka passing back to where White would have been if…
Plus side: If Arteta can move the team to the next level, where they have to both play and think at the same time, our form won’t head off round the U bend every time a “starting 11” player gets injured.
Arteta moans about not scoring enough goals, yet signs another keeper and Havertz, rather than a striker. This excuse will wear thin very quickly.
The new Tinkerman? MA must stop trying to be so unpredictable and get back to solidity.
Am beginning to get concerned with Arteta and his obvious need to prove his point even when it seem not to be working. There is absolutely no problem with playing in a particular style but being flexile and open to options are the hallmark of great coaches. Man City longballed us into submission last season at the Etihad in a very “ungaurdiola” style but that was so effective on the night. Arteta seem keen to play Harvert at all cost and keep Gabriel on the bench for whatever reason and thus distabilised the team both offensive and defensively. Those calls… Read more »
Whatever happened to patience with bedding players in?
All this anti-Havertz talk is daft.
I feel for Trossard not getting the minutes, I love Gabriel in defence too, but this season is going to have so many minutes and they’ll all be getting their fair bite of the cherry in time.
Please put Ben White back in at RB soon though Mikel 😄
Well said. 😊👍🍺