There was North London derby frustration for Arsenal this afternoon as the Gunners conceded two equalisers in a 2-2 draw.
Bukayo Saka forced an OG off Romero to open the scoring, but Son got one back before the break. The Arsenal number 7 put us ahead from the spot, but Son was on target again after a bad mistake from Jorginho.
In the end, a draw probably a fair result but nobody cares about fair when it’s Sp*rs.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the Arsenal 2-2 Sp*rs and see the goals here
Arsenal 2-2 Sp*rs – 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 David Raya. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Pep is loving this. “I’m so happy”… Do we have a problem managing player fitness?
Yes. Even Saka was struggling today. What good is a good bench when you don’t use them. ESR’s close control is closest thing to Trossard’s vision. I wonder if Nketiah was a good option.
Let’s face it. Arteta has no faith in ESR n Nelson.
He’s too smart and too stubborn for his own good. Will eventually lead to his downfall.
Jesus does a very good job on the left wing, but the main problem with him playing there is it takes him out of the striker position where he is clearly our best option. I would far rather have seen Nelson or ESR start at left wing with Jesus up top and then bring Nketiah on for Jesus if he is still on a minutes restriction. If ESR can’t get more minutes than he did yesterday with Trossard and Martinelli out and Jesus being subbed earlier then when is he going to be able to play and prove himself? He… Read more »
You wonder if nketia was a good option. He’s pants
Saka pulled up around 60 minutes behind the play feeling his calf (I think). after that he was considerably less mobile, and dropped back deeper instead of being a menace in the box because he couldn’t run as freely. There was also the moment where he went down injured shortly after grabbing his leg, and he was doing the melodramatic flopping thing that all footballers do, but did look to be in some pain, and Ben White was waving a doctor over but no one came? It was just kinda strange? As good as he is (and he still had… Read more »
Nketiah
Not even good enough for Luton town!!!!
No one likes a told you so. But I got absolutely rinsed on here for saying this on the Raya article last week: This best man for the job attitude is all well and good. But what I don’t understand from Arteta is that he is ruthless in this case, in order to get his shiny new ball-playing keeper on the pitch. But why does he persist with Eddie upfront when both Kai and Trossard are better aping Jesus in the false 9 role? The attack has never been as fluid with Nketiah, he is being asked to do a… Read more »
Yep. For Jesus to be forced out to the wing after a motm performance in midweek, purely to accommodate Nketiah who gets indulged with the full 100 minutes, and for Smith Rowe to get 3, THREE minutes at the end, it is one of the most bizarre managerial performances I’ve seen in a very long time. Yes we had injuries and yes we missed chances, but it was a bad day at the office for MA today.
I think MA lost his match up today. On paper we are better. Didn’t pass the eye test -for me, our press didn’t seem cohesive and we didn’t keep the ball enough when transitioning. Did anyone else notice that a few of our guys looked to hold onto the ball a bit too long today? I think we are weaker than last season. Left 8 is not nailed down (ESR, the door is open ). Backup to GJ is not nailed down (Winter Window). I think being “ruthless” can apply to guys in the injury bin, too. Keep getting injured?… Read more »
Pls dun use Son ATM. It’s sensitive
Touché
And our keeper kept kicking the ball into touch!
His distribution was ropey. Blogs spot on with his comment.
I noticed this in the PSV game as well; several balls went straight into touch. For a keeper renowned for his distribution, it was strange to see such wayward kicking
Totally agree. Can’t expect Magic with only 3 mins. Dun think ESR can do that, neither Messi nor CR7
It would be nice for people to read comments like this when accusing other Arsenal fans of sentimentality in wanting ESR to play more. It’s nothing of the sort. People can notice when a Hale-End graduate in Nketiah isn’t good enough. ESR being a hometown hero has got nothing to do with people thinking he should have more game time. It’s because he’s actually really good. Yet complete guff in the form of other players is keeping him out of the team. I’d much rather have him play out left than Reiss Nelson, who seems to have got another millstone… Read more »
Forward player heat maps for the sp*rs match aren’t true to formation. Jesus and and even Saka were more down the middle than Nketiah. But yes, Jesus did get pushed wide for most of the match. There appears to be a specific build up play tactic that Arsenal tried to use. Eddie’s had a lot of minutes this season and Jesus hasn’t played much. Against sp*rs it was a new tactic according to Eddie’s heat map. It didn’t work very smoothly and a mess imo. Turns out Eddie was very ineffectual using the left midfield channel like a number 8… Read more »
My opinions might change over the course of the season but right now I don’t understand why we kept ESR and Nelson if we aren’t going to use them why we didn’t sign a backup for Saka so he doesn’t have to play every game why we signed Havertz instead of Maddison who was 20m cheaper, or for that matter why we let Xhaka go why we are spending 30m trying to replace Ramsdale with Raya who looks about the same level if anything. I’m assuming that’s the plan, if we were rotating I could maybe understand. Certainly want Havertz… Read more »
I think MA always obsessed by getting a player who can play many position. I really believe letting Xhaka leave is the biggest mistake he has ever done. And not finding a true replacement for him is the second biggest.
Agreed with you on this mate. Maddison is clearly not the most popular at the Emirates, but hey that’s really down to what he can offer and its clear for all to see.
Kai might be slightly better than his previous matches, but it’s still not good enough for me.
Replay this match again and see him stroll around when almost most of the others are fighting hard for every 50/50 ball
Kai was rubbish. Worse than previous matches IMO. Like you say he strolled around…so much. He was pushed off the ball every time he got into an attacking position, and he just looked sulky and soft. Really disappointed with him after this. Hard to feel positive about this signing. Was iffy at the time, but he looks like a waste of freaking space (let alone the money he gets).
Kai has only managed to prove one thing. That he cant handle the physics and pace of the epl.
You mean Kai with 0 goals lol
Exactly. Said same. You can now imagine what the players now think. If he persists with Raya it’s pure bullshit if he recalls Aaron he fucked it up. Raya parried the ball back into the game for the first goal when a corner would have been better option.
I said also I didn’t like his social almost as if he’s ribbng Aaron.
Eddie is the worst technical player in the squad. Ramsdale has better technique than him.
Looking at his first touch burned my eyes. You “train like beast” to touch and control the ball like that? Wasting time.
If I was him, I wouldn’t bother tuning on for Arsenal. We don’t look like his main worry right now. Of course we can change all that in a couple of weeks!
Because his puppet fucked up. Why did Eddie start? Raya was poor. He’s never played in such a big game in England why start him?!
Its more Arsenal’s unfortunate habit to focus our injuries to players in the same position. We have 6 players out injured right now. After Timber (long term) and Saka (back Saturday, and unlikely to start against Brentford), the other 4 are our best 2 players in 2 positions. Losing Rice was made worse by already having Partey already out, Equally, the injury to Martinelli is compounded by the injury to Trossard. Its the one weakness in Arteta’s plan of having 2 quality players in each position, which is to have both injured simultaneously.
what a brilliant game by havertz. whatever we needed from a sub, he delivered: great high press, created lots of space for his teammates, run all over the place, monster threat whenever he had the ball. great signing so far, i can see so many goals and assists from him soon. should’ve definitely started. right?
Bit harsh. I don’t think he was that bad. I’m not a fan, but as much as I don’t think “OK” is good enough for the investment, I think he was “OK”.
mockery aside, he wasnt bad at all, nor was he responsible for our performance. it’s just that subs are meant to change the game, and i don’t think he had any real influence, so i wish we had someone else to bring on. but he’s alright, it’s the people who blindly praise him that get my nerves!
Fair enough.
If Jorginho didn’t have a brainfart, nobody will mention Havertz. Also Jesus scores rather blaze his stolen chance over the bar, we’d be 2 nil up and cruising.
Let’s stop picking on Havertz for every bad result
He contributes nothing and 6 games in he’s already demoted to the bench. What a waste of 65mil.
So you’re ok with one of our highest paid players signed for 65M quid strolling around looking like he’s thinking about his next haircut, adding literally zero to our attack and getting pushed off the ball anytime he’s in an advanced space. He’s fucking soft and he needs to step the fuck up. What he’s shown is exactly what everyone was worried about when we signed him. He just doesn’t play with the intensity needed at this level. He looks like a sulky rich-boy brat.
Did Kai bully you at school?
Kai has never bullied anybody in his life.
He was rubbish. How can a guy his size and technique get pushed off the ball so easily? His performance was piss weak, bordering on lazy at times. You sign someone for this kinda money, you expect him to step forward in moments like this, but this looks like the exact problem for Havertz, he just doesn’t look like he gives a fuck – clearly no idea what a NLD means.
What makes it more annoying is seeing someone else we could’ve had for far cheaper, running the show against us.
I fail to see how there was any proper due diligence in that transfer. If you’re trying to transform a flop into a good player, you shouldn’t be paying anywhere near as much as we did and are doing with Havertz.
Goals are not his job. Not his main job anyway.
Real impact sub came in 97th minute. That moment was really something else.
Absolutely. Top class. Who cares if he looks perpetually stoned out of his head all of the time? He changed the game with his “doing nothing” – he occupied the number eight and did nothing, moved forward and did nothing and when we needed for him to step up and earn a single pound of the £1,980,000 he has defrauded Arsenal of since the start of the season, he did nothing. I feel really bad for Timber who would have really made a massive difference to us, but instead he is out for the season and Havertz is getting game… Read more »
Kai Havertz appears to be responsible for the war in Ukraine, climate change, knife crime, juvenile delinquency, heart disease, falling educational standards, inflation and perhaps most serious of all, the yukky skin that forms on warm milk. Give the guy a break ffs
What a really weird comment on a day where nobody really played good. I thought we’d learned not to scapegoat our players.
I seriously hope this is sarcasm bcos what I saw of Havertz was anything but great or even okay….at one point he was easily bullied off the ball when he had a clear head start. Anyway, the season is just starting and there’s lots of time to come good but it hasn’t been a great first impression so far…..
*at multiple times. He’s bullied off the ball all game long. The guy is freaking huge and pushed aside like a ragdoll. Like you say, plenty of time to turn things around, but TBH, he doesn’t look like he cares enough to do so.
Lol.
Havertz is not my cup of tea and I never supported his transfer. Infact, I criticized it. However, we have to be objective. Jorginho was the culprit in that match. He had more than enough time to make a simple pass. I do not understand what he was trying to achieve by sleeeping on the ball in that situation or trying to dribble away when he’s not known for his dribbling ability or speed. Jorginho is a veteran, not an 18 year old from the academy. Also, we should stop buying players from Chelsea. None has ever worked out for… Read more »
We played at home and failed to intimidate them. On the contrary, they played well and confident, in particular on the 2nd half. I guess we are faituged after the mid week march. No spark at the final third. Big thanks to agent Romero.
Glad that we didn’t play at the Lane today. We would’ve lost 4 nill.
At least Chelsea lost! Cheers me up
Meh, why would we care about them at this point?
Cos they have limitless wealth and might start buying players that are better than ours?
People at AFTV already scapegoating Havertz…
They’re morons.
For saying Havertz is poor?
I do not like AFTV, but I see little to defend Havertz so far – not at £65 million and £330k a week. Sorry.
I think Havertz has big potential to be good for us. But given the choice, and considering the fees paid, I’d rather of had Maddison.
Maddison will play max 10-15 games a season. He’s knees are done.
Good player but an irritating moaning prick who ended up at the perfect club.
You hope
Where do you get your figures from? It’s more like 200k a week
He did absolutely fine today. No different to how Vieira played but some how got a lower score. He kept the ball well in some high pressure situations near our box, he linked up well with the left winger. He missed a very difficult volley from the edge of the box but that is forgivable because if it goes in then it is goal of the month. I really dont get the hate for his game today.
No, he didn’t. He got bullied off the ball whenever he had the chance to do anything. But he’s not the real villain today. It was Arteta for keeping Eddie and playing Jorginho instead of ESR.
There are a lot of bright folks on AFTV. I’ve been an Arseblog reader for more than ten years but I also loved the emergence of AFTV. They have great tactics insight (Graham) and loads of entertaining content. Don’t know why everyone on this side hates them so much. Is it because they’re working class?
to be fair people here scapegoat eddie and jesus. i don’t think none of the three played particularly bad. it’s a collective problem that we have, i think
Eddie has been good this season but today he was poor.
😂😂😂😂😂
OK, let’s put that into perspective. A genuine question. He has one goal and one penalty since the start of the season. Are those numbers adequate for a striker who’s supposed to lead the attack for a club like Arsenal, which is supposed to fight for both the League and the CL? Especially if we take into consideration that we’re bringing in substitutes for players who have done reasonably well like Ramsdale? Why isn’t Arteta being ruthless with Eddie’s position?
Do you seriously think we have even a prayer in either the Premier League or C/L? Reality check might be: Top 4 and quarter finals
The problem we have is that Eddie doesn’t combine with his team mates, so everything becomes disjointed. Jesus is far better with technically good players like Gabi Martinelli and Trossard, they all have the awareness of where their team mate is and the next move that Eddie just doesn’t seem to have. If he had crossed to Vieira this could’ve been a very different game.
No. He just had to take that shot in the most narrow of spaces
Toxic bunch of cunts.
Just like they scapegoated Xhaka, Aaron Ramsay, Ozil, Mustafi, Bellerin, Soares, Jorginho, Odegaard, Vieira, Nelson, Nketiah, Iwobi, Rob Holding, Lokonga, Maitland-Niles, Pepe, Kolasinac, Tavares, Callum Chambers, Lacazette, Aubameyang, David Luiz, Dani Ceballos, Joe Willock, Willian, Unai Emery, the Kroenkes, Gunnersaurus, (the list goes on….)
Man Gary Neville was so anti arsenal it was naseauting. Especially his fucking orgasm noises he kept making
The moment he accused Arsenal fans of being ‘over-confident’ going into the game was just weird. Like he took the comments of the Arsenalfantv crowd and his own personal issues with some of them, and dressed it up as some serious analysis. He basically gone away from being objective and is now almost being openly antagonistic towards some people who have wound him up on social media. Just insanely unprofessional, and like Tim brilliantly put on the Arsenalvision pod the other day- this is the foremost sports channel in the UK, it’s not the place for Neville to be shitposting… Read more »
He’s such a cunt
He’s just trying tae make a name for himself, in the same way the likes of Chris Sutton is a mouthpiece, coming away with stuff that’s controversial so he becomes the centre of attention and conversation. Starve the bastard of the oxygen of publicity by ignoring the cnut.
Couldn’t have put in better myself. Both Sutton and Neville are trollmasters of ‘divide and conquer’ where they deliberately and alternately placate/provoke a fanbase just to get clicks, attention, column inches, views, promote infighting and maybe most importantly, earn his employer’s generous gratitude from sponsors
When will he shut up and why won’t it be soon!! Lovely
We should have won, but a 2-2 draw with injuries of Partey, Martinelli and Rice is a really good result. Especially when the mistake that cost us the win was made by a substitute’s substitute.
Verry encouraging game overall, despite the disappointment.
And Trossard. Top two players in CM and LW were missing. Hope Saka is OK too, we can’t afford to lose 5 great players.
Far too generous to Havertz. He added very little, and at this point, looks like a downgrade on Xhaka.
I thought he did okay, and would have probably had an assist if Nketiah was switched on. He doesn’t give us as much control as Vieira but we needed his physicality with Rice off the pitch.
We really need a striker. Nketiah can’t run with ball and Jesus needs 10 chances to convert one.
Even though we need more competition at CF, I’m happy with Jesus as out main number 9. Not the most clinical striker but he’s technically excellent and brings others into play, I thought we really missed him in the middle today. As much as I like Nketiah, he isn’t on Jesus’ level technically or tactically and that showed badly today.
Jesus kinda missed an easy chance so Blueberry is right that we need a striker.
I’ve said it since day 1 – Jesus is a fantastic second striker but not the 20 goals plus a season hit man we desperately need…
We haven’t played to a traditional target man for many years and these are the only players who scored > 20 goals last season in the Premier League: Haaland (Man City) Rashford (Man Utd) Mo Salah (Liverpool) Harry Kane (Spurs) and Ivan Toney (Brentford) I’ve crossed off the ‘don’t be silly’ category and we’re left with just two that Arsenal could conceivably bid for (and I don’t rate either frankly) This ’20 goals a season man that we desprately need’ would have to come from abroad or the goals are gonna have to come from midfield. (Martinelli, Saka, Odegaard, Vieira,… Read more »
You get a lot more than just goals/missed chances with Jesus. He links the play between midfield and the final third and works his backside off tracking back when required.
Havertz? Physicality?
You win.. KO 🤣🤣
I’m not sure what game you wanted. My only gripe is that he wasn’t brought on for Eddie.
watched*
In the one I watched, he did OK as a defender. Generally pretty poor in attack. Spending 60M on an attacking mid/forward that can’t do that but is an OK defender is a problem. Viera was better before going off. ESR would have been better.
Xhaka is unreplacable. Anyone would look bad in his shadow.
I’d love to be sucking the same lollies as you
He did alright ffs. He wasn’t the problem today.
I would say he wasn’t the only problem. But he was part of it. For the money paid, he needs to do better in attack.
He did not do “alright”. 65 mil and he now starts every game on the bench. Waste of fkn money.
Havertz is a downgrade on Willian or Yaya Sanogo.
I agree. But why we always buy scraps from the chavs??
Nelson and ESR must be wondering what they have to do to finally get ahead of Nketiah in the pecking order…
what the heck was that substitution at 96min
May need to watch the game again, Odegaard probably did more miles than the whole team combined, he was the the spearhead of the press and was absolutely everywhere
He ran around well, but on the ball he was well below his best
I think we should get Lee Cattermole as his back-up.
Duracell bunnies have lots of energy too
i though odegaard’s pressing was absolutely excellent. i don’t mean to bring back old dark memories, but the contrast between him and other players we’ve had in his position is immense. found it hard to find the killer pass tho
Was at the game first half odg was everywhere, second half disappeared
Incoming rant here, but after that game I just had to get it off my chest. Our recurring injury problems are driving me absolutely mad. It’s been like a running theme for the past year that as soon as we start talking about how strong our bench looks, we loose one player, then another, and another. So we go from “wow look at the players not even getting off the bench, we’re amazing!” to another fucking injury crisis in a the space of about a week. Insane that for the third time in a row, we’re facing the prospect of… Read more »
When i see the ffp cheats cruising to win after win without punishment or breaking sweat i wonder what the point of the whole thing is too. They’ll go unbeaten this year.
Chelsea are ffp cheats too and I’m loving that shitshow.
We have those players in the squad because we may need to actually use them. It’ll do ESR, Nelson and Havertz some good to get into a rhythm with more game time.
I’m also not expecting us to win the title this year. Consistency was a big part of it as was momentum. We lost Xhaka this summer who was a big part of that and finding our fluency could take half a season with the new midfield and keeper.
If you’re on the fence with ” whats the point”, then perhaps you should manage your expectations of supporting a football team who plays every three/four days in the most competitive competitions in the world.
Manchester City have a lot of injuries and Liverpool had injuries all last year….I will say though, I’m curious to know if training is causing these injuries? From what I hear, Arteta’s training is high intensity and I wonder with a loaded schedule, he might be pushing them too hard? Of course that’s pure speculation and it could just be bad luck
I went outside and took a walk for a bit… might be worth trying that out before commenting in the immediate aftermath of a match in future! Apologies if that comment all seemed a bit ‘end times’. I blame Gary Neville.
Injuries are bad at any time and yes any side with Partey, Rice, Martinelli, Timber and Trossard being unavailable has to be described as depleted. Chelsea currently have EIGHT of their first team squad injured. Man City have THREE (including Grealish and De Bruyne) Man Utd have SIX and you can add Antony and Sancho to those missing for disciplinary reasons. Spurs have SIX injured. Not sure why you think it’s only Arsenal whose trophy aspirations are affected by injuries? Our bench is not as deep as that of City but we don’t have the resources they have and even… Read more »
Jesus is a brilliant player but abysmal at finishing, Eddie is just not very good
no wonder pep let him go
There are times with him and Zinky when I think ‘No wonder Pep let him go’. Neither of them is ‘efficient’ (ie boring, soulless) enough for him. But I’d still rather watch us being passionate but sometimes fallible than the sterile dross Citeh serve up.
I’m not gonna criticize those deals when we go out and spend money on Raya and Havertz instead of upgrading on Eddie and finding a true replacement for Granit…that’s what pisses me off…
we need consistency. you can be an exciting player but still efficient and consistent.
(ZCD) Zinchenko can’t defend
jesus is technically brilliant but he’s just this weird hybrid of a midfielder / forward. his dribbling is elite but he isn’t clinical and he’d rather 1v1 defenders vs running in behind. eddie doesn’t have the footballing ability to represent a club trying to challenge for trophies. i would rather havertz or trossard at 9 than eddie.
Arteta looking to play Ramsdale as an inverted converted diverted striker for the next game !
A little low for Benny Blanco today Blogs ? I thought he was excellent yet again !
He was slow to react on Spurs 1st equaliser but yes, otherwise had a solid game
You have to remember…… Gary Nev is an annoying arsehole
Sub par performance from us. Tottenham played better than they have for quite a while and probably deserved a point to be fair. But they’re still filthy scum.
I wasn’t surprised tbh…they’ve been better than us since season started. Postecoglu is a decent coach, just annoyed he ended up there…
I will score as many premiere league goals as Havertz.
If Rice is injured then we are in major trouble. We have no cover. 200 million spent and our midfield is worse than last season. Partey and Rice are all we have. We look worse than last season. Disappointing.
Nketiah isn’t good enough.
If Saka and Martinelli are out for long it will be a scramble to make top 4.
Are you Cristian Romero?. Cos if you are we don’t think that’s very funny
Jorginho mistake was awful but I think he switched on. That was his first real involvement in the game since coming on at half and he seemed to not be ready for the pace of the game. But not excuses, you have to be ready and play safe when you are last man.
He was switched off*
Yeah went back to his usual self very quickly I thought (bar that moment he was dispossessed by Maddison again a bit later). Just a very high tempo game to be thrown into having played so little football. Would have no problem seeing him play that position over the next few games. But I’m keeping everything crossed that Rice is back for City.
i really like jorginho. but we all knew his weaknesses when he was at chelsea, and im sure he as well. it’s odd how players struggle to iron out obvious problems. you’d think with his experience he’d change his playstyle to avoid the same error, in his first involvement, in a derby, being the last man, just after taking the lead. i genuinely find it fascinating how an experienced player can commit such a childish mistake. fingers crossed he takes more extreme measures to ensure it never happens again, because he’s very useful in other moments of the game
I remember Aaron Ramsdale bullying Jorginho out of the game a few years ago. That must be like having your lunch money stolen by a transitioning cub scout
Generous to Jesus. Today he just had a sexier “he runs around a lot” kind of game, IMO, for which he gets loads of praise, and the miss was absolutely brutal—Eddie would’ve been crucified for it. (Pun unintended.)
Eddie doesn’t need to be cruciform missing a fantasy chance. He ain’t good enough. Open your eyes man.
Not saying Eddie would’ve made it, just saying that the starting striker for a title-challenging team should have
We’re not winning the title matey. No-one is going to catch City
Havertz – mr Invisible – and ineffective
Give the bloke a break
Agreed. OK he’s not really merited any of the starts he’s been given to date but he deserves better than just being treated as a lightning rod for criticism
Also Mr at high vages
I’m sure he’s doing his best.
Very poor performance.
We’re in the shit if these are all long term injuries.
Why didn’t Trossard start… or even make it off the bench? Has been banging goals and assists left, right, and centre. Felt like a strange one to me. Was he injured?
Yes he’s injured,
what do you think?
Yes, but not a head knock like yours
Jorginho, please just go away. As soon as possible thanks. I just cant stand him. Even more now when he is with us than when he was at Chelsea. For me he will always be a Chelsea player. As soon as i saw him and Harvetz coming on for Rice and Vieira…well. Ugh.
He made an error which is out of character for a player with his nous and experience and is not in keeping with his many excellent performances for Arsenal to date. Saka was badly at fault for Spurs first equaliser (and White to a lesser extent) so would you implore the club to sell them both? Get a clue
No i would keep Saka because he is a very good player. Hes one of ours too. For me, Jorginho is Chelsea through and through.
By ‘Chelsea through and through’ you mean a Champions League winner like Havertz? I can’t say I’m that keen on either of them to be honest but I’m not bigoted about it
0/10 for Arteta
Some really strange decisions today.
1. Raya ahead of Ramsdale who thrives in NLD like matches
2. Starting Jesus on wing when we have Nelson and ESR on the bench
3. Subbing Rice at half time
4. Subbing Jesus instead of Nketiah
5. Subbing Saka too late when he was clearly struggling. ESR hardly had anytime left to make a difference
A very frustrating night, hope we learn and change quickly.
At this point I think ESR would do better job at Striker position. At least he can carry the ball and pass.
Raya is just better than Ramsdale, when will you just let it go. Just go find their stats. Even today, Raya had 1,32 goals prevented, while Ramsdale in the first 4 games had –1,84.
GK stats mean shit – “mr distribution”?? Not today…
So does this mean that Ramsdale prevented more goals against us than Raya?
ESR needs to leave Arsenal in January.
If you are behind a “player” like Havertz you have no future at Arsenal.
It was ESR and Saka good form post Christmas that saved Arteta from the sack.
If ESR & Ramsdale don’t start in the Carabao match, they are leaving soon
If ESR is allowed to leave that will be a disgrace…
Saka was really poor for their goal but so was Ben White, he should have been out with Saka but he just sat in the 6 yard box marking nobody. 80% Saka fault for not getting goal side and 20% Ben White.
Have you confused White with Rice on that first goal?
Totally agree. Tottenham were all defending with intensity and speed. It’s what kept them in the game because we were better at creating for first 50 minutes. Saka got his positioning wrong defending and then effort but that is White’s side and he did not come out to reinforce. Very lazy of him. He stays engaged and I think we win from there. They never switched off defensively which made it difficult for us.
Eddy was not good today but was Jorghino better (according the rating) with 0.5????
0.5 is way more than Jorgino deserves for costing us the game.
I’d argue Eddie not squaring for Vieira was just as impactful as Jorginho giving the ball away
jorginho played well minus the mistake – eddie played terrible throughout
Yes, it was an isolated gaffe, but a player of his experience should know better. That was a schoolboy error from a 31 year old
Gaby out, Leo out, Timber out, Partey out and then Rice injured. Still thought we deserved the win more.
Nah, Spuds were good value for their point. They were brave and continued to play out from the back even after they almost got caught in possession a couple of times. Takes cojones to do that in the NLD
Fuck Gary Neville.
Sky has become Man U TV
Aint all media Pro Man U?
A bit disappointing, but a 2-2 draw with so many key injuries is a really good result. Especially when the mistake that cost us the win was made by a substitute’s substitute.
Very encouraging game overall.
No, it isn’t encouraging.
It was a shit result and a poor performance, and we are now four points behind Man City.
I am just sick of seeing Kai Havertz in an Arsenal shirt. Bastard.
Relax on havertz, he wasn’t the reason we lost. but it was a shit result and a poor performance from pretty much the whole team and management
A bit generous with some of your ratings, gutless performance
I’m tired of Eddie now, he’s horrible in big games and he never, ever looks for a team mate but rather blasts a shot straight at the keeper. He may be a nice lad and train like a bastard but he isn’t ever going to be good enough for a top club. It’s boring now.
+1
He’s definitely better than the main striker at 6, maybe 9 PL clubs. Bit he’s also earning 3 times as much as these guys. For a 2nd choice striker he’s probably 2nd best behind Alvarez (yes, I rate Eddie higher than Calum Wilson)
yea but city have haaland who is clinical and we have jesus who is great but not clinical. so we need to rely on our backup more than city. as such it’s not ideal having a backup striker who is not as good as city’s backup.
The difference between City and Arsenal is not a back up striker, it’s about 15 outfield players who wouldn’t even get in their reserve side.
I rate Jocky Wilson higher than Eddie
We are missing Xhaka in the middle..
Who would have thought he would become such a pivotal player for us!
Yes, a one paced immobile midfielder prone to calamitous errors and indiscipline is the missing ingredient
Arteta, Vieira, Niketiah, are they relatives or what?
Could/should have been 3 nil up before their equaliser. Second half was a non event offensively. Rice was desperately missed in the second half, fingers crossed he is not out for long. Desperately sorry for Rambo.
How do you mention a ‘mistake’ by Gabriel which obviously wasn’t but no mention of Ben white at fault for the first goal, he completely left saka out to dry.
So did Odegaard. Everyone seems to have missed that. He just stood in the line between the sp*d midfield and the attacking line by our box and didn’t even bother to cover a player or help Saka. That said, maybe he was tired after busting a lung trying to keep the pressing line high in Eddie’s position, because Eddie was busy for the entire game taking a light stroll and trying to get a red when he wasn’t.
Since no one wants to say it – Odegaard was really bad today. Very invisible and lost the ball a lot. The kind of performance that Haverts gets crucified for all the time.
He wasn’t bad, but I see what you mean and I agree. The expectation from Odegaard (and Saka) is just so much higher. We’re paying him to be outstanding, so an average performance is not good enough. We need him to make the difference in these games. Viera or ESR can take apart shit Teams like PSV too. And I know, no player can do it every game. But Cesc did it for most and so does Saka. I think Odegaard has the talent to do so as well.
The most obvious of his faults today was for the s*uds’ first goal. He was just standing there at the edge of the box between the chickens’ midfield and attacking line, neither trying to mark a player nor close Maddison down. As they say – no decision at all is worse than a bad decision.
I don’t know how you english tolerate Neville. I avoid any article or video that includes him. Just a turd
If only he was just passing through…
If Kai Havertz were a fictional character from a TV series he’d be Will Robinson from Lost in Space.
Eddie was poor, but he was not our most underperforming player today, Odegaard was. Especially with the new contract comes the expectation to lead and very often carry the team. But he had an off day and that affects the whole team. I think some of it is due to Jorginho having an absolute stinker, very much like his later Chelsea days. I’ll reserve judgement on Havertz for now, but he was as bad as the rest of the team.
No nketia was hopeless. Odegarrd made some passes to Arsenal players so that puts him above nketia
One is an attacking midfielder (and our highest paid player), who is supposed to get more than just some passes through. The other is our backup striker, whose game really isn’t about passing to teammates.
Eddie was poor, I don’t dispute that. But there were others (like Odegaard) who were so much further from their best.
Odegaard wasn’t that bad. Eddie had a shocker – Eddie is the one who looked really out of place today.
eddie looks really out of place at arsenal. i think he only excels at training.
Heavily disappointed.. Maybe we underestimated S*** and did some mistakes overall..
But on the plus side, I feel this will fire up the lads, show them where they stand (Eddie in particular).
It’s too early to be judgmental..We’ve got plenty of time to correct and progress..
COYG..
Gary Neville when Spurs celebrate 1-1: ‘you love to see that’.
When we celebrate 2-1: ‘the game is far from over they shouldn’t have done that’.
Make it make sense.
If looking for rotation, play Ramsdale up front lol
Seriously, today was an example that we do need a world-class striker who can finishthose half-chances.
It also feels that there is inconsistency in methodology, where no players position is safe and yet some are played regardless. Saka is a good example of double standards and he needs to be rested and dropped on occasion.
He definitely needs a rest now and then…
Nketiah’s pressing today, bar one or two good tackles, was way too lax, and Odegaard spent a lot of energy pressing where he should have had Nketiah following up but didn’t.
And ESR looked so much sharper than Havertz in the space of just a few mins. It’s obvious that based on merit and form Havertz would not get a look in over ESR atm. Just find this horrible man management when ESR is at a crucial stage of his career and his talent ceiling is probably at least on par with Havertz’s
💯
Agreed on Knetiah.
We were shit today.
It was an insult to ESR bringing him on with so few minutes left.
Ramsdale must be fuming watching his nemesis kicking the ball off the pitch repeatedly.
This is why goalkeeper distribution stats in particular are close to meaningless. Brentford were set up for the long ball from him, we are not.
When Raya has played like half a season at Arsenal then yeah maybe a stat comparison will hold some water
Gk stats are nonsense without context. Show me the data cut against the top 6 teams for instance…even then too many outfield variables make it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions.
We were short of a property striker from winning the league last season and looks like the same story this season.
One thing is for sure, as much as I like Jesus and Nketiah, we are not winning the league with either of them up front.
If the manager is ruthless about updating a very good goalkeeper, he should think very strongly about centre-forward too.
Exactly my thought, not only for Nketiah but for Jesus too. When you are good at everything except scoring goal, you should think seriously about training your finishing or being dropped.
I will choose Toney or Vlahovic over Nketiah all day of the week and maybe some days, over Jesus too.
Jesus gives us more as a link player than just goals
Sadly, I find myself beginning this season much as I ended the last… BRAINFARTS!! I’ve been taken to task on here for banging on about this but if Mik cannot sort out these random moments of laziness, sloppiness, wasteful finishing and switching off in midfield and defence…. it will cost us the title ! So often we look silkily beautiful on the ball… calm, dominant, controlled. Only for a few moments of brain-fart laziness to undo all that poetry in a matter of seconds. I truly believe this young team has more heart, more spirit and – in some areas… Read more »
Although I agree with some of this, no-one is catching City for the title, sloppy brainfarts or otherwise
I’m sorry but let’s stop willing it into existence. Eddie isn’t good enough to lead the line for Arsenal Football Club.
Been saying this even when he deputised so brilliantly for Jesus last season: He’s a championship player at best