Arsenal: Raya, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Jesus, Trossard
Subs: Ramsdale, Hein, White, Kiwior, Cedric, Smith Rowe, Partey, Jorginho, Vieira, Elneny, Nelson, Nketiah
It was a disappointing night for Arsenal who suffered their first defeat of the season after losing 2-1 to Lens, despite an early goal from Gabriel Jesus.
Mikel Arteta made two changes to the side that beat Bournemouth on Saturday, with Takehiro Tomiyasu and Leandro Trossard coming in to replace Ben White and Eddie Nketiah.
Backed by an electric atmosphere at Estadio Bollaert-Delelis, Lens started brightly and fashioned two half-chances with Kevin Danso and Adrien Thomasson both firing wide from close range.
But Arsenal were ahead after just 14 minutes when Bukayo Saka pounced on a misplaced pass from Thomasson, before finding Gabriel Jesus who took two touches and fired expertly past Brice Samba. 1-0.
The Gunners almost doubled their lead moments later when Kai Havertz saw his side-footed volley well saved by Samba, only for Lens to pounce on a mistake themselves – this time from David Raya who surrendered possession far too casually – and equalise through Thomasson. 1-1.
There was more bad news for Arsenal when Saka was forced off through injury after signalling to the bench with 33 minutes played, which will leave Arteta sweating ahead of Manchester City’s visit to Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Despite having 69% possession during the first half, the visitors struggled to create clear-cut opportunities with just three shots to Lens’ six who did look threatening on the break.
Just minutes into the second half, the Gunners were close to restoring their lead when Leandro Trossard did brilliantly to cut inside Jonathan Gradit and fire at goal, only for Samba to save his low strike when it looked destined for the bottom corner.
That early chance couldn’t inspire Arsenal, however, and it was Lens who went closest to scoring when more sloppiness in possession was almost punished by Salis Abdul Samed who fired into the side netting with Gabriel caught out of position.
Samba was called into action again to save from Tomiyasu but it was Lens who eventually took the lead, when Przemysław Frankowski capitalised on some poor Oleksandr Zinchenko defending to find Elye Wahi, whose first-time finish curled past Raya and into the corner. 2-1.
There were still 20 minutes to play when Wahi scored but Arsenal were slow and ponderous in possession – a consistent theme all evening – and could not break down Lens’ five-man defence who were compact throughout.
The Gunners were close to salvaging a point late on when Reiss Nelson found himself free in the box after good work from Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah, only to be denied by incredible last-ditch defending from Gradit who stopped a certain goal.
Lens defended manfully to deter more late scrambles and secured three points which their performance deserved, while Arsenal and Arteta head back to the drawing board ahead of Manchester City on Sunday.
That was quick
You spelt “shit” wrong.
Close to £200m spent in the summer and every game is a struggle. It honestly feels we have gone backwards this season instead of improving and Arteta is still relying on individual brilliance rather than on his own vision and creativity
Bournemouth and PSV weren’t struggles, but I get your point.
I think Arteta has just introduced a new system this season that will take a little time to settle into, we must be patient. I also think the injury to Timber was a big blow in that regard as I think he would’ve been an intrinsic part of this new system.
Both of those teams were stupidly open and got duly punished. Every other team has played sensibly and we’ve looked toothless. But hey-ho, “control”.
Lens were very open in the first half, but we couldn’t execute the kill and paid for it . Then they played a really solid block.
When Arsenal players refuse to pass the ball quicker, and instead opt for running with it slowly diagonally before passing it back to the center backs, you know something is not right. We didn’t conserve energy, rest players, but still played badly and lost.
So the reason why we struggle against teams that sit in a low block press against us is due to this reason. They way you beat or exploit those teams is by getting the ball wide quickly, so the only way they can adapt is by shifting both their blocks either side, which will create imbalances and spaces for our more dangerous players to invert into. Meaning three main scenarios tend to play out, either our tricky wide players (Saka & Martinelli) invert, and then we hurt them centrally by getting shots off or combining with our technical midfielders; or… Read more »
Can’t wait for you to manages us!
In fairness I do have two UEFA coaching licenses.
Saliba last season, Timber this season, excuses, excuses, excuses……
Reasons?
But it’s true
Elephant in the room here. Playing a defensive midfielder as a second striker. It’s astounding how negative Kai is in creating anything on offense. His passes are slow, and always to the easiest option, he drives past no one and well at least he has a shot on target now. He just adds nothing dynamic, I’d argue he’s a negative on offense. But without doubt he is good defensively. It’s a weird dynamic.
Our we going to start discussing Raya? That’s two errors leading to goals in two Consecutive games
You introduce new systems when your old system doesn’t work. Our old system did work, it just need more quality players.
I hate to give that lot any credit but All Ferguson did at Man Utd every year is add 1 or 2 quality players and keep playing the same way. It worked.
That was the 90’s. but I get your point, inverted Partey at RB drove me mad at the start of the season.
This. Absolutely baffled as to why Arteta thinks he needs to change the system. Last year until April we were sensational at everything. Defending and attacking. Depth is all that was needed. We are so less direct this year due to his obsession with ‘control’ but it’s not giving teams less chances against us so I don’t see the point. If anything we look more open to counters than last year.
The loss of Xhaka in the heart of things,
was always going to make the early part of the season difficult.
We have only played “well” and won convincingly twice this season. I’m getting a little worried now. Another game where Havertz was a non factor and we looked clueless in the final third 🙁
Knee-jerk, spur-of-the-moment, poorly-thought-through reaction.
There are people (including managers) who just keep making the same mistake to prove they are right. Seems we have got one.
For clarity, I mean playing Saka, Havertz, and Raya tonight.
This is my biggest gripe with Arteta. It seems to me like he is more concerned with his “vision” than with actual results. Like he believes he understands football at a higher level than everyone else.
We can criticise him, and question his choices and as “fans” we have the right to feel frustrated when such choices don’t work out and he stubbornly perseveres with them, but he does understand football at higher level than us, and there are very few who may have a better understanding of football than him, but they don’t have the day to day running of arsenal team and therefore lack specific knowledge/ data about our players necessary to make better decisions.
Turn it in FFS.
Worst performance in quite a long time actually, worryingly toothless
So wasteful. The changes just made us less effective; nothing direct off the bench – no variety. Cruisy evening for Lens. Had a very complacent vibe from Arsenal. Really poor…and like you say, when we had to chase it, we looked toothless.
And what is with hijacking my name?
I got the d……wait a minute
Bad substitutions today from Mikel. Wingers consisting of Trossard and Vieira is just too much passing sideways and no penetration.
You can’t say that of Trossard. He had a bad game but penetration is the core of his game.
The combination of sub options weren’t great. We ultimately need a better backup for Saka.
All gums.
Just weren’t at the races at all today. Didn’t create much and, when we did, we fumbled the finish. Very sloppy in defence; just couldn’t deal with their high press at all. Honestly it didn’t look like the team had any belief that they were going to score.
Serious introspection needed between now and Sunday, because City will punish us a lot harder than Lens did.
Slow, predictable, painful to watch. Shouldn’t have started Saka. Credit to their fans, it was a great atmosphere.
Shouldve taken Saka out the second we went up 3-0 v. Bournemouth
Let’s make it the minute
I think this is turning out to be similar to what AW did with Wilshire. I hope the end results aren’t same! #smh
I think also some credit has to go to them for being well organized and taking their chances.
If you really are ‘Morrisey fan #1’ you would know how to spell Morrissey.
You got me, more of a fan of the Smyths.
Yeah, I think sometimes you lose because the opposition really plays out of their skin, and for all the criticism of our gameplay, I thought their fans and multiple players and stunning games – especially that sataoka or whats his name. And that being said, if we’re going to lose at any point, I wouldn’t mind it being in an away group stage game.
Ramsdale Sunday please. If there are two goalkeepers to provide competition and drive standards higher one can’t expect to retain their place after sloppiness like that.
Yes, no reason not to play Ramsdale at the weekend. Is Raya really all that? He tried a lot of risky passing and maybe that’s what Arteta wants, but he misplaces a lot of them too. Hard to say he’s been better than Ramsdale over the last few games.
Tbh arteta invited undue pressure on himself with some decision making…the amount of headache and media attention he gave himself on Ray-a-msdale-gate is not worth it.
He’s a stubborn dude..
He’s lucky we love him.
My observation as well. Created completely unnecessary drama. There is absolutely no benefit to having Raya over Aaron. Arteta just seems to be a control freak who wants everything to be exactly as he wants. Something is even slightly off, then it needs to go.
Complete opposite of Wenger who took imperfect players and transformed them into world-class. Instead, Arteta addresses everything through spending hundreds of millions. No player development whatsoever
Vieira as a right winger is a criminal offence.
Cant see anyone in the team covering them self in glory this night. Poor performance allround.
Rice
Agreed, only positive performance.
Tomi too, surely!
I think ESR made an impact when he came on and was direct, definitely did more than that donkey did in his last 9 games for us or whatever he’s played. ESR has to be, if not starting, coming on way earlier in games like this
Esr did more than Harvetz on that short time. Like it or not, it’s true
ESR should be ahead of Havertz at this point. Why he isn’t given an opportunity to start a PL game to see what he can do is poor squad management and rotation. He has a big squad but is managing it like a small squad. This loss is on the manager. You pick the players and subs with one thing in mind, winning the game. Fabio is not a PL wide player. Also, look at his defending on the last goal. Shambolic.
I thought Rice was the best player on the pitch
I thought if both Rice and Tomiyasu continued tracking back and did not have a pit stop to watch what would Wahi do do do next, ..they would be well in position to intercept the pass by Wahi or at least hurry/make the shot difficult for Thomason…As it happened both failed to spot the danger posed by Thomason…and he had a free run when he received the ball from Wahi.. The second goal it was Rice behind Wahi and Saliba in front of him and one or both of them fail to track/spot his run…Not sure who is exactly at… Read more »
Dude can’t run. Even ESR is better physically and can carry the ball.
ESR deserves a start, has looker dangerous every time he’s come on. Vieira has done his best work for us so far on the left
He’s officially a CM now. Never mind that none of his qualities are suited to that role. But then, I can’t see a single player in the squad who is suited to the left 8 role. We bought a #10/false 9 to play there, for some reason.
Rice is great at it but for that Partey needs to be fit and play the 6. Vieira and ESR seem like they could be good at it but they’re not getting even a quarter of the opportunities to acclimated to it as Havertz is. I be at least one of them comes good if given 3 starts in a row in that position
I wouldn’t say great at it, but I think he’s more suited to it than the other options. To me, he’s not a good enough footballer to be an upgrade on Xhaka in that position, and he’s also very good at DM.
I want to see an actual box-to-box midfielder in that role. Unfortunately we don’t have one, and didn’t feel the need to sign one.
Indeed. It’s so obvious he needs to be more central.
This is the thing that gets me pissed the most. He has been used there REPEATEDLY and it is clear it is not a strong point for him, why persist with him?
We all thought Reiss was Saka’s back up, so why is there a reluctance to bring him on even in games when Saka needs to be taken off? Why was he given a new contract if he is not trusted to do a job? There’s so many questions that are begging to be answered!
Arteta likes everything inverted and I think he’s a bit too obsessed with it, to the point of sometimes not considering other qualities a player offers in a position. Vieira is the most two footed (i.e. closest thing to left footed) of our right footed midfielders so Arteta stuck him there, nevermind that ESR’s qualities (acceleration, directness, dribbling) are much more suited to the wing.
Nelson has been played on the left as a sub so far
Ngl I agree. He did nothing but also he was played totally out if position. You have to play to his strengths. The lack of pace when we don’t have Martinelli or Saka shows why we were going for a player like Mudryk. Reiss is our only other pacey, technical option. We need more incision in our plan B because today showed how little we have beyond our first 11. Saka probably needs to be rested on the weekend although I doubt Arteta will do it. Insane he still got a goal contribution today. Disappointed how many individual errors have… Read more »
Agreed, should have been Nelson
Arteta needs to utilise his ‘squad depth’ he keeps going on about. Honestly, losing Saka for the game against City is worse than this defeat.
Terrible man-management.
I hope it was precautionary withdrawal , but shouldn’t have started
It wasn’t precautionary unfortunately, he was very obviously limping and couldn’t go on
Some of his decisions are honestly weird — like picking the same player who limped off in the last two games, and freezing one of the best goalie in the league to look smart. I thought Raya was poor tonight and against Spurs and every time he is picked puts pressure on him and on Ramsdale too.
I keep going on about it but I still really don’t get the ESR freeze either. Trossard is a great player but he’ll be 30 next year. ESR before his injury was comparable with Saka in terms of ability. He changed the course of a season and of individual games, he’s a goal threat and what’s more he’s a gooner. Fabio Vieira has jumped ahead of him, he can’t get a game where Havertz now plays. Odegaard is never rested. He has already shown he has the confidence to play in the Premier League. I can only think the Arteta… Read more »
ESR essentially had a year out. If he is good enough he will get his place back. This all reminds me of when people were saying Arteta was crazy because he wasn’t playing Martienlli every single game. Over time Martinelli showed his value and is now a starter.
Spot on
What will add insult to injury is him continuing with Raya against Man City. Bring back Ramsdale FFS!
3 things:
-Can we move the ball any slower?
-Why play Saka it when clearly he wasn’t fit?
-is this how we expect to beat City?!
I know he scored a penalty Saturday and a lot of fickle fans lauded him (the same ones who would have slaughtered him if he missed it) but jeez everything havertz does is so slow. Even his passes are slow.
Havertz in particular is SO quick to pass back. I kept joking that any break or forward momentum had to go back through the CBs first and it actually happened every time.
Another terrible European performance under Arteta. So lethargic in how we played, too easy to defend against and then even easier to get to counter against us. 1-0 up and we should have grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, instead we just slow the game right down and allow Lens back into it with poor play. Finally, the decision to play Saka was just ridiculous. Why risk him tonight with City next?
That was terrible. I do hope Rambo is back against City. I don’t see anything that’s better with Raya, rather the opposite, but I might be missing something.
I don’t think it was choice of keeper that did for us tonight, it was the inability to make quick movements up front. Teams are wise to our go wide, pull back routine and prevent it at source.
Ironically, we are now getting done almost weekly with that same move as our lack of orthodox full backs is getting targeted by opposition managers.
I’m lost. What is it that Raya can do that Aaron Ramsdale can’t?
Distribution apparently. 🫥
I’ve got a muck spreader that statistically is a better distributor than Ramsdale ! Yet it’s still a shit show distributing shit statistically speaking ! Emperor’s New Clothes with Mr Raya I’d say ? Good but certainly not an upgrade in Ramsdale !
the issue is he hasn’t even been challenged that much in the games he’s played and has already made two errors which lead to goals, which is also odd!
Get in good books of Arteta maybe.
And guess who’s also in that list? Fabio and Kai.
He’s very good in games he barely has to do anything you know. The stats prove it!
Nobody does nothing like Raya does
Speak Spanish and have a well manicured beard
maybe we should try to stay awake for more than 30 min?
Reality check everyone. We’re not that good.
Been poor ALL season. And I can’t even really figure out where it has all gone wrong. Is the left 8? Or is it because Rice is not as good at build up as Partey? Or is it a combination of both? I am scratching my head trying to understand why we seemed to have regressed.
I think people really underestimate just how good Parte was the first 2/3 of last season. Him at DM with Rice left 8 and I think this team starts to click again
Let’s hope MA plays TP5 as DM And not RB
Big jolt of reality. Players were having a kick in the park at 1-0 up and the game quickly turned. Raya culpable for the first, and Zinny for the second. Saka injured is the cherry on top. I’d rather start Havertz up top, Jesus on the right and Trossard left vs City. Play ESR as an 8. Ramsdale in goal? Arteta has big decisions to make. He fumbled it tonight, needs to have a masterclass on Sunday.
No way Arteta gives ESR a start ahead of Fabio. He should but he won’t.
Zink has been poor all season so far.
Jesus up top 100%. Havertz either on the right or ideally on the bench. I like him but he’s not cutting the mustard right now and someone else deserves a chance.
Reiss and Emile need more minutes, thought they added something when they came on,
I will say it Raya is a waste of money no better than Ramsdale his fabled passing is nothing but a myth. The first goal was 100% his mistake, he has conceded 6 goals now. Arteta team selection subs absolutely uninspiring, we really should have changed the team at the 60min mark.
Viera did absolutely nothing.
Agreed, but a lot of players were anonymous
Apart from losing the ball and standing like a statue. Even Havertz performed something.
True. He did lay the ball back to his teammates a few times.
If we’d kept Xhaka and bought competition for Saka instead we’d be a much better team.
Xhaka wanted to leave
No, Xhaka wanted a long-term contract
Slow boring football, played for a draw and deservedly lost. Like watching last season europa league games. Arteta is going to be another euro dud like Wenger but we’ve always been a shit club in Europe, 2 trophies is a disgrace for a club our size
It’s like in terms of our mentality we don’t really care about our European performances, but at the same time we also play our strongest xi and wear them out physically. Worst of both worlds
arteta said recently that we attack too fast. he knows better, but i think we attack too slow. it was so boring i just wanted the match to end. a million passes and not one with the courage to set up a teammate for a goal. there was always a player making a run off the ball to the opponent’s third but we just kept passing it back to our cbs. if we’re gonna play like this i rather not watch the match at all, even if we end up winning
Poor defending and wasteful in offense. Borh goals should easily be avoided, oldest trick in the book to make a run and then stop at penalty kick area. Move your heads and talk together. I want Aston in goal against Cith
You’ll never convince me that Raya is better than Ramsdale.
For Ramsdale to not even get CL games is a massive mistake from Arteta IMO.
How many mistakes is Raya allowed before the roles reverse?
i thought everyone on here said the french league was the farmers league and it’s not impressive that balogun scored 20+ goals there and nketiah would score 30 goals in the french league. we lost a french team that got promoted last season.
And that same team managed to get a Champions League qualification in a season. Give them some credit.
They got promoted 3 years ago, finished 7th twice and then 2nd last year but we shouldn’t look so toothless against anyone, really. Didn’t feel like we tried like we should have.
No, not everyone here said that, actually nothing you said in that comment is true “batmanvanpersie”
Yo the announcer in the game said they got promoted last season, but that’s besides the point. A lot of people on here did say the French league is the farmers league and said Nketiah would score 30 goals in the French league because he score because he scored 4 goals in the premier league last season. Lens right now is 15th or something in that league (don’t quote me, I’m not fact checking everything on google). I thought lens defended really well. Other than the goal Jesus got bullied by their CB and their press was intense.
Yes they are very good, finished within a point of 1st place PSG last season who have 5 times the budget of Arsenal, so whoever said those things you mention isn’t someone you should listen to (and im sure it wasnt more than a couple of ignorant loudmouths). Calling it a farmer’s league is ridiculous. We should still beat them, but they’re not some Championship level fodder.
Yup..Agree with you on Jesus…He was kept quiet by Danso almost all match after the goal I think ( BTW is it the same the Danso at Ralph H. Southampton 2 or 3 seasons ago?)….
We have such a mental block in Europe it’s not even funny. Arteta’s got his work cut out on that score, don’t know how you affect the culture so dramatically.
I guess this makes Lens a bogey team of ours, up there with Bayern, Barcelona and Olympiakos.
Thank god for PSV nicking a draw, but this will still probably go all the way to match day 6 for us, a pity.
Oh, and let’s all laugh at Man Utd (just not so much that they sack the coach yet).
We have to look at the positives and to be fair the lads assumed it was gonna be another easy win when Jesus scored. This was a good lesson learned for our lads and relatively unharmful.
Let’s play them at home and smash them.
The ref really liked watching them hitting us btw…
Utterly, utterly, utterly shit. From front to back. Rice was the only one. We deservedly lost to a mid table french team with championship players. Embarrasing. Nobody fucking moved, Arteta made every bad decision imaginable and from one to eleven we were abject. Please can we go back to playing like last season and stop this slow ponderous bullshit immediately? If I see another player step on the ball and throw their hands in the air I will lose my mind. I’d rather finish second and have fun then finish fifth and watch 90 minutes of this ‘control’ dross twice… Read more »
Why do we stop playing after we score the first goal? A recurring theme this season. Disappointing evening..
Playing saka was utter stupidity
Arteta seems to believe Saka’s legs are made of magic and aren’t subject to the usual laws of physics. Which is understandable on a gut level but when you’re in a position of power you’ve got to be objective
Maybe he watched Gunner Blogs most recent YouTube video!
Lens are 15th in Ligue 1. Are we the farmers?
Sorry, why is raya still starting games when:
A- arteta said we will be rotating
B- the only few times he been really tested, he’s come short.
C- I’m not seeing how his distribution is any better than ramsdale
I’m sick of the fucking agendas. Why is Kai starting when ESR comes in and has more impact in like 10 min then that donkey does in a whole game? I didn’t want to get on Kais back but this playing favorites thing from arteta is starting to piss me off
A terrible Arsenal performance that got what it deserved. Poor game management: at 1-0 up we needed to hold onto the ball and calm things down; instead, we pushed it too hard and then gave away a sloppy goal courtesy of a keeper who’s supposed to be better than Ramsdale. Then we completely lost control of the match. We were dreadful going forward and sloppy at the back, and we never matched Lens for energy. And Havertz plumbed the absolute depths of his uselessness. I don’t want to see him on Sunday: enough is enough. Well done, Arteta, for breaking… Read more »
Our attack is rubbish without Martinelli and Saka or maybe Lens defended well but that was horrible from us. I remember some fans saying they wanted stronger opponents in the UCL group stage. Laughs, We can’t even beat Lens.
We definitely lack depth on the wings.
How do you know we are rubbish without saka and Martinelli,with this ?we have never started the front three of , Trossard ,Eddie , jesus , never happened before in any game , so we don’t know, I think their all great players with a wide range of skills sets and all of them are fast and all score goals and have a point to prove
Fire away at me for saying we’re not that good when we’ve got 17 points from 21 in the league and one point behind the leader. But I’m saying it, we’re not that good. The narrative I hear too often this year that “this year we’ve learned how to win even when not at our best” is just something to say. The reality is with the exception of the PSV game we have simply not been very good, and I won’t be shocked at all by a heavy defeat this Sunday.
It helped that PSV were massively naive in how they approached the game.
Back to earth with a deafening thud!
Now watch us beat Man City on Sunday.
This one is on arteta big time.. thank God partey is back ..enough of these stupid selections. We spent money to have a large squad with different varieties not to keep choosing favourites. Smith Rowe brings more to this team than havertz .. it’s clear even to a one eyed man .. enough of these stupid favoritism shit. And why the fvck is ramsdale not in goal today? What the fvck is going on? Is the EPL keeper of the season now relegated to efl cup games now? Raya is clearly not better than under pressure than Ramsdale.. he’s just… Read more »
I thought the subs meant to say, I know the game is gone, I’m resting my starters for citeh
If Partey’s back on Sunday, who says it’ll be in a CM position?
Amazing goals but their first was surely handball in the build up???
This game proved Martinelli is our best player we wont beat city without Martinelli
Turgid, passive, over-thought nonsense. Arteta seems determined to destroy Saka’s career by playing him for 70 games a season… man’s going to be in a wheelchair by the time he’s 26. Surely the Raya and Havertz experiments also need to be shelved now and we go back to the system that got us second place last year playing some beautiful football. Weird times
To think some fans including myself thought this would be a walk in the park…. We scored first then didn’t create enough chances…
Hope the lads will recover on time for the manc clash. The boys just have to put in more effort against manc..
Saka and Martinelli injury would be a big miss but Arteta need to start trusting his other players.
Congrats Lens. Welldone
We didn’t create anything for whole game. First hand also came out of our pressing than passing. And to thing we had Odegaard, Vieira and Zinchenko on the pitch at the same time
Terrible, yes; avoidable, yes. BUT…I’d rather play and lose like this in a CL group game than in the PL or CL knock outs. In other words, we should still qualify from this group.
This is a Europa League group and we’re making a right mess of it.
Arteta exposed everything City needs before the game with them. Risking Saka is beyond any reasonable brain on earth. Leaving Havertz on the field – the same. Not throwing Nelson for Saka, but opting for Vieira on the wing – the same. Arteta literally shot his leg. Instead of an away win and high spirits going into the game with City we’ll play that game indisponed and without Saka, most probably. As for Havertz… You don’t experiment with a player who is off any form by playing him constantly (that costs points). Sweat him up on trainings to find his… Read more »
Kai havertz offers us nothing man.. and for all the useless talks of ruthlessness.. for the life of me I don’t understand why he starts over a player like smith Rowe who clearly brings business. Ramsdale is also being treated like shiit over the stupid ruthlessness excuse.. arteta is just making excuses to play his favorites… And enough of the fvcking shit already.
Annoyed but if we beat city on Sunday all is forgiven.
If we had to choose which game to lose this was the right one, but we should’ve done it with more intention, rotation resting and more rotations
Yep, that Raya thing is definitely working out.
Pathetic.
Yep, the Havertz experiment is working a treat. Keep it up boss.
*sigh*
Just think where we could be if that money on Havertz was spent on a striker.
Which striker?
It’s not my job to know that. There are people in our club paid millions to find that player. & most £60M actual strikers will better than Havertz who is almost a zero goal threat.
Mitrovic , just to put a name out there,
Our coach is just stubborn.
Kinda wengeresque later years stubbornness and inability to accept the obvious.
Luckily we love him and his perfectly styled hair.
But this pattern of overcomplicating the obvious to pretend ingenuity is sadly a bad bum sore.
Why did he risk Saka with only three days before city game, beggars belief
We play on Sunday
An awkward game, with some awful ref decisions favouring the home side. Saka has finally succeeded to being constantly kicked up in the air – that he’s survived up until now is a minor miracle. The officiating in the game is absolute dog shit at the moment and I for one am convinced that brown paper bag money is changing hands. So, a disappointing result, but when you look at it from the perspective that we’ve got three from a possible six, with another twelve to play for, then all is far from lost. Of course, the media (and sadly,… Read more »
Unacceptable performance for me.
Every Lens player was at the required level of intensity, concentration and application. I’m not sure we had more than 3 players bringing it like that.
Mostly they looked like they either thought they could stroll it or they were saving their best for Sunday.
CL is no joke and we need to smarten up!