Arsenal failed to make up ground on leaders Liverpool after another frustrating draw, held 0-0 at home by Everton.
There were some chances, particularly in the first half, but we weren’t clinical enough – nor did we turn possession and dominance into clear cut opportunities. We struggled to break down Everton’s low block, the substitutions made an already poor performance even worse, and ultimately we didn’t do enough to take all three points.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Arsenal 0-0 Everton match report and see the goals here
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When your wife is in a coma and you’re so desperate for her to lift a finger or make any movement at all and she just never does. That’s what this feels like.
That’s oddly specific… I’m… sorry?
When an armadillo poops on your purple shoelaces and you can’t seem to get the stain off regardless of how much Vanish you spray on top of it on a mostly cloudy day with 11.4°C and 68% humidity.
No need to deny, we need reinforcement on our attacking end.
Who fancies a bash at the Champions’ League instead, then?
No chance in the champions League, again lack of attacking ability will scupper us. Concentrate on the 2 domestic cups, Arteta needs some silverware this season
Unfortunately I think most teams will watch that and go “hhmm”.
Once again Dyche writes the manual for how to nullify arsenal.
The manual was written over 20 years ago. It’s been standard procedure for less capable teams playing the Arsenal for as long as I can remember. Most teams thankfully can’t keep it up for 90+ minutes.
In a cruel twist of fate it feels like we’re being coached by Dyche right now…
We might have a better shot because higher quality teams aren’t going to sit so deep and we’ll get a bit more from open play… though we are quite slow on the counter compared to the best (Liverpool, RM, etc).
Our counter attacks are non-existent. The players are so scared of losing the ball it takes forever for the ball to go forward.
That is just fantasy football!
This manager has peaked here. The sooner fans and more importantly the ownership realise this the better. It’ll save everyone a lot of time and trouble in the long run.
You have a few years yet to learn the trade Jackie W 🤣
You’ll be a joy to all around you at Christmas I bet.
Because drawing to Everton at home and fucking up the third “title challenge” in a row is so joyous eh?
Why did we get rid of Wenger in that case?
What utter bollox
So who do we hire?
Jack’s got some good ideas, but the fat man gets my vote. He’s been telling you all we need two forwards for a couple of years and all he got were downvotes and abuse. Fatgooner for President.
DOOMED….we’re all DOOOMED!
What does that Merino fella do? Feel bad for Martinelli, it’s getting hard to watch.
I am sorry but i am tired of hearing that Martinelli is being affected by other players performances, its the boggest copout. I watched Saka skin 3 players today on his own, whilst Martinelli just jig-feints jig-feints, he’s useless.
I can remember the hate Walcott used to get on here, is this guy any better?
Walcott was generally more dangerous than Martinelli tbh
Didn’t Walcott score 100 goals for Arsenal in all competitions. An underrated player who was much sharper in front of goal than Martinelli
Great servant in the end, but Theo came with massive, massive frustrations of his own. Sharp in front of goal is not a trait of Walcott.
Walcott was an excellent player in specific game states (prime Barcelona saw him as a real threat on the counter) but was always crap against a deep block. Martinelli is very similar. He should be playing every away game in the CL / vs Top 6 teams, but a we should have a proper alternative for games like today.
Exactly.
Walcott is the 16th best goalscorer in Arsenal’s history and Martinelli’s numbers are almost the same on a pro-rata basis.
We all know we badly need a new forward. Honestly feels like the mistake was letting Nketiah go not Smith Rowe. Sometimes we just need a guy who’s focus is goals
Eddie Nketiah? The guy who’s scored *checks notes* 0 goals in 10 matches for Crystal Palace? If that’s him focusing on goals then no thanks.
He used to be, but now no longer, while tactics may have something to do with Martinelli, it is quite clear that he has regressed as a player
Theo different gravy to Martinelli. Better finisher, smarter player and he tracked back. Tracking back seems to be Martinelli’s superpower according to his Accolytes on here. 200k plus a week for effort.
a month ago everyone agreed he was our best finisher. now everyone agrees he’s useless. it must be tiring being so clueless. martinelli has been crap for more than a year.
Slow, stubborn, boring, unimaginative, and over-coached. This team is capable of alot more, the tactics are awful, our style is the possession equivalence of 11 men behind the ball, we have no balance between possession, wing play, and transitions. So much focus on control yet cannot score. Hard to believe a few seasons ago we were scoring goals at will with a beautiful fluid system and we changed it for this? I think we tolerated MA’s galaxy brain while we were chasing the title but now that we are basically out, he needs to go or have an epiphany and… Read more »
I don’t think he needs to go, that seems a tad reactionary. But each to their own.
I haven’t been a fan of MA for a couple seasons. I liked his disciplinary mindset when he came in because that’s what the club desperately needed with characters like Aubameyang but that same mindset is now a liability. There’s also too much praise for Pep and an almost obsession with him and replicating him. I think he’s done a fantastic job to this point but we need a manager with a better tactical sense to fully unlock this team.
Since you are apparently such a tactical expert and have it all figured out, maybe you should throw your hat in the ring for the job.
“Since you don’t like the way the country is being run, maybe you should throw your hat in the ring for the job of Prime Minister.”
That comment really proved his tactical ideas wrong. Well played.
You’re onto something… Arteta’s tactics are basically park the bus, but keep* the ball
*Unless you’re in front or a man down
Declan Rice needed Kobbie Mainoo in the England midfield to give that midfield some fluidity. How the hell are Arsenal fans not seeing that he cannot play the role we want him to play for a title winning team. Can do it for West Ham, it will not work for Arsenal. We need midfielders that play the risky passes not midfielders that play it safe.
His flaws are much exposed when playing with merino or when the ball needs to be moved faster. With better passers like jorginho/partey, those flaws clearly mitigated. I think for now it will make sense to rotate him with merino. Not play them together. The deeper role should also be rotated between Partey and Jorginho. Those two though slower. Those two though slower physically due to age and injuries tend to release the ball much faster than rice who needs more than one touch before releasing the ball. His(rice) work off the ball is second to none though.
I think the issue is he thinks he can out-tactic himself from a recruitment issue. Guardiola did that for ages then he just bought the best available #9 and won the treble.
The way to solve a stagnant attack is to buy a high-quality attacker every 18 months then play the most in-form 3 every game. Martinelli still has talent and Trossard has proven he can make an impact, but both should currently be sat behind whoever we identified as the next-best option after Nico Williams last summer waiting for their chance to to come back into form.
I agree but I’ll go one further. And I’ll get downvoted to hell and back but who cares. Kai Havertz in the team means we’ll never win the league. He was bought to play left 8 and replace Granit. He was not up to Granit’s level and we moved him to lead the line. He’s marginally better in that role but he is not the talisman goal scoring threat we need in that position. In my opinion, he is a spare part not really giving us what we really need at #9 or left #8. We came off a brilliant… Read more »
Pep had Aguero and then Haaland. We don’t have anything slightly resembling either of those two.
Yes that’s who I’m talking about. My point is Guardiola spent years trying to work out how to Tactic his way to the Champions League, then just went and bought Haaland
Unfortunately true. We don’t see the quick movement of the ball or 1-2s between players and dribbles in the box (just touches) anymore. More often than not, players are just standing over the ball looking for training ground passes to make and when they don’t get it, they just pass it sideways.
The principle of attack with 11 and defend with 11 means we don’t attack faster or counter attack, we keep the ball, waiting for our players to get in formation, which allows the opposition also to get in formation. Boring stuff really!
I didn’t see a 0 button on the ratings so I went for 0.5. But for me it’s 0 for everyone today and a minus for the coach.
By a fucking striker. It’s not as easy as that but the hole fucking “one player away” is the Arsenal anthem. Wengers last 10 years it was a defensive midfielder and with Arteta it is a striker. It’s just nuts.
Nope, this narrative of us being one player away from title at present is far fetched. How many chances did our strikers even get today? How clear cut chances did we create in the box? Even if you have an elite striker, with the kind of chances our midfield and forwards create at the current sterile pace, it will get snuffed out more often than not.
But our stickers aren’t generally in the strike area. Havertz pulls wide/deep; Jesus was actually in his own half when we attacked; Gabi M pulls every ball sideways into the traffic. I’m not sure so far what Merino is good at, certainly not through balls or getting in box.
Just so frustrating to see backs moving forward only to then play inside/backwards. This crab football is annoying.
Unfortunately, we just don’t have the attack. Need an upgrade on martinelli and trossard. Not their fault we drew. Everyone was below par. But odegaard had an off day, yet we were worse when he went off. I think that says a lot about the rest of our attack. Plus, we take forever to move the ball. Forever to take a throw in. And forever to take a corner. We need a player like rosicky whose first touch is always forward.
Across the pitch we are very good except our left wingers and our attacking subs.
The hate on Martinelli is crazy bad. He put in a shift today and put the ball on Havertz’s head. If anyone is to blame for the draw it’s Ødegaard missing two chances… again!
All 3 of them awful.
What hate please? Martinelli has been playing poorly, he needs to play at Saka level, we all love him and want him to succeed, but he’s been playing badly. Trossard came on late in the second half and did better than him. He should play his football with freedom and enjoyment, he is too one dimensional.
Is he though? Or is he just curtailed by the system and role he is asked to play?
Trossard playing in the same system. The system didn’t say he shouldn’t beat his man one v one, the system didn’t say he apply common sense, do the basic things, cut-inside and shoot.
I guess the pressure is off to win the title now, so this team will probably start performing.
Once a coach has labelled his player (a 3 time olympic champion) a killer pimp with an appearance of an angel.
I think the requisite amount of shithousery, ego, killer instinct, and unconditional willingnes of winning is crowded together mainly in our defensive block…
6/10 – defenders on the pitch at home against a relegation bound team
Could’ve been out worst performance of the season. Felt like a pre-season friendly, Everton didn’t want to concede and we didn’t want to score. The only issue is that the league leaders dropped points and this was our chance to capitalize. This side is really crying out for a striker who can be a difference maker, but instead we got Merino this summer. Have to ask some questions now.
Everyone below par today. Collective sloppiness and culpable lack of urgency.
As clear as crystal, arteta’s master pep has run Outta ideas and the same is happening to arteta coz nothing left to copy from. Really missed Ozil today as no intelligence in the team and the cherry on top are the substitute arteta uses are just mind boggling. Go get a striker in Jan or forget any trophy for next couple of years too.
Missed…… Ozil???
Özil had about 10 good games, you are joking…..
like cockroaches, the ozil stans
Martinelli needs to work with Merino with quick exchanges instead of ignoring him every time.
Also, MO struggled a bit but he still needs just one pass to go right to help. Havertz should have come off.
In a game when their mf offers nothing going forward perhaps a combo of MO and Nwaneri in the 8’s is worth a shot.
Yes, Martinelli needs to get his head up. Players are no longer bothering to make runs for him.
Hard to believe we left 2 proven creative players go so that we can sub Partey on at RB and play Merino in midfield…
I think this year fight for top 4 is our reality
Merino looks a bit shite in fairness
Everybody talks about the striker situation, and yes that absolutely is an area we can solve, but our left wing is by far the lowest-hanging fruit in the squad right now. Havertz is good enough to start in a CL/PL winning team (and has) even if he isn’t the perfect striker for every occasion. Trossard and Martinelli are not.
100% this.
You put ANYONE in that LW spot and they will struggle. It’s not a player problem but a tactic problem. Our LB plays centrally in possession, and our team is heavily left-footed so they gravitate to the right side to cut in on their preferred food, this basically isolates the entire left wing and the Winger is expected to produce something when he’s always outnumbered.
Martinelli was in acres of space today. The switch was on, and they didn’t find him. This didn’t change til Partey came on. I don’t just blame Martinelli, though he doesn’t pick his head up enough; the team failed to take advantage of the space that our left-footedness creates. I do agree though that since Xhaka left, that left side of the Arsenal attack has suffered, primarily due to the factors you identified. I also think its the fault of recruitment and MA for recruiting and instructing LBs to play so far infield. Part of me thinks Merino was supposed… Read more »
I think the change in Martinelli is less about LCM and more about LB. He established himself as a first team player when Tierney was overlapping constantly leaving Martinelli to move inside, which is exactly how most inverted wingers flourish.
Havertz was garbo today though.
Agree Havertz was poor today and I think playing him over a more fluid option (Jesus) was a mistake – trying to out orc the orcs because he’s big and strong when we should have reinforced our technical advantage. I do think he has been consistently excellent as a striker though and would be very difficult (and expensive) to improve upon
It’s so easy to defend us. The only non-winger who attacks the space behind the fullbacks is our LCM; Merino did not offer threat doing that today. Odegaard is generally great at playing in the half-space and sliding through passes, but it’s just too easy to stop when he never tries to do anything else, and the RB rarely overlaps.
I beg y’all to just watch City for 5 minutes after watching us and notice the difference in how they attack those wide spaces (and then laugh when they concede in transition again).
Felt trossard did more in ten than martinelli so would probably give him a 6
Yeah agreed. Trossard managed to lose the ball and be selfish again whilst not putting a single good ball into the box unlike Martinelli
Martinelli is really generous. He loves to give the ball right back from where it came. He played against a guy almost 20 years his senior and never once ran at him to beat him. It’s just inexcusable to play at this level for this club and be so bereft of confidence and ability. Trossard at least tries to create chances. He did more in 10 mins than Martinelli did in 75.
Rice slows down our attack. He always has to take an extra touch or move an extra five metres forward. Arteta expects Havertz to over exert himself by moving into midfield when we don’t have the ball, and we usually win the ball quickly but Havertz is never in the box because he is positioned in midfield. Odegard is wasteful in front of goal and he did it last season when we needed him to score. Partey is our best central midfielder but MA always thinks he can get the job done without him. We are so much more fluid… Read more »
Ødegaard has been uncharacteristically poor in the opposition box since his injury. Perhaps a few games before that too.
So poor today. Two attempts in the first 2 mins of the second half promised so much but we were so poor in every area today, except perhaps for Saka. Ode had his worst game for a long time and neither left winger offered anything at all. Everyone is talking about how poor Citeh are but if they win tomorrow they are level on points with us.
The main issue, I think, was the pace of the passing and inability to switch the play from one side to the other. Rice (who, as Blogs says, was too close to the centre halves) didn’t move the ball forward quickly enough to threaten to switch the play. Nor did Lewis-Skelly in the Zinchenko role. This was a game that reminded me of how important Zinchenko, at his best, was to our attack. I was happy to see Jorginho come on to try to play that role, though not happy that Ødegaard was taken off at the same time.
While recency bias is likely a factor, this feels like the most disappointing (and inexplicable) effort of the season thus far. From my vantage point, seemed like we were content to play our way into the game rather than having a relentless ruthlessness from the opening whistle. An early goal changes everything against a team like Everton. Liverpool showed more urgency and intent in extra time then we had in an entire 90+ minutes. I have mad respect for Mikel but team is regularly under-performing (are we really going to be behind Chelsea at Christmas?!) title race may be over,… Read more »
Something has gone stale.
Whenever Saka doesn’t have a great day, it’s curtains for us. The silver lining is we might as well give up on the title and focus on UCL and maybe the FA Cup and a top 4 finish
Perhaps player rotation could prioritize the CL and other cups a bit, but I don’t think it makes sense to “give up on the title” because that could jeopardize our finishing in a CL spot and it’s not something that professionals do and maintain any edge. MA will try to win every game in front of us. He’s not going to give up on the league, nor should he.
When you need a goal and you bring on Jesus…… part 2
I felt complacency today. Like they thought they’d show up and the talent would carry them through. They should be bloodthirsty fiends at this stage, the only one I saw with that mindset was Saka and maybe Havertz and Odegaard. I know MA wants a measured approach from the back if it’s not Raya going long, but we need to inject more tempo, and it means much more movement ahead of the ball. Martinelli being in the doldrums doesn’t help, Merino still seems tentative in his play, our best player on the left side today was MLS who’s doing so… Read more »
I don’t think it’s complacency, there’s no arrogance or entitlement in this team. I just think it’s all gone stale, and that’s on the management and the recruitment. The only exciting player we bought this summer was Califiori, another defender, and he’s been injured most of the time. There should’ve been at least one good forward and one creative midfielder. There was no new spark to ignite the team, and Mikel is turning into Moyes before our eyes. I never, ever, thought I’d be saying that after the last two seasons we’ve had. The club needs to do something exciting… Read more »
Even after being gifted that penalty by Saka, Ødegaard still can’t find his scoring boots.
Hope he does soon otherwise we’re in for a top four scrap come April
Pains me to say it, but we are shit. The summer window is looking worse and worse with every match.
Isn’t someone going to talk about what a great defensive shift Martinelli put in today? He really shut down old Ashley Young all game. Oh Martinelli is a forward? My bad.
Too slow and no one to take risks. Hate to see all the chipped flanks, just f**king shoot into the penalty box
We’re in the draw phase right now
Someone tell me what Jesus offers, that Sterling couldn’t. I’m not throwing the baby out with the bathwater here but Arteta says he is disappointed he could not give Sterling more minutes so far due to subs being related to saving peoples mins, injuries, cards etc. …..OK but you keep putting Jesus on, or even starting him, who does absolutely bugger all (hasn’t scored in his last 20+ league games). Try something different gaffer and give Sterling ago. Also, Partey got heavily criticised at the start of the season, but I think he is one of our most important players.… Read more »
We don’t counterattack. We keep hold of the ball until the opposition has retreated to the edge of their box, then complain we can’t break them down.
I’m as gutted as anyone about this result. I was actually tearful last week when we drew against Fulham as I felt that was it for the league this season. But many of the comments here seem daft in their overblown reaction to the game and the state of the team in general. They are driven by emotion but pretend to offer structural and concrete reasons as to why we didn’t win when the difference between us defeating Nottingham Forest, Sporting Lisbon, Man U and Monaco and drawing today is fine margins. It’s a shot a foot wide of the… Read more »
Come on, we’ve been stale all season, heavily relying on set pieces, and Arteta’s summer business (a workmanlike midfielder, another (!) permacrocked left back, and another (!!) Chelsea cast off) looks increasingly bizarre.
You don’t need some elaborate psychological theory to see why people are moaning…
…And yet we still won’t win the league…
Definitely the type of game we needed something different whether it’s players or tactics. Would rather have seen Merino go off and Nwaneri and Odegaard play together. Nwaneri is a talent, but he doesn’t search the ball out and demand it like Odegaard does, nobody on the team does which is why we struggled so much when he was out. Taking him off with so much time left (unless there was an injury or illness issue) is crazy. Liverpool dropped points again and we could be two back of them had we not choked ourselves against Fulham and Everton (of… Read more »
I said it once, I said it a hundred times. Wenger had us with Iwobi—he was eventually going to become good he said. Arteta has us with Martinelli.
Frankly, I wish we had Iwobi today. I know we got good money for him, and Everton and now Fulham are getting their money’s worth. But I do get sentimental about our academy guys. I wanted Joe Willock to stay too.
I would be very interested in seeing the recent stats for when Partey starts in midfield for us. My gut tells me we perform much better when he does.
Anemic in open play again. It is what it is, I guess.
What utter pantaloons.
We do not have the quality of champions. Both players and manager have to up their game. Frustratingly the team does not create clear cut chances to score and mostly manage to score from set peices only. Today’s game shoeed up our limitations, slow to counter attack and our approach so foreseable with time wasting passing sideways and backwards. We need a better game plan, substituting players is not the solution.
Mr blog should be a very happy man today after witnessing his preferred midfield combo destroy the mighty Everton. most importantly after Arteta finally listened to him and his year long desperate pleas for Thomas Party to be dropped for no footballing reasons. personally I can’t trust any presumed Arsenal fan’s football knowledge asking for Partey to be dropped from this particular Arsenal iteration for performance reasons, his absence from the base of the midfield handicap not only the team’s style of play but also handicap the performance of the team’s chief attacking creator in Martin Ødegaard. I know Partey… Read more »
What I said was in the context of our current injury situation, where Partey is needed at right back, choosing the Rice, Merino, Odegaard midfield made the most sense.
I posted my blunt opinions on this forum tonight. Arseblog said no to them, despite their respectful tone and deemed them to no pass his moderation. He takes my money €5 a month mind. Noted. Poor form
Obviously I’m writing to myself. You make plenty money from your site. No need to be the headmaster’s glove 🧤
Just for the record I don’t think calling Arteta a ‘grease faced prick’ and telling him to ‘go sway’ is particularly respectful – which is why your comments were not published, and won’t be published going forward.
This is hilarious. A couple days ago people were saying Merino was amazing, now the same people say he is useless. The same with other players. Peak goldfish memory.
seven out of ten players on the field are essentially about containment. Stability, yes, but does for nothing when most teams are happy for a draw when they play us.
not good enough. It just isn’t.