Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Rice, Merino, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz
Subs: Neto, Tierney, Kiwior, Partey, Jorginho, Trossard, Nwaneri, Sterling, Jesus
—
A subpar Arsenal ended a frustrating afternoon in the Premier League, drawing 0-0 against Everton at the Emirates.
Mikel Arteta welcomed back Gabriel to the heart of the defence, Myles Lewis-Skelly kept his place at left-back, while there was another chance to see the midfield trio of Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard.
The opening exchanges saw Arsenal dominate possession as the visitors sat deep, but the first moment of danger came from Doucoure whose shot from close range was blocked by a committed Gabriel challenge. At the other end, Martinelli saw a shot blocked by Tarkowski, before a smart Mikel Merino pass ended up with Odegaard firing over from inside the box.
Quick feet from the Arsenal skipper saw him create another shooting opportunity, this time pulling his shot wide with Pickford rooted to the spot. Saka had an effort blocked after combining well with Rice, and superb work from the Arsenal number 7 saw another Odegaard chance but his shot was blocked by Tarkowski and then saved by Pickford.
Martinelli’s shot at the near post was saved by Pickford as the first 45 minutes entered its final few minutes, and as the whistle blew on a flat first half, the visitors will have been happiest going in at the break.
Neither manager made a change, and early on there was a chance for the Gunners, Saka’s shot was well saved at his near post by Pickford. The pattern of the game was the same, lots of Arsenal possession playing primarily in the Everton half, but the final pass wasn’t quite there. Good combo play between Odegaard and Saka forced Pickford into another desperate clearance, before Arteta made his first changes just after the hour mark with Jorginho and Ethan Nwaneri replacing Rice and Odegaard.
Partey and Jesus were next on, followed by Trossard as Arteta played his full hand, but there was no breakthrough. Everton sat deep, we played it slowly and couldn’t really penetrate. Pickford and Broja picked up yellow cards for delaying the restart, but it remained a frustrating afternoon.
VAR checked for a penalty on Partey which definitely wasn’t, and in the end Arsenal’s performance wasn’t good enough to take anything more than a point on the day.
That was abysmal, a total shitshow. No pace, no penetration. Just one meandering, aimless, rudderless passage of play after another. You can’t drop points at home against a team like Everton and be serious about competing for the title. I’m not normally defeatist but I think our title charge is now well and truly over.
Shout out to the people who grab their pearls and shout “we had a great goal tally last season” whenever anyone suggests we might need another forward.
We had 1.5 xG against Everton and didn’t score.
We had 2 xG against Fulham and scored once.
We had 2 xG against Chelsea and scored once.
We had 2.5 xG against Inter and didn’t score.
We had 1 xG against Newcastle and didn’t score.
We had 1 xG against Bournemouth and didn’t score.
Who is down-voting his point about scoring? Did you think we scored enough this week and last? You’re happy?
I don’t know why but it’s seen as somehow ignorant or uneducated to suggest a proper forward with goalscoring pedigree might help this side.
Just because something is obvious doesn’t make it wrong.
And it’s not even a criticism of Arteta. I thought Jesus was going to come out firing this season. I thought Sterling might chip in. I thought Martinelli might recapture the form that made us fall in love with him.
None of these things have happened. And we can’t rely on Saka or corners every single game to provide the goals.
Still, who would you buy? We could have got Isaac a couple of seasons ago. We could probably get Lookman, but I don’t know how well he would fit Arsenal’s style.
I could give 5 names that I like. But it’s on the club to identify the right talent.
I’m not sure I’m buying the whole “there just isn’t the right player out there”. Wenger was able to turn a misfiring winger into the greatest CF the premier league has ever seen.
The talent is out there. We just have to find it.
Spot on about the talent being out there. Just because someone isn’t an household name doesn’t mean they couldn’t be. There’s so much talent in the world that it’s inconceivable to say there just isn’t a player around..but we scrapped our entire scouting department for some corporate bullshit statistical scouting platform instead of having people out there looking for the next Messi in some village somewhere. Modern football operations are just soulless these days.
I think for the most part nobody disagrees, but they tried to buy a striker. It’s the real world, not Football Manager. Who is available that we can afford without breaking the rules?
That just means that we genuinely did flush 60m down the drain on Kai.
We bought him to play mid… it failed and now we need to break the bank again for a striker.
Most of us were disappointed with Kai when he signed, and this deal looks worse every day now. Could have had a proper number 9 but instead we have failed cam/cm/false 9/cf/rw/etc
It’s because he came to this conclusion last Sunday afternoon. Every thing was awesome before then.
Why did spend the summer chasing Newcastle and Chelsea rejects?
Edu is gone, and Arteta is left holding the can
no no no, Edu might be gone but this is still very much Arteta’s team
Meaningless sideway passes, it was a reminiscent of Arteta playing days. We just didn’t have the fire power to break them down. January transfer please…
Arteta was a serious backwards and sideways merchant back in the day haha
Exactly how i feel. It’s almost unforgivable. You have to beat the donkeys at home.
Terrible performance. No urgency whatsoever whole of first half. Not good enough for league. Maybe focus on league cup to get a trophy.
They were at least dented by game six. The refs made sure of that. Well they get to go and officiate a few sitters in the middle east for their services. The bent cunts.
What have the refs got to do with us failing to beat a relegation candidate at home?
VAR denying us a penalty had been plenty to do with it. Ignoring the constant fouls on Saka played its part as well. How many times did that Mykolenko, or whatever that cunts name is, stamp on his foot or hang onto his arm like he was trying to fuck him?
I’m not surprised of course. Just fed up.
Are fucking serious right now!!! You’re putting the results down to a non penalty and Saka being fouled?! We were pedestrian all game, not taking the opportunities we had to break on the counter and get their defensive shape out of sorts. Instead we always recycled the ball , padding our possession stats. Martinelli did fuck all when he was on the pitch and had several good opportunities to take on the defender. This certainly wasn’t on the Ref, but 100% on us. We should take responsibility for the way we played.
Sure, we were poor but that doesn’t get the refs off the hook. They have a job to do and they it very badly and with what often looks like prejudice.
Crazy how much we’ve regressed. I know that’s due to many factors but Arteta has to start thinking of ways to evolve our tactics, it’s getting monotonous. Teams have figured us out
Giving Arteta more time (5yrs already) would be the mistake. We’ll write this season off and then watch him fail next season before that’s a real possibility. That delay will cost us players and mean the incoming coach will be doing a rebuild. And so the Arsenal story continues.
There is no manager that guarantees we win the league and no manager who wouldn’t have traits that would infuriate us after 5 years in charge.
I said the other week that we can forget the title, got no end of down votes, but trust me Arsenal are NOT going to win the title!!! Why did they have to have toilet form at the same time as city, last season form and we’d be top of the table but now we are behind the chavs who we battered last season!!! Not good to see the demise and the prospect of another trophy less season!! I suspect chavski will win the league (puke), liverdross the champions league (yawn), and we might get an FA cup or comedy… Read more »
We haven’t been challenging for the title for a few weeks now. Would love to hear from the optimists though
Yes, title challenge has gone. No coming back from this.
I just hope Liverpool win it over Chelsea. You can see the praise for their recruitment/management bubbling up ready to boil as if it doesn’t amount to having two full squads made £35-100m signings
Saka, our best player, is stuck on the touch line. We should maximise his touches in and around the box, instead, we keep sending players in the box who can’t buy a goal. Bad recruitment catching up with us. Needed a play maker and got a box to box instead. Needed an elite difference making attacker and got Sterling who’s just gaining weight and collecting cheques.
A real lesson in how sleepwalking through a first half will cost you. Each time Everton were out of shape we took the ball and patiently passing around the back until they got back into positions.
The slow tempo is hard to ignite later in a game, once the pattern is set. This team is so different from 22/23.
I am afraid that 22-23 season will remain the best football we’ve seen under arteta. He’s done excelent job to bring us to this level but I am not sure he is capable of making us the trophy-winning team. There is no plan B ever and if there is one then it is continue with plan A just different personal. There might have been seasons where Arteta didn’t have many options on the bench to really change course of the games, but with players like Jorginho, Trossard, Partey, Nwaneri, Jesus on the bench one would assume we’ll be able to… Read more »
It’s criminal that the 22/23 team didn’t get medals. As a team, I thought they were better than peak Wenger. Of course the 02 and 04 teams had the best individual players ever.
Wondering what the optimists will say this time about the so called title race
Arteta happy with new midfield trio, doesn’t mind attacking imbalance
He‘s just a very stubborn man. Frustrating.
I was scratching my head at the Odegaard substitution. Martin seems like the only player who can operate in the tight spaces required to beat a low block.
But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was fatigue or a knock.
Not sure why Odegaard played against Monaco, if he is fatigued or injured
He played poorly in both games. Maybe it’s the new baby for the 1st time, I remember how that goes.
Rice and Merino’s combination ain’t working and I don’t see it working any time soon. Rice is a great midfielder but I am starting to believe that he is good for away games against big teams when you are expecting to have less possession of the ball.
Agree about the Rice and Merino combo. They haven’t really played together so can’t write them off as a combo but so far it ain’t seem to be working. We were much better with TP5 in midfield.
It’s strange because the logic to signing last season Rice seemed to be that although his passing isn’t as good as Partey in 22/23, he’s such an athlete that he could cover the entirety of midfield, while Havertz/Vieira/ESR and Odegaard attacked and pushed high all game alongside a creative full back. Basically, we sign a world-class defensive player to allow us to attack more. I think that idea would still work if Arteta remembers it. Myles-Skelly at LB and Nwaneri at LCM would do a lot to make Rice look good and make the team gel.
He is also very resilient. He is not what we want him to be. I agree with you that he is such an athlete. Playing as a six is limiting him. He needs a partey/mainoo/jorginho behind him to get the best out of him. That way he is not the one starting moves. Those three are not blessed pace wise but they are not exposed that often because he is there to cover them and they cover his weakness in possession.
We had more control that’s the important thing.
The amount of control is proportional to the number of defensive mids playing out of position.
I laughed hard at this… so true
What id give for a bit of Wengerball right now..
The refs are back again. Fucking joke VAR decision.
No, they did their damage at the beginning of the season. It’s hard to define this Arsenal team as potential champions though. There is still a Xhaka size hole in the midfield.
I agree they did their bit at the start of the season. They then backed off for a few games and now they’re back to finish the job.
Bent fucking cunts.
At least he felt the pressure to at least give delaying the restart yellows a player outside of Arsenal today. You’ll still not see another team have someone sent off though.
No need to send anyone off when you ignore foul after foul and VAR is run by the section of the old refs club who are too tired and blind to work the pitch.
Hard to argue with that. I’m glad our turn to be stiff by PGMOL is in the same season we play badly though.
I think Rodri was right.
The only thing Rodri is right about is sitting out for the whole season.
How can you believe we do have what it takes to win the title when considering the mental handbrake in our heads? The pressure is getting to a lot of our guys, it is clearly visible.
Sorry, I don’t read Rodri quotes, but this team is too pragmatic, slow and predictable. It comes from the revised style of play after losing the 22/23 title. The only reason they lost that year was the Saliba injury though.
It all comes from the coach. He sets up his team to not lose, rather than to win. He’d rather keep things steady and play the exact same cautious, choreographed football rather than mix things up to potentially get a win. When was the last time you even caught a glimpse of Saka and Martinelli switching wings? Why would you not try that at least once in a game like this? Because the coach is afraid of risk. The team takes on the manager’s personality. Every time we’ve had a game to either close the gap or take the top… Read more »
This is just mad frustrating. We always thought Liverpool would drop points… They are doing just that just now and we are unable to capitalise. Just sad stuff
I am pretty sure Sterling is a great weapon against teams that defend their box like Everton. Martinelli couldn’t even beat 50 years old Young. But I am sure Arteta will hardly use Raheem because he doesn’t work as hard as he wants his wingers to work Out of Possession.
Something has to change, though. Because it’s all just sterile and uninspiring right now
Don’t need wingers to work hard against an XI man defence. Martinelli has been terrible, even Sterling deserves a few starts now.
I do like Martinelli, as we all do, but it’s pretty clear now that if we are looking at positions to upgrade then that is one of the top areas in the team that could be improved.
Sterling’s shit
Liverpool can afford to drop points with teams like us and City chasing – not to mention a fair wind with referees.
Liverpool take throw men forward and take chances at the back, hoping Van dijk and Konate are good enough to cover. They make their own luck. If only we had 2 players like that.
Well. I’m willing to count us out. It’s not the gap gentlemen, it’s the form and the diminishing likelihood that the form will swing that much for us and Liverpool.
Mark my words, this club will manage to total more PL points than any club over three seasons but never enough in ONE actual season to win the thing.
Can’t beat Everton at home?
I’m throwing in the towel aswell, arteta is getting great lesson on the importance of freshening up attack. Fuck the perfect player. Kudos, Diaz, Jota, Gakpo, Jackson salah, all went for 35 to 50 mill. All the best managers bought forwards when they even had the best forward in the world in their team
Kudus was basically begging for Arsenal to bid for him, now he’s more than twice the price. Why can’t we seem to find a decent forward? All the links online are to overpriced players like Isak, Vlahovic or Raphinha, surely we can do better than that? Are we waiting for Sesko? Would he even come to Arsenal?
Poor starting line-up
The midfield didn’t work
Both Rice and Merino
No offence to them,
don’t have the metronomic ambience of top playmaker.
That kind of aura that make midfielder seems to have more time on the ball.
As a result our patterns were rushed, with quick turnovers, sterile possession.
We finished the game with the team that should have started.
Abject coaching performance, nil rhythm.
We made hard work of an easy game.
Is there a fitness concern for removing Odegard ?
Cos I can’t fathom the tactical gain.
Arterta dropped the ball here.
I love Odegard but I think he is not in form. That being said: An out-of-form Odegard is still essential to us.
I think it was mainly because Odegaard, Rice etc. played 90mins (I think) in midweek, and only recently having come back from injury so it was more precautious, but feel like Mikel has gone recently from one extreme of barely using his squad to now using it maybe a bit to much. You simply don’t take out Martin Odegaard when you’re chasing a result and trying to break down a low block.
We finished the game with the team that should have started?!?!
That team and those substitutions were atrocious!
How the fuck Merino stayed on instead of Rice I have no idea. And Nwaneri touched the ball about twice after he came on. I don’t care how tired he was, Odegaard had to stay on in this game.
And Jesus comes on to be his usual shit self so that we could have midfield-maestro Kai – how visionary!
Rice and Merino are way to slow to play together.
Poor. Very very very poor. Terrible tactics. This one is on the manager.
Teams that win titles, don’t drop 4 points, back-to-back, against Fulham and Everton. Something not quite right with us this season and it’s Arteta’s problem to sort out and quickly.
Or only win half of the games, which the current position !
Okay got it.. lower my expectations it is then.. such a shame after the last 2 seasons of living in hope, celebrating every pass, goal and last gast tackle.. back to reality then I guess.
A 10-man Liverpool showed more grit against the same Fulham side that Arteta struggled against last week and now managed only a 0-0 draw against Everton at home. His game management in the last two Premier League matches has been disastrous.
Bringing on Jesus feels like playing with a man down. Introducing Jorginho while chasing a goal, and delaying his only goal threat from the left.
have we even scored a goal this season when we’ve been reduced to ten? must be nice.
Our dysfunctional midfield of Rice-Merino- Ødegaard cost us here. Partey at the base and his line breaking passes could have helped. But the fan fantasy of that trio working will go on
Another shit performance, but can’t wait to hear the copes about how our non-penalty XG per 90 is actually really good, or something
It isn’t. That’s the problem.
Of all the times we’ve dropped points this season, this is the one time I’m truly upset. We’re unidimensional in attack. Cross, cross, and more crosses
it’s not all we do usually, but it’s what Dyche had them set up to make us do – pack the middle, force us wide. The issue isn’t that we crossed, it’s that we crossed badly.
It is the issue, playing crosses is not a modern/generational coach tactic. The bald c**t in the other dugout could us have playing that way.
Really? You didn’t seem to have an issue with crosses whenever Kai or others have headed them in, or the one Jesus put in for Saka a few days ago for a tap in.
I think that’s the weakness of Arteta : the team is obsessed about controlling the game, but they don’t know how to make it wild.
Was so happy to see Nwaneri coming on earlier than usual, but then subbing off Odegaard? Just after a defence-splitting pass he had to set Saka up for what could’ve been the game winner if he had then got it to Havertz? Would really love to see both Odegaard and Nwaneri together when we’re on the verge of losing points vs. Everton.
Yeah.
Would have yanked off Martinelli instead
Odegard even if a bit iffy a few times.
Was at centre of all the best chances we had today.
A curious sub move by the coach.
Honestly we are just boring to watch now, oh well January window coming up, can’t wait to sign another 3 centre backs and a defensive midfielder and a right back and a left back
No attack from the bench, no title.
I said before that Gabriel Jesus wasn’t him. Now I will add Gabriel Martinelli to the list
I mean, Jesus was never even the answer for City. He was always a back up and barely ever impressed. Not sure what we saw in him.
Fuck knows. But Everyone who said so at the time was chastised and a good 3 months at the start of his time at Arsenal was used as evidence for them being wrong.
So true. 💯
When Jesus arrived at first he was absolutely unreal, you can’t deny that.
We lack game changing quality up top. We’re very functional. We maximise what we have, but we couldn’t do what Liverpool have done today. That’s the reality of having not having enough quality.
Title was over weeks ago. This was utterly dogshit. One of those games you knew exactly how it was going to go after 15 minutes. Could have been there all day and barely even tested Pickford in the second half. They deserved nothing. Buy some effective attacking players and go again next year please. If there isn’t significant investment in January I am sure the club have conceded they aren’t winning anything again this year.
Jeremy spoke in class today
Totally agree Jeremy, arsenal are winning jack this season unless they spend some money on someone decent on the left!!! Talent is being wasted on promise of better things that never come – complete and utter doggie doo doo
Facts.
A quality January addition will do more than add some spark to our attack, but send a message to the players and to the fans that this club means business…
It’s obvious what we need to do.
Worryingly obvious.
It was cute to see Arteta getting frustrated with delay in starting play in 94th minute – it’s not like we had 93 mins and didn’t score. We could have played another 30 mins and not scored.
It was also quite cute to get sterling in and warm the bench!
Come on man, we were cruising at 120 mph and then Arteta took off Rice and Odegaard who were driving us forward. It slammed on the brakes and we lost our speed. Dropped right down to 40 and couldn’t accelerate again. Bad timing of the subs!!
So, Dubai anyone?
Not good at all. This striker situation is similar to the defensive midfielder we were crying out for but refused to get when Wenger was in charge in the second half of his tenure. Its unforgivable that Jesus and Sterling are the only attacking signings in 5 years.
If Chelsea win the league….
I never thought I’d say this ever, but I’d prefer 115city to win the league rather than 1st time PL managers winning it
Looking for a good reason why we took of odegaard for ethan at that moment. Odegaard was a bit sloppy but still looked a creative spark…
Either way, more points dropped.i think we’ve been found out. Back to the drawing board again….
Or just do good business in Jan. It’s obvious now.
Different year same problems – can’t pick up maximum points against the likes of Everton, Bournemouth, Fulham etc. All these high possession stats the commentators keep repeating over and over. Pointless if there’s no end product. We do need to strengthen the squad. Without Odegaard there is no creativity. A striker would be nice too.
Couldn’t watch the game but
stats are very telling. a proper striker is badly missing (we actually have none). rather then a financial problem I suspect ibis is due to the gigantic ego of the manager who probably wants to win without one, like his mentor used to do, but it was ages ago…
It’s not a financial one. We had money to spend on Sesko!
That was pathetic and unacceptable. Lack of ambition, pedestrian, lethargic. We looked like a team that does not understand the mindset of title winners. We have a big problem.
Dismal. Far too slow. No imagination, deserved nothing.
Why is it that every single post I make must be moderated.
Everybody gets moderated.
You wrote something that Andrew didn’t like and it will now haunt you for 5 years. I’m in my 3rd year now I believe.
Who cares? Talk about first world problems.
i‘m not a pundit, but why do we invite the opponent to regroup before attacking?
May be because we have the worst transition in the league
Bad decisions after bad decisions. Arteta cost us today. Clown keeps talking up a storm about emerging units. Keep your fucking most creative unit of Partey, Rice and Odegaard on the pitch whenever injuries allow. Today was such an opportunity. Arteta stupidly chose to overthink the midfield. From then on he was trying to rectify that mistake all thru the game with one stupid substitution after another. If we fail to win a major trophy this season, Arteta should be sacked.
The mistake was buying Merino in the first place. I mean, what does he see in him? He’s just a journeyman pro, mid level Spanish league that’s been around the block a few times so not exactly youthful potential. Complete waste of money. A disaster of a summer transfer period now biting us hard on the arse.
We need two new forwards, a creative left eight and some fucking zip. Odegaard needs to sort out his shooting, it’s abysmal, Jesus needs to go away. Horrible. Every time Liverpool drop some points we fuck up. Mikel needs to sort this out, it’s become gutless.
It’s boring football. And has been for a long time.
Absolute rubbish! Always disappointing
Ødegaard left his shooting boots somewhere when he got injured. Two games in which he’s had like three big chances and either skied or put them on the wrong side of the goal post
He was still our only creative spark today. I have no clue why he was hooked. It must be an injury. If it’s not then I really do wonder what the f is going on.
how on earth can city be level on points with us this time tomorrow. didnt they lose like 73 games in a row. so sad
And again, there will be comments here bashing individual players for “not being good enough” or for not being at a certain “level” while ignoring one clear and obvious reason for our poor performances, which is the coach. Ever since he was announced as our coach, my opinion has been that at best, we are going to be the Atletico Madrid of the Premier League; always admired for their grit and organization and for pushing Real and Barcelona, but never coming even close to achieving their level of success simply because their coach is a coward who sets up his… Read more »
I agree
I don’t completely buy what you say – for instance, the 22-23 season was awesome and defined by some great attacking play. Where I think we’ve gone wrong since is squad management and the incomings/outgoings have been generally average-to-poor. Squad depth is abysmal. The flair we had 2 seasons ago has disappeared.
Agree. I much preferred Arteta as a player vs a manager. His best quality was never doing too much and playing within himself. As a manager he’s put himself in the center of the universe. Pep was a terrible influence. Can you imagine Arsene subbing out Cesc and Gilberto in a 0-0 with 30 mins left?
Not wanting to be negative, last 2 seasons we probably had better chance in winning the league.. this season, though mathematically we still can, but we wont. We hv unfortunately regressed a lil bit while others are catching up.
This kinda days makes me feel
EDU f**d us over last summer
and jumped ship.
Shame to say, but our season is as good as over imo. Summer window coming back to bite us. Even a good cup run won’t be enough and I really can’t see us winning much if we can’t even break down this pathetic Everton side. On the bright side at least we can now start resting players. Big improvements needed. On to the next season, I guess ☹️
It’s time to start having serious questions about Arteta. He’s been with us for a long tima and has spent serious money on team. Still we have Partey at RB… it’s terrible and to actually put him on at RB chasing a goal is mental for me. It’s just about him proving a point. Not what’s good for the team. We are way to slow as a team and as individuals. Always to many touches and always the handbrake on. Arteta has signed the players he wants and he has gone for big, slow, strong. And it shows. The Stoke… Read more »
The unfortunate thing is, in all of this it feels like Manchester City is the biggest beneficiary.
Next year will be our year, ad infinitum
I marked 72 mins as the first time Martinelli tried to beat 40 year old Ashley Young. The chemistry between him and Merino is non existent. Merino too slow in thought and feet to play the 8 in this league. Start Leo and Ethan from here on out and a left side identity will develop. Arteta’s constant tinkering will ensure our left side remains devoid of any consistent output.
Such a lack of adventure going forward. What’s wrong with manufacturing a bit of chaos? Make and reward runs in behind, take a chance on some 50/50s and break into the space higher up and pick up some loose balls whilst the opposition is unsettled. I understand the whole ‘control and sustainable’ football thing, but our sense of invention as a collective is just absent. Attacking is the fun part isn’t it? If we continue to be this risk averse, we will lose plenty of points vs. well organised teams. Also, is Martinelli broken? He is regressing and it’s very… Read more »
Martinelli is not the problem. He is a symptom of the tactical malaise in the team right now.
Better call Toney
Dreadful performance, in open play we have been rubbish for most of the season.
I assume Marty is injured as he had just started ticking when he was hooked.
Left side of the field others zip. We cannot keep giving it Saka hoping he can save us, other players have to put their hand up.
Title gone for me, we are supposed to gain points when Liverpool drop them not match them.
Jesus is a secret city115 agent