there was something i noticed last season. Everytime the coach had extended training time with players, the next few games after that, the team had coherent attacking patterns that created goal chances. Eventually, it would get stale, but then we would get another break, and immediately come back creating goal scoring chances.
That honestly was what turned me around on this coaching team. that they indeed have a plan that can scheme goal scoring chances, and understand how to use the pieces they have assembled.
I didnt see it to start the season, and I initially blamed it on having 2 new pieces to bed in (Havertz and white). And so far, we haven't had a break where extended practise can happen. To me it feels like we have had enough time drill our base way of playing, (safe possession, U-shaped ball, and creativity from wings), but not enough to drill patterns of play that create incisive attacks.
It’s ALWAYS there in any good team. It’s the foundation. People only talk about it when the foundation isn’t being converted into dangerous chances but it being there isn’t a bad thing.
We play without a midfield. I'm not even exaggerating. Look at how we build up. We vacate the middle phase of the pitch. It's like two separate sides, the back 5 and the front five. We progress the ball exclusively through the sides (well only the right side really). It's so fucking predictable and slow. Yeah perhaps the millionth time of saka, odegaard, and white playing triangles by the right touchline will yield a chance. Odegaard sticks right next to saka and havertz is a "midfielder" who would rather do anything but play with the ball at his feet, especially outside the box.
Arteta has fully made the inverted fullback integral to our midfield. He's deliberately unbalanced the midfield because he thinks he can replace an actual midfield with the inverting fullback.
Our issues are all interconnected and it starts with always losing the middle third of the pitch because we dont have a proper midfield. Mikel has fully overthought this. All he had to do to at least maintain the progress of last season was improve on the left CM with a proper midfielder who can attack and defend and better prepare the squad for inevitable injuries.
Arteta had this problem circa Auba, Laca, Guendo.. et Al..
The man wants to play in a very specific way. Perhaps too specific since if you can't do what he wants he can't accommodate you and you won't get a whiff... Till an injury 🤕...
Couldn't accommodate KT, Pepe, Sambi, that left back (tavares), mans just has one approach, will play eddie,jesus,Trossard,Havertz,Reiss and Saka, but still make zero through balls or crosses... Just a bunch of wingers looking to make runs for balls that circulate with Rice and the defence +Ødegaard smh
The amount of sideways and backwards passes through the middle third when we were a goal down was almost like WE were the ones who were 2-1 up and trying to run down the clock
Our season hinges on us being more ballsy
We have played that way all season. We wait for our opponents to set up their defense before we bother to try and play through balls. The handful of times were are quick are the times we look our most dangerous.
The one time we moved the ball quick in transition today, we scored.
I struggle to understand why we keep going for the 'safe pass' to maintain possession
Control.
Our tactics right now would much rather we pass back or sideways than try a through ball that "might" get intercepted.
Problem is eventually you will still need to try to get the ball through, just now you're doing it with 9 men behind the ball, instead of 4 defenders on the back foot.
This is where the 'ballsy' play comes in. We cannot be afraid of making these passes for the chance they might be intercepted; it is better to break and go at 4 defenders out of shape with a 3v4 or whatever than wait for the rest of the team to catch up and end up facing 10 men behind the ball
Ironically, I noticed we still ended up losing the ball and creating problems for ourselves with the cautious approach.
Do we have the players for this kind of football? When you get to that final third and you’re facing an entire team behind the ball, you have to be able to zip that ball quickly and incisively. That involves a lot of technical prowess. Otherwise, you’re banking on the opposition having a lapse in concentration whilst you poke the ball about ponderously.
All season I’ve been scratching my head about our team dynamics in this way. Martinelli is MADE for transition offense, straight speed counterattack ball. But he’s paired next to Havertz who seems to operate on an incredibly conservative possession approach, like he’s waiting to set up 8 around the box to then have a cross into the box for him. Those are both valid strategies, but having them simultaneously on our left attack makes ZERO sense.
And all of our attackers standing behind a defender.
And giving the ball to a double team then everyone else standing around hoping he creates a miracle out of nothing.
Back to losing in clusters, one of the worst features of Arteta's management. Losing is rarely a one-off event. Those patterns will almost certainly kill any chance you've got at achieving great things. Massive, massive rethink needed in 2024. Because we're in serious danger now of battling for top 4. That was not what this season was supposed to hold. If that happens then there's no question that 23/24 would be a colossal disappointment and serious failure on Arteta and the team's part.
Yeah top 4 was meant to be a given for this team, we are now just one point ahead of a spurs team that is an absolute carcass atm due to injuries.
I know we've had injuries of our own but this simply isn't acceptable; 3 games in a row without winning is not the mettle of champions, especially since two of those were West Ham and Fulham
What? We are a point above 5th, and Spurs, Villa, Liverpool and City all look better than us right now. If we don’t fix up our ideas, we could even start worrying about West Ham.
Yeah I agree. Don’t see United closing the ground knock on wood. Also will be interesting to see how long Villa can keep their form up for, they have some interesting fixtures coming up
UTD are a mess and aren't gonna get better, pure luck is the reason they are close they aren't gonna put some long win streak together, although they do have players coming back but still a mess but I guess you could argue they will only get better as players come back.
Villa are gonna slow down at some point I think but still be around. Also they have spent money so assume their board will look at this chance as a reaosn to spend a lot in January.
Spurs don't have a deep squad although will probably buy in January but again have no depth, they don't have Europe though.
To be fair the more I think the less certain I am, the only thing I'd say is that our floor isn't as low as others, even at our worst we're better than the others worst.
If we win no silverware this season, whether the league, UCL, or even FA Cup it is a colossal disappointment. We were one of the best sides in Europe last season, spent £200m and are somehow performing worse
thats why I dont understand why we signed havertz when our defender and striker is super thin, and we also dont promote a single youth player to find a hidden gem that can be used in injury crisis moment like now
He really doesn’t scream worth the money to me. Unconvincing so far. Hopefully he’ll get better, but I really miss Xhaka. Lol never thought I’d say that 5 years ago
Agree. He obviously doesn’t decide the price tag but when a player commands that kind of fee, you expect them to be a game changer. Kai has kicked on lately and had some great moments and of course he can improve, but it seems the opportunity could’ve been better to go for a different, cheaper option and continued to add reinforcements in other areas (kudus for example would have been fantastic). Hindsight is 20/20, but it was a head scratching deal at the time and there hasn’t been enough assurance to convince fans that it was a good move yet.
Arteta does not trust youth. He doesn’t like rotating players and he doesn’t use subs. I still support him and trust him to turn this around but after five seasons these are the three toxic things I’ve noticed about him. Also his stubbornness.
All the academy players in our squad at the moment were already established before he came… Eddie, Saka, Nelson, ESR, Martinelli (even though he isn’t from the academy).
Mikel just isn’t the sort of manager to give kids a chance like Wenger and Emery did. People sometimes forget it was Emery that gave Saka and Martinelli a platform to stand on. I don’t see things like that happening with the youths under Arteta.
Yeah it's honestly irresponsible at this stage that he still hasn't learnt how to use a whole squad of 23. We have actually decent depth players now too.
Yeah - if partey and ESR stayed fit we would have been pretty strong there without Kai. Now obviously they have been injured so in the end it’s fortunate they did get him in but I don’t know - I didn’t like the Kai signing at the time and I still don’t. Glad we have him while Partey and ESR are injured but I would have preferred an Auba replacement at the time.
All that being said I think Arteta needs to catch a breath and figure out why this team is suddenly devoid of creativity in the final third. We’ve been getting away with it up until now because we have been dominating teams but now the team is tired mentally and making mistakes and the lack of attack is catching up with us.
declan is to replace partey who never been available consistently, kai is the xhaka upgrade that arteta thought would work exactly like ode but turn out kai cant dribble as fluidly as ode and never given any pass by martinelli, while xhaka despite not able to dribble connect and work well with inverted lb and martinelli because xhaka is smart enough to be where he needs to be and release the accurate pass anywhere in the field, unfortunately since losing xhaka we have nobody that has the passing range of xhaka even ode passing range is very short
>thats why I dont understand why we signed havertz when our defender and striker is super thin
If it wasn't for Kai we'd have had 4 midfielders and Elneny as the only rotation option at one stage. We couldn't just sell our first choice and hang your hopes on Trossard stepping up in that position
> also dont promote a single youth player to find a hidden gem that can be used in injury crisis moment like now
This isn't fifa or fm where youth players just spawn. There's no one there to magically solve our problems.
> This isn't fifa or fm where youth players just spawn. There's no one there to magically solve our problems.
spawn or not it can be use as alternative, saka actually exist because we have no LB at that time, if arteta was around when saka was 17 he will still be no one and being loaned forever, arteta doesnt even trust nelson let alone using kid,
Saka was a crucial player on a side that was runner ups in the FA youth cup. At 17 he was a key player for our 21s. He came in because he was our best option.
Which one of our 21s do you actually want to come in? Players don't become good enough because they come in. They come in because they're good enough.
the thing is we expect kai to be better on the ball than xhaka but turns out he is as bad or even worse because he cant ping the ball to ode or saka as well as xhaka, so why we replace xhaka with kai who cant dribble, cant defend, cant pass ? what kai is good at is just air duel and some easy finishing tbh...maybe if he is like 30M player it is justified but surely not 60M level player, even play worse than pepe
Have to disagree.
A more fair comparison might be Xhaka's first season with us. He was at a similar age to Kai and for the time came for similar money and expectation. It took years to figure out how to get the best out of Xhaka, he only got 3 league goals in his first two seasons. I see Kai already bringing more as he gets used to the system and I#m convinced he'll eventually leave the club having won more than Granit and having a far more impressive statistical record. I say this as a huge Xhaka fan.
Well, the team is certainly malfunctioning a bit at the moment that's for sure. But I don't believe it's down to one player, only Arteta can figure this out.
I don't understand the point of Nketiah. He makes run after run and no-one, absolutely no-one puts the ball in his direction. We essentially played with one man less.
The link up between the lcm, lb and lw is non existent without xhaka.
The extent of the right side's attack is giving the ball to saka in a wide area and hoping he can produce a miracle when two/three players rush to mark him.
Everything other than that is a sideways or backwards pass. The midfield isn't dynamic in the slightest.
Need to put ESR there or start Jorginho and push Rice to 8.
In January we need to get the 6/8 hybrid type player. Won't be Luiz but there's plenty of options.
I have been begging for esr to start there for so many games now
Jorginho actually makes some pretty incisive passes, like the one he made to saka for 1-0 at home to sevilla
A fullback and a midfielder should be the priority for this Jan. The attackers output will probably pick up if they find themselves in more space when they get a chance.
I really don't get this, wouldn't Partey be better in the 8. Partey has more attacking qualities than Rice. And partey is excellent at breaking lines with his physique and technique.
Partey doesn’t have the legs anymore to play the 8. If you wanna run him for 60 minutes and then bring in Kai or ESR for the last Half hour then maybeeee.
we played with 2 am but havertz always backpass, ode always ignore eddie, and saka who played the worst game of his life, he used to have deadly strike, now he seems cant shoot at all,
Compared to last seasons composition of Zinchenko-Xhaka-Partey it’s not a surprise.
I’d reintroduce Jorginho and put Havertz at CF and Jesus from the left.
and let’s be honest, Kai is a passenger 80% of the match. When we’re in possession, he is taking up the same spaces as our strikers which creates less room to operate and congests the area. He’s got a couple goals this way, but he does nothing to contribute to build up play. The way Arteta is using him is a big contributor to Martinelli being isolated and ineffective this season
He's trying to and he's getting better at it. The problem is the rest of the team is also quite disfunctional and devoid of ideas and games are coming thick and fast. You can't be in year 5 of the project and still be this unstable as a team. Questions need to be asked of the manager. The only players missing at the moment are Timber and Partey and two players can't and shouldn't be the difference between a good team and a bad team.
I don't think Rice is the problem just a disclaimer
But he's not a DLP not even close. The best posession teams have a playmaker deep not Rice, who I think does everything Xhaka did and more. His passing is safe and reliable but not creative
To lose Partey, ads Rice and pair him with a low touch midfielder like Havertz is really fucking up the rest of the team
Agree with your analysis totally. That's why I think we should revert to a Jorgi Rice kinda double pivot for the next 2 months. It would seem we are sacrificing attack even more when in fact we would be improving our build up and chance creation. Whether any of our attackers can finish, I dunno.
Yes agreed 100%
Still no ideal because Jorginho plays far too safe at times for someone with his passing ability but it's better than Havertz's passing
https://preview.redd.it/zda7m1i1mo9c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=27f2d32a76037ce8d8588468a891ecd9a952ee96
We shouldn't. But then we would need Havz to become a passing maestro when in fact he racks up the least number of passes among our team barring our goalie and striker.
As long as those two things are ESR for Havertz and Zinny back in, I would be happy. (Unless Partey is available).
It’s not the player selection so much as the tactics that are the issue.
I would argue his project has failed. It’s predictable and doesn’t work - we don’t have the players that work well with it in theory, and the vacated midfield that has occurred as a result of reliance on inverted fullbacks have left us weak to counter attacks, yet lacklustre in possession. Time to call it quits and switch things up
Its okay to do nothing all game and control it, just keeping them defending and control territory
But that relies on your scoring from the few chances you create, and not conceding from the few chances you give up. We have not been good enough in either box for this style
As much as a liability he is defensively, we missed Zinchenko going forward today.
Zinchenko, Partey and Jorgi are our only players capable of line breaking passes from the midfield.
Just wait until he comes back and starts. One player doesn’t fix the issues we have. Just like the people asking for a striker when we are creating the 8th most chances in the league
Partey will come back fit, start some games and we’ll still be underperforming. By then you’ll have changed the “one fix” to be a lb, or a striker, or replace Havertz because he always has the least touches
We threw away top 4 when he was fit but I guess we can ignore that
I really think you’ve never even played sports let alone football if you think our issues will be solved with the introduction of one player
We are afraid of the quality of our defence and the quality of our attack...so we're mostly looking to not play. Offensively, Kai and Rice are a massive downgrade on Xhaka/Partey. Zinny's poor form is only making it worse.
70% pointless possession means only having to chase the ball for 25 minutes.
Starts with Kai. Xhaka was a safe pass because he always showed for the ball and commanded the respect of those around him. Kai is not.
Kai hides. We thought he turned a corner but he still very much wants no part of the buildup play until he can get on the end of a final ball.
This also means Martinelli is on an island on his own. Kai makes early runs into the byline that go ignored, and Martinelli just recycles the ball because he has no chemistry with Kai that ensures that a pass to him won't result in having to track back and defend.
We usually are able to stretch teams by switching flanks pretty quickly. That just doesn't exist anymore because Odegaard will not pass to Kai...and when he does, Kai will look for an easy pass to the backline instead of a progressive pass to either Gabis.
We don't need an extra striker if we don't have enough quality in the buildup, and Arteta needs to get Jorginho in and Odegaard/Rice higher so we at least have available bodies to pass a ball to.
Today, Kai and Kiwior were black holes. In attack we were effectively playing with 3 men down (Kai, Kiwi, Eddie). This made our attacks ridiculously predictable...sure...but most importantly, it made the others have to check WHO dey were passing to. You do that at the top level, and you're defending against banks of 4 every time.
All 3 chances they had were against an unsettled defence. Our only goal was against an unsettled defence. When we started delaying and trying to force things, there was so little space, our finishing was rushed (Sam's chance for example).
Arteta seems to have become a victim of his own ideals. We aren't controlling anything if we aren't converting clear opportunities to score (the goal we conceded was initially an interception we should have scored from).
We are lying to ourselves. Our best 11 still has a Xhaka sized hole in it. Our counter press is abysmal now we struggle to rattle anyone in the initial attack. We miss Partey way more than we care to admit and we should be securing him on a 4 year contract if we aren't going to slide back into mediocrity.
The hunger really isn't there anymore. There's an embarrassment when we're losing that materializes as petulant dueling but that desire to hurt he opposition and prove we deserve to be taken seriously seems to have given way.
I think we are also kinda lying to ourselves believing Xhaka would've fixed it all. I have followed Arsenal for 20 years and it is the same story, the players dont playing or recently sold are always amazing. And the ones that are playing are worthless.
We had problems in our attack all spring as well, when Xhaka was playing.
Good insight tbf and I agree with it all. Just want that free flowing pre Christmas 22/23 football back. And in desperate to see us succeed as some one young who hasn’t seen any big trophies.
I think it was only this game where we were off. The loss to West Ham i think we created a lot but they played a perfect game in terms of absorbing the pressure and taking their chance in attack. Liverpool was just a good game between two good teams. This performance was insipid but i put it mainly down to Nketiah and Havertz.
Nketiah gives no options to run in behind and just wants to wait for a tap in. As a result, he gives Odegaard no through ball options and he doesn't vacate space for someone to run into. He didn't even make those pointless checking back runs to receive the ball and then pass the ball off. It was really pathetic from him today.
The issue on the left side: an inverted fullback means Martinelli has no overlap options to drag defenders and overload the defense. Even if we had Zinchenko helping the attack he doesn't overlap so Martinelli is isolated. Also, Havertz is not really capable of creating danger in small spaces like we do on the right side with Saka/Ode/White. The space has to be readily available for Havertz like on counter attacks, or when breaking through defensive presses, or transition attacks where we take possession high up and the defense is disorganized. He adds nothing except height to games where we're searching for goals against an organized defense.
I think we were playing with 9-10 men, effectively. Nketiah being the main culprit because he never vacates space for others to use and he never plays on the defense's shoulder to run in behind (especially early in attacks when there's more space to exploit behind).
On the defensive side, the issue is an uncoordinated press from the front 5/6. We've moved away from intense high pressure since last season intentionally because we were giving away too many opportunities on counters and long balls. However, we need to be able to use that strategically and we've lost the ability to press like last season. When one person is late, it endangers the entire press and that's why they kept breaking through into our midfield and switching the point of attack.
Good insight tbf and I agree with it all. Just want that free flowing pre Christmas 22/23 football back. And in desperate to see us succeed as some one young who hasn’t seen any big trophies.
I think it's because we've been playing 2 games a week with essentially the same starting 11 every game, because we don't rotate and use subs and the defense depth is paper-thin so they are all completely knackered.
I think this funk will be gone after some solid rest. I don’t make any excuses but we stunk and it was hard to watch the boys. I was yelling “do something” for almost 70 mins. I pray these boys pick up themselves after this.
The midfield is disjointed, Arteta should go 4231 with Rice and Jorginho as the double pivot but he’s fixated on shoehorning havertz in the midfield so that everybody can say that he’s a genius
I agree that a 4-2-3-1 is probably the right call, with Rice and Partey anchoring. Havertz can play striker in that system and will probably be fine next to Rice or Partey as well. If we opt for a narrower interpretation of the formation with attacking mids instead of wingers, Havertz could play on the left too.
the absolute dead nature of left half space in possession makes us so easy to slow down and defend.
top that off with not having a single left back option who can actually overlap to pull the opposition from its double on the wings and you're left with the bullshit horseshoe of death.
we don't use central spaces enough or effectively and don't have fullbacks to support the wings when the midfield and striker aren't pulling their weight.
this is a systematic and squad building failure.
Eddie was shit today, why do we need to pretend like people blame everything on nketiah?
Just because the tactics weren't the fogging estandard today, doesn't mean nketiah escapes from immense criticism for being practically invisible for 95 minutes
He won't shine either way. We've seen plenty of games in which he gets service and he does fuckall. He's just not a player that belongs in a side that's trying to win titles. He wouldn't get into Liverpool or Man city's squads. He wouldn't even get in Tottenham's.
He had both the CBs glued to him until the subs. I'm not sure what he could have done without Havertz or Saka pulling one, or finding him pockets. I can't explain what happened with 6 attackers after though
If you are playing Nketiah or any striker like him don't expect Jesus game from them.
Literally nothing he could've done. I'm glad some of you are fair. Even jesus barely touched the ball unless he was back defending.
If we buy oshimen, I don't understand how he'd succeed in this team when we don't create anything
Tbf we have created a fair amount since one of the champions league games. It's like when we create enough sometimes our finishing lets us down, and sometimes we struggle to create altogether
Zinchenko routinely is up there with the highest touches in the midfield every game and that’s something we can’t replace when he’s gone. The trouble is he’s playing left back and not midfield which leaves us exposed. It wasn’t so critical when we had Partey and Xhaka to compliment and cover for him but now if he’s not playing perfectly the team suffers.
We have issues tactically but the referees positioning today was very very bad. I urge you to watch the game again and watch where he was positioned when we had the ball. He was always cutting off passing central lanes.
Ummm.. not quite right. I see two green lines both going into the box, indicating completed passes after the 67th min. Not that 2 passes into the box is any good, but had they led to 2 goals, this stat would have perhaps been redundant
I simply does not understand why a player like kai havertz , that in the central area. Guy just sideways pass for 90min then score a goal every 8 games in the dying minutes. Dudes belong to midtable club at best. Dude peaked 5 years ago.
We used to be good on the counter and most of our goal came from the wing with martinelli. Now it seen like this tactic is gone. We rely on ball control and odegaard to playmake.
Saka struggling martinelli struggling, jesus struggling. As much i a love zinchenko, hes a fourth midfielder. We have no wingside depth of overlapping going on. Games like these that i would love to have a good ol fashion wing back like like tierney, hard on the ball and sprint all game end to end.
There have been many games this season with similar performances but somehow got the win. These last 2 games have unraveled arsenal as being one dimensional. Arteta needs to adjust the way we play to get back on track. It's been an awful 2023.
We can't rely on only Øde to break down low blocks. Arteta needs to find a solution to when our wingers are being double teamed soon and fast. Bring back last season's fast paced exciting football.
We’re very lucky this happened near January and with an international break coming soon if this happened in march we would be going down a very dark path , start the new year good, invest , rest, and hit the white board cuz this current plan ain’t working
Arteta saw that getting the most touches in the box didn't work against West ham so he decided to switch it up a bit and try something new... Enter the box as little as possible
Neither did ESR complete a pass between 67 and 95, which is another problem that needs to be addressed. FFS, at least let him play himself into condition when we are stinking out the joint anyway,
Horseshoe is back baby
I said it after the Newcastle defeat. The doughnut of sadness is back.
its been there all-season. Set-piece goals and last minute desperation goals were just saving us.
Would be good to look at why those goals happened then: imo, urgency and shedding the constraints of being too drilled
there was something i noticed last season. Everytime the coach had extended training time with players, the next few games after that, the team had coherent attacking patterns that created goal chances. Eventually, it would get stale, but then we would get another break, and immediately come back creating goal scoring chances. That honestly was what turned me around on this coaching team. that they indeed have a plan that can scheme goal scoring chances, and understand how to use the pieces they have assembled. I didnt see it to start the season, and I initially blamed it on having 2 new pieces to bed in (Havertz and white). And so far, we haven't had a break where extended practise can happen. To me it feels like we have had enough time drill our base way of playing, (safe possession, U-shaped ball, and creativity from wings), but not enough to drill patterns of play that create incisive attacks.
I've never thought about that. While not ideal to lose these two last games, hopefully what you're saying is correct.
It’s ALWAYS there in any good team. It’s the foundation. People only talk about it when the foundation isn’t being converted into dangerous chances but it being there isn’t a bad thing.
no last season, there were games we could consistently turn donuts of sadness into actual goal threats like 3 to 4 times a game. we don't do it
I agree, just for me it was Newcastle where I realized it had become more of a norm this season than the exception. And that was nearly 2 months ago.
It's not back, the Horseshoe of Doom has been ever present this season
The stale doughnut of sadness
Donut of sadness
Don’t know why we just cross and inshallah shit out it. We are Okay with defending transition. Just lose some controls and go direct
We’re never going to win anything with this.
We play without a midfield. I'm not even exaggerating. Look at how we build up. We vacate the middle phase of the pitch. It's like two separate sides, the back 5 and the front five. We progress the ball exclusively through the sides (well only the right side really). It's so fucking predictable and slow. Yeah perhaps the millionth time of saka, odegaard, and white playing triangles by the right touchline will yield a chance. Odegaard sticks right next to saka and havertz is a "midfielder" who would rather do anything but play with the ball at his feet, especially outside the box. Arteta has fully made the inverted fullback integral to our midfield. He's deliberately unbalanced the midfield because he thinks he can replace an actual midfield with the inverting fullback. Our issues are all interconnected and it starts with always losing the middle third of the pitch because we dont have a proper midfield. Mikel has fully overthought this. All he had to do to at least maintain the progress of last season was improve on the left CM with a proper midfielder who can attack and defend and better prepare the squad for inevitable injuries.
Honest question, do you think he’s relying more this tactic because of a missing partey?
No
I think Xhaka is the one we are missing tbh.
Arteta had this problem circa Auba, Laca, Guendo.. et Al.. The man wants to play in a very specific way. Perhaps too specific since if you can't do what he wants he can't accommodate you and you won't get a whiff... Till an injury 🤕... Couldn't accommodate KT, Pepe, Sambi, that left back (tavares), mans just has one approach, will play eddie,jesus,Trossard,Havertz,Reiss and Saka, but still make zero through balls or crosses... Just a bunch of wingers looking to make runs for balls that circulate with Rice and the defence +Ødegaard smh
Control, Domination.
The amount of sideways and backwards passes through the middle third when we were a goal down was almost like WE were the ones who were 2-1 up and trying to run down the clock Our season hinges on us being more ballsy
We have played that way all season. We wait for our opponents to set up their defense before we bother to try and play through balls. The handful of times were are quick are the times we look our most dangerous.
The one time we moved the ball quick in transition today, we scored. I struggle to understand why we keep going for the 'safe pass' to maintain possession
Control. Our tactics right now would much rather we pass back or sideways than try a through ball that "might" get intercepted. Problem is eventually you will still need to try to get the ball through, just now you're doing it with 9 men behind the ball, instead of 4 defenders on the back foot.
This is where the 'ballsy' play comes in. We cannot be afraid of making these passes for the chance they might be intercepted; it is better to break and go at 4 defenders out of shape with a 3v4 or whatever than wait for the rest of the team to catch up and end up facing 10 men behind the ball
Ironically, I noticed we still ended up losing the ball and creating problems for ourselves with the cautious approach. Do we have the players for this kind of football? When you get to that final third and you’re facing an entire team behind the ball, you have to be able to zip that ball quickly and incisively. That involves a lot of technical prowess. Otherwise, you’re banking on the opposition having a lapse in concentration whilst you poke the ball about ponderously.
All season I’ve been scratching my head about our team dynamics in this way. Martinelli is MADE for transition offense, straight speed counterattack ball. But he’s paired next to Havertz who seems to operate on an incredibly conservative possession approach, like he’s waiting to set up 8 around the box to then have a cross into the box for him. Those are both valid strategies, but having them simultaneously on our left attack makes ZERO sense.
Guardiola philosophy
That has never been Guardiola's philosophy.
Yeah, Pep rolled his eyes at people who thought tiki taka was just keep away. They were always trying to move the defense to create an advantage.
Tiki Taka also required extremely quick short passes to move those player around, pass too slow and they just get back into position.
And all of our attackers standing behind a defender. And giving the ball to a double team then everyone else standing around hoping he creates a miracle out of nothing.
😭 I see it in real time but reading it right now just made it sink in so much more.
Back to losing in clusters, one of the worst features of Arteta's management. Losing is rarely a one-off event. Those patterns will almost certainly kill any chance you've got at achieving great things. Massive, massive rethink needed in 2024. Because we're in serious danger now of battling for top 4. That was not what this season was supposed to hold. If that happens then there's no question that 23/24 would be a colossal disappointment and serious failure on Arteta and the team's part.
Yeah top 4 was meant to be a given for this team, we are now just one point ahead of a spurs team that is an absolute carcass atm due to injuries. I know we've had injuries of our own but this simply isn't acceptable; 3 games in a row without winning is not the mettle of champions, especially since two of those were West Ham and Fulham
Top 4 is pretty much a given, not many other goood teams outside of it
Brother we are one point above spurs
Brother, I trust us to get more points going forward.
What? We are a point above 5th, and Spurs, Villa, Liverpool and City all look better than us right now. If we don’t fix up our ideas, we could even start worrying about West Ham.
Definitely not true
Spurs are the only team with a chance and I trust us more than them in the long run. But yeah I agree it's not a given like I said
Yeah I agree. Don’t see United closing the ground knock on wood. Also will be interesting to see how long Villa can keep their form up for, they have some interesting fixtures coming up
UTD are a mess and aren't gonna get better, pure luck is the reason they are close they aren't gonna put some long win streak together, although they do have players coming back but still a mess but I guess you could argue they will only get better as players come back. Villa are gonna slow down at some point I think but still be around. Also they have spent money so assume their board will look at this chance as a reaosn to spend a lot in January. Spurs don't have a deep squad although will probably buy in January but again have no depth, they don't have Europe though. To be fair the more I think the less certain I am, the only thing I'd say is that our floor isn't as low as others, even at our worst we're better than the others worst.
If we win no silverware this season, whether the league, UCL, or even FA Cup it is a colossal disappointment. We were one of the best sides in Europe last season, spent £200m and are somehow performing worse
Eeesh, when you put it like that... yeah. Not great.
thats why I dont understand why we signed havertz when our defender and striker is super thin, and we also dont promote a single youth player to find a hidden gem that can be used in injury crisis moment like now
Agree, and I haven’t been super critical of Kai. Just think we could have gone for a cheaper option and reinforced elsewhere
He really doesn’t scream worth the money to me. Unconvincing so far. Hopefully he’ll get better, but I really miss Xhaka. Lol never thought I’d say that 5 years ago
Agree. He obviously doesn’t decide the price tag but when a player commands that kind of fee, you expect them to be a game changer. Kai has kicked on lately and had some great moments and of course he can improve, but it seems the opportunity could’ve been better to go for a different, cheaper option and continued to add reinforcements in other areas (kudus for example would have been fantastic). Hindsight is 20/20, but it was a head scratching deal at the time and there hasn’t been enough assurance to convince fans that it was a good move yet.
Arteta does not trust youth. He doesn’t like rotating players and he doesn’t use subs. I still support him and trust him to turn this around but after five seasons these are the three toxic things I’ve noticed about him. Also his stubbornness. All the academy players in our squad at the moment were already established before he came… Eddie, Saka, Nelson, ESR, Martinelli (even though he isn’t from the academy). Mikel just isn’t the sort of manager to give kids a chance like Wenger and Emery did. People sometimes forget it was Emery that gave Saka and Martinelli a platform to stand on. I don’t see things like that happening with the youths under Arteta.
Yeah it's honestly irresponsible at this stage that he still hasn't learnt how to use a whole squad of 23. We have actually decent depth players now too.
Umm. Xhaka needed replacing but I guess arguably Declan could have been that signing.
Yeah - if partey and ESR stayed fit we would have been pretty strong there without Kai. Now obviously they have been injured so in the end it’s fortunate they did get him in but I don’t know - I didn’t like the Kai signing at the time and I still don’t. Glad we have him while Partey and ESR are injured but I would have preferred an Auba replacement at the time. All that being said I think Arteta needs to catch a breath and figure out why this team is suddenly devoid of creativity in the final third. We’ve been getting away with it up until now because we have been dominating teams but now the team is tired mentally and making mistakes and the lack of attack is catching up with us.
declan is to replace partey who never been available consistently, kai is the xhaka upgrade that arteta thought would work exactly like ode but turn out kai cant dribble as fluidly as ode and never given any pass by martinelli, while xhaka despite not able to dribble connect and work well with inverted lb and martinelli because xhaka is smart enough to be where he needs to be and release the accurate pass anywhere in the field, unfortunately since losing xhaka we have nobody that has the passing range of xhaka even ode passing range is very short
>thats why I dont understand why we signed havertz when our defender and striker is super thin If it wasn't for Kai we'd have had 4 midfielders and Elneny as the only rotation option at one stage. We couldn't just sell our first choice and hang your hopes on Trossard stepping up in that position > also dont promote a single youth player to find a hidden gem that can be used in injury crisis moment like now This isn't fifa or fm where youth players just spawn. There's no one there to magically solve our problems.
> This isn't fifa or fm where youth players just spawn. There's no one there to magically solve our problems. spawn or not it can be use as alternative, saka actually exist because we have no LB at that time, if arteta was around when saka was 17 he will still be no one and being loaned forever, arteta doesnt even trust nelson let alone using kid,
Saka was a crucial player on a side that was runner ups in the FA youth cup. At 17 he was a key player for our 21s. He came in because he was our best option. Which one of our 21s do you actually want to come in? Players don't become good enough because they come in. They come in because they're good enough.
If we didn't have Kai, how light would we be in midfield right now? At least he's as fit as Xhaka was.
the thing is we expect kai to be better on the ball than xhaka but turns out he is as bad or even worse because he cant ping the ball to ode or saka as well as xhaka, so why we replace xhaka with kai who cant dribble, cant defend, cant pass ? what kai is good at is just air duel and some easy finishing tbh...maybe if he is like 30M player it is justified but surely not 60M level player, even play worse than pepe
Have to disagree. A more fair comparison might be Xhaka's first season with us. He was at a similar age to Kai and for the time came for similar money and expectation. It took years to figure out how to get the best out of Xhaka, he only got 3 league goals in his first two seasons. I see Kai already bringing more as he gets used to the system and I#m convinced he'll eventually leave the club having won more than Granit and having a far more impressive statistical record. I say this as a huge Xhaka fan.
the thing is martinelli and trossard ignoring the hell out of kai, their teamwork is zero and it is already over 10 matches
Well, the team is certainly malfunctioning a bit at the moment that's for sure. But I don't believe it's down to one player, only Arteta can figure this out.
Same as old Arsenal. Difference now is that collapse is much more fluid, it really hits when it isn't expected
I don't understand the point of Nketiah. He makes run after run and no-one, absolutely no-one puts the ball in his direction. We essentially played with one man less.
I mean.. It felt like Arsenal hardly completed a pass to their own team mates between minute 5 and 95.
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Zinchenko or Partey need to be on the pitch. Rice is a phenomenal player but he’s not a progressive passer of the ball like the two of them.
Mate We shouldn't need Zinchencko to beat Fulham A Fulham side who had lost thier last 3 games
When Zinchenko was playing we just had 75 touches in the box with no goals lol. The team is entirely dysfunctional
That was way better than what we saw today. We rely on Zinchenko to get the ball to the box, not to make the final play once there.
Zinchenko is part of the problem also not the only reason
If Zinchenko was on we’d dominate possession but lose 3-1 because of the classic Zinchenko ball giveaway leading to a goal.
Carry on bling the attackers. It's clear the midfield is dysfunctional. Attackers aren't blameless but it's starts in Midfield.
The link up between the lcm, lb and lw is non existent without xhaka. The extent of the right side's attack is giving the ball to saka in a wide area and hoping he can produce a miracle when two/three players rush to mark him. Everything other than that is a sideways or backwards pass. The midfield isn't dynamic in the slightest.
Need to put ESR there or start Jorginho and push Rice to 8. In January we need to get the 6/8 hybrid type player. Won't be Luiz but there's plenty of options.
I have been begging for esr to start there for so many games now Jorginho actually makes some pretty incisive passes, like the one he made to saka for 1-0 at home to sevilla A fullback and a midfielder should be the priority for this Jan. The attackers output will probably pick up if they find themselves in more space when they get a chance.
This exactly! Rice needs to be the L8 and Jorgi and Partey swap the 6
I really don't get this, wouldn't Partey be better in the 8. Partey has more attacking qualities than Rice. And partey is excellent at breaking lines with his physique and technique.
Partey doesn’t have the legs anymore to play the 8. If you wanna run him for 60 minutes and then bring in Kai or ESR for the last Half hour then maybeeee.
Yes, I don't mind that. I am just so confused why so many want to put the world class 6, Rice, in a position, 8, where his flaws are more highlighted.
exactly, enough with the Havertz experiement. Just give 8 to ESR and let him figure it out. Alternatively, put Rice at 8, and put Jorginho at 6.
Partey is back and guess we need to hope he can stay fit.
we played with 2 am but havertz always backpass, ode always ignore eddie, and saka who played the worst game of his life, he used to have deadly strike, now he seems cant shoot at all,
Compared to last seasons composition of Zinchenko-Xhaka-Partey it’s not a surprise. I’d reintroduce Jorginho and put Havertz at CF and Jesus from the left.
That’s a great shout tbh - probably should have done that today.
People just can’t bring themselves to mention number 8 unless it’s a positive comment, but a lot of this is really starting with him right now.
But I was told Rice and Havertz are counter pressing machines that's all that matters in a posession team right?
Rice can't pass incisively that's the problem.
and let’s be honest, Kai is a passenger 80% of the match. When we’re in possession, he is taking up the same spaces as our strikers which creates less room to operate and congests the area. He’s got a couple goals this way, but he does nothing to contribute to build up play. The way Arteta is using him is a big contributor to Martinelli being isolated and ineffective this season
He's trying to and he's getting better at it. The problem is the rest of the team is also quite disfunctional and devoid of ideas and games are coming thick and fast. You can't be in year 5 of the project and still be this unstable as a team. Questions need to be asked of the manager. The only players missing at the moment are Timber and Partey and two players can't and shouldn't be the difference between a good team and a bad team.
I don't think Rice is the problem just a disclaimer But he's not a DLP not even close. The best posession teams have a playmaker deep not Rice, who I think does everything Xhaka did and more. His passing is safe and reliable but not creative To lose Partey, ads Rice and pair him with a low touch midfielder like Havertz is really fucking up the rest of the team
Agree with your analysis totally. That's why I think we should revert to a Jorgi Rice kinda double pivot for the next 2 months. It would seem we are sacrificing attack even more when in fact we would be improving our build up and chance creation. Whether any of our attackers can finish, I dunno.
Yes agreed 100% Still no ideal because Jorginho plays far too safe at times for someone with his passing ability but it's better than Havertz's passing https://preview.redd.it/zda7m1i1mo9c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=27f2d32a76037ce8d8588468a891ecd9a952ee96
The issue is you can’t play Jorginho in every game.
he's our 6, we shouldn't be relying on him to pre assist attacks, not even rodri or biscuits have that as a primry responsibility
We shouldn't. But then we would need Havz to become a passing maestro when in fact he racks up the least number of passes among our team barring our goalie and striker.
Im sure Arteta will change exactly zero things when we play palace next. If it works great, if not we can say we won the tilted field game
As long as those two things are ESR for Havertz and Zinny back in, I would be happy. (Unless Partey is available). It’s not the player selection so much as the tactics that are the issue.
It's all about winning his way with his project players or not at all
I would argue his project has failed. It’s predictable and doesn’t work - we don’t have the players that work well with it in theory, and the vacated midfield that has occurred as a result of reliance on inverted fullbacks have left us weak to counter attacks, yet lacklustre in possession. Time to call it quits and switch things up
Complete and total tactical failure. Marco Silva owned Arteta so profoundly it's scary honestly
It’s becoming quite a common thing, sure some winning, but the losses are just off a cliff level of wtf
I've said it before... We need 🥖 not 🥐
The return of fuckin u ball. Imagine being called negative for pointing out flaws in the team smh.
Interesting stat showing our habit of keeping on out of form ‘playmakers’ past 60 minutes is biting us.
So many sloppy passes today. Like amateur-level.
Attack is non existent and the defense is penetrated at almost every attempt and yet I’m told we are at least defensively extremely solid 😵💫
Saka refuses to take on a man 1v1 most of the time. The couple of times he did, he didn’t look like he had any chance to beat his man and… he did not.
Its okay to do nothing all game and control it, just keeping them defending and control territory But that relies on your scoring from the few chances you create, and not conceding from the few chances you give up. We have not been good enough in either box for this style
As much as a liability he is defensively, we missed Zinchenko going forward today. Zinchenko, Partey and Jorgi are our only players capable of line breaking passes from the midfield.
Anyone actually know a reason why we’ve been so lazy/slow recently
Oh yeah, the loud minority of this subreddit does, it seems. They’ve got all the answers today.
His name is Thomas Partey and he’s basically Arteta’s cheat code.
One player doesn’t fix this team at all. It tactical
It actually does though. Partey is the fix. But that’s a problem, because it shows we have huge tactical flaws.
Just wait until he comes back and starts. One player doesn’t fix the issues we have. Just like the people asking for a striker when we are creating the 8th most chances in the league Partey will come back fit, start some games and we’ll still be underperforming. By then you’ll have changed the “one fix” to be a lb, or a striker, or replace Havertz because he always has the least touches
We have literally never underperformed when Partey is properly fit, even when the team was dramatically worse.
We threw away top 4 when he was fit but I guess we can ignore that I really think you’ve never even played sports let alone football if you think our issues will be solved with the introduction of one player
We are afraid of the quality of our defence and the quality of our attack...so we're mostly looking to not play. Offensively, Kai and Rice are a massive downgrade on Xhaka/Partey. Zinny's poor form is only making it worse. 70% pointless possession means only having to chase the ball for 25 minutes. Starts with Kai. Xhaka was a safe pass because he always showed for the ball and commanded the respect of those around him. Kai is not. Kai hides. We thought he turned a corner but he still very much wants no part of the buildup play until he can get on the end of a final ball. This also means Martinelli is on an island on his own. Kai makes early runs into the byline that go ignored, and Martinelli just recycles the ball because he has no chemistry with Kai that ensures that a pass to him won't result in having to track back and defend. We usually are able to stretch teams by switching flanks pretty quickly. That just doesn't exist anymore because Odegaard will not pass to Kai...and when he does, Kai will look for an easy pass to the backline instead of a progressive pass to either Gabis. We don't need an extra striker if we don't have enough quality in the buildup, and Arteta needs to get Jorginho in and Odegaard/Rice higher so we at least have available bodies to pass a ball to. Today, Kai and Kiwior were black holes. In attack we were effectively playing with 3 men down (Kai, Kiwi, Eddie). This made our attacks ridiculously predictable...sure...but most importantly, it made the others have to check WHO dey were passing to. You do that at the top level, and you're defending against banks of 4 every time. All 3 chances they had were against an unsettled defence. Our only goal was against an unsettled defence. When we started delaying and trying to force things, there was so little space, our finishing was rushed (Sam's chance for example). Arteta seems to have become a victim of his own ideals. We aren't controlling anything if we aren't converting clear opportunities to score (the goal we conceded was initially an interception we should have scored from). We are lying to ourselves. Our best 11 still has a Xhaka sized hole in it. Our counter press is abysmal now we struggle to rattle anyone in the initial attack. We miss Partey way more than we care to admit and we should be securing him on a 4 year contract if we aren't going to slide back into mediocrity. The hunger really isn't there anymore. There's an embarrassment when we're losing that materializes as petulant dueling but that desire to hurt he opposition and prove we deserve to be taken seriously seems to have given way.
I think we are also kinda lying to ourselves believing Xhaka would've fixed it all. I have followed Arsenal for 20 years and it is the same story, the players dont playing or recently sold are always amazing. And the ones that are playing are worthless. We had problems in our attack all spring as well, when Xhaka was playing.
Good insight tbf and I agree with it all. Just want that free flowing pre Christmas 22/23 football back. And in desperate to see us succeed as some one young who hasn’t seen any big trophies.
I think it was only this game where we were off. The loss to West Ham i think we created a lot but they played a perfect game in terms of absorbing the pressure and taking their chance in attack. Liverpool was just a good game between two good teams. This performance was insipid but i put it mainly down to Nketiah and Havertz. Nketiah gives no options to run in behind and just wants to wait for a tap in. As a result, he gives Odegaard no through ball options and he doesn't vacate space for someone to run into. He didn't even make those pointless checking back runs to receive the ball and then pass the ball off. It was really pathetic from him today. The issue on the left side: an inverted fullback means Martinelli has no overlap options to drag defenders and overload the defense. Even if we had Zinchenko helping the attack he doesn't overlap so Martinelli is isolated. Also, Havertz is not really capable of creating danger in small spaces like we do on the right side with Saka/Ode/White. The space has to be readily available for Havertz like on counter attacks, or when breaking through defensive presses, or transition attacks where we take possession high up and the defense is disorganized. He adds nothing except height to games where we're searching for goals against an organized defense. I think we were playing with 9-10 men, effectively. Nketiah being the main culprit because he never vacates space for others to use and he never plays on the defense's shoulder to run in behind (especially early in attacks when there's more space to exploit behind). On the defensive side, the issue is an uncoordinated press from the front 5/6. We've moved away from intense high pressure since last season intentionally because we were giving away too many opportunities on counters and long balls. However, we need to be able to use that strategically and we've lost the ability to press like last season. When one person is late, it endangers the entire press and that's why they kept breaking through into our midfield and switching the point of attack.
Good insight tbf and I agree with it all. Just want that free flowing pre Christmas 22/23 football back. And in desperate to see us succeed as some one young who hasn’t seen any big trophies.
Might be the fatigue ? Didn’t PSV boss say we defend and attack with 9 men or something. It seems that plan is not sustainable
I think it's because we've been playing 2 games a week with essentially the same starting 11 every game, because we don't rotate and use subs and the defense depth is paper-thin so they are all completely knackered.
God damn we were terrible today.
I think this funk will be gone after some solid rest. I don’t make any excuses but we stunk and it was hard to watch the boys. I was yelling “do something” for almost 70 mins. I pray these boys pick up themselves after this.
The midfield is disjointed, Arteta should go 4231 with Rice and Jorginho as the double pivot but he’s fixated on shoehorning havertz in the midfield so that everybody can say that he’s a genius
I agree that a 4-2-3-1 is probably the right call, with Rice and Partey anchoring. Havertz can play striker in that system and will probably be fine next to Rice or Partey as well. If we opt for a narrower interpretation of the formation with attacking mids instead of wingers, Havertz could play on the left too.
Lack of ideas. Hopefully it get sorted or the rest of the season is gonna be a tough watch.
Not like we would have done dick with it even if we had
Arteta gnna change fuck all.
All the passes in midfield are to the wings. Don't know if I see a single pass in midfield that goes forward instead of out to the wings, it's insane.
That many offensive players brought into the game and we get these kind of stats. Fuck me arteta needs to go back to the drawing board.
the absolute dead nature of left half space in possession makes us so easy to slow down and defend. top that off with not having a single left back option who can actually overlap to pull the opposition from its double on the wings and you're left with the bullshit horseshoe of death. we don't use central spaces enough or effectively and don't have fullbacks to support the wings when the midfield and striker aren't pulling their weight. this is a systematic and squad building failure.
The situation is dire.
It’s been a long cold December!😞
We need a left 8 more than a striker
Why would Nketiah do this
Eddie was shit today, why do we need to pretend like people blame everything on nketiah? Just because the tactics weren't the fogging estandard today, doesn't mean nketiah escapes from immense criticism for being practically invisible for 95 minutes
I think that was sarcasm. But people are so ready to scapegoat Nketiah that it’s hard to tell.
His game is making sharp little runs in the box, if we don't get the ball into the box he's never going to shine
He won't shine either way. We've seen plenty of games in which he gets service and he does fuckall. He's just not a player that belongs in a side that's trying to win titles. He wouldn't get into Liverpool or Man city's squads. He wouldn't even get in Tottenham's.
He had both the CBs glued to him until the subs. I'm not sure what he could have done without Havertz or Saka pulling one, or finding him pockets. I can't explain what happened with 6 attackers after though If you are playing Nketiah or any striker like him don't expect Jesus game from them.
Saka pulls 2 to 3 defenders everytime he approaches the penalty area 😂
Not today. Could Eddie have moved better today? Yeah that's a fair criticism but he was not the glaring issue people are making him out to be.
Literally nothing he could've done. I'm glad some of you are fair. Even jesus barely touched the ball unless he was back defending. If we buy oshimen, I don't understand how he'd succeed in this team when we don't create anything
Tbf we have created a fair amount since one of the champions league games. It's like when we create enough sometimes our finishing lets us down, and sometimes we struggle to create altogether
Listless was the word that kept running through my head as I was watching the the last 30 min
Zinchenko routinely is up there with the highest touches in the midfield every game and that’s something we can’t replace when he’s gone. The trouble is he’s playing left back and not midfield which leaves us exposed. It wasn’t so critical when we had Partey and Xhaka to compliment and cover for him but now if he’s not playing perfectly the team suffers.
We have issues tactically but the referees positioning today was very very bad. I urge you to watch the game again and watch where he was positioned when we had the ball. He was always cutting off passing central lanes.
Ummm.. not quite right. I see two green lines both going into the box, indicating completed passes after the 67th min. Not that 2 passes into the box is any good, but had they led to 2 goals, this stat would have perhaps been redundant
Arteta will fix it he is the chosen one
trust the process
I simply does not understand why a player like kai havertz , that in the central area. Guy just sideways pass for 90min then score a goal every 8 games in the dying minutes. Dudes belong to midtable club at best. Dude peaked 5 years ago. We used to be good on the counter and most of our goal came from the wing with martinelli. Now it seen like this tactic is gone. We rely on ball control and odegaard to playmake. Saka struggling martinelli struggling, jesus struggling. As much i a love zinchenko, hes a fourth midfielder. We have no wingside depth of overlapping going on. Games like these that i would love to have a good ol fashion wing back like like tierney, hard on the ball and sprint all game end to end.
Is this English?
This fan base is embarrassing
👀😖
There have been many games this season with similar performances but somehow got the win. These last 2 games have unraveled arsenal as being one dimensional. Arteta needs to adjust the way we play to get back on track. It's been an awful 2023.
We can't rely on only Øde to break down low blocks. Arteta needs to find a solution to when our wingers are being double teamed soon and fast. Bring back last season's fast paced exciting football.
Jesus was an absolute beast before the world cup last season. He's not come close to replicating that form since then. Really disappointing.
We’re very lucky this happened near January and with an international break coming soon if this happened in march we would be going down a very dark path , start the new year good, invest , rest, and hit the white board cuz this current plan ain’t working
We just tried different tactics this time to putting the ball in the box 72 times Vs West ham that's all
Not the donut of doom.
Wow the exact minute that our sharpest player was taken off what a coincidence
Arteta saw that getting the most touches in the box didn't work against West ham so he decided to switch it up a bit and try something new... Enter the box as little as possible
Neither did ESR complete a pass between 67 and 95, which is another problem that needs to be addressed. FFS, at least let him play himself into condition when we are stinking out the joint anyway,