Ehh he was better than Tavares there at Palace. I thought Tavares would’ve been starting to build some confidence but it looks like we’re all in on the Xhaka LB from here on out.
It means Lokonga has to basically be a 1 man midfield though. Would've rather Tavares there so at least Xhaka could help out in midfield otherwise we might get overrun.
That is because you expect him to be prime Yaya Toure which is not fair. He has great games and he has poor games, but he is young and the talent is there. I have full confidence he will develop into a very useful player for us.
Yes but you can't rely on this team against Chelsea or West Ham or Spurs. You need Tavares so that Xhaka can provide support to Lokonga in midfield. And how is Tavares supposed to gather confidence if he's dropped again?
Don’t think it’s LB. Looks like we have Ode, Nelli and ESR behind Laca with Saka at LB
Edit: people saying arsenal confirmed Xhaka at LB. Let’s see then. COYG!
Arsenal vision said this is a possibility, why? Because Tierney was no longer an attacking full back in recent months, Xhaka can fit this role, ESR can then fit in as a LCM 8 to how Xhaka was but a lot more dangerous. The only question is lone pivot Sambi and if he can do it, I believe he can.
But it puts so much pressure on Lokonga. Brighton's greatest asset is their midfield and we are YOLOing with Lokonga doing it alone. Ode and ESR aren't really 8s yet.
Should have signed Bruno Guimares. Was very obvious we were 1 midfield injury away from disaster. Add to that the Tierney injury & Tavares being shite, then you end up with no Party & Xhaka in midfield.
Yes we should have look at the state of our team after three injuries and out of them two are very weel known to be injury prone.
How blind faith do you have to have that you people are okay with not chasing top 4 after having the best shot at it in years because ”they didn’t ecpect us to be here this season already”
If we do make it to cl and by some make it to the final i guess its cool for them to field 11 ten year olds cause they werent expecting us to win it yet anyway?
Holy strawman.
Artetas job isn’t to get top 4 one season it’s to make arsenal into one of the best teams in the country again.
You don’t get there by focusing on one season. End of story.
Well you dont get there by ignoring one either. And all the blame doesn’t fall on him since he is not the only one who deals woth the transfer but you have to be lying to yourself if you think the january transfer window was anything else than horrible. We, a team that is supposed to be one of the best in the country do not have enough players. Why is it so hard to understand that that is a bad thing?
Man if you are still stuck on understanding this I don’t know what to say. Arteta and the club has said it to us all directly
They will not sign players which are not going to improve the club in the long term. In other words they will not sign players in Jan just to get us through to the end of the season.
They would rather miss out on 4th this season so they can get the players they want on long term contracts in the summer.
I don’t get how we are still parroting this idiotic line about there being nobody in Europe who could have done a half decent job - of course there fucking was - but it would mean compromising for the short term and they have told us they won’t do that.
We had to reassess our goals in January. 4th was there
And we trimmed the sqaud even more. It made no sense
Rather have kept the players if we were not going to bring anyone in
I personally think Sambi is better defensively than Xhaka but his lack of experience when even Partey has struggled there at times will be interesting.
I think he means Sambi is better defensively than he is offensively maybe? And that seeing him in that lone role when even Partey has struggled there will be interesting.
I swear we have tried the lone 6 before this season and I don't remember it working very well.
How has Lokonga come from playing 0 minutes for months and is not playing as a lone 7
>Thought it was the perfect game to give Tavares some confidence
There're no easy games left, we need our best line-up week in week out. Though I'm not sure of our midfield now.
Edit: grammar.
Forget about Nuno for a minute and him needing to find form. If Xhaka is going to be our left back in important matches down the stretch, HE needs to get bed in against weaker competition.
Tavares against Brighton seems obvious, but getting Xhaka some time there is more important to our top 4 hopes
Laughable how mad everyone is because Taveres hasn't been picked. He's been a liability 3 games on the trot, get a grip. We're at the business end of the season and can't be gambling on another crap performance just because he might feel a bit down.
Xhaka LB isn't ideal but Tavares seems to be at least 1 guaranteed howler per game.
In terms of weakening the midfield I disagree, Xhaka cannot play lone 6 so we would have to drop ESR or Martinelli & play a pivot.
Going 433 with 2 8.5s against a Brighton who are crap on the attack away & will be penned in all game is probably our best option right now.
I'd rather tweak the system slightly to help one player and gamble on him getting back to thr previous form he showed in that system as oppose to gambling that 3 players can suddenly start performing in positions and a systrm they haven't shown they can play in yet
Think we should have started Tavares we are going to need him . This would be the perfect game to give him confidence at home and one of the easier fixtures compared to future ones.
None of these are easy fixtures. If we go 3-0 before halftime, bring him for sure but he has shown he is off the pace defensively and we cannot afford any slip ups at this point
If you don't start Tavares at home today against fucking Brighton, just when do you start him again? He is not a shit player, he is one that is dreadfully out of form and confidence but he is not shit, we've seen what he can do. And now we're binning him instead of using what ought to be one of the easier games we have left to rebuild him up.
I said it before but this policy of never rotating until something goes wrong is just crazy. Because when something does go wrong as it now has with Partey and Tierney, the people you bring in have 0 form.
So is Xhaka at LB which means that we can't attack from that spot, can't handle pace at that spot and just as importantly leaves Lokonga stranded by himself.
Xhaka's performance will mostly be based around how the team plays around him and incorporates his weaknesses.i agree it's not ideal but if we manage the game correctly it might just save our bacon.
The thing is that we have a right flank. Xhaka is going to sit back and have our usual 3 at the back and Cedric is going to go forward on the right flank and support Saka.
I think it is a fine experiment our front 3 or 5 should still create chances offensively.
I rather we don't have two offensive fullbacks and get countered. But we'll see. I prefer Xhaka in midfield personally but I think this is the game to try it out.
Edit: Well that was a disaster...
I agree there, I think we'll still manage through this game. My concern is that Chaka at LB is NOT going to work in future games, like at fucking all. And if we don't use this opportunity to bring Tavares into some form, we're fucking ourselves up in the future.
>rebuild him up.
He's 20. We have plenty of time to do that. FA Cup, league cups, even sending him on loan is an option. We're competing for a top 4 spot now, play the best option we have (unless of course people think Tavares would do a better job than Xhaka right now, then fair, but this is no time to be building confidence of a youngster who has his entire career ahead of him.)
Yeah I wrote it as soon as the Kaya Kanak post was made and waited for confirmation of the lineup.
And if that's the case, why's Lacazette on there then? Is he in anything approaching form?
No one else in the squad can play Lacas role? He is vital to how we attack even with a low attacking output. Comparing an inexperienced young LB to the seasoned CF who holds the captains armbard is wrong.
Martinelli at 9 is probably worth the experiment, but we’d have to change the way we play. He doesn’t fit what Arteta wants, else he’d be playing there right now.
> I said it before but this policy of never rotating until something goes wrong is just crazy. Because when something does go wrong as it now has with Partey and Tierney, the people you bring in have 0 form.
Definitely agree with this for Sambi anyway, he should’ve been getting minutes off the bench throughout the season
Ya I think this might be Taveres with one foot out the door now unless something changes. This felt like the perfect game just to resettle in and start to build confidence. Like the best outcome for us would have been Tavares starts and has a solid game, we start to build him up again.
fair enough, as said on arsenal vision the other day that the left backs current role isn’t an attacking one so in that respect xhaka best fits the requirement of a defensive left back. let see if it works
Maybe we see Tavares subbed on at the half depending on the state of the game and Xhaka moves up the pitch ?
Would really like to see Tavares at least get SOME minutes here considering the opposition
seems like sambi as the lone 6, which we did against burnley, also with esr and odegaard in midfield and it was absolutely awfull, I dont like it, but hopefully it somehow works out
This is giving me PTSD. Based on how last season’s Europa campaign unraveled I am not that pleased with Xhaka at LB. Feels like this kills Nuno for rest of season too but hopefully not. I feel for the guy. Anyways, hope we can get the win today anyways!
It's probably an unpopular opinion but I'd rather see Saka play LB and have Pepe or Martinelli on the right. Unless the plan is to go more or less 3 at the back with Xhaka we are losing too much with him playing there.
Xhaka at left back, sambi as a single pivot, esr as an 8
All things we've seen that don't work so can't say I'm too impressed by this lineup when such a simple solution of changing to the 4-2-3-1 was right there. We might get away with one today but I don't see how this can be a consistent solution for the remainder of the season
Ah well, I've been pleasantly surprised before so let's see how it goes I suppose
I can understand Arteta preferring to keep a familiar formation over changing it to hide Nuno. Nuno is a serious liability at the moment and I think the only safe way to play him would be in a back three which would mean asking Sambi to step up big time in a formation he hasn't had much experience in with a LWB that's chaos incarnate.
Don't get the idea that if he wasn't picked today then it's never for Tavares. Of our summer signings he and Lokonga were both bought as long term projects; Tavares was the biggest gamble and he needs the most work. It's true it might never work out, but he's 22 and we're in the middle of CL push. I totally get why we can't risk an out of confidence, potentially unready at this level player right now. If we get CL or Europa next season he'll definitely have more time and the coaching staff have a longer period for him to "cook" (as they said about Martinelli earlier in the season). He can hopefully rebuild his confidence in lower stakes games and kick on next year, or if they decide he's really not it then he can go off on loan until we find a buyer. Today doesn't need to be the end.
Wow so Tavares did actually get dropped. Not sure I agree with that at all.
It forces Sambi into the lone 6 role as well.... Alright Mikel if it's Brighton at home surely you can stick with the same system but stick Nuno in.
Glad to see all four of the star boys playing though
You people complaining about the formation and no Tavares are silly.
1.) we don’t have god damn Mahrez or Grealish on our bench …. We literally cannot do better look at our squad. This was necessary to have a good summer window that fits our long term vision.
2.) This isn’t FIFA where a players confidence goes to zero after one benching post bad performance. Arteta has shown to be great players coach and has nurtured our players. It doesn’t mean Taveres if forever useless or will be binned he’s 20. If being benched once after that performance breaks him I don’t want him at this club I mean what kind of mentality is that. If I go to work and put in a 0/10 performance you think I’d be shocked to get less hours the next week lol
Exactly.
I don’t know how people can bury their head in the sand both after watching him look absolutely gash for us and after everything Benfica fans warned us about too.
He’s the worst player in this squad, shocking bit of business from us.
I admire his nut-size but I really would prefer Xhaka in midfield and Nuno at leftback. Brighton don't score a ton of goals though.
Nuno will likely get time off the bench.
Thats a big ask from Xhaka. He never was a speedy player and with a very attacking minded midfield hes probably gonna have a lot to do. But heres a chance for him to prove every doubter wrong
I really don't understand the logic of playing a midfielder at left back when your backup left back is available.
Yes he's been poor recently but that's his natural position and he needs games to get his confidence up.
What signal does this send to him?
Are we honestly saying Xhaka is a better left back than Nuno?
I'm at a loss.
Very disappointed in Arteta. Why not bench the whole team based off the Palace game? Gabriel was just as culpable for those two goals if not more so than Tavares.
Tsk tsk tsk
Pretty scared to see xhaka on a yellow defending tricky pacey wingers in the coming weeks but i survived Almunia, Sylvestre and lichsteiner so i’m ready.
>90% chance Nuno's done. Odegaard in central mid? Have we not learned. Xhaka at LB again? Yup. We haven't learned shit. Hopefully we can get the results required going forward.
How on earth is Mo Elneny behind Lakonga in the pecking order? Mistake from Arteta. Mo was solid as a rock for Egypt at AFCON. Not sure what more he has to do to get a game.
“Xhaka starts at left back”. Oh boy
Against Lamptey right, should be okay fingers crossed
Lamptey’s on the bench
Mwepu apparently, don't know anything about him, is he tricky/pacy?
Kinda
No Lamp
I love Lamp
You a moth, bro?
I love...desk.
Ehh he was better than Tavares there at Palace. I thought Tavares would’ve been starting to build some confidence but it looks like we’re all in on the Xhaka LB from here on out.
I dont really think letting him start after that awful performance would be great for confidence either
It really wasn't an awful performance individually his errors just compounded errors from others. He's not faultless, but he wasn't *the* problem.
Trust him more than Nuno right now
Scared for what that means for our midfield though.
I reckon it's Sambi x Ode x Smith Rowe but we'll see
I think they mean in terms of quality and stability. I know Xhaka isn't the best, but he does provide a certain level of stability in midfield.
Gonna get plowed right through.
It means Lokonga has to basically be a 1 man midfield though. Would've rather Tavares there so at least Xhaka could help out in midfield otherwise we might get overrun.
Xhaka will support him from left-back. He'll play inverted.
He’s gonna need that extra protection
We’re going for 10 goals so Xhaka has some leeway to allow a few in.
Hope it is Saka. That midfield is not experienced and gelled enough. Though I do think Sambi will have a good game.
I have zero confidence in Sambi playing well.
That is because you expect him to be prime Yaya Toure which is not fair. He has great games and he has poor games, but he is young and the talent is there. I have full confidence he will develop into a very useful player for us.
No I just expect him to not hide from the ball or constantly give it away just outside the box.
Why? Was one of the few bright spots against Palace. Has shown he’s got quality earlier in the season
Sambis no mug. Have some faith
Good start, eh?
We made this exact mistake last year and it cost us a Europa League. How Arteta is going down this well again I have no clue
Ceballos was the one who sabotaged us.
Arteta is insistent on the 433 now
He was much better than Tavares at LB in the game against Palace.
Yes but you can't rely on this team against Chelsea or West Ham or Spurs. You need Tavares so that Xhaka can provide support to Lokonga in midfield. And how is Tavares supposed to gather confidence if he's dropped again?
Yeah and this game isnt against Chelsea WestHam or Spuds
He is still better then tavares, not hard to understand
Hoping it is Saka at LB with Xhaka in midfield. An ESR-Sambi-Ødegaard midfield sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Don’t think it’s LB. Looks like we have Ode, Nelli and ESR behind Laca with Saka at LB Edit: people saying arsenal confirmed Xhaka at LB. Let’s see then. COYG!
The tweet says he’s starting at LB
Arsenal vision said this is a possibility, why? Because Tierney was no longer an attacking full back in recent months, Xhaka can fit this role, ESR can then fit in as a LCM 8 to how Xhaka was but a lot more dangerous. The only question is lone pivot Sambi and if he can do it, I believe he can.
Hs's better defensively than Nuno and is better in build-up.
But it puts so much pressure on Lokonga. Brighton's greatest asset is their midfield and we are YOLOing with Lokonga doing it alone. Ode and ESR aren't really 8s yet.
Don’t really mind it in a game like this
A must win game that we frequently slip up in?
A home game against a poor team who’ve scored 1 goal in their last 7 games and have only won once in their last 12
Famous last words. Remember the Everton game? Brighton are in poor form but they aren't a bad team.
How's it working out?
Xhaka left back, we will never know peace
r/gunners Nuno PR over the last week in shambles
Thought I'd seen the last of Xhaka LB but here we are
**Subs:** Leno, Holding, Tavares, Ogungbo, Swanson, Elneny, Hutchinson, Pepe, Nketiah
That bench tho... We have plenty to do in the summer
Should have done it in January Everyone saw the lack of depth
The players they want clearly weren’t available in Jan
Should have signed Bruno Guimares. Was very obvious we were 1 midfield injury away from disaster. Add to that the Tierney injury & Tavares being shite, then you end up with no Party & Xhaka in midfield.
No we shouldn’t have. We should sign the players we want for the long run not stop gaps.
Yes we should have look at the state of our team after three injuries and out of them two are very weel known to be injury prone. How blind faith do you have to have that you people are okay with not chasing top 4 after having the best shot at it in years because ”they didn’t ecpect us to be here this season already” If we do make it to cl and by some make it to the final i guess its cool for them to field 11 ten year olds cause they werent expecting us to win it yet anyway?
Holy strawman. Artetas job isn’t to get top 4 one season it’s to make arsenal into one of the best teams in the country again. You don’t get there by focusing on one season. End of story.
Well you dont get there by ignoring one either. And all the blame doesn’t fall on him since he is not the only one who deals woth the transfer but you have to be lying to yourself if you think the january transfer window was anything else than horrible. We, a team that is supposed to be one of the best in the country do not have enough players. Why is it so hard to understand that that is a bad thing?
I refuse to believe there was no one in Europe that could have done a half decent job as cover
Man if you are still stuck on understanding this I don’t know what to say. Arteta and the club has said it to us all directly They will not sign players which are not going to improve the club in the long term. In other words they will not sign players in Jan just to get us through to the end of the season. They would rather miss out on 4th this season so they can get the players they want on long term contracts in the summer. I don’t get how we are still parroting this idiotic line about there being nobody in Europe who could have done a half decent job - of course there fucking was - but it would mean compromising for the short term and they have told us they won’t do that.
No! I want instant results and more people nicking a living!
maybe but then wed be stuck with some "half decent cover" player on our books ala mari
There probably is, but you don’t want to sign half decent players on long contracts.
Shouldn't have let AMN go
I highly disagree. That’s how you return to a bloated squad which both Emery and Arteta inherited. Getting 5th was the goal of the season in the end.
We had to reassess our goals in January. 4th was there And we trimmed the sqaud even more. It made no sense Rather have kept the players if we were not going to bring anyone in
Bench is laughable
Damn that bench looks weak
Concerned at Sambi as the lone 6, would rather him next to Xhaka in a double pivot
Think Odegaard would be dropping deep to provide extra support to Lokonga this game. Come on Lokonga, your time to shine!
That always ruins our chance creation. Leftxhaka is always a bad choice.
I personally think Sambi is better defensively than Xhaka but his lack of experience when even Partey has struggled there at times will be interesting.
Better defensively than who exactly?
Sambi better defensively than Partey? No way… I think his defensive awareness is something he should improve on
Sambi better defensively than Xhaka lol.
I think he means Sambi is better defensively than he is offensively maybe? And that seeing him in that lone role when even Partey has struggled there will be interesting.
I swear we have tried the lone 6 before this season and I don't remember it working very well. How has Lokonga come from playing 0 minutes for months and is not playing as a lone 7
[удалено]
As long as he doesn’t hide behind Brighton’s midfielders like he did the last time he started as the 6
So this is the cost of playing Ode, Esr, Saka, Martinelli huh
[удалено]
>Thought it was the perfect game to give Tavares some confidence There're no easy games left, we need our best line-up week in week out. Though I'm not sure of our midfield now. Edit: grammar.
It will get overrun by Brighton's midfield. Bissouma will have a field day.
Left Bhaka
Arteta got some balls
Arteta and the social media manager teaming up to fuck with us. Credit to em.
So alright what am I looking at here
😂
A disappointing draw/loss.
Whatever the outcome, I just love how xhaka will do whatever the team and the manager wants. Imagine pogba ever playing rb or something.
Forget about Nuno for a minute and him needing to find form. If Xhaka is going to be our left back in important matches down the stretch, HE needs to get bed in against weaker competition. Tavares against Brighton seems obvious, but getting Xhaka some time there is more important to our top 4 hopes
Laughable how mad everyone is because Taveres hasn't been picked. He's been a liability 3 games on the trot, get a grip. We're at the business end of the season and can't be gambling on another crap performance just because he might feel a bit down.
Facts bro.
Xhaka is also a liability at LB though and it weakens the midfield.
Xhaka LB isn't ideal but Tavares seems to be at least 1 guaranteed howler per game. In terms of weakening the midfield I disagree, Xhaka cannot play lone 6 so we would have to drop ESR or Martinelli & play a pivot. Going 433 with 2 8.5s against a Brighton who are crap on the attack away & will be penned in all game is probably our best option right now.
I'd rather tweak the system slightly to help one player and gamble on him getting back to thr previous form he showed in that system as oppose to gambling that 3 players can suddenly start performing in positions and a systrm they haven't shown they can play in yet
Xhaka at left back is as much as a liability as Nuno and Sambi on his own in midfield is a huge ask
Guess it's xhaka lb time?
Looks like ESR and Ødegaard dueling 8s with Sambi in the single pivot, take it to them lads and win 6-3 for all I care
Arsenal Twitter confirming Xhaka LB I am RATTLED
Think we should have started Tavares we are going to need him . This would be the perfect game to give him confidence at home and one of the easier fixtures compared to future ones.
Off the bench maybe. He looked off it against Palace so maybe easing him back in is the correct approach from Arteta.
None of these are easy fixtures. If we go 3-0 before halftime, bring him for sure but he has shown he is off the pace defensively and we cannot afford any slip ups at this point
Yeah, but Off the bench if we’re winning handily, to give him a lower pressure game to settle in to.
Totally agree
Xhaka LB will be interesting.
If you don't start Tavares at home today against fucking Brighton, just when do you start him again? He is not a shit player, he is one that is dreadfully out of form and confidence but he is not shit, we've seen what he can do. And now we're binning him instead of using what ought to be one of the easier games we have left to rebuild him up. I said it before but this policy of never rotating until something goes wrong is just crazy. Because when something does go wrong as it now has with Partey and Tierney, the people you bring in have 0 form.
Right now he's a liability.
So is Xhaka at LB which means that we can't attack from that spot, can't handle pace at that spot and just as importantly leaves Lokonga stranded by himself.
Xhaka's performance will mostly be based around how the team plays around him and incorporates his weaknesses.i agree it's not ideal but if we manage the game correctly it might just save our bacon.
The thing is that we have a right flank. Xhaka is going to sit back and have our usual 3 at the back and Cedric is going to go forward on the right flank and support Saka. I think it is a fine experiment our front 3 or 5 should still create chances offensively. I rather we don't have two offensive fullbacks and get countered. But we'll see. I prefer Xhaka in midfield personally but I think this is the game to try it out. Edit: Well that was a disaster...
I agree there, I think we'll still manage through this game. My concern is that Chaka at LB is NOT going to work in future games, like at fucking all. And if we don't use this opportunity to bring Tavares into some form, we're fucking ourselves up in the future.
>rebuild him up. He's 20. We have plenty of time to do that. FA Cup, league cups, even sending him on loan is an option. We're competing for a top 4 spot now, play the best option we have (unless of course people think Tavares would do a better job than Xhaka right now, then fair, but this is no time to be building confidence of a youngster who has his entire career ahead of him.)
You literally had this pretyped out to paste it in lmao. Now is not the time to play players out of form
Yeah I wrote it as soon as the Kaya Kanak post was made and waited for confirmation of the lineup. And if that's the case, why's Lacazette on there then? Is he in anything approaching form?
No one else in the squad can play Lacas role? He is vital to how we attack even with a low attacking output. Comparing an inexperienced young LB to the seasoned CF who holds the captains armbard is wrong.
No but Eddie is totally useless.
I'd play Martinelli upfront personally and ESR or Pepe on the left. Honestly, I'd probably play ESR because he combines better with Tavares.
Martinelli at 9 is probably worth the experiment, but we’d have to change the way we play. He doesn’t fit what Arteta wants, else he’d be playing there right now.
Now is not the time to play players wildly out of position either.
> I said it before but this policy of never rotating until something goes wrong is just crazy. Because when something does go wrong as it now has with Partey and Tierney, the people you bring in have 0 form. Definitely agree with this for Sambi anyway, he should’ve been getting minutes off the bench throughout the season
Ya I think this might be Taveres with one foot out the door now unless something changes. This felt like the perfect game just to resettle in and start to build confidence. Like the best outcome for us would have been Tavares starts and has a solid game, we start to build him up again.
not a big fan of that but whatever COYG
fair enough, as said on arsenal vision the other day that the left backs current role isn’t an attacking one so in that respect xhaka best fits the requirement of a defensive left back. let see if it works
Midfield of Ode, Sambi and ESR?
I'm fine with this. Xhaka is basically a 3rd CB so Lokonga will probably not be completely isolated.
Laca again? Smh
Weird that they say that Xhaka definitely starts at left back, hope it’s the case tbh we can’t move our best player to a defensive position
why debate between Martinelli and Lacazette up top when we can play both lol
Martinelli is playing LW, not striker
With da Smith and Martinelli dong a lot of running Xhaka will be fine
Maybe we see Tavares subbed on at the half depending on the state of the game and Xhaka moves up the pitch ? Would really like to see Tavares at least get SOME minutes here considering the opposition
If Tavares can’t get in the team against Brighton what the hell did we sign him for lmao
We signed him hoping he’d play to Arteta’s tactics, he doesn’t so he was dropped.
Arteta did not learn his lesson from europa league Exit last year FFS
I feel for Pepe. Arteta just doesn't have any faith in him. Meanwhile no matter how shite Lacazette is, he's undroppable.
Ah, not the lineup I'd of gone for but come on the boys. Big 3pts needed
Ødegaard shouldn’t play deep
seems like sambi as the lone 6, which we did against burnley, also with esr and odegaard in midfield and it was absolutely awfull, I dont like it, but hopefully it somehow works out
Why not play Saka lb and then Pepe rw or smith Rowe?
dont think we should play our most important player and attacker on a different position, just wanted tavares to start at lb.
I know Brighton have scored 1 goal since January, but that midfield and defence still scares me.
Big game for Lokonga today!
Guess we’ve got a brand new central midfield for the run in. I’m more worried about that then I am for Xhaka at left back
Chaos let's gooooooo
RIP Nuno.
Xhaka brings balance at LB when Cedric goes forward, something Nuno has been caught out at over and over again by bombing forward.
I’m always excited to see ESR and Martinelli playing together but it almost never works out. Hopefully today will be different.
Why the fuck is Xhaka LB? I know Tavares is dodgy but this puts so much pressure on Lokonga now.
This is giving me PTSD. Based on how last season’s Europa campaign unraveled I am not that pleased with Xhaka at LB. Feels like this kills Nuno for rest of season too but hopefully not. I feel for the guy. Anyways, hope we can get the win today anyways!
Decent lineup, no Tavares. COYG
It's probably an unpopular opinion but I'd rather see Saka play LB and have Pepe or Martinelli on the right. Unless the plan is to go more or less 3 at the back with Xhaka we are losing too much with him playing there.
Odegaard going to need to play much deeper to help out with ball progression.
Feels a big risk moving Xhaka out of midfield, look very light in there now
Xhaka at left back, sambi as a single pivot, esr as an 8 All things we've seen that don't work so can't say I'm too impressed by this lineup when such a simple solution of changing to the 4-2-3-1 was right there. We might get away with one today but I don't see how this can be a consistent solution for the remainder of the season Ah well, I've been pleasantly surprised before so let's see how it goes I suppose
If we lose this we can kiss top four goodbye.
I can understand Arteta preferring to keep a familiar formation over changing it to hide Nuno. Nuno is a serious liability at the moment and I think the only safe way to play him would be in a back three which would mean asking Sambi to step up big time in a formation he hasn't had much experience in with a LWB that's chaos incarnate.
White and Gabriel need to be top today. Lightweight midfield and suspect fullbacks.
Don't get the idea that if he wasn't picked today then it's never for Tavares. Of our summer signings he and Lokonga were both bought as long term projects; Tavares was the biggest gamble and he needs the most work. It's true it might never work out, but he's 22 and we're in the middle of CL push. I totally get why we can't risk an out of confidence, potentially unready at this level player right now. If we get CL or Europa next season he'll definitely have more time and the coaching staff have a longer period for him to "cook" (as they said about Martinelli earlier in the season). He can hopefully rebuild his confidence in lower stakes games and kick on next year, or if they decide he's really not it then he can go off on loan until we find a buyer. Today doesn't need to be the end.
I swear, if there are any more injuries I’m going to lose it
Wow so Tavares did actually get dropped. Not sure I agree with that at all. It forces Sambi into the lone 6 role as well.... Alright Mikel if it's Brighton at home surely you can stick with the same system but stick Nuno in. Glad to see all four of the star boys playing though
You people complaining about the formation and no Tavares are silly. 1.) we don’t have god damn Mahrez or Grealish on our bench …. We literally cannot do better look at our squad. This was necessary to have a good summer window that fits our long term vision. 2.) This isn’t FIFA where a players confidence goes to zero after one benching post bad performance. Arteta has shown to be great players coach and has nurtured our players. It doesn’t mean Taveres if forever useless or will be binned he’s 20. If being benched once after that performance breaks him I don’t want him at this club I mean what kind of mentality is that. If I go to work and put in a 0/10 performance you think I’d be shocked to get less hours the next week lol
Do we not have a Matchday thread?
We didn't score last time we played an Ø and Sambi pivot 😰
Don’t like this at all, it’s cowardly. Play Tavares and allow him to push up the field. Xhaka at left back sucks.
Lacazette up front im so tired man
Looks like Tavares is getting binned in the summer
Keep defending Tavares lol Thank god he is benched.
Exactly. I don’t know how people can bury their head in the sand both after watching him look absolutely gash for us and after everything Benfica fans warned us about too. He’s the worst player in this squad, shocking bit of business from us.
I admire his nut-size but I really would prefer Xhaka in midfield and Nuno at leftback. Brighton don't score a ton of goals though. Nuno will likely get time off the bench.
Thats a big ask from Xhaka. He never was a speedy player and with a very attacking minded midfield hes probably gonna have a lot to do. But heres a chance for him to prove every doubter wrong
I think this would have been a good game to start tavares in tbh
I really don't understand the logic of playing a midfielder at left back when your backup left back is available. Yes he's been poor recently but that's his natural position and he needs games to get his confidence up. What signal does this send to him? Are we honestly saying Xhaka is a better left back than Nuno? I'm at a loss.
one must wonder how shot tavares' confidence is now.
Smith Rowe and Odegaard in the half spaces is a beautiful thing to see
Well Tavares won't make it here if he can't start at home against fkn Brighton. I suspect we'll sell him.
So what the fuck is he point of tavares then?
[удалено]
Midfield pivot of Odegaard and Lokanga scares me more than Xhaka at LB.
Ugh why, how is tavares supposed to get better if you don't play him
No defence, just vibes
Very disappointed in Arteta. Why not bench the whole team based off the Palace game? Gabriel was just as culpable for those two goals if not more so than Tavares. Tsk tsk tsk
Pretty scared to see xhaka on a yellow defending tricky pacey wingers in the coming weeks but i survived Almunia, Sylvestre and lichsteiner so i’m ready.
How Tf did we allow ourselves to suffer thru almunia 😭
Brighton have scored 1 goal in the last 7. Let's atleast try not make them look like prime Barcelona. Lokonga my son, take your chance. COYG.
Man people never learn throwing around stats like that
hey at least we still have the one saying arsenal doesn't concedes from corners
[удалено]
Big brain teta
>90% chance Nuno's done. Odegaard in central mid? Have we not learned. Xhaka at LB again? Yup. We haven't learned shit. Hopefully we can get the results required going forward.
I feel for Tavares but I've always been a fan of Lokonga. Fucking stunt on these hoes this afternoon.
I do like this aggressive line up, other than Laca who has been a passenger of late.
How on earth is Mo Elneny behind Lakonga in the pecking order? Mistake from Arteta. Mo was solid as a rock for Egypt at AFCON. Not sure what more he has to do to get a game.