I do not know about you but the games against Utd and Everton today reminded me (almost) to the end of the Emery area…It was lacking personality, bravery, intensity, pace…It was all very much a structured and safe approach but in the end, it bit us in the back for a few reasons, including (i) missing big chances by Nketiah to take the lead or Auba to tie the game with the last kick of the game; (ii) poor coaching by Arteta, leaving Partey (just struggling with his game) and Xhaka (physically struggling in the last third) on the field.
We got away thanks to the VAR two times but in the end, Everton showed did not steal their victory. Of course, if Nketiah scored, we would have won the game but to be honest, it was not a game where we deserved to win. Everton came back in the second half with intent and we just were too passive.
Here are the grades:
Ramsdale – 6, not at fault
Tomy – 4, a poor game by his standard
White – 5, nothing too good nor too bad
Gabs – 6, our rock
Tierney – 5, an assist but then faded
Partey – 3, another night to forther
Xhaka – 4, gave his all but was tired.
Saka – 6, tried especially in the second half
Ode – 6, a good performance in the last 20 meters but otherwise, not influencial
Martinelli – 5, a quiet night
Laca – 5, anonymous
Nketiah – 4, a big miss and then provides a glorious assist but was full of running but that miss is just criminal.
Auba – 4, a big miss too…
Tavares – 5, brought his energy to the game.
Arteta: 3.
MOTM: D. Gray, Richarlison and A. Doucoure.
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Fatgingergooner says: RC,
Arteta has been under scrutiny since last Xmas if you talk to some Arsenal fans! 😂
It was a really poor game in truth and we just didn’t help ourselves. Passing was poor, finishing was poor, and time wasting with 20 minutes left was never going to end well. It seems Arteta has a similar strategy to Emery in that he is obsessed with ‘control’. I’ve said it in the past and I’ll say it again….It doesn’t work in this league. Teams are too tenacious and fans get too much behind their teams to allow them to give up at 1-0, 2-0. The way to win matches in the PL is to go for the throat and dominate when you get the chance. How often are City and Liverpool 3-0 up at half time??? When do we do that!? We aren’t good enough defensively to sit on single goal leads, especially away from home.
2 home games next and hopefully some improvement in our attacking play.
Allezkev says: I feel really sorry for our defence, we’ve got a great back four and a top goalkeeper but most of the blokes in front of them are just bang average.
Also, there was an incident with Godfrey where he could/should have gotten a red card…
RC, what about Gordon going over the top on Tavares, wasn’t that serious foul play, even in England?
VAR is still operated questionably to me and anyway why was Mike Dean, a Merseyside referee, officiating in this game?
Has the English dictionary change from minutes to meters lol
Didn’t watch game but no one talking about Everton should be down to 10 men
Possible topic starter.
Per Frost on another;
“Arsenal’s attacking statsGOALS – (13) – 14th in the league
OPEN PLAY GOALS – (7)- 19th in the league
XG – (13.8) – 12th in the league.
BIG CHANCES – (7) – 19th in the league
SHOT CONVERSION – (8.4%) – 16th
POSSESSION – (47%) – 13th in the league
Last goal in the league for our strikers (Laca & Auba) was 7 matches ago.”
What do we do to fix this with our players, maybe another mid or attacker in Jan, or another coach??
Players are in straightjackets…
Going to be watching closely to the next three games, does Arteta have it in him?
After some lucky results Arteta is back on track: Liverpool (0-4), United (2-3), Everton (1-2). “It’s great to have Xhaka back.” Great!
Arsenal will end up out of top ten this season. #ArtetaOut! Get us a professional coach/ manager! I’m tired of this 40 yo Spanish kid!
Our attackers have been awful this whole season so far. People will put that at the feet of the manager due to tactics etc which to some degree I can understand, but i find it pretty disgusting that once again it’s the youngsters having to carry the workload whilst our senior (highest paid) players fail time and time again. Aubameyang and Lacazette once again failing to do their jobs with ESR, Saka, Martinelli and Odegaard having to carry them. Add to this the fact that our midfield is mostly DM types and you start to see why we can’t score enough goals.
Arteta is very much in the Guardiola mould in that he expects the team to transition between the lines in a fairly structured way, moving play from left to right quickly to look for the overloads and openings, with the forward players then expected to come up with the moments of quality to get the chances. The issue that we have is that we don’t possess the likes of Sterling, Foden, Grealish, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Mahrez etc who can unlock defences in single moments. City play one sitting midfielder and the rest all score goals regularly. Our team consists of 2 workmanlike midfielders and one CF playing well below the required standard. That basically leaves all the goals/creativity to come from ESR, Saka, Odegaard and it’s too much.
Football ultimately comes down to the best players winning the most games. We can talk tactics all day but until we can get more players to contribute to goals then we will continue to struggle. The defence looks ok from what I’ve seen but it’s now down to the attacking unit to help them out.
Another poor performance.
Those substitutions killed us.
Tavares is a liability. Tierney was doing well and didn’t look tired. He should have stayed on.
Nketiah should be nowhere near the side. That miss from a yard was criminal. He’s a Championship forward at best.
PEA shanked his shot. He’s been doing this all season.
Plenty more that can be criticised, but if Tierney had stayed on I suspect the result would have been more positive
Thanks RC for the report, a very tough job well done.
Yes the refereing was criminal last night just as was against Manure. Sure we were hard done by. 100 % penalty not given, 2 red cards not given… but WE WERE LAME
I was supporting Arteta until now but I read this from our brother blog on ‘Goonerholic forever’ and I fully agree with.
“if Mikel is willing to let the team (and its fans) suffer because of one player’s feelings, then I don’t know Arsenal should be entrusted to someone that selfish.”
Well said.
COYG
I see GNev talking a lot of nonsense about Arteta being inconsistent. Arteta and 16 other managers….🙄
The only consistent thing in the PL is it’s inconsistency! There are 3 teams battling for the title, then 17 other teams that are pretty close and beat each other on any given day. There will be plenty more peaks and troughs in the next few months, with plenty more Arsenal defeats, but Arteta will be judged on how close he finishes to that 4th spot come the end of the season.
Based on the last 10 games, we’d finish 6th.
Yes, Sky Sports voices of authority, one was an abject managerial failure in La Liga (Valencia wasn’t it?) the other kept his highly paid job after gobbing at a member of the public following an altercation.
fgg,
We ain’t getting 6th with our attack the way it is!