A tale of two matches into one:
- First match – 11 vs 11, Arsenal dominating and suffocating Palace. After a few tricky minutes, AFC took the measure of its opponent with great plays from Partey, Ode, Saka, Eddie and Martinelli and a solid defensive display. With a bit of trickery, Eddie gets a PK when CP nods off in the wake of a free-kick. Odegaard expertly takes it and we are up one nil…deservedly so. Besides some interesting movements from Eze, Edouard Ayew, nothing really dangerous from the host team…But after the goal, we started slowing down the game rather than going for the kill and add a second…And due to poor refereeing, Tomy gets 2 yellow cards back to back and then the second match start…
- Second match – 11 vs 10, Palace putting pressure on Arsenal. After the send off, we dropped down and let C.Palace attack…but for some reason, we took Martinelli out although he is our faster player and hence the only player that could have kept Palace a bit wary of our counter-attack…Somehow, our defense with the help of the subs (Zin, Jorginho, Kiwior…) and amazing displays from Partey and Rice kept Palace from scoring and we leave with 3 points in the bag.
Ramsdale – 6, a decent display and a scare…
Partey – 8, what an engine vs Palace! Outstanding performance and a big improvement on his passing skills and selection.
White – 6, seems tender at times but kept his nerves to see the game through with his teammates.
Saliba – 7, our defensive rock.
Tomy – 6, unfair send off and was good before that…
Rice – 8, great at shielding our defense, good passing and some timely offensive runs as well. Adding steel to the midfield for us.
Odegaard – 7, a poor start and then a positive contribution, including a well-taken PK.
Havertz – 5, still looking for his place in the team but continues to work hard. His partners did not seem to be impressed with his movement but welcomed his defensive contributions. Arteta is going to have to make a decision about benching him or Gabriel. I d rather bench Havertz…
Saka – 7.5, what a joy to watch such an exciting and committed player. Another great display.
Eddie – 7. missed 2 chances but gets us the PK and worked hard. A fighter!
Martinelli – 6. Not his best display.
Subs: 6 to all.
MOTM: Partey and Rice for me.
6 points in the bag for now and 2 difficult wins out of the way.
Main question mark is on Havertz and on the benching of Gabs….Seeing White at RB, Partey in the mid and Havertz on the bench would not be too displeasing to me.
COYG!
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It’s not overly surprising that our football hasn’t quite clicked into gear yet. We’ve had a few new faces added to our starting 11, and a few tactical tweaks from last year. We’ve also picked up a couple of major injuries and a red card, which don’t help. However, what we are seeing from this Arsenal team (which we also saw at times last season) is that it has the ability to grind out a result when everything isn’t quite at 100%.
For all the amazing football we played under Wenger, his best teams were always the ones that could scrap out a result when up against it. Wether it was a red card, a few key players missing, or winning from behind, the squads we remember best could all stomach a fight, and Arteta’s Arsenal are starting to show the same kind of resilience that is such a key ingredient when trying to win a league title.
The win at Palace wasn’t pretty, but it’s the sort of result that changes a top 4 side into a top 2 side come the end of the season. It would’ve been so easy to drop points after the sending off, but the way the players battled should be just as pleasing to witness as when they stick 5 past a newly promoted team at home. A fantastic result.
Full agree with you! A bit worried about Havertz and now our LB position with Timber out, Tomy potentially suspended, Zinc recovering and Tierney out of favour…
COYG!
Balogun will go to Monaco apparently, 58 Mln EUR
Pepe may join a Saudi Club
Gabriel is monitored by Real Madrid
Tierney still on Newcastle radar
So, let me get this straight, Timber out for year, Tomi back from knee surgery, Cedric and Tavares in no man’s land, Tierney off to who knows who, and Gabriel being rumored to Madrid.
Who the hell is going to play defense in thes 60+ games?
Oh, that’s right we have Partey who can play rb and Saka as lb…
Seriously……
Tierney of to Spanish club on loan real sociedad I think. Shame balogun wasn’t given a chance
No emotion pure facts.
AFC top 3 defense and offense through 30 games last season.
Felt calm when we had the lead late in games with White, Saliba, Gabriel, and Tierney/Zinc…most of the time.
We lost the league because players broke.
So, what does Mikel do, change the formation and not give the team anytime to bed in.
Just play with a back 4, go on a run and save the mutli-dimensional thinking when 2-3 goals up.
AFC scored many goals last year and had many games won by halftime.
AFC cannot and will not ever win league by drawing the bottom 5 teams at home or on the road while the oil scum are still in the league.
Reset the team and go back to a back 4 with players who know each other…
Say it again, need 2 more players at the back including a lb as Tierney is gone and White, Saliba and Gabriel need rotating….
We gifted the first goal and conceded from a set piece. Not exactly time to panic is it!?
I’d be very surprised if we didn’t sign another defensive body before the end of the window, but to do that we need to get people out first, hence the Balogun deal and the Tierney loan.
It’s fair to say we haven’t hit our stride at all, but the fact we’ve got 7 points from 3 below par performances suggests we aren’t a bad side! Man City don’t normally kick into gear until January…..maybe we’ll do the same!?
People will look at Partey playing RB and think that Arteta is over-thinking things, but the game moves on so quickly these days that it’s only the managers who can forward think that are successful in the long term. Look how many teams are now playing with inverted full backs…..a couple of seasons ago it wasn’t even a thing, and in another 12 months it’ll be easy to play against! The reason that we will never see another Alex Ferguson or Arsenal Wenger is not just down to fans/chairmen having no patience, it’s also down to the fact that new ideas come in every season and 90% of managers are unable to adapt sufficiently. I don’t tend to read too much into team sheets these days as formations are so fluid. Partey being listed as a RB is irrelevant when we have 70% of the ball and he’s spending most of the game in CM.
Having said all that, I do feel that the team are still getting to grips with some of the tactical/personnel changes made during pre season, and injuries/suspensions are not helping. I think once Jesus and Zinchenko come back in, we will have a much clearer picture of what Arteta is trying to achieve, and we will see some much improved performances.
My only criticism thus far is havertz
FGG,
But what kind of possession do we have?
The entire left side yesterday was unbalanced with Kiwior, back passes were the name of the game which left Martin alone and isolated up front.
Partey anywhere near rb is a waste of space for him and would generally prefer to see him as dm with Rice in the Xhaka’s place. I do not see where Havertz fits in this equation without the use of 1-2 true inverted lb/rb’s, which we only have 1, Zinc, who can’t play 70+ games.
On the front foot we looked average in possession and in triangle passing, on the back foot the team looked poor!
Fulham could have scored more, and had Traore gone down he would have had a clear penalty and AFC woud have lost and Saliba would be missing for the next few games!
The xG for AFC said 3.0 and .45 for Fulham, but did it really look like that?
The team looked off and if they play like that next week against manure, they will get Pasted and then the confidence levels will drop.
So, a shaky 7pts from 9pts and not a confident 9pts from 9pts.
Formations don’t always win games, players do, and our DEFENSE was so solid last with the Saliba/Gabriel partership, along with excellent offense too.
Not all EPL teams have the talent and players to stop AFC even though they might know what is coming.
AFC do not the time to lose points and we could be out of the race before 15 games have even been played.