A rather convincing win away from home against a Bournemouth side that really alternates between solid performances and abysmal ones, including within a match itself. What an unequal performance by the home team…Shambolic defending followed by good press…Hard to follow and understand. That said, we played a very good game ourselves with special mentions to Ben White, Odegaard and of course Saka.
Saka was not only in the squad, he was also a starter, pour first scorer, our main threat and he played 76 minutes although he did get hurt again…M not sure we should have played him in the second half but it seems Arteta cannot cope without him, especially with Trossard and Martinelli missing…
The game also saw Havert score his first goal for us, courtesy of a penalty and of Odegaard who graciously left Havertz take it.
A good win especially with City losing…Liverpool got robbed by the ref, much to the favour and delight of Spurs…The EPL looks very tight from 8th to 2nd place with a small gap of 5 points…Top 6 looks very tight with 3 points separating 6th place Brighton to 1st place City and one point separating Noth London rivals Arsenal-Tottenham to Manchseter powerhouse City. Good start to the EPL, hoping for a tight race till the end. Wouldn’t mind Spurs losing some steam 😛
Raya – 7, tidy performance
White – 8, a goal to cap off a wonderful performance. Just needs to improve his delivery and he ll be amongst the best RB.
Saliba – 6.5, a good performance
Gabs – 7, solid.
Zinc – 7, a key clog in Arteta’s system.
Odegaard – 8.5, an assist and a goal and a great impact on the game. Quality ball movements.
Rice – 7, a tidy display. No fuss.
Havertz – 6, a goal and hard work but missing some sharpness going forward in terms of runs, passing and shooting. Can do and must do better. Happy he got a goal though. Hope it unlocks his potential.
Saka – 8, a constant threat. Another goal. What a player.
G. Jesus – 6,5. A good display but seems like he is still pondering on the missed chances vs Spurs.
Nketiah – 6.5. Still getting the nod ahead of RN, ESR. A very resilience performance but still missing a goal or assist to have a complete performance.
Subs: 6.
Arteta: 6.
Next up is Lens away in the CL! COYG! Lens has a very good coach but the team has weakened over the summer.
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Good read RC, captured the game well and as usual bang on with the ratings.
Hi LB – where is everyone (FGG, Fred, Rasp, Peaches, Sue, Las, LBG, Rocky…)? Shall I continue drafting for your eyes only?…Glad that at least you are reading
It’s a tough one RC, I don’t know what to suggest. Or I don’t know what to suggest past creating a managerial crisis, or encourage the team to start losing a bit more! With hindsight, this blog’s heyday was when things were going wrong, in those days everyone had a view on how to fix things. Now days, what with all this annoying winning malarkey, no one wants to comment.
Agree – it’s why AFTV did so well in those ‘difficult’ years. I personally prefer reading positive comments after a win than negative comments after a loss. But negativity will always bring out more opinions and that’s just human nature I guess.
Thanks for the match report, I really do hope this removes the ‘nervous'(?) shackles from Havertz to allow him to finish those chances better. Interesting hearing from several players (and other managers) how much he does off the ball, winning duels etc. A lot of fans don’t see this ofcourse and only look at goal/assist numbers.
Looking forward to tonight. I hope we can get away with a win AND rest a few players for the big one on Sunday. However, ‘resting’ players in a CL game is always risky so I expect Arteta to put out the big guns. Hopefully we come through unscathed.
New post 🙂