One of THEE best Arsenal performances under Arteta. Unfortunately unless we got the good drugs I'm a bit concerned for the NDL smh. UP THE GOONERS tho.
Was expecting to see us concede 2/3 goals by the time I got home. Shocked we didn't. Credit to the boys.
Great effort today. ******** Xhaka. Get his antivax ass out of here. He should have never played for us again after the Palace incident.
A scoreless draw, down a man for the last 66 minutes, on the road, against a Big Six opponent. That is at least three-fourths of a win in my book!
He sacrificed himself to save a goal .. You will probably win the second leg now so what’s your problem ?
He left us with 1 midfielder going into the NLD, which is the biggest game we have left this season. Who cares if Liverpool score 20 minutes into the first leg of a 2 legged tie?
Also implying that Jota was going to control the ball, take a good touch, and score on what would have needed to be a pretty good finish. It wasn't a high-percentage opportunity. This wasn't Suarez v. Ghana.
I agree, and It wasn’t a typical Xhaka red card where he loses the plot. He was following the flight of the ball all the way and was trying.to hook it back over his head, catching Jota in the attempt. The only thing you can really fault Xhaka for on this is that he isn’t faster.
He didn't have to make a play on the ball there at all. He would have had a better chance after the attacker had tried to trap it. A lunging, half-slide tackle with one’s foot almost waist high was NOT the move.
And that he didn't have the awareness of where Jota actually was positioned. And, given that, it was a big risk to take on the edge of the box. His foul was 2 yards away from giving them a PK and 1-0. When you get down to the essence, the things that drive us nuts (or me anyway) on his many game-changing fouls is his poor judgment, his boneheadedness. Everyone's entitled to a few big mistakes over their career, but for me he's beyond whatever threshold is tolerable. And I don't get the impression he's learning how to stop doing this. All that said, I don't think it will affect his standing within the team, and his manager writing his name in permanent ink on our XI. Just how long do we persist with him? Beyond this summer??
Until there's a better option. Xhaka sucks, but he's also very clearly the second-best central midfielder on the team.
Actually, given how inconsistent his partner has been, you could make the argument that he's the best CM on our team. Alas, that doesn't make me want to keep him.
not to mention, he seems a big part in getting better performances out of partey, odegaard, and tierney. if we get someone else of similar profile but better - danilo? bruno? - maybe we can be move on without it being an overall loss. until then, i can't see it.
He wasn’t trying to slide tackle, he was trying to clear the ball, but Jota was trying to chest the ball down at the same time. He had no chance if Jota chests the ball down, he is not quick enough. I am not a Xhaka fan. From the day he arrived I felt he was to slow, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Watching the flight of the ball to try to clear it back over his head, I doubt he knew exactly where Jota was. Sometimes sh*t happens.
chambers struggle against speed because he has mertesacker-level agility and turning radius - and per has been retired for 4 years. but, offensively, he's better than cedric, i think.
He was lunging and, in fact, did slide, but obviously, I didn’t mean that it was a ‘slide tackle’ in the typical fashion since the ball was waist high. My point was it was a rash challenge with very little possibility of panning out well. The pass put Xhaka behind the play. The better option would have been to challenge after the touch because it was a hard ball to control especially with Ramsdale so far out of his box. As a matter of fact, I think the probability of that play resulting in a goal is much less than 50/50. He tracked Jota for fifteen yards. He knew the ball was being passed to Jota. Making such a blind clearance without taking into account where the defender is pretty silly. That’s a pretty easy way to foul someone.
It was not a professional foul for which Xhaka was “taking one for the team.” It was just a typical reckless challenge by a person who does this sorta thing quite often.