He was terrible today. Individual mistakes from Tomiyasu and Saliba, two players rusty after a lack of game time over the last 6 weeks, led to the goals. The subs definitely contributed to our loss of control, but I think Anthony Taylor had a hand in that, as well. Ultimately, we increased our goal difference by two against a good team at a place we’ve struggled. There really isn’t that much to complain about.
Agree 100%. It's not possible to take away every mode of attack from the opponent, it's a sign of good organization and coaching that they can funnel opponents into the areas that they want.
I expressed criticism of the defense in my initial post-match post. Upon reflection, one important note is that the best chances for BHA came *after* White and Zinny were subbed out. So for me, I think the biggest issue is getting Tomiyasu settled again. BHA’s best chances came from his side of the pitch after he came on. (I’m ruling out Saliba’s f-up with Ramsdale for BHA’s 2nd goal) I’m confident we can work the issues out with consistency and full fitness, but Tomi needs to improve, imo.
This match has also convinced me of the urgency of transfers in. We cannot expect to play B and Martinelli 90 minutes every match the rest of the way, and I’m not going to rely on ESR or Reiss to handle workload. Also, both matches he’s started since the restart, Eddie has looked gassed at 60 minute mark. Needs to work on his conditioning
Yes we shouldn’t exaggerate it. But Those are presumably season-long stats you offer. We were talking more about recent defensive frailties, especially since WC break. BUT those few games are a tiny sample size, so also any degradation is presumably correctable quickly. That’s my belief. And it’s the same personnel as before that we’re talking about.
Also see the narrative you still hear from lazy pundits that City are ‘vulnerable’ defensively because what they do doesn’t look like what these idiots are used to from a ‘strong’ defensive team, but the numbers prove that their approach works and produces the league’s best defense year after year. We’re doing the same thing.
Four yellow cards for Bukayo Saka now in the Premier League. Only one player has been booked for a foul on Saka all season.— Orbinho (@Orbinho) December 31, 2022
He’s been trying to play it down, probably because he thinks it maybe counterproductive to say anything, but at some point Arteta is going to have to publicly pressure the refs.
Think this was kind of a weird game because the fullback subs were huge, but: This team is a freaking boa constrictor. At 60 minutes, the xG was something like 2.0 - 0.4, and that too against a good team on their ground.
That’s fine with me Either that or he can find a new club.He needs to play for a club that don’t have as much of the ball so he can be more engaged.
What’s interesting to me is how most opponents have decided not to press him or limit his time. Today was the day I noticed him having the least amount of time for decisions in a while. I thought his distribution was fine despite that, but it’s notable that teams have decided they’re most comfortable with him having the ball.
He plays because he is exceptional passing out under pressure, and pretty consistent going long. I think his shot stopping is definitely above average. I think the eye test with Ramsdale is the same with Ederson, if it comes to a situation you need a elite level shot stopper than the whole defensive plan has failed. While it might be nice to have all the things Ramsdale brings + elite shot stopping I don't think that guy exists and if he does we can't afford him. Also teams study keepers. The league will figure out the shot stopping weakness of a Keeper pretty quickly. I think really only Allison has consistently looked good at all aspects over a few seasons.
Also, it’s not about shot stopping. He’s super inconsistent about coming for balls over the top. Saliba and Gabriel can’t rely on his decision making on that front. And he’s been very iffy on securing or clearing corners and free kicks.
Massive win, 4-2 was more goals than I thought we would score, but also more than I thought we would concede. I tipped a 3-1 win, so take that. Brighton for ages cause us issues for some reason. Maybe its because we are kind to Wélé, as he was one of us. But today was a danger game and getting the 3 points away from home was critical. Is there stuff we can work on? Absolutely. But teams have looked a bit shaky after the WC restart. We now have seen City drop points at home to Everton, Newcastle (who we have next) dropped points at home to Leeds, United squeaked a result at Wolves, Brentford dropped points to Spurs. Only Liverpool and Us have come back post WC looking strong, and considering after Jesus went down the questions were "where will Arsenal get goals from" we have scored 7 and conceded 3. City with 21 goal scorer Haaland are 4-2 since the restart (and Haaland has 3/4 goals, super reliant on him scoring), Yanited are 4-0 since the restart, Newcastle are 3-0 since the restart. Difference is we bullied WHU who are bad, and then ran away with it against Brighton who were 7th. Everyone else is dropping points to bad teams they should spank.
I generally agree with the main point of your post, but these number confused me until I realized you were referring to the aggregate goals scored and goals allowed since the restart. Your point is probably more clearly illustrated by listing points earned since the restart.
I do t find much wrong with ramsdale the way the modern ball moves there is barely any world class keepers Ederson. And Allison are the top 2 imo in the league but they even have shaky games ramsdale does the most important things right and is a good distributor