I'm confuzzled. Various articles are saying that Arsenal did well with a mostly B-side and sub-par day from Partey (who may have been playing hurt), they reined in Haaland, and had plenty of spells where they were the more threatening side in front of a hostile crowd. Yet the same articles are using language like "Citeh land psychological blow!" Was the expectation that Arsenal couldn't afford to lose ever again?!! Based on what I've read I'm pleased with the performance given the conditions. Team should feel confident they can overturn that result at home with a full strength side.
We had chances to score, they scrubbed a 1-0 with a very strong team against our B team that we had players from the A team swap in for. Psychological blow? Hardly. Nketiah said the loss to United was massive motivation for the rematch and that was a worse loss than this game. Whoever lost tonight was ALWAYS getting tarred with the "winning team has a mental edge" brush but facts are we should be only focused on the EPL and EL and now we can be. The only way I will accept that is when its a bad loss for the home team. Like if we beat City 2-0 or 3-0 at Eastlands or they do the same to us at the Emirates. Thats a bad loss that gives a mental edge. As for Partey he went off complaining of sore ribs, and he went off as a precaution. If you told me we were going to lose 1-0 before the game with no serious injuries I would take that every day. Didn't get thrashed, our gameplan stacks up with a lot of players who struggled (Vieira, Sambi) and have players who are a step down from the players they replaced (Holding for Saliba, Tierney for Zinny). I am really looking forward for when we play them in the league.
And he loves telling everybody that brushed by one of those legs they can fvck off after he takes a dive
Vieira and Sambi have one struggle in common: they have a really hard time getting into the game and influencing it consistently. The low number of touches for Vieira is shocking sometimes. I have more hope for him than Sambi because he’s younger and has had less time with the team, but it’s concerning all the same.
Sambi - i know he is young but I dont see him making it in the EPL. Offensively he is solid. Has the occasional bad first touch but generally he has solid passing and dribbling. The issue is his movement. Offensively, he seems a bit slow to recognize the spaces he should be moving to when he doesnt have the ball. Defensively, he is incredibly lazy and is continually in the wrong location. I think a loan will help tremendously to raise his value for a sale in the summer of 2024. Vieira - not sure he will ever be a starter for Arsenal unless he or MO can adjust to the Xhaka role and play together. Offensively he is currently better than Sambi in all aspects and shows more upside. Defensively he is very lacking. His biggest issue (and why he has trouble getting into games) is his lack of strength. He is too slight and too easily knocked off the ball. Has the potential to be something special in one of the less physical leagues and could be very good in the EPL if he bulks up a bit.
Vieira is talented but christ he is smol. He needs a good 2 years in the gym. You can't be his build and not have elite speed, and he doesn't have it. But his set pieces and shooting at goal is great. If he can bulk up so he can get physically involved in games he will do well. But I worry he won't.
He is about 6kgs heavier, and is an elite dribbler with incredible balance. Watch his run against Pool in 2021 where he runs by 6 Pool players. But while he is no Mbappe, Silva is still very very quick. He has Vieira covered in that department. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jz5bB5_fp88
Is this even possible? Yeah Vieira is a good back up can shoot and cross wicked. Sambi I don't know. He definitely needs a loan.
I haven't read anything about the match yet. But B-team? Hmmm... I only saw 3 clear B-teamers in our XI: Turner, Holding, Vieira. I believe the only other rotations were: Tierney, Tomiyasu, Trossard... hardly what I would call true B-teamers.
Of course not. But certainly anabolic steroids, hgh, etc would be. Not saying I have any informed idea about that in this case. Edit: Scratch that. Apparently I just woke up to the 21st century, and the actual proliferation of calf implantation. And I wish I hadn't!! Ay yay yay.
I think Tomi & Trossard could very easily become regular starters, if there's a slight drop in form by White & Martinelli, not to mention injury. IOW, they're very close to A-teamers, not true B-teamers like Lokonga. For all we know, these 2 might already be A-teamers... we'll find out next weekend I suppose. Tierney is the only one of the 3 that I might consider calling a B-teamer, even though he used to be our clear A-teamer not very long ago (before Zinchenko). What seems to be cementing him the most as B-teamer is the style of his play compared to the latest system Mikel has engineered.
Yikes. I thought you were just being funny before. I think of myself as being pretty well informed, at least with current events that show up in major news sources. But apparently calf implants doesn't fall into that category of news, and so I was completely naive to this widespread phenomenon. I have edited my previous post to apologize for my ingnorance. You learn something new every day. I just wish I hadn't learned this one thing frankly. Serious question: Is there any credible evidence that Grealish actually has calf implants? (other than how they look) And if you're a pro athlete where running (fast) is critical, is there any evidence that calf implants hinders that in any way?
Anyone else remember the True Life show on MTV where the guy got calf implants? No? Only me? It was hysterical.
I’m pretty sure I somehow saw this, also. Dude said he struggled to make any progress with his calves and that the implants would finally make his body ‘the total package’ or some shit.
You ignored a couple of last nights starters when talking about A and B team players. Vieira does not yet have close to the impact Odegaard has in big games and while I’ve been a fan of Holding ever since his tussle with Diego Costa, he is not quick enough to deal with a big fast forward like Haaland. However, they are all first team players, there is no A or B team designation on the rosters, that’s merely fan code for who we trust and don’t trust, but there is a synergy between players that regularly play together that isn’t quite the same when a coach makes several changes to his starting lineup. We can see the effects of not consistently playing together when injured players first return to the lineup. The goal has to be for players to slot into the starting lineup without losing that synergy and that means they need playing time. Tomiyasu is just now starting to round into form reminiscent of his form at the beginning of last season. Trossard hasn’t played with his new teammates yet and is just beginning to develop that synergy. Having made the point about playing together and playing regularly I want to talk about Lokonga. On the ball he has been good, his passing metrics are right there with Partey’s and his ball retention has been good, he has been dispossessed and had fewer bad touches, resulting in other teams gaining possession, per 90 minutes than any of our other midfielders. This may be in part because Arteta hasn’t trusted him in big games. But last night he completed 24 of 24 passes, including 3 of 3 on long passes, with one turnover. Yet we jump all over him for a defensive mistake, i,e., not getting pressure on the shooter quick enough, when the last meaningful game he played was in October. I will acknowledge that the defensive side of his game is where he has struggled this season. Which I find somewhat strange because at the beginning of last season his defense was decent, but after the two bad passes at the beginning of the second half of the Liverpool game last season he has seen very little Premier League time. I think there is a player in there, but his confidence is shot, he’s trying to avoid mistakes. He needs to play, so I think he needs a loan next season.
How long ago was that, do you think? I’m at a loss. Was I a kid then, watching mtv all the time, or was I in my thirties and super bored one day? It was probably something in between those two.