Improve the D? Get Mustafi out of there. Everyone on this board, and quite frankly, the planet have said so. He wasn't alone but every serious opportunity they had…he was directly involved.
I'm no defender of Mustafi, but imo he wasn't our biggest liability in defense today. Frankly, I think Bellerin was our biggest liability. Most of Newcastle's attacks started out on the flanks by Almiron, Lazaro, and especially St.-Maximin where our wing backs were consistently getting beat on the dribble at speed. That creates all sorts of marking problems for the center backs, and mistakes are more likely to happen when marks quickly have to be re-sorted. While I too am firmly in favor of Mustafi moving on as soon as possible, perhaps there's a slim but growing chance Arteta can redeem him much like he seems to be doing with Xhaka. Most of us were calling for Xhaka to be sold asap just a couple months ago, and now it's hard to see him leaving. There is a fringe benefit of Mustafi now having a series of games without any major f-ups to build his confidence and improve his resale value presumably when he is sold this summer. With defensive replacements already in que, I think Arteta is giving Mustafi one last chance to prove himself. Mustafi more than anyone else realizes one more screw up and his career here is over.
Lacazette raus. He truly is awful Goal involvements this seasonAubameyang 18Martinelli 13Pepe 13Saka 11Lacazette 9Chambers 5— Orbinho (@Orbinho) February 17, 2020
Bellerin has been a terrible defender for a long time. Basically he makes sense if we want to go fully wingback on that side, or if Arteta can teach him some things Otherwise I would sell him and use the money to buy actual defenders Especially I would prefer to use Tierney as the wingback on the left and get a more dedicated defender / hybrid midfielder on the right where we have Pepe
Yep. It was finally something to be proud of. They suckered Newcastle midfield out, then got behind them with angled passing. I had thought there were times earlier in the move then they actually could have broken but it worked out in the end.
Thoughts on the rewatch Ceballos very involved in the attacks (snapping the ball in to feet), as was Pepe Finding Ozil in space. Saka's ability to beat a man Stuff we have been missing.
The guy has all the class and skills I just hope he gets to continue his development somewhere that can bring him the next step forward If he'd been with Arteta from the start of the season I think we'd be seeing something special by now
Ozil was excellent in this match, and the at-times criticized play combo of Xhaka-Ozil was key to one of our goals and one of our better first half chances
Look at the timeline and it matches up with what we saw: the first half was terrible and the second half was superb aside from a couple of big chances. All in all, probably our best performance since beating Sperz 4-2 last season.
Not like this. Going off of understat's numbers*, this was our best performance this season, and the best since at least the 5-1 at home against Bournemouth almost a year ago.
Caley's data is up: xG map for Chelsea - Man United ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/YZL4ZYmhWh— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) February 18, 2020 Most comprehensive league win in like a year.
Perhaps you meant to post data about Arsenal? p.s. In case this saves you some time, our next match in Greece is on Galavision TV channel, as per research.
Good catch. Been that sort of day xG map for Arsenal - Newcastledefinitely in paddle range pic.twitter.com/8HO3flWYS8— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) February 18, 2020
For some reason I'm re-watching the Newcastle game right now. At 26' I just have to say that Ozil has been like a friggin energizer bunny both on offense and defense. Not sure I noticed that on first watching but it's very noticeable now.