I'd be scared to watch this side against the other contenders for 4th right now. Thank god for the MLS season.
Is our rapid decline REALLY all because Partey is gone??? (along with Tierney) I know our squad depth is shallow but surely our success wasn't dependent on 1 (or 2) particular starter(s).
74' Pepe on for Martinelli. AND gonna play on the left? When was the last time we saw him on the left??? Edit: I think that may have just been an intentional delay where Pepe appears to go to the left but ends up switching with Saka. I'm now recalling another game where something similar happened.
Arteta got the squad selection and tactics horribly wrong today. He fiddled with the team too much, and they never gelled as a team.
A minute ago Ramsdale was quite frustrated that none of his outfield players gave him any outlet pass opportunities. I know that has also to do with how Brighton are defending. But that was not a good look for our potency.
Sambi has played well, IMO, even though he was too isolated in the first half. Partey has certainly had worse performances than Sambi had today. Tierney hasn't had a great season, but LB is clearly a problem without him. I think opponents have seen enough of Arsenal recently to know that Lacazette is not a goal threat and have adapted their defensive approach accordingly.
True. And that's 2 matches in a row that we could say that. For me this is a huge WTF moment in our season. Sure it was clear that losing Partey & Tierney in a couple of days was going to be disruptive. But I thought it would make a difference against the likes of Chelsea & Spuds.... not Palace & Brighton. Boy was I wrong.
And we just hit the bar twice in 5 seconds! Didn't we do the same thing at Palace? THEN Odegaard puts in a crazy topspin goal from 30 yards. Much too late I'm afraid.
95' Eddie with a fantastic header. Elicits an equally good save by Sanchez. Ramsdale's up for the ensuing corner. OMG what a finish.
I think I'm glad I missed most of this one. What a failure. Such a disappointment. My only hope is we learn from this for the next campaign. It's such a young squad, and we are thin in some places. A little more experience and a little more heft to the roster and we'll be better. But I won't lie, this one really stings. I never imagined we'd drop points twice in a row like this. Shock is definitely the word.
To really put a point on it, Lacazette has 6 shots on target in 2022. 13 appearances in that time frame, all starts. His last one was the penalty against Leicester on March 13. Our starting striker will go over a month without registering a shot on target.
I did find a high angle shot where it appears Martinelli’s right foot is almost on the goal line as the ball is headed back across the goal, so he his coming back from an offside position. Because both Gabriel and the defender were jumping the high angle shot during the game when Gabriel headed the ball made them look closer to the end line than they actually were.