Huge problem. And if we're not Champions League-qualified it's going to be that much harder to bring someone in to solve it.
Paper tiger. Arsenal has talent but no guile or leadership on the pitch. A lot to be said about lack of desire at times. Not sure how much of that is down to youth vs the particular players vs management, but it's safe to say now that the inconsistency in form belies the true frailty of the team. More importantly, as hinted by Carlos and others, when Arsenal face well coaches sides they'll likely be gutted because the Gunners lack dynamism in attack. Chelsea will likely rip Arsenal to shreds. Alas. At this point I'd be thrilled with 6th place. Side note: Can we please have the S***s road date in the first half of the season for once next year? By my count Arsenal have always had to travel to WHL in the final 1/3 of the season 9 of the past 11 years.
Xhaka needs to be sold in the summer so Arteta is no longer tempted to play him at left back when Tierney is out. He didn’t commit any egregious errors there today, but I have to believe Lokonga would have benefited with Xhaka as his midfield partner and Arsenal would have benefited from Odegaard playing higher up the pitch. I think Arsenal missed his pressing today.
Surely, at this point, lets go with the youthful front 5 of Martinelli, Pepe, Saka, ESR, and Martin. If nothing else, we'd have energy in attack.
At the very least (and I hate to say this, he's such a good guy) Laca needs to sit. He's almost totally ineffective now. Might as well run the kids out there and take our shots that way. Although I have to be honest, after what I saw today we are thoroughly screwed without Tomiyasu, Tierney and Thomas Partey. Gutted.
He has 4 league goals this season. I've been arguing for months that this is just laughably bad - yet everyone was happy that Arteta forced out Arsenal's only good striker
Forced is harsh, IMO. Auba had opportunities in the first half of the season and wasn't buying. At the least, there's no guarantee his play improves if he stays, let alone what his demeanor might have produced in the dressing room. Dude was not exactly all-in with this Arsenal.
That’s cap. People were happy with Auba leaving because he is a negative, but there was maybe one person happy with lacagoalthreat leading the line. Especially with no genuine back up options. If you were arguing that, it was with yourself.
That's a nice concept. But it didn't quite work out for me. NYRB just managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Topped off by a classic goalie/defender cock up. Bad weekend for my teams. Luckily Arsegals are on interlull.
I just read that Lacazette has had four shots from open play since Christmas. If true, that’s sad. Auba has scored just as many goals alone as all of our forwards and strikers have combined since his move. We gave up two players who could play LB in January, and now we won’t even pmay our back-up. I won’t even get started on losing Guendouzi because I am still am raw about how that turned out. Oh well. Some of this criticism is plagued with recency bias, but damn, it feels like everything has fallen apart. It was all good just a few weeks ago.
The main take aways I got from this match were that Arteta being a novice coach hurts. He didn't change his system to fit the players he had instead he tried to fit the players he had into his system. Xhaka didn't cause any errors at LB but there was 0 over lap run. Lukonga was a passenger until he took 2 shots late in the match. No other Prem manager would have made those team selections. BHO would have seen that team sheet and thought 'amazing'. Lukonga shouldn't have played. Elneny should have come in for Partey, and Tavares for Tierney. The second horrendous decision from this club was coming into a season without quality depth at CM and LB since Partey and Tierney haven't been reliable for years now. If you look at our team list and think 'who is likely to be injured this season' those two stand out because they appear to be made of glass. So not buying depth in Summer, then not buying depth in January, with a skeleton squad meant that the second we got one bad injury, let alone 2, meant we were in the shit. Lastly, our striker situation is now dire, and you have to consider starting Nketiah next match because Laca offers literally nothing. If it were up to me I would be changing our formation. We lack the striker needed to play the role they ask of Lacazette.
I believe he had 8 shots a few games ago, so I think it’s probably 4 shots on target since Christmas, which is nearly as bad. Just checked it out, he had 8 shots against Wolves.
Lokonga was fine, he doesn’t move the ball as quickly as Partey, but he generally moves it quicker than Xhaka and his ball carrying and passing was generally progressive. Lokonga also had just 6 fewer touches and two fewer passes than Xhaka and he actually completed more long passes than Xhaka did. Lokonga doesn’t provide the defensive intensity that Partey does, but neither do Xhaka or Elneny. Elneny is the opposite of a progressive passer and would not have replicated the positives that Partey gives Arsenal. I think the better choice would have been to pair Xhaka and Lokonga in a double pivot and play Tavares at left back. Alternatively, Arteta could have matched Brighton’s three at the back, bringing Holding into the middle of the defense and a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3.
one thing i noticed in the first half was missing the release valves. partey is usually the release valve in our 3rd to midfield and odegaard serves a similar role in from midfield forward. with odegaard being started deeper, they were able to mark him out fairly easily.
he struggled at the start of the game with holding onto the ball under pressure and lost the ball a time or two then the back line lost confidence passing it to him for the 1st half. you can see a couple of times when he felt he could have taken it and threw his hand up when they went sideway/backwards instead. he also struggled with the weight of his passes early on and at least one was scary. he looked pretty good in the second half with some of the ball carrying and was far more threatening. personally, as many good things as arteta has done, i put that on him. when things were going well, lokonga was basically collecting splinters when he could have been brought on for a brief cameo to get used to game speed. i'm talking just some 5 - 25 minutes appearances to finish games (depending on scores and how secure the game was). i never understood why wenger used to do those short 5-10 minutes subs but i can see how it could have pushed someone like lokonga towards getting more used to the speed of play.
Lukongas first half wasn't great, and honestly with the players we have remaining its time for a big change to the formation. Playing Arteta ball with who we have right now is a recipe for disaster. Need to think up a better use of the players we have because the last time I can remember Laca doing well up top, he was in a 2 pairing with Auba. Would honestly throw out a 4-1-3-2. Gives extra options up top, doesn't leave Laca on his own doing nothing.
It's effectively 10 v 11 with Lacazette on current form. Something has to give, in the first half the midfield was abandoned. When Xhaka moved up into midfield, it left the defense exposed. If Arteta shored up the defense and the midfield, the attack would be left too light. Lacazette needs to be dropped, the problem is he knows he has 8 matches left in an Arsenal shirt and if he's dropped, good chance he downs tools and checks out (unless you think he already has - not sure how that would look different than how he is currently playing). It's a risk, but so is the status quo. I'd play White at RB and have him stay deep for a quasi-back 3 which limits the defensive responsibilities of Tavares. I don't like Sambi or Xhaka alone in midfield. Shift White back to CB if/when Tomi returns. White Holding Gabriel Tavares Sambi Xhaka Saka Odegaard Smith Rowe Martinelli
Totally agree with this. Either alternative would have been infinitely better than trying Xhaka at left back.
I called it when I said Spurs would get to top four instead because of that. Kulu and Bentancour have been great for them the former is on loan for 18 months. This begs the question, we are stingy in the market but how did we not sign a single CF or Mid to help us out or even attempt to loan one in. Arteta and Edu this is on you.
for the record, i am not claiming the loss was due to the refereeing - we just did not play well and did not cope with pressure on the ball well enough - but i was more than a little bemused when, during VAR, the commentator was, in a panic, lamented on what ever can be done given that there is no conclusive angle! . . . . . y'know, "absent conclusive evidence, call on the pitch stands" apparently was suddenly a lost concept to both VAR booth and commentator even though they have been parroting that for as long as it has been around. i was less amused when saka took yet another hard kick, this time from cucurella and all he got was a naughty-naughty talking to but odegaard got a yellow immediately after for much less. i did get a chuckle when commentator kept going on about saka making too much of it when he got his yellow for diving - after being kicked around all game - because there were simply no contact . . . . then immediately switched to not a lot of contact when the replay showed that their leg did, in fact, come together.