Lampard made the needed adjustment after Arsenal early good play and Arteta didn't respond. Out possessed and shot again.
Bitter stuff that result especially coming against Chelsea. But Chelsea has way more quality then us in nearly all positions. Only Aubameyang and Leno are better imo in terms of quality. Hiw isn't that their academy is so damn good. Even the RB Lamptey looked dangerous. What is our Acadmey producing?
I haven't watched much lately, but I found myself wishing for a more dominant midfield player that could relieve pressure and a CF with some real playmaking ability like Van persie maybe?
Arteta got out coached a bit. Once Chelsea switched from 3 atb to a back 4 Arsenal were out played. Trying to defend for an hour with a back 4 of AMN Mustafi Luiz and Saka is pretty much asking for goals. Trying someone else than Willock, he's basically just a body who adding nothing when he comes on. Nelson had a few ok moments but he hasn't exactly earned playing time. Lacazette isn't good enough to take Auba out of playing centrally. But Auba basically played lb today.
Definitely. I think both strikers basically need a pass directly at their feet to score. But there's no one really to do that. A guy who could create at cf would do wonders.
Big problems ahead: xG map for Arsenal - Chelseait's hard to summarize this game in a flattened map like this, but the main thing to take away I think is how Arsenal's attack shut down way too early pic.twitter.com/RjreCwbUY4— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) December 29, 2019 Great start, again, but the problem with this team is that the midfield sucks, especially without Xhaka. Guendouzi has been abysmal for a long time now. Maybe Ceballos will look better under Arteta when he returns, but the January priority should be a midfield signing.
The league is completely over with for this season. Just go young and see if you have anything there and play Auba/Ozil and co in the europa league.
Yeah. Or someone like him. This match is a case study on why just getting your players to sprint a lot will only take you so far. Emery did the same thing when he came in, got the players running a lot which saw some uptick in perceived performance. AMN, saka, Laca, Nelson, were all dead on their feet by 40 mins. You just can’t play like this during such a stretch of games. The squad will have little for united on Wednesday. Anyway, I liked what I saw passing wise while the players had energy to get into space. Individual mistakes cost us dearly as usual, but under that kind of pressure what do you expect? Also, one wonders if mustafi was 100% after the concussion. Luiz had another good game overall, ozil and Auba were the standouts for me. Torriera mostly good, but going forward he again made some poor decisions/balls. I’m losing confidence the academy players will make good. Probably time to cash out a few of them. Chelsea’s academy products by comparison are miles ahead really. Puzzled with the subs arteta is making to be honest. Either play Pepe or don’t if you have good reason, but don’t put him on for 5 minutes after the playmaker has gone off and everyone is too tired to linkup.
While they didn't have Jorginho on they couldn't get near us. It wasn't really a case of us running much more as we owned possession. It was after that point where we were chasing, especially in the second half
Sad. I will say that you can at least tell that Arteta is having an effect. The problem is, the players just aren't good enough.
Ya, he is. But the question is are those effects sustainable. Every new manager will get players doing a little extra. Just look at ozil today vs when his later starts under Emery. Energy-wise it is night and day. Ditto for Luiz—a different player. Even Auba was working hard under Emery, has turned it up a notch. Another poor result and ozil will be back to his sulking self, Luiz will return to clowntown and he may even lose these scrappy Auba goals. I’m most impressed with the return to passing precision. While our final ball was poor today, the buildup passing and risk taking was much better. This will pay dividends against poorer sides when we have more possession.
We keep giving teams that do t deserve anything point after point arteta has improved our play so much, but as the saying goes you can’t polish a turd
Guendouzi needs to sit and watch for a while. He not good enough. Leno’s kicking caused so much problems today. We couldn’t keep the ball, a lot it was due to him giving it away or kicking it out.
I had "subpar" viewing today so maybe I missed something, but why do you think Mustafi was concussed? His immediate reaction to the head collision made it look like he was in big pain but clear headed.
I think he was bleeding from the back of his head, which is why he wasn’t moving while he was lying on his side. One of the trainers was cleaning the back of his head with a swab. It mustn’t have been a very serious cut because they didn’t bandage it. Maybe some of it was Rudiger’s blood. I was pissed at the end of the game, but you can see the improvements in team shape under Arteta, so he’s had more of an effect than just getting them to work hard. If Arteta can have an immediate impact on the team’s shape, it really makes you wonder about just how bad a coach Emery was.
Just giving the player the benefit of the doubt. The head injury treatment in the EPL is still shocking. Looked like it may have been a side impact on mustafi which is often worse than back/front. I agree, but honestly I saw positive trends under Freddie as well. One thing is for sure, he needs to decide if he’s willing to die on the Pepe shaped hill the same way Emery did on hill Ozil. If Pepe doesn’t practice well then don’t bring him. If he isn’t fit, then say so. But the is miles better than Nelson. And defensively it’s not like Nelson is doing that much: one tackle for Nelson in the last two games. Auba has 4 for comparison.
If Pepe decides to put in a defensive shift he'll play, it's simple. And as good as Auba was defensively today, let's not pretend that tackles are the metric for determining whether an attacking player is doing enough defensively. Let's also not pretend this is an Arteta hill--Emery barely played him either. He's a major defensive liability that was getting picked apart by the top clubs we've faced (most notably City). Additionally, Arteta wants to play with a specific tactical shape which so far has involved an inverted right wing back and genuine width on the right side. For all he offers in attack, Pepe doesn't offer right-sided width. Again, the original sin here is with the people who decided to sign him when he doesn't fit into either our old or new managers' tactical setups and is basically impossible to play at the same time as our other best attacking players. I'm all for patience with him; I don't necessarily blame Pepe for the predicament he's in. But let's be real clear too--Chelsea bought Pulisic for 15m less and he has not needed an adjustment period like Pepe has.