Preemptive rotation is important to prevent injuries, especially with how loaded the front-half of the season is. Plus our players all seem to have ligaments made of cotton candy.
We've conceded 4 this season and 3 can be attributed to individual errors. Fortunately they've all been wins still, but they've really gotta clean that shit up.
i mean, i get martinelli is on a really good run and odegaard is the captain so sitting either for smith-rowe would be a tough ask. same with white/saliba for tomiyasu with how that 3 in defense is gelling. so right now-right now? sure. but arteta has shown he's from the wenger school of run them to the ground then make changes when injuries call for it rather than pre-emptively rotate to keep players fresh.
Nah no sympathy. Great player but him and Lampard are what's wrong with hiring in top football. These golden boys get picked over their legacy as players over merit. Remember the time Shearer was appointed Newcastle coach to save them from relegation. I don't know how these decisions are made honestly. He's probably in contention for the England Post and so will Lamps after his imminent sack.
VAR was absolutely terrible and is going to be 10x worse on the weekend. We really need to start converting our chances. We have had a fair amount of good fortune with a lot of our goals so far, and that is going to run out eventually. Need to release the pass earlier, shoot earlier, stop over-complicating everything.
i have issues with that fluky goal (even beyond what @ArsenalMetro said about the non-save). i get that having someone stand with the keeper is a tactic but kamara was actually holding onto ramsdale you can literally see it from every angle on replay that both his arms were back behind him holding onto ramsdale. that's utter bullshit. i mean, that's worse than collaring someone then falling down like you got shot.
VAR is as much a person as a thing. Who was on VAR duty for this match? (The International feeds on Peacock don't tend to show that info)
Agree with @mebeSajid. Utterly dominant performance, another flukey goal allowed. Also, John McGinn can fvck all the way off.
I disagree. It had echoes of the first match against Brentford. I don't understand how an opposing player can wrap his arms around the keeper and it's not a foul. If they're just impeding him --- sure, fine. But he had his arms backwards wrapped around Ramsdale's torso. It's ridiculous.
I didn't know you could grab and hold on to the keeper. Interesting. I felt so confident we would go down and score in response. That's a wonderful feeling.
Yeah, at least try to play for the ball. It is clear as day the whole plan was to have someone impede Ramsdale. No effort at all to play the ball just block a person actually trying to play the ball and VAR seems ok with that.
It's stupid and should be a foul. And in contrast, when Lehmann shoves Bullet-head out of the way, the ref points to the spot. It's ridiculous. If only there was some apt turn of phrase to describe such a "damned if you damned if you don't" situation for keepers.
and the shit part is it was completely clear in every. single. views. that NBC showed. literally, ALL of them.
The goal being given and the early Saka penalty not given were both pretty clearly the wrong decision IMO. Pretty much a two goal swing. PL refereeing is something else
What Mings gets away with is unreal. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I have to watch this guy play. Remember when he leveled Saka last season with a ‘shoulder to shoulder’ challenge except it was actually shoulder to head with about 10 times more force than necessary?
I think Arseblog made this point, but I'd rather it be down to individual mistakes than the Emery era when someone like Watford would have 28 shots and 3 xG but somehow only score one goal. As long as the individual errors don't become a pattern for any individual player.
Re: subs, I think from All or Nothing, Arteta is a player coach and wants to stand up for his guys (he will take the sh*t, as he says again and again). I don't think he wants to tell a player who has performed well for 4 matches that he's going to sit. And as a player, I wouldn't want that either. Because if Arteta sits White for Tomiyasu in this match, he's liable to let Tomiyasu start the next 6. With matches coming thick and fast until the WC break, he really needs to embrace rotation, especially one week from tomorrow (!) against Zurich in the Europa League. Because leaving someone out to get hurt and they miss 2-3 weeks will mean missing 5-7 matches.
It's becoming a real debate for me personally if I embrace Xhaka or if I stick to my years and years of wanting him out of the club. Perhaps in the spirit of the coming of Jesus I should forgive...
I feel like the protocol for calling fouls in the box in the Premier League is basically a Venn Diagram. Simply weigh the merits of the offending player's ability to conceal the fact he committed the foul against the offended player's ability to sell the foul. Too extreme in either single players' action and the adverse decision is given. Only the perfect alignment of 'whoops', and 'sold it' guarantees a PK. Any combination of 'Yes' and 'No' and you're left to interpretation. And yellows come out if you're an idiot.
i mean, you can acknowledge that he is playing well/contributing and still want him out because you think he could be improved on. i don't think that's unfair.
y'know, i thought nketiah did well this game. much, much better than last. he had 2 plays where his teammates were able to squib the ball out to him and he took it down field to relieve pressure on the defense. i thought those were great.