Does it? Seems one could just as easily interpret that as not having faith in Gyokeres like he does with Haaland.
There needs to be more context and a wider angle to understand this play. The first option isn’t always the best option. Actually, most midfielders in this situation are told to “drive” into the free space to create a number advantage or to draw out a defender. That seems to be what Odegaard is doing - exploiting the space he has in front of him. If you recall the City game, Reijnders did the same thing. He had Doku open in a one-on-one position, but he kept the ball and drove at the defense instead. Halaand ended up run from behind into the space on Reijnders’ right, creating a 2 vs 1, which Reijnders played into, making it very difficult for Saliba to cover both players. Again, we need more information, but the decision tree doesn't seem straightforward based on the video that is presented.
My issues with Gyokeres are two fold: 1. If he makes a run and isn’t given the ball, he doesn't seem to know what to do next to lose his defender again. Sometimes, he’ll make a second run behind, but he doesn't seem to understand how to create a dilemma by coming short sometimes to get the ball to feet or to run behind or vice versa - chaining them together to make the CB lose to position or at least question whether to step forward or to stay behind. It seems like once he has his mind made up on how to attack the defender, he can’t adjust. 2. He stays right next to the CBs when we are attacking. I think he thinks that he can beat them to a ball or a cross (and he does it enough, tbf), but he doesn’t seem to think how he can move the CB around. Kane stays offside until the last moments, stretching the CBs and keeping them looking for him. Other strikers drift along line, so the CBs (or back line) have to keep passing him on, which keeps them thinking. Gyokeres often just stands there, which makes him easier to mark. Halaand does the same thing, but he’s Halaand and rules do not seem to apply to him. Gyokeres isn’t clinical enough to be so stagnant.
I am hoping and praying based on Arteta's reaction about the game and how we've been playing, we are going to see a shake up this weekend and a far more direct attack.
This is what Transfer Flow had to say about this game: _________________________________________________ Arsenal have been the best team in the world through the first half of the season. (We can say this because they beat the other candidate for the title head-to-head a few weeks ago). They also look like the most tired team in the world. These dudes are knackered. But the key to winning modern Premier Leagues is being able to win ugly, and my god, this was exactly that. Yes, Wolves were held to 3 shots and .20 xG, but everyone seems to do that to them. Arsenal clearly did not have legs to get the ball closer to goal, with 17 shots resulting in a paltry 1.08 themselves. And as noted above, if the Gunners had not won this, City would now be sitting in first. Cue the PTSD Title Trauma cut for Gooners — I’m sure that’s exactly what they want for Christmas. ______________________________________________ A week of rest (and then another week after that - if anyone important plays in the Milk Cup, that's gross negligence), should help a bit. Rice, Zubimendi, Eze, and Saka all look absolutely gassed.
Ajax just signed some Japanese free agent who supposedly can play several positions across the backline but especially right back. Wonder if we looked at him?
Our defense is been actually quite shambolic since our starting CBs went down. I watched United v Wolves, I'm fairly confident that no one would rate United. Yet they made Wolves look like the utter garbage that they are, this same Wolves looked like they would sneak out of the Emirates with all three points. More alarming to me is that we went 9,7,5,2, and now -2 on GD with City, but I'm probably just being negative and not seeing the bigger picture. So who knows
Many of us have NYT/Athletic accounts so feel free to link if easy. All that would be consistent with his post-match comments. But in that case I find it a bit baffling that a coach, and a coach who's as intense and active in-game as Mikel, would not have better luck getting his players to "cut that out!" over a whole 7 mins? As you can tell that period really pissed me off (see my posts at the time)... to a level that I rarely reach. So many of us (in this thread) "just knew" that inviting them into our final third was just not going to go well. I'm not sure I've fully gotten over it. Hopefully it was a terrific teaching/learning moment for this team.
Yeah, based on how he looked and walked off, I was thinking/hoping it was weeks not months. BUT that said, this is Ben White we're talking about here. The amount of time he's been unfit is starting to look a little Calvert-Lewin-ish (not looking at any data, so maybe they're not that close, but you get the point). DCL actually is on a really good run of fitness and goal-scoring, so maybe there's hope for old Benjamin.
🚨 Gabriel Magalhaes will be sidelined until the end of the year with his injury sustained on international duty. ❌🇧🇷 [@SamiMokbel_BBC] pic.twitter.com/hRdTy9wCml— DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) December 15, 2025