Premier League - Matchday 11 - Arsenal v. Watford - November 7, 2021

I don't find pride in it. I think it’s unfair to expect a young team to last and to compete at a high level for 40+ games. I remember Wenger having a young team that showed a lot of promise (beating Premier league teams in the Carling Cup as an example) at one point, and that never really panned out to much. It’s hard to project future success years from now given that players leave and other teams strengthen. All we know for sure is we are competing with a young squad right now.

With that said, I do like the young players on the squad. I think there is real talent there. I just hope they don't burn out and will/can stay together.

 

Really need to pay attention to your predictions and put money on them haha.

 

I agree, but I would add a caveat to that. Just my .02 I think a players "peak years" in this era of 24/7 games is 5 yrs max just my thoughts, unless you have access to elite doping. With that said if you have a player at 5 yrs peak you're looking to have that ideally from 23-25 to about 28-30. So in that sense Arsenal are building, I do agree that we need experience but nowadays there's not a player over 30 I'd take. You even look at the steep regression of Messi and Cristiano in their 30s right and those guys were machines, so the next level of player just won't be able to produce at max rate. I hope that made sense, it did in my mind. Good to see everyone btw.

 

Just last year I felt like Arsenal had the least likeable squad of players in my time watching them. Interesting how a couple windows and the emergence of academy talents has changed this—I feel like this squad has some real character in it now. Obviously people like Ramsdale and Tierney but the emergence of Gabriel as an on-field leader has been a real treat as well. It feels like the personalities in the team are really well-balanced now, and I think credit is due to Arteta for really focusing on that as an important part of roster management.

 

Also this is just pure filth, my word:

Nuno Tavares - Arsenal 2021-2022 Fullback Template, Crab Cake pic.twitter.com/oC6fH0J1qA

— Scott Willis (@scottjwillis) November 8, 2021

 

damn.

 

It's good attacking output, unclear how good he is defensively, and needs a small sample size warning.

 

Weirdly, he seems
More of a winger than tierney but arteta employs him further back when we attack

I wish he would do the same with tierney instead of a faux lw

 

I think the reason is Nuno’s stronger right foot, allows him to play inverted if necessary. At least that might be the rationale from Arteta. But I completely agree, Tierney should be playing further back.

However, crucially, we haven’t seen Tierney in this new 442-esque formation, so maybe his positioning will be different.

 

Just hearing about Auba‘s little(?) calf injury with Gabon… makes me think it’s time for a new MD thread!

 

Thanks Metro. It would be absolutely phenomenal if you were entitled to start the next thread after tomorrow.

But regardless, here's a little BBC graphic that could make us feel like we're heading in a better direction (OK maybe not all of us!)...

 

I want Liverpool at their best, sadly not likely to be the case tonight but you can only beat who is in front of you.

But Pool, Chelsea and City are clearly top 3 this year. We failed the first 2 tests, lets hope we force a draw at worst and leave with 3 points at best.

3-2 Arsenal.

 

For me, our result largely comes down to how well ESR plays.
Arsecast was discussing that with TAA frequently bombing forward that ESR could really exploit the space he leaves behind. That will be interesting to see. And Saka on the right could really cause problems for them too.

I don't expect anything more than a draw from this, however. 1-1 feels as optimistic as I can get.

 

Who plays, Tavares who has looked excellent or tierney? Either way, they must stay lower like we have in that position post tierney injury

 

Yep and it doesn't allow us to play our best midfield. It so annoying man