PSV Eindhoven vs The Arsenal (UEL) 27 Oct 2022

We never lost a match in which Gedion Zelalem played.

Granted, there were only 4, but still.

 

i mean, on the southampton one, he got a push in the back to go with each of his legs being tripped by different defenders. i agree on the not a dive but it's fully a foul.

ref tonight was weird as hell. i mean, i know he's used to diving and simulation from serie A but some of the calls were weird.

 

a great run, good sir. thank you for your service.

 

Gabriel apparently limped down the tunnel after the match.

 

arteta raus

 

Disaster result if we still have to play those extra matches, in which Arteta will field important starters again, christ.

 

i've noticed this the last few games: it's weird how much arteta changes our play when tierney is in versus asking tierney to fit into the system.

instead of holding width, martinelli comes inside and tierney takes the flank while xhaka drops deeper. nothing wrong with it except a lot of our usual play predicates on the threat martinelli presents while i don't think tierney does the same since his one move is to run for the end line.

it might sometimes work but 100% would not with vieira on the right. i like vieira and i can see him being used on the wing if martinelli presents the usual threat on the left. but vieira is more . . . i think rosicky is the closest comp i can think of. his style appears to be more where he pops up for a quick touch to enable/facilitate the play before moving on where, normally, we have saka as an outlet who then attacks the defender(s).

as is, we have zero direct threat from the outside and, when combined with nketiah's really poor touches tonight, we looked absolutely zero on the attack.

 

Can't disagree. But if he's willing, he should stick around a bit longer to see if he comes good. And it would be FANTASTIC if we signed another ready-to-go striker in January. Or at least goal-scoring attacker.

 

Didn't watch, sounds like PSV rope-a-doped Arsenal a bit. Didn't do much in London but bounced back at home and split the 6 points.

PSV still have to win at Bodo/Glimt to win the group. That's no sure thing, they already drew the home leg. And while Bodo/Glimt can't finish top 2 and advance out of the group, they need a result to guarantee 3rd which would drop them into the Conference League (with 4th place between them or Zurich being eliminated from Europe).

If Arsenal had won or tied today, I'd say play 8-year-olds against Zurich, who cares. Having lost, I still don't think he needs to play a full first team. Play 4-5 normal starters and if its close at halftime, bring on the cavalry. If they can get 2-3 early goals, then keep the starters on the bench.

That said, wouldn't shock me if he goes with all his starters for Zurich.

 

Play the 8 year olds from the beginning! Wasting 1 min of Xhaka Saliba Saka Martinelli Odegaard Jesus in Europa makes me so mad. We are hurting ourselves and will ruin our league campaign, we aren’t deep enough for 2 comps, its that simple.

 

it was more them not being able to get out in the first half. they'd try but we'd shut down all the avenues before they could form anything with the exception of the 2 counters. for all that we largely shut them down in london, they had a few plays where they carved us up but the final passes were garbage. that's what that half was like (but with good final passes).

de jong coming on at the half was like bamford being present for leeds in that second half. they had an outlet and strong passes together much better. i think that addition in conjunction with us running out of gas - as has been the case recently - really just wrecked us.

 

one other thing i think is worth noting . . . gabriel has partnered with white, holding, and saliba and our defense has looked fine in all those situation (for the most part).

as much as i love saliba as a player, saliba+holding does not really worked. i think the pairing lacks a communicator and a "floor general" guy. and, i think, that is a significant point in gabriel's value.

 

Finishing 2nd in the group and having to play 2 extra matches in February will do more damage to the league campaign.

 

only if you mistakenly play too many senior players! Cups by definition are more risky, the league is all that should matter this year, ESPECIALLY with the drop off from rivals.

We came close to winning this 1 time ever since we fell out from Europa, and now bigger sides have dropped in? Hell nah.

 

Arsenal made the semis of the EL twice and final once, I would say they've been close to winning every time except when Arteta lost to Olympiacos.

538 gives a 14% chance of winning the league, the same 14% chance of winning the EL, and a 75% chance of finishing top 4. There are at most 8 more EL matches if they win the group, that should be manageable. I don't think you throw away that chance at a trophy and making the CL.

Now the League Cup? Don't care. And I'd be okay with an early FA Cup exit, too.

 

Those numbers only help my point, 75 >>>>> 14

 

8 more matches is not manageable to me either, with a World Cup in the middle of it.

 

That's not how the math works.

Let's say that 75% chance is based on the assumption that Arsenal will try in the EL. In order to justify intentionally throwing the EL, you'd have to assume that doing so increases the chances of finishing top 4 by more than their chance of winning the EL. Do you think intentionally throwing the EL gives them a 90% or greater chance of finishing top 4? I don't.

Edit: Or maybe I should check myself. If we assume a 75% chance of top 4 and a 14% chance of winning the EL, that's a 78.5% chance of winning one or the other.

Intentionally throwing away that 14% chance leaves only the 75% chance, which is only a 3.5% chance difference. Maybe the extra rest is worth that. I still don't think it is. But I think I was wrong saying 90% earlier.

Sorry, math is hard.

 

I think all that is a big waste of time. More matches by important senior players = more fatigue. Thats all I'm thinking about. Our chances at getting top 4 is solely dependent on their health. The squad's stats are already nosediving and they visibly looked more tired the last 2 matches. Some of our 1-0 wins were really lucky, I don't want to keep playing this close to the fire.

 

This just isn’t the way top level players and coaches think about this, and there’s a reason we aren’t in position to make these decisions.

Also, you’re advocating for something that is going to lead to a greater number of games for the core senior players, not fewer. Unless…you aren’t seriously saying we should throw every competition except for the league, are you?

 

Um what? 38 league games. 38 + 0 EL games = still 38. How is advocating for not using the important first teamers going to add more matches to their schedule? What am I missing here?