There not lesser all these smaller clubs by name are either better than us or at our level. We are not good enough, don't have enough quality or class anymore to assume we will or should win against any team in the PL home or away. That in and of itself shows you how far we have fallen. Even in late Wenger times we would defeat a Burnley or Huddersfield on the road. Now we feel accomplished not losing at home!
538 had the chances of today's result as: Burnley win: 37% Arsenal win: 36% Draw: 27% So yeah, Burnley away is basically an even affair. We're massive favorites v. Newcastle though.
I stand by my initial thoughts. We are much better attacking on the transition rather than playing hold up ball. We do not have goal threats coming from the mids to support a central striker that cannot score. We have to play to our strengths which are taking advantage of the speed up front.
I don't wanna pick on Willock, but c'mon. Kid's gonna end up as an average player at Plymouth or something - why is he getting in our squad, let alone getting Prem minutes?
Youth I don't want Arsenal to be one of those loan army clubs, but some kids need to spend time out on loan. Willock is 1000% one of them. It's crazy to have him around the squad contributing basically nothing, when he should be somewhere else playing 90 minutes every week.
Arteta has talked a lot about competition for places, but players who are not producing are getting in the team every week and then we're displacing the ones producing. I'm still behind this manager but we need to correct course on this. Today's game had a whiff of emeryball.
Yeah we were sorta talking about this a few days ago in this thread. TBF he benched Pepe. But OTOH he also decided to play Laca & Ozil. Are they who you're referring to? If so who would you rather have started... Willock? Nketiah??? (Pre-match I was hoping for Auba up top, with Gab, Pepe and Willock/Ozil supporting him) I was a little disappointed that Torreira didn't start and I thought he did well after he cAme on at HT. But I have no idea if he woulda had 90 in him.
I would not have moved Martinelli to the right and put Auba on the left to fit Lacazette. I would not have started Guen in front of Torreira. There's also an argument for Ozil not starting since his away form is not the best - but then where is the creativity to come from? Willock should not be anywhere near the first team. I would have stuck with Pepe in right since he does give us better attacking power- again, with Reiss still not fit, he's the best option. Mustafi at CB was ok today but let's face it, it's a crap shoot.
That was just extremely boring today, I switched off at the 60th minute. The series finale of The Good Place made up for it.
Yeah this. I think this is either the first match or one of the few that Arteta has to eat some responsibility for. Emery has been gone long enough to not be at fault for this.
The lack of athleticism in midfield is a major problem. Özil didn’t even do anything wrong today, but people are chirping about him anyway. When the midfield broke the press, Özil did well; but the vast majority of the time we couldn’t get out because we are so weak and lacking in explosion in the deep midfield. Torreira doesn’t fix it. He’s part of the problem. Same for Guendouzi. As much as everybody hates Xhaka for this very thing, he’s actually the least problematic of the three.
Ceballos, in lieu of Lacazette. We haven't heard very much about Ceballos for good or ill, but we desperately need the player Ceballos is supposed to be. We had a small Emery-gone/Arteta bounce but not enough. We also brought back some problem children back into the squad (Xhaka, Mustafi, Ozil, Luiz), and at times that has looked to be justified but but results have still been mediocre. Arteta (and Emery for that matter IIRC) have some pressing system they wanted to run. Frankly I could give a shit if we press or not. Right now, our biggest problem is that we are absolutely woeful playing against a press, and that has to be addressed. We have one guy on the roster who can carry the ball against a press, Ceballos. Whatever issues there are with him, Arteta has to rehabilitate, at least as imminently as Xkaka, Mustafi, etc. If the issues are incorrigible, such as they are, we need to loan or buy Cazorla back from Spain, which according to some rumors was going to happen. Or failing that, make some other roster move to address the situation.
word. The kid and the club would be better served with him getting full matches in League One or Switzerland or wherever.
Lacazette and Ozil have to be dropped. Their level of effort has been fine - but they clearly don't fit in with what the team is trying to do. Martinelli-Auba-Pepe should be the front line, and we can experiment with Guendouzi or Ceballos as the third midfielder.
I saw something a few weeks ago that once a player goes on loan his odds of making the first team drop significantly. Basically players who go on loan usually aren't good enough to make the team.
It's a number's game - so I have no doubt that's the case. It's an interesting concept. Do players develop better and reach a higher ceiling by sticking it out with the club or playing more at a lower level? Do any of us have the answer?
Based on nothing, it seems that players develop better when they club owns the player. It's probably a mixture of financial and psychological, as everybody's more invested in the development when the player belongs to the club.
I feel like there's a chicken-and-egg situation there, but that makes sense to me. If a club feels like a player is going to be a first-team contributor, it doesn't make sense to farm out their development to an entirely different organization. Willock isn't going to be a steady first-team player at Arsenal unless we get relegated though, so it makes more sense to me to get him some extended playing time somewhere to build his transfer value, and make him someone else's problem after they buy him. He seems nice enough, but he just doesn't bring anything to the table that 100 other kids couldn't for Arsenal.
Willock offers less now and for the next 2 years than I would, and I am an out of shape 35 year old. Thats an issue.