FWIW, O'Reilly picked up some sort of hammie today (didn't look massively serious but he might not be 100% in a week), and Rodri took some kind of late knock but kept on playing (seemed like a contact injury that'll likely dissipate by then, but ya never know)
As it stands, I don't see us winning the title on present form. I see us barely losing. Yes, city drew 2 league games before this win but they look a lot stronger. Never thought we'd lose or draw another home game. Draw? Maybe one, but lose? No way. The unthinkable seems like it could happen. We aren't going to win the CL on present form and I doubt we'd get to the final. Yes, the unthinkable. No trophies and City winning a domestic treble. That unthinkable happens we'll fully deserve all the ridicule that comes our way and we should take it like men (and women). A draw at City, seemingly unlikely now, may be give us a title. No matter what I see City winning the FA cup. They have won two big games in a row and look like they will go on a run. Rice is one of the few that seem like they want the title at any cost. Gyokeres has been relegated to whatever scraps comes to his way in the box. The rest are going through the motions. Noni seems like he's trying to impress. Not for the title but to prove he's a player, Gyokeres as well. The rest don't want to make mistakes and cost us. Playing scared, overly cautious. The team defense is gone. For a few games now the opposition has had way too much time on the ball. A lot of our open play goals comes from our team defense. We aren't pressing as a team. To many open players. Noni has no tactical nous on team defense. Odegaard to his credit knew how to press and got everyone to press as a team. While the wild, unfathomable end to the 1989 season is Arsenal and football lore, the fact of the matter is it shouldn't have come to that. We were bottling it. Our previous 2 games to going to Anfield we lost at home Derby and drew at home to Wimbledon. We had a 5 point lead with 4 games to go (a game in hand to Liverpool) at one point. And were bottling it big time. We are trying to do the same now.
The big problem is that we can't pass through the mid-high block. A solution could be to have the CBs split wider and have Zubimendi drop between the CBs, but we don't seem to want to do that.
OK, but we also have significant problems defensively. We're letting in more goals. The last 3 games against English teams, we let in 2 goals per game. Prior to that we were letting in 1 or 0. And then you could probably make an argument for our need for better chance creation or overall clinicality or set pieces specifically. IOW, Mikel has problems in various parts of the pitch that he needs to fix. Not to mention a general psychological funk that we seem to be in. The next month or so is where he earns the big bucks. And I will judge him at the end.
Zubi don't want to because there's not players to receive and the patterns are shiite and Rice ain't built for it. Who's the 3rd midfielder? SMH we gotta figure out the smash and grab Sunday lol
Is Zubimendi any more "built for it" than Rice? Like Merino, his ability on the ball is overrated because he is Spanish. They both strike the ball really well, but Sociedad were not the most possession dominate club in La Liga. Like @DaPrince84 said in the game thread, he isn't the younger, more active Jorginho we hoped for. Agree with you on the question of who the 3rd midfielder is, because it can't be Havertz, he doesn't work as an outlet for the back line. I think he needs to start up top, aside from converting the penalty, Gyokeres wasn't doing anything other than losing aerial duels.
Idk man He plays hot potato with the ball when facing Raya. I really think the Spurs and United mistakes broke him. But the biggest thing is how low touch he is. He gets like 60-65 touches a match. When Arsenal is dominating, that player is like 85-100.
Yeah he isn't comfy on his own. IMO he's not built to be the guy in that position he's a double pivot guy
He plays in a double pivot Imo, it’s some of Zubi and some of Arteta being rigid. You are right about him receiving and being alone. Arteta is about dominating individual zones, which is why the team is so static.
And we can't defeat a low block. So we are Set Piece FC. Arteta has the CL and the league run out to show that he can manage. I'm really concerned he's hit his ceiling. He didn't stop over training the players, he didn't loosen up, he doesn't make non-reactive adjustments in games, he doesn't rotate (I truly don't think he rotates because players need to be identical for him to swap them. He can't adjust the squad to perform in different ways to different strengths).
You could tell what type of game Arsenal will play within first 10 min That is what I have seen pretty much all season. If we expect raya to have distribution of a midfielder - there is obviously something broken. If we are going to finish season with double pivot of zubimendi and rice . We need a floating no 8 (because rice doesn’t link up) Odegaard can play there a bit deeper - at this point - his defensive deficiencies shouldn’t be too glaring because there are plenty of ball winners in the back 5 alternatively playing rice as sole 6 can work too but assuming Eze an odegaard are in … timber can cover space lots of ifs We need some real magic on Sunday
We have been mostly fine against low blocks. The real issue lately has been the high blocks where the CBs can't pass through it. Martin Odegaard helps with that, but he's barely played since December. Myles-Lewis Skelly may be a potential solution (and he was better on Saturday), but that creates its own issues.
Surely we plonk Norgaard in at 6. Most logical choice and have Rice and Zubi ahead of him. Start Kai at CF and bring on Gyokeres in the 70th, start Trossard and Madueke.
This is a great video discussing the various issues. One of the aspect he focuses on is the inability to build up properly.
Given the latest training news, I'd be almost shocked if we didn't see Norgaard at 6 tomorrow, possibly solo. As for Sunday, the way our squad health is going lately, I have absolutely no clue. And I supposed the coaches aren't too far away from that feeling.