Honestly these cunts are just on the wind up at this point. Like tactics Tim has a clue anyway 
This Guardiola thing is simply an example of short-memory.
Guardiola had a notorious reputation of âoverthinkingâ big games which kept backfiring on him. He had an actual reputation of changing from what was working. Here we stand, heâs getting compliments for doing something âdifferentâ but is something he always has done.
Only thing stopping it backfiring this time was our shit football.
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I have to say btw, have been taking a lot of negatives from this game, and yeah, that first half deserves to be criticised. But if youâre doing that you also have to give credit to Arteta and the team for the second half.
I doubt Guardiola was happy to concede all that possession, deep in his own half. No way. We changed the team at half time, pressed them relentlessly, they just couldnât get out, aside a couple of breaks. And then Pep just saw he canât win that battle and just chose to park the bus.
I doubt that was his plan and what he wanted.
The way we were dominating them was quite impressive imo. Every time they would win the ball we would win it back quickly again. Our midfield was feriocious, we were strangling them there. That doesnât happen easily against City or Pep.
The second half perfomance is something to be optimistic about. Also I think if we scored just a bit earlier, and we got close a couple of times, we would have probably turned it over. Also would be quite an achievement.
Poor first half (by all accounts, couldnât watch it) but quite an impressive second hald considering the opponent.
Arteta just has to be more brave going forward, and has to give a bigger role to Eze in this team. As I said before, even if he does use Eze on the flank he has to give him the licence to roam centrally. No way he can keep tying him to the touchline after playing him as a pure 10 in this game and after the performance he had. Arteta is well aware of what Eze can do as a creator, it just doesnât make any sense to treat him as if heâs Martinelli anymore.
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Iâve so high standard for this season after a transfer window who gave the manager the opportunity to look at the bench and have available profiles like Eze, Martinelli, Saka, Mosquera and Nwaneri.
Thatâs why Iâm not happy for the draw. Iâm furious!
Arsenal are too conservative and have a predictable way to attack because of the managerial tasks not because of the type of players chosen to play. Itâs not enough to win the league. A masterful pass by Eze and a fabolous goal scored by Martinelli avoided an easy win for City, built on a strategy adopted by more than a manager to minimize us. Arsenal donât know how to unlock low and reactive teams. The boring ball possession from a flank to the opposite cause frustration in who attack and elevate the level of faith and concentration in who defend. People are wrong in discussing Merino. Donât see the forest for the trees. Question the principles and the football philosphy is more important than the presence of Merino on the pitch.
My support to Mikel and his project - thanks to the passion and the desire showed during the years - is TOTAL but I cannot ignore the evident mistakes made.
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One thing that irks me is what happened when Martinelli got the equaliser. We should be grabbing that ball and running back to our half. Iâm not saying donât celebrate the goal, we were all going mental, but thatâs because we believed we can go nick a winner now. In contrast last year at City when Stones got their equaliser at the death, they all ran back ready to go again.
There were circa 4 mins to go with City having no attackers on the pitch. The only player to go grab the ball was Zubimendi who ran back on his own. Martinelli and the rest of the team can celebrate whilst running back, nothing wrong with that. The leaders on the pitch should have been more forceful in this moment. We were too caught up in the moment.
Imagine we went and scored again, fuck my life that would have instilled us with so much confidence and used it as a springboard for next few games big time.
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I think they should do him a favour and kick man city out the premier League for cheating. Will make the fixture load much easier.
I feel for the player and managerâŚ
City abandoned their tactics and gave up their pressing but chose to park the bus for most of the game with all 11 players on. It was like, Pep believed we were toothless and this was a huge challenge for Arteta and the players.
It was a relief when we tied it.
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Iâve seen this point being made in the last few days.
- Even if Martinelli gets the ball and runs back to the centre circle, he would still have to wait a minute for the VAR procedures to check and clear the goal
- In fact, when the celebrations were over and everyone was ready to kick-off, they had to wait about 5 seconds and then the goal was cleared
- Zubimendi did run and get the ball, and got shoved into the goal for what itâs worth
- Last season Haaland chucked the ball out Gabrielâs head. Ainât nobody care about that or question Cityâs mentality
- The 2 mins it took for the goal to be cleared was added on at the end.
- Itâs another stick used to beat Arsenal with. The perception that theyâre over celebrating. Ainât nobody make that point when Liverpool drew 2-2 with us and Salah did his passion cele
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- Players werenât to know that. Theyâd have still wasted time celebrating if there were no checks needed.
- Same as above.
- Not sure what relevance this has? At least he had the right mentality for a quick restart.
- Ok sure but fuck City and the other 18 teams. Just want us to have a winners mindset.
- Again missing the point. If there wasnât a 2 minute check then weâd have just wasted a ton of time running around the stadium.
- For the record this isnât an anti-celebration post. The right thing to do (if you have a winners mentality) would be get the ball, acknowledge the fans and teammates. Put the ball on the center spot and be ready to go.
I feel like even if it were a penalty we scored there, the same thing would have happened. So making the point about us not wasting time due to the VAR check is mute.
This is how football is. Theyâre going to check that everything is kosher. Running back to the centre circle will just lead to more waiting due to VAR
Applying narrative such as questioning our mindset feels lazy. You can celebrate and be happy, and still feel motivated to get the winner after the next whistle.
Who knows? It all depends on who the kicker is.
I guess my point is that no one was scrutinising mentality when it was Liverpool scoring the equaliser against us. Salahâs winning mentality wasnât in question when he went bezerk despite having 10 more minutes to win the game
Thereâs only one way to get at City , Liverpool et al and that is to play a very fast aggressive game. Chelsea played that way against PSG in the world club championship and PSG didnât know what had hit them.
The same goes with the PL , a softly softly approach wonât get you anywhere. Timid play and weâll get picked off . Defenders canât handle chaos, speed and âfuck me , they want itâ .
Time for Arteta to let go and unleash the players we have . Hibernating tactics just wonât lift silverware.
Arteta approach in the last two seasons (even this one) were successful against Pool and City.
Donât know what the fuss is about. Is it because we bought some attacking players and then we change the set up that we dominated them in the past two seasons?
Excluding the injuries and ref issues, the reason we could not win the league was not the approach against City and Pool. We lost too many points against inferior teams.
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Because theyâve both won the title in those last 2 years weâve dominated them and we havenât.
Have to change something when they are both there for the taking not just employ the same draw tactic.
We had the best head-to-head record against those teams in the past two seasons.
We need to change the approach against the inferior teams, to get more wins and results. Our tactics against Big 6, especially City and Pool were fine.
Yeah I donât care about the past record, we havenât regularly beaten either and now is the time where we should be taking advantage of their weakness, especially at home.
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If you donât care about the record, why brought up the titles they won in the past?
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Because if we had won one we could continue this boreball tactic against them and see where we land by beating the smaller teams. We havenât and therefore itâs more important to take the game to them and put a gap between us that way too.
A point at home is never a good result unless itâs a title securing point.
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It is a title securing point or not, we canât tell till the season is (mathematically) over. A point is a point right now.
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So itâs not a title securing point is it, they can only come in April or May ffs.
No risk now to go for it, the old handbrake shouldâve been off.