Just missed it.
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guess we will never know
Well, Auba and Laca who were gassed the past week started. Luiz also played who has been playing nonstop after his red.
Those 3 should have been nowhere near the starting lineup.
:tierney:
Don’t care tbh pointless game. You can get angry about it if you want lol
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Well those teams are the types that will more likely let us have alot of the ball or defend deep, and we don’t really know what to do in either situation.
It stems from the lack of midfield - either we do not have enough creative players to create solid chances (like against Bournemouth or tonight) or we do not have enough discipline to assist the defence (e.g the Watford shot-fest fiasco).
The lack of quality is a huge concern, and Arteta knows this which is why he has focused on what can be changed - attitude and application. That got us through games even against superior opposition.
But when the application is gone, we don’t have enough skill to scrape something out.
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It’s not really a case of the talent level simply not being high enough.
If you play a structured possession game with too many players waiting for the ball in positions that aren’t natural to them, then you should expect to see this kind of football.
The pressing is not much better either.
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Papa Wenger would have been proud of this
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Just correcting you when you said it was fatigue based and we changed 40 % of our outfield team lol.
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From training, it has been mentioned that Arteta has worked with the players on how to position their body shape in better ways to receive the ball, or to move the ball - little things that would help them improve. Also to switch the play across the pitch at a quicker pace, at a high technical level and from the back (similar to Man City). Pressing is part of this too and we have seen it in glimpses, its just not been sustainable yet.
When it comes to player positions or tinkering with the team, Arteta is trying to find certain combinations with the types of players that he has - the squad is horribly imbalanced and also is hard to rotate because the squad options are so poor.
Nice to see you’re back in a flash with the criticism after one bad result/performance though, following two good ones.
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Hopefully Lampard doesn’t clock on to this (and our set piece struggles) or we’re screwed!
But yeah, nothing new was learnt in this game. We’re better as a counter attacking unit due to our personnel. Creativity in the middle is a big priority for next season.
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I’m not referring to the body positioning when receiving passes. I’m talking about a striker playing in a role that’s designed for a player whose natural game it is to move behind opponent’s midfield line and link-up with players. Today we had two of them and that was not the first time this has happened. It’s not the first time I’m saying this exact thing either.
I barely post here anyway. Should I have reminded everyone after two wins that made most happy that my opinion had not changed or not said anything at all after this result today? What are you suggesting?
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Am I the only one who is thinking of Pollock paintings whenever I see these? 
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I’m sorry because I’m referring to most of OA when I say this, but the knee jerk reaction of most ppl jumping on the Arteta bandwagon is absolutely fucking stupid. It’s very clear the major issues we have as a team, are still there and have always been there. City and Lolpools talent level is far above us so it’s a bit more acceptable to play shit and be insanely happy about scraping wins, but we’ve got right back to being the same team even against lesser sides. And now the luck of winning matches while having a 0.7 xg per game has run dry.
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That just about sums everything up And yet we keep hearing Arteta is making improvements … really ?
Why can’t the manager play a strong team , get a good healthy lead then make tactical changes , fuck me he can use 5 substitutes .
Yesterday’s performance was typical Arsenal gutless and spineless .
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Erm yes
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Nah, the Arsenal of the past years would make Villa play like prime Barca and concede 20-25 chances, and definitely concede more than 1 goal.
There’s very much an improvement from that. We have massively improved defensively, even with the knobs we have as personnel here.
We’re going to the right direction but Arteta is still learning himself. He needs to find the right balance and start relying on more than 13-14 players and the same gameplan.
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Villa produced their best defensive display all season. Less we forget we were an inch from equalising - had that gone in, Villa would have had to come out more and leave space for us to nick the game.
Gotta give credit to Villa for this display, rather than us being shit.
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What criticisms do I have of Arteta? The formation more so than anything. I can’t understand why we went 3 at the back against Aston Villa but by the same token 3 at the back isn’t always a defensive formation. It’s been used by teams that aim to be protagonists all the time, Pep loves 3 at the back at times.
We played Nketiah, Aubameyang, Lacazette and had Saka and Soares (who is an attacking full back) at wing back so I’m not buying into the idea that we went into this game in defensive mode. I just didn’t want us to play 3 at the back because we didn’t have 3 good centre backs available.
I think the big issue is that this game again exposed our lack of creativity in midfield and again exposed the lack of rotational options we have at our disposal.
I’m torn though because I think Auba should have been rested tonight but at the same time had we dropped Auba we’d have been criticised for not playing our top scorer.
Martinez, Soares, Holding, Luiz, Kolasinac, Torreira, Ceballos, Willock, Saka, Laca, Nketiah
That would have been my lineup if we rotated (and based on the players Arteta opted for last night) and played 4-3-3 but I guess it’s all hindsight now.
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