Wasn’t their strongest team and they were content to defend and concede possession after bagging the penalty
I don’t think it was so much better than Newcastle, at times it was almost carbon copy
This is worrying because it’s becoming a pattern with regard to how we play, what we’re doing back to front.
The negativity is valid though.
Analyse every game starting from the Southampton game at home. We have been unconvincing (except the Preston cup match).
Apart from being unconvincing, we have shown limitation in our offensive play, zero innovation. The fluidity, faced paced tempo and 2/3 dynamics in our play is nowhere to be seen. Few players are out of form, low on confidence and we are also now conceding goals which at one point was rare as defensively we were solid.
When was the last time we truly dominated a game from open play against a top side? We are heavily reliant on right hand side Saka and set-pieces (although in last two games we have not taken advantage of our crosses/set-pieces).
There are serious pattern of issues that we have been seeing since 2nd half of last season and they are growing and becoming more consistent.
I trust Arteta to fix this but negativity doesn’t just derive from today’s match. Say what you want, bottom line is we lost, and have 4 tough CL games ahead. A side like this, based on last season, should be in top 5 in the CL league standings. Simply not good enough.
We were far from great today but this was nowhere near Newcastle.
That performance was one of the worst performances we’ve seen in Arteta’s tenure here.
@Calum start the thread…we need something from somewhere
Agreed. Will they play like that, and for how long?
These different faces in different halves are not helping.
We have issues Mikel, we don’t have that 30 goal a season striker so we need goals from everywhere
Can’t afford
Martinelli 2 in 16
Trossard 2 in 14
Wow, I didn’t realize his output was that bad this season.
I think given we got 89 points in the league last season the standards have been set higher than
7 wins in 14 games in the comps that matter including a lousy 20 goals scored over the 14 games.
Uninspiring stuff after a largely fantastic previous 2 seasons.
this season has 2021/2022 vibes all over it.
In what way
where our discipline & off/on the field decision making made us bottle top 4.
I think we’ll deffo get top 4 though, but I am very worried about the state of our performances as of late.
We’ll be top 2.
The thing about missing Odegaard is that he is the only player with that type of skill set. Of course his injury is going to be a major setback which we are noticing. This squad isnt in balance.
Another way of saying that is Arsenal have failed to score in their last three away games if you don’t include Preston.
Let’s not band Lampard in there. He’s always been very supportive of Arteta’s work and unlike the rest he’s had actual experience on the touchline at various levels and knows the pressure that comes with it.
A part of me is losing confidence and doesn’t know anymore if Mikel is the right coach who can take us to the next step. After five years wants to win something important and this season looks as ideal to achieve that because of problems inside Man City. This version of Arsenal looks not capable to play attractive football, capable of create goal scoring chances. All based on individual duels and tough defensive work leaving the attacking tasks to the interpretation of single players (especially Bukayo).
The other side still fully trust in Mikel thanks to what he achieved until one month ago.
That’s a bit unappreciative though, isn’t it? Don’t mean to pick on you(I saw the other sentence too) but I do sense this feeling is becoming more popular within fanbase the last couple of weeks so I wanted to say a few things on the matter.
Things looked bleak when he took over. I remember quite a lot of people questioning how we would even get back into the Champions League, let alone challenge for the PL.
We were laughed at from the outset. We thought we’ve witnessed the lowest of lows of a Banter Era and we somehow kept discovering new lows. There were debates whether we could still be considered a Top 6 club.
Up until 2021 there were periods where people even entertained us entering a relegation battle, our form was that bad.
Our business in 2021 was lambasted and majority of PL predictions had us nowhere near Top 4.
We somehow ended up fighting for Top 4 but coming up short. I’m sure people remember the likes of Neville and Carragher branding it as some huge failure and that we weren’t gonna have a better chance to finish in the Top 4 going forward.
Not only did we prove them wrong the following season but we followed that up with a title challenging season which would’ve resulted in a title win had it not been for the treble winning cheaters piping us to the title in the end.
From a non-sporting perspective we managed to beat City and the rest of the PL for the signature of one of the country’s best players and likely next captain in Rice. This scenario would be considered a wild fantasy in years before. Arteta was referenced as an instrumental part to Declan’s decision of joining us.
There were still people who suggested that we would fall off the following season and around this time last year there was a similar feeling to now, people frustrated with the football we were playing and we couldn’t get a winning streak going.
We ended up reaching new limits, going on an unprecedented run in the second half of the season and pushing the title challenge to the last day of the season where an 89 point season didn’t prove enough to win the PL, being only 2 points off City and actually having an even better GD than them, a feat that not even Liverpool pulled off, even the season they won the title.
I’ll admit I’ve always been onboard with Arteta, all the way back to 2018. I knew he was gonna be a very good manager and was highly regarded by his peers, so there’s definitely some bias here from me.
However, not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the turnaround he’s achieved here.
He’s earned my utmost support, especially in these tough times, because he’s proven time and again that he and his team will come out even stronger. This team thrives off adversity.
