According to this logic when we play a mid table/relegation team who are in good form we should not expect a win against because their form?
It’s the manner of the defeat that’s the issue here, it’s no shame to lose against City but the fashion that we went about it is not a good look at all.
And no, don’t get your logic assertion.
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Nothing can excuse the complete cowardice we showed against a poor City side last night. Liverpool also looks like a result where we bitched out although they were very good in possession that evening.
This was the game to end the long big away game winless run.
Aston Villa, Leeds and Leicester with more fight than us what a shame.
Think the reason most are upset is that they can probably see a result in us and whereas before we would have accepted defeat that is no longer the case. We have a team capable of fighting - its the lack of fight in games like City that annoys me. We have the personnel to damage other teams yet go out like a wet firework !?
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Before today’s game, so far this season (averages):
Spurs: xG 2.32
AFC: xG 1.50
and just for frame of reference, WHU for example are at:
xG 2.00
For xG, we are placed 10th in the league. And for all our relative defensive solidity, we are 10th for XGA atm as well.
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In reality we are fifth in the actual table. The League hasn’t really started and were one point off the champions Liverpool.
Clear as day things have too change and think everyone involved realise this.
Next week is big against Leicester and a win will swing the optimism the other way.
Not one team overly impressive yet. Everton started well but looked nothing special yesterday. Time too wait and give Partey a run. Right now I would still expect a top 4 challenge minimum.
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I dont understand this excuse for Arteta. If City and lolpool were blowing the doors off the rest of the league i’d agree except both those clubs are struggling mightily against lesser sides than us, but still were able to dispatch us with ease. So yeh that statement woulda made sense before the season started just assuming they’d be the city and lolpool from the last couple years, except there’s a ton of context that shows these were in fact shit results.
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Pep does this a lot thinking he’s some cool hipster by playing Ederson up front then he’s shocked when Lyon knock them out the CL.
Pick your best team in their best positions and stop this hipster overthinking
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Tbf it’s a valid argument on Pep over thinking a percentage of games in European competition but his overall standard as a coach shouldn’t be judged on it.
Its like Klopp and the high line criticism right now. So many better aspects of there coaching it becomes a bit of cheap shots on a few poor performances.
Yeah table doesn’t lie, but if you are looking for sustainability and predicting forward, it isn’t a good sign… you can’t massively beat the xG table over longer samples.
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Sometimes there’s no need to make it harder then it is. I still have the opinion that if two teams play 442 (or whatever formation) the team with the best players (depending on form and fatigue etc) are the most likely to win.
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My issue is that I’ve been frustrated by Arteta doing this since he came.
And the more time that passes, the worse it looks on the pitch. And that he continues to stubbornly do this, really pisses me off because this is basic stuff.
I sometimes wish Auba never signed that contract if this is how you’re going to use him.
I don’t want Arteta gone, because there’s enough other stuff for now that I like.
He is a brand new coach in his first job and I feel there may be some growing pains as he gets over himself like teenagers do when they think they’re so much smarter than everybody.
But I have to call stupidity when I see it. And there is only so much patience for it…
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We’re going to get a better idea of how good, or not, Arteta is a manager in his next few games.
We’ve got Leicester, Man U, Aston Villa, Wolves, Leeds and spurs who are all clubs we’re directly competing with for a top six place.
If we get anything less than three wins I think we can assume Arteta is not going to get anywhere near the top four.
On the other hand, if he gets more than four, it will go some way to getting the supporters on side and maybe a chance of a top six or even top four place.
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No shock on the eye test we look like a midtable standard side through the first 5 games.
Only thing I can say is it’s a small sample size so hopefully we improve, if we don’t it’ll be another 6th-9th place finish.
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I’m with you on this completely.
Feels like all the progress we’ve made since he took over just 10 months ago had been erased from history. We’ve lost away to City and Liverpool, places where it’s very difficult to get a result. The manner of the defeats has been frustrating for sure but we are still so early into the rebuild.
Our starting point post-Emery was absolutely dire. Its the worst we’ve been in my 20 odd years that I’ve been seriously following this club.
He literally had to hard reset the club. Awful, toxic atmosphere and inherited a really unbalanced and average squad.
We still need another 2 players (minimum) and another season of development of youngsters before we are going to be ready. Another CM and a proper creative player.
We will know a hell of a lot more about his managerial ability by the end of this season. I’m expecting a very serious top 4 challenge given the way this season has started. I’m also expecting at least one major big game win away from home (Spurs, Chelsea or United still to play).
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I agree with the article in that Arteta massively overthink’s everything and it start to annoy fan’s after a while if we continue to lose games and not perform well. I think City were there with big players missing and players not fully fit for the taking and Arteta showed way too much respect and seemed to me afraid to go for it. I just haven’t been overly impressed with the performances of his side this season, even in the smaller games. You can see it’s effecting Auba’s game too and to drop a striker who scored in 3 games in Laca is questionable. And the decision not to play Gabriel in the Liverpool PL game looks laughable now. He does come across like he’s overthinking stuff, instead of just at times just throwing things to the wind and giving it a go when needed.
We understand it’s going to take time in terms of getting players in but I think we can still demand better onfield performances and better decisions when it comes to his team selections. I can’t pick a game so far this season where I’ve seen us played great even Fulham game was more them been bad then us been great. If this continues all season and he loses the big games and his decision’s are questionable , you could see a bit of backlash coming his way.
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The worry is by the time we add all those pieces you mention ( if we do add them) what sort of state / age will players like Aubameyang be in then ?
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Not players like Aubameyang. Aubameyang is the only old head who has a future here. Luiz and Willian are on borrowed time.
Next move, 4-3-3 with Bellerin and Tierney as wings.
Surprised???
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Its also important to take a step back, think about how we got here, and where this part of the season likely fits within a broader team-building context.
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We went on a good run after switching to a 3-4-3 or hybrid system that basically saved our season during the restart and FA Cup run in. Previously, we had been fairly mediocre playing 4-2-3-1, always looking like we could concede.
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We then had an abbreviated pre-season and a transfer window in which we added two players who will be absolutely integral to our spine, half of the CB/CM 2x2 box in a 4-2-3-1 system. But those players are also a 22-year-old new to the league and a guy who came in at the very end of the window. Basically, circumstances gave Arteta very little time to actually train the team back to playing with a four man defense and three midfielders.
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We also ended up with a schedule in which our first seven matches included the sides who finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th last year, three of which are away.
Put it all together and its not really surprising that Arteta has chosen to stick with some variation of the same system we played over the summer, while beginning to tinker with changes. The question is really where we go from here, not just in the next couple matches but in the next 10-15. If we’re still playing dull conservative football at Christmas, something will definitely be wrong. But this was always going to be a low process of changing how we play and integrating new players and tactical ideas so I don’t think its all that surprising that Arteta hasn’t completely shifted gears overnight during this early part of the schedule.
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