These early FA Cup exits need addressing. Nor that we had the squad to compete for this competition given our luck but it’s a very bad look how we can’t progress deep in this since 2020.
Biggest thing that drove me insane is how FUCKING SLOW we were… it almost seemed like we were going through the motions… even our set pieces took forever to get set up and executed… this was a game to make ManU work as many minutes as possible and there were so many long breaks it just chopped things up - played right into their hands.
We really don’t have that special player who can be a bit unpredictable, burst through a man or two (Rice did this a bit last year), and create imbalance. Martinelli just fuck off… he slows the game down so much it hurts. Ode is trying, but not much to work with and he isn’t showing his goal scoring threat this year, which we desperately need.
Was looking at someone suggesting we should go for Ollie fucking Watkins… i was like “THIS” OW? The one who maybe loses out his spot in AV? Then i looked at scoring leaders… lol… he is higher than all of ours… and our top guy is… wait for it… HAVERTZ (tied for 15th).
You don’t threaten trophies when your leading scorer looks like he is falling off a cliff and is tied for 15th in the goal charts…
Whether injuries or not, inherent issues have remained. Rigid in our play, slow tempo, one dimension of play, lack of innovation, sluggish, highly compact etc etc
And now we are losing games, also not good at set pieces anymore.
Arteta has failed to show signs of improvement, new ideas and solutions.
Board made a mistake giving him too much power as well. Tough times for Arteta but I am really disappointed how bad Arsenal have fallen.
In contrast as an fyi - Chelsea have 2 guys with more goals than our top guy… Palmer (tied for 3rd), and Jackson (alone at 9th).
Would not shock me if we don’t end up 2nd right now… very hard to get optimistic when there is just so much fucking pressure to score and you … just… can’t…