could have and should have, but it was just not our day, we had enough chances to put the game away.
for me, it is more like we could not capitalize and commit suicide, not really Villa gave us a beating and taught us a lesson.
unlike the City game, Villa was dominant.
this game, Villa did not.
We were the better team this time except the finishing.
What point are you making here? I’m confused.
I thought you were criticising our defending? 
A few things were obvious in the game against Villa.
First, we can only rely on midfielders scoring goals for so long. There will always be games like this in a season where you will feel the need for a clinical striker. Jesus ain’t it and bringing Eddie on to replace him will work 1 or 2 times out of 10. We need much better striking options. We have to bring in a proper striker.
Second, when Saka and Marinelli have stinkers, like they did today, we don’t have great options on the bench to change it. Trossard isn’t quite doing it for me as a sub, and Saka has no competition (maybe Jesus can rotate with him, if we get a proper striker). Our squad is stronger this season but there we still need on our best players to have a 7 or 8/10 performance to win games.
Lastly, players like Eddie, Reiss offer very little as squad players. Yes, they’ll come up with the occasional performance but they’re just not good enough to even be in the squad. Time to promote some youngsters maybe.
Do you think our subs are not good enough or the manager is too controlling and needs to allow them to play and show some confidence in them? Otherwise Arteta and Co were idiots to sign them in the first place. Now Eddie I think you have a point as he has had plenty of opportunities.
Yes, the subs aren’t good enough. There is a huge drop off in quality between Saka and Reiss, Jesus and Nketiah, Ode and ESR etc. I’d rather have some of the youngsters play cause we know what the current subs offer.
I’m down with that but Arteta isn’t. He could have brought on the youngins against Lens when 5-0 up and didn’t.
I think this is what is levelled at Arteta if we do go for a player like Sesko. All well and good signing a young’un, but will he see out their growth and development?
I said prior that our attackers have a lot to answer for also.
We’ve shipped 5 goals from the last 6 shots on target apparently and our attackers were super flat yesterday.
Yeah, and it’s a made up stat because Villa had 3 shots on target and last time I checked they only scored once.
One very positive sign this season is that we have not been outplayed and destroyed yet. Our loses are very marginal and we are always competitive in games. This is not a late Wenger side that will get smoked 6-0 at Stamford Bridge or some shite. We are very fekin solid.
In no world will we get pumped 3-0 at home to Bournemouth. We are just too good and well drilled to fall apart. Thats why I think we will be in a title fight until the very end this season.
Up until the goal, I think it’s referring to…
5 goals from the last 6 shots on target up till the VIlla goal on the 6th minute.
I think it’s correct.
Sure but do you think this side should win it?
I really don’t want to hear any bitching about refs or injuries when it comes to crunch time
Should win it? No. On paper City are much stronger. But I think its very possible that we could go on and win it.
Not saying we’re done for but yet again when we seem to have made another step towards winning a title another team steps up. Of course Liverpool are no Leicester, but it does suck that they have seem to finish their rebuild as somewhat the same time we should be peaking.
It has become the most glaring weakness.
I just think we still lack that killer instinct, city’s recent form gave us a huge opportunity to seize a huge advantage and take initiative in the title race, tough 3 game period of Villa, Brighton and Liverpool we needed to take 7/9 lay down a marker imo. Given the egg laid at Villa we now need to go to Anfield and win which will be much tougher.
Agree with @sunny310c , if you’re being brutally honest I don’t think having Eddie and Nelson as 2/6 forward options is good enough to win a title, you might be able to get away with 1 but we probably need another top quality forward option…
100%. They’re both 24 years old and not kicking on, or improving in any way. We need to ship them out and get some better talent in.
I know this is not really the way football fans think, but equally after all the years of crap, underwhelming seasons, is it not possible to enjoy being in the thick of a title race with Man City and Liverpool just a little bit more than we collectively do?
Complaining is in our fans’ DNA.
I was listening to a couple of West Ham fans talk about Moyes’ tenure on Talksport, and it made me realise that sometimes it is worth expecting a little bit more from your club after supporting them through some dire years.
Realistic West Ham fans would say Moyes is doing well. But old West Ham fans supporting them for 30-40 years would need more. Imagine watching the same show every night. That’s the life for football fans for mid-table clubs. It’s the same show over & over again every season.
It will soon be 20 years without a PL title for Arsenal fans; that’s usually a quarter of your adult life gone past you.
I don’t know about you, GC, but most of us were single boys in our 20s when we were on old OA talking about that 06-07 season, and now we are here with families & decade-long careers to show for.
It is okay to complain about Nketiah scrambling past defenders when this is probably the closest we could come to winning the PL. Otherwise, we will be stuck talking about regular campaigns for another 20 years.
Oh that’s such nonsense. All supporters of every team are demanding. People like to pretend that somehow Arsenal fans are unique but I just don’t think that’s true. Arsenal fans are easily memed, Arsenal fans have a huge internet presence so it generates a lot of clicks, Arsenal fans may complain about different things than other clubs but all clubs have demanding fans except maybe a handful of North American teams who play in closed leagues where the fans have shifted to just apathy.