Mikel Arteta has claimed that his side were struggling with fatigue last night, and losing David Luiz in the second-half was a blow to Arsenal’s chances.
The Brazilian was a strong outlet for our side yesterday, with his ability to put pressure on our rivals with his long-passing, and we suffered after his departure.
Shkodran Mustafi could well be in line for an extended run in the team, although I’m sure some fans would love to see William Saliba given a chance to shine after his big-money move from St Etienne last summer.
The German wasn’t overly trusted in back-four last season, nor was David Luiz in fairness, but it will be interesting to see how the manager reacts if the Brazilian is ruled out for an extended period of time.
The manager did claim that fatigue played a role in his side’s struggles however, while Luiz’s departure also took some of their impetus away.
“I think fatigue had a say as well. We didn’t look as sharp on the ball. We didn’t have as much purpose on the ball to create,” he said after the game (via Arsenal’s official website).
“Obviously, David was giving us something different when we had to attack the low block with his ability to attack the line and provoke, always threatening in behind. We lacked that a little bit in the second half.
“Still, credit to them, they are really organised when they do that. It is really difficult to create the chances. We created a really good one with Hector again and we didn’t convert. That’s the difference at the end, in the box, what we are able to do. Certainly, it’s an aspect that we have to improve.”
Will Luiz’s injury be a big blow to Arsenal’s progress this season? Will Arteta look at rushing Calum Chambers or Pablo Mari back into the side or could William Saliba get the nod on Thursday to stake a claim for a first-team role?
Patrick
Fatigue??!! 😳 Red bulls all round on Sunday then!!
After few games, the players are already experiencing fatigue? What a terrible excuse. Arteta has to shape up or ship out
Oh dear! How sad for you personally to be so unintelligent!
As gunner I am positive. But truth be stated it’s going to be a lot worse before we turn the corner . The coachs ideas are great but he must worry about our mentality and lack of creativity. Teams like Westbrom will hold us to goalless draw.
It will be interesting to see if the spuds are “fatigued”, having played many more games than we have.
Having studied our “goal” quite a few times, my belief that decisions are stacked against us continues.
I’m 100% with you on that, Ken 👍
Ken, Lacas unfairly ruled out goal would have massively changed what happened afterwards All thinkers know this but the swarm of unthinking, and unfairly critical posts almost entirely omitted to mention this. Sigh!
I am at a loss to understand the clear and obvious fan unrest with MA on here. It makes me want to give up but of course I WILL NEVER DO THAT!
thought he has enough players to rotate the squad, coz if u can have someone lyk Ozil out of ur squad then u good to go
Think Arteta tries to micro manage too much. Partey had the handbrake on and never made any late runs into channels, even when Xhaka was sitting back. It seems every step and pass is orchestrated by Arteta and there is no flow to our play.
Fatigue played a part probably as he suggests, but tired or not Xhaka is still too slow to play in the midfield. At this point I’d rather see Elneny sit back as a DM and let Partey and Ceballos get forward to help out our limp attack. Xhaka hasn’t offered much but side and back passing, and it’s time to change something and perhaps he is the one that needs to sit.
Personally I think the club has made a few mistakes
1 – They should have told Ozil he has no future and if he wants to play football he has to move on somewhere, somehow – period!
Regardless of his performances, he should have atleast been given that.
2 – Registering 5 goalkeepers for UEL and not registering Saliba, I’m sure we could have left out a senior prem regular for the grp stage of this competition to accommodate him so he can gain much needed 1st team experience.
3 – Not releasing Sokratis, I cant understand this, pay him up and get shot, its simple.
4 – Just play players where they excel, dont do an Emery and play players out of position against a top 6 side or any team for that matter.
It makes no sense to me at all.
5 – players are not machines, keeping concentration for how MA wants to play takes immense energy, we may set out in one formation but you can clearly see that we play in up to 3 different formations during different phases of a match, keep things simple and play to the players strengths that you have not what you wish them to be.
6 – not rotating enough, which brings me to not registering Saliba, we had just Luiz and Gabriel fit for Rapid with a just back from injury Mustafi on the bench, no holding, CC, Sok or Mari due to injury or non registration. on thursday, I probably would have only started Gabriel and Partey and make sure the bench was strong.
Some decisions baffle me, maybe its MA’s inexperience of managing I dont know. He’s had Saliba since June, he would have seen something in that time to say yes or no, if it was a no then get him out on loan so we can keep his value up.
We go to UTD at the weekend with Mustafi, who has had like 30 mins of football since the FA cup semi final and Gabriel, ofc that does depend on how serious Luiz injury is.
As it is, we cant play Saliba on thursday and he could make the bench at UTD, so if luiz is injured and Saliba doesnt make the bench it will be pretty obvious to me how MA views the young lad.
I would like us to start playing football, he wants to play risky play out from the back, fine do it.
but we should be playing more risky football further up the pitch, yes we’re more solid but we have 0 creativity imo or not much of it.
Are we not Arsenal football club? We’re just a fancier version of stoke City under Pulis at this stage!
👍 Some good points there, Val. The thought of SM starting at OT after what we witnessed on Sunday, makes me shudder.
The Leicester game is over and the manager should be thinking of a how to bounce back! He’s talked of fatigue, fine, what then is the way out before Thursday?