Arsenal hold on to clinch the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
The Gunners were extremely dominant of the possession in the opening half, but both sides were looking dangerous in the final third.
Eddie Nketiah wasted a number of chances, clipping the outside of the post when under strong pressure from two defenders, as well as chipping an effort over the goal in a one-on-one with the keeper.
Neither side managed to score in the opening 45 however, and it took a penalty for the deadlock to be broken.
Nketiah was brought down inside the box to give Martin Odegaard the chance to score from the spot, and he didn’t disappoint.
Palace continued to knock on the door, with their long-ball and counterattacking efforts, and when Takehiro Tomiyasu picked up a second yellow just after the hourmark, I begun to believe the worst.
Thankfully we managed to hold on however, denying Roy Hodgson’s side despite their man advantage for much of the second half.
Patrick
Glad to see us win a derby. But Arsenal should appeal against both yellow cards and the referee should be investigated or banned from the next matches, because the decisions were wrong
I liked the new tactic because it’s more pragmatic than the one we used last season. I believe we’ll have more goals from set-pieces with more tall players in the field
Apart from the sending off I thought the ref was predominantly on our side! Sometimes you need to take your rose tinted glasses off, the non penalty decision for them being a case in point.
But the yellow cards were completely wrong and could’ve made us lose the game
27 seconds to try and take a throwing,definitely a yellow
The second one not a card as he didn’t touch him
According to the commentator, Tomiyasu took just eight seconds for the throw-in. Havertz took fifteen seconds, yet no yellow card for him
@gai
Exactly…
it’s a London derby and with Palace it’s not always smooth sailing.
We must also remember that since Hodgson took over at Palace they have not lost at home.
To me we played well,tactics was on point and changes were correct and on time.
I like the fact we didn’t draw the game ,the steel and mentality ….
With Zichenko I have this feel harvetz will play a lot better as coordinator of attacks on the left side …his confidence and use of the ball in tight spaces will be a great advantage
But the commentators were really partial and those pundits should atleast given us enough praise for grinding out the result …
It’s already harder this season .
@Dan Kit, where did you get 27 seconds from?
That was the longest 8 seconds I’ve ever witnessed, and when Arteta was being interviewed post-match it was said 23, which seemed a bit long to me, but he was taking an age over his throws all game. The coaches need to work on this.
Arsenal wasted more than 25sec trying to do the throwing, unfortunately someone had the take the bullet and it happened unfortunately it was tomi, look at the build up we wasted a lot time havertz wasted time aswel before finally giving the ball to Tomi, it was arsenal’s team delay that got tomi the card not necessary tomiyasu’s 8sec, he just happened to be a victim of the circumstance as the refree already had ran out of Patience
No chance of an appeal against yellow cards. The first one was warranted anyway for the amount of time Tomi was taking over throw-ins. You’d have thought that after White’s card last week, they’d have got these throw-ins sorted. The second yellow, I don’t think it was even a foul. The best we’ll get is an apology from Webb.
According to the commentator, Tomiyasu took just eight seconds for the throw-in. Havertz took fifteen seconds, yet no yellow card for him
So what did Havertz get a yellow for if it wasn’t for his throw in?
For another foul
Yeah, he grabbed some shirt or shorts I think.
Or he kicked the ball away after fouling someone😜 I’m reading in a match report that it was Arteta who said 8 seconds after his interveiwer said 23 seconds.
Yeah, he kicked the ball away. He might’ve got a little frustrated because he couldn’t make an assist or goal
@Gai, now we can see the importance of a good bench. We won this game based on our bench. I also like Ateta’s pragmatism after one man down without been over ambitious in game like this 3 points is what matter.
Yes, I was happy to see good and experienced players on the bench
These tall players you’re talking of is only Kai
Kai is now a plural “tall-players”
Stop deceiving yourself
He’s no Giroud – his height offers almost no advantage in the sense you are putting it
U are trying to say we’ll score more set pieces bcos tall Kai can hassle defenders to reach balls in the air ?
That’s u deceiving yourself
And he’s no Xhaka adds no aggression to the midfield
His height seems to be good for use as a Point Man
But that we’ll score more set pieces cos of him is a joke, I’m sure he can’t hassle ordinary Holding to win an air ball
We had Tomiyasu, Rice and Havertz for the set-pieces, in addition to our other tall players
It’s only us to blame for not referee. It’s only 60mins and you simple don’t go for time wasting tactics at 60mims of play . That’s really mad and don’t know that silly tactic was down to Arteta or players themselves.
Worse than last season. Too many players out of position.
Partey and Tomiyasu cut inside to help Rice in deep-midfield area
Hass, 10 against 11 and 3 points at palace ain’t worse than last season. No one was out out of position we all know about inverted full backs in modern football and Pathey did well in that position. Let’s give credit to the coach and the Boys.
Sylva – I suspect that you are deliberately missing Hass’s point, which is that players were not played either in their best position or the position they played last season:
Partey is not best as a full back, inverted or otherwise. He contributes far more as a box to box midfielder without having to cover the right of defence when out of possession.
White has played as a right back for a full season, is far less influential as a CB and his absence removes that wonderful Odegaard / Saka / White attacking triangle.
Tomi played instead of Zinchenko. Although he came inside to play as inverted, he, like Tierney, is not a natural inverted right back and struggled. It was noticeable how he his presence adversly affected Martinelli’s form.
Big Gabi did not start again, possibly as he is considered the least technical in possession, but his synergy with Saliba and his supreme talent as a defender (his primary task) are totally overlooked.
Havertz continues to start despite struggling to create an understanding with his teammates, at the expense of Trossard, possibly our best player thus far this season, who to accomodate Havertz never starts.
Rice is learning to play the Arsenal way amongst teammates who are themselves being re-positioned on a weekly basis – hardly an ideal way to adapt.
Please tell me I am wrong.
We are just sacrificing too much for Havertz
Agree.. if Jesus was fit Havertz wouldn’t play , Partey would then be in midfield White at RB and Gabi at CB.
I really don’t get Havertz selection. He doesn’t offer anything as far as I can see…and his height is wasted as he can’t jump properly
Everything that you say is correct and almost all of this weird tinkering seems to revolve around accommodating Havertz Unfortunately in the same way that Ten Haag will not be able to accommodate Mount…Arsenal will not succeed trying to fit Havertz into this team.He is a vanity project for Arteta and one which could end up costing us dearly.Without pointing out where £65m could have been better spent I will just say at this time that Trossard deserves to be played in this attacking 8 position when Arsenal are at home against defensively minded opposition.In my mind a double pivot of Rice and Partey would be the best set up when playing away against more dynamic sides. Unfortunately Arteta will persist with Havertz until we start giving away points and results dictate a change of thought process.
You are right on point
Do you know This was Roy Hodgson’s first league defeat at Selhurst Park since returning in April (P5 W3 D2 before tonight) you expected havertz to do magic when he is new in a new team, new position and a different style of football from what he has ever played
Then he should.come on as a sub …Trossard knows the style of play and makes us more attacking
Opps! you guys should be patience & tone down on this criticism of the line-up, apart from the red-card the system worked well!
IF Arteta cannot try new ideas when playing against Palace & other midtable teams when will he? Last season we all complained due to over-use of first 11 that became predictable in the last quarter of the season…. We now have a larger squad & am sure Arteta wants to fully understand best strengths of new players Rice/Havert & too bad Timber….. Over Havert that people do not want to see i guess he want to see if he can unlock the beast that played in the Germany league prior to Chelsea – Expect this to continue in matches against mid-table.
Am sure when playing City,Pool,Chelsea,Man United Arteta will have his orginal 11 with Partey/Rice in the midfield and hopely have Jesus back upfront!
For now & in the
But managed to win however
These 2 games was supposed to be the easier one as tougher yest lies ahead. So if we are pissing our pants even in easier games what will happen when we face Brighton, Newcastle, Tottenham, Manu, Chelsea, Liverpool, mancity!!! Even Aston villa and Westham are looking good. Our lack of creativity up front and lack of defensive midfield is evident. So really skeptical if Arsenal can challenge for title this time around.
Palace haven’t lost a game in their last 5… So good we won but it wasn’t a good watch. Tomi yellow was harsh but we made things hard for us. We play Chelsea, manu and spurs in our next 6 games I think. Good for the team. They need to sit up and make it happen. We ain’t playing well but winning.
Just thinking to myself; what would’ve have happened if it were a team like say, Brighton? With a slow Partey at right back?
We’ll be roasted.
There’s a limit this new gambling tactic can take us.
I hope Arteta opens his eyes to see.
It wasn’t a gamble because Partey never overlapped with Saka. He stayed behind to do playmaking from deep-midfield area and to anticipate Palace’s left wing attacks
That’s why our creativity has decreased
We complained of Zinchenko not helping out Martinelli last season making it hard to produce things from that side
Now we have no SB supporting any of our Wingers
Saka’s on his own
– no Ben White to play with on the right & create things together .
Martinelli’s too is still on his own, like last season (though Xhaka & Jesus complimented that – but now we have Kai who does know what he should be doing yet)
We’ve become less creative at the moment
Creativity isn’t always about overlapping fullbacks. In fact, that tactic has become so predictable nowadays
We could create more chances with diagonal and through passes. The players just need to get more accustomed to the new tactic
We will keep struggling as long as Kai keeps starting.. he is our worst player..
Agree with your view bro
Yes Babasola – we see exactly the same issues.
After spending 200M we are worse than last season, a dreadful loss is not too far away. This Kai experiment has to stop sooner rather than later . But then Arteta’s ego would get hurt, another Willian like scenario. TP at right back is a disaster waiting to happen. Have to agree with you, Babasola
If you have two 8’s what else do you need over lapping full backs for? The wingers can do their overlapping with either the left 8 or the right 8, or else you are telling me you need 7 outfield players in the attacking 3rd to score a goal
The match that I watched creativity was not the problem. Eddie had like how many chances to score? Martineli missed a glorious chance that he was suppose to use his left foot created by Havertz. I think we should enjoy what we are doing now. Winning the league is a combination of so many things we cannot play to out score our opponents all the time in fact that was what caused us the league last time.
Havertz is looking like a much taller Viera. Contributes nothing you would expect from a 65 million pound signing. What’s worse is we so all this from Havertz in Chelsea. Real head scratcher from Arteta and hopefully his ego of buying and playing him doesn’t hurt the team
He’d likely be more useful when his teammates start to send the ball to his head
He’ll be our main lamp post to win aerial duels in the final-third and he did that to give our defense a breather when we played with ten men
All these you’re saying are just your own fanciful assumptions.
Havertz, tall players and what have you?
For me, I’ve not seen a clear cut style we want to play with this muddled up selection.
I clearly saw a pretty pragmatic tactic. It’s akin to old football tactics where fullbacks were instructed to stay behind and defend, before Wenger introduced Ashley Cole as the first proper overlapping fullback in 4-4-2 formation
The “WMWM” formation when we have the ball is also similar to the initial football formation before offside rule was created:
…….…………. Ramsdale
……….. White ……..… Saliba
Partey .……… Rice ………. Tomiyasu
….. Odegaard …… Havertz
Saka …….… Nketiah ……… Martinelli
Please kindly keep quiet…. Kai Harverts doesn’t have any impact in arsenal team is just minus 1… Even Smith Rowe can perform excellent well in the position, Arteta is too stubborn. Must Hervertz start match
No one will speak about how well Havertz relieved the pressure towards the end in the last two games to help Arsenal seal the win
Not sure what game you.were watching…Havertz has no pace and was not the outlet at all to release pressure. It was when. JORGINHO.came on and told the boys to play higher up the pitch
I am sure in training they are working on this new system but it doesn’t seem to.be working yet on the pitch in terms of Havertz contributing…just my opinion.
Am at the home game against Fulham on Sat so let’s see if Havertz looks any different live
That’s why we need tieney to play when havertz on the pitch
It’s only the second game they have to get used to playing together, I’m sure they will come good
Your opinion, Harvertz is playing for the team he is doing a job that the manager asked him to do. You guys is always looking for flare instead of substance.
The setup was clearly not a gamble. It has a sound rationale even if it has not been quite as successful as we would have hoped.
Partey may not have the pace of some other players but is certainly not slow.
Brighton with Mitoma on that side will be a problem. However, the fact is that Mitoma in his current form is challenge for any defender in the world and some careful thought will be required when we play them.
Opps! Arteta explained he had Partey there cause he was playing Palace. The game was okay apart from creative side & Nkeita missing two great chances. If Arteta cannot experiment vs Midtable teams when will he? For tougher opponents expect Partey/Rice in the midfield, white on the Right & Zen/Kiwior/Tieney on the Left, hopely we get Jesus back for the front. – However he cannot play the same system in all 38 games thats why we will see him experiment different systems with different opponents!
Great display. But for nketiah’s luck, we should have been safe. Wonderful defensive effort.
It was a good game until Tomi’s sending-off. If Palace had a decent striker they’d have roasted us in the second half.
How long will it take for the message to filter through to our dead ball coach that throw-ins have to be taken quicker than our players seem to be able to manage?
Should have been an easier win than that but GG for the win .
But Arteta trying to be cute once again to accommodate a new signing .
Why try and fiddle with something that wasn’t broken ,confusing TBF ,but a wins a win so …..
Happy with the 3 points but not so much with the performance and tactics.I know it is still early in the season and with several new players but compared to last season our football looks dull,not flowing…what we need(ed) was a plan B but it didn’t mean getting rid of our plan A altogether which has been mostly successful. I’m hoping that with Zinchenko back, TP will move back into midfield,White as RB, Gabriel back next to Saliba.
That’s what I’ve been telling people
We have a great team already
It’s the support for that first 11 that we need, not changing for no reason
I told someone, even if we buy Mbappe
He still has to start behind Martinelli for some time,
Till he proves he can outdo him
What we have on ground is working
It doesn’t matter who comes in, he must fight to overthrow the stater…
…which ultimately means a step-up/improvement in the team
Spot on!!👍
We got the points but could easily have lost – it reminded me of our early wins under Emery. For me that was pretty shambolic and not title winning football. Too many players out of last seasons positions meant nobody knew what they were doing. My MOM was Nketiah despite his misses, but Martinelli and Saka were really poor. Partey is not a RB and doesnt support Saka/Ode, diminishing our right side, and White should be there – wasted at CB. No Gabriel? Tomi for Zinny? Harsh red but he’s a shadow of list year’s player. Havertz runs a lot but with the ball he is still not contributing. Our best player thus far – Trossard – can’t get a kick. Sympathy for Rice having to learn in a team this disjointed. Maybe a work in progress but we need to improve a lot and quickly. Sorry Mikel, this performance is down to you. And sorry its a negative review, but thats how I saw it.
Perfect
Arteta has killed that right side
And we now have a playing strolling up and down the midfield contributing close to zero
I could have wrote that post. Spot on.
Not keen on Partey at right back. White and Saka have built an understanding. Strange tactics, but credit to the boys for the last 25 minutes, under pressure. How Ayew was not sent off and Tomiyasu got sent off, was disturbing. Refereeing is as poor as ever.
Ref was bad, no doubt. Some real dodgy decisions.
Let’s not let the reffing decisions take away from what the real issues were:
– Havertz looks clueless and lost on the field
– Eddie just isn’t at the level
– Players out of positions not looking good overall
– Benching Trossard continously
– 3 shots on target in the whole game
– Partey exposed and out of position many times
As called by many here, the forced inclusion of Havertz results in the whole teams formation to simply not work! Again I’ll say I think Havertz is a talented player but I believe he’s only starting so MA can try prove that hes right, a bit ego driven.
There’s not 1 person that can honestly claim Havertz is more in form than Trossard. Havertz needs game time, let him get it from the bench and prove he deserves to start.
Havertz has no talent please
He shouldn’t be anywhere near our starting eleven
Will he ever pay back?
Totally agree PJSA. Ironically whilst believing Nketia isn’t good enough for this level that is based purely on his finishing, as I thought due to his effort and positioning he was maybe our best players tonight. But that maybe tells us more about how uncomfortable the rest of the team looked at being shuffled around to fit Havertz in than Eddie having a superb game!
It is strange that Trossard isn’t playing
You guys are missing the point. Trossard is a good player but he caused us points last season, Harvertz is there to do a job that Troasard can’t do. If you want to win the league little details matters the grounds and covering spaces that Harvertz does are part of ingredients needed to win the league. I don’t know why you guys like flare over substance. If this game were played last season or previous we would have drawn or lost.
Trossard caused us points last season,can you remind me when?
Even if he did,he easily made up for it,no questions about that.
Once again we see just how blatantly incompetent, biased and corrupt the PGMOL are.
I truly fear for the likes of Saka and Martinelli, when referees give no protection when they are being targeted with consistent fouls and other illegal moves such as shirt pulling.
There has been no improvement in the standard of refereeing or VAR – the only changes are seeing players being punished for insignificant things, while these referees are answerable to no one and are never called out to explain their decisions – a complete joke.
On to the game : Positives?
We won – three points – showed grit when down to ten men – Rice showing why we bought him.
Negatives?
Nketiah and his finishing – team selection – substitutions – sending off – inept refereeing performance once again – square pegs in round holes.
I’m sorry, but this was awful to watch in my opinion and we need to improve quickly if we are to challenge for the title.
How that 2nd Ayew foul on Saka wasn’t a 2nd yellow I don’t know…was a rugby tackle
Well said Ken. Are we spoilt after last season? We have all seen games where Guardiola outthought himself, changed a winning formula and lost. That’s what I worry about here. Shoehorning Havertz in by changing virtually every players function has me worried. Teething problems or fatal mistake?
@ Ken1945
“There has been no improvement in the standard of refereeing or VAR – the only changes are seeing players being punished for insignificant things, while these referees are answerable to no one and are never called out to explain their decisions – a complete joke.”
I totally agree. The poor referees are just more protected and can get even poorer and poorer.
Blah blah agenda blah. Cruised until the red card and if Martinelli in particular had been on it we’d of been one up very early and thrashed them.
Not a reply not sure why this keeps happening on mobile.
I agree Ken
The play of our first 2 games reminds me of Arteta-ball from several years ago.
1. Tons of possession
2. Tons of sideways & back passes
3. Little creativity
4. Very few shots on goal.
A real shame compared to the electric football we played last year.
I can understand reinventing the wheel for City and perhaps Liverpool, but for Forest and Palace?
If our best available 11 can’t overcome Palce or Forest then we have problems, we have looked slow, plodding, and players don’t look comfortable in this unnecessary setup.
I’d rather see Xhaka than Havertz. I was ecstatic to see a midfield of Rice, Partey, and Odegaard controlling the game.
Instead, Partey at RB, Havertz stinking up the midfield, and our attack is a shadow of last year.
600 million spent and we’re back to Arteta-ball. What’s the point of depth if you play the same starters just out of position?
KEN I was at the game. Dreadful entertainment or rather lack of it Neither keeper had much to do, esp ours who had NOT A THING to save.
As for us “holding on” as PATRICK WRONGLY DESCRIBES IT, thats nonsense. The last half hour was a real bore fest with no chances.
Two poor yellow cards, as TOMI took one for the team in his first yellow, as he was the third of three of our team to waste a COLLECTIVE lot of time in that instance.
And the second yellow was ridiculous and was incredibly soft, as soft as I have ever seen for a yellow.
But I hated that we wasted so much time, White in particular seems like a rabbit in headlights when he needs to pass the ball and takes FAR too long.
White also ALWAYS takes far too long on throw ins, all the time. He is bound to be booked by card hungry refs a lot this season. We deserved three points on sheer possession before Tomis second yellow.
BUT I THOUGHT THE WHOLE GAME A REAL BORE tbh. Only Rice really stood out for me.
I will give Havertz time, but through gritted teeth as he looks feeble and lazy to my eyes. I can see fans quickly getting on his back unless he bucks up and earns his keep VERY SOON.
Gab and Saliba should have played the cbs to deploy White and Tommy to Rb and Lb. Kia benched and Partey playing his usual cm position but I don’t understand the Kia obsession with MA. If we had lost the match, it would have been on MA
It won’t be long before we start losing
This Kai thing is not an improvement
We were heads and shoulders above many teams last year
We were glaringly the superior team playing many of the other’s last year
We’re not so now
We can’t face any of the Big 6 this way
We’ll lose
And they’re the ones coming next
Actually, Fulham is “coming next”, and with all due respect, you can hardly consider them “Big 6”.
Yeah with this all pressure even team no 20 we’ll consider them as a big team as no1 on table.
Pedantic Jax – with respect, you know what he means, and I share his concerns. We have Man Utd, Spurs, Man City, Chelsea and Newcastle as 5 of our next 8 games. You think this new selection policy, style and shape will be bedded in enough to win those games?
This formation is for things who play with a low block ….
How do u break down 2 rows of 5 and 4 players sitting in their own third than pass around them till u disorganise them…
In my opinion this formation should be played in some games ..
One problem from last season was that Arteta played only one way almost all season..,now he is flexible and he has said it in one of his interviews that he employed this system for the way Forest was going play defensively and it worked , you must remember we didn’t play this way against City at the community shield .
If Arteta is being more flexible this season and considering and respecting other teams to determine his line up and tactics then it’s a plus for me.
Fulham next.
It’s game by game. It’s 3 points gained. Now, unto the next one. Fulham on Saturday.
This Harvetz thing is making my blood boil because its so blatantly senseless… We have seen enough already… We don’t have the luxury of continued tinkering with the team setup.. Trossard brings sooo much more to the table
I believe we will change tactics based on opposition. Glad we scaped through at the end!. Well done boys…..
Not sure what the team was thinking. Soon after scoring the goal they tried the slow the game right down. You still got 35+ minutes left to play, why not keeping going with the tempo and try to score the second goal and then try to see the game out. People saying it was only 8 seconds, but it was accumulative time wasting and they were pre-warned. Team looks unbalanced, not a good watch despite a win.
I never for a moment thought we would give up our lead after tomi’s red of the improved game management though we gave away possession but what does it looked like palace were going to do with it? nah we are on another sky high level.at our very own ground we look to entertain Fulham next,COYG!!!
Dominated the first half but couldn’t capitalise. Second half was a bit of a scrap but we clung on.
Tomi’s red card was a weak decision
Certainly not a thriller but you can’t be world class all the time. New players to fully bed in still – there have been lots of changes recently
Based on our last seasons performance, teams will be extra determined whenever they face us given we have strengthened again. The boys are not doing bad as some people here suggested (martinelli and saka). Even Kai works hard and the most important thing is he doesn’t loose possession.. please let’s stop moaning maybe because of the scoreline or players playing out of positions. I believe as the season progresses, The team will improve significantly. NB; I love the team spirit despite small margin win ( I won’t call it ugly win because the boys fought very hard and deserved the win)
👍
Funny enough no player was played out of position …
We re just use to the conventional positioning of players ,football is changing.
Doe me Kai didn’t put a foot wrong all game he played well
I have to be different.
I have to applaud MA when he showed his game management skills by bringing on OZ and JK plus Jorginho after going a man down.
Very resilient performance. If one of the other teams had this performance the pundits that this was a mark of a PL winning team.
Kai was not as bad as some of you make out. Although like the rest of you I would prefer Trossard.
👍
Not true, Tomi was sent off 67 mins. O Z and JK was sent on in the 89 minute. Why is that such a great tactical move. What was the point of moving Haverz to striker for 7 minutes, he was ineffective and couldn’t win a duel for toffee.
pundits *would say* that this was a mark of a PL winning team.
All I can say is Congratulations for the boys. Thy have worked hard today to bring home the 3points needed. No matter how ugly it was, 3 points are important. But I agree with the majority, that there abit confusion in arsenal this issue of Arteta of fixing the squad in gambling way is very shameful. He needs to sit down with the whole board to know the way forward otherwise we might end up crying
To me, this game should be our “canary in the coal mine”. In other words, a clear prediction of what will happen in the near future if “The Tinkerer in Chief doesn’t wake up”.
Saka is confused trying to play with Partey at RB; Saliba is confused trying to play the role of Gabriel; Tomiyasu is confused trying to understand Martinelli; Havert still doesn’t seem to know he’s no longer playing for Chelsea.
The only positive – Rice seems to be finding his way around the Emirates.
Just for once, it would be good if Arteta starts picking the starting 11 based on player abilities and current form, instead of cost to the Club and how much money they earn.
How Havertz starts in front of Leo Trossard is bizarre. Trossard is much more mobile and dangerous. Don’t get it!
Well according to Arteta, they start if they train well. Well he needs to look at prodin a game!!!!!!!!
Producing in a game.
Trosaard is better playing where martinelli plays ….
We loose something defensely if he plays where harvertz plays
My observations tho
We desperately need to sign another centre back. These guys are Soooo skillful and can play in any position.
The Gabriel situation needs sorting and fast!!!!!!!!
From my point of view, i thought the ref was very inconsistent and made some poor decisions. Not sending Ayew off for a cynical foul and pull on Nketiah i believe for one but sending Tomi off for something far less. We did get a penalty off him but i thought he was poor. We battled and fought against all odds and got a deserved win. BUT the way we are playing Partey is taking away, not giving something to the team and playing Haverz through thin and thin is just embarrassing that a point is trying to be made but is not. I do think the team doesn’t look right playing how we are doing, inverted this and that and left footers on the right and right on the left. Like the last two seasons, it works to a point but lets us down in pressure situations. Haverz is just a passenger and needs to be dropped pronto. Partey needs to play with Rice and screen the defence and that is just for starters. Jesus can NOT be brought straight back in, let him earn it. Our defending is admirable but we are so disjointed and out of shape far too often. Still axwin is a win at the moment and well done to all bar the passenger for that.
Agree Reggie
1 Having versatile players does not mean you should play all of them in their second best position!
2 Partey is a better BTB midfielder than inverted right back
3 White is a more effective RB than CB (as Ode and Saka will confirm
4 Zinchenko is a better inverted LB than Tomi or Tierney (as Martinelli will confirm)
5 Gabriel is undroppable if Saliba plays. Pretty passing alone does not a great defender make
6 Trossard is currently playing way better than Havertz, who runs a lot. And runs. And runs. Yet Trossard can’t get arrested
Has Arteta mirrored Guardiola’s habit of tinkering with something that isn’t broken?
Sorry, not on Nketiah second yellow but Saka by Ayew.
Blah blah agenda blah. Cruised until the red card and if Martinelli in particular had been on it we’d of been one up very early and thrashed them. 1-0
Also find it curious Martinelli passed up that chance arguably the best to no scrutiny but Eddie having a good game is firmly in the firing line. Curious 🤔
Most of you blaming the coach for playing some players out of position, for your information, Party has played RB before while he was in Atletico Madrid( in fact against Arsenal, he played RB in Europa league semi final), Tomi played lb mostly last season and was with Martinelli, whether we like it or not, we have Boughy Harvert and he is here to stay, the best thing is for us to support him bcs the coach will use him until the system fails, so let support every Arsenal players and we should not be too emotional with our favorite players.
Gunners for life….
You miss the point Wale. What are their BEST positions. And where are they USED TO playing? Or do you think that is irrelevant? He is invaluable as a BTB midfielder, but average as a RB. Tomi is a good LB but a poor inverted LB. Martinelli suffered in front of him playing that role. White is a more effective RB than CB but we play Partey at RB, White at CB and drop big Gabi. We all want Havertz to succeed but what we see is a lot of running and little creativity, whilst Trossard has been great. You talk of fan favourites, but what about Arteta starting Havertz but ignoring Trossard? Our eyes tell us that we play much better football with Trossard. “The system” (by that I assume you mean results not good football) worked great for Emery as well, until the wheels came off…
He played the odd game as RB when there were injuries. He is a midfielder not a RB, never was never is.
Arteta might loss his job. he is complicating issue. gabriel magese has been drop to the bench one of the best defender last season. trossard also not playing same as smith rowe and fabio vieier. sticking with a tacktics that is not working. we might be winning now i hope it last long.
@Ciko
C’mon man, Gabriel Magalhaes was rubbish during preseason and deserved to be benched until he regained focus. That said, Arteta declared towards the end of last season that he was planning on using Ben White as a CB in the next season. So it was either Gabriel or Saliba dropping to the bench.
@Dan – Sorry buddy, you have all my wishes and hope you will feel better soon maybe by next weekend. I understand you had a terrible week ending and equally bad start of this week. Don’t worry my dear friend Arsenal might give you so little chances to be happy this season. Cheers
This game might just be a very crucial match for the players. It was a hard fought win. Players showed such grit it had never been a virtue that Arsenal was ever known for in the post invincible era. It must give the players so much faith in themselves that they can see out such tough circumstances when needed. Once you do it, you know what it takes, and the players have done it now. They know now how hard they need to push themselves to secure such tough wins. This might just help the players towards the tail end of the campaign and hold on to the slim leads, get clean sheets, and all the things that failed Arsenal last season. I see this game as a valuable experience for the players, though it was nail biting for us fans. I am glad such game came this soon into the campaign. It will certainly help the players stay strong in the future.
Past 2 games are the perfect example why you shouldn’t carbon copy another teams tactics. We’ve copied City for a long time, just not working anymore. You don’t know how to tweak the system because you never developed it yourself. This is the exact reason we rarely changed tactics last season, we didn’t know how.
MA is smart enough and been here long enough to develop his own tactics. He’s into his 5th season involved as AFC manager, bit sad that we still copying another team and manager.
I believe he has the potential to be very good, but he needs to be his own manager now
The Tomiyasu sending off is shocking. The first yellow was because of Havertz initially delaying the throw in and the second yellow was not there at all since there was no contact. Hope Arsenal appeal and the red card is resinded. That said, I dont understand why Arteta is playing Partey as RB instead of his natural position of no.6. If Partey was at no.6, Tomi would have been playing as RB and Tierney at LB. If Arteta wants to accomodate Havertz in the team than he has to play Partey as RB. Havertz has still not done anything to warrant a start.
Kai Havertz is on over £300Kpw. Arteta probably has orders from above to play him every week.
That is a rediculous thing to say.
What is Havertz doing in the team ??? Really I don’t see his contribution nothing positive in his play. I do not understand it
The boss wants to make sure that he fits in his signings. I hope we dont get a bashing as he tinkers around. Just praying.
After our Management team analyse a re-run of the match, what conclusions will they come to and will they recognise the adverse impact their tactics are having on Saka and Martinelli who are becoming more and more isolated and having to turn back to retain possession.No one is capable of overlapping them with this inverted set up and as a consequence, we are not creating many chances.Ironically the much maligned Nketiah was dangerous and was so unlucky to hit the post after showing great skill in beating a defender on the half turn.After a slow start, Rice came on to a very good game and will be a huge asset, particularly if he is paid with TP in central midfield.Unless Havertz is used in the role he fulfilled so well for BayerL he will always be a peripheral figure although , unlike others, I could not fault his effort to create spaces .The sadest feature of the match, which was not a high quality spectacle was the fact that our great game has now been virtually turned into a no contact sport.The frustrations suffered by Tomi are likely to be repeated on a regular basis and sendings off for trivial offences will I fear become the norm and effectively spoil many matches from the fans point of view.On a brighter note, the fact that we kept a clean sheet was very pleasing.
A win is a win for me! We are 1 of only 3 teams to win all their games so far. Well done to Arteta but lets stop with the Partey at RB experiment. I’ve maintained I think one of Rice or Partey should start at DM and Havertz to occupy the Xhaka role for 10 games before we write him off completely. If Havertz fails at DM then he should settle for an Odegaard or Saka back up and we resume with the Rice-Partey midfield pair.
Yet to start out best XI due to injuries.
Integrating new signings.
Getting used to a new system.
Squad depth allowing us to have the likes of Gabriel on the bench.
Yet to hit anywhere near top gear.
Terrible refereeing.
Despite all that – 2 wins from 2, one clean sheet, Ramsdale hasn’t had a lot to do. Very very pleased with the start we’ve made.
It was certainly not a great game. However, it was an important gritty win against a team that can be quite difficult to play against.
We dominated the game and with better efficiency could have won the game more comfortably. The yellow card were somewhat soft but we will need to avoid the type of first yellow that Tomiyasu received.
The refereeing was inconsistent but to suggest as some have that there was bias or corruption is uncalled for and disgraceful behaviour by some fans on this site.
Far too many are also being hypercritical about the choices being made by the manager. The setup has given us quite a good measure of control in games and we haven’t been overrun. There are many strong teams in the PL and expecting us to just turn up and whitewash the opposition is unrealistic.
Just to put a lid on the throw in debate, we were not wasting time, we are just crap at throw ins. Havertz was taking it initially but had no outlet so passed it to Tomi to take. Unfortunately he had no one to throw to either and was booked for the refs perceived time wasting on our part. Watch back and you will see we waste most of our throws as there is no outlet on the pitch. This needs working on as we are wasting opportunities.
100% on the money. Unfortunate for Tomi but the first yellow card was a correct decision in my books. The ref even waved to Tomi to get on with it ASAP as we had used a lot of time already.
He had no options and that was after we had used a lot of time so we can fault the ref on a ton of things last night but not that yellow.
David , with respect, we invariably have the lion share of possession, with White and Tierney at full back and with Partey and Rice in central midfield and Odedaard or Havertz ahead of them, that situation will not change.In essence what are the benefits of this inverted set up? To my mind it has reduced the number of chances we create in that there is no overlapping support to make it more difficult for the opposition to pick up Martinelli and Saka.I really feel Arteta needs to rethink his tactics with a view to getting the best out of the excellent players he has at his disposal.I must say, I was very impressed with Saliba last night.Apart from one slip , when he managed to quickly redeem himself, he was very impressive, as was Rice.
People here complaining about team selection…Tbh I like what Arteta is doing with the team..
Y’all here were complaining that Arteta doesn’t rotate like Pep and he would never reach Pep levels.. Obviously we have Champions League football and what if Gabriel got injured playing against a team like Forest and Luton …..Then we would have Holding in the Champions League… is that what y’all want.. Trossard will be starter in the Champions League and I miss seeing Jorginho play for us
I think the position a player plays in a particular game is the coach says it is. Ultimately the Coach will be judged based on his results. I don’t think Arteta will have the team playing that way against every team. No matter how we complain it’s not going to change anything. The coach trains the team and select who he wants based on the tactics and game plan.
…is what the Coach says ..
@Gabriel, that’s exactly how I see it.he definitely will not use this tactics against all opposition cos it will be a bad idea but the fact that it has earned us the maximum possible points so far highlights how confident Mikel is on it’s effectiveness, preferring havertz to a very skillful, technically gifted,precise shooting but smaller and weak in duels(ground and aerial) in trossard is up to him based on intentions best known to him which I don’t see why fans should have a problem with it considering it’s clearly getting us what matter at the end of the day Three points.too early to worry about goal numbers as we are doing well in the other end.
The title sounds like we had a bad game and Palace was on par with us.
We “struggled” to win because of the stupid yellow/red cards. Before that we dominated the game and Palace had zero chance.
In the end, we “struggled”, because we had a man less.