Same Old Arsenal
Last night you wouldn’t have believed that Arsenal only obliterated Crystal Palace 5-1 last week.
The Gunners just about beat Ipswich Town who are sat in the relegation zone by a single goal last night coming in the first half.
Kai Havertz slammed in the winner after 23 minutes from inside the six-yard box, tucking away Leandro Trossard’s cross from the left hand side of the 25-yard area, sealing a 1-0 victory to move Arsenal up to second.
Mikel Arteta’s team were very lucky to even be allowed to move into second, we were far from our best arguably. We had issues in breaking down the inexperienced Tractor Boys, who haven’t even played in the Premier League for over two decades. A strong majority of the team we saw last night were only playing in League One three seasons ago before Kieran McKenna, helped Ipswich achieve back to back promotions from the third tier of English Football to the Premier League. In theory Arsenal should’ve scored more than once throughout the 90 minutes, if we put five past Crystal Palace who have experienced Premier League players, then why couldn’t we do the same against Ipswich if not better with one of the best teams in World Football?
It seemed to be the same old tale of this season recently, we dominate games with possession and chances and yet can’t find the back of the net. After 90 minutes we had almost 70% of the ball and completely out passed Ipswich by over 300 passes mind blowingly, alongside our 13 shots with only five finding the target – still five more than the visitors who only had three shots during the second half.
We didn’t look rapid in the first half, but we looked somewhat in control of the game despite some flimsy passing at the back at times. In the second half though The Gunners became completely complacent and struggled within seconds of the whistle being blown, we gave the ball to Ipswich on a plate and all of a sudden they were in a position to score an equaliser which any top side in their situation would’ve done but they didn’t – to our advantage. They say “Football is a game of luck” and that scenario was an example of that, letting Arsenal off the hook with such dire passing showing the basics were a problem too!
There was absolutely little energy, enthusiasm and pride it seemed in the second interval. The Gunners were happy to sit back and to a certain extent become intimidated by a side who were in the Championship last season, rather than going forward and remembering their identity and their Premier League title goal for this season. Arsenal almost made out that they were a side who had never played with each other before and were trying to adjust to English football!
Last night The Gunners looked little more than a bottom side trying to find their feet and first win of the season since being promoted from the Championship.
This has to change, The Arsenal can’t go on like this if they are to seriously put pressure on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table and win their first title in over 20 years!
LIAM HARDING
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Is not every time you play champagne football, what’s important is the 3 points.lets stop being too critical of the team
Upward and forward
2-0 and comfortable, I can just about accept. But we were a bit sloppy at times and it could have easily led to an Ipswich goal. There was no margine for comfort and Ipswich are poor. Very uninspiring performance and not for the first time this season. There is an underlying problem in the way we set up and play. It wont win us the league or CL, we are not clever enough.
Play every 3 days and then try to be motivated to play team in 19th place ‘
DOH! we hadn’t played for 6 days.
crispen,
What a lame excuse, hungry title winning sides shouldn’t need motivating for any games, let alone a team in 19th position as you put it.
What has a teams position got to do with anything anyway.
As I said earlier, what a lame excuse. (Embarrassing).🤦♂️
“we put five past Crystal Palace who have experienced Premier League players, then why couldn’t we do the same against Ipswich”
Football isn’t mathematics bruv
My thoughts exactly! Funny “logic”!
Yes, Arteta needs to find a way to score more open-play goals against ultra-defensive teams like Everton and Ipswich
A pacey inverted-RW in the mold of Mohamed Salah could increase our goal-scoring chances
Maybe a Striker? A focal point? A pivot? A striker is needed so desperately but Arteta bought Jesus.
A stronger CF would also be a good addition to our squad, but the productive ones aren’t available in January and the need for a new inverted-RW is more pressing
No we don’t, that is not a problem. Getting the ball forward early is. Thats why we need a striker. We do not need inverted wingers at all.
Martinelli couldn’t cut inside easily to bring the ball into Ipswich’s center of defense. We didn’t have this problem with Saka, because of his stronger foot
@Gai,
I am really yet to see how Arteta would win the league for Arsenal. And I am not been critical. That’s why I like Jogin Klop former Liverpool coach, he has a knack for identifying what his team needs to succeed. Most of the attackers he bought is what A Slot is using at Liverpool.
Most fans saw the need for a phycally dominant prolific CF and a deputy for BSaka but Arteta sis otherwise last summer. Against Ipswich, we were so limited with wingers on the bench.
Arteta lacks the guts to play more adventurously as Klopp and Slot did
His tactics are brilliant for away games and against top oppositions, but too rigid against ultra-defensive teams
If he’s willing to switch to the attacking-fullback tactics when we can’t score, the team would be less predictable
GAI
I hope you saw the goal Mbuemo scored against Chelsea ,he fully fits this description.
Mbeumo could be a perfect replacement and Saka’s competitor, but his market value is around £50m according to Transfermarkt
We need to find a more affordable one
Realistically we aren’t going to bring in a player like that just to sit on the bench, which is what they would do because when fit Saka will play almost every minute just as Salah does. That is why Jesus is the perfect cover for Saka; he can do a number of jobs and we don’t just have someone riding the bench.
We need to be able cover the areas where rotation is more likely to occur such as LW and CF. This could include bringing in a striker who will play more often or can rotate with Havertz, or an upgrade on Martinelli and Trossard, who can be great squad players.
Ipswich are a well organized and coached team, regardless of their position in the table. They set up to stop us and persisted with their shape even after we scored, they played to keep it at I-0 with the hope they could grab something late in the game. Fair play to them, they are way better than Southampton. I didn’t enjoy the game because we were going through the motions without much penetration, only when Odegaard ran at the defense did we look like we could find a chink in their composure. That said, we were not terrible and we got the three points. Martinelli and Trossard did OK without setting the world alight, we are going to miss Saka because we are very average without him, as we were without Odegaard. We have not had the best of luck this season with injuries and silly red cards, but if in spite of this we finish second, its not so bad to be considered ‘the same old Arsenal’. I am still confident we are on the right track, but the pressure is building for MA and he needs to win something this season IMO.
I hope MA noticed what happened when Odegaard or anyone else started making those few runs at the defence in the 2nd half. That’s essentially the way Newcastle ripped them apart recently and in my opinion the best way to defeat a low block played by a team that is not likely to effectively kill you on the break going the other way.
We won that game cos I wish cos they lack quality. We’ll soon loose points if MA keep playing Harverts in midfield.
MA is a good coach but he’s stubbornness and overthinking is the stumbling block between him and winning trophies
Think the bin dippers will go on and win the prem league they have a lot more flexibility in their squad espec the front line we have been crying out for years for a prolific striker who will get us 25 plus prem league goals do that we win the league it has been the biggest criticism I have with Arteta that he does not see this looks like will cost us again!
“crying out for years for a prolific striker who will get us 25 plus prem league goals, do that we win the league”
in the last 9 PL seasons only 2 strikers have scored more than 25 PL goals in a season = Haaland and Kane
so very easy to say “what is wrong with you Arteta, just sign prolific striker” but they are actually incredibly rare, and secondly, in 7 of those 9 seasons the winner of the PL did not have a >25 goal scoring striker, thirdly, you don’t need reminding Kane did not “win the league” (or anything else for that matter – still amusing to this day)
And by the way Liam, what does “title winners” looks like?
Arsenal “were very lucky to even be allowed to move into second place”🙄🙄🙄
Where was the luck, and who allowed it?
👍 Jax. Brainwashing only requires enough facts to promote the narrative and avoid revealing the truth of the matter.
The attack looked dead!!! Yet we had attack-minded Nwaneri sitting on the bench for 90 minutes and more.
Nwaneri should play in Saka’s role or even as a 9 and you will see a difference. I don’t know why this manager keeps side-lining this guy.
Give Nwaneri a full start up front either as a 9 or right winger
Reading the article, I could be forgiven for thinking that we were bottom feeders rather than currently second. It wasn’t a great game to watch with enforced changes due to Saka’s injury still in the trial stage against a team that were happy to sit back and wait for an opening. It’s what you do when second best. That said, I’m not a fan of sideways passing and there wasn’t much incisive football to get excited about. A golden opportunity went begging when we tried to pass the ball into the net – so very reminiscent of a Wenger team at times.
Arsenal fans will always complain. They are not always satisfied always parroting old media talking point arsenal need a skriker. Not long ago we had best number 10 and one of the best skriker in the world(ozil and aubumayang) what did we win? Even getting into champions league was a problem.
This is not about having a skriker that will score 25 goals a season is about the team.
For the past three seasons now can anyone mention teams that have outscored arsenal both in the league and in Europe.
Bit of a Freudian Slip in the first line I think Sue😉.
Jax
It did cross my mind but I thought- what the heck!
Well, if it was intentional, I’d say it’s the comment of the year😏
Do I get a trophy?🏆
A dinner date with Gus Caesar
If you do get a trophy, it would put you level with Arteta, SueP.😂🤣😉👍
No it wouldn’t Derek
What about the community shields?😉
Sue,
Don’t even go there.🤦♂️
Hold it on Slot. He is currently riding high but has he hit an obstacle yet? Let’s see how he will respond when he hits an obstacle. I have seen many new coaches riding high until they meet an obstacle and then everything starts going downhill. I think the team needs to tighten the midfield and I believe Calafiori would further strengthen the left as Timber has done to the right. With both Timber and Calafiori and Partey in midfield we shall have a different team against Brentford. Our game depends on pace which was missing on 27th December. Calafiori has the pace and confidence to put teams on tenterhooks.
The performance against Ipswich is indefensible, everyone saying that we got 3pts is true but where was the urgency and passion. If Arteta doesn’t trust players then sell them and get players in that you do trust as he has now had 5 years to get it right but we do seem a long way off when it comes to playing the so called smaller clubs. Just my thoughts
Arsenal doesn’t look like title winners with one nill against Ipswich but ask Chelsea if the story is the same
Exactly, Bro!!!
Perspective was restored when Chelsea was downed 2-nil by same Ipswich we thought was shit.
Though Arsenal played extremely poorly on the night, 3 points on the board are good enough on your off days.
Hoping for much better performance tonight to match a winning outcome…
CIME ON, YOU GUNNERS!!! 💪 💪 💪