Arsenal will be thoroughly disappointed with their performance today, as Aston Villa have been allowed to run riot at the Emirates.
Our team was second best from the off, and even after a gift from VAR, where they denied the Villains their opening goal due to Ross Barkley possibly obstructing Bernd Leno’s view from an offside position.
This early present wasn’t enough to spur our side on, or give them the wake up call that they needed, and the next goal wasn’t too dissimilar either.
Villa’s second opening goal came from more work down the left flank, although why the defenders appeared to have been told to stand off their men right on the edge of the box, I do not know.
Our opponents were allowed as much time on the ball as they wanted just on the fringe of our box, and we sadly paid the price for it.
We managed to make it to the break at 1-0 down, and you would have expected a fired up side to come out after the interval, but there was no such thing to be witnessed.
Arsenal meandered around with their task, and Villa were not looking to sit back and allow any mistakes to go unpunished.
Ollie Watkins was the man to double their lead with a diving header after Ross Barkley made a run in behind the defence to volley into the box for the striker.
The Englishman added his side’s third moments later when Emi Martinez cleaned up at one end to set Jack Grealish running the length of the pitch, before he sets Watkins through into the box, and he makes no mistake.
Even at 3-0 down, our side wasn’t able to bring themselves to fight, and we looked more likely to concede a fourth than we did find the net, and there is no question.
The best team won today, and Martinez’s part in their third goal will not have gone down well with the Leno haters…
What in the world went wrong at Arsenal today?
Patrick
Arteta should’ve learn from last season that 3-4-3 with only two central midfielders does not always work against an athletic counter-attacking team like Aston Villa. He had better start using three central midfielders at home like our setup against Molde, because we don’t have attackers who are good in one-on-one situations
Ollie Watkins is the type of striker we don’t have. He can hold our CBs off, he’s quick and quite good in the air
He is superb and he doesnt habe a sttong physique either💯👌
No we have Auba but apparently, MA prefers LAZY LACA in the center ! And Willian ahead of Pepe!?
Aubameyang’s hold-up play sucks and Pepe got dispossessed too many times in the last two Europa League games. Arteta must have thought Lacazette’s and Willian’s experience would help the team out when playing against EPL teams, but they just couldn’t compete with the athleticisms of Villa players
Once Willock and Nelson are fit again, Arteta had better play them in EPL and use three central midfielders against small teams
Then he should play Pepe in the number 10 role. Or as a striker. One thing I know is Pepe would have converted most of the chances Lacazette gets. Pepe is more composed and full of tricks. He is a Waste on the flanks. Also, arteta micro manages the team too much. The creative players need that freedom. Willian is not explosive because of arteta’s tactics.
@Skills1000 I was thinking the same thing about Pepe. Play him as a make shift striker.
He holds the ball too long on the wings. He’s got such quick feet he’ll be able to make space and get a shot off quickly against most defenders and his conversion rate is pretty decent.
Of all the names to call Laca… Lazy is not one of them. He works harder than any other played in the side. He just misses too many chances but none of our attacking players did anything today. Auba and Willian were equally as poor.
Please stop that bs about Laca workrate. Some stats about Laca from this game
Played Min. – 65
Total Passes – 9
Successful Passes – 6
Passes Inside Opponents Half – 2
(Source: Charles Watts post match video)
There is a reason why he is not being picked for the national team.
He’s not lazy, he just couldn’t even finish his dinner.
We are in big trouble. We are missing a clinical striker, Willian is done and Özil is gone.
So we need a forward, CAM and a winger in January. And we all know that’s not going to happen.
We have serious creativity and finishing issues. Game after game after game, same issues. Our defense is better but they can’t do everything by themselves. We need to score FIRST.
You know how I’ve always dreaded the three back formation and I maintain that it cost Arsenal UEL victory against a team(Chelsea) we beat using 4-3-3 earlier in the season. It was my fear that Arteta would use such defensive tactics this season as it helped us win a lot of matches towards the end of the season. Creativity is a function of tactics and players but we seem to think its only players we are lacking
I don’t think Arteta would use a a two CB formation in the upcoming away game, but he has surely seen what was lacking from his setup in this game
Arteta can thank Covid for not having a crowd there or he and that ramshackle of a team would be boood of the pitch. Pathetic football from a pathetic team!!!!
You are spot on with your comments
In the Premiership we need young attacking players. Give me Athleticism over experience every day. Nelson for William, Martinelli for Lacazette, Willock for ceballos and watch us go up a notch. All Arteta needs is to work with these young promising players, surrounded by the likes of Partey, Saliba, Gabriel. I personally think it’s a mistake to have brought William to Arsenal. Chelsea got rid for a reason. He is 32 without any pace and apart from Fulham he’s been useless. I would seriously consider Folarin Balogun in the squad also. The villa squad is young, organised, skillful and Athletic we were found wanting in all departments. Playing 2 in midfield was an absolute disaster but I digress. Really disappointing result today. Won 4 lost 4.
Definitely time for some of the kids . The experienced guys arnt getting what arteata is trying to do . Europa squads ball movement is a lot faster . I know it is an easier comp but they look way sharper .
I knew we are going to lose immediately l saw the whether drizzling. This is a voodoo on Arsenal. They don’t play well in wet season, l thought this only happened around December but Alas, November is now included. Watch them next week at Leed United if the whether is dry, they will deliver, but this whether problem need to be addressed now.
You can’t blame the weather for slow distribution by Leno, playing across the pitch and backward all the time, for gutless tackles, for poor finishing. Arsenal are so predictable and can not handle teams getting in their face. Away to Leeds next week……. a home win without a doubt!!!!!!
One of the most disgraceful games I’ve ever seen as an Arsenal fan. At the Emirates, not even a goal?
How’s willian doing
Willian is crap, absolute crap. We got an expired product
LMAO🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂🤣, this comment made my day
We only have ourselves to blame. We made it easy for them by being static. Do we really expect to beat them with less hustling in defence and less movement in attack?
Without the ball, we were closing down with no real intent of winning the ball. Mostly shadow pressing without making our presence felt.
With the ball, we were slow on the break without pushing forward into space. There’s just not enough movement to drag them out of position and give us openings to exploit
How the hell did we go from our best performance under Arteta to our worst in the space or one week? Unbelievable
By switching off against a team that were running their socks off
The age old expression. Villa wanted it more
Exactly
We mock Man U but in reality our form and lack of consistency is almost identical
@Winston, best comment I’ve read so far. I pointed this out in our game against Leicester but nobody took notice. I’ve said it that if what am seeing is what Arteta has got to offer then we are doomed. This team is too static, it has no answer to any team that defends well. People will complain that we don’t have quality, but if I may ask, what quality does Aston Villa has more than us? Let’s just face the fact I’ve said it before and still saying it, unless Artete changes the way this team play we will never win games convincingly.
@Alizaba,but isn’t this the same Aston villa team that almost got relegated last season? Why didn’t they sack their coach? No they didn’t, they gave him time and we must do same with Arteta. He has done well Bro keeping in mind Arsenal’s sorry conditions when he took over. We all forget so easily in bad times and unleash our swords… No one remembers that Aston villa’s first goal was a no chance that went in… If Laca did same, we could have had a different team… I bet you that if Arteta can put Xhaka on the bench, he will do same with Laca because he has given him enough chances… But please when he brings in Eddie, don’t come complaining again because that’s all he got at the moment…
Thank you Alizaba. I agree that we need to change the way we play.
If we don’t hustle them, we are giving them an easier time than they are giving us. If we don’t make off the ball runs into space, we are not giving ourselves a chance to pick a good pass.
We have got to ask ourselves that if a player is looking to pass forward and all he sees is his teammates ahead being marked and not moving much, can we blame him for choosing to pass sideways or backwards?
Grealish is quality
Arsenal players lost motivation today. Arteta cannot use 3 at the back anymore against hard counter attacking team, its useless and easy to predict. No creativity at all, Martinez had a very little to do. Seriously subbed off Lacazette for Nketiah? Wood replace wood. GG! Cant wait for Gabriel Martinelli in first eleven.
I wonder why the Gunners are always motivated when playing in big prestigious games, but slacking off and careless in smaller games. This has been happening since Wenger’s time
We can see our players body language, they play like they dont want a win. Even commentator also saying the same thing. But Aston Villa look like a big team against us,meanwhile Arsenal look like underdog team. Midfield cannot cope with Grealish and Barkley. Grealish have a bright future for England as well. What a true beast!
Motivation.
I don’t remember Arsene Wenger losing 3-0 at the Emiraites to the smaller teams ?
I remember the likes of Chelsea and City but not the likes of a Villa
All losses suck, especially when team & manager underperform. Is it any less disgraceful losing 8-2 to Utd? Or 5-1 to Bayern twice in the same CL rd of 16?
Wenger had his share of thrashings; every manager does.
Even liverpool got thrashed by this same Villa team 7-2 with their immortal Van Dijk earlier this year.
That’s not what he said
He said even under Wenger we would slack off against smaller teams
Man u and bayern are not smaller teams
So again the idea we were losing 3-0 at home in this type of game under Wenger is a lie
Villa are not currently a ‘smaller team’. If they win their game in hand they will be top on goal difference.
And what a turnaround – avoided relegation by a point, now put 7 past the champions and dismantled us with ease… hats off to Dean Smith…
@MalaysianGunner – Don’t hold your breath on Martinelli playing before Nketiah. Arteta was benching Martinelli for Nketiah before he got his injury. Seems like Arteta is the only one in the world that sees what everyone can’t seem to see about Nketiah….
@AllGunzBlazin i hope Arteta change his mind on future? Who knows? IMO, Martinelli and Nketiah both have different styles of play, Nketiah for me is a player that can score goals, but not so good in creating, while Martinelli can score and can create something.
@MalaysianGunner – I certainly hope this defeat will nudge something into place in that brain of his. Arteta is ultra-defensive. If we had Pelé, Ronaldo(Brazil), gerd muller and lewandowski in this current squad, Arteta would find a way to mess them up! They might not have 10goals between them by the time the season ends. That’s how defensive he is!
This is the worst arsenal team in decade. Turns out that Wenger wasn’t the problem. I became attracted to arsenal because of there style of play. This team is not much better than Burnley.
Then go support Burnley! Or go re-employ Unai if his was better!
Unai is 2nd in la liga. Not that I want him back, just saying
We still haven’t played Tottenham leads and Everton.Are we going to lose more than 8 games in the first half of the season.This is just disgusting
And with the way we are playing, those games will be lost for sure.
Let’s see Arteta s explanation
Besides our lack of creativity and over reliance on our ineffective wings.
Our players are playing with handbrake on. Everyone is sticking to his position and doing only his assigned ‘job.’
We have so many sideway and back passes because no one is demanding for the ball. The player holding the ball often lack options.
We also don’t attack the ball when the opposition have it, always shadow pressing. All these are on Arteta more that the players. How can the team play like last week and like this a week after. Pathetic!
AWFUL
Auba is a good scorer, but needs supply. He does not have the touch to settle the ball and pass it on. Nor does he have the touch to pass the ball on to lead to team mate’s score.
We are missing Ozil.
Willain and Ceballos are bad. Not creative and poor quality. Their passing is poor. Pepe and Saka need Ozil. Partey needs Ozil, and without Ozil, Partey has to play box to box, which is too much for him.
Emlio must have been in pain watching…
Without Ozil’s threat to keep them honest Villa ran all over Arsenal today.
JJ you posted the same thing in the last article. But please tell me the Ozil threat lol. Look arteta got it all wrong today but please stop all this ozil threat’s, what threat’s.
Watch Auba and Ceballos today. Auba cannot receive the ball well, and loses it. Ceballos cannot pass well under pressure. Barkley is better.
You do not understand football. It is a game of touches and fine passing, 11 vs. 11. When the ball is a threat, the other team is less aggressive.
With no real threat from Arsenal, it was not surprising that Villa were rampant. Watch other teams gain confidence and destroy us.
If you think formations were the only thing, that is because you are playing too many video games.
Ozil will end up on a free with the Spurs to supply their deadly front three.
JJ I think him and jose will be a match made in heaven,,🤣🤣🤣.
Who knows? They do have Champion’s league pedigree and Ozil will improve them against weaker sides like Arsenal to run up the score.
The problem is that Arteta is simply another version of Emery.
Set up the team to cancel out the opposition but no plans on how you wish to attack them.
Arsenal players are better and working hard when we are not with the ball. Then when we win the ball back everybody starts resting. No runs. Belerin and Gabriel our best players today.
Arteta should create an attacking style. How do we score..
Ozil would have cost us more losses, he would have been missing in this physical game. The absence of Patty and lack of creativity coupled with Laca’s hiding behind defenders
Nah its not about Ozil .Arteta’s tactics are a problem. He needs to really check his attacking tactics and look at the team’s shape because it is defensive and it holds us back in attack. We are becoming a ‘pass and hope’ team and a lot of what we do is telegraphed. I’m sorry to say but even with prime Ozil we struggle big time today.The problem is more tactical though personnel wise too there’s a problem. Those puting their hopes in one playee saving us from this are in for disappointment.
Kev you are so right, I believe the coach tactics is holding us back, u don’t buy all this crap about us not having a good team, today we didn’t even have any shot on target and we were at home. Arteta need to seriously rethink his tactics, we have a player who has scored over 50 goals in 2 seasons but we can’t find a way to involve him, this is the 4th game in a row that aubamayang won’t have any chance, and Lacazette the less I say about him the better
Creativity is a function of tactics and players. I feel it is delusion to suggest all we need is a player and this is solved. Arteta needs to take the brake off and stop with the three back. Its making us becoming too defensive and affects our shape going forward. I only hope he looks at his attacking tactics because its becoming a real.issue. Unacceptable and irresponsible if he brings the same thing on board next time
@AliGunz Blazing, Nketia I bet you he cannot make it in any championship team. Arsenal and arteta are the same because I’ve not seen any quality that Nketia poses. No hold up, no good pressing,no off the ball movement, no dribbling and no scoring ability, just nothing, only wandering up and down.
Did we even have a defense today, everytime villa attacked felt like a goal on another day we would have been 7:0 or more.
The first goal would have stood!
ARTETA OUT!
Ow can we have Saka, Tierney, Aubumeyang running the flank, 3 players , although they were effect bringing in crosses but deminuitive Laca was no where to be found. Too short for a point man
True indeed! When i said we need Ozil, Ozil haters keep saying we need to move on from Ozil. How can we move on if our lovely club play like headless chicken? No end product, no creativity. I will not blame defenders because Arteta chose to play 3 at the back, but look at the forward, no creative ball to go into the Aston Villa penalty box. Thats why we lose against Leicester and Liverpool.
Oh keep quiet already, ozil? In a fast paced game such as this were villa were bullying our players bodily. Ozil would have been non-existent. End of discussion
Kstix bro let them say anything that will make them feel better, did you see the way Barkley was trying to bully el neny and some ozil lovers think Ozil will perform some kind of magic 🤣🤣🤣
Even grealish shoved bellerin aside easily for their third goal. They want to put an Ozil there? Grealish would eat him alive.
Couldn’t do any worse ?
I am not saying we can win with Ozil, but who knows maybe we can score one or 2 goals? It doesnt change the fact that we lost, but maybe by narrow loss? 0 – 3 is too big for a club like Arsenal. Arsenal is not an underdog club like coming from Championship tier.
Ozil is just one of the symptoms of a rookie coach making decisions by the seat of his pants. The Ozil haters want you to think that he is responsible for everything wrong with Arsenal yet time and again they bash the same players Ozil played with for years. Go figure.
Ozil has been too inconsistent in the last three seasons and Arteta doesn’t seem want to play with a CAM. We just need to use our tactic in Europa League to play against small teams and just use 3-4-3 for big oppositions
What supply. That’s a very lame excuse, I’ve been Auba’s number 1 fan but he needs to step up and start taking responsibility. He’s acting like a crappy player at the moment. For some reason he doesn’t know how to shoot anymore. He had one chance in the box 18 and still passed to Tierney. You’re the striker for Christ’s sake not Tierney. Look at villa, wherever they were, once they got close to our box, boom… Powerful shots
We look over trained and over coached our players are flat and it’s not like the whole team played Thursday looks like the players are drilled on the training pitch come match day there is nothing left in the tank 3 0 on our own patch. Currently it’s one step forward and two back
Definitely flat
I dont know what to say….😔
But must say this
GREALISH IS A BEAST
WATKINS IS UNDERRATED
Arsenal were totally humiliated. Aston villa wanted the victory more. They scored 4 goals. Var ruled the first goal. We didn’t react to that warning sign…
Willian and Pepe. Both dont excite me at the moment but right now its Pepe over williain. The team and whole players were sooooo bad..
Arteta will go back to the drawing board. We need to rally around Arteta, two bad games doesn’t make him a bad manager. He’s trying to build something, he won’t always get it right.
But today, there’s no player I will say played well. Sad…very sad.
Sack the twat
Listening to that crap on the radio was the most depressing thing i’ve witnessed in a long time.
I didnt watch it but from the radio it seemed like we had no creativity at all.
Lacazette should be dropped period, heard he missed again from 6 yrds and Auba didnt even have a shot all game!
We’re at home g*d damn it!
Lacazette was actually the best of the 3 forwards we had today and that is saying something
Listening to that crap on the radio was the most depressing thing i’ve witnessed in a long time.
I didnt watch it but from the radio it seemed like we had no creativity at all.
Lacazette should be dropped period, heard he missed again from 6 yrds and Auba didnt even have a shot all game!
We’re at home g*d damn it!
Don’t bother with the highlights, Val – there weren’t any!! Shocking…..
You should thank your stars you didn’t watch the game,it felt like I lost 10years of my life watching arsenal play today..
We can’t tackle, we can’t pass, we can’t take any chances that come our way. I have never felt so depressed the way a season is going. spurs in contention for minimum top four where we have no chance of top half of the table. Villa absolutely slaughtered us and could have scored six. What happened to Partey? We were worse than terrible. Yes I’m bloody depressed tonight.
Me too Declan that performance is a smack in the face
I put in a review but it has been blocked so you can imagine wat I sed
We’re gonna lose the next one.
And the next.
And the next.
And that’s only the premier League.
Doesn’t matter who’s in charge, this is more like a golf club than football. The squad just taking home their pay checks and not turning up. If I did that at MY job I’d be sacked.
So right S 👍👍👍
I’ve been trying to give myself a little bit of hope by I can’t, losing is not always bad when you play beautiful football but the way we played today was so bad,even bad is an understatement, we were apocalyptic and we are the dead humans in the apocalyptic world and Aston villa were the zombies they eat us raw
Well, that was an eye opener to the level we are at! Ozil won’t fix us neither will Aouar we’ll still see the same sh*t.. Aubameyang has been awful since his new contract, Lacazette the less said about him the better.. 70 mil for a hit and miss player! Eddie Nketiah is a championship player at best.. and Arteta for all the times I defended him, I won’t defend this, we struggle every game and just look so bang average it’s painful! Willian too is looking like an awful signing.. the club is years and years off being a title contender.. top 4 this season with this team and Arteta, no chance and we will not win the Europa League either.
Willian is about to fall in the list of the likes of Cech, David Luiz, Silvestre, Gallas and the like as players we should not have signed from the top clubs. We always take those they dont care that much about losing.You could see from a long way that it would backfire hut we still signed him
@Kev yep and we tied him down to a 3 year contract along with long term contracts for Soares and Mari! Arsenal FC is a circus
Laughable really
@kev82 it should have been 0-5 instead of 0-3. If Xhaka play, Xhaka will be spacegot same goes to Luiz and Mustafi, so today who is the spacegoat? Maybe Watkins 😂😂😂
Haha I think this one is on Arteta Malaysian Gunner 🤪 player ratings -0 for everyone 😂😂 could have been 6 easily 😝
Haha do not blame Arteta or we will be banned from posting here. 😂😂😂. Im truly disppointed here because I sacrificed my sleep at 3.15a.m just to watch Arsenal on losing side.
@malaysian Gunner don’t let Arsenal keep you up any longer, get some sleep mate.. that performance was disgusting, and some of us had to pay to watch that horror show lol. Haha he’s to blame tonight and some people have to accept that 😂😂 Leeds away in 2 weeks 5th defeat incoming 😝
Thank God for you! Atleast you got someone to blame and not the PAY-PER-VIEW!
Lolzzz
….👍🏽👍🏽
Kev:”Ozil won’t fix us neither” . I agree with you but might add that Ozil was not the source of all our problems like his haters pretend.
Lcw he certainly wasn’t or isn’t the problem, the problem at Arsenal is more than any one player.
👍
👍
Arteta needs to understand that attack is a form of defense, playing too narrow and been wasteful in front of goal
Arteta been in charge for close to a year he micro coaches that’s why the players look flat. He is not Pep , the was an assistant and its starting to show. He looks desperate because he made huge calls and his results are mediocre
We should not wish Arsenal to be in the top 4 because to be honest, EL is our level for now.
I am not even going to talk about tactics and all, but it seems our players are not just good enough.
If there was Xhaka and Luiz today, we would have blamed them, but who is to blame now?
Our players can’t do anything going forward, they can’t play FOOTBALL!
This was the worst Arsenal performance for years. Disgraceful. Arteta must stop this silly regimented style of football. It is boring, and will never win the league. Let the team play. I worry that Arteta is a control freak and his headless chicken football will not allow players to express themselves. Arteta is clearly inexperienced and may be shooting himself in the foot playing such graceless football. Don’t be scared of teams!!!!!!!
The statement of “let them play’ doesn’t work here. How can they play when willian, auba and pepe can hold on to the ball, they always lose it.
Been saying it for a while, Arteta micromanages and it’s starting to cost us. There is no continuity in the team or formation. Pick and damn formation (not the flat, stale 3-4-3) and tactically tweak it.
We don’t play to our strengths, rather use unsuitable players to try and nullify opponents.
Holding marking Grealish? Our 2 CM got marked out today and Arteta had no answer. Willian was like the shadow of a passenger today, and Laca has to be dropped.
Try Auba centrally, not Nketiah who is as inconsistent as Laca. Martinelli is best attacker not named Aubamayang, FFS he has to play.
Lastly, full stop wasting Tierney as a CB; is that why we got him? Surely Saliba can offer something. Partey went off and we folded like a cheap suit.
Arteta has crippled attack by micro-managing the game to death. Even Willian said they stand, be patient and play the ball to their feet.
Maybe an attack minded assistant would help things.
Please tell me what better team selection should Arteta have sent out there today? … Arteta selected the best team possible and the players just didn’t turn up to the game… There is so much any coach can do and if the players are off, they are off… So please stop finger pointing!
We lost today and so be it! We stand with the team in times like this and the players know they didn’t step today, and players cant be up today and crapping tomorrow. For us as fans, we are happy when they play well and screaming “Arteta out” when they lose! Then what sort of supporter are we! Why didn’t we shout “Arteta out” when he won the FA Cup… Please let us all know that Arteta is doing the best he can from the truly poor players he has at hand… Simple!
You said “Let the team play”… I ask you, “let the team play what?”… They go out to attack and see how Grealish opens them up. Please if we don’t know football then we shouldnt talk…. The team’s defence has only improved because of Arteta’s requirement for everyone to help defend… If not, Arsenal would be conceding 4 goals per game… Please let Arteta keep doing what has brought a poor team like Arsenal under Unai back to a place where we can even hope…
We lost today because our players just didn’t step up to the game… Why should you always want to blame the coach… Today was all about players who didn’t play at all… Simple!
How can you blame Arteta, Arteta didn’t change the team that won against Man U and for some reason the defense weren’t alert when they should have been….
The entire 11 players were off plus subs…. So should Arteta change them all? Please let the team learn from the lose and move on…
Indeed, A rare, sensible, non panicking, grownup post and congrats on being the first I haveread so far on this thread, which does not make me want to question thetrue support of the writer at all.
MANY ARE MERE JUVENILES, WILDLY OVER REAACTING TO WHAT WAS A REALLY BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE. No perspective or reasoningat all with most of them.
Yes, we were awful but this same start eleven played so well at Old Trafford, yet some are , ludicrously , calling for MA’s sacking. Sigh! You should not call yourself a football fan if you cannot stand a bad defeat, now and then.
I retain complete faith in our wonderful manager whose players let him down today. It happens with ALL clubs sometimes. PERSPECTIVE IS VITAL!
Delusional can be nice!!
If you have a PlayStation.. Setup the game and try to win it… Atleast that will make you better than Arteta!
Hey read your post again… I defended Ma and who is talking about Jon here.. And I am telling you that you have no idea about what it means to coach those bunches of players… Who is sniffing here… I will take it out clearly with you if you call for it…
Arteta is as culpable as the players. We are watching football devoid of soul. We see it every week.
With respect, sir, we’re not “juvenile” simply because we do not share your blind faith in a manager who, for all his competencies is as human as the rest of us, as capable of making errors in judgment – and sheer managerial blunders.
It’s rather cheap to accuse the players of “letting the manager down” – but we’ve seen this all before. We haven’t been an attacking team since Fulham on opening day.
Our attacking transition has been slow, insipid, and downright predictable, with zero creativity coming through the middle.
Partey has been the only one trying to get things going forward, with the rest content to keep playing backward and sideways, with neither intensity nor purpose going forward.
It’s all well and good to talk about having the best defensive record (which, by the way, we DON’T anymore), but keeping a million clean sheets do not get you wins by themselves, unless backed by a decent amount of goals going in at the other end.
You criticized the writer of the article whose only crime was to dare insinuate that our “Prime-Man U slaying squad” was bereft of attacking bite.
However, time and time again, we’ve been shown up by teams with real intent and zip. And, if we keep with this brainless pattern, yesterday will not have been the last time.
Arteta is too scared but you loose anyway so why not let them play.
Villa coach let his players express themselves against a team that outplayed Manchester United. You only see work rate from our players when we are not with the ball. When we are with the ball no movement, no effort to score as much as we put to win the ball. Arsenal is full of attacking players but the team is set to play defensive. Honestly a back 4 with 1 or 2 pivot is enough to do the defensive work, the rest can mark in their zone. With everyone defending so deep, you will never get a chance for counter attack, instead you have to wait for the guys that were defending deep in the box to come out and support.
Well hard to gind any positive from that match. I think no one tried to make anything happen. Can someone cast a magic spell on us to make us better? I guess not..😅
Lacazette has had enough excuses as a striker. No holdup play today to save his ass. Him and Willian seemed to play after inhaling some balloons! And everyone else wasn’t better either, just varying degrees of worse. And MA also has to take responsibility for this loss. I don’t generally blame him for losses, but this was a pure tactical defeat as well. Some serious changes are needed to shakeup the team and MA has to develop multiple backup plans against teams. We cant just play like kids all the time, hoofing it up with no one to recieve. No doubt Villa were the better tram today but that’s just an excuse to hide behind. In a league we should be switched on all the time…
Rant over😅😅
Team* lol
True,we lost the battle in the 1st minute and i could see our tactics failing….minute by minute
We had 2 superb chances,laca and holding
But villa had like 22!😐
And not to add salt to the wound,Emis passes are just pure class…
I feel like crying today, a game with no posiyives at all😭😭
Shakir that Emi pass is one of the major thing we are missing right now, a keeper that can think fast not just a keeper that is good at only stopping shots.
If I’m correct this is the 4th game in a row that Lacazette will Miss from the box, I’m not going to say anything about Lacazette again because arteta knows better. Auba and Tierney put in at least 4 good crosses in the box but nobody was there. That quick pass from Martinez is exactly what we are missing from Leno, although Leno can’t do anything with all those 3 goals but why is the guy always quiet, he doesn’t seem to communicate with his defense. And finally this arteta obsession with Lacazette and Willian may get cost him is job.
Saka Aubamenyang Pepe
Not that Pepe is good either but at the moment its him over willian…
Its hurts to admit, but i guess we may have another europa spot to tussle with united, everton and the likes.
Sure they put 7 pass champions of england! But doing so in our turf?
What has gone wrong with auba? I mean no single shot on target!
I think villa was underated, cos their approach to this game is different.
8 games played, 4 wins, 4 losses, 8goals scored and 10 goals conceeded.
We visit leeds next i think
Yes.. and they’ve lost their last 2, just like Leicester and Villa had!!!
If we play like we did tonight, Ayling, Harrison, Bamford will have a field day!!!
Dreading it now….
I’ve never been more depressed in my life watching arsenal,this by far the worst performance I’ve seen in my 17years of been an arsenal fan and I really do not even know if we are moving forward or going backwards,losing 4games at this stage of the season is just poor and as for arteta am dumbfounded as to what his pattern football is…
As soon as a goal is scored the game always looks beyond us .I’m all for arteta sorting the defence but it shouldn’t have to mean absolutely nothing in attack . What was Willian up to ? Surely willock can provide more than that
After watching tonight’s match, I suddenly realised why I was losing interest in football. I’ll try and explain below.
I grew watching football where teams played with an out-and-out No10. Players like Maradona, Brian Laudrop, Ronaldinho, the great Jay-Jay Okocha, Zidane et al…. Those were the days when football was lovely.
Today made me realize that all this new form of football has ‘killed football’ for me. All I hear is ‘inverted winger’ ‘box-to-box midfielder’, which to me is the reason why football is getting complicated for no reason at all.
Back then, once I heard Cafu was playing, I knew he was a Right Back. Simple. Or I heard Tony Adams, I knew what to expect.
But now, I don’t even know what and where certain players play or are positioned. If I may ask, what is Saka’s actual position? Or what is Willock’s position? Or even Ceballos? These continuous change in positions has muddled up the brains of these players that they are even more confused when they are on the pitch. A perfect example is Auba. He looks lost every time he plays.
Sorry for the ‘epistle’. Maybe I’m taking the loss pretty bad(ly)
If football is still that simple, the likes of Capello, Eriksson, Ferguson and Wenger would’ve kept their jobs. The younger managers have come up with new tactics that are more dynamic
Saka played as LWB in 3-4-3 and left CM in 4-3-3 today, depending on our ball possession. Willock played as the right pivot in 3-4-3 and as the right CM in 4-3-3, in the Molde game
That’s where you got it all wrong! All those old coaches you mentioned stuck with their principles and trust me, they had a trophy laden career sticking to their guns. They didn’t overcomplicate things for themselves and that made it easy for them.
The new managers you mentioned, with their ‘dynamism’ seem to have achieved less than the older coaches you mentioned. For example, with all the ‘dynamism’ of Pochetino, remind me again how many trophies he won?
As for Saka and Willock, you just buttressed my points. Why the multiple positions played by one person? Why can’t they just let them get used to a certain position and master it all the way? Why complicate things for them?
All the micro-coaching is killing the us.
It’s even worse in a team like Arsenal with almost no player of exceptional quality that think of outside the box.
We don’t even have players that dribble, take on players or play decent shot.
Today once again highlights our deficiencies.
1.First of all we have not defensive organization whatsoever, the back 5 covers that once in a while but a decent team with a plan will tear it up
2.Holding and bellerin are not good enough, they might have some positive performances here and there but they are not good enough .
3. The truth is that we have no midfield, and not one single creative midfielder, the only one we have wasn’t registered.
4. Chelsea have successfully scammed us again with Willian
5. Auba out wide will never work
6. Arteta is too stubborn to admit is mistakes , he did it with ozil and saliba
Why doesn’t arteta try Saliba instead of holding. He’s stronger.
Now what? Change Arteta? Bring in another manager mid season and then? The fact is that some of the players we have are just not good enough and I don’t think any manager can do good with this lot.
The attack is awful. The amount of times Laca has missed in crucial moments for us is atrocious to say the least. Willian is too old now. The fact that he is on high wages is testimony to our idiotic transfer decisions.
We want to play from the back but who do we have in the goal? Leno. I have been saying this for so very long yet people choose to dismiss it. He is an excellent shot stopper. And THAT IS IT. The amount of time he wastes on the ball thinking and passing just slows down the play right from where it starts. Not to mention he has zero command in the box, doesn’t know how to catch ariel balls and can never sort out his defense. The gulf in quality between him and Emi was so evident in the build of their last goal. Well Emi isn’t ours anymore so the less said the better.
Ozil is not coming back. Don’t care whose decision is it and what’s the reason behind it. He is just not coming back and so it makes no sense crying about him not playing.
As for Arteta, he really needs to sort out his attack. Sometimes i do feel sad for him that he has Pepe and Nketiah to replace Laca and Willian. But then again that is what he signed up for and playing Auba on the left is clearly not working out with the shamelessly less goals we have this season.
Where do we go from here? My suggestion if you are willing to take is to give Arteta full support untill the end of the season. We just can’t keep changing managers like this. This will only confuse the players and there is no end to this incessant cycle. I know we are in a terrible position right now and doesn’t look like Arteta has made any progress over UE at this stage, but the best we can do is to give him time for this sesson. Let him figure out his team. All the cries for throwing him out is not constructive and will not take our club anywhere. Sincere request, PLEASE SUPPORT HIM. Judge him the next season. Give him atleast 2 transfer windows to build a team. Right now he has only got 1. We just don’t have a quality attack and combined with his conservative style, we are in shambles. But the way i have seen it, he is flexible. And what better option do we have anyway. Changing a manager mid season is only going to sink this ship further. So let’s just drink down our tears and curb our anger, and give him time. PLEASE.
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Well said
AubaKedavra….
I have read so many posts and reactions and I came to yours and I can only say “thank you!”…. Thank you for deciding to place reasoning above emotions!
Beautiful comment!
Today’s game had no positives to extract but to come read such negativism here only shows how “soft bellied” our fan base is! We are presently out of tune with reality and that is why many are unable to connect with the reality that this Arsenal team will surely fall many times as they strive to climb back up the hill to becoming a great team…
Seeing people say “Arteta out” is absurb and demonstrates how short our memories can be…
This was truly an off day with little or no explanation for what happened today, same as no one can explain what happened when Aston Villa put 7 goals past Liverpool…. It was simply an off day…
Hard to take but true
Not well said. Arteta has everything he needs, he should produce good performance at least. For the kind of players he has, attack would have been his best form of defence. Talk to the defense minded players in the team and task them to do defensive work. Allow the attacking minded players to attack and pressure the opposition.
At one time Coqueline and Carzola were our defensive pivot and we had good performances even with no defensive player at Gabriel’s level at the time. Arteta needs to revert to a working formula not more time to continue with what he is doing. I’m not sure Saliba will do worse than holding and Mustaphi. Not even sure Mari is better. He has made big calls like someone that knows what he is doing, he should give us good performance. I want him to take us to the future only if he gives us good performance. With a good performance like in Leicester you can be hopeful result will come soon. But with this kind of performance it doesn’t make sense to expect result. We can’t beat Leeds with this performance can we?
Sorry…your argument doesnt hold. .The same argument is always used, give them time, wenger in his last 5 years DID not change, Emery, we gave him time, time to make the hole deeper and now arteta? After the first season and when he continued with his favourites and inflexible tactics, i knew he wasnt up to it.
What is artetas philosophy? Attacking football? Park the bus? As far as I can see, he has none if he had, i would happily support him eg Klopp had a pressing and high movement philosophy, took him 2 years and now, no longer a pushover. Pep, press and moves the ball forwards…success.. Mourinho, park the bus, takes him 1 season then he wins a major trophy in the second…i hope he breaks his streak with spuds. Arteta?
30 quid spent on 2 sundays.
0 4 aggregate score.
Depressing times.
Arteta too defensive with the squad he has at his disposal.
Thank god 2 weeks off this shite.
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1. Anyone miss how we play under Wenger?
2. Did we really improve after Wenger left?
3. Would Wenger do better with the players right now?
1:i do
2:no
3:yes
Gunner4life, yes, no, yes.
No creativity, none at all… all we could do was watch how Grealish run the show, provided opportunities for those around him and wasn’t called upon to be back in defence or run around like a blue a***d fly.
He is a pedigree player, not a water carrier.
@Ken
Still fighting the dead fight. Can’t accept reality.
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Lol you still think ozil would have made a difference today 🤣🤣. I believe arteta could have done better but we stopped playing attractive football 3years before Wenger was sacked and please don’t compare Grealish to ozil, Grealish does the dirty works that ozil will never do.
@Leonhappy- we don’t need someone to to the dirty work. We need someone to CREATE. And whatever you views on Ozil are PAL this team desperately needs him in the side.
We have in Aubamayang a world class striker who will score the odd penalty with the set up we have at the moment. And before anyone comes up with stats of 1 goal and 2 assists last season, please tell me where our creativity is at the moment. Cause from where I am sat PAL I’m not seeing too much at all
yet we never finsihed 8th
we never lost to a Aston Villa team 3-0 at home
we usually would lose maybe 2 home games a season not 2 out of our first 4
we wouldn’t go 4 games without scoring in open play
we have gone backwards since Wenger left
Funnily enough, I never mentioned Ozil 😂😂😂
All I pointed out was that we lacked creativity and Grealish supplied it in volume for Villa.
Goonster and Lenohappy, what made you think of Ozil??? 🤣🤣🤣
Wenger stopped playing attractive football the moment CESC and Nasri left.
Arteta is just frustrating me too. He is too cautious and pragmatic. He is restricting our play too much. Let the player express themselves more attacking-wise.
Even you don’t believe that! So we weren’t playing attracting football with TR7, Santi, Wilshere(when fit), Giroud, Sanchez, Ozil…. I can’t even remember all the great team’s goal or individual goals for that matter, we used to put 20 passes together and score (Norwich), the scorpion kick…our players used to score from 20 25 yards (Sanchez, Ramsey..) So many to name!
No, yes and no. Don’t forget our awful performances in the last several seasons under Wenger’s tenure, which led to his resignation
However, I bet Wenger has figured out what made him lose too many times, since he’s not stuck in his comfort zone anymore
mate I have forgot
can you give me at the Emiarites a 3-0 defeat or worse Wenger suffered to a side outside of the top 6 in the Prem
……….
Yes
NO
Yes
Yes , no , yes . I fully support arteta till season end but that was bad . With this team Wenger would possibly get 4th . If theres a silver lining to this , we may see some youngsters get their chances
1)yes
2)no
3)no
Wenger was good but he is finished at top level.
We need fresh ideas but it’s not coming from Arteta. He’s basically a poor man’s Emery.
MA still not sure on how best to set his team up. Such a horrendous performance!. Arsenal attack has never really been this bad.
Change the owners. They are killing the club. One way is to let the team shares go down by a fan boycott. No fan should watch Arsenal in real time. Let revenue fall down… then the owners will let the Manager do his thing.
May I ask:
how is/are the owners to blame for this woeful/pathetic/piss-poor/terrible performance this night?
How are owners to blame for Arteta’s ultra-defensive tactics?
How are they to blame for Arteta’s choice of positioning(A la Auba)?
That is very easy to answer. If the Owners provided a far bigger budget. Arsenal could afford far better Players and Manager to boot.
JJ Pawn most of your comments makes me laugh, is it the owner that select the team, is it the owner that do the formation, we have spent lots of money in the past 3 seasons, we are the only team who is playing in the Europa league but have a champions league wages, but what do I know, I only know how to play video games.
it’s the owner who lacks ambition , hence since Wenger we get managers who put up with restraints for the sake of having the job
I would argue we havn’t spent that much money
and certainly since he arrived we havn’t spent enough money
Hes the reason we have zero creativity in midfield
Let the revenue fall down? In case you not aware of it PAL, there is at the moment ZERO REVENUE. The owner has consistently supported his managers over the last few seasons so how is he to blame for that performance today?
https://www.forbes.com/teams/arsenal/?sh=2f4002923a57
If you are suggesting KSE is doing us a favor, you do not know the business.
Investment needs to match those of big clubs. If they insist on not playing Ozil, then buy him out, and deliver a proper play maker.
Attacking Arteta is no use, as was attacking Wenger. Get to the source of the problem.
Phil can I ask if he’s supported the manager
when Ramsey went on a free , reducing the wage bill who did we replace him with
Ozil being frozen out , who in the summer did we replace him with ?
The summer we got rid of Koscielney who did we replace him with ?
Go further back if you want
when we sold Vanpersie to Man United – who did we replace him with ?
when we sold Fabregas and Nasri – who did we replace them with ?
Dan- without looking up the exact fees, Kronke has allowed the club to spend on transfers I believe, over£300m in the last 3 seasons. Hardly not supporting his managers is he
Yes – we finished 8th 45 points behind Liverpool
When any company is failing an owner should step in
Let’s break this down
Gabriel is funded by the sell of Martinez and That young player to Leeds
Willian ‘s contract is covered by Mhyataryans release
The 55 redundancies paid for our keeper
So let’s say 45 million for Party
Is that a billionaire doing everything he can ?
What’s he done to cover our loss of creativity ?
Let’s go back a bit more
We buy Luiz with the Koscielney money ( was that the best we could do )
Let’s say the sell of Monreal , Jenkinson , Ospina bilic pays for Tiereney
Emery has admitted we only got pepe as lille agreed to a real generous repayment plan of 15 million a year plus the 33 for Saliba
But then we recouped 35 on Iwobi
We never replaced Ramsey as the wage bill was slashed
The summer we signed lacca we recouped that money by selling the OX and Gabriel and Gibbs
We only got Auba as we were losing Sanchez
To raise that money , we sold Giroud , Walcott , Coquelin
Our best chances fell to the worst finishers in the attack will and laca .
I have never seen any arsenal performance like these.
We won’t score if we had played for hours. Auba central please.
Martinelli get well soon cos nketiah ain’t better than that kid
4 losses already…..
Ollie Watkins is a gooner as well 😵
😭😭
Sue are you cheering on the Welsh ? 🤪
😂😂 Kind of haha!! I love it when he celebrates, almost like the hulk with his ripped shirt 🤣 oi oi!!!
Haha Sue at least you have some kind of sport to celebrate 😂😂 you keep your eyes on the board 😉 real Madrid thumped too 😳
😂👍 Bloody hell, 4-1!!! Our old Gabriel plays for Valencia, right? Crazy season!
Kev, you’re right, we have got problems…. what the hell is wrong with them all? Like you said 1 step forward, 10 back. Playing like that is unacceptable, but at home!! 😳
I bet the chavs are loving it – Ziyech > Willian…..
He does indeed Sue and our new Gabriel turned into our old Gabriel today 😂 they just don’t seem to be that interested, they aren’t a team.. good individual players but as a team they are shocking! I just hope if we do end up replacing Arteta it’s not another ex player because if it is we’ll be going round in circles! Oh Sue ambitions between us them 🤪
Arsenal have scored just nine goals in eight Premier League games this season; their fewest at this stage of a league campaign since 1998-99 (also nine). Impotent…. -1 GD now…. 😬
With Lacazette and Nketiah up front that’s positive 😂 you know I don’t rate Nketiah Sue I don’t think he should be anywhere near our team he’s as average as they come and Lacazette isn’t much of a goalscorer, he also isn’t good enough so not only the lack of creativity from midfield we don’t have the firepower up front.. Pepe isn’t prolific and Willian looks awful he’s playing like he never wanted to leave Chelsea. So I have zero positive outlook this season, it’s a shambles Sue let’s call a spade a spade
I can handle a loss when we play well and gave it our all – but we didn’t do that… and if that’s how we’re going to play most home games – god help us!! I’d dock their wages 😂 Nobody earned them!!
Well some days are like that. Liverpool got their own beating once, so was ManCity. Could this be our own beating to spur us on going further? Only time will tell.
Our attack was blunt. By the way, who said Aubameyang is above substitution even if he’s offering nothing? Laca? That one is case study. For me, he should be coming from the bench.
Where was Miles, to check the excesses of Grealish? Pepe should be given consistent run of games to gel into the team. And nothing more to say about Martinez and Leno.
Anyways our attack couldn’t get worse, why not just try Pepe in the middle. He definitely can’t perform worse than Laca and seems to have good finish under his belt. And who knows the gamble could pay off and it could be a change of fortunes for the club and him personally.
I don’t see him offering much improvement over Willian to be honest. He might be a better option than him on the right but not by a huge margin.
You may be right. All he needs now is consistency, whether in the middle, right or left.
Another player that needs consistency is Nelson. And William, I haven’t seen anything he’s offering that we don’t already have.
I keep saying….
Arteta will manage as he played……ok, but nothing to shout about…..
He tinkers too much & is not allowing his best 11 players time to settle & feel the flow..
When Wenger knew his best 11….he stuck with it. Ferguson the same at Man U….
We have 11 great 1st team players including Ozil……but lack a manager that knows how to get the creative best out of them.
Ancelloti would have Arsenal purring like a Jag.
We still need a great Manager……fact.
The arsenal board really messed up. You took ozil out of the team. Without replacing him. really bad move ozil is lazy ,ozil is not efficient, fine but dude is on 350k p/w contract come on couldn’t be worse . The ruined my weekend.
This has nothing to do with the owners.
Arteta has a good squad to work with.
No goals in 4 games.
Something seriously wrong.
Worrying.
@Neath – my thoughts exactly. Arteta has been equipped with all the tools he needs. He should start crafting out the desired masterpieces required of him.
A poor night
I’ve been a big supporter of Arteta from the beginning and still am but he has to take responsibility along with the players for a really abject result.
The disallowed goal was warning enough.
The throw out from Martinez to Grealish was awesome but so was Grealish
Disappointing night
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I don’t get his hardworking tag on Lacazette, he rarely holds the ball, takes on defenders and creates space for others. The ball is always bouncing off him or him falling down. Even annoying considering his poor finishing.
Unbelievable, that Dude is making me miss Giroud.
Yes
On spot. Good enough his contract is running down. Surely arteta won’t start him next match.
Anyone surprised? Nah! It’s been clear from Fulham game. 80% of Tierney’s passes are backwards to Gabriel and Leno. 80% of Bellerin’s passes are to Holding, Gabriel and Leno. Gabriel and Holding exchange passes between them and Leno more than any other area on the pitch. This has been happening since Fulham game.
Bellerin can’t shoot when presented with a chance in opponents 18. Lacazette has forgotten he is a striker, his replacement is… Nketia? Aubameyang is useless without scoring chances. Signs contract and now disappears in matches. Leno… enjoys passing it around with centre backs even when losing 0-3.
Holding should be playing for Fulham, that’s his level. Nketia should be playing for a league one team. The signings of Cedric and Mari makes absolutely no sense!
Arteta? Well, give him time they say. But I’ve seen enough to know he’s not an upgrade on Emery. Emery was hindered by language, what’s Arteta’s excuse?
Spot on buddie
Well said.
Spot on there Splendid. Hate to Jump on Arteta’s back but something has to give.. What the hell is going on?
Auba is doing what our resident “Social Media Influencer” did after improving his massive contract.
He is just chilling while waiting for his days of retirement.
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We might actually regret why we have him three years of contract. He’s losing pace. He loses the ball so often. He doesn’t shoot any more
Am already regretting about willian.
My only hope is in martinelli
Can’t agree less, it now runs in the family since the club chose not to recruit quality for competition.
In the Premiership we need young attacking players. Give me Athleticism over experience every day. Nelson for William, Martinelli for Lacazette, Willock for ceballos and watch us go up a notch. All Arteta needs is to work with these young promising players, surrounded by the likes of Partey, Saliba, Gabriel. I personally think it’s a mistake to have brought William to Arsenal. Chelsea got rid for a reason. He is 32 without any pace and apart from Fulham he’s been useless. I would seriously consider Folarin Balogun in the squad also. The villa squad is young, organised, skillful and Athletic we were found wanting in all departments. Playing 2 in midfield was an absolute disaster but I digress. Really disappointing result today. Won 4 lost 4.
Another home loss within 10 matches, some will jump up to say it’s only 3 points lost, add it to Leicester’s and more to come. It is glaring that if Arsenal meets a team that is ready to take them head on they will crumble. It’s not the formation but simply due to the fact that Arsenal have only one Striker – PEA, forget about Lacazete & co. Mikel Arteta is not instilling steel in the entire team, there’s no proper cohesion in the entire team, no quality and solid link up with the front men that plays soulless. Sorry I might be harsh and do expect to be attacked and castigated for my opinion. But I have critically looked at the body language of the Owners, MA and players I am convinced that Arsenal arelikely not going to make top four this season. It’s not by talking but efforts they are making and the spirit being exhibited. As long as the club parades the likes of Laca, Willian, Pepe, Nketiah, Ress etc our final touch will continue to be what we just saw this night. Yes they won FA & CS, but the truth be told that this is not a champions team. Don’t tell me that even Man. City lost at home or that Aston Villa also beat Liverpool the question is what’s Liverpool’s position on the table. Except Kronke and MA do the urgent needful in January we should control our emotions and expectations for this season.
I’m embarrassed. That was shocking. I’m not into blaming anybody spesifically here, cause the whole team and the coach are to be blamed… BUT what was Saka and Aubemyang doing in the second half. Why take out Partey and not Elneny??
Partey was injured
Arteta needs to really tell that special thing, that exceptional quality only him sees in Elneny that made them not to auction most of the spent forces at the back and bring in Aouar also. We may be in for later days of Arsene Wenger season 2.
On a lighter note, Arteta has sold his magic to Villa….
I am gutted we lost, but it’s only a game after all, shouldn’t be a do or die affair.
Take solace in the fact that we are not in this alone, United with the millions they have spent are still a work in progress. It’s a strange season in all of Europe.
Chelsea have the best team apart from City and Chelsea and I expect them to do well, not one team so far is consistent enough for now, we lost, unto the next one
Goonerboy
A very pragmatic response
Ö Z. I L
Maybe not literally, creativ playmaker is missing
This slide has being ongoing .. with ups and downs .. for a decade at least … there is something rotten in the timbers of this club and until it is excised we wont build back to where we belong ..
Meanwhile mhkitrayan scores a hatrick
He’s been on fire lately…..
Not replacing ozil miki is gonna hurt us big time .
dominik szoboszlai could fix some of our creative problem cos willian was an unnecessary addition. Reiss offers so much more
Pity Reiss is injured. I have to admit, bar the Fulham game, Willian has been really underwhelming…
Yes I’d welcome Szoboszlai with open arms – watch this space! 🙏 I’d say we’re not far from needing a bleedin’ miracle right now 😄
Under Arteta, Miki would probably be playing ‘RWB’ or ‘inverted winger’s(whatever that means!), thereby killing his natural talents and instincts.
Forget it Speedy. Miki. would have been over run by the doped and directness of the Villa players. Glad to see the back of him he was never Premier League and more suited to the old Mans league that Series A has become.
So you want rugby players instead.
I am happy to see miki leave and not mad ozil is not playing but they should be replaced. We are back to relying on full backs unai emery tactics .
We were really poor today .
Pepe is not consistent over 90mins fine but this guy needs a run of games he is our future not willan.
Sorry, that should have been speed and directness. Our youngsters are starting to look like lame ducks in comparison to the likes of Grealish and Watkins. Instead our lot seem to give the ball away too easily ,lack the skill to take someone on and beat their man or are injury prone.
The squad is good enough to compete. But our team is no longer ruthless. Am beginning to doubt Arteta.
I think todays performance was everything bad about Artetas tactics that hasn’t been punished so far when it should have been. I have no problem with playing out from the back but that is it, that is all we do. I have no problem with possession football but playing back to keep it safe, proved today it isnt safe. I have no problem with keeping our shape but it blunts our attack and like today, if it has any chink in the armour, it looks awful and exposes our weaknesses badly. I tried to say last week and was shot down but i will say it again, except two games, we haven’t looked good. Fulham and the utd game are the only games we controlled it. The utd game we controlled it but relied on a penalty to win it. The formation and football is far too rigid and first and foremost negative. Today was a disaster and a real worry, nobody looked comfortable, nobody looked controlled and nobody looked like they knew what they were doing. Villa whipped our butts and our manager has to take a massive part of the blame. He is potentially a good coach but he has to realise and quickly what he is doing is making us predictable and very beatable. The players need to know they can be given freedom to express themselves and not to rigidly stick to shape, especially when we are attacking. Often the forward pass was on and a forward run was on and we went sidewards and back. It isn’t an isolated thing, its something that has been festering. Im really sad because today was really really shocking, especially after beating utd on their shit heap and then playing like we did today. Our league form is suspect and we cant string 5 or 6 results together, its something that Arteta cant get right but if he wants to keep his job, he is going to have to do.
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Has anyone noticed we never slide the ball into centre to wing runs no matter how good the run is , we just pass back then go opposite side . Not just today but all games , and in the end people just stop making those runs and we become even more predictable. I definitely prefer to watch a wenger loss than an arteta loss at least they didn’t die wondering
Too true Mac. No, heart no soul and no beautiful footbsll
Then go to YouTube and download Arsene’s past games and watch!
I could watch you tube loses and at least see some arsenal highlights in there , I doubt there would be many In that game . I’m not calling for arteta sacking at all , but arteta has to find some attacking naus in this team , because that was hard to watch
Hey Bro, Arteta played the best team possible and no one should argue that… It is simple that no one can explain what happened… The boys just never lived up to the badge today
.. I will not blame Arteta as I felt your post was insinuating… Attacking wise it is clear that they need to improve and they surely will… Why are we all forgetting that a great attacking team should always be built from a solid defence base.. Arteta came in when arsenal was leaking in tons of goals…. He needed to fix that for God’s sake… To do that every player must be behind the ball because he doesn’t have those defensively good players
… The challenge now is that the same players are not athletic enough like Liverpool to fall back into defence and then launch lightning attacks from deep like Mane, Salah etc…. So we must give Arteta a break and time to bring his players… And for now be aware of the limitations of this team and align with reality.. That’s the point… I responded that way because your brought in history to paint Arteta as being so bad and compared to the past managers…
Imo William is not in our best 11 but we can beg to differ .I do like arteta so bear that in mind . What I said and meant was , at least the games we lost were entertaining. Kudos to arteta , the defense was best in the league and that’s great but at what cost , you can defend and also have a cohesive attack . I didn’t think I bagged arteta excessively, we havnt scored a pl goal from open play in 4 games. Hes got to find a way to improve it because a team with decent defense that’s ships a goal will still lose if they cant score
But I have also seen some dreadful loses under Wenger and Unai! You would also agree that in 10 months of Arteta’s reign, this is the worst show of his team. I am not denying the weakened attack but I can see that the boys could hardly keep the ball at their feet…. This again I cannot blame Arteta for… How can you launch an attack if your players can’t keep the ball at feet… I do agree that with your point of lacking goals but Bro, did you factor the number of missed chances by Laca? Goals do change games… Arteta is there to bring the best out of players and he has surely given Laca is chances…. But if he benches him, we would come out same to criticise Arteta for benching Laca… By the way, many are even saying he should in Folarin because Eddie isn’t go enough… The truth is we can never be satisfied as long as things don’t go our way… And all I am also saying is that we should allow this coach and the team to learn and improve…. I feel the pressure we create as fans whether we like it or not radiates into the team and can affect them… Well, I hope they remain professionals enough but they are still humans… Again, I do understand your point, but I don’t any other person can do better…. And coach who comes into Arsenal and continues to focus on attack would have sent the team into relegation….
I do remember loses under wenger which was my original point , they were at least exciting. You make some valid points , it’s tough to have the right balance , but we turn down good attacking balls to play back/side passes , I guess that’s the instructions from the coach , ‘stay solid and dont concede ‘ . But at some point it becomes a pit of a paradox, ‘ we dont concede many chances because we dont try anything risky .
At the end, for how long are we going to blame the coach… I still don’t feel staying solid prevents the team from creating attacks… I am just convinced that this was a thoroughly bad performance from the players and Arteta had to take the blame for them… But all the same, I am fine because atleast your points are well made that we need the brilliant attacks back and we will always prefer a loss with atleast some flair of attack…. I guess it looks like a paradox at the moment, but when he gets it right we all will come praising him again… I can only wish we stay with him when things are down too…
Yeah bro , I’m backing him all the way. I hope he gets them humming. It’s been I tough few years and we dont need to throw the baby out with the bath water .
Exactly – to you and Indeed
Sure Bro! My apologies on the note on which we took off! You have my sure respect!
All good mate , were all gooners after all , I’m gonna stay positive for a win against Leeds
Someone please tell me?Has Ozil at his laziest ever played a worst game than what we saw from William and Laka. It’s a failure of both the Spanish coaches that they haven’t been able to get anything out of him when Wegner could. At least Arteta admitted this failure. I hope it isn’t a ” cultural” thing. Not really too upset about this performance. For the big one was Leicester from which I’m still down. It was a wake up call,telling me both how bad the squad is and also that this coach still has a lot to learn. I’m not even going to blame Elany who I think can never be more than a bit player.
You can’t blame MA for individual performances. Simple ball control was missing. Lazy off the ball. Poor passing and basically players being caught out of position again and again. That is not a manager problem. That is just a problem with players individually. Every player was poor. No excuses.
However, MA should take full responsibility and should also be worried. The fans are beginning to lose faith in him and, if this season ends like last season I find it hard to see him retaining his position at the club. I have fully backed MA and still do. But the way that team played today looks to me like a team that are simply not interested. That looked like a team without belief. A team we have seen play like that so many times under different managers. Maybe this Arsenal team believe they still have every right to win just by turning up? Reality check (again)!
And when you finally sack Arteta at the end of season, I hope you will have enough money to sign ZEUS as your new coach!
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so just to clarify , all of those who called me negative in the summer – is that our title bid over now ?
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Lol…. Dan
If our defeat against Leicester city was to bring Arteta down to earth, then this defeat to open every fan eyes about how awful Arteta system makes us play. We just have been very lucky with our defeat result until now. To win a game, you need to attack to get the goals for that. I won’t blame our strikers to because they missed one or two chances. Aston Villa had 6 and scored 3 out of it we had 2 for god sake because we continue passing the ball back.
Was on such a high after last week – back down to earth with a bump!!
Sorry, but Laca missing the goal with a header at 3 yards (again) is something only a good striker can fix. You could give Laca 20 chances and he might score one!?
As for the defense. Holding was probably as bad as I have seen him in an Arsenal shirt. In fact, that defense was all over the place and at one point I though they were going for a tea break whilst Aston Villa attacked!
Shocking how this team can play like that and still call themselves “Professionals”?! Shocking and shameful display from a set of players who “on paper” should be able to muster up much more. Yet, today they seem to remind me of all the badness I have seen over the last decade..
With Arsenal we can almost tell during the first 10 mins how we are going to play on a particular day. Are they “at it” or not. After the big sigh of relief after 2 mins it was oh blimey so many of them are not at the races. I counted 5 who were in the vicinity of the races and 6 who were nowhere near.When one of the “in the vicinity” bizarrely tackled himself whilst under no serious pressure and our fab new boy
did not appear for the second half I started to fear the worst. I think there was one exciting moment when we strung an attacking move together down the left but apart from that I was reduced to pointing and shouting at the screen where obvious forward spaces needed to be filled to collect a pass as an alternative to sideways or backwards. It fell on deaf ears and I left the “arena” and re-joined the family in the real world knowing our fate. I will retire to dreamland somewhat perplexed but knowing that I will probably have a better night than M.A.
I had mentioned in a couple previous posts that Arteta is making the same mistakes UE made and I almost got beheaded. The fact is beside the obvious lack of a cohesive plan to replace players and buy what we need in each position to strengthen the team we also suffer from
selecting a coach that can lead players . Player management today is one of the most important aspects of building a side. All these players live in a time where they can make or break a coach/team. If you can’t manage their personalties and allow them to be happy with their football any coach will fall short. Arteta’s issue is he believes he is Pep when clearly he is light years off.
This group looks unhappy/exhausted/devoid of any creative football. Arteta has sucked the life out of them.
NO tactics can change that. Players can see that if Willian is stinking up the pitch and he stills gets selected as well as collect his 200k per week then the motivation goes out of the window. You play well you get selected. Arteta seems to ignore his own advise. He keeps telling us that players need to work hard and contribute. How does that apply to Willian or Lack or Nketia ? There is no contribution from them and I would include Auba.
It is worse than UE now. I feel this is not even watchable as my stress levels are thru the roof.
It was a glorious day out today and instead of taking to a round of golf to relax I watched this fiasco to make my blood pressure hit the ceiling.
We buy a 72 mm winger to bench him because he is nt good enough, Liverpool buy a 40mm forward with 6 goals in 8 games already. UNREAL.
Come on guys! Cool it. True, would lost and lost badly. However, we are naive if we never expected such a thing to happen during the course of the season. Thanks fact that some of you are calling for Arteta’s head shows that he and the team had given you hope. Let’s give this team time to become consistent.
I am relieved that such things are happening early before we reach a third of the fixtures.This gives the manager and the players time to iron out whatever that is not working.
We have as much the right to be mad as we have to be hopeful.
We have been plagued with silly coaching for a while now . i remember saying Miki was not bad just used wrongly same goes for Iwobi . As undeceive as he was he was a better attacking threat than all our midfielders combined . Willian cant even control the ball , LAcazeete wont score a goal to save his own mother , Saka finally becoming complacent . For me today apart from Elneny and Gabriel everybody else was trash . Arteta would soon loose his job if he chooses to go the way of Emery . Lacazette and Auba cant play together . For the love of God play Saka where he is meant to be played so he and Tierney can supply Auba playing as a striker ,Pepe and Nelson should play on the right side or even as attacking midfielders . In todays game you should have complete players not 4 attackers with one knowing how to head the ball and pants at other things the other knowing how to pass and is terrible at other things , Just look at Kane , Jimenez , Firminho , Calvin Lewin,Olli Watkins ,Vardy etc . We should have sold Laca and invested wisely .
What gives me nightmares though is the fact we loaned Torreira , Goundeouzi and kept Socrates, Kolasinic , Mari , Soares , David Luiz , Holding , Chambers , Ozil and co .
I know it is just one defeat but can we honestly say we have been playing good football . even when we win by 3 goals it still feels pedestrian .
I get we that you are picked on how ya train but surely back to back to back shockers from the same culprits has to lead to getting dropped . I’d play this team based on what we have seen so far on game days
Leno
Maitland . Luiz . Gab. Tierney
Willock . Partey . Ceballos
Neilson auba saka
Pepe for Neilson until Reiss is fit , by that time pepe might of hit form then ya have some competition. Get smith rowe on the bench asap and integrate him .obviously martinelli will push for spot to rotate with the front 3 when fit .
Agree with most of what you say gizzle, but Elany was out of his depth today with nowhere to go but sideways and backwards. No doubt he’s a good kid, doesn’t make many mistakes but it’s all about driving the ball forward, something that Villa players did easily and Elany can’t do.
@Joe but Elneny’s work isnt to be creative it basically to recycle the ball and keep possession you saw him adventurous in the Man utd game because he and Partey kept switching from B2B to DM. Granted it was an average display for him .
Look at this way was Willian , Auba , Saka , Laca ,Leno , Bellerin, Holding better than Elneny yesterday. lol .At least we know he needs an anchor to play effectively . Please what is Lacazette’s excuse .
The attacks on Willian is UNFAIR! Sometimes it takes time for a player to adapt to a new club
Lol. Are you having a laugh?
It’s very sad..
One thing that Villa now is different in good way, look at how they beat Liverpool 7-2.
But Arsenal did not learn. Lack of spirit, pace, creativity, sharpness, confidence.. Wrong tactic.
IMO, I want to compare a bit between Henry and Auba position. Henry has incredible dribble skill so he can be as a winger, but Auba does not have it. Auba is a goal scorer or a pure striker that need good passers from the others. Do not waste of time, just move his position to the centre. And put Ceballos behind him.
At the moment, do not play Laca. Play Pepe and Willian together.
Play 4-2-3-1 formation
What has Arteta done to the club? Emirates was a fortress under Wenger. And even though we have terrible away record with Emery he rarely lost at the Emirates. Now this Arteta is slowly turning Emirates into training ground for opposition
Fortress under Wenger? Hahahahaha now I’ve heard it all.
When you think about it, will Auba at centre work? The only time I have seen it work was when we beat west ham away eith Martinelli Auba and Pepe as a front three. I guess if we want to play Auba as a CF we have to get our holdup play(which is still pretty much nonexistent when Lacazette plays) from somewhere else and just use our forwards to make runs. At this point, with the squad we have, normal solutions won’t work at all and radical things are needed. I hope MA figures it out, considering the current climate of football, he only has a season before people really fly out with banners and he may be sacked. Being someone with no prior experience in such a situation is hard enough, and in an ideal world I would have liked him to get atleast 2 years with steady improvement. But he has to take the responsibility of the loss along with the players and figure out new tactics. I have faith that he would be able to do it.
Onwards and Upwards
COYG!
Arsenal have never struggled for goals, until now! Even when we lost, I personally was still proud of the team’s free-flowing, entertaining style of play.
Here, Here Prince. It was a joy to watch. We were always one or two players away from a championship now it’s mid table stuff. When this season is over, what will be able to look forward to as positives? The progress of our youngsters?,the midfield creativity?Pepe’s coming into form,the way in which Arsenal can turn defence into attack? If only.
We have this saying, “time goldens the memories”. That’s what is happening with you.
You definitely did not think that when we lost 8-2, 6-3, 5-1 to United, City or Liverpool. Or back to back 5-1 whoopings by Bayern. You definitely did not think “oh well at least we’re playing free-flowing football”.
I come on here all the time and see aubameyang constantly slated for performances when its is clearly the manages fault. Play him through the middle it’s that simple the man is the best number 9 we have and one of the best in the world,he outscored Lewandowski when played in that position for Dortmund and dont give me this crap about hold up play coz that’s not the type of striker aubameyang is he makes line breaking runs gets in on goal and finishes if he got the chances lacazette has been getting which he only has because he’s been played through the centre, he would probably be up the with the leading scorers now
Laca is no longer Arsenal quality. He is only good in the training, scoring great goals. But once it’s the the real match, he begins to lose simple control, falling down all over the place with the faintest of touches, and then sending scoring chances to the orbit or anywhere else, but in the net.
The man is 31 hes not getting any younger so arterts should not waste his energy on running up and down the wing let pepe, Saka, Martinelli (when fit) do that and leave Aubameyang to do what he does best. Lacazette and Willian both have earned spots on the bench imo.
Nice 1 prince.. Its a big shame
“If Villa were walking down the road, they’d be John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever”….😂 brilliant, you’ve gotta love Wrighty! And I agree with everything he said, especially “It being as a bad a performance as I’ve seen”
“Stan, we went down again.”
“Arsenal? My UK franchise? Hell, what did the share price fall to?”
We need to start from scratch with this tactics issue and also giving everyone chance again ( Sok & Ozil out).It is like we are at where we started.
That is not a balanced team .
We have the personnel .For God sake Saka is a winger . Tierney is a Left back. Pepe shoud be any thing he wants to be in that front three. Nelson, willock ,Saliba ,ESR shoukd be getting game time .Lacazeete should have to sit at least 5 games out . We have no striker outside Auba and Martinelli . I love Nketiah but he should be playing cup games at least Folarinn Balogun should have some day light .Dont understand loaning Torreira and Guendouzi and keeping players like Xhaka,Mustafi and Kolasinic in this team.Fofana was the lesser of the 2 center backs for Saint Etienne. Arteta needs some coaching experience . Guardiola was a defensive midfielder and he knew about attacking play.Whats Arteta’s excuse