Results catch up to bad performances by Konstantin Mitov
Well lovely Arsenal people, it’s been a poor start performance wise and it continued at home to Fulham. Galaxy braining left us with a 2:2 draw against a 10 man Fulham. It’s Artetas fault unfortunately.
We wasted 60 minutes trying out Kai Havertz again, then did the hard job in 10 minutes, turning it around and getting a Fulham player sent off, then comes another string of problems with Arteta.
First off, our defense missed Gabriel and it was evident when Zinchenko gave away a needless corner from which we couldn’t defend. We could’ve also used Gabriel in attack when in the end we were lobbing hopeful corners, like last season when he scored a winner against Fulham, but no, we can disrupt our whole team to fit Havertz.
I can’t pass by that we conceded a third goal in the first minute this calendar year. It’s partly because we don’t have a real right back, but that Saka back pass was horrendous. And then there’s Ramsdale. I’m sorry if you are beaten from there, something is wrong.
I’m absolutely disgusted with player favourism, which is a disease this football club can’t get over since Wenger days. The only positives were the introductions of Nketiah and Vieira but Mr Galaxy brain couldn’t wait to surrender possession the moment we went up front.
I am gutted, on the final day of a beautiful vacation instead of doing light work of a poor Fulham team, we gave away another 2 silly goals and paid the price. If this was City, they would’ve destroyed the Cottagers once up front.
I’m waiting to see what the excuse will be this time. All I want is some accountability at this football club. If we don’t win major honours at the end of the season I want to see manager gone.
20 years without a title, and barely scraping 7 points from Fulham, Palace and Forest. I fear for when we play a proper team.
Konstantin
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What tinkering? He swapped Nketiah for trossard and kiwior for tomiyasu from the last game, which was enforced.
I don’t really understand this criticism – he’s played the same system in the first three games, and it’s largely worked.
The players were poor yesterday, not sharp enough at all, too many misplaced passes, poor finishing, and poor defending in many moments. They were also pressed extremely well by Fulham.
I still think havertz is doing valuable things people don’t notice with his movements off the ball, but in this game there were plenty of times he and another player (trossard mostly, I think) were occupying the same spaces in attack, which messed with cohesiveness. He also had to put one of those chances away.
Our performances from the first games are hardly from the second most valuable team. Most called it from the first game and it took just three games for their fears to be realized.
Winning 2-1 against Forest at home, a so called domination 1-0 performance against Palace and letting 10 men Fulham get a point at home is far from working.
Our target is not top 4 or mid table. Our target is winning the league. We have players and dare I say the manager for that but can you see us finishing even in the top 4 going by how we started?
There has been strange and mysterious decisions from the manager and I don’t understand why he is destroying his own good work from last season.
I thought we were well in control of the previous games, but we’ve been struggling to finish chances – yesterday was a bit different, but it seemed like a lack of sharpness, coupled with the poor finishing to me.
I’m most concerned about the goals we’ve conceded. I think they’ve all been preventable so far – how forest scored from a 2 on 5 situation, I’m not sure, then the calamity first goal yesterday, and finally a ground level shot from a corner. That’s what’s most worrying. Our general play has mostly been good imo.
👍HH
@HH some fans are only results minded,as long as we win it seems to be ok.sadly as the title says”Results catch up to bad performances .”
Something some of us could see coming.
Spot on
Havertz didn’t make any misplaced passes nor did he make Fulham able to equalize. I think he’ll show better positioning and finishing skills against Man United
Havertz didn’t make any misplaced pass?
You probably watched another match.
Havertz made countless misplaced passes. There was no understanding and chemistry between him and any of our attacking players. He couldn’t even seem to know how to position himself to score simple tap-in. Didn’t create a single chance either.
So what else do you want? All you’re obsessed about is the technical ability he has not shown for 3 season and the fact that he’s tall.
People used to criticize Xhaka harshly, then he showed his tactical intelligence in the left-AM position. They also did it to Vieira, but he showed an improved understanding of the same role yesterday
Havertz would also likely improve his performance in that position. It might just happen slowly
That’s why he needs to be integrated into the system gradually, not forced in as a starter despite his inefficiencies.
At best he comes in a sub when we are already on top in games and need to close games out and he can also start in lesser cup games for now.
He made several misplaced passes why are you twisting the truth just to suit your narrative.. And what makes you so confident he suddenly improve against United
I support Harvertz but the result shows otherwise! I hope under MA’s mentoring, Harvertz flourish and boom under MA’s guidance and coaching.
ACTIVE!! well put mate. i can assure you this system will be mastered by our players sooner than expected, then we take control of every gaddamn team in the prem afterwards but till then we keep earning points here and there albeit with narrow margins.
We should just stop all these silly excuses in defence of the indefensible called arteta mistakes see what the new man is doing at Spurs without their almighty Kane no messing around that is the mark of of a proper manager.this team was great last season until the impute of a great manager was needed and or good substitute bench we didn’t have none of that. now all we needed this term was to have good backup players but the man first wasted our 65m on his German mistake instead of another proper goal scorer or keep our boy Balogun. But not. Then the 65m man must play at all cost why not use this same system that paid dividends last season to start. Please am not happy with what this man is doing to Arsenal
MA tinkering was partly to blame, and I think we all have a right to know what’s going on with Gabriel as his absence has clearly weakened us in my opinion.
No starting spot for Zinny, Tomi and Timber, and yet Gabriel still cannot get into the starting XI. That tells us everything we need to know. Clearly something has happened.
What stood out more than anything against Fulham was individual errors at both ends of the pitch. Two really sloppy goals to give away, and our final actions in the attacking third were awful. I think every shot was straight at Leno!
Bizarre how we can be so good away from defensively, yet we keep giving away goals and key chances at home in the first minute of games.
Haiverts doing things off the ball Davi in the comments says ? For 65 mil I want to see a player doing good things on the ball , he’s been useless and we have shoehorned him into our team at the detriment positionally of others . Not just his inclusion was the problem yesterday , like the article says , spot on , Gabrielle should be playing , partey should be in the middle , white should be right back , and we should start a natural striker . It was terrible yesterday and to be honest it was arteta a fault entirely
I don’t argue that havertz shouldn’t be doing more, I just think he has more of an influence than people realise. I agree he needs to do more with the ball at times. Too often he’s been choosing the easy option, but mostly he needs to score chances when they come. Looks like a confidence issue to me.
He has an influence but it’s minimal and we have players on the bench that can impact the game better than him.
Haverts is doing more than people realize yet in the first 57mins of is being on the pitch we were struggling to score even with chances abegging to him. Yet when a certain Viera can on Arsenal sparked into life. And even went ahead but for poor defending we would have won. This defense of haverts is a fools errand as you guys will soon realize to ur embarrassment.
Speaking of influence, should not be related to goals and assist and or preassist. With him on the pitch on Saturday we were playing with ten and a half men.
Totally agree 💯 with you bro this is the managers fault, he should watch it before it get worst
Every single person who supports Arsenal and saw the game could see the team were set up bizarrely. Thomas Partey at right back, when Ben White and Saka have a devastatingly good partnership. No Gabriel…..the natural partner to Willie Saliba. Kai Havertz means we play with 10.5 men. Like Willian in the past, Arteta favours a totally out of form player. £65mill down the toilet bowl. Where is ESR….a beautiful footballer who cost nothing. 65million could have bought Kudus or Vlahović. Arteta has made some bad cock up’s but he has a few days to ‘wake up’ and make good decisions and stop tinkering. Don’t FIX what is not broken!!!! Don’t change things before they have peaked. If Arteta is free of being an autocratic manager, and he still has time to realise he is making ugly a beautiful team in the making. If he won’t ameliorate his stubbornness we are back to a lesser place.
👍Sean
Conceding in the first minute is becoming a thing under Arsenal. And of course 65mil for Kai is a waste. Defense is poor and we need goals.
What pains me the most is after the excellent performance in the Community Shield for Arteta to scramble all of it.
Why couldn’t the same 11 and tactics minus Havertz carry on playing? Change when teams have figured us out not before.
We will get to use such tactics eventually when it matters most especially when Timber returns.
So at the end of the season? Are for real or just trolling?
Sean agree 100% with your comments !! You have to have good partnerships especially in defence. Unfortunately Partey does not combine well at all and Artetta is going to make a tough decision on Partey and Rice playing together!!
I think the issue is that rice isn’t very good at turning in tight spaces, whereas partey is brilliant at it, and it’s crucial for building out from the back when other teams are pressin. However, rice offers so much in other areas, especially defensively.
I think the idea to play partey at RB is to get both players onto the pitch plus another attacking midfielder – in this case havertz. I do think it’s worked for the most part but we’ve lost something defensively because it’s come at the expense of Gabriel, who’s probably our best ball winner in defence.
Why Why why why is Havertz in this team he has no place. Areta is throwing a balanced team to fit in Havertz a mediocre player, if this was a player who was star player banging in goals then yes i would understand but Havertz is coming a failed spell at chelsea now we throwing a red carpet out for him. Arteta is pushing the self destruct button i believe what he doing very dissapointed.
I suspect something happened between Grabiel & MA. The players have to know that they can’t offend MA, else they’ll receive special cold treatment.
I really don’t think there’s any reason to think that. It’s tactical imo – MA wants to get another attacker into the team, so he’s moved a partey into defence, which means either white, saliba or Gabriel had to drop out. Most people seem to disagree with the tactical decision, which i understand, and I think it has led to more mistakes defensively, but i think it has led to better control higher up the pitch.
I suppose the hope from arteta’s side is that the mistakes will cease as the players get more used to the system – otherwise he might change it to the original back 4 now that zinchenko is available.
Arrrghh! Here we go again, narratives been thrown about.
Like Keiran Tierney, ESR and who knows who else in the future. A waste of resources. Why tinker with a performing midfield and defence?
Havertz does not read the game very well neither does he work hard enough for the team.
At the moment he is struggling in the No 8 position Arteta is asking him to play and he has shown at Chelsea that he is not suitable for playing up front.
We had a settled and fluid midfield last season and as I recall Arteta stated that player fatigue was the key factor on us missing out to Man City.
I can understand why we brought in Rice and also Timber. I even see the logic in having two number one keepers. I just cannot see the logic in Arsenal signing Kai Havertz and I certainly cannot see the sense of potentially placing our season in jeopardy by continuing with this experiment.
The whole team does not look right – he has taken something that was working well and tinkered with it – playing an ageing central defensive midfielder as an inverted wing back?
A forward as a central midfield player?
I have a feeling this season will end in disappointment if this tinkering continues.
Some think that playing TP as inverted FB is no big change,how wrong!first of all we miss his quality in midfield but unlike Zinchenko who goes roaming anywhere he wants,TP as just one move,moving in midfield without joining our attacks, overlapping..which also affects what White can do on the other side.why do you think he barely overlapped in the 1st half? it’s only when we took Havertz off that he started joining SaKa in attacks.if MA insisted on playing Kiwior,he could have as LFB with Gabriel Maghales next to Saliba.the record needs to be put straight,TP didn’t start a RB as AM,he started as a midfielder for their B team and it’s only in his last season when he played RB 11 times.as for Trossard no wonder the guy feels the pressure,on a rare start he was given only 46 minutes knowing that one mistake/not playing well and he’ll be taken off.i really had high hopes after last season but I didn’t count on MA going on completely different direction.we had a settled team,players knowing each others so well,I bet they could play blindfolded (a bit of an exaggeration).the team was a well oiled machine it giving him and the team time to work on new tactics in training.lastly,his handling of Havertz is bad man management,here we have a new player,low in confidence and instead of slowly integrating him,giving him time to get used to his new teammates,tactics..and shield him,he puts him straight into the lion’s den.ok,rant over.
I think you’re right on all points tbh – all make sense. On Trossard, though, I’m not sure if it was more that he didn’t fit the new system at cf because he dropped into deeper positions too often, and ended up in the same place as havertz (who is essentially an extra attacking mid compared with last season – Nketiah worked better at CF because he’s a natural striker and so works in different areas.
I see it, you’re right about Trossard yesterday.
Yea, I really don’t get the line up.
That’s the ‘tinkering’ people are questioning. We need the right folks in the right positions and it seems MA is being overly clever so far, instead of playing our strongest line up.
Partey at RB just doesn’t work for me.
Seems it should be:
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko
across the back.
I’m not loving Haverts yet, I must admit, and I feel like there’s an ongoing question on the decision to bring him. For me, he should be coming off the bench.
The front line also should be pretty consistent
with Gabriel, Jesus/Nketiah/Saka.
I think Trossard is better off the bench as well.
So it really comes down to who to play next to Partey and I guess maybe seeing if Raya is a stronger (less mistakes) option than Ramsdale.
Tinkering and continuing the experiment with Havertz and the unbalanced team was the start. When Arteta reverted gradually to playing players in their normal positions where they understand their duties and perform best he ended up with second best in some positions meaning it was still not our strongest team. Like Kiwior for Gabriel, Jorginho for Rice/ Partey, Vieira for Ødegaard.
Playing Zinchenco without Gabriel to cover up for him is a very bad idea.
Drawing with 10 man Fullham at home is a bad result. It’s a long season and everybody will drop points, but this was just embarrassing.
Si, this whole Haverz thing, Partey thing and Gabriel thing, is coming back to bite us in the bum.
Definitely @Reggie,I don’t care what some say but even with the injuries we have,there are better options that TP as FB.i also disagree with the people saying that our plan A from last season was no longer working,our results towards the end of last season were due to injuries,lack of depth and rotation/fatigue.the manager has now added players to solve those issues.
👍
Reggie, Kai Havertz should have had to work for and earn his place in the starting 11; thus far he hasn’t had to do either. He appears to be shoehorned in to the detriment of other players; a classic recipe for dissention and loss of team harmony.
I dont get this get Haverz in at all costs. It hasn’t worked so far and he DOES NOT deserve his place at all.
Last season we had a smaller squad the team picked itself apart from the injuries but even then the replacements gave us a stable team playing together most matches it started pre season at least one half was played by the main team members in each game…. We gelled together and became a fantastic team all working together.. This season he’s brought in more top players which most of us agree we needed after the end of season blow out from tiredness but even with those new player available they should be eased into an working fuctoning team unit… from the first friendly ateta has not only changed players in every game but expected the new players to just slot into a system that has not started working yet… Start from basics get the original team playing together again then add the new guys in one at a time as subs untill the existing players get to know the new guys games and the new guys understand what’s required of each of them… After that process.. Then he can change them around and at least the diffrent team formations will get a chance to function together… One last plus from last year was the crowd.. We got behind them 100% I think it helped add imputus to the players out on the pitch… The questions and uncertainty are creaping in and the players feel the mood and it makes them nervey
That would be the logical thing to do.
Is this team stronger than last season after spending 200 million ?
I don’t see it ,we had a great partnership in Saliba and Gabriel ,white being one of our best players at right back .Now Gabriel cannot get a game and white being pushed back into the middle where he struggled in his first season here .
I personally do not see the advantages of the drastic change in personnel’s positions,surely we should be building on last season not restarting from scratch .
Obviously we dominated but we also struggled with the easy stuff .
Tinkering is the right word for the idiotic way MA is approaching this group. He has created more issues than help with favoritism and trying to fit players into a system that was already working very well.
He could not leave well enough alone obviously and the results speak for themselves. The Gabriel issue is clearly MA having an issue with the player that was vital to our defensive set up last year.
All he had to do is strengthen midfield with Rice add cover for White and cover for Saka. Rotate and keep them happy. His mind games are taking a toll on players and hopefully they sort this out or we could be in for a long season.
Loosing Timber is a major hit and he needs to keep the unit defensively strong. Zinny making errors in the back did not help last year and givving up Tierney on a loan almost makes you wonder what a hell are they thinking?
Time will tell . Still early but the sign are not promising
👍CFA#7
It seems to me Arteta always needs a player to demonise. I worry it is Gabriel now. He also stubbornly kept playing Willian who never gave 100% for us, yet played regularly. Now it’s Havertz who is playing without earning a place. I feel for ESR who has given his football life to this club and now being ignored by Arteta. It’s sad to see the great team of last year being blind experimented on for no logical reason. I hope Arteta is not going through the ‘male menopause’, because some of his decisions are looking irrational to many supporters.
It’s been a poor performance all round, from management to players.
Arteta has been disappointing, with all the financial support he got from the Kroenkes. He looks confused and disoriented, like someone used to surviving on a shoe string budget, incapable of making smart choices and managing bigger budgets. Both him and Edu are new, but one would’ve thought two soccer minds together would do much, much better.
Think this needless tinkering has created more problems in an egotistical attempt to fix something that wasn’t broken.
1. White a top RB is very suspect at CB
2. Partey at RB not DM makes team weak
3. Havertz is like Ozil playing B2B
4. Destroyed great central defense by benching Gabriel.
I don’t expect a big change in the next weeks. Ego set on 10 and it’s full steam ahead results be damned.
I keep hearing Arteta will bring out the best in Havertz . I am no football genius but ESR and Trossard are better than Havertz in every sphere of football, why hasn’t Arteta brought out the best in them . I liken the arrival of Havertz to the arrival of Ozil the latter being the talented player . When Arteta is done with Gabriel he will move to Trossard and after that it will be Partey then ESR. I call it as i see it . Arteta is a brilliant man but he still has a lot to learn in management . Pep the master always makes it a norm to leave out something when teaching his disciples. Such is the way of a great tactician .
Arteta shouldn’t get all the flack , Edu is someone who in my eyes should be sacked .
I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom . This has nothing to do with yesterdays performance either . I look at clubs like Newcastle , Brighton and i can see a steady hand . At arsenal i see a lot of panic.
What a disgraceful fiasco of an article from a man who does not deserve the privilege of supporting our great club. The worst sort of self entitled so called “fan” out there. The way he writes I could hardly call him a “supporter” in any case, as supporters support and he does the opposite. Ugh!!
jon, surely “supporters” can raise issues of concern to them, or are we all to be sycophants and “yes people”?
Arsenal since 1962.
£65mill for Havertz. Insanity.
I don’t know the problem with Gabriel M, but i know the team is better when he played. Saka is also more dangerous when White plays RB. Havert must undergo psychiatric treatment to set his mentality right.
And then go to another club after that