Arteta happy with Arsenal’s first half against Palace but then as usual…

It seems to be a regular occurrence this season that Arsenal can only maintain high pressure for one half of every game, and are extremely prone to surrendering our advantage after taking a one-goal lead, especially away from home.

It has already been revealed that Arteta thought the players were not fit enough to see out a game when he arrived, and he is trying to improve that on the training pitch.

Yesterday, yet again, the same thing happened, and Arteta was disappointed that we “switched” off in the lead up to Palace’s equaliser. “I was pleased with how we started the game, with the way we dominated the first half.” the Boss said on Arsenal.com. “We saw things that we’d worked on in training and the way they executed them was good.

“But obviously after the break we knew they were going to push, they had more bodies forward, they put us under pressure more. We started to give bad free-kicks away and that’s something that we have to avoid. Then we switched off for the goal. We completely switched off and allowed them to put the cross in. We turned and conceded the deflection, and I was very disappointed with that.

“After that, I must say that we reacted really well again after conceding the goal. After Auba’s red card, we reacted even better in my opinion.”

He went on to say: “At this level in the Premier League, if you switch off for two seconds, five seconds, you will concede a goal straight away. I’m going to have to find a way to try to avoid those situations. It happened today and it cost us two points.”

But, having said that, the players did seem to react to going behind and losing Aubameyang, and we did actually come close to taking all three points in the end. As Arteta said: “That’s what I wanted to see from my team with 10 men. The reaction was really, really positive and they wanted to win the game. They went for it and we had three or four really good situations. We created the best chance with Nico and Laca. We were unlucky not to win the game.”

Unlucky we may have been, but the fact remains that we have won only one of our last ten away League games, and are stranded 11 points behind Chelsea in fourth, with little chance of now making an incredible comeback, but we can only carry on improving until we are recognised to be a formidable side again next season…

Admin Pat

6 Comments

  1. Good analysis by Arteta

    Pepe could handle Leeds’ LB with his physicality, but he couldn’t do it against Palace’s. He has one week to prepare himself against Enda Stevens, if he becomes a starter again

  2. Yeah I agree but we need to do it for 90 minutes .anyway off the topic we of knackered without pea because lacazette is so bad we could not give him away lacazette needs to step up now pea is out . Anyway torriea looks bad so we need to bring someone in on loan

    1. Thomas, Lacazette is a good player, he is going through a bit of a bad patch but he will come good again.

  3. A leopard does not change its spots and a lot of this squad are just not able or up to the task. Especially for a whole 90 mins! Arteta is doing a great job with what he has but the same players are still making the same mistakes and that may never change until the dead wood is shipped out!

  4. Arsenal actually has some very experienced pieces and a
    few very promising ones too.
    Leno 350 games Bellerin 200 Socritis 456
    Luiz 490 Mustafi 270 Kolasinac 312
    Xhaka 397 Torreira 170 Tierney 200
    Ozil 593 Auba 494 Lacazette 382
    They have played all across the major leagues and cups.
    All but Mustafi are seasoned internationals.
    AMN Guendouzie Torreira Willock Nelson Saka Martinelli are young starters for Arsenal.
    Add in Pepe Luiz Ceballos Holding Martinez and we have a very strong 24 man squad squad.
    So why can’t we put Palace away?
    Well the Ravens couldn’t put the Titans away today either.
    Maybe its just a super tough league this season?
    Two good results Arsenal goes 6th.Two bad results then its hello 12th.
    Are we at the crossroads or in the cross hairs?
    Where’s that sonic screwdriver when we need it?

  5. We saw Arteta-ball for 20mins and then went back to Emery-ball. I blame Arteta for allowing that to happen. He should have screamed at the players to force the Arteta-ball on the opposition no matter what but he didn’t do that. He has to shout at his players to continue the Arteta-ball when they are switching to Emery-ball. That’s what Klopp and Guardiola do to their players on the pitch. Secondly, we do not have the players who can play under close pressure from the opposition. The likes o Ozil and Xhaka wants space to play but can’t handle close pressure from the opposition. This is why have to be signing players with quick feet who are able to strive under close pressure from the opponents. Players with quick feet and pace are the kind of players that will play Arteta-ball for 90+ minutes.

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