Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori has acknowledged that the team must do better at protecting their lead after their 1-1 draw with Brighton last night. The Gunners had entered the match determined to claim all three points and put pressure on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table, but costly mistakes saw them drop two vital points.
Brighton’s equaliser, though controversial, was only part of the story. The Seagulls had other opportunities to score and could have even claimed all three points had they been more clinical in front of goal. For Arsenal, failing to extend their lead after a strong first-half performance proved decisive. This lack of ruthlessness allowed Brighton back into the game and left the Gunners ruing what could have been.
Calafiori did not shy away from acknowledging the team’s shortcomings. Speaking to BBC Live, he said: “I think we felt we could have done a bit better to manage the game and [manage] the goal we scored in the first half. We should have scored another one. I don’t know why we made so many stupid mistakes, but the good thing is that we play again in three days [against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup]. Maybe we were too low and gave the opponents too many balls.”
Arsenal now face a quick turnaround, with their next match coming in just three days against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup. The tight schedule offers little time to dwell on this disappointing result, but it also provides an opportunity for the team to respond immediately. To win the Premier League, Arsenal will need to eliminate the kinds of mistakes that have cost them in recent games and rediscover the consistency that made them so formidable in the early stages of last year. Without significant improvement, their title hopes may once again slip away.
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Safe to say Calafiori along with all the others have been very disappointing signings. We spent 45 million on Calafiori when we still had Zinc, Tierney and Tomi on the team. We also have Kiwior and MLS in our team who have played LB bfore so we spent third of our budget on another LB.
Sorry but thats not good planning. In addition Calafiori has proven to be injury prone like the rest of our LBs so overall this summers recruitment has been a disaster.
I thought Calafiori was one of our better players yesterday and the fact that his direct opponent was subbed seems to confirm this.That said, he is not a LB but the prospects of him lining up in his best position of left centre back, seem remote despite the fact that Gabriel struggled on occasions yesterday..Yesterday was an opportunity to give KT game time in the second half as his surging runs would have caused the leaden footed Veltmen more trouble than he experienced from Trossard, but imagination has never been a strong point of Arteta and once again our only natural LB merely warmer the bench.With his departure imminent by all accounts, why on earth is KT on the bench if he is not considered a viable alternative on the left?
Grandad
Are there talks ongoing about Tierney moving back to Scotland? I think there are. He’s still our player but would you play him if a move was imminent? Just a thought
I understand that Celtic and at least one Premier League Club,thought to be West Ham, are keen to take KT on loan.Sue,I thought KT showed more than enough during his 70 mins against Palace to be given another opportunity to add much needed pace and drive to our left flank but clearly Arteta does not consider he is worthy of a place in his team , in which case why is he being further disrespected by being “displayed” on the bench?
A good question and one I have no answer for
The team is being held back because of Artetas insistence of having to be in control of every aspect of the game ,.
As soon as we grab a goal it’s the same old boring tactics of not wanting to lose rather than wanting to win .
We actually started time wasting after 20 mins which in itself is pathetic coming from a so called title chasing team .
Just wished he would let players express themselves ,funny thing is I actually have Utd getting a result today ,now Liverpool have once again a free hit .
As for all the injury excuses (same old fans )
As anyone of those mentioned brightons Injury list? ,did anyone mention Brentford having 9 first team players out last week ?
@Dan Kit
I was wondering why, after we scored we went into” protect the goal mode”, instead of continuing our attack. While, once they equalised they went into attack mode, pressing and doing whatever to disrupt our rhythm, which worked.
Arteta needs to let the guys loose, free to express themselves.
Robotic tactics every game ,he’s managed to get a group of players together he can micro manage .
Like you said they aren’t allowed to express themselves ..
The time wasting tactics are really pathetic TBH .