I am having truble keeping up with our everchanging merry-go-round of Arsenal’s injury list as it seems to change game-by-game, and with Arteta full of surprises with his new rotational options I have practically given up trying to predict his line-up.
Our writer Kenneth had a go this morning, and he came up with….
David Raya (GK)
Jurrien Timber
Gabriel
William Saliba
Jakub Kiwior
Thomas Partey
Declan Rice
Martin Ødegaard ©
Bukayo Saka
Kai Havertz
Gabriel Martinelli
It is fair to say that I wouldn’t have agreed with that, and fully expect Partey to stay at right back with Timber (if fit) moved to the left.
This would put Rice, Jorginho and Odegaard in the midfield, and I fully expect his front three to be correct (or I just hope so lol.
Anyway, we will see who is right when Arteta releases his confirmed starting line-up, and here it is….
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Lewis-Skelly gets his deserved start.
…and Rice at 6 where he’s best suited.
Yes, he’s very talented and we need his through passes to break Everton’s defense
Another home game for Lewis-Kelly to show his abilities.
If he has another good game and builds up on it, then it could be farewell to Zincnenko in the summer at the latest
Skelly is being moulded to replace zinchenko in the inverted 8 role and if he is not ready i see arteta buying a non injury prone bkup LB so either way its sayonora zinchenko this summer.
Strange Partey on bench and Martinelli gets another start but I suppose, it is some form of rotation. We will see.
He has played 3 full matches in 8 days so arteta must be managing his fitness. It is the 1st season where we are able to adequately manage partey minutes without suffering a severe drop of quality. It is one of the reason he has stayed fit till now.
Really?
At least their best player so far this season (McNeil) is unavailable. Could that be a added advantage to us?
Whether he is there or not Arsenal should dispatch Everton without any problem
Kedar,
Famous last words. Arsenal 0-0 Everton.🤦♂️
While I don’t rate 3 of the Everton back four, in Ndiaye, they have a very promising dangerous winger.That said, if he plays on the left Timber will I am sure take care of him.
“Yikes”, it’s Sean Dyche…😂
Skelly forward passes are very good akin to zinchenko passes.
Liverpool down 1 goal and 1 man.
What’s the use of until we are not scoring
Just showing that they aren’t infallible, just up to us to capitalise. They are pretty much a 1 man team with salah at the momen, contributing 73% of their goals 21 out of 29
They Just equalised
I am backing Liverpool to win to even with 10 men on field
And just forget about Liverpool
For us it’s an absolute Shit show
We are a pain in the ass to watch right now no objection.
If liv win with 10 men then what can u do apart from congratulating them.
May be giving them PL trophy as well
🤣🤣
Yes🤣🤣
this could be Arsenal’s best XI, strong everywhere
White and Calafiori would add more quality than Timber and Lewis Skelly
Martinelli had couple of great positions but his Final ball was wasteful on both occasions
Odegaard had really good opportunity to score
We are playing okay so far but yet to offer anything convincing
Kedar,
the words Martinelli and final ball wasteful go together lovely don’t they.😉👍
Odeagard is killing us off at halftime toffies score 1st were doomed doomed I say
We are dreadful so far
We are not creating anything
So frustrating
Very lethargic first half. No urgency or passion in our play.
Listening on the radio so it’s difficult to judge. The impression I m picking up is Everton are defending well and we have had a couple of chances and one that forced a very good save.
The one thing that is obvious was the near silence from the crowd as the half time whistle went
Must do better in the second half
With these kinds performance me don’t deserve to win the league
Right! You are the one that gives the league.
With these kinds of performances
Yes
Sad to watch the team we are becoming. Live and die by corner kicks and praying Saka can carry us. This is what arteta has been implementing in Arsenal for a while now. A slow, lethargic approach to the game that minimizes any risk both defensively and offensively. So many of our games are just total bores. Less said about Martinelli the better by the way. He should be off at HT.
Best comment on our play that I’ve seen.
Arteta is so risk averse and now he has made our team risk averse. Our play as a squad is the mirror image of Arteta’s play as an individual.
Slow, safe, monotonous, predictable, rinse and repeat.
Disappointing performance truly, things were not working, had nothing else to offer in strategy or tactics. Just rinse and repeat and hope for a moment of magic.
Everything revolves and must go through Odegaard and Saka, that’s why the left side is dead.
Martinelli did precious little, Trossard doesn’t even move the needle when he comes on.
Doesn’t matter if Martinelli or Trossard start on the left, the left side attack is DOA. Is it the players or the manager and his tactics?
After nearly 800 million spent, perhaps the tactics need changing rather than throwing millions more at the problem and expecting a different result.
Everton made some sloppy passes, but Arsenal played too cautiously
Liverpool got a red card and would likely lose their game today, so Arsenal should be more adventurous to defeat Everton
If I were Arteta, I would instruct Timber to move forward more often and exploit Everton’s half-space
We’ve got Havertz and Merino to receive the long crosses from our right wing
We are not moving the ball fast enough making it hard to catch Everton’s low block by surprise. But I’m sure Saka will come up with something special.
Merino and Havertz out, Nwaneri and Jesus in. Not a very bad half but we need to create more. Lewis-Skelly looking good.
Cant score a goal, still hasn’t put on the only good finisher in this entire squad… subs… Rice??
Jorgino on we need a goal madness
Very slow build up of play and too much backward and sideways passes.
Everton are just too comfortable defending with the way we play.
It’s so frustrating
So it’s looks like another 2 points dropped
Merino is having a shocker of a game and he takes off odergaard and rice??
Damn he actually took odegaard n Rice off at 60min. Didn’t think arteta would do it even if both subs are deserved.
Odegard out?
And… we’re back to Partey at RB… You can’t make this up.
So predictable and boring
Why do comments need approval?
League season over
1. Players not good enough
2. Manager not good enough
3. Big players ALWAYS go missing when needed most
4. Would love to see a manager not afraid to buy centre forward rather than bring in trash then not even play them
I really hope I am forced to eat my words but just can’t see it.
Awful performance today with no imagination or urgency, too many passes that didn’t need to be made.
I’m embarrassed by that performance today and if anyone thinks we can win the league then I would like to hear from you
We’re not winning anything this season with performances like this.
Nwaneri had not a single impact, very wrong substitution by Arteta.
Someone pls tell me how this foolish fellow called Ateta was planing to compete for the league without a striker? The fool didn’t learn anything from last season. How clueless can any coach be? Another year wasted!!!!!!!
Tried to buy Sesko.
Sims,
Your not being negative about Arteta are you, TUT,TUT,TUT.😉👍
jorghino cost us the win shocking player cry baby should b playing for the ladies
We don’t have a top Quality Striker. Our Manager is becoming clueless. We should have signed Victor Osimhen in the summer. Raheem Sterling can’t even get into the starting 11. Arteta is responsible for all these. He should take the blame 100 percent
I actually agree with this. Why not buy a Striker is beyond me but loan sterling, loan Vieria & Ode gets a bad injury. Injury after Injury and we arnt actually playing well… Havertz, I don’t know what position he plays tbh
Incredibly disappointed that we didn’t win. It’s all very well having all the possession but not – from what I’ve been listening to – make a real impression on the Everton goal is deplorable.
A perfect opportunity to have closed the gap 😡
That was one of the worst second half performances I have seen in years. Other than a great save from Saka right after halftime, Pickford was a passenger.
Lucy78,
After the game speaking to Sky Sports, Arteta said we thoroughly deserved to win with the intensity we played with in the second half.
And some people wonder why I’m always on his case. 🤦♂️
And that’s why we will never win anything under Mikel, he had his chance & nearly won the league but apart from that he’s not done much else. Partey at Rb is a joke at any point, going into ANOTHER Season without a proper striker and can’t take opportunities at all when presented is all too well known for him time here.
We are looking for a goal and you take off Rice & Odegaard with Jorginho on… I dunno what he’s doing anymore
Sean,
I’ve been saying the same for ages.
And I’ll say it again, we will not win major silverware while Arteta is manager, I stand by that quote 100%.
Another year down the drain. I’m afraid I’m quickly losing faith Mikel can ever win us anything. If he doesnt win something next season I dont see the point in keeping on with him. It’s just not working. There’s no excuses today. There’s been no excuses all season. We’re the most predictable side in the entire league and cannot score open play goals.
Well I’m giving up it’s done this team ain’t winning the league unless something major occur like at the start of the year and we go on a monster run.
This manager ain’t winning the league. The football is un inventive.
Arteta can build a squad, he just can’t manage them and win the PL or CL.
People ask “replace him with whom?”
Any other manager that can spend 800 million and not win PL or CL, plenty to choose from.
If Slot wins his first year at Liverpool, then Arteta deserves to be in the hot seat and questions asked.
He’s too comfortable and safe for having not won a single trophy after massive spending and control at the club.
👍
I tried to tell the Arteta apologists, who told me i was wrong. The set piece’s are not the way to win things. 3 premier league games and NO goals from open play. Arteta ball is s#!t and slow. Boring to watch. Slow build up and set play reliant. Rubbish!!!!
I’ve felt this coming for a while. From the backend of last season. That Mikel would make this team boring and only care about defensive solidity and control of the game to the detriment of our attack. If this is all he has to offer, I’d rather move on. This is looking to be a Brendon Rodgers situation where he can take us close but never past the finish line. The subs today were absolutely horrendous, recruitment this summer was abysmal. There’s no direction from anyone on the pitch. Saka is the sole player outside of our backline who seems to not want to play at a snails pace. Another fantastic career we are wasting by pairing him up with attacking players that aren’t CLOSE to his quality. Horrible today.
Our starting lineup and very funny substitutions cost us 3points again.
Am actually tired with seeing somethings happen.
Anyway let Arteta do what he wants with his team.
Cost us 2 points
Cliff, Yes let Arteta do what he wants with his team.
But sod the poor fans who paid there hard earned money to watch that crap.
Still not to worry, Arteta and the boys can still pick up there big pay checks come Friday.
Ødegaard missed 2 good chances in the first half, 2 good ones.
I agree with many of the comments here, we are built for no attack. I remember Wenger had a team lacking in defense and Arteta now offers no offense. At least Wenger’s team was more fun to watch.
MA’s intentional ignoring our offensive built up is taking away both our entertainment value and our results. Jan window is crucial now, or, I have to say the owners may be running thin on patience.
At least we kept a clean sheet. Just sayin…😁
At this point I dnt care about a clean sheet. Give me 2-1 or even 3-2 and not a stupid clean sheet
@Angelo
In this instance, had we not kept a clean sheet means we had lost. Just sayin…
@NY_Gunner
Lol…. Well I feel so sad right now, we are heading towards the wrong direction I must say.
Even anybody who is not a coach could we that the major problem of this team is outright striker to take advantage of the chances and moved the midfield and the flanks create match after match. But this deluded Guadiola-wanna be is so blind to that glaring problem. Fellow see you next season. The season is some and dusted obviously, ruined by this silly Rookie
Is it just me or do Chelsea now look a bigger threat than us to challenge Liverpool and City havnt even started yet. We keep playing like this Top4 is going to be a challenge
A bigger threat to us? We are the biggest threat to us.
Sean,
Your spot on, I’ve been saying for a while that Chelsea are dangerous floaters, but I thought it might be a bit early for a title challenge.
But as every game and week pass, I’m beginning to question my theory.
Arteta out
It’s boring and predictable
BUT we don’t need a striker.
Liverpool drew
Let’s be honest, thats’ got nothing to do with us anymore.
It doesn’t really matter cause at least they played with a yellow card right from first half, what’s our excuse for dropping 2 points at home?
We just are not set up to win the title.
No striker, only dangerous on the right side, risk averse and defensive oriented not attack minded edeath.
Remember the players are following the manager’s instructions. Can’t simply blame the players all the time.
For 800 million spent it takes tremendous skill to make our play that boring.
Handbrake everywhere, micromanaged to death.
👏👏👏 its so obvious to the people who are not blind.
Durand,
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
One striker is not going to solve the problem. Arsenal need better goal scoring winger on the right.
EPL teams got us figured out. It still baffles me how some managers in UCl did not. Look at the game we played against Atlanta, all right side, no threat anywhere else. We missed Granit as a partner to the left side, after which we have been toothless. Yet, MA can only keep buying defensive players, as if he were traumatized by that season of Saliba’s injury. I value Havertz as a quality player, but he is not for us. From there, we went down a downward spiral, not Kai’s fault, it is MA who tried to fit a square in our circle. MA seems to be running out of ideas, and I hope I am wrong. Go Arsenal, we never give up.
Reluctant as I am to write off our title-winning chances, this looks like our annual Christmas cockup. It’s best to maintain the top four spot and look to the other three competitions we’re still in with success chances.