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Confirmed Arsenal team to take on Nottm Forest – Partey is back

Arsenal have suddenly developed a very long injury list towards the end of the season, and that may have contributed to our devastating defeat by Brighton last week, but considering that players that were still available we still had more than enough quality to win the game.

Maybe the motivation had been drained from the lads after watching Man City win so easily just before our game, or perhaps we are simply trying to find excuses for a lacklustre performance in front of our fans, which left a bitter taste in fans’ mouths as they streamed out of the Emirates long before the whistle blew.

But today, we are away in Nottingham, and no excuses will be accepted, as I believe Arteta will make sure the team understands that last week was unacceptable.

I think Arteta will still pick his strongest team available, which is what i predicted in my earlier post.

Here is the team I picked,

Ramsdale
White…Kiwior…Holding..Tierney
Partey…Xhaka
Odegaard
Trossard.. Jesus… Saka

And now we can compare that with Arteta’s final confirmed team here….

Video – Mikel Arteta pre Forest – More injuries…. A hard week…. What can Arsenal do in the summer?

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148 Comments

    1. Yes I think so
      May be on his way to Newcastle
      Good move for him
      Newcastle doesn’t have quality LB
      Dan Burn will be on bench from next season
      Tierney will start as LB at Newcastle

      2. Last game of the season will show it, it depends on how he is after the game with the lap of honour at the end, mad isn’t it, he has gone from being one of the most despised players to one of the fan’s favourite in a matter of eighteen months, how mental is that, shows the character Xhaka has, most would have left after the way he had a go at the fans and the response he got after that game. I take my hat off to him and wish him all the best if he does go and he scored against Spurs

        1. N. Forest doesn’t look like they will lose this game, another beating looming. Hope our players will be up for it in the 2nd half

    3. -It’s the end of Tierney at Arsenal
      -Granit Xhaka is still probably going to leave (don’t see him been used as a permanent inverted LB
      -Arteta will not drop his inverted left-back tactic anytime soon

      1. I think he has great chance to experiment new things in final 2 fixtures
        We don’t have anything to play for but Forest does
        So this will be very tough game and experimenting in tough is always better that doing it in training or pre season..
        And Arteta should open to various tactical switches…
        You cannot survive in modern PL with same tactics all the time…
        I still feel pep cannot win anything without tight budget team but one thing I admire about Pép is that he is very flexible over the years with his tactics…
        He has played with 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 formation..
        He introduced inverted full backs in PL football…
        And this year he used so many various formations and currently he is using 3-2-4-1 formation without proper fullbacks or wingbacks in team…
        Arteta has to be flexible if he wants to successful..
        We saw in last game where Arteta was put depth when he didn’t have the passing ability of Zinchenko and tactic of inverted LB
        Newcastle game was much much tougher than Brighton at home…
        But still we managed see out the game because we controlled the game with inverted LB and we were having passing and vision of Zinchenko…

  3. It looks like 3 at back
    White Kiwior and Gabriel as CBs
    Partey and Jorgihno as CDM
    Saka on right, Trossard on left
    Odegaard and Xhaka as CMs or CAM and Jesus as CF
    3-2-4-1

      1. But I think if this the case Arteta is missing out a chance to do experiment…
        We all know league is all but over…
        And Forest will play for Their lives…
        So it will be a tough match so experimenting in tough game to whether that experiment works or not is more effective than doing it in training or pre season game..
        Especially when you can do experiment because you have nothing to play for and you have nothing to loose or win..
        We not gonna win league this year and we not gonna finish below 2nd spot even though we loose our last 2 games as well

  4. Xhaka plays inverted LB despite leaving Arsenal? He isn’t better than Tierney in tight spaces, unless Partey plays there and Xhaka plays left AM as usual

    1. It looks like 3 at back
      White Kiwior and Gabriel as CBs
      Partey and Jorgihno as CDM
      Saka on right, Trossard on left
      Odegaard and Xhaka as CMs or CAM and Jesus as CF
      3-2-4-1

      1. We always use 3-2-4-1 formation when we have the ball. It’s just 4-3-3 on paper and when we don’t have the ball

        1. But today it looks Xhaka won’t be playing Zinchenko’s role as inverted LB
          I think we will play actual 3 at back instead of modified 3 at back…
          Xhaka May play further up field

          1. Trust me, our back-three will change into back-four when we don’t have the ball

            The left DM will drop into the LB position as we always do, or one of the DMs will drop into the CB position as Man City always do

            1. Yes I get you on this…. Agree with you but Not sure why we are not that effective like City if we are using same tactics…
              Something has to change
              May be personnel change would do

              1. Guardiola replaced Cancelo and his inverted-LB tactic with Ake/ Akanji and false-CB tactic, after a series of defensive errors

                Arteta would probably need to follow his mentor’s tactics and sign someone to play false-CB as Stones does. Unfortunately, White’s aerial ability is worse than Rodri’s and Stones’

                1. Yes but his ball playing ability is better than Stones I think so..
                  He can be good in midfield..

  5. I think this is the final nail for Tierney and he will leave, which means we now have to spend more on getting a good left back, to be honest, I am a bit perplexed at this line up, Partey is distracted and has been poor since the West Ham game, let’s hope we get no less than 35 million for Tierney, that is a real shame if he goes and I think he will go to Newcastle and he will thrive. Going to be a tricky game today, Spurs losing brought a smile to my face, and hasn’t Emery done well this season.

    1. It looks like 3 at back
      White Kiwior and Gabriel as CBs
      Partey and Jorgihno as CDM
      Saka on right, Trossard on left
      Odegaard and Xhaka as CMs or CAM and Jesus as CF
      3-2-4-1
      And if Arteta wants to continue with 3 at back then he may need specialist LB just like pep

  6. Second position is confirmed why doesn’t Arteta use the other young players and rest the likes of Saka and also see how these other players perform in a competitive match. With Xhaka likely to go is it not good to get someone from the juniors to play. We have players like Azeez who can get a run.

    Our coach seems to be very stubborn or maybe he was just lucky that the team played very well until March. He makes a lot of unusual decisions.

      1. But they must get chances to play in meaningless games like these. to be honest our team is not bringing enough junior players to the first team. Now and again we need to have some junior players tried out. We are lacking in some areas and all we have been doing lately is buy buy. Some of the purchases like Lokonga, Tavares leaves wondering if we couldn’t have given an opportunity to a junior player. Can we really keep Elneny who just plays about 10 or less games a season and not give Azeez a chance.

        The team cant be filling every position with a purchase. Edu and Arteta are really making weird decisions like selling Willock and buying Lokonga. Lets bring up some junior players and use the transfer budget for really top top talent.

    3. Simba, while our position is confirmed, Forests isn’t, they are still fighting relegation. If we play some of the juniors and lose, the other teams fighting relegation would probably put in complaints, which could cost us £’s. There is a law that says club’s have to play their strongest teams.

      1. Why would they complain if we are using players on our roster. Should we not use players like Turner in these games who is a full international. Are we going to be fined for playing Nelson and Nketiah?

        1. But those players you have mentioned aren’t junior players. Junior players would be the ones that are playing for the younger teams.

          1. I have mentioned Azeez as an example. We lost the league against teams we were supposed to beat all because of Arteta. It was our BIG chance and we let it slip not because City was playing good but because we played poorly against weak teams.

            1. But you want Arteta to play a player, Azeez, who when joining Wigan, could only make their match day squad on 2 occasions.

              You blame Arteta for us not winning the League 😂. Was it him that passed the ball to a Southampton player to score ? Was it him that never scored the penalty at WHU ? Was it Arteta that conceded the penalty in the same game ?

  8. I’m afraid Nottingham will win this. They need one more win to avoid relegation while our team is likely already apathetic about playing for nothing

  9. Looks like a back three to me and not with Xhaka at LB, as someone said.

    If thats the case I like the set up, given our injuries

  10. With all due respect, Arteta is a big failure at Arsenal. He used the system designed by the Arsenal technical board to climb to the top and on reaching there, he discarded them and went back to his own personal type of play that only brings agony: For your information, Aterta doesn’t like players with speed and bite as attackers. Players like Nketiah, Nelson, Henry, Mbappe and Haaland cannot make Arteta’s forward. That was why he pushed out Aubameyang then, despite the fact he can still offer something for the next one year. He is grudgingly playing Martinelli. Arteta is not who we think he is. The same fragile and sift three man attack – Trossard, G Jesus and Saka that Brighton trashed is the same people he is starting today. When the water got to his neck, he starts looking for Nketiah and Nelson. We must sack him for Zidane, else Arsenal will be worst than Chelsea next season.

  14. I believe the Gunners have already known that Forest who are on the brink of relegation to the Championship, need 4 points from their last 2 games of the season to guaranteed themselves survive in the Epl next season.
    And for them to start achieving their aims and objectives ronaldo remain in the Epl. They will fight teeth and nails in their this evening’s match at home against Arsenal trying to win the match or collect a point in it.
    Therefore, the Gunners may not find their game against Forest easy to play but very hard. And for them to overcome Forest in the match to beat them and beat them. The Gunner MUST raise the level of their game against Forest to a higher level than the level that Forest will offer against them in the match.
    And also remember to not profligate in fron of Forest goalmouth in the game. But be clinical in front of goal to bury their chances and bury them.
    And they should manage their playing on the evening to not conced any silly and dangerous free kicks nor give away a penalty to Forest in the match. So that they’ll help themselves to overcome Forest resistant against them in the match to beat them and beat them.

  15. This was always going to be a game of attack versus defence. We will either find a way through and score an equaliser or they’ll no doubt catch us again on another break as we will over commit.

  16. Came about down our left hand side… where Tierney should have been!!
    That’s 43 goals we have now conceded with this super duper defence that Jon Fox was crowing about!!
    What a shambles!!

    1. Ken another wicked distortion of what I actually said. Why do you CONSTASNTLY LIE abiut what I say?
      Do you get a kick out of MISREPRESENTING my posts and distortion KEN? The words “super duper” are entirely your own and not mine.

      Try being honest FOR ONCE, if you want to debate with me again!

      I AM TOO MORAL TO DO TO YOU WHAT YOU DO TO ME REGULARLY,even though I am sorely tempted!

    2. KEN, YOUR WORDS, NOT MINE.

      DO STOP DELIBERATELY MISREPRESENTING what I write. Perhaps I ought to do likewise with your posts . Maybe I will and then see how you like it!

  17. I believe the Gunners have already known that Forest who are on the brink of relegation to the Championship, need 4 points from their last 2 games of the season to guaranteed themselves surviving in the Epl next season.
    And for them to start achieving their aims and objectives to remain in the Epl. They will fight teeth and nails in their this evening’s match at home against Arsenal trying to win the match or collect a point in it.
    Therefore, the Gunners may not find their game against Forest easy to play but very hard. And for them to overcome Forest in the match to beat them and beat them. The Gunner MUST raise the level of their game against Forest to a higher level than the level that Forest will offer against them in the match.
    And also remember to not profligate in fron of Forest goalmouth in the game. But be clinical in front of goal to bury their chances and bury them.
    And they should manage their playing on the evening to not conced any silly and dangerous free kicks nor give away a penalty to Forest in the match. So that they’ll help themselves to overcome Forest resistant against them in the match to beat them and beat them.

  18. Arteta needs to move Partey from RB as every time he gets the ball he doesn’t know what to do with it and the forward movement stalls.

  20. Jesus is really terrible to hold the ball…
    He cannot play back to goal..
    Cannot hold any ball…
    We need that big strong and Powerful CF

    1. He seems to be really good at having a main though. Perhaps Arteta should move him to RB as I’m sure he couldn’t do any worse than Partey.

  22. Let’s wait until the whole match is over,,, before we start throwing the DAGGERS. Who Knows,, Dan Smith may have been right all along. ONE NEVER KNOWS. Now look what’s happening,,,, I’ve caught Jon Fox’s disease,, and started using CAPITAL LETTERS. But I must admit,, it’s bloody effective and easily caught

    1. At this rate we’re likely to see many daggers being thrown after the game cos this is crap! No other way to say it. We look devoid of any ideas or gumption..

    2. If I’m being kind it looks like players are already on holiday but we all knew today round be very poor.
      1. No urgency
      2. No plan B
      3. Not enough leaders
      Forest well deserved their lead as we have been very poor

    1. I think we have enough lightweights on the pitch already thank you very much. We need someone with a bit of steel to get a grip of things.

    1. Well the boss picked it and set the team up this way so he must know what he’s doing. Still another half to be proved right.

  26. Without Zinchenko, Arteta doesn’t have any game plan..
    Absolutely terrible half..
    That was not football..
    That was horror show

    1. If we are relying on a midfielder playing full back and not a good defender as our pivot. We are struggling. If we are one player down and it all falls down, we are going nowhere fast.

    1. Without Zinchenko, Arteta doesn’t have any other plan..
      That was not football..
      That was horror show…
      He doesn’t have any plan B
      Shit show..
      Zinchenko out and Arteta is out of ideas and out of depth

    2. Has anyone to Partey that’s part of his role. What a Kiwiior, I don’t think he’s even been out of his own half.

  29. £380+ squid… what an absolute pile of of poo.

    I Have no idea what the plan is but it ain’t 🦆ing working.

    FFS🤬

  30. A fatal error from Odegaard

    Jesus lost most of his ground duels. If he could hold Nottingham Forest’s CBs off, we would’ve had more options to create chances in the final-third

    His teammates seemed afraid to pass to him, because of the risk of losing the ball. Hopefully Balogun can do hold-up play better than Jesus and Nketiah, otherwise we’ll have to sign a new CF

    1. Wasn’t it him who gave the ball away against Brighton that led to another fatal error.

        1. It was either the first or second goal, given away exactly the same and we opened up like the parting of the sea.

  31. Come on guys, this is a meaningless game. In fact, we should have fielded team B & C players. No need to stress.

    1. I would agree, if it was a game in isolation but it is how we have been playing for 6 weeks.

    2. B & C? We are missing Zini, Saliba and Martinelli? The players on show are the players that will be competing next year.

  32. Listening to Tony Adams at half time and he’s as puzzled as most of us are.
    TACTICS? WHAT TACTICS??

    1. Ken i have said it before. Arteta doesn’t do tactics or at least very well. He set a team up to play and thats it.

        1. NB, we’re talking about this game and it quite simply isn’t working out well at the moment is it?

  33. Jesus and Trossard have been terrible.
    I would prefer to see ESR and Nketiah instead.
    Also would like to Tierney come back to make it a back 4 and remove either Partey or Xhaka (they have all been bad) and at least have a go.
    This is just embarassing. Losing to Brighton is OK but what is this I am seeing.

      1. You are right of course.
        We are allowed to only use 5 substitutes.
        In addition to what I mentioned bring on 2 out of the 3 kids out there. At least we can have a look at them.

  34. Seems our manager can now be confirmed as a ONE TRICK PONY, right?
    That one trick has been found out and he looks clueless.

    Well oh well, Arteta will have his ‘bucket full’ next season.

    He needs to work on a PLAN B tactics for next season, he really needs to.
    I will take it that he’s still learning.

  35. Are we still going to pay Saka 300kpw? I can sense naivety in the running of this club. I’d like to know what players like Vinicius, Foden, etc, earn.

  36. Surely can’t be any worse than the first half. That first half is something that will keep me up all night!

  40. I thought maybe Arteta might have changed the defensive set up and moved Partey from RB, but obviously he’s not watching the same game as we are.

  41. Jesus is terrible…
    Pep was right to play him on wings and he was right to allow him to leave

      1. He has scored same number of since coming back from injury…
        He was never a prolific scorer ever..
        And he would never be

  43. Was that Arteta being given instructions on what to do by his assistant I just saw on screen. Certainly looked like it.

  44. NO SHAPE, NO FIGHT, NO PACE IN BALL MOVING, NO DISCERNIBLE TACTICS AT ALL. NOT A SINGLE OUTFIELD PLAYER PLAYING WELL. UGH!

    1. Not one good performance and its even worse in the 2nd half. Sooner the season ends the better

  45. Thank gawd for that – sky was saying Jorghino was coming of – he has been one of our better players….

  47. Can’t believe we’re giving City the crown today with this limp performance! Almost feel like I’ve been robbed as a fan!

    1. No passion
      No idea but more importantly No heart. And that is something you can’t teach

  52. Arteta should have named Win the dog as a sub. He could have bought him on to add some much needed bite to team.

  54. I was not expecting much from this game,why.thid morning I read that MA had a team’s meeting few days ago, amongst others things,he told the players no matter what this season has been a success.looks like they had come to terms with finishing 2nd and the season was already over.

    1. Its not about this game Si, its about the way we have collapsed when the heat was on. This game isnt in isolation. The last few weeks have been a total collapse.

      1. I agree,i just find it strange that MA already assessed the season even with 2 games left to play.it sounds like they feel the season is over and have nothing left to play for.

  55. Who is the person wearing a high vis jacket in the middle of the field? Is he supposed to be a ref? Any tiny chance we get, he makes the wrong decisions

  56. What a soft players with these soft players you dont have any chance , atleast we have xhaka and now he’s going , gabriel meghales is just lonely reacted in that incident viera standing next to him like he don’t know gabriel

  57. You just can’t trust Arteta and Edu. They go into a pet shop and purchase a CHOCOLATE LABRADOR and name it WIN. The dog attends training as team morale. I wonder who’s appointed to picking up the dog shite on the training pitch. I think Arteta chose the wrong name for the dog. Instead of calling it WIN,,, Arteta should have named it CAPITULATE. Why not bring the dog on as a super sub. It’s not looking good. If Arteta and Edu can’t select the right dog from a pet shop,,, what chances do they have in buying new players. You can take a dog back to a pet shop,,, don’t know about new players

    1. We deserve nothing as we have showed no fight. I hope the players come out and apologise for the disgraceful way they have preformed in the last 4-6 weeks. Gutless week in week out. They should be embarrassed and totally ashamed by the way they haven’t even tried to win, what a shambles. Far too nice scandalous performances

  59. The trouble with the collapse the team has had, despite being great for much of the season, is that it might deter the big players from wanting to join us as they might think we’ve flattered to deceive and aren’t really going to be contenders any time again soon.

    1. We’ll finish 2nd by a country mile no prospective transfer will look down on that. We could quickly point to last year and missing out on the top 4 and the fact that after that we went on to challenge City for the title who may well end up winning the treble.

      We’ll see what happens next year but as the youngest team in the league (not in question given Southampton will finish last) we are clearly the biggest threat to City next year and that project is highly attractive to others with CL football.

  61. Whats the hell is arteta doing, players like nelson and esr on the bench we’re playing with saka and jesus

  62. 82% possession and only 9 shots at goal. Sums it up really. We need a proper goal scorer.

    1. I dont think their goalkeeper had to make a save. I could have played in goal for Forest today.

  63. Forest are further behind Arsenal than Arsenal are behind City and when it comes to fighting, thats when you see if you have men. We have proved we dont fight when we need to. Great second but poor end to the season. Just like last, we finished lower than we should and faltered under the heat.

  65. If we’re in a race for champions league spot we would have been bottled it like last season that’s for sure, mentality matters, atleast we got 2nd place, we need quality players in bench, thats what mancity have . They never rely on certain players they rotate the squad

    1. That is a massive question mark over this team. We have failed to win games when the heat is on, in cup competitions and the league. Two years we have faltered after March. Two years we have gone out of cups early. Its a big question mark.

    2. Ignoring the fact that the top 4 race happened last year and we were even better this year which kind of deflates that arguement entirely.

      We won the fa cup against all odds beating city/Chelsea early in Arteta’s half season.

      If you keep moving the goalposts then you’d be like a city fan complaining they haven’t got over the line in the CL yet despite dominating domestically. Then it’ll be Madrid’s record. It never ends.

      Are City bottlers because they keep getting knocked out the CL? Obviously absurd apply the same logic to the team we actually love. If we struggle for top 4 next year then fair enough there will be questions but for now great season. Need upgrades, will upgrade with our stock being very high in footballing circles now and CL football returning.

  66. Now over and we lost. Firstly, I am pleased that Forest stayed up as thry have historical ties with our founding days and I have liked them for decades.

    As for us , we stunk the place out.

    A total disgrace and worse by far even than the Brighton game , as in that at least we made chances.

    In this game not a single proper chance , just Sakas close in angled shot which never looked like scoring. AND NOTHING ELSE AT ALL.

    Definitely our most dismal, by far, non perf of this season. Such a dismal end to a great three quarters of a season. Zero marks for entertainment but ten out of ten for frustration and angst.

  67. Whoever said last week that our team/players had already their minds on their holidays was right,it must have been@Jon Fox I think!!

  68. I can’t leave… its a proper party here. Also I’m pretending to be a Forest fan for the ticket.

    All I have to say is that I’m done. Time to pass the season ticket on to a new generation.

    I went out for milk this morning and I think Mrs Bender ain’t gonna be happy when I come home tomoz.

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