It is not all doom and gloom despite only managing a draw against Burnley.
There are negatives to look at from the game yesterday at Turf Moor and that will be getting covered in another article, however, there were some positives and we should not be ignoring those.
Clean sheet
It does not matter if there was luck involved or the opposition, all that matters is that Arsenal notched up a clean sheet, something that has been almost a mirage on the road. It builds confidence, especially in the defenders and that can only be a good thing.
Shkodran Mustafi
He continues to get better, yes, he is coming from a very low bar but even so, he was the Arsenal man of the match in my opinion and his confidence is growing fast. That is a positive for a team with a notorious sieve of a defence.
Bukayo Saka
Yes, he only played half a game and got a knock but he was excellent for the time he was on the field of play, he is growing in stature all the time and playing Burnley away is never an easy game and he coped just fine. He really is looking our best youngster along with Gabriel Martinelli and will be a permanent feature in the team going forward if he continues his progress. Put it this way, he was missed big time when he went off.
Playing out from the back
Still huge issues and it does make me nervous but they are getting better at it, well, when Leno finally releases the ball that is. They were a lot better yesterday than they have ever been and it shows that whatever Arteta is doing with them is starting to work.
More stamina
The lads kept going right to the end and they improved in the final 15 minutes, they did not run out of gas, they are getting fitter by the day. Just think back to when Arteta first came on board, they were knackered by the end of the game and became leggy, not yesterday.
Conclusion
On their own none of these are especially major but taken together they are starting to build a picture of a team that even when they play badly they do not lose.
Yes our defence is definitely better.
Attack seems to be going in the opposite direction sadly
I think that is the problem, Innit. We’re so focused on not conceding goals that we’re not as focused on attacking. Every team in the EPL knows we are not the best at playing out from the back and with continued pressure on our midfield and defence they smell blood. MA is definitely trying to fix the leaking first before anything else!
Innit and GunnerRay, and wasn’t that what every single person was saying should be the fiirst priority?
I cannot recall one single comment that said forget the defence, thats not a problem.
We now have two recognised RB’s – two recognised LB’s – two new CD (one for next season) and another four CD’s playing so much better in five weeks than they did in the last five months.
The achilles heel is this playing out from the back, with Leno being the problem in my view (excellent keeper otherwise).
For me the biggest positives were that MA forced SD to change his game plan, moan to the fourth official about our physical treatment of their forwards and our teamwork and determination throughout the game.
The biggest negative was the failure of our forwards, once again, not to take advantage of the clear cut oppotunities created for them – if they had, the game, as a contest, would have been over by the thirtieth minute.
I wish someone will tell Leno he should stop giving the ball to a player that’s been marked closely by 2 opponents, and why does he always wait till our defenders have been closed down before making the pass. We had only 3 chances throughout the match and out of those 3, Lacazette should have done better with his header, aubamayang should have scored his first chance, and the keeper did well to make himself bigger for aubamayang second chance, those 3 chances was created by Luiz Xhaka and aubamayang, that should tell you that we have a very poor midfield. I read yesterday that our chances created has dropped by 25% since arteta took charge. Arteta should try something new, use ceballos drop Lacazette, I won’t even mind if you start Nketiah ahead of Lacazette, ceballos cannot be worse than Ozil.
I get the eebie jeebies watching us play out from the back too
I can’t stand that playing out from the back 🙈
Me neither! It’s killing us!
👍
Re playing out of the back: Hoofing the ball upfield only to have it returned by the big CBs of the opposition is not the way. Playing out of the back requires vision, and support from in-field players. Such support is not forthcoming from this Arsenal bunch. Of course, if all our players that the goalkeeper can play the ball to are closed down, a long ball could be beneficial. But the ‘keeper must make that call instinctively and quickly, which is also not happening.
@SAGooner.Unfortunately Leno can not play with his feet.The master to initiate ” the play from the back” is the brasilian goalkeeper of Liverpool.In south america all children at very early age,the the first thing they learn is the technique to control the ball with their feet,then growing up they develop their other abilities to play football and then coming the selections for their place in the team and then come a tradition or costume to pick the goalkeeper; and generally the less gifted and also the tallest child is given that position.
You can appreciate this, just watching the south american goalkeepers in the Premier:Manc.City)The chilean and the brasilian goalkeepers.Cristal Palace) Guatia argentinian.Arsenal) Martinez argentinian.Tottenham) Gazanica Argentinian.Manc.United)Romero argentinian and finally Liverpool) Alison brasilian.
All of them play excellent with their feet by passing or long kicks, and that it is an essential tool to play from the back.
MA can’t bench Lacazette because he doesn’t want to lose ‘senior’ players.
One thing he needs to learn from Pep, whatever name is printed on the back of his shirt, any player have to accept the manager’s decisions.
Auba is not a natural winger and will never be. Put the guy in his favorite position with two pacy wingers and get that machine going.
I didn’t see any positives in the Burnley game. It showed we were lucky….Jay Rodriguez miss would have shown us up for poor if it had gone in. How weird that Mustafi is suddenly a hero. Luiz and Mustafi are going to have games they keep the opposition out….but they are not good enough. I really hope we get Mari in quickly because Luiz and Mustafi are so laboured and mistake ridden. I hope within a few games we have Socratis and Mari playing together. Luiz and Mustafi do nothing for us. IMHO.
I watched Saliba playing for St Etienne yesterday. The commentator said at one point that he ‘had a bit of Arsenal in him’ when he played the ball to the opposition striker in the box under no pressure. I’m not hopeful that he’s going to be the answer to our defensive problems.
Playing out from the back is Artetas way, that is what we bought into when making him our manager. It the modern way of playing football, setting traps. Get used to it, it is what we will be playing.
Maybe with Mari playing. Mustafi and Luiz are just incapable of playing out from the back. Luiz is now too slow and Mustafi just not good enough. But we all know that. Hopefully Mari will be used to playing out from the back.