Few things to take away from the game versus Crystal Palaceby Lagos Gooner
Hello gooners. The game against Crystal Palace has been played and we drew. The draw was not what we expected but we didn’t lose either. While we reflect on why we still can’t win an away game (one win in our last ten) let us reflect on my observations from the game.
We are still a one half team: Against Crystal Palace, we began the game with so much intensity and it won’t have been out of place we had ended the first half scoring as much as three goals. We created plenty scoring opportunities but we couldn’t utilize them.
In the first half, Pepe had some good chances to bury the game; Arsenal had some good scoring chances but we didn’t make use of these chances. It has been a reoccurring thing for us this season and we need to work on that and start playing like a team that can last the whole 90 minutes. Does this have to do with fitness or what? But whatever the problem may be, we need to get it fixed fast.
We can’t still win an away game: Is winning an away game in the Premiership this difficult or we just don’t have the mental motivation to win a game away? Teams smaller than us have beaten Crystal Palace at home and we can’t! I know it is still early days for Arteta but we need to find a way to start beating all these smaller teams at home. In all honesty, we need to just find a way to beat teams away and gather points from them, if we want to end the season in the top four. If this is a case for the psychologists, then we need them to start working on the psyche of the players in Arsenal.
David Luiz should be made vice captain: Yes, I know this may not sound well with a whole lot of us but I found funny seeing Lacazette wearing the captain’s band after Aubameyang was sent off. Laca right now does not need the extra distraction of wearing the band; he needs to work on building his goal scoring confidence. Xhaka may not be captain or vice for now and even in the future, so the next best option to me is making Luiz the captain.
Our defenders are starting to play well: With an iota of confidence, I can say that our defenders are beginning to play better than how they used to play. Yes, we conceded a goal against Crystal Palace but if Luiz had not tried blocking the shot from Ayew, maybe Leno would have caught the ball and maybe we may have ended the game as victors. However the game ended, it does not change the fact that Sokatris, Niles and Luiz have improved their game. We hope to see more improvement from them.
We need to sign a midfielder this January: With the injury to Lucas Torreira, we have no choice than to sign at least one defensive midfielder who can do a good job for us till Lucas gets back. We can’t keep getting injured and our fitness team needs to do something to make our players stronger for the premiership. In the meantime, we need to find a short term or long term substitute for the injured Lucas.
That is all I can say for now Gooners. What do you have to say about our match against Crystal Palace? We are Arsenal and we are proud.
Sylvester Kwentua
I think it’s a bit premature to say we need to sign a defensive midfielder to replace Torriera. The extent of his injury has not yet been assessed and may well be something minor. I think our biggest problem is not taking our chances and let’s not forget that we would have likely won the game if they had not scored a very lucky goal massively deflected by Luiz.
This is a dead season so let’s accept that reality and start planning for next season. If we keep this tempo we shall eventually reap dividends. We need to begin planning for next season very early including having our transfers in place before we go on foreign tours. I am confident about Arteta’s ability to propel the team forward if he starts the season on a positive note. Arteta also needs to work on the team’s goal scoring skills because we hardly score more than 1 goal these days, the only exception being against Man U. If our forwards were scoring enough goals we would have won yesterday’s game. The two weak points left in the team are inability to score goals and conceding stupid goals. If Arteta fixes these two problems, the team will be ready to compete with anyone.
Your own opinion
We naad a finisher as lacazette is so bad we could not give him away also we need a big strong defensive midfielder and defender
Ozil can only play well in the first half and he can’t be sidelined due to his seniority, so he must accept that he will always be substituted in the second half like his Real Madrid days
Regarding the away games, I believe Arteta would eventually win it if Arsenal staffs and him can improve the players’ stamina. When Ljungberg won against West Ham at the London Stadium, the players increased their intensity in the second half
About the captaincy, Lacazette is a better option than Luiz currently, because Luiz just joined the team in this season
If you guys suddenly think the team will immediately turn into a team who can play with intensity for ninety minutes then most of you don’t even know shît about how the human body works.
This club, her players (I don’t know if a feminine pronoun could be used to describe Arsenal or not) . Everyone and everything the club entailed for the past five seasons included playing with low intensity, low stamina and as such we easily get bullied off the ball.
The team is used to being softball, If you suddenly think Arteta will turn the team into hardball after 5 games then you’re a dreamer.
The body doesn’t work that way, it’s something they have to build and slowly adapt to, until they can do it without feeling the pain, only then can we play with high intensity for ninety minutes.
You don’t go to the gym and lift a few weight for 3 weeks then you suddenly expect muscles all around your body.
The process of turning the human body into a tough one is always a slow one.
I really don’t put the blame on our inability to play for ninety minutes.
The blame goes to our inability to score.
Since the beginning of the season, we’ve been crying and pointing out how PEA is the only one carrying the team.
Martinelli is the most promising.
I’m sorry but no excuses for Lacazette. He works hard yes, but the team needs him to contribute to scoring also.
If we can constantly bash and call out our defenders week in week out when they don’t do enough then why should the attackers be given free passes?
Sensible post Eddie. Much realism. It is like trying to turn around an ocean going liner in ten minutes; it cannot be done, even by MA
BTW, as to that pronoun being feminine/masculine, Why not say Arsenal and “its” or “ours”? “His” or “hers” both sound wrong and in fact are grammatically wrong. Ships and countries are “she” but never football clubs, not even womens teams. But frankly who cares, except irritating pedants like me!
I think we solved one problem by acquiring Arteta.What we need now are quality players. He has shown his ability to transform our club,only that we have so many poor players to turn a new page.
Our main problem now is the midfield as our defence has immensely improved. Ozil has no energy anymore, he can’t attack,he can’t shoot he can’t defend.This is like playing one man less.Another one is Pepe who surely needs a new role if he has to play for us.He should change the wing or even come on as a Centre forward in the last 20minutes but not starting matches on the right wing where he does nothing.
We didn’t lose but we lost 2 points and our key man.
We still need to drop Luiz and Xhaka from the starting eleven, then we will even start winning these difficult away matches.
@Philip,
Are you sure of this your suggested names to be drop from the team, or you mistakenly typed their names?
Please wise up.
@Philip.
Luiz is adding creativity to the game with his passes than most of the guys deployed to do so in the entire game everytime.Laca is the guy who needs to be drop,Auba moves centrally and Martinelli on the wing.Its unfortunate our nxt game both Laca and Auba will miss.Time for Martinelli to shine centrally