It’s extremely frustrating, lovely Arsenal people. It hurts, it really does, because we actually played better. We gave Chelsea a game, instead of rolling over and dying like we’ve done in the past. But in the end of the day we still lost.
This game highlighted that we need signings in January. We’re extremely short on the bench. We didn’t have midfielders since Xhaka was “ill” or maybe he’s on his way to Hertha Berlin? Regardless we need more troops on board.
I thought Guendouzi and Torreira were really good, but once Lampard realized he made a mistake with the 3 at the back he made a sub and we failed to cope with it. Then again Jorginho should’ve been sent off. The fact the ref didn’t sent him off was pathetic!
That said though, we were really late with the subs. Is it because we don’t have anyone on the bench or we don’t trust them? We introduced Willock who missed a golden chance to kill them off. If that was in 2-0 in the bag, but instead it was missed again. I don’t wanna blame the kid, but these kind of misses can help win or lose games.
Laca also missed a good chance in the first half. He worked hard, but he was clearly tired and here is my only critic of Arteta in the game. He should’ve subbed Lacazette for Pepe. What does the manager see in training that we don’t? I’m not sure, but in a period of the game where we were struggling and dropping deeper and deeper, adding some pace and trickery whould’ve clearly helped, as we could’ve moved Auba to the middle and have a lot of threat on counters.
As much as I hurt and I’m disappointed, I have to say that what Arteta said he would do appeared on the pitch in the first half. We were controlling the game, we were pressing like a unit, we were defending with a system, not giving spaces. David Luiz was superb in my opinion.
It’s just difficult to swallow and more misery could easily be on our way with Man Utd coming next. The board need to back Arteta with signings. We’re in dire need of some experience. We are in an extreme need for a proper CB and even more so a good Midfielder.
Since Santi Cazorla left, we haven’t had a good ball playing midfielder. Someone who can carry the ball forward, nick a pass, shoot from distance. Some of these players are not good enough for what we’re trying to implement, but I can’t blame them today, because they showed fight.
It’ll be a very hard season, but Arteta showed signs of what we could be seeing in the future. Now we need the board to back it with the right players.
Konstantin