While Wednesday’s effort was an improvement on Saturday (that’s not difficult) unfortunately there were more comparisons than Mikel Arteta wanted to admit.
At Saint James’s Park we could still be playing now and not look like scoring. As I have stressed before, that has happened too often under the current regime. Arsenal used to be a side who used to guarantee we would make chances, even at our worst. Go look how many games per season we would fail to score under Arsene Wenger.
For all our possession at St James Park, Nick Pope had to deal with one shot on target.
That made the San Siro one of the most awkward places to go, the Serie A Champions yet to concede in this year’s Champions League. One of the faces of a country brought up in the art of defending. Make zero mistake, it’s an art form what Inter Milan did to us. While we had most of the ball, after their penalty this was by our opponent’s design.
Protecting a lead is in the Nerazzurri’s DNA. The second half is a scenario they relish, like it was a training session.
That’s not a flattering reflection on the questions we asked. We played in front of Inter, never got on the overlap, crossed the ball countless times onto an Inter head. Aspects of the game Inzaghi’s team love. He will feel that was a comfortable 90 minutes where his keeper didn’t have much to do.
Like on Tyneside the lack of leadership was evident. Everyone played the safe pass, scared to take a risk, zero imagination, a lack of movement off the ball.
Football goes in cycles, eventually a goal will go in which will improve confidence. The likes of Martinelli and Trossard needed a goal.
Yet as we keep being told, the line between success and failure is small.
In the short term we will be okay, in the long term we have too many days like this.
If only we had brought a striker.
Not like so many Gooners didn’t point this out.
Dan
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Inter were the best team Arsenal has faced in the CL this season. Some fans, judging by posts, were lulled into a false sense of Arsenal’s abilities – in this competition anyway – by their previous couple of outings.
PSG were very average, and their following CL games have proved that beyond doubt. They are now 25th in the CL table – the worst placing for any “big” club. Shakhtar were just very poor and are currently at 28th place.
Realistically, those are not the kind of opponents that should really be used to ascertain true form (just like I think it’s a tad foolish to use Bolton and Preston for Arsenal’s League Cup trophy chances).
Inter, like Italian teams traditionally, focus on defence particularly when they’re ahead and they were very effective. Arsenal, with the exception of a couple of chances from Havertz, had no real answer.
Arsenal do lack a striker, and they did back in the summer when there was a chance at least of bringing one in. That wasn’t done so they will have to go with what they have. Hopefully, Arteta will be able to find a “work-around” solution until one can be added, probably in the summer now.
After watching how Inter stiffled City at the Etihad, I knew that if they were to score first against Arsenal, they would win. I thought that if City, with their obviously superior striking quality than Arsenal, could not break through an Inter block, Arsenal would have no chance if they conceded first. And so it turned out
The penalty was unfortunate, but Arsenal lacked the penetration to trouble Inter. And that has been the story of our season so far
Blaming it on the absence of Odegaard is a testament to how unbalanced and shallow our squad is
As Dan says we obviously lack a striker, wish we had gone all out for Osimhen in the summer.
there’s a reason Osimhen is on loan at Galatasaray
many other clubs in the PL and around Europe were also looking to add a striker over the summer, and they all also swerved Osimhen
that is not an Arsenal thing
granted Osimhen was on the market, unlike Sesko and Gyokeres who both decided themselves to stay where they were and no other PL or European club were able to lure them either, some with deeper pockets, so not missed opportunities
Osimhen had a massive release clause and I think he “may” have been described difficult. Arteta was very much averse to awkward customers.
The other two as you have rightly mentioned did choose to stay where they were.
You really can’t sign s player if they they don’t want to join you.
A world-class striker wouldn’t be able to score without diagonal passes and movement from our right-sided AM/ winger
Havertz couldn’t do what Odegaard used to do as our right mezzala, so better make Nwaneri play the role
@Gai well said. According to inter coach Nzachgi no team would be comfortable defending many crosses Arsenal throw at inter, he claimed it was very difficult for them. There isn’t such thing as they were comfortable, no team wants that. Yes we didn’t win but Arsenal played well. 0:1 penalty goal can happen to any top team. I am optimistic it would be better against Chelsea. The Boys knows how to play London teams when the stakes are high.
Not sure if we lack a striker but we sure lack creativity at the moment
Even if we had a top class striker he would be feeding off scraps
The full backs hav stopped over lapping and creating space
We lack a bit of confidence and our decisive balls in to the box have dried up
We canter at a pace of moving the ball slowly 🐌 from side to side
I thank our lucky stars we have MO back who sets the press and the tempo at times when we need speed it up
LT bless his cotton socks hasn’t shown once in all his starts
We missed DR with his forward runs and making space but we still need MO to thread the balls though
BS has taken up the mantle in his absence but with out white and Martin, saka on the right is a one man show with no out ball
Hopefully we have a fully fit team back out on the park this Sunday to get us going again or else I can see us dropping more points against chelski
Onwards and upwards
I thought The Arsenal were also much too comfortable in keeping Inter at bay.
Up and until that ludicrous penalty decision, just the one strike that hit the bar from outside the area, summed up their attacking prowess.
In the second half, did they mount one serious attempt on our goal?
On to the claim that they were comfortable keeping our attack at bay :
I watched their defence hacking the ball away on a number of occasions, saw the ball being cleared off the line and a keeper so desperate to make contact with the ball (but missing of course) deliver a double fisted punch to the head!!
The way Inter celebrated at the end told me that they were NOT comfortable and, once again Dan, you try to demean what was a terrific second half performance of attacking intent.