You might have thought that Tottenham beat Arsenal 5-0 at the Emirates on Sunday, judging by some of the reactions to the 2-2 draw.
Pundits and journalists have had a field day, and it is not just confined to them either, a good number of Arsenal fans have also undergone a serious bout of overreaction.
We can forget about Tottenham fans, they were always going to go overboard, and they have not disappointed. But fair play to them, that is their level – grabbing an unexpected draw. Our level, being so much higher, has brought about much soul-searching.
But is that really necessary?
It was a bad day at the office, simple as that. On another day, things could easily have been so much different if Gabriel Jesus had converted his chance. But such is football, these things happen.
Before the game, we all expected a comfortable win and that we would be challenging Man City for the title. Now, after a draw, some are saying the title race is over and that half the team is not good enough. They say we need to sign this player and that player, and Mikel Arteta needs to do this, that, and everything else.
This is football for you, overreactions are part and parcel of the game. But it just seems that this time, it has all gone a little bit crazy.
We were not outplayed, we missed opportunities to put the game to bed early on. Arteta made some errors, some players had an off day, there were injuries, etc. As I have already said, it was simply a bad day at the office.
Watch how reactions change once we win our next game because, as sure as night follows day, opinions will change, and all of a sudden, we will be City’s nearest challengers once again.
People need to step back and calm down, our season is still very much alive, we have a top manager and a good strong squad capable of achieving something special this season.
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In 3 2 1.
Everyone says Saka at fault for the first goal but I beg to differ. Ben white should have been close to saka to clear any loose ball. I don’t see why he was in the middle with Saliba and Gabriel there. Saka had made Madison push the ball to the byline that if Ben white was close he would have cleared the ball.
“grabbing an unexpected draw.” – Tell me, have you lost all touch with reality or are you living in a parallel universe somewhere ? Spurs are level on points with Arsenal with a slightly better goal difference and pretty much have been since the season started. So how exactly was the result “unexpected”, except by you obviously ? Arsenal won’t be measured by how the next game goes. It will be about how far they are behind City and possibly Liverpool who are looking really dangerous.
The club’s investment doesn’t yield result.
We are performing poorer than last season.
We could’ve won the game:
– If Jesus was more composed after stealing the ball from Maddison
– If Jorginho didn’t have a brain fart
– If Saliba, Magalhaes and White could stop Son’s shot. They were so close to Son FFS
Those weren’t Arteta’s mistakes. His only mistake was keeping Nketiah and Vieira in the game for too long
Playing Raya instead of Ramsdale
Buying Viera and Havertz ( Havertz money could have been used for a striker)
Eddie still being at the club
Not using Smith Rowe more
Selling Xakha
Needing a goal and taking off Jesus for Reiss Nelson
– Raya played well in the last three matches
– Havertz could be the perfect replacement for Xhaka and he could play CF too
– Vieira is too weak to be a starter, but the season is still long. He could still improve his physicality
– Nketiah was good for some games and sometimes impactful as a sub
– I bet Smith-Rowe will get his chance in the upcoming matches
– We would likely not get £15m for Xhaka next summer, so he had to be sold
– Jesus should’ve stayed in the game instead of Nketiah, but maybe he got a little injury
Raya mistake led to spurs first goal
Havertz has been in England for years and been a flop
Vieira has had a whole season to improve
Xakha would have been perfect at weekend
Nketiah shouldn’t be playing for Arsenal
– It wasn’t Raya’s fault that Magalhaes, Saliba and White couldn’t block Son’s shot
– Havertz played for a highly unstable team, yet he won UCL with Tuchel
– Vieira could use a loan period to improve
Raya tipped the ball back into play ?
If your happy with Havertz and think he’s justified his price tag that’s on you .
If Vieria needs a loan then you accept he shouldn’t be being picked
Raya couldn’t quite get the height to take the cross cleanly, and the ball was recycled to Madison.It was Saka that was mostly responsible for Spurs first goal. He let Madison turn him, get to the line and make the perfect pass for Son.
I agree with your other points though.
Dan, just to clarify that Xhaka wants new challenge. Not that we want to sell him.
Source: football.london
A lot of ifs, maybes and hopes gai. No concrete facts.
I haven’t seen yet if Raya is an upgrade to Ramsdale. I don’t think Ramsdale did anything wrong to lose his spot. Let’s wait and see.
I’d also like to see how Raya deals with shots from tight angles or near post. His ball handling skills seem better than Ramsdale’s though
Good article which generated some excellent responses notably from Onyango who has an ability to focus on facts rather than speculate.Injuries have impacted on our performances and the absence of Rice and Partey has demonstrated how important they are to the side as Spurs ran the midfield in the second half.
Bang on target. May I add,
not replacing injury prone TP with a more lethal CDM
Letting Maddison pass with no viable competition for Odegard (as the coach wants competition for every slot)
Ramsdale is more vocal than Raya to organize the team.
There’s no guarantee that we’d have won with Ramsdale in goal – a hypothetical situation that you have absolutely no way of proving would have worked. Raya was failed by the defenders(particularly Saka letting Maddison glide past him) in the first goal despite the efforts he made prior to that. There’s nothing he could do about the second after Jorginho error. Viera has won us a game already this season. When he came,it was made clear that he was ‘one for the future’. He’s done remarkably well in the games he’s come on as a sub this season. I don’t have the numbers but I believe he’s top 3 for assists since he joined.
You said Havertz money could have been used for a striker. Well it couldn’t have because there was a priority to replace a midfielder(Xhaka) with another midfielder. You’d have made more sense if you said the Havertz money was used on a different midfielder. Still,I struggle to see what that had to do with the game against Tottenham. He did is part when he came on,winning duels and making runs.
Eddie is still at the club because no club bought him-that’s how it works,unless the club rips up his contract,something you’ve been vehemently against. You’ve always been against the coach giving up on players(you use the phrase ‘washing his hands of’) yet you don’t want the coach to apply that same principle when it comes Nelson and Eddie-isn’t that hypocricy? You even applauded the inclusion of Cedric. Is Cedric a more important player in the squad than Eddie?It’s quite telling that these complaints against Eddie weren’t there when Eddie was doing well in the first three games,scoring goals and winning a crucial penalty to get us wins.He did well enough to get his first England call-up. Eddie has a bad game(in which virtually all the players had a bad game) and suddenly he’s singled out for the result.
Smith could/should have been used more,I’ll give you that;but even then we don’t have all the information on why he hasn’t been playing.We are only speculating whereas the coaches see him in training daily.Xhaka was sold because he himself wanted to leave. He needed a new challenge,he said,but there were rumours that there were other reasons related to family. Surely you didn’t expect the club to stand in his way after his service to the club-you would end up with one unhappy player and that is bad for team morale.
Taking Jesus off. It is obvious that the coach has been managing Jesus’ minutes-perharps this is a recommendation from the medical staff. We need Jesus and playing him for 90 minutes when he’s just from injury would be terrible management. Nelson came on for Jesus because he is a left winger(the position Jesus was playing against Tottenham). He was the only LW on the bench considering two of our LWs were injured. Furthermore,Nelson sub made sense if you consider his performances from the bench last season. No Arsenal substitute had the same impact as him last season-he even got a premier league award for his exploits.
Finally,you failed to mention how injuries may have contributed to our performance and/or result. It shows you cherry-picked your points to suit a certain narrative. Hardly objective.
👍
Raya made a world class save from Johnson, which on any other day would have been a goal. No saying that Ramsdale would have made that save or not.
Gai, Totally agreed with your analysis. Arteta needs to be brutal at times with his substitution and not always wait till last 15minutes that was Wenger esque that costed him few games. The loss in NLD was 50% vs 50% for coach and the players.
Defence could have prevented Son first goal,, GJesus (forward) could have done better and then Jorginho error (midfield) Mikel Arteta team list/too late substitutions.
Hope they all learn. Painful for fans but it’s not a loss we move on..
Spurs could’ve won the game if:
Excuse 1
Excuse 2
Excuse 3
Etc etc etc
Very easy to make excuses and what ifs
If’s work both ways Gai!! I can add another one ” if only Jesus was a good finisher”. Bottom line? We didn’t deserve to win.
I think the reaction of Arsenal fans was more for the manner, than the fact, we drew the game. We gave them the point; we could have done much better.
And playing at home!
CM, a deflection and a hand ball penalty against two open play goals and Arsenal gave the game away?
I agree with you. There’s so much overreaction and less perspective. The injuries particularly affected the game plan. Doesn’t help that the injuries involved two players in two positions(Defensive midfield and Left wing) with Rice & Partey and Martinelli & Trossard. I imagine the game would have been different if all four were fit to finish the game. Essentially Arsenal had to settle for 3rd choice players in both positions. Tottenham were also much fresher having not played midweek. Most importantly we have 14 points this season,just one point less than the 15 we had last season after 6 matches. You’d think we are in a relegation battle with Luton and Sheffield based on some of the reactions here. I’m all for constructive criticism from fans and pundits,but it needs to be balanced,objective and commensurate with the perceived weaknesses of the team – some of the comments here would make more sense if we were in the bottom half of the table and losing match after match. Some even going as far as calling for the sacking of the coach-just ridiculous and knee-jerk!
@ Onyago, perfectly said. That’s why I don’t reply on the comments here because most fans here are too emotional and bias. How did they want an injuries team Arsenal to beat an inform with a fully fit squad of spurs, just in the name that we should catch on with city. The mentality of some fans and some pundits that we are title contenders is causing problem and irrelevant stress to the team, everybody playing the league is a title contenders.
A fine article with a dealof wisdom!
I do however have a quibble with this pieces contention that ” we all expected a comfortable win”.
I am just ONE Gooner among surely many others who, just prior to the Spuds game, predicted a tough, close game with a narrow win for us.
Well, I was wrong , as we did not win. But I suggest many wise minds among us NEVER expected a comfortable win
👍jon Paul Merson showed again with his predicted result what a poor judge he is. AP is no mug.
It makes the City game more needful. We have to at least draw with them but a win in that game would be us saying yes we are challengers. Must win the game before playing City obviously but the City game is massive psychologically and literally
Except in the Champions League we have been completely underwhelming and average. We need to start playing some football or we will not be unbeaten for long. We have clearly played poorly and something needs to change.
Sean, you are a breath of fresh air with your wise and mature comments.
We are NOT playing anywhere near as well as we did last season and that’s before Martinelli, Trossard, Rice and Partey were injured.
MA was masterful with his plan to beat PSV… but that’s the ONLY time this season we have outplayed our opponents.
Too much tinkering, late substitutions and ignoring the likes of ESR, a proven PL player, for Viera, who, it seems, has proven his worth with three assists!!!
It is NOT a knee jerk reaction to the spud game, rather a comparison to our performances last season to this and the non improvement of play and tactics, despite spending nigh on £200,000,000 (Timber not included but what a signing he will be)
👍👍Sean and ken.
Don’t think it is an “overreaction” at all, rather a fairly accurate summary of the contest.
My critique was how poor the team was on the day, and how poorly the manager was in trying to overcome the bad form.
Odegaard disappeared yet again when we needed him to step up, Jesus missing easy chance again, and lapses on defense like Saka on Maddison.
They played poorly as a team, and a costly error when we led 2-1. Can’t complain about injuries when the club has spent over 600 million.
Sold Holding and loaned Tierney, self inflicted.
Arteta resigned Nelson rather than replaced.
Jesus and Nketiah are poor strikers in goal scoring, both ahve shown that over several years; should have upgraded the striker position.
Needed a B2B to replace Xhaka, and instead we get Havertz who doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. Poor return as a striker, drowning as a midfielder, and looks overwhelmed.
Regressed from last year, simply cannot argue that fact this far into the season. Lot of work ahead, up to the manager and players to step it up.
👍Durand, unfortunate truth.
To me, the real question is
Have Spurs got that much better, or have Arsenal got worse!
I will wait until Xmas to make that call!
Seem like cowardice hiding being this article’s title.
Why not be honest, objective and show some character and admit we’ve been poor for most of the games this season? Exception likely being the PSV game?
MA has has an absolute fortune to build “his” team and many many years to fine tune how he wants to play. No more excuses.
@PJ-SA
RealTalk…🎯
Plus 1
Our main striker Jesus, has never scored more than 14 goals in an EPL season, averaging around 10 goals per season over, I believe, 6 seasons. Havertz’s is even worse averaging around 6 per season over 3 years. To compete with the likes of Man City or Liverpool we need a quality striker capable of scoring a minimum of 20 or 25 goals. I’ve said it before, I don’t believe MA wants a traditional No.9 otherwise why invest all that money in Havertz? A puzzle for sure, I just hope it works out.
You are trying to paper over the cracks, every game until now was a bad day at the office, except for PSV game. A lot of ifs and buts in your story. We are worse than last season.