Mixed feelings after a narrow city defeat by Konstantin Mitov
Well lovely Arsenal people, we lost 1:0 at Man City. Many theories were made whether we should start full strength or rotate, in the end we made a lot of changes and we lost.
I actually thought a lot of second string players were doing alright. Only Holding was struggling with Haaland, but I thought Saliba nullified him well in the second half. The other player that doesn’t set the world alight was Sambi. He wasn’t terrible, nor the only reason we lost, but the midfield battle was lost in the second half.
Apart from that I liked what I saw from Tomiyasu and Tierney as well. Trosaard was good as well. Unfortunately Ake got the better of Saka and scored the winner. I am disappointed with their goal, because we left Alvarez in acres of space to shoot. Then when the ball hit the post, Saka went to double up on the City player, then Ake was left alone to shoot…
It’s a little disappointing. We don’t play till next Saturday. We could’ve gone a little stronger, but it is what it is. Our backup players need minutes as well. All in all I am not happy to drop out of the cups so early. There’s no guarantees that we will win the league, so losing the cups still hurts.
We went to City, played our style of football, just fell short of quality in some areas, most notably midfield. On that topic, Caicedo put that transfer request on IG, so hopefully Chelsea don’t just stomp up another 80 million and nick him, ’cause we do need backup.
All and all, I leave with mixed feelings. Disappointed to go out, but I don’t think City are that great. I think 2 weeks from now, we’ll see a different game and I’m confident we can do it!
Onwards and upwards.
Konstantin
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Arteta disappointed in defeat, but talks about Partey’s injury and Arsenal still looking for new players…”
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It was okay okay game
Could have tipped either side..
We need DM back up..
Hopefully we are getting someone before deadline day…
Could be Caicedo… not sure how Chelski gonna do..
But we should be having someone back plan apart from Caicedo if we miss out on Caicedo…
I think arteta might have played it just right if we’re targeting the league. He was able to play a slightly weakened team against their first team and we largely held our own. It doesn’t seem like there was a huge difference in quality between the sides.
Psychologically a clear defeat would have been damaging, whereas a narrow defeat away and with a slightly weaker side might actually give us confidence, because we have a minor “excuse” and I think it’s clear we are on a similar level to them, certainly not a lot worse in a 1v1 scenario. It also means we can go into the next game with them with a realistic “revenge” mindset, which could be extremely valuable.
Also going out just means we have fewer games that can distract us from the league.
Given the lineup, it does appear we weren’t desperate to win this, but the presence of several key players indicates he wanted to make sure it was close and we didn’t get blown away. If that’s the case, I think arteta might just have got exactly what he wanted yesterday.
Only concern is partey – just hope he’s not seriously injured, or maybe we’ll be able to sign caceido just in time?!
Game of two halves. First half we were the better side afrer the break they were. Overall this showed me that we should have every confidence to beat them especially at home with crowd behind the team, for sure we will play at an even higher tempo and with more intensity than we did last night and I think Man City will struggle to handle that.
Partey’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time after already losing Elneny too with three tricky games coming up for different reasons however hopefully we get Caicedo over the line and that alleviate any concerns.🤞🏽
it’s nothing positive, a loss it’s a loss, vieira, saka and lokonga were useless…arteta shoud had started with the first eleven!
gooner for life, How very short term your post is!! If you could not see the way we matched their team, which on paper was stronger than the starting eleven we used, then you have , I regret to have to tell you, hardly any true “vision” at all!
I see the massive improvement we have made from only a year ago and clearly see the glorious period ahead, that has already started and will be here for years to come. I pity your inability to see what is clear, obvious and under all our noses!
Speaking as one of the “lovely Arsenal people” Konstantin calls us all – how little he knows about me, for sure – I was glad that we went out, but only glad BECAUSE we went out in the manner we did.
What I mean is that I now see us unequivocally as Citys equal on the pitch and frankly I was surprised how WELL we matched them with our markedly greater number of non first choice players. Only “equal” ON the pitch of course, as off it we dwarf them in every single aspect of being a football club.
I expected the team we began with to lose more clearly and I was pleased to be very wrong. This is a MASSIVE PLUS in our favour, because it means we now trail them only in squad depth and that gap is shrinking fast. Not completely shrunk yet but steadily closing , though with still some way still to go.
Looking further ahead – as so many articles fail to ever do, given the natural impatience of fans and the expectation that things can be put right almost overnight, which is an “UNTHINKING thought” – it is very plain that our beloved club is set fair for another glorious period ahead.
AND THAT THRILLS ME and completely wipes away the short term disappointment of a narrow away defeat agaist a team widely called “the best in Europe”.
Esp when we played with many non first choice players. I will not of course misuse the term “second string”, as they are NOT such, perhaps Holding and Lokonga apart.