Arsenal have tasted defeat for the first in 2023 after being knocked out of the FA Cup by rivals Manchester City.
The Gunners were marginally the better side in the opening half, although it was a 45 minutes of limited opportunities. There wasn’t a single corner before the break, and it wasn’t the best viewing for the neutrals, but that isn’t unusual when two of the best sides in the country come face-to-face.
We moved to bring in both William Saliba and Sambi Lokonga at the break, but it was our rivals who began to turn the screw in the new half, and they were enjoying more and more in the final third before their double-change of Julian Alvarez and Kyle Walker which brought an almost immediate return.
The Argentine was involved in putting the pressure on, narrowly being denied by the post before it fell to Nathan Ake, who placed his effort neatly into the side netting. Arteta reacted by throwing in Gabriel Martinelli and Oleksandr Zinchenko on almost instantly, before captain Odegaard shortly followed them, but there just wasn’t enough time for us to find the rhythm to get our team back in control and get the goal that we needed.
It isn’t a huge deal, as losing away at City could easily happen to any team in the world, and one less distraction from our title push can hardly be a bad thing, can it?
Patrick
Happy to have exited with half a team, playing the better football and away. This style can’t carry one Bambi, let alone two (Sambi and Vieira). Not just that Partey is great, but also that Lokonga is frightful – I hope he never plays for us again. Show pony who contributes nothing. TBH neither does Vieira, but he’s not in midfield. Sambi lost the ball twice leaving us wide open, stood around watching while they scored. Turner on his heels for the goal. Saka quiet. Big plusses Tomi and Trossard for me. We will TROUNCE them in the EPL. But we need that midfielder for the rest of the season…
Lokonga didn’t put a foot wrong though…a solid performance overall from the whole team, bodes well for the rest of the epl season. My only gripes were with Turners distribution and passing as well as Holdings somewhat subpar showing
Really???
Which/How many distribution did he get wrong?
His distribution was very good
Watch the game back. Two bad retention mistakes that almost led to goals. Stood watching TWICE while they set up their goal. He doesn’t close down, just stands in space – rarely breaks into a run. Difficult to do anything I’ll agree if you are always where the ball isn’t. Neat passes occasionally aren’t all it takes to merit a place in this team, and I really don’t see what player you were watching – the man doesn’t have a second gear and no tactical awareness at this level. You really trust him to win us the Premiereship?
I thought Lokonga looked pretty good in position but lost off the ball. He needs to go somewhere where he can get regular game time, either a loan or a transfer.
What I saw was a guy playing the safe game because he got slaughtered for pushing forward against United. It was neither good or bad. Think like most he needs a loan. Jesus came to us don’t forget because he wanted to be main man. Think lokonga needs to realise he’s not that old yet and has time but as he does think that way a loan could transform him given that he must of picked up a lot of things in training. If not he falls off a speeding train at the worst time and misses out.
I know the Burnley manager is a massive fan of Lokonga, maybe a loan deal now and for next season when they get promoted
Agree, Lokonga was missing for the Manchester City goal. Obviously needs to go out on loan to get plenty of game time to improve his positional awareness (both on and off the ball) and his football nouse. This was an opportunity to step up after “talking the talk” about not getting game time, but failed to deliver.
Turner made our team tired by repeatetly smashing the ball forward there by handing possession back to city. We had then to run around trying to mark them, That is not Arsenal style now days and that is why building from behind is now our trademark. Tierney is another one who seems to have deteriorated since his injury.
What an apiology, what a sore loser! What were those in-charge thinking when they hired Viera & Lokonga? Not their money, so who cares? Money flushed down the drain along with the hope of the only realistic piece of silverware we could win. Its not 1-0 to console yourself, or 6-0, the fact is that we lost because we spent money on trash. Garbage in – garbage out is what they say in computer terms which holds true for those who signed those who were woeful yesterday. I know I will be ridiculed and cautioned and named by Admin, the fact is that we lost the only cup we could have won!
Gunner22
Hahahaha, a Spuds troll on the loose.
🤦♂️
Can not complain at that performance one bit.
I looked forward now to the prem clash between us .
Great performance and can’t fault commitment, final pass a bit off at times but we were not embarrassed. Now bring on the league games against them, home and away, can’t wait !
I feel the same way
Lokonga is not good enough to face a tough team
Not the type of player that can control a game being a midfielder…we really need a better DM
Never saw Ødegaard scream at a player before
Not impressed with Holding either
What was Viera’s contribution all night ?
Yes, we know there will be plenty exploitable spaces by substituting Partey with Lokonga
But to be fair on him, he’s played out of position
Imagine asking Viera to do Partey’s job cos he’s a Midfielder – that will be non-existent
I think Lokonga might even improve better and perform better in Viera’s position (or Xhaka’s role)
He likes to look for a pass, he wants to contribute to the attack
But look at Viera, never for once did he try to seek out his attackers
Didn’t play with Saka, didn’t try to seek out a through-pass for Nketiah, didn’t try to coordinate switching play to Trossard’s wing if need be
He was just a figure-head all through
But Yes, the goal came by from Lokonga’s ball-watching – he just doesn’t have that defensive instincts
You definitely read the room wrong.
Not engaging with the rest because some things are outright factually not subjectively wrong and others are things that are speculated have already happened it’s confusing.
Sorry but I’m probably in the minority who are disappointed to exit the FA Cup when Man City were so there for the taking. No guarantees we will win the League or Europa and could end up 2nd and trophy less which would be a big disappointment given the quality we have displayed so far this season.
On a positive note Man City look beatable and I’m very confident we will beat them at home with our strongest lineup and hopefully Caicedo on the bench🤞🏽
Trossard- magnificent full debut, direct running, sublime footwook, Created are best chances.
Saliba- helped steady the backline after Holding’s poor first half.
Gabriel- colossal once again cleaning up Holding’s errors.
Tomiyasu- defended well for the most part.
Viera- a few good passes but very light weight and needs to work on protecting the ball better.
Saka- uncharacteristically poor, touch was off and Ake had him pocketed.
Partey- a bit sloppy with some passes.
Sambi- started off shaky but slowly improved as the game went on.
No apologies needed ELG – not my opinion but it’s held by many and I get it. My POV illustrated by Partey coming off with a rib injury that wouldn’t have occurred if he hadn’t started. If we had won I would now be worried about our EPL campaign and certainly wouldn’t be concerned that it may hinder our run to the FA Cup.
Agree with your player comments, although Sambi started so badly (I would say invisibly but he did pop up occasionally to make a mistake or play a backpass) that “slowly improved” was hardly a massive endorsement! Not much to choose though between him and Vieira, and even if they are given a run of games I can’t see either making a decent contribution over the run-in.
👍🏽Cheers, after processing everything and I’m now more confident we will get the W at the Emirates in 15th February. With the home crowd roaring them on I believe we will play at a much higher tempo and intensity that they will struggle to deal with.
Really proud of my club tonight… that’s the playing staff and the supporters.
As much as I hate being knocked out so early in the fa cup again, I’m certain that when the PL clash takes place on the 15th February, we will get all three points.
Thanks lad’s for a great performance and putting those city fans to shame!!
Totally agree on every point
Ken
100%
Agree Ken – City were as disappointing as we were solid with a scratch team, and I can’t see them winning either of our EPL games. Sounds contradictory, but I’m more confident after the defeat than I was before it.
It was a good exercise, before our squad travel to play against Everton. Now we can focus on the more important leagues and let Man City allocate their resources on FA Cup
@Gai, like I once told you and I guess from what you can see it would be harder for MCIty to beat Arsenal over two legs of EPL games. Arsenal played MCity without fear compared to previous meetings at the Ethihad. No shame we lost narrowly, it’s time to focus on Epl games/Everton and Europa.
Yes, Man City were lucky with Ake’s goal. I guess Turner thought the shot wasn’t on target
If our players’ performances don’t drop after February, we could maintain our gap with Man City
1-0 against the run of chances, we might of had few city had less with a more 1st team out, it was 5 v 1 outfield changes. 6 v 1 at halftime when lokonga came on.
For many it’s the perfect result. We set a marker to city which will scare them they struggled massively with 5 of our 1st 10 out whilst they went full on with one change from their 1st 10 ake for laporte.. At the same time we have one less commitment to worry about.
Good day would of preferred the win and heart over head would of liked the draw. Didn’t happen. Mostly I’m pleased that City got lucky at the Emirates last season, they got lucky tonight, you can’t keep getting lucky we may well win both ties against them!
When we play City in the Premier League at home, judging on tonight’s game, we can beat them and go a good few points ahead. We have caught them up football wise, and in the first half they could not match our press. Our intensity of press stopped in the second half and they capitalised on Partey going off. Lokonga is not quite up to it and just before their goal, gave the ball away. We can win both the League and the Europa League and that would be quite a feat.
That’s what I took from the game. Also took that with Lokonga on City scored their one chance and we didn’t fade in to the background after either. Honestly City will be scared now, guaranteed. Most the team worked with Arteta previous and respect him we have an advantage that way too.
Hiya Sean. We had a scratch team and were far from our best, but we still made them look really poor. I’d go so far as saying I can’t imagine anything except us totally outplaying them in BOTH EPL games. Doesn’t mean we win of course, but we surely banished any residual feelings of inferiority we may have had going into the league games.
Guy
The home game is first. We can beat them and end up more points in front than they can claw back. I’m not that unhappy we our out of the FA Cup. It may well work in our favour.
🚨 Moises Caicedo after £60m #AFC bid: “I am grateful to Brighton. I am proud to be able to bring in a record transfer fee for Brighton which would allow them to reinvest it and help the club”.
“I hope fans they can understand why I want to take up this magnificent opportunity”.👀
Seems like he’s going to push for the move which lowers the price. If he hands in a transfer request I believe he foregoes certain financial bonuses he was owed so it makes it more likely and why you rarely see it.
We might hear of a formal transfer request in the next 24hrs. I think he is coming!!!
At this point in the campaign, we need a solid DLP/DM who can deputize for Partey. I won’t complain if we go big to sign Caicedo, and I don’t think any sensible fan should.
We are an injury away again from missing out on winning the league. Just take Partey out of this side and we are a level down. We kinda look like Liverpool under Klopp who start the season strongly but might struggle to sustain the momentum when injuries crop up, but injuries are part of the game, so big sides should have the squad depth needed for a whole campaign.
If Chelsea with no chance of winning the league are spending this big as they’ve been doing signing Werner, Pulisic, Havertz, Lukaku, Mudryk, we have ourselves to blame if we don’t strengthen that DM position.
I often watch Brighton games just to see Caicedo play. That boy is a baller and all-round tenacious midfielder, who is only 21 and can take over from Partey as soon as 2024/25 season.
Get him and balance the book in the summer by selling Sambi and Balogun and releasing Holding and Elneny, while slowly integrating Patino. Rumour has it that we’re still going for him in the summer even if we sign Caicedo. If that is true, that tells you the owners are showing ambition.
City have set the standard and raised the bar so high that competing with them requires an equally savvy manager and massive squad depth. We have a huge task on our hands with this City side snooking around, not because they are better but just because of the sheer strength in depth, which unfortunately takes time to build, and I’m glad we’re finally getting there. It’s just unfair how Guordiola only manages well-established sides and given loads of cash to spend as well. Arteta has shown he is elite manager getting us to this point and just needs to win the league to solidify his status before going for the Champions League in the future.
John Stones is out but I doubt City would worry with Laporte and Ruben Dias waiting in the ranks. It’s so sick how oil clubs have given themselves such unfair advantage over the last decade.
Guys, Guys, some exciting news! Calceido has come out publicly to request to join us!
This is good for my BP@
It was presumed he would, we will see how it effects negotiations but Brighton really do need to sell now or it’s a problem. Unfortunately they are extremely well run and won’t negotiate lightly even if they may be more open now.
I agree, Sam bit Lokonga is not quite up to it and left huge gaps which enabled their goal. We do need a Partey back up and this game showed it.
*Sambi
Feel bad for lokonga, but this simply isn’t his level. Hope he can find a good career elsewhere.
Vieira also needs to improve but he’s still on his first season here. Didn’t help that saka was also off tonight. Overall I agree with the others who say city look beatable. I think to a degree both sides were just feeling the other out for the REAL high stakes game in a few weeks.
Vieira is fine he’s got a bit of Bernardo Silva about him. Wouldn’t worry that way he’ll come good might need to adapt a bit to the physicality of the league but once he does he’ll be good imo.
Pep made a point of highlighting how they had nullified Saka, think it was the only thing he was actually happy about. So I think they targeted their tactics that way, rather than Saka being quiet. Possibly why Trossard had such success opposite side, more space. Not belittling Trossard thought he did well.
Viera needs an off season in the gym to bulk/strengthen up, plus sprint work to improve his speed over the ground.
He needs to adapt to the league, if he spent a year in the gym he’d gain the outer appearance you crave and lose a lot of the ability he has on the ball which was why we signed him. Look at Silva, look at Fernandes. Fact both are Portuguese is a weird coincidence.
Angus, I think you misunderstand what I meant by “off season”. I meant the between season summer break, not for Viera to take a full season off to train and not play!
Would like to see him go on loan for a year and play week in week out and then judge but agree right now he’s not in the conversation.
A highly effective perf ,esp as we had a much weakened team to start, while they had almost their strongest and we matched them AND had the better first half and better chances overall.
We now have no extra comp to play, while City do and IMO we have a 30% better chance to win the title now , compared with just before the game.
We have , as we all know, a FIVEPOINT LEAD , PLUS A HOME GAME IN HAND.
IF, WHICH I THINK WE WILL , WE CAN MATCH THEIR PREM POINTS IN OUR TWO GAMES AGAINST THEM, WE WOULD THEN BE ON THE DOWNHILL STRETCH TO THE TITLE.
I never accept the bookies odds as true, unless I also agree with them.
I NOW make us narrow favourites, though not as much odds on as the bookies do. It is ours to lose now, with this important caveat; INJURIES TO OUR KEY PLAYERS CAN YET RUIN OUR SEASON.
Partey having an MRI tomorrow on his ribs. Are we allowed to swear on this site?
Nooooo!
Ribs are ribs won’t be long term regardless.
Not necessarily true Angus. He certainly won’t be able to bowl for a few weeks…
AngusJanuary 28, 2023 at 12:07 am
Weeks is not months which was the point. Bare minimum an injury that keeps you out keeps you out for 1 week. We have a nice fixture list right now anyway. Why everyone and their mother highlighted the away to Brighton, home to Newcastle, away to Spurs and home to United run because that was tough. We took 10 from 12 in those games. The reward for that is less difficult fixtures..
We badly need Caicedo to see out the season and see off this annoying City side. I heard 5 of their senior players want to leave next season – Walker, Silva, Cancelo among others, and With Guordiola leaving in 2026, we must position ourselves to dominate the league. I won’t be shocked Pep won’t win anymore league titles if we win the league come the end of the season. Pep’s era of dominance needs to stop and can be done with Arteta who is his foil.
We shouldn’t stop at Caicedo if we get him. We should also go for Rice. We must go toe-to-toe with them starting from this season and Arteta is the man to do the job, but he cannot without the backing of the board.
I don’t care how much needs to be spent. We’ve laid the foundation already with the smart signings over the last 4 windows. Now is the time to fix the final piece of the puzzle, with Caicedo this winter and Rice next summer.
Now that I have calmed down I’m now more encouraged about this game in the wider context of things. At the Emirates we will definitely play at a much higher tempo and intensity than tonight and Man City will struggle to live with that.
Sad to go out of the cup, as most real gooners are, but we gave it a good shot with heads held high and lost a very close game. No bad performances tonight and no injuries, a win and draw from the two league games against them and I’ll be happy. Holding “held” Harland well, and big shouts for Tomi, Nketiah, Trossard and Saliba, amongst others.
Partey is injured now. Time to panic…
Ribs no panic
Knees and ankles that is scary. Hamstrings and multiple quads especially if repeated. After that broken bones in the foot. Before that broken legs but should and thankfully is now extremely rare. Tendons as well but again rare.
I am not unhappy, because Arsenal gave a good account of themselves.
Two points: I believed we would lose when Partey was substituted. Let us remember that Sambi Lokonga IS NOT A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER – hence he was played out of position, and was quite ineffective until after the goal from Ake;
I believe that Arsenal will get the majority of points from the two league games with City. If Arsenal is able to get a good defensive midfielder to challenge or cover for Partey, we will win the title. Could Arteta have played Lokonga to send a message to the board?
It’s no surprise to me Partey is nursing an injury but I wonder if something diabolical is going on at the club? Why is both Partey and Elneny always injured at crucial point in the season.
It’s over to the board to address that problem position with two signings, this window and the next.
Sambi needs to be loaned or sold as he’s not useful when called upon. For whatever reason, sticking with him makes me feel other players in that position will keep getting injured 😂
I felt that Arteta was not going to go for it with the changes he made. It was a strong City team but I thought they were surprisingly flat and we bustled and hustled but couldn’t make it count.
To my surprise in the second half Arteta threw the kitchen sink at it so my theory that he was ambivalent to winning got thrown out of the window. He wants to win everything
Not a bad performance by any means but certainly not a classic
Credit to the supporters who who extremely vocal
Were they flat or are we that good now? This question I genuinely believe is open to debate but it’s entirely possible we are just that good now. We can rotate 5 more against city away and scare the hell out of them, it points towards us being that good.
You raise a good point but I’m sticking with City being flatter than I expected. Certainly not in a hurry to win. We had opportunities but sadly didn’t take them
The team that started did ok, except ONE player. The subs were a little baffling, not the ones coming on but the ONE who didn’t go off. Taking Trossard off was baffling, not sure why Partey was subbed but how the ONE player who didn’t cope from start to finish (viera) stayed on was baffling. We were playing with ten men while he was on, he was poor.
Mighty impressive for Arsenal to lose 1-0 to the best team in the league (believe we are this season but others don’t so play it safe and call City that.) They played their best team and won 1-0 vs 10 men and another 4 rotated. Got to be embarrassing for City then?
We lost, thats not impressive!!!!!!!!
Ok
A loss is still a loss and Arsenal are out of the FA Cup.
You realise it was a direct response to Reggie’s comment? Not a standalone comment. According Reggie we played with 10 all game so I focused on that.
Partey was subbed with a rib injury Reggie and the only midfielder left was unfortunately Samba. Yes Vieira was invisible but I guess it was considered more important to spell the quiet Saka as nobody cares if Vieira gets injured. The lad needs Weetabix and to be told to stop trotting around like a prima donna. Considering how he’s not integrated yet, Trossard was excellent, but most players don’t play 90 on full debut, and Martinelli wanted on as he’s just agreed his new contract (1 down 2 to go!).
Guy, the lad is so far out of his depth, its scary. He was getting pushed off the ball and shaking his head as if he knew he was struggling. For me leaving Viera on meant we couldn’t get back in the game because we were handicapped. Lakonga is no Partey but after a first few shaky minutes, he did get stuck in.
I would love it, but I can’t caicedo coming in this window not matter what the price. Brighton are on a good run and loosing a player of caicedo’s quality mid season would be disastrous for them.and its to late in the window to find a replacement, unless we offer a player and cash. Hoped to be proved wrong.
Shout out the Arsenal fans that travelled to Manchester you were amazing! With support like that why wouldn’t we win the league!
Disappointed with the result because it was a missed opportunity to make a statement. Could not be critical of the effort. Close but no cigar.
With eight days to go before Arsenal’s next game, I was disappointed that Arteta chose to rotate and not go into this game with his strongest lineup.
👍
Get that, what did you think of the performance overall?
For all the Arsenal fans who were calling for Arteta to play a full strength team, what are your thoughts now that Partey went off injured as a result of him playing and needing an MRI scan?
How would you feel if he’s out for a few weeks and misses crucial games?
Can you imagine if other first 11 players had got injured too?
The chance of injury is the risk a player takes when they cross the white line and run onto the field. A player can also be injured at training.
Most premiership winning teams need a good/lucky run with injuries. Let’s hope the Arsenal does this season.
Exactly, the risk starts, when he crosses the line, and Partey, Odegaard and Saka should not have been playing.
All 3 are players, we have very little chance to replace, if they get a long term injury.
@Ozziegunner – yes. you’re right re the risk, however surely we needed to prioritise the games and not take unnecessary risks. We have 18 cup finals left in the league to win it!
We are leading the PL and with the most realistic chance of winning the league, so why did he need to play. For once, the FA Cup should not be a priority.
Let’s hope the MRI scan comes back clear, but if Partey is injured and misses key games and we drop points, I wonder if you, or many other fans will think it was worthwhile him playing in the Cup game…?
ric, I don’t disagree regarding prioritization of competitions, the issue remains the lack of depth to compete in all competitions, even with an eight day break.
Only Europa League and EPL to worry about now.
City, played their strongest team, went through and didn’t pick up any significant injuries. Maybe Stone but i dont think that is too much of a problem. City have a great Squad but still chose to play a full first team.
I think city was best at beating the press, they were better than we were at passing from the back, though we did have changes. I feel Ramsdale was a big loss and of course Zinchenko and Saliba in the first half. We defended very well as a unit and were unlucky with our chances overall, we know we can do a lot better so it is comforting
In my opinion Turner had a strong game. Can you argue that Ramsdale would have stopped the goal?
Just his distribution I didn’t like, he went long too often but that is not our game. Ramsdale is better at playing out from the back or straight into our midfield, he’s an outlet
People who are happy that we lost are NOT real Arsenal fans
I’m gutted.
To me the FA Cup is a MAJOR trophy and I wanted to win it badly
Haha take some time breath and let go. Just ’cause we disagree on the relevance of this fixture in the grand scheme of things doesn’t make us lesser fans. We have Europa, UCL, and the PL to play for! This is a necessary pain that I’m willing to take.
Me too…!
I’m gutted
Wanted to win it badly
People only picking on Sambi but Xhaka, Vieira and Odegaard didn’t do anything notable after Partey was substituted. We have been exposed by Partey’s injury and Edu and Arteta are not prioritizing another midfielder. We bought a defender when we are stocked up already. We really need someone like Maitland Niles back for he is better than Lokonga. No Partey no Arsenal.
Xhaka was good all game
Unless u rate players by only goals and assists
Xhaka played very well…
… As in : “Very Well”
This was a disappointing loss. Not a great performance by either side.
We did not do enough with the chances we had and Man City have shown they can play and win in moments. This is more of a problem than people realise as we haven’t beaten them in a long time.
The result and our performance don’t tell us much about how the league matches will pan out. However, we will really need to step things up if we are to beat them.
Oh, Partey is potentially injured and we have no real cover….I am shocked! Who could’ve seen this coming for the past 2 years???
Anyway…lets sign another forward!
Also we really don’t have a heavy schedule fixture, so anyone happy that we are out the FA Cup is just delusional.
The injury Partey picked up is the real worry from last nights game. Can’t understand the criticism of Lakonga and Vieira but some people just see what they want to see and obviously have issues with these players however they perform. Having said that, I’m the same with Niles as I really cannot see what he could add to the team! So, we all have players we either like or dislike so perhaps my comment is somewhat hypocritical 😊
No one has “issues” with players. Lokonga criticism is warranted, didnt you see Ode and Gab lay into him for his lack of positional sense?
I was looking forward to seeing ESR playing, but MA decided to use different players, and we respect that. NVM MA .. I still believe that we could’ve done better, but the players didn’t deliver enough, and they should give them all when they have a chance; they shouldn’t rely on the first-team players to play all the time!
ESR is injured…..
Again!
Let’s just say, politely, we got stage fright today.
Where was our “A” game? And why did we decide to rest our top performers knowing full well that our squad was extremely thin? Did we conveniently forget we are the top (or rather top-performing) team in the league?
Maybe it was just a case of the Student being schooled by the Master. Again.
Arteta should use either Ben White, Tomiyasu or Kiwior at DM if Elneny and Partey are not available
The least that’s needed to fill that role is to block, tackle, protect your CB : Elneny does these well – he doesn’t add the extras of forward-passing or creating chances… but even without those, Man City wouldn’t have scored the goal they scored yday if it was Elneny in DM
So I believe those players can do a better job in that role than Lokonga
Lokonga definitely doesn’t know what’s expected of him in that role & it’s funny it seems noone in the club has told him also
Let Lokonga & Viera compete for deputising for Odegaard or Xhaka
The masters of dark arts strike again! Partey has a rib injury most probably inflicted by Rodri. I’ve watched the game again and the only person constantly poking and pulling Partey is Rodri. They know he’s our midfield lynchpin, take him out and you’ve solved 50% of the problem. Also did anyone notice how big Gab and Ode laid into Sambi for completely ignoring his defensive position? Ode had to take a foul just to remind Sambi where he should be!
Before the match on JA I highlighted the challenges to be faced by Holding and Vieira in the face of an almost full strength City.Unfortunately my concerns proved to be justified, but what I did not expect was a very inept showing from Saka who has arguably been out top player this season.On a brighter note, any sense of inferiority to Man City has gone and with a fair wind we could have been ahead at half time.In addition Trossard most certainly looked the part and just why he was taken off instead of the struggling Saka is beyond me.I am sorry for Lokonga who is not and never will be a DM.Thrust into a game against the powerful City midfield trio he was always going to struggle, and so it proved as he failed to engage Ake when he scored.Downhearted? I am certainly not.In fact I am more convinced that we can win the League than I was before the match as ,despite the presence of Haaland, City are no longer the team they were.
I have no problem with the team we put out. In the first half we were the better team and Trossard imposed himself. The problem was when Thomas Partey was withdrawn injured, Lokonga weakened our midfield drastically. We must get a top midfielder NOW! Moisés Caicedo is a good choice. If not possible I still think Youri Tielemans. He can still control from the deep midfield. We need a ready to go player. No good going for someone from another League. The example of ready made Leo Trossard as a Prem ready player should show that. We are a midfielder away from winning the EPL.