PSV deadly where it counts to beat Arsenal – Top spot in doubt

PSV have beaten Arsenal 2-0 in Holland to claim a head-to-head advantage in their Europa League, with one match left to play.

It was quite an even opening, with our rivals not dominating possession but looking dangerous in attack, and we were under threat early on, but thankfully VAR went in our favour.

I’m not sure if I’m being biased, but I felt like we were the better side in the opening 45 minutes, despite having to be saved by VAR a second time when Xavi Simons twisted up our defence before lobbing Aaron Ramdsale, with our finishing and final ball hampering us from gaining the lead.

We came out in the second-half brightly too, but around 10 minutes after the break we saw the ball cross into our goal for the third time, but there was no more help from the officials. Joey Veerman finished off a fine team move, which originated down the right before the overlapping runners came through the middle to open us up a little too easily, and things just got worse from then on.

We replaced Odegaard and Lokonga straight after the goal, but that didn’t stop us from conceding again shortly after, with the opening goal’s creator Luuk De Jong turning goalscorer, heading into the open goal after Ramsdale rushed out to miss his attempted punch-out.

I’d love to say that our players brought a positive reaction to being behind, but Gabriel Martinelli seemed to lose his head, picking up an unnecessary yellow card for his actions, and with our best efforts failing to really test goalkeeper Walter Benitez.

The frustrating thing now, is that we go into our match with Zurich next week needing a win to secure top spot in the group, knowing that we must face Chelsea days later in the Premier League, and must decided where our priorities lie…

Do you think we had to name a stronger line-up today in order to avoid next week’s potential drop into second-spot, or should we have taken the opportunity to rest more players and just concentrate on our league matches given we have already secured qualification to the next round?

Patrick

Tags PSV PSV v Arsenal

126 Comments

  1. If Ramsdale would like to be England’s number one, he’s got to fix his inconsistency. We made several nice chance, yet we were unable to maximize them

    1. How fast things changes in football. Just few days were the most exciting young team of Europe, n now inconsistency plagued us again. Too many flaws in our game. Big saves from Ramsdale look thing of past. Our both fullback can be upgraded to be called world class. Martinelli being too predictable and ineffective. Striker and central midfield also need upgrade. We can’t just blame fatigue for every game we play poorly. Our level has been declining for 5-6 games. Our pressing is mostly limited to defenders, where one passes ball to another defender, too less control in midfield, too many back passes, slow movement of ball, most importantly lack of creativity in final third. We look like team devoid of spark and confidence. 4 goals in 5 matches is simply not good enough when our so called forwards are given world class grading. Just wonder when our trend of steep rise and steep fall will halt and show some steadiness.

      1. Ramsdale is too erratic sometimes. I expect them to bounce back against Nott’m Forrest, if they’re not too tired

    2. Gai, if I must say Turner seems more assured for European games than Ramsdale he conceeded only a spot kick goal against FC Zurich. Our forward have not been prolific in front of goals in the last few games they must learn to take half chances. Arteta need to fix this. It is also obvious we need additions in January to have a squad dept.h

      1. Sylva, I also think Turner can really push Ramsdale to train harder and maybe even play ahead of Ramsdale if he keeps being inconsistent. I liked Turner’s distribution and ball catching abilities in EL games

        1. Had our attackers converted their chances and if Ramsdale performed well today, we would’ve won the game as we were totally dominant

          1. @Gai
            they were much the better team, they battered us in the second half. Give some credit to the opposition.

        1. The score didn’t tell the whole story, because we dominated PSV at their own stadium from the first minute till the end of the game

      1. They were not lucky, they executed their game plan to perfection and Arsenal and Arteta couldn’t respond. Accept the fact that we were 2nd best. Cheers

            1. @SueP and @Reggie, let’s just hope they will quickly recover for the Nott’m Forest game. Now we need pray for Pablo Mari

  2. MA is a fool for this one. Involving all our starting XI players who are going to start again on Sunday.

    Today was always going to be though, but the Zurich game at home is not. Should’ve started the B team today and play for a draw.

    I expect a terrible performance on Sunday..

    1. Well said.
      We will beat Zurich with any team.
      He was caught in the middle today.
      Either take the first team or a complete second string.
      Don’t mix and match.

  3. Terrible match.. well done to PSV to put their foot on Arsenal throat..
    Now it’s Must win match against Zurich to win group to avoid additional 2 matches unless Bodo not loosing against PSV on final match day…
    It’s the same performance we have witnessed last whole season..
    We played exactly the way we have played in last couple of seasons..

    1. You can start from Bodo away..
      It all started from their..
      Lucky win against Bodo, Then lucky win against Leeds
      Unconvincing win against PSV, then deserved draw against Saints and now deserved loss against PSV
      5 matches we bad.. unconvincing..

      1. We need additional good players. These boys are getting worn out. We need to be resting some. Saka, Martinelli Odengaard can’t be playing all the matches in all competitions. More quality legs needed.

      2. We over raised our hope on this team. They are young and learning, so they will make mistakes. I will take top4 as a success

  4. A loss and no rest for our starters. The worst possible outcome.

    If we needed anymore evidence that our starting XI are out on their feet look no further than the lack of impact that Jesus, Saka and Partey had in the second half. They brought nothing to the table.

    I think Arteta was a bit short-sighted tonight. The worse case could have been a loss with our starting XI fighting fit for Forest on the weekend. Instead we’ve got the prospect of the same scenario that has plagued us the last two PL games with players running on empty second half.

    Sometimes you gotta think a few moves ahead. Win or lose tonight we were still odds in to win the group. If we cant get a point off Zurich (I think we only need a draw and not a win bit not sure) then we don’t deserve to top the group.

  5. Should’ve played our strongest 11 tonight, get the game won, and then make the substitutions. Now we have to put out a stronger team in the last group game to make sure we at least get a draw.

    1. That’s not enough…
      Draw is not enough to win the group..
      If PSV beat Bodo on final day and if we get a draw then PSV will top the group because in head to head PSV has favourable record…
      So it is a must win game against Zurich

    2. The strongest 11 have been playing the same way last 4 games and we need a win last game!!!!!!!!!! Nothing at all to do with strongest or whatever team.

      1. Not sure if you noticed it Reggie, but we were moving the ball faster when more of our starting 11 came on ! That would’ve created more space and probably better chances !!!!!!!!!!

        1. And the Southampton game and the first PSV game, second half and before that the second half of the Leeds game, where we lived a charmed life.

    3. Herr Drier
      I agree with your sentiments but in all honesty the first 15/20 minutes was the sideways/backwards rubbish and nothing going forwards with PSV probing and coming close – with 4 players only not regular starters from Arsenal
      I’m all in favour of getting it done and dusted like you but recent results show a worrying shortage of depth

  6. We are still in good positions in the comps/EPL so no need to panic yet.

    I think the big concern is this is the exact time every season we usually have our collapse. If we can win our next 2 games before we play Chelsea then that will be great.

  7. That was a piss poor outing imho. For all that has been said of Nketiah’s finish to last season, he is just not the guy for me. And WTH was Ramsdale doing for that second goal. The first team is really tired including Xhaka. The problem is that we do not have decent covers for this players. The January transfer window would be a real test of our ambition as a club. Left to me, I won’t start Odegaard on Sunday, the guy needs a long rest. Call them anti-Arteta as much as we like, they’ve been pointing out most of the flaws that were exposed tonight. COYG🔴⚪

    1. Crazy, thanks for mentioning that. It sounds like he’s not in critical condition, though – thankfully.

      1. You may have seen something more up to date than I did – the early report said he was in critical condition, so if that was wrong then that’s certainly good news.

  8. Let’s not overreact folks.
    We are in control of the group and play the weakest team, at home, for the one point required to proceed to the knockout stages.

    We could / should have played out the game without using so many first team players, because of the paragraph above.

    The media is already on our backs, as the commentator on BT sports proved and I expect more of the same tomorrow, including some of our own fans.

    Yes, it was a poor performance and that’s three in a row now, but let’s wait until after the chelsea game, before we start crucifiying the players.
    That’s when we can actually see where we are going in both competitions.

  9. I hope this is just a blip, not a circumstance. Three away games on the trot we have looked a total shambles in the second half. Disjointed, weak, sloppy, slow and no cohesion at all. The lack of a threat on the opposition and the weaknesses at the back are quite alarming. A massive problem is we have like for like players but the fact we cant change anything radically is a worry. Is the honeymoon period over?

    1. I beg to differ on the like for like claim. I think we do not have like for like players. We have worse players. We have a big problem if the management team do not think outside the box.

      1. Thats your opinion about worse, that isnt the point im making. Where is the big Centre forward like PSV bought on, were is Odergaards replacement when his role isnt working, where is the holding midfielder, to sit in front of the back four. We replace every game with like for like and no change.

  10. Rest. some. players. We’re very close to the WC now but players are looking knackered and not their usual selves. He needs to go very light on 1st team players for the Zurich game. Zurch have nothing to play for, we only need a draw.

    1. That’s not enough…
      Draw is not enough to win the group..
      If PSV beat Bodo on final day and if we get a draw then PSV will top the group because in head to head PSV has favourable record…
      So it is a must win game against Zurich

      1. tbh i dont care about topping the group. whoever we get we’re going to have to play our best XI for that game. Looking at how things are gonna pan out, this isn’t realistically a competition we are going to win while also aiming for top 4. It’s gonna ahve to be one or the other. We don’t have the numbers for both.

        1. It’s not about who we are meeting in next round, it’s about avoiding additional 2 match if we top the group
          We will in direct round of 16

          1. really? didn’t konw that. In that case I care much more lol. Still need to be careful who we start for Zurich cause the burnout is becoming more and more evident.

    1. You don’t feel bad because we dropped points MrC, but because we were bl**dy awful despite ending the game with essentially our best 11 on the pitch.

  11. That’s not enough…
    Draw is not enough to win the group..
    If PSV beat Bodo on final day and if we get a draw then PSV will top the group because in head to head PSV has favourable record…
    So it is a must win game against Zurich

  12. We should have started with our strongest eleven, hopefully gone in at half time with a two-goal lead and then rested players in the second half while defending the lead- it’s sounds easy, but perhaps we underestimated PSV even though they gave us a very hard game at the Emirates.

  13. Luuk De Jong is very interesting one to watch..
    He was good in the 2nd half..
    Gives different attacking option…

  14. Worrying show against an average side. I care less about the result than the individual performances. And considering how many first teamers played a part and were way below par, this will be a tough one to bounce back from. I would be interested to know if anyone can name ONE player who had a good game? (Name Nketiah and I will never talk to you again!). I have never seen Martinelli play worse and Ode was completely invisible (again). We were incapable of putting two passes together. Vieira and Odegaard don’t look good together and Lokonga reminds me of AMN – talent but no urgency or concentration. We just cannot play this system at less than full throttle, which is what I suspect Arteta told them to do. It doesn’t work. Unimportant game or not, top of the league or not, and it’s not all down to being tired. Another 5 players and we would have still been rubbish. These type of performances sap your form and confidence. Shocking – feel free to call me too negative! Hopefully the Women will cheer me up…

    1. Vieira still needing more time to settle, not doing it for me yet. Lokonga is running out of time. Simple as that. I just don’t think he’s good enough for this level of football. Just gonna flat out say it. Alright, ready to be called a bad fan and stuff now. 🙄

      1. Lokonga never good enough.
        No knee jerk reaction.
        Offered nothing creative.
        Lazy getting back.
        Watched him for 18 months

    1. Whoa, I thought the mass casualty events just happened in the US, Canada and England

      There were also knife attacks in Canada and Las Vegas. After religious terrorisms, now we have desperate criminals due to the horrible economic situations

  15. Is this a bad omen? Our players are looking tired and worn out even those that have been playing from the bench It’s no longer flowing.
    Is this a collapse of everything including the PL campaign? If we play like this on Sunday, then Forest will make just a ridicule of us.

  16. As GB said Pablo Mari is in critical condition after a mass stabbing in a Milan supermarket at 5.30pm. If word got out that may explain tonight.

    1. I don’t think he’s in critical condition. That seems to have come from the sun, but other outlets are saying he’s conscious. Hopefully the other outlets are correct

      1. Thankfully, it appears that Pablo is conscious and not in a critical condition.Let’s hope he makes a full recovery and can continue his career in the not too distant future.This type of incident puts a game such as football into perspective but with my Arsenal hat on,I’m afraid it appears that the rot has set in as a consequence of the lack of depth in our squad.Yet another poor performance against a fairly average side imo.

  17. Let me say it here, i may get stick, slack but between saliba and Gabriel, gabriel is our best defender. Quote me anywhere. Saliba he has height but afraid to head the ball. Did you see how gabriel dealt with d. Young? Saliba needs a rest perhaps. The less i say about holding the better. There is your answer about tierny, he kills our attack with back pass. And since he’s been playing, martinelli has looked a bad player thus far. He’s no way near to be in that 11 over zinchenko or tomi. Xavi simons had him on toast all night long. And he looks like he has lost speed too. White and tomi is zinchenko is not fit should be starting. Now to mf, sambi is the worse youth signing we have made after sanogo. Wtf does this guy bring to this team aside side way passing? Viera came i. To live the moment he was moved inside which I didn’t understand arteta staring him on the wing. He’s jot a winger. Odegaard should be ashamed of that performance. Martinelli gets on my nerve with his too much jolding of the ball. Why he didn’t take him off and put nelson is beyond me. Xhaka was the only mf with a progressive pass in that first half and became even better the moment partey was introduced. Partey keeps showing why we will fall apart if he’s injured but even a day old knew this but arsenal board and arteta. Nkethia lol! Lmao! Hahahah i haven’t seen a more pathetic player to him. Balogun should be the one playing not him. We all knew he had no skill but he had workrate, but now he has none. G. Jesus for the past 4 weeks have shown why city sold him. He’s not consistent. My player rating would be
    Ramsadle :3 well off it today and made an error for the second goal
    Tomiyasu: 5 about the only defender that actually defended.
    Saliba:3 bags of nerves, poor positioning and lack of lace and very indecisive.
    Holding :2 I can’t tell between him and tierny who was worse on the night.
    Tierny:2 terrible night for him. Im sorry but he doesn’t dearve to start.
    Sambi :3 brings nothing to the team just back pass and sideways.
    Odegaard:1 lost the ball on numerous occasion, couldn’t play a single pass completely, couldn’t run. Absolutely had a terrible game.
    Xhaka:5 wasn’t spectacular but heads and shoulders above every player on that pich in the first half and was always looking fo a forward pass.
    Viera :4 quiet first half until he was put in the middle.
    Martinelli:3 worse game this seasy. No single takeon, gave tierny zero help. Lost the ball many times. A bad game.
    Nkethia:1 comical at best. Can’t really figure out what he brings to this current arsenal team. Before his workrate made up for his shortcomings but these days he is more lazy. Missed a sitter.
    Saka,jesus, :5 they brought intensity to the team and more purpose.
    Gabriel:5 even though he was on for a little time but he shown why he’s indispensable at the moment.
    Arteta:2 for taking them to psv. Thats all.

    Going forward its this defense
    Ramsdale
    White saliba gabriel tomi. Souls never be holding saliba. Either holding and gabriel or gabriel and saliba. Tierny will have to be coming on from the bench and when he does he needs to convince us. Sambi should be sold. He may be a good player but not fit for Arsenal

    1. What a way over the top plain daft post We all saw it was a disapponting second half andoverall a bad night.

      But you have let your emotions run away with you and what you wrote was plain silly and wrong. I can not regard someone who writes such a silly post as a person with much intellect.

      Ever heard the word PERSPECTIVE! I suggest you look up its meaning, sonny boy!

    2. lol Lucia – that’s exactly how I felt after the game but I’ve cooled down now. Nevertheless, I can’t argue with your opinions of the performances.
      Despite Gabriel looking the more volatile player, Saliba misses Gabriel more than Gabriel misses Saliba – I think the answer is to always play both as Gabriel’s aerial power is crucial and Saliba’s calmness helps Gabriel. Tierney Ode GM all poor but at least theyve played a lot, whereas Sambi and Nketiah had another chance to show they WANTED to play for Arsenal but once again strolled around like Bambi. Nketiah miscontrolled and lost the ball every time – three times in the first 6 minutes.

  18. As I’ve said before, we’re too predictable. We’re playing “square peg round hole” football at the moment and it’s taking its toll on the players…IJS

      1. We seem to be a fair weather team, when the going gets tough and shirt sleeves need rolling up, we wilt. Its something that has worried me, playing like we do under pressure.

    1. They wanted it more than us…..WE were “managing”the game knowing we’r already through…..we must beat Forest now and Zurich

    1. Im not sure our team is Si, i think its fans looking for a reason why we are struggling. Its not fatigue, we are not the only team playing twice a week.

      1. Because we weren’t having this issue until 10 days ago, Angus. The concerns are whether Leeds, Soton and PSV are glitches in performance or the start of a poor run. And it’s the way we are playing not the results that have us worried – principally because we did the same thing last season.

        1. Guy is correct,performances are more telling that results.you can win playing badly or lose playing well.soon or later.there is so many games you can win playing badly until your luck runs out and vice versa.

    2. Well… at the weekend Chelsea and MU drew with each other, Spurs and Liverpool lost.

      Then Spurs drew at home in the CL.

      So I think they’re showing signs of tiredness – especially against teams that don’t have European football.

      1. So we cant use that as an excuse then if it is affecting everyone. PSV have played as many games as us, lost to us on Thursday, lost at the weekend and then looked as fresh as a daisy tonight, where is their fatigue. Its not an excuse.

        1. Exactly Reggie. Everyone in Europe is struggling with 2 games a week every week over almost 2 months and we are all losing both form and games. But it’s a factor not an excuse and we can’t blame tonight’s debacle purely on fatigue. Use it as an excuse and we will talk ourselves into losing the next four.

        2. Errrr… what sort of logic is that?

          It’s affecting all the Euro teams, so it’s not just us – therefore it IS “an excuse” – or even a reason.

          Also, we recently beat two of those teams (Spurs and Liverpool), so it’s even worse for them than us.

          You can’t compare playing in the Dutch league with the PL, the standard is very different, the demands in the PL are far greater.

          And lastly – they were playing at home, it’s an advantage for a reason.

          1. By “Euro teams” I mean PL teams in Europe, not teams from other countries.

            Other countries play in far less demanding leagues.

          2. We are playing with words here. If we just say “we lost just because we are tired” we could be overlooking other issues. What I at least am seeing is not just fatigue but that the style we have relies much more than other teams on pressing, precision and confidence. Just how I see it – and I’m deliberately ignoring our failings in front of goal in that equation as we regularly miss a ton of chances but still play great. We don’t however have a system that wins us games when energy levels drop – we look really poor, passes go astray and we loose confidence. That’s what I mean by having an alternative non-pressing lower energy style that maintains certain standards regardless of energy. Most teams have this but with us it’s all or nothing. I honestly saw us trying to control the game at a lower pace and we failed pretty miserably.

  19. Wish Mari best! Luckily he seems like it’s ok for him. Someone still died and he was there and stabbed so not sure how that can be ok but nonetheless he’s alive. Puts things in perspective really.

  20. I think it’s obvious that performance levels has dropped off since the Liverpool game, not quite alarm bells yet but some concerns yes. Squad depth remains an issue that has to be addressed in January, 3 signings like Danilo, Lindstrom and N’dicka which wouldn’t break the bank as I can’t see us spending much more than the rumoured £50M budget would suffice.

    None of the fringe players are knocking on the door to start prem games with poor showings in the Europa league, so Arteta doesn’t trust them to start or os reluctant to sub them on early when we are struggling in matches but they are his signings or his decision to give them new contracts so it’s a catch 22 situation.

    However we should bounce back against Forest, we need to put a few past them to arrest this recent dry up of goals and bring back confidence which can hopefully lead to us going on another good run.

  21. Looks like the wheels have started to come off was always going to happen with the lack of squad depth Arteta playing the same players tells you he has little faith in the back up players who are simply not good enough!

  22. I just heard about the stabbing of Mari in Italy. My heart goes out to Pablo Mari and the others. Absolutely horrible

  23. Some several day ago I posted to say that I would have rested ALL our regular Prem starters today. I thought that would have been wise and so it has proved.
    Now we have many players feelingPrem startingplayers being more fatiqued and STILL needing to put out a strong eleven to ensure we beat Zuruich , just three days prior to playing Chelsea.
    Apart from, apparently, getting no injuries it could hardly have worked out worse.
    The REAL problem as we all know, is that we still lack at least six top quality players to give us much needed depth of quality.

    Witness our first goal being conceded by LOKONGA AND HOLDING messing up; neither being of the real level we badly need in back up players. I rest my case!!

    1. And i that’s why replied to you Jon that “talking about challinging City is rubbish”and laughable….Even though that today it’s more down to commitement than sheer level given that we are already through and more likely wining the group…..

  24. Why don’t our CB play ball over the top or diagonal balls like quality CBs do. It gives the team whole new dimension. They just pass the ball side ways and to DM then back it comes to them. They need to look at what other quality defenders do with the ball like Ramos, Varane, VVD etc and learn from them.

    1. Because they are taught to play that way. Plus we have no players strong enough to hold a long ball up against bigger stronger players. It comes straight back when we do.

      1. But you don’t always play the ball upfront to be held up, you play the ball over the top for striker to make run specially when u have pace. Plus to switch wings with diagonals or play over the top on wings for wingers to utilise their pace. But I agree with you perhaps the manager does not want our CBs to play that way that is why I said we need to add that to our game as another weapon.

  25. We need at least two quality signing that can walk into the first 11 in January to maintain our hope of top 4. This is not the time for ‘players with potentials’. We need proven players. The truth is a few of our starting 11 are only good as rotational players, not guaranteed starters. It’s not always going to be rosy, there are games Arteta will need to make tactical changes at half time or very early in 2nd half. There are games you will be chasing and you will need a game changer off the bench. Its not every game you will just want to see out. The only player that has the potential to be a game changer is injured and injury prone for now— ESR.
    I say if we have just 50mil in January, spend it on a single player, mf or striker. If u have to add a player on top of that to get the right one then do it. You can’t be chasing a game and then bring on Danilo to replace Partey or Xhaka. To do what?
    Mind you, teams have started improving around us – United, Chelsea, Newcastle, can’t write off Liverpool and Spurs – and you can be almost certain they will bring in reinforcement in January.

  26. PSV were more commited than us….knowing that we’r already through we became lazy and gave the game to them but Zurich is a must win to maka sure that we win the group……Onto Forest now

  27. Although I wasn’t happy with the loss, I can say PSV were the better side, so they deserved the win.

    Let’s focus on the next game; MA should talk seriously with the team to get them back to the winning mentality. No more points to lose.

  28. By the way, who in Milan that has stabbed Pablo Mari? And has he or they been caught? And Is it an act of Islamic terrorism attack or a local deadly criminal attack of a thing that is different from Islamic terror attacks that is associated with this kind of attack? But I think Police investigations to unraveled the attack when it is concluded will come out with findings and us will know the motives behind the unfortunate knife attack on Mari.
    In the meantime, I wish Pablo Mari a quick speedy recovery from the injuries that was inflicted on him by the attacker. And also wish him to get well soon.
    In our tonight’s ELC match away to PSV, in which our dear own mighty Arsenal lost the match 2 nil. The unfortunate lost which I didn’t expect will happen to the Gunners. More so, as Arteta fielded a very strong Gunners starting XI team to start the match. But alas! All was to no avail for us in the match as the Gunners succumbed to a defeat in the match.
    Regrettably, Arsenal’s personality in the match as a North London giants club suffered a nerve racking mental agony in the match. Seen, as the game was being played. Which consequently saw the Gunners came out of the match empty handed in it collecting no any points for Arsenal at the end of the match.
    But however and nevertheless, Arteta, his coaching staff and the Gunners should take up the pieces that resulted from the bad result outcome that Arsenal got tonight in their ELC match against PSV. And go back to the drawing board to analyse it and deal with it squarely, proffering lasting working solution to the incident that has been threatening to rear it’s ugly head again in Arsenal games after it has reared it in the last Arsenal Epl match away to Man Utd,. And again reared it in Arsenal ELC match tonight away to PSV after it nearly reared it at Southampton. But God saved Arsenal from being fully embarrassed by the Saints

  29. Weak! Weak! Weak! Is the only words to describe our team performance for the past few game. Players are weak and tired physically and mentally. Arteta really need to assign full squard B team. So players can get enough rest. 1 tired or weak player enough to bring down whole team.

  30. The problem is exept for Tomiasu and Tireny all of our players outside the first 11 are of medioum quality at best, so Arteta can’t rotate without severly damaging the team, and there is no real competition for places. We needed to loan a good striker in the summer and add another midfielder at the very least. In January we need a winger, a DM, and also a striker because as I said many times, Nekhetia is rubbish. There are some players finishing their contact in June who might be available cheap, like Zaha, Trossard, Assensio, Moukoko, Tilmens, and we can get two of them. We should also consider recalling Patino as we will have planty of games to play him in the second part of the season, and it might convince him to extend the contract.

  31. They say Martinelli is real deal so play him through the middle change things up move Jesus to the wings liked he played at City

  32. You can’t complain about the result. We were absolutely ridiculous.
    Let me hope Arteta does not let this flattness, lethargic way we have playing foe the last 4 or so game become thw norm this early in the season..

  33. I don’t really know what is going on in the minds of arteta foot soldiers. One is not surprised at the drop in form of our first team. There’s no way the same players will play all competitions without a drop. In the summer, we had the opportunity to reinforce with quality players but we chose not and where we did, those are not ready for the challenge. We dropped in form after Liverpool match. And it’s not a good sign for our top 4 finish. I suggest our Psychologist should work tirelessly to boost their morale.
    Last line : Arteta should reduce his over reliance on Odegaard. Should always go to any match with plan B in his tactics and finally, let him train his boys on the need to take their chances. In football, what separate winners and losers are goals. There are too much of side ways and back passes in the team. No cause for alarm for now.

  34. It’s really worrying how our intensity has dropped off since the Liverpool game.
    We have struggled for better performances since.
    We can’t be already tired this early in the season surely. If it’s true that we are already fatigued in October then we are in serious trouble.
    Can be talking about being tired after just 100m of a marathon..

  35. It is now clear that we do not have replacement for our first team. It is worrisome because other teams are studying us to know how to get the better of us. For us to hang on till after the world cup, arteta should switch players and change his tactics. You don’t continue to do same thing over again and expect good results in football. Approach matches tactically according to the strength of the opposition.
    In January, recall some of our players on loan. Most of them are better than the the ones in the team now. Arteta’s interest should be set aside for now. If the team continues in this way, am afraid, we will soon lose the grips of top four. To Arteta: a stitch in time saves nine.

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