Former Manchester United man, Danny Higginbotham has pointed out a lack of discipline as Arsenal’s big problem after their 2-1 loss to Manchester City this afternoon.
Arsenal took the lead through Bukayo Saka and looked good enough to earn all the points.
However, a penalty conceded and a red card for Gabriel Magalhaes within 3 minutes of each other cost Mikel Arteta’s men all the points.
It was a very winnable game and Arsenal looked in control of the fixture before they conceded the equaliser.
Higginbotham admits things are looking bright for the Gunners, but he also warns they need to be more disciplined and manage their matches much better.
He tweeted: “As bright as things are looking for Arsenal they still need to be more disciplined and manage games better. That’s where the lack of experience in the team gets the better of them. Also some of the more experienced players need to take more control”
Just Arsenal Opinion
A clear lack of discipline and control cost us the points against City in this fixture and we need to fix that before we can reach the next level.
A defeat may have been inevitable at some point after our brilliant run of form recently, however, we had this game in our own hands and threw it away because we weren’t cool enough.
Hopefully, the team will learn from this and manage future matches much better.
Discipline is the key. This is young team so it will come in time.
Xhaka however, is not young. He’s turning 30 and still does unbelievably stupid mistakes.
Did you know ever since he arrived to Premier League, he has committed the most amount of:
– errors leading to concede (around 10 I think)
– red cards (4 or 5)
He’s picked 5 MOTM awards in 5.5 seasons. Just 5! The last one he got was in 18/19 season. For example, Youri Tielemans (also deep-lying playmaker) has picked the same in 3 seasons.
The cons of this player overshadows the pros, by quite a lot. In short, Xhaka is extremely unreliable.
Your second sentence says it all
As far as discipline went, I thought that apart from the Xhaka moment and Gabriel losing his head, the team had shown excellent discipline and mentality today. They certainly kept their heads up after we went down to 10 men.
Gabriel actually tried to cheat with his tampering of the penalty spot. Absolutely disgraceful. As for xhaka, that has zero to do with inexperience and everything to do with lack of ability and discipline.
I think we are agreeing Reggie- if you read me correctly
Yes i do Sue P we are singing off the same hymn sheet for this.
The var must be held accountable.I always believe Arsenal face an uphill battle to win against the top teams let alone the epl .There must be consistency
CP were denied an obvious penalty as were Arsenal.
Az for Xaka,I think he is responsible for the gunners losing when they shd be winning.Better sell him
TYPICAL XHAKA, TYPICAL ILL DISCPLINE. STUPID STUPID GABRIEL. The performance which was excellent was all for nothing, we are so STUPID in our decision making. It was a game we actually should have won and in Arsenal fashion gave it away. Reliance on certain players costs this team.
You all have been dying for weeks waiting for something to happen so you can unleash your stupid judgements on Xhaka.. I know a lot of you couldn’t wait.. here is your moment.. bask in it and when you are tired watch him start our next Epl game and start another waiting session.. I know y’all couldn’t wait.. he has been performing brilliantly and none of you sang his praise.. talk about Var being bias alot of you are.. if you will not sing his praise when he has a good game you have no right to bash him when he has a bad game.. putting uninformed stats to ridicule the player is another madness that is catching on with Arsenal trolls.. and having said all that he didn’t have a bad game today. Mtcheew.
My opinion is he has had one good game this season. I say as i see and im not on my own by a long long way.
ADMIN COMMENT – James, you should think before you speak, and learn very quickly that I will not put up with comments like that okay?
Our captain, Auba, was eviscerated, dethroned and punished for indiscipline. Let’s see if Xhaka and Gabriel will receive the same treatment for violating our so-called “nonnegotiables”.
Despite my negativity, our first half performance was impressive. I enjoyed the progressive passing game.
Gabriel can be forgiven a bit but Xhaka ended the game with the captains armband, UNBELIEVABLE!!
I believe Gabriel did what he did in the interest of the team, even if it is against the game of football but same can’t be said of Xhaka. I have been overprotective of him(xhaka) but today’s careless tackle in the box was beyond me, like he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Atall. The referee was the Man of the match💯
You believe kicking a hole on the penalty spot was in the interest of the team? Because after doing that, which is just plain cheating, the “foul” was asking for trouble.
Gabriel cheating is the same as the Australian sandpaper scandal.
Blatant cheating should not be acceptable at this level.
I agree. Blatant cheating shouldn’t be accepted. Unfortunately, it seems that blatant cheating is fully incorporated and almost endorsed in the modern game. In fact for years it’s been actively employed by some managers as an all inclusive part of their tactics.
Shirt pulling, blatant body checking, playing the man and not the ball, not immersing the ball in the penalty spot when taking pens, the ball being on the extreme tangent of the quadrant and not in it when taking corners. Harry Kane deliberately ducking under players during aerial duels. The list of offences is way more extensive than I can outline but they’re all for some reason accepted as part of the modern game.
I would love to see all this type behaviour eliminated from English football and players/teams playing a brand of footbal that truly relies on skill, guile and tactical nowse rather than deception. Unfortunately, it’s embedded in the game now and fully endorsed!
Arsenal and it’s players are no more culpable than the rest of the league.