Last night, Arsenal travelled to the little French town Lens in the north of France to face off against RC Lens in our second game of The Champions League group stages. After an almost perfect performance a fortnight ago against PSV, Arsenal looked to be the favourites to win, but a night of silly mistakes and bad decisions led to a 2-1 defeat in our first away game of the campaign.
Arsenal started the game with a lot of energy and looked confident on the ball, pressing high and keeping a lot of early possession. After just 13 minutes and some good pressing from Arsenal, Lens were forced into making a mistaken back pass that Bukayo Saka read perfectly and pounced on, passing the ball through to the feet of Gabriel Jesus who placed the ball into the bottom-left hand side of the net, beating the Lens keeper and putting Arsenal 1-0 in front.
But the celebrations were short lived, 10 minutes after going in front, Arsenal’s keeper David Raya tried to play the ball out from the back to Tomiyasu but a Lens midfielder read the play and won the ball, crossing it over to his teammate in the box who headed the ball down to the feet of Lens winger Adrian Thomasson who curled the ball around Raya in into the back of the Arsenal net.
Shortly after Bukayo Saka was seen dropping to the floor, after backheeling the ball, he looked to go down and grab his hamstring. After coming off against Bournemouth with a knock on the weekend, most Arsenal fans would have been expecting Arteta to give him a rest. Not a good sight for Arsenal fans and didn’t look good, forcing Arteta into making an early change and ending Saka’s night early.
Coming out in the second half, we didn’t look like the same team who started the first half, our midfield and defence started to look a lot more open, Lens came out with a lot of energy and fire in their bellies. In the 68th minute, Lens managed to break through our midfield and sent the ball down the wing, cutting the ball back into the box, straight to the feet of the Lens centre forward Wahi, who’s first time shot went into the back of the net.
Wahi, who was left completely open in the box, put Lens 2-1 in front and in line for a historic victory for the French side. A goal that was completely avoidable, but we allowed to happen. A tough night for Arsenal and our fans who made the trip, at the start of the night most probably thought we’d fly through this game but we had to walk away defeated and disappointed.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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Something is wrong with the GK coaches. The level of relaxation and dangerous play displayed by Raya, is precisely what put a shade on Ramsdale’s play (in addition to not dealing with crosses well because he doesn’t seem to trust his own ball handling). Raya was just overly risky yesterday, taking too many chances with his passes around the box. Straying unnecessarily out of the box just to make a pass. Whoever is coaching the two, is causing regression in Raya, and stunting Ramsdale’s development.
Slow monotonous football was asking for trouble. Putting Vierra on right wing was a terrible decision and altered the whole dynamic of the team. Zinchenko got caught out regularly with his inverted role and gave the ball away far too many times. Haverz was hiding as usual and we never had a striker in the box to pass too. The players looked like they didn’t know what they was doing.
Havertz,Trossard,Tomi,Nelson and ESR’s failed attempts and loss of second balls cost us the game nothing more. it’s lazy and of non tactical view to brand our football last night as slow or sideways and backwards cos it’s unrealistic to expect a forward pass in certain scenarios where it would have been a suicide attempt cos if intercepted and we get caught on the break we risk being humiliated. WIN,LOSE OR DRAW patient approach and sideways and backward passes are VITAL in a team’s build up play as long as there is tactical understanding of what the players were instructed to do. i urge all non tactical oriented fans or should i say lazy match analyst fans to refrain from blaming the teams defeat on being slow in their approach and are making to many sideways and backward passes because not only is it of lazy analysis but also a disrespect towards said oppositions who are no mugs to be pierced through like a knife through butter. Gotta be realistic in your assessment guys.
We were just two days ago told Havertz has busted myths after scoring a token penalty, that he was reborn and we should expect great things going forward.
Some were calling him an elite athlete but what I have seen is a C25K beginner.
I am getting ready to be told ESR 1 year on the bench was part of a grander plan after he start saving our season in the near future.
This team that surprised many last season and which bested the best side in the world in the community shield is unrecognizable few weeks later.
Last season achievement and beating Man City convincingly shows Arteta is capable yet how we are less convincing since the start of the season shows he is his own enemy.
They are same players with excellent and expensive additions (except Havertz) why is it going wrong?
Yes there is favoritism. If the case of ESR wasn’t convincingly enough, the case of Ramsdale should put that argument to rest.
If the tweaking of formations is to accommodate Havertz, then Arteta is better off accepting he made a blunder than trying to prove otherwise because he will lose his job.
After spending more than 600 million and writing off nearly 500 million, top 4 is no longer enough. He will be replaced as fast as a better candidate is available.
Those of us who want to see him succeed and stay at Arsenal for as long as he like will keep pointing out his mistakes and hope he correct them because we are true supporter of his.
Those who want him fired will keep excusing, denying, ignoring and twisting his mistakes and will turn on him easily when the writing is on the wall.
I bet he won’t get close to getting fired, he is on his own track i’m confident we are on our way to achieving something special. You’ll see.
“I bet he won’t get close to getting fired, he is on his own track”
Which is?
“i’m confident we are on our way to achieving something special. You’ll see.”
I had same thoughts after our performance last season, good & expensive signings (Timber, Rice) and expensive signing (Havertz), and our community shield win but not that confident since the start of the season.
ELI5 me on why you are still that confident.
I have to say, we dont look and play like one of the most expensive assembled squads in Europe. Sometimes we cant string two passes together.
He has replied to me with an empty statement I am waiting for an explanation perhaps he sees something some of us don’t.
Funny how the so called anti Arteta always end up proven right. Like when Martinelli was benched the usual suspects were on to anyone who asked why. There was even one user calling himself Martinelli_the_bench whose posts were always asking why he is benched.
When Martinelli started playing those who asked for it forgot about it and moved on but the usual suspects who supported the benching are now hailing Arteta for nurturing him.
HH, Arteta makes mistakes like every manager and those who defend him every turn, make themselves look silly. Mistakes happen and those who say they dont make mistakes are liars. Its Artetas job to make as few as possible, thats all. The problem this season, he seems to be making more, from the off. Nothing serious as far as our season yet but they are thrre for all to see. We all hope, he starts making less.
Reggie
Does anyone really defend Arteta at every turn now?
There was an element of that during his earlier days but then there were those who were equally opposed to him and couldn’t bear to think he was largely on the right path or warranted patience
Situations change rapidly in football as some very experienced managers have found that out to their cost I’d have loved Guardiola to have taken over from AW before he went to City instead. He has proven to be just about as good as it gets. Arteta is unlikely to scale those heights but can still be a great manager. Does that make me a fan girl or blinkered? I suggest that you are less than enamoured with him but you do give credit when you see it I have given Arteta plenty of rope to build on his fledgling career. But I’m also aware of his shortcomings
It upsets me no end that differences of opinion can become so fractured
On why i’m still confident? It’s called deeper insight.
Care to share? Anyone can say they have deeper insight but only those who actually do can share it.
Been sharing all these while you foresee mistakes and struggles while i think we are on a track leading us to glory. You know what? Enough of the cheap talks let’s see who is right or wrong come end of the season.
In other words nothing to share. Neither deeper nor shallow insight or resemblance of it.
Not interested to be proven right or wrong it comes by default. Will be happy with a trophy or two anyway.
Its not about who is right or wrong. There is no right or wrong in opinion. Its opinion. What is being discussed is what people think is going well and not going well. At the end of the season, it wont matter a jot what peoples opinions were on different things during the season. It will only matter where we finish and what we win or not. Nobody will be right or wrong. I dont get this at all. You are not on your own, in thinking this but opinion is not fact, ITS OPINION. We all hope we have a great season but there is a vehicle that is an opinion site, JA, where guess what, people can have an opinion and discuss that. PEOPLE are not always going to agree but there is no right or wrong. You will not be right and HH will not be wrong, whatever happens.
Opinions are bound to be proven right or wrong as soon as claims are justified.
No they are not. Opinions change, depending on what happens. There is no right or wrong. ITS OPINION
For someone to “change” his/her opinion means the person’s original take is wrong so yeah opinion do get proved right or wrong.
There is no right or wrong in opinion. People agree and disagree on the same incident. There is no right or wrong in opinion. Its just Opinion. And now you are saying a claim is fact. No it isn’t. Look up the meaning of the word opinion.
You have said Arteta is making the right decisions. That is not fact, that is opinion. You dont know that he is or he isnt. Saying you forsee the future is not fact.
Not sure where i said my thoughts are facts though.
Probably the most realistic post you have ever made. Well said!
Well maybe Fox, if you believe that, you will stop getting personal over peoples OPINION.
When I read that Vamos believes that The Arsenal lose games on purpose, all thoughts of him actually being able to make a realistic post juddered to a halt…. just my opinion of course!!
No ken thats a fact🤣
Seems that way Reggie unless Vamos can give actual evidence, then my opinion would change.. over to you Vamos, as I note you have evidence that no other supporter has.
Best i leave it the way it is. You can keep viewing it the way you think it is in your opinion.
Just like @Reggie pointed out, no one is above mistake.
Arteta is allowed to make mistakes. What makes the difference is him learning from his mistakes, which I don’t think he has. Sometimes, maybe out of sheer arrogance, bloated ego or perhaps naivety he takes decisions which despite him being proved wrong on that decision, still goes ahead and hold on to it for as long as he can just to prove his brilliance (or how right he is). This is wrong.
Just take the whole Havertz issue and the continued benching of SmithRowe for example, this happened with Willian too I remember.
Overplaying of Saka is another. One would think he learnt from what happened towards the tale end of last season with the burnout and injuries by signing a good backup (or competitor) for Saka this summer. But no he didn’t. I remember a player like Musa Diaby was available. Now we are using a misfit in Fabio Viera as a replacement for Saka.
I’ve always hoped that Arteta will learn but then with what I’ve seen so far. I’ll have to continue hoping.
What do you mean by your last paragraph?
Who exactly are you taking a swipe at?
Not anyone in particular, whoever it applies to. Anyone who defend mistakes in essence want him to fail whether they realize it or not.
A person will not excuse, defend or encourage their children if they start using drugs because they love them wouldn’t they?
A person who criticize you so you can achieve great things is a true supporter and the one who defend your mistakes when you are losing your way is not a supporter of you in any way imaginable.
After our travelling troubles, we should have at list used the 4231 system, which is more defensive. Instead of Zincheko, we could have used Tomiyasu at left back, then utilised Zincheko @Zhaka position pushing Havatz up top. Jesus could have been used on Saka position & rested Saka.o Our coach seem not to trust the guys on the bench, who need minutes to stay match fit so that when there is an injury our quality doesn’t drop. The coach must trust more the guys on the bench.
Because Haverz is tall, it doesn’t make him a good striker. He is too slow and cumbersome to be a striker for us.
Plus, i have seen his finishing and its not good enough. Not for me.
We seemed to be in control until they scored, then we simply could not step a gear when needed. We were pretty flat with no energy or creativity. I get all the commotion of Saka, but there 10 other players out there who could and should of made a difference. There were so many underwhelming performances and while Havertz was one, he wasn’t the only one. Viera is not a winger at any level, it’s simply not his position. I am not saying ESR is the answer to all our problems but at least he brings us energy and is prepared to have a go.
Arteta caused the defeat. He allowed Havertz to continue after the break even though it was clear he offered nothing. Zin was again allowed to play beyond the hour mark when it was clear that he was tired and worn out completely. Our left side thus became the easy way to progress attack without resistance
Esr needs to be used more, between last night and Bournemouth he had 3 shots on target, plus he brings great energy to the team.
Need to bench havertz and leave Viera there too, for 100M for both they bring nothing to the team
After all the mistakes and poor decisions made, all is not lost and we will return with blood in our eyes.
As usual Arteta wanted to finish off the opponents in the first half and relax in the second half. The fast pace game and hyper intensity will overwhelm the boys if they are not ready. Then the opponents will take over in the second half as our boys gets tired. It seems that our new players in Rice and Havertz still getting used to our play with the rest of the team. Trossard and Havertz looked very jaded in the first half. Martinelli and Partey are obviously big absence. Arteta are clearly still in the experimental process. The team clearly improved a lot in possession, progressive passes and chances created compared to last season. Of course, a bit weaker in transitions. Looking forward to further improvements for Man City game.
Arteta’s adamance for change or adjustment have been costing us very often. Allison is the best keeper, he has very good feet with the ball. But he never unnecessarily use his feet like Raya did. Play Rams for better result.
And what way is lost in Arsenal’s case? the problem is you guys are far too hasty in your judgements which most of the time gets proved wrong.
I hate to say this, but it looks like Xhaka left Arsenal to go to a better team.
Arteta replaced Xhaka ostensibly with Havertz. Currently that looks like a real mistake!!!
He got Rice to play as the single DM so Havertz could float around as Xhaka’s replacement.
After all of the summer expenditure, we still have no acceptable back up for either Saxa or Martinelli. our two main goal scorers.
Our midfield is now weaker (Arteta tried to compensate by playing Partey at right back, which has upset him).
Arteta seemed to want to make any change to the rest of the team format to ensure Havertz played.
He even left Gabriel out of the defence and played Benny Blanco there.
So far, he seems to have managed to ruin last years team in his efforts to accommodate Havertz.
When will he finally admit his mistake?
One other point. Arteta said at the start of the season that he has two players for every position. What he did not say was that often the designated back-up was not as good as the player the are to cover for,
Viera is a good player, but he is NOT Xhaka or Partey.
When he plays against stronger opposition he struggles..
ESR is not a good replacement for anybody at the moment, since he is so rusty. He needs to leave, or at least go out on loan to get match practice.
It is not too late for Arteta to correct the current problems, but it requires playing Partey instead of Havertz, and I am not sure Arteta’s ego will allow that!!!
Hi guys, speaking of “mistakes” yes everyone makes mistakes, but not the same person of high level, being Arsenal Coach like Arteta be making mistakes every day and we admit that mistakes is human. If Arteta use Harvatz against man city, we shall lose badly. Rice and Partey should be deployed in that midfield on Sunday. Throw Kai away.