Southampton have ended Arsenal’s hopes of winning this season’s edition of the FA Cup, ending Mikel Arteta’s 100% record in the competition.
Arsenal opted to field a much-rotated selection for this afternoon’s encounter, but was met by Southampton’s strongest XI, and we would have been naive for expecting an easy ride.
The Saints were solid from the start, and the Gunners were also on their game to set-up an exciting FA Cup encounter.
The hosts nearly opened the scoring in emphatic fashion when James Ward-Prowse corner kick smashed off the bar, and Southampton were looking most likely to break the deadlock, although the game was still pretty even.
Our first clear-cut chance to Gabriel Martinelli, with the Brazilian timing his run perfectly for a free-kick from deep to earn himself a free shot on goal, but is unable to control his volley which does no damage whatsoever.
The deadlock was broken after around 25 minutes however, when Kyle Walker-Peters fired his low shot in from just outside the box, and while his effort was set to go wide, Gabriel’s touch takes it beyond Bernd Leno and into the goal.
The remainder of the match was somewhat of a disappointment. Eddie Nketiah did little with the limited chances he was gifted, while the additions of Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey and Alexandre Lacazette didn’t bring enough positivity to make the difference.
The Gunners were simply lacklustre after the opening exchanges, and once again we lacked any real bite without Emile Smith Rowe on the pitch, who appears to have been left out of the squad without reason.
This team really is leaving a lot to be desired, and while our league form has improved, we are a shadow of the side that won the FA Cup last season.
Does the result highlight the strength of Southampton? Or does it simply highlight how limited our squad is, despite big-named players like Willian and Nicolas Pepe having been drafted in?
Patrick
Everything seems to drop when certain players are on the pitch. You wouldnt be able to tell in the last 10 minutes that this was a cup match, that we were down by one, and that Arsenal cared about winning this match. The players tht dont want to be there, and aren’t good enough to be there were in the lineup today, and boy did it show. Arteta should know better by now who to trust, and who to not.
Magalhaes was awful in the first twenty minutes and he should’ve been more composed if he wants to be the main left CB, otherwise Mari would still be the best partner for Holding. Our squad rotation players haven’t been playing together for a some time and a new LB is essential if Arsenal want to stay in EL
Pepe’s pace and height looks like a premium athlete, but his first touch, ball control and dead ball skills are like a Championship player’s. I hope Odegaard’s arrival would stop him from being a starter and hopefully we can sell him in the summer
Everything Pepe does is so predictable it pains me. The moment Bellerin released Pepe in the 2nd half I knew he was going to cut it back. Diallo knew it. My mother ancestors knew it. I seriously think he may be worse than Gervinho.
He is worse than gervinho. At least gervinho can dribble.
At least Gervinho and Walcott could dribble past four players once, but Pepe is just full of parlor tricks without good first touch and close control skills behind it
The way he controlled the ball from Bellerin and the way he took the set-pieces look very amateurish to me. Watching Pepe is like watching a comedy and he’s definitely the worst winger I’ve ever seen
His lack of ball control skill can’t be hidden by his cheap parlor tricks. Since his first touch is atrocious, Arsenal had better train him in other position or sell him immediately
Playing a left footed player on the right side means he has to cut inside because he cant kick with his right foot. every good defender knows what he is going to do he is so predictable.
when i saw the team selection i knew we would not win with Willian , Eddie and Pepe. How we missed ESR’s creativity. Playing Eddie is a big mistake, I would have played Balagon.
It’s not just that Pepe is left footed. It’s that he has no right foot. Nada. Playing him on the right is just cruel.
I don’t hold out much hope for him but would like to see him played on the left of in the middle to see if he is any less predictable. To be honest though, for a player to be this one footed suggests a poor work ethic.
Playing Pepe on the right is beyond comprehension. I just cannot understand Arteta’s reasoning. Can someone on here explain it to me, please?
I have never followed the Magalhaes hype though, I do not like his style at all Mari is better for me.
He’s younger, so he could still improve. I just hope he wouldn’t turn into another erratic CB like Mustafi
His style is erratic GOT, just like Sokratis and Mustafi. He is just better with the ball than Sokratis. Like you, I hope he improves.
Give the guy a break, he is just coming back from covid for gods sake.
Reggie, quite correct – who was it won player of the month twice just recently?
What short memories some fans have.
Nketiah is absolute 4th divsion player . so many chances . Pepe is waste
Sell nketiah and promote balogun. Terminate Willian’s contract and sell pepe at any price. I don’t wish to see those three anywhere near the team again.
Spot on!!
Unfortunately this won’t happen whilst Arteta remains as they are all part of his “favourites” group.
It can’t happen even with another manager. A club cannot be run like that. You just can’t start selling players and terminating contract just like that unless you want our club to die a natural death
Its not Arteta, Balogun is leaving except he sign new contract, am sure you are aware Arteta isnt our contract negotiator, until he sign, he wouldnt be in the team
If only it was that easy but terminating Willian’ s contract will cost about £25 million to pay him off.
Sell him to the highest (or lowest) bidder then
We fielded a team who would not have beaten Roy of the Rovers team. Arteta must take responsibility for fielding the poorest possible team possible. Shameful display Arteta and the team do not deserve to be paid this week.
Nketiah would not get into any team in even the Championship. How was he playing? There should be a stewards enquiry.
It should be his last start for us. His academy record and U23 England record may be amazing, but he’s one of those players that cannot transition to men’s first team football. He’s got to be sold. He’s not EPL quality unfortunately.
He didn’t get into a Championship team..so it made perfect sense to play him in the Premier League instead!!
Jeffers,Lupoli,Alliadiere,and Bentner were also good at under-21 level but were found wanting when attempting to step up….Although none were given this number of wasted chances!!
Bizarrely Balogun looks to be worth a try but doesn’t even get on the bench in place of a third choice goalkeeper.
You can’t blame arteta for rotating his players. I hope you know these players are not robots and you need to keep them fresh. You expect the same 11 for FA, Europe and the league. Are you serious? It is just painful that the second string are underperforming. Recent result from our younger lads have shown that MA isn’t the problem. Will you blame MA that pepe cannot control the ball even when not under pressure or that AMN can hardly make an accurate pass
Why are we believing this idea suddenly that playing Sat – Tuesday is too much ?
Been happening for years
Put it this way I don’t feel anymore confident about Tuesday just cause a few got a rest
Confidence and momentum is more important
F**k the FA! Yes we were bad but we always get the tough draws every time and it is sickening. Had we won we are going to face Wolves again while other big 6 teams get easy draws.
That said, the right thing to do was to give other players their chances, now they have fluffed it so they should expect more bench time
It’ll be a very warm bench 😆
lol…so we have been reduced to this…Southampton is now a ‘tough’ draw, along with Wolves.
In which case, are we still a ‘top six’ club?
Southampton fielded their best line up possible, we did not. We paid the price.
Theres no excuses not to beat them on Tuesday.
👍👍
it will be difficult to get a point against them on tuesday, except our boys play like they need a revenge
👍 👍 👍
I guess we prioritise the league over the fa cup. without saka and smith rowe we have bottom 3 form. this team definately ned another attacking midfielder/playmaker. Willian,nketiah and pepe are not up to the task of making this team better. we need better players. overall Southampton deserve the victory. they managed the game better than arsenal. our team is still moving the ball too slow for my liking. from defense straight to the forwards. arteta need to work on that.
How useless would Pepe, Willian feel if we bring Smith Rowe and Saka back into the team on Tuesday and we win?
We are forgetting Elneny, he is the kind of player you can’t say what he brings to the team, he should not be starting any COMPETITION except there is injury crisis.
Holding is so useless in the opposition box, he should have scored at least 4 goals this season and 2 against Palace alone. Again, he had a good chance to score and he didn’t even hit the target. smh
Probably the only trophy we can win this season and Arteta decides to rest players against a full strength Southampton team away! Lose on Tuesday night and that was all for nothing! And I hope this is the last time Nketiah plays for the team, he’s a league one player!
Arteta is out of his depth and Edu should be sacked ASAP. Giving Holding a new contract putting xhaka above the fans, it’s a never ending list.
Every decision the hierarchy take is a disaster.
Poor team selection cost us again, the defending champions go out with a whimper.We don’t have a manager last season cup win was a fluke.A fish rot from the head Arteta is the worst manager in Arsenal history can’t learn,can’t pick a team.
Spot-on mate…he can’t pick a team..all d talk of football knowledge blah blah blah…he can talk d talk but arteta still can’t see through his players and pick a decent team without saka ,Tierney ,ESR….
The winning team ,he used currently came from unforseen circumstances….he isn’t willing to study his squad at all..just a concept in his head that has failed over and over again..
Promote some u23s to cover for the first team….azeez,moller,balogun,patino, Cottrell shud b in our cup squads..
Laca partey holding as experienced spine…but no arteta reverted back to the useless team that took us down to 15th last yr..
How do we even defeat benfica with this crap team as we got loads of top games to play within that period…
God we need another intervention, so our stubborn coach can try other kids pls
You obviously didn’t see an Arsenal team managed by George Swindon, Billy Wright, Terry Neil or Don Howe.
Arteta is OK and will come good soon enough. He’s been dealt a crap hand with some of the players that have come in and ones still not cleared out.
I’d put my money on him to have CL qualification within two seasons although winning the PL is out of reach for some time yet unfortunately.
Not sure about Billy Wright or George Swindon, but I did have the dubious pleasure of watching the Neil and Howe teams. We did have some decent players though…Alan Ball, George Armstrong, Pat Jennings (whom we stole from those pretenders from up the road), Malcolm ‘SuperMac’ Macdonald, Alan Sunderland, Chippy Brady, and Graham Rix to name but a few. And who can forget Big Winnie Young or Sammy ‘full moon’ Nelson? Plus there was the wonderful second-leg in the semi-final of the Cup-Winner’s Cup against Juventus in 1980. The passage of time has sort of glossed over the mind-numbing mediocrity of the period, I suppose.
That said, if we have to use that period of our history to compare to our current team, then what is the point of getting rid of Wenger? I thought the whole point of the exercise was to improve the team to challenge for the title? If the best we could expect for the next few seasons is a CL place, then I’d rather watch wengerball.
N’ketiah, Wilian and Pepè, a truly gruesome threesome!
😂👍👍👍
Those three should be sold along with willock and nelson. They have no future in the club. Promote balogun and miguel azeez. Get another lb as Tierney’s backup.
Arteta was un fault naming 3 gk un the squad (wtf) and playing nketiah…it’s so obvious the kid Is not at the level…se have laca AND auba, de should have start with one of them…ah least play balogun who has proved yo be very prolific…nketiah Is so pedestrian at shooting.
Willian Is not the answer.
How many corners have we had in the last ten matches AND how many had finish with at shot at goal…I’m not talking about goals, just a header ir a shot….how arteta Is not able to see that and fix it?? How many corners finished in an awfull corner kick at the first post? From saka, Willian or Pepe…Is very frustraiting
As soon as I saw the team selection I knew we would lose and that is on Arteta.The only positive I can take is that when Sak a and Partey came on we looked a better side and I think we will win the next game.Even if we didn’t deserve to get a result it could of been 1-1 as yet again we were not given a blatant penalty. .
Just as i predicted Southampton would win this game and will beat us in the league as well! How are we letting balogun go for nothing and keep persisting with neketiah who is absolutely useless balogun is better in every department and as Arsenal always do is keep hold of the crap! It just baffles me that everyone bar the manager can see this think that tells us we have a clueless manager!! Arteta Out!!
The telling point with Nheketia is that Bielsa didn’t rate him good enough to play for Leeds United in the Championship, yet Arteta favours him in the EPL. One has to be wrong in their assessment.
Good game by Southampton, well deserved victory, they wanted it more than us and fought all the way, fingers crossed how we respond on tue, am not raising my hope, best result for us is draw.
Shame on the guys for the shambolic performance, lots of wrong, misplace passes, control, we were sloppy
adajim, the really disappointing thing is the lack of fight, commitment and pride in playing for the Arsenal.
Fair play to the Saints, they played well.
So painful to watch.. I honestly can’t believe that’s what we came up with! You wouldn’t think we were the defending champions!!
And can someone remind me how much longer are Pepe and Willian’s contracts are running for?! 🙈🙉
3 more years for Pepe and two more for Willian
😳 oh my good god….
We can sell Pepe if he cares enough about his career to find a team to move to and take a wage cut. I think it’s possible. Willian, we got conned into. Such a shame. We are stuck with him. He’s no use to us just a few months in. Truly got scammed.
Yeh I’m sure there be plenty of non league teams interested in Pepe and we can send William and Neketiah to keep him company!!
I was impressed by Ings’ and Adams’ high pressing efforts. Hasenhuttl has trained his players well
He has, gai, very well. He’s got a decent squad… and when did Theo start defending?! 😂😂
Maybe since he let his hair grow 😂
🤣🤣👍
I’m surprised Pepe, Willian and Nketiah played for 90+ minutes but Balogun isn’t good enough to be considered for the substitutes’ bench.
I did say we should play our best team every game or at least rest one but what a load of shit that was and I dont really care too much about the game in mid week as the season is now over as if you think we can win the Europa league you are deluded and I mean no offense to anyone but our once great club is now a laughing stock especially after that shit show. I could go on but I’m so disappointed with the performance of the team as arteta’s decisions are killing our club ffs man resign now get out while you still have some respect left
Spot on. The fa cup is our best chance of winning a silverware this season.
how is FA cup our best chance? are Leicester, chelsea, liverpool, utd , city, spur and everton out?
how confident are you we can get good result against those opponents
👍 Very wishful thinking unless Arteta selected his best team. A mute argument now!
More.likely winning a one off game then putting a sequence of wins together to be in top 4?
We’ve been a laughing stock for an awfully long time, Perry… and have squandered our only chance of silverware… a very bitter pill to swallow..
You just cannot stick to a system and squad you know does not work together. Especially against EPL teams. What I saw today was not unexpected. As soon as I saw the starting eleven I knew how the game would go. So then, surely so did MA?
A leopard does not change its spots and a team with Xhaka, Elneny, Pepe and Willian will give you exactly the same type of game over and over again. Nothing will change. The only big change happened when Partey came on.
I now know fully and realise that MA is not the man to take this club forward. He had other options but chose the safe option. Hoping to settle for a boring game with a single goal opportunity coming our way was his intention. He risked it again and got caught again. A good manager does not take those risks. Especially when money is already hemorrhaging out of the club and we need more. Every stage in the FA Cup is more cash. This was Southampton, not City. We are simply below average against average teams! MA, it’s time to go!
i am 100% sure AW would have gone for a B team also, since we have another game coming up on Tue.
you dont blame coach for players inefficiency, especially when the system is working with different player. we hired this guys to get the job done
GR,
And let me guess if MA fielded his
strongest side today, won
convincingly then trotted out the
same physically taxed squad on
Tuesday and suffered defeat you’d
still be in the front line of the
Pitchfork Brigade ready to storm
the Emirates.
MA has repeatedly mentioned that
AFC need to be more than a CUP
side and quite frankly I agree with
him. The concentration should
moving up the the EPL table and
a successful EL run. The Mickey
Mouse and FA Cup seem to be
more important to Arsenal fans than
anything else atm.
I dont think it was the players that were out there but the players shoehorned into positions they aren’t best at and players playing ahead of player that would put more effort in. Arteta is again relying on experience over youth but evertime nothing changes. This result was down to Artetas stubbornness and lack of team ethic.
I guess it was a matter of priorities. We cant afford another season outside top 6, and the usual culprits are inconsistent. I think MA wants to push up the table and the form players therefore only play in the league. I hope we play well in the Europa league, and Balogun stays. Eddie Nketiah wasted three clear chances and one half chance today, so he certainly was not offered limited chances. Pepe and Willian actually played well, but it was not enough. Also the loans for Odegaard and another LB should be completed as quickly as possible.
You really think we will make top six? I think that’s us not in Europe next season for certain.
utd started the season poorly and a good run brought them top, we have a good run since boxing day, we have to keep it up, we can achieve top 6
United have better players
Apart from Chelsea , we best 3 of the worst sides in the division and failed to best Palace and saints
It’s arrogant to think we can make top 4
If your saying he’s resting players for 6 th , that would have been same as winning cup
We might make it, you never know😀
I personally could care less about
the FA Cup and share the same
sentiments as MA that AFC need
to aspire to being more than just
a Cup team. This game is another
reminder to the Spanisher gaffer
that there is still work to be done
in the final week of the window
and certain players that have been
given countless opportunities to
impress may need to be moved
on. IMHO the likes of AMN,
Nkietah, Nelson, Pepe, Mustafi
shouldn’t be anywhere near the
the first team when the window
closes at the end of the month. If
that requires Edu to do his job and
bring in a few more quality faces
or promote from the Academy
ranks than so be it.
If there’s one thing that All of us
Goobers can agree on atm is that
collectively were sick and tired of
watching Pepe and Willian
repeatedly underwelhm on the
pitch.
Absolutely disgrace to say that to say the fa cup means nothing as at the moment we are a cup side and I for one would rather win the cup than finish in the top six. We are years off challenging for the title so at least be honest with yourself and realise the job is too big for arteta
I wonder what Arteta and his master tactician said to each other after Pepe’s pitiful free kick effort. I hope it was, “That’s it, this guy has to go.” I can’t see how Pepe can turn it around .He just hasn’t shown anything to justify that he is a Premier League player, let alone his price tag. As for Southampton, they were better than us but that’s not really saying much. Arsenal made them look a lot better than they really are, which is a mid table team.
Its a disgrace that Southampton should be so much better than us when even this team of ours cost 10 times what Southampton paid. Arteta isn’t getting a tune out of certain players but persists with them and poor tactics week after week.
We play them again in 3 days time. No chance of evening out the score. They’ll field the same XI and say “Come at us.”
And they’ll have done their homework on the players we didn’t field against them.
Like the old adage: Don’t change a winning team unless you have to.
👍 As true today as yesterday!
Season over,we won’t even qualify for europe next season, this rebuilding must be really sweet, Arteta needs 3 more seasons to clear the Wenger mess,trust the process,oh and we need a owner who can spend billions every season that way problem solved 😉
Wenger’s mess! Who bought Pepé, Willian and Gabriel ( the shit one) not the good one.
LordDenning, just for the record – in his twenty two years as manager, playing with dross, mentally frail, lazy and all the other names contributed to his players, Arsene Wenger got knocked out of the FA cup just once… and that was in his final season.
MA has equalled that in his first full season – funny old game.
Knocked out once in the third round!!!
@ken1945 and knocked out of the FA cup by soton for the first time in history,I heard the manager say we have beaten big teams unlike in the last five years due to the administration that was there,tell me if this is not arrogance but where we finish on the table doesn’t matter after all we won the FA so the manager knows it all.
Ken, glad you clarified that.
Whoever paid 72m for pepe knowing most of his goals in france were penalties committed high treason,pepe should be sent on loan abroad and sell if we can.I would take even 20m for him at this rate.
This summer there should be a lot of possible clear outs.
Ceballos, Willian, Niles, Pepe, Mustafi, Chambers, Luiz, Nelson, Elneny, Willock, Nketiah, Xhaka.
Until these 12 players leave our club, we will not be a top team.
Imagine having 12 poor players!!
we need luiz, Gabriel recent performance and Mari inability to stay off physio room has proven that.
Mustafi and Ceballos will be long gone,
maybe you should add laccazet and auba become those 2 havent performed better than either luiz, elneny or xhaka all season
Where would Arsenal be without Lacazette’s goals? He should be sold for one reason; to maximise his transfer fee, while he still has resale value.
Lumping him with the other underperformers is totally unfair.
so spot on with those that need to go
We lost because of Ozil
And Wenger Leader 😂😂
So MA, what were the tactics today? Was it spend the first hour+ getting behind the ball without competing to win it back?
And then when we do have it keep patting it about at the back like a hot potato. Sorry but it’s that sort of play that makes Holding, Gabriel & Cedric look amateurish. And sell Bellerin.
Why do we play with no effective target man that can control and hold a ball played up to him – until we do we can sign as many flair and gifted midfielders as you like and we’ll be absolutely no better. if we haven’t got such a forward then you have one week to sort it.
Today is was the wrong tactics with the wrong players who couldn’t deliver. Don’t we ever have a Plan-B. We can’t keep saying we should sell about a dozen players, which we should ideally; we need to make the best of what we’ve got and MA ain’t seeing that currently.
To me the match showed just what an important player Tierney is for us.Along with ESR he brings drive and energy to the team, which, sadly was lacking today.
we miss both players and its for a greater cause, hopefully we get a win when they all return
Yes indeed. However, how long do you think it is before every opposition realises that our main attacking weapon is our left back and all we try and and do is overload the left side. Only for KT to get a cross in and we have no-one in the box competing for it. We need a darn sight more than that.
When Partey came on today he knocked a few balls forward and we couldn’t deal with them. After that even he was knocking balls square and back as forwards do not show for it..
Why do you guys think Holding is qualified to be in the first team? Holding and Elneny are way the most talentless players I have known in recent years. They just do the usual and add no values to our side. Unfortunately, their market value is quite low, unless we’re lucky to have the Chinese come got them.
Leno
Bellerin?
Tierney
Saliba
Gabriel
Saka
Lacazette?
Torreira?
Runarsson?
Aubameyang
Holding
Cedric?
Partey
Mari
Mavropanos?
Guendouzi?
Smith-Rowe
Martinelli
Balogun
These players should be kept next season. The players with question marks, the jury is still out on them to stay or not.
Ask ace he seems to have all the answers
You spoke my mind…
Basic football tactics shud be a good holdup prolific CF , a good creative and holding mf, a good sweeper df, GK..
What did arteta do??
Nketiah poor
Xhaka only plays well in a good system
Holding..needs a solid partner
GK..no probs here
We all know the next most prolific cf we have is balogun then moller (auba is now a lwf with martinelli)
saka and Nelson holding down the rwf(Nelson just needs game time that’s all)
For now ESR covers shud b azeez or cottrell or patino( give these kids a chance too, we never know who would b discovered like saka and ESR)
Xhaka and El neny ain’t bad in their roles buh they don’t create as we all know.
The only issue in our defense is a cover for Tierney, ( I don’t believe that we have no credible cover in our u23)…
Arteta and co need to sort our A and B teams out before the real games that coming in…our fixtures ain’t friendly at all
Unless Balogun has already told Arteta he is leaving this would have been the perfect game in which to give him 90 minutes and try to convince him he is going to get some game time.At least we know now that Nketiah just isn’t up to a starting place right now. Arteta is an intelligent man he must realise now that Pepe and Willian should be nowhere near the first team but how we actually get them out of the club I don’t know.
@Declan
Its mad football sometimes.
Yes we got Willian for free but his wage is high and in any other role in life youd be regularly assessed and appraised on progress and fit for job.
In his case youd say at his 6 month appraisal “sorry buddy you’re nowhere near the targets and skillset we set you, so…… rip…..! The contacts terminated”
It shouldn’t be a gamble to buy a player and injury and extenuating circumstances should be the only reason a player who’s proven their worth before can get away with such a pi*s poor performance time and time again.
Arteta needs to give pepe and Willian and nketiah some homework and get them working in their own time, the 5 P’s……preparation, (or practice), prevents pi*s poor performance.
Arteta defending them in post match saying how they all tried so hard!
Eh? I dint advocate the brutal Mourinho style of naming and shaming but a little bit of “we weren’t good enough today, they worked harder than us; wanted it more and both of those are very disappointing and worrying traits”
I agree with everything you said there Kieron.
👍 👍 Too many players at Arsenal continue to be treated with kid gloves, when a dose of reality is required. O
Apparently Pepe and Willian are the highest scorers in training each with 77 goals…🤣
I honestly don’t think 500P’s would make either better… But who I’m I to speak coz Arteta knows best🚶
Er…if there is a six-month break clause in free transfer contracts (for transfers involving fees, let’s not even go there!), what happens if the player does really well, and another tempts the player with a bigger offer in six months time?
Clubs sign contracts for a number of reasons, and it’s usually not just to make the player richer. The benefits to clubs are stability, future sell-on values etc.
@Marty.
I hope it isnt true as a poor tactic but I read an article saying that Balogun has been told he is wanted for the 1st team but wont play until he signs the contract.
Arsenal dont want to give him the exposure he likely will get by playing really well for us…..too late IMO he scored a hat trick the other night!
I knew we would lose whan I saw the teams selected. Saints had about their strongest team and we had a weak team containing two players who deserve NEVER to wear our shirt ever again. They think playing for us is a holiday! LAZY PEPE and even more idle Willian.
What a pair of stumers these two passengers are and what disastrous buys(yes I know Willian was a free , but for 3 years on that scandalous salary!!!).
It is clear that MA puts the Prem above cup success and we got our arses kicked by a hungrier more fluent side, at least until we made the subs. But by then the damage was done! Poor show all round!
Benitez is available just saying
What position does he play?
Our recruitment is just too wrong!!!!
Well Gabriel and Saliba to me have always been poor, stop-gap, panick buys to appease these so called “pundits” who wanted everyone to believe we had a poor defence.
They linger too much on the ball, slow thinking, lack technical ability and their passing is atrocious.
I’ve never understood all this hype around these guys!!!!
That’s why you’re not a manager. How can you judge Saliba when he virtually hasn’t kicked a ball for Arsenal and was the highest rated young up and coming CB in Europe at St Ettienne? As for Gabriel, prior to his injury he was Arsenal’s form player.
ozziegunner
And Saliba’s lesser parter Wesley Fofana plays for Leicester first choice. Rogers had the trust to give him a chance. There is definitely something in Arteta’s character the bothers me. He is unforgiving and will stick with choices that will bring us down rather than change them. It’s unethical to be so unforgiving. Rogers gives his players ‘belief’ in his project.
These are the types of games that accentuate Arteta’s naivety when it comes to tactics and selection…if you’re going to field a squad rife with underperforming players, at least mix-up the formation…this was the same sort of boring drivel that we had to endure during our terrible run of form…Willian has clearly shown he can’t play 90;if he’s not a sub moving forward Arteta is going to have a difficult time in the room and on the podium; Eddie seems to have two left feet or two right feet, actually I’m not quite sure what his dominant foot is so we’ll just say he has bad feet…he’s like a poor man’s Welbeck, in that he’s a bit of a Bambi on skates and has no real finishing quality whatsoever, but he will run around like a headless chicken if given the opportunity…Pepe simply can’t play in that wider position, especially with Bellerin, as they provide no width, thereby making it too easy to defend…still think you need to give him a try more centrally, otherwise I think he’s just might join Willian in the unenviable category of worst signings ever(value for money that is)…Marts got a chance to see what it’s like playing in this boring offence when there’s no proper link-up play or sense of urgency…lack of service, minus one half chance=lack of touches=lack of scoring opportunities…out with a whimper
We lost because of Ozil😂😂😂
And Wenger once again Leader 😂😂😂😂
Another game where we had zero creativity
It’s okay though , least we saved 3 million for our owner
Wow… now lets blame all the losses to 2 peoples .. forever ….
‘MO’ and ‘AW’
WHAT A SHAME!!! ….
to me ..i blame Kroenke …he put his priority on his own income rather then his love for the club (not sure if there is any???) .
AW and MO will always be legend in AFC
Arteta is probably a good coach. But his selection proves him wrong here and there. First, funny that he said the club have to avoid Ozil situations again when he just gave a 220k/week to willian which is already dead wood. How will arsenal will do with him… ??? That’s 11.4M/year, more than half of what we made selling martinez ! For what ? Not only he is not contributing, and does not probably offer more than a balogun or nelson, but he is also totally reducing the minutes given to theses youngsters that need some… That’s a shame. Total waste of money. Not even mentioning the episode of his dubai visit. If arteta is smart here and in accordance to his principles, he admits his mistake after 5 months and try to offload him this month. Pepe is quite different as he stood might have some room to improve. Today, he might even have played AMN instead, in a central role. Why not ? Younger, english… ? Not even mentioning that he could have replaced elneny too. Just to have a look. I give no credit to arteta for his use of youngsters. Saka was already a no brainier and he had no choice but try ESR at one point with so many defeats in a row. Would be sad to loose AMN and balogun for minutes given (in defeats) to willian/elneny
We were a buch of wimps. Folarin Balogun would have been 100 % more dangerous than Eddie Nketiah. I’m afraid Artete is not a good manager. Is there one person anywhere, besides him who would have chosen this team. Not one. Most bizarre team choice ever…and nobody can deny it.
Once again willian with a show to forget. Apart from the first match of the season, the brazilian has seriously failed to show any glimpse of his former self, adding to the long creative woes at Arsenal. The diminutive brazilian seems to be struggling a lot from decision making and his game-play has fallen well below par the usual standards of the usual premier league demand. Every time he starts, it looks like a gloomy day again. Honestly, the youth product needs more game time than him.