TalkSport commentator, Tom Rennie, has pointed accusing fingers at Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Magalhaes for costing Arsenal against Manchester City.
The Gunners have just been beaten 2-1 by the Premier League champions, but it is a game that could easily have gone the other way.
Bukayo Saka’s sweet strike gave the Gunners the lead, and they went into the halftime break with it intact.
However, a few minutes of madness in the second half ensured Arsenal would struggle to earn a point from the fixture.
Xhaka (who else?) fouled Bernardo Silva in the penalty box and conceded a penalty which Riyad Mahrez converted.
Gabriel was then sent off for a second bookable offence two minutes later.
Rodri was in the right place at the right time to score City’s winner in the 93rd minute.
Rennie says Arsenal were great on the whole, but these players let them down.
He tweeted: “Xhaka & Gabriel cost Arsenal today. A real shame as they were great on the whole. Partey was the star man for me, bossed the midfield.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Arsenal had been in this game for most of it before giving away City’s first goal.
If Gabriel had finished the match, we probably would have won it, but this Arsenal team is a gift that keeps on giving.
Their performance in this game clarifies that we are lacking leaders on the field.
Hopefully, one player will emerge to lead by example in the remaining games of this season.
When I see Talks of AMN about to be Shuffled to AS Roma and Xhaka will still be here till the season’s end and probably Next, I really get SAD!😏🥺
@Vinnie2000
RealTalk…👍🏿
100% both are too blame.
I don’t care if the penalty was soft, Xhaka was flatfooted and completely got turned like an amateur the throws a leg out without even knowing where the ball is.
Gabriel was very stupid but overall he’s a decent player that’s still young for a CB and usually contributes a lot to the team.
Gotta agree ,the problem is that Xhakas challenge then upsets the balance of play and Gabriel’s red is a direct result of that ,we saw it the other week when xkaka should have got a red for that stamp ,it’s needless things like that that can be the difference in getting all 3points or going home with none ,as today once again showed .
Spot on DK…to be frank, we should be quite elated by what we witnessed, at least in the first half, as not only did we pass the all important “eye test”, we likewise received confirmation about those particular aspects that must be addressed if we want to compete for things moving forward…the most obvious of which is the Xhaka dilemma, as he’s the most glaring weak link that should and will be targeted by manager’s of consequence…I likewise agree with the whole “setting the tone” narrative, as I believe that he’s a bad influence on some of the younger players
furthermore, I didn’t like the fact that we once again looked to sit a bit deeper coming out of the break, as that’s been a very problematic commonality during MA’s tenure thus far…not to mention, although I understand the philosophy, I wasn’t impressed with the overtly defensive subs late-on, as our only saving grace, up to that point, was the fact that City were hesitant to fully committed up top as they were clearly nervous about our ability to counter affectively
as for all the largely nonsensical chatter about the officials or the “fix” being in, that simply can’t continue to be an ongoing narrative for this team, as playing the “victim” rarely leads to long-term organizational success…Xhaka’s foul was obvious amateur hour nonsense, which wasn’t shocking whatsoever, and the potential foul on Ode was a close one, but the call was correct and would have been a moot point if it weren’t for Ode’s first-time heavy touch…I would suspect if that was on the left side of the box he would have scored for fun
of course, I think we deserved a point for our efforts, but I’m far more concerned about the positives that were on display…I’m starting to envision the possibilities if we could find upgrades for both Xhaka and Laca, from a finishing perspective, maybe allow ESR to start ahead of Ode, in a more centralized role, and our manager’s balls didn’t shrivel-up so much during the halftime break
I meant to say DK & PJ…Cheers
Correct TRVL.
Overall, there is big improvement from this team, apart from Xhaka’s usual stupidity we may have won the game. His stupidity prostate his team mate which leads to another Gabriel action by which Man city capitalized to win the game. Overall Man city are better and more experienced than our team but on this day we show them how better we had became. It is time for M.A to coach his players to control their manners in every game, but especially in big game. We lose to Liverpool in such manner.
Overall Xhaka need to be replaced in the summer, he cost us important matches most of the time leave both his team mates and fans frustrated. On subtitutin ESR to replaced Ordigaard, I think it was Laca that needs to be replaced with ESR instead ordigaardin first place, bcos Rowe can score and at same it having too much midfielders will allow us control possession so as to gain more time. Overall the VAR contributed also to our defeat.
All that good work gone in seconds, Xhaka inability to think is shocking, and what ever good he brings, it is far outweighed by he’s Constant mistakes. It might be a good thing that Arteta watched from home to see Xhaka won’t/can’t change he’s character traits… We know the manager can freeze out a player in a blink of an eye, and I see know reason why he won’t now🤔🤞 Surely there are other players out there who can do what he does? But twice as good and better disciplined …….
In the span of 13 minutes, the ref gave Arsenal five yellows and a red. That’s a combination of Arsenal losing their heads and abject reffing.
Hopefully we learn from it. It’s guaranteed that the refs won’t.
Can someone clarify whether VAR can be used to give a yellow card?
I thought the ref was good! We were not.
In the incidents that lost us the game.
He dished out 5 yellows to keep City in the Game – horrific ref
We win as a team and lose as a team, but our tremendous progress is indisputable 🔴⚪️
100%
absolutely right those two cost us the match. hopefully Gabriel will learn from this, as for Xhaka everyone knows he will do it again maybe except Arteta
Correct. Well almost everybody.
Talk sports and Ref are two sides of the same coin. They both wait for some excuse to punish /show Arsenal down. If Refs continue this, Arsenal fans should support break away league. PL ref system has been fixed since hay days of Man United ( Furgy time ?)
Martins penultimate sentence about us lacking leaders on the field was proven clearly wrong today. And how!
It was no damn foul the fellow dived. The tussle was very soft and not even goal threathening. The red card was also fake. Arsenal was denied a penalty in the first half. Arsenal was robbed.
Todays defeat lays squarely at Xhaka (no surprise) and Gabriel and both were mindless idiots.
Adam Martin and the XHAKA haters, simply idiots – it was a BS DIVE, and the Foul on Odegaard with Xhaka would have been a red card. Get real, you are simply a disgrace to Football. Stop wasting your incompetence and your hords of followers.
(Lol)
Thank you TRVL
TK I agree 100%.. Guess where Xhaka haters are showing their football intelligence on JA.. and thinks the idiot that picked Xhaka ahead of other midfielders has no football sense.. very shameful.. I don’t regard them as fans.. they are full on idiots.. Arsenal trolls.. nothing less.. Xhaka and Gabriel are stupid because of todays game? Get out of my face.. they have both been immense this season.. I know we definitely in the fight for top four.. as an arsenal fan said “We win together as a team and lose together as a team nothing more nothing less.
just one piece of advice oh wise J.Oke, instead of proving everyone right about you, say less and at least leave them guessing…during the process of writing this brief retort to your rambling word salad, I’ve actually forgotten more about this sport than you will ever even hope to know.
Yes, we lose our head and lose the game.