The radical changes Arsenal need to make to get a result at Man City

Admin Pat

1 year ago

It’s time for some radical changes. by Konstantin Mitov

Well lovely Arsenal people, here we are again. A prize is right there in our hands and we’re giving it away. Now we need a win at City. We don’t perform well under pressure, and there’s hardly a more difficult place to need a win, but we can’t just lie down and die.

Arteta has the biggest job in his managerial career lifting the players up. The outlook of the team was poor after Southampton, lying on the ground, heads in their hands. We look mentally beaten. The reason we took 3 points from 9 was because we lost our heads, not because the opposition was great. Wednesday you’ll see a battle against a great team and if we continue to leak easy goals we are dead.

The defense, just like our mentality, needs to fix up fast. Holding is playing that game wether we like it or not, but at left back we need to go for Tierney. This floating left back turned midfielder has left our left hand side isolated. We either move Zinny in midfield instead of Vieira who was dreadful again, or we just drop him and put Jorginho next to Partey. Our defense needs more stability.

We also need experience. And J5 is a player who’s won CL and Euro finals. There’s also the option to drop Partey for J5 if Xhaka is fit, but I’d go for a double DM pivot. When Party plays well it’s amazing, but when he’s off, he might as well be off the pitch. At City we need a perfect performance.

Up front despite the fact that we’ve scored 7 goals in our last 3 games which should’ve been enough to win all 3, not all is great. Only Martinelli deserves his spot right now. You keep Odegaard, because there are no alternatives really, then there’s Saka and Jesus.

Both haven’t been great. And actually since we’ve dropped Trossard from the starting 11 we’ve not won a game. Now it’s whether we drop Jesus or Saka. Gabriel Jesus might be 3/3 but he’s also missed some silly chances. Also he’s too emotional, just like Thierry said it and we’ll need calm heads. Then again Saka has been awful. I know he’s carried this team for 3 seasons, but if you want to win the title you need to be ruthless.

And Arteta has failed us big time with this. We needed a sub at half time against the Saints. There’s a trust issue between Arteta and some players, and that’s why when one cog out of of our starting 11 is out, the entire machine breaks.

This is where Pep has been absolutely brilliant. Remember how De Bruyne was dropped around Christmas for City? People thought Pep was mad, but guess what, KDB raised his level and is now fresh for the critical part of the season in his best form. We failed to do that because we don’t trust the bench. Our subs are always late.

Although Fabio Vieira was terrible and I wouldn’t use him again this season if we have any hopes of winning the league after Wednesday, I agree with Arteta that he hasn’t had any minutes. We shouldn’t be integrating him at the business end of the season. That’s why there are no alternatives for Saka, even though he’s been poor.

Finally, there were people who celebrated exiting the cups to focus on the main goal, well now we need to prove it wasn’t all for nothing. When Arteta said he loves the players I felt disappointed. I love them too, but we are showing softness when the going gets tough the tough need to get going.

If I had to pick the team against City, although I’m very tempted to drop him, Ramsdale starts, Ben white, Gabriel, Holding and KT go in defense. A double pivot of TP and J5 with Odegaard in front then Martinelli, Saka and Trossard start.

I don’t want to hear excuses. If we can snatch a draw, I’d take it and hope they drop points somewhere – although I doubt it. If we lose this title it won’t be in the Man City game though. I hope I am wrong, I really am, but we need to be real, we’ve left ourselves a mountain to climb. Fake positivity is not what will get a result at City.

I think they nwill thump us 4:1, because this is a game of character, and when it comes to pressure moments we’ve crumbled, wether you like to hear it or not it’s the facts. It’s been 8 years since we’ve beaten City, it will take a miracle now, but let’s see.

Arteta proud of our comeback after Arsenal 3-3 Southampton

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