It should be taken into consideration that Freddie has only had a couple of days to work with the Arsenal players and put a plan together in his new role. The decisions from him and the BFG show that they clearly didn’t agree with every decision Unai Emery was making.
While there was an improvement in our character and spirit, coming back from twice being behind, you have to call a spade a spade and say this wasn’t good enough. The opposition are second from bottom, yet it took Leno’s best performance of the season for us to get a draw.
It felt like in the first half Norwich scored with their only two shots as a result of us backing off. When Auba equalised the second time, instead of pushing on for the winner we seemed to tire.
It’s natural that our flaws are not going to disappear so soon, but the fact is; if the old manager had made some of his choices today gooners would have left Carrow Road angry.
I’m not going to be too critical of those frozen out previously being given a chance. It makes sense to try and take advantage of players who might have a point to prove.
Mustafi can no longer argue about not getting an opportunity. Today was a huge day in his career, with Sokratis finally dropped for his poor form. No coach is going to change the fact that defensively these players are not good enough for this level.
Ljungberg was always going to trust Willock due to their time together in the underage groups. I was more concerned by the substitutes which almost suggested we were happy with a draw. First Torreira came on when it could easily have been an offensive option.
Saka was seen as a better alternative to 72 million Pepe even though there is a lack of evidence he has any end product. Why our record signing didn’t get in the starting XI at all makes you question if something is going on with him behind the scenes? Martinelli was the final sub but only for a few minutes.
So it was not quite the attacking style Freddie had promised and If Unai had made those substitutions gooners wouldn’t be happy.
The difference has to be that Freddie learns from what went wrong, something Emery never did…
´Dan Smith