Unhappy Arteta admits Arsenal “were nowhere near our level” against PSV

We all know that Arsenal only narrowly beat PSV at the Emirates last week, but there were very few pundits that didn’t think we would be able to get the single point we needed in Holland to secure our status as group winners, especially as PSV were beaten by the Dutch minnows Groningen at the weekend.

But the Gunners seemed to be totally over-run by PSV and in the first half the Dutch had two excellent goals in the back of Ramsdale’s net in the first half, but to ther relief of Arsenal fans they were both ruled out by VAR decisions in our favour.

PSV wre not deterred though and continued to embarras the Gunners in the second half, scoring two goals and getting yet another ruled out for offside. We looked a shadow of the side that carried all before them in the early part of the season, and Mikel Arteta could only congratulate Ruud van Nistelroy’s side after the game, and wonder what has gone wrong with our superstars. He told Arsenal.com: “Yeah, it’s the end of a long run. Today’s the first defeat after a long period. It’s time to reset, to analyse what happened. Congratulations to PSV – they were the better team and they deserved to win the game. There’s no question about that. We were nowhere near our level today, especially the way we competed.”

It is obvious that our levels have dropped recently and fatigue seemed to affect our performances. After a few 1-0 wins, we finally dropped points at Southampton at the weekend, and Arteta was asked if he saw this defeat coming: “I don’t know.” he continued. “We have periods where we’ve been excellent and periods where we’ve suffered. For sure, we haven’t had the consistency for 95 minutes to maintain the level we want. That’s the next challenge and the next aim for this team. Today I think it was very different, right from the beginning. Even though we had periods where we controlled the game, I didn’t feel that we had the threat and the aggression that we’ve been playing at.

“That was worrying. In the second half, the moment something went wrong, we just went down and we didn’t really find moments to give us some hope to react and get something out of the game.”

It was certainly a very disappointing night for our traveling fans, and the team themselves must be wondering what has gone wrong.

All we can do is regroup and try and get back to winning ways against Nottm Forest at the weekend…

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17 Comments

  1. No cohesion, no energy, and some of the players looked absolutely shattered, our last five games have been very under par and it was fortunate it was only two goals we lost by, as it could have been five or six. We need a plan B, last night we went back to playing sideways and backward. We have the Forest game on Sunday which could be a potential banana skin for us. We have three league games and one EL game left, if we return to winning ways I can see why we can’t win all four games and remain top of the PL going into the WC. We need to buy some players in January, as our so-called second team isn’t good enough. Nkeitah isn’t good enough for backup for Jesus, who himself needs to start scoring. Last night’s game was a shambles from Ramsdale’s miss at a punch clear of the ball to the rest of the team playing like headless chickens. We need a winger, striker and midfielder, so it’s over to Edu and Arteta. Too many fans panicking over last night’s game, it happens. Top of the league and one win away from topping our EL table, not bad at all

    1. It’s not the loss, it is the manner of the loss. If they fought and showed intensity, energy, passion, and directness then many would not be so upset.

      But again we were outplayed in the 2nd half, just like the Southampton match. This makes 5 matches in a row where they have been “less than” and finally it came home to roost.

      Perhaps this wakeup call came at a good time; not too costly in the EL and we are 2 points above Man City in the PL.

  2. Any fan who deals in realism knew this was coming. Our last 4 games have shown it. Huge periods of ineffective banal football lacking energy and attacking intent.
    It highlights the lightweight nature alsomof the squad. Nketiah hyoe has been borderline childish. For years he has proven to have flashes but general substandard qualities. Here that message burned bright. Sambi isnt progressing. Saliba is young. Vieira physically bereft. The strongest 11 are burning out and not rotated because the back ups are not good enough. Added to all that Gapko and Simons showed arsenal fans what they think Saka and Marti are, but aren’t

  3. We all know that without another top quality striker, top quality midfielder, and probably 1 or 2 more signings, this squad is too thin to challenge for a title + Europa. Due to squad thinness Arteta gambled against PSV with a sub-strength team and it quickly went wrong. A full-strength team from the beginning would have done better, but the squad is too thin to risk that, so back to the fact that the squad is too thin. Nobody expected Arsenal to be where they are in the League right now, and it’s unsustainable without either a massive amount of luck or some clever business’s in January, or a bit of both.

  4. It’s really worrying how our intensity has dropped off so much since the Liverpool game.
    We have struggled for better performances since.
    We can’t be already tired this early in the season surely. If it’s true that we are already fatigued in October then we are in serious trouble.
    Can’t be talking about being tired after just 100m in a marathon..

  5. The players are over played, it’s as simple as that.

    The intensity is two much for a dozen players to do twice weekly.

    School children in England knows that.

    1. @Gunsmoke
      Been saying this for a while, Arteta should have been giving the bench players more match mins, instead of 10/15 mins here and the on top of a cup match every other week. Not only are they not fit enough to jump in when needed, they lack cohesion with the rest of the team…And more spending won’t solve this dilemma. IJS

      1. Maybe you have a point NY Gunner. When one isn’t playing regularly one gets rusty. The other puzzle is why did Ramsdale replace Turner in goal? Turner kept 3 clean sheets so I didn’t see any plausible reason for substituting him.
        The other weakness I noticed was playing Odegaard in place of Vieira. Lately Odegaard has been in a blip and he needs a good rest. The whole team looked jaded and deserved to lose.

  6. All this talk of fatigue if in fact that is the reason for our performances of late,is worrying so early in the season and with a nearly fully fit squad.i have to admit,at the start of the season on paper our squad looked much better to me anyway.

    1. Si, we are in October, if it is fatigue, which i dont buy, then it is down to the manager. A few weeks ago, everyone was saying how strong our squad looked, we were winning games and the garden was all rosey. Now we are blaming the squad, fatigue and cheating refs. I think its laughable. You get out what you put in. We have Artetas chosen squad, he let players go, he kept players and he spent more than any manager we have ever had. We can use every excuse under the sun but the fact is, we are getting found out. Its the managers job to put it right with what he has at his disposal, he chose it. Please lets not make spurious excuses. Our squad is not as bad as it has been playing, these last two games, there is something radically wrong in the make up. We are not fatigued, they are tested regularly and scientifically. If a player is fatigued and in the red zone, they are rested. Arteta himself isnt blaming fatigue and all kudos for that.

      1. @Reggie, could it be the fact that some of our key players want to play at World Cup and therefore dropped the level at which they are playing in order not to get injured? I mean the likes of Partey, Saka, Jesus and co.
        It could be anything though.
        However, deep down I think it’s all down to lack of full fitness and therefore burnout from almost no squad rotation.
        Notice in almost all our games this season we’ve lacked sustained intensity throughout a match?
        We rarely press hard enough and sustainably.

      2. Once again,I have to agree with you Reggie.it is now his squad/players.he was also properly financially backed up.he got his targets early in the window and had a full pre-season too. I’m happy to see that you agree with the fact that on paper our squad is better than our late performances.

  7. Every team goes through dips during the season.
    The squad is clearly stronger than last season. However, it still has weaknesses. The limitations of some of the squad players means others get played more often.
    Certainly, it is possible that an element of fatigue will set in for some players after playing so frequently.
    We do not have the squad depth of the likes of Man City or Liverpool so some dips in performances are almost inevitable.

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