Morning all.
Well that didn’t go as as planned, or as we hoped did it. The 2-0 defeat means the battle for top spot will go down to the final game in a weeks time. Arsenal face Zurich at The Emirates whilst PSV Eindhoven travel to Norway to play Bodo/Glimt. Both fixtures kick off at 8pm.
I think the best way, or the only way to describe Arsenal’s performance last night is disappointing. Any get up and go the players might have had before kickoff, got up and went. VAR came to our rescue on more than one occasion but eventually, PSV scored and then killed us off with a second. Up front, we lacked any kind of potency and I think I’m right in saying that the closest we came to beating their keeper came from Eddie Nketiah.
The result last night now means we need to win next Thursday as a draw will not necessarily secure top spot, not if PSV beat Bodo because their goal difference in the head to head is superior, as is their goal tally in general. We huffed and puffed a bit in Zurich and if the last few Arsenal performances are to go by, the home fixture won’t necessarily be any easier.
Ordinarily, I’d be tempted to suggest that our performance last night was down to second string team and rotation etc but the dip in form has been evident in the Premier League too, certainly against Southampton in the last match, against Leeds too the week before.
Nketiah didn’t have a good game but then neither did Martinelli, Odegaard or Tierney. Lokonga wasn’t brilliant either but no worse than Partey when he came on. No one stood out for playing well in my opinion.
Mikel spoke about the game afterwards.
On disappointment at how the team competed:
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.
On why we looked a bit ‘off’ in some of the duels:
They were on top of that. Last week it was all ours and today it was very different. When that happens against top teams, it’s very difficult to win. Apart from any other aspects, today we were extremely poor.
Mikel Arteta went on to say that it’s his job to get more out of his players and I’m sure he will. We’re not sitting top of the Premier League by luck. We’ve earned that by playing well and winning football matches. One defeat doesn’t suddenly make this group of players bad and when nearly every player has an off night, winning is almost impossible. Arsenal got what they deserved from the game. Nothing.
Next up for Arsenal is Liverpool conquerors, Nottingham Forest, the club which knocked us out of the FA Cup last season. Thankfully, nearly 60,000 Arsenal fans will be behind the players on Sunday so hopefully, we’ll pick our performance level up a few notches and we’ll need to if we want to take maximum points from the game and stop the media from hitting the ‘same old Arsenal’ button.
Arsenal’s women won though, 3-1 against Zurich, a scoreline which if the men can repeat against the same club next Thursday, then happy days.
Lastly, awful news came out of Italy yesterday evening of an incident in which Pablo Mari was one of six people stabbed whilst out shopping. He’s fine, albeit wounded, but the cashier died. What is going on in this world….
See you in the comments.
Hi Rico. It’s not hard to think that, given the evidence of our own eyes recently, that this is a creeping thing that has made its way through the squad. It would be easier to accept and understand if a few players were suffering a form drop-off perhaps, but this feels like something more. I know that PSV didn’t cut the grass and over-watered the pitch which was probably why so few could bring the ball under control without it ballooning in the air or running over their feet. It’s also why we slipped over with such regularity. But defeat brings the inevitable questions.
I think Mikel with his “reset” comments knows what’s happening and that he can get that over to the players.
What seems clear is that our supporting actors, for whatever reason, are way off it and need to sort themselves out quickly. But we really need the first teasers to drag the team back to winning ways.
Hi Adam, sorry, I’ve been wading through a pile of ironing…
I hope the feeling of ‘we’ve been here before’ isn’t actually real. I’ve been disappointed in Eddie since his contract, Sambi for his ‘I should be playing more’ comments. Even Jesus has gone off the boil.
I always thought Eddie was a gamble Rico. He spends too much time walking I think. Agree re Sambi. I reckon they’ll try and p/ex him for someone in Jan.
Good afternoon Rico, Adam.
Just off night or a dash of reality? It was plain to see why Arteta is reluctant to use rotation, those that came in last night were just not good enough. Having said that, it’s my opinion that too many changes of personnel allied to putting players in unfamiliar positions and different combinations contributed to the scrappy appearance of the team.
Maybe Arteta should be following his old bosses tactic of employing an old fashioned number nine. De Jong looked a hand full for our defence to cope with.
I expected more from him Adam and believe he’s capable of it too but then I thought similar about AMN but look how that’s ended up. Last season he looked up for up but it’s almost like he’s sulking because Jesus arrived.
I guess with Sambi, some young signings just don’t work, I’m not convinced by Vieira either.
Afternoon Cicero. I guess the next few fixtures will answer that. The performance was almost too bad to be real, if that makes sense.
Afternoon Cicero.
Rico. Vieira looks interesting to me but I struggle to see him as a touch line-hugging winger with Eddie as striker. Or in the same team as Martin right now. If we had a big, powerful front man I think he might be better. Something for January perhaps.
He’s certainly no winger Adam. He’s a bit like Ozil imo, needs strength all around him. At least until he bulks up a bit. Lol
Mari out for 4 weeks apparently according to the radio although a source in France is saying two months before training. Hopefully he completely recovers and gets to play again after the world cup.
At 1 nil I could understand the substitutions as we might have been able to grab a draw but once we got 2 down there was no point.
It’s interesting to see the comments on Vieira and Nketiah , I did not want to pick on them but I do go along with the feeling that they need to step up or ship out. Also I would include Odegaard who disappears when things get tough . Sometimes when you are being overrun in midfield you have to put your foot on the ball and hold it rather than trying little one – twos and end up giving the ball away.
One thing that this run of games has evidenced is that there is still much work to do and that our elevated league position may well be temporary.
At least with the mid season break Arteta has a chance to work on our lesser lights as about 1/3rd of the squad is likely to be away.
I think Saka is developing into a diver. He goes to ground too often and too easily. Don’t get me wrong, I like him and think he has a great career in front of him and he can make himself an Arsenal legend but he needs to stay on his feet.
On Nketiah, there is no room for him to play alongside Jesus and I can’t see Arteta dropping his big signing in in favour of an unproven rookie.
I read two months too.
Also didn’t see the point in the subs at 2-0. The game was lost..
Saka does go to ground but he’s fouled a lot too and after what that ref said to Jesus, I’m not surprised players go over when fouled.. Jesus is the same but neither are a match for someone like Kane or Son.
As much as I like Sambi and wanted Arteta to buy him, I may have been wrong,
my feeling is January we will sell, swap or loan him out for 2 years like we did with Saliba.
As for players diving, do we blame players for going to ground to easy and not always getting yellow / red cards or do we blame the referees like the 1 from last week who tells Jesus that he would have been given a penalty if he fell over the first tackle, but because he stayed on his feet it’s not a penalty.
New post up