Morning all.
I thought I’d be a nervous wreck pre yesterday’s final but weirdly, that wasn’t the case. The news that Jurrien Timber and Eb Eze weren’t in the squad dampened my mood somewhat. Not that I didn’t have faith in Ben White and Kai Havertz of course but Eze has been in fine form of late, Havertz, well, I still don’t think he is fully fit.
I’m not going to go over the game because what’s the point, we all watched it I’m sure. Our first golden opportunity fell at the feet of our German but he couldn’t make it count. We had other chances too during that first half albeit few and far between but just like the opportunity to win silverware, they went begging. With Piero Hincapie on a yellow card for nothing, Semenyo was getting the better of him.
I thought Mikel Arteta would change things at halftime, just as I thought Arsenal would come out and show a bit more mettle after a team talk but exactly the opposite unfolded. We were poor. We were passive and we totally lost control of the game as we dropped deeper and deeper, allowing City to drop into training mode. Yes, that’s how it looked.
When Kepa allowed a soft ball to squeeze through his hands, gifting City their opening goal in the process, the writing was on the wall. When Mikel Arteta finally made changes, we perked up a bit. Riccardo Calafiori was certainly doing his best to find a goal and had Leandro Trossard been a bit quicker, he might have got his boot on the end of a shot from the Italian which went centimetres wide.
When it’s said that football is a game of two halves, yesterday couldn’t have been a better example of that phrase. Hindsight will tell us that David Raya would have been a better option in goal and on current form, it’s hard to argue otherwise but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Kepa hadn’t put a foot wrong through the knockout stages and let’s not forget the penalty save he made against Crystal Palace. I’m disappointed we lost the game yesterday but I’m more disappointed with manner in which we lost.
If that second half performance was a sign of how the players react to pressure, then Lord help us as we try to negotiate our way to a Premier League title. However, if Arteta, his staff and the players use the defeat to spur them onto success then maybe, just maybe, it’ll prove to be a blessing in disguise.
Yes, that’s the only positive I can come up with this morning. We might be down, but as yet, we’re far from out of three other competitions.
Catch up in the comments.
Sorry guys, I scribbled this in a bit of a rush this morning.
Morning Gooners, morning Rico, that was a great post under the circumstances. I tore my notes up at the final whistle, but I couldn’t have any better Rico.
I can’t escape from the feeling that the team lost their bottle in that second half and although I find Kepa most at fault, I also think that Arteta was too slow to react. I would have subbed off Saka, he was so poor and he should not be untouchable. Madueke off of the right would have maybe stopped O’Reilly charging into the box?
In the final analysis Guardiola still has the edge over Arteta, since we beat them 5-1 he’s totally changed how they approach playing us and Arteta hasn’t found the answer, maybe he will at the Etihad?
Morning Kev.
Couldn’t agree more re Saka, goodness knows what is going on with him. If he’s knackered, take him out of the game, certainly take him out of the England squad.
Trossard, Havertz and Hincapie could have been changed at halftime.
Morning. I don’t think the players bottled it. It was Arteta and his Coaching Team that bottled it!
Arteta’s biggest mistake, letting his heart rule his head re Kepa and playing into Pep’s hands by putting in Kepa because Pep played his 2nd Goalkeeper, who is good and Pep knew Kepa is no match against his team. Got to give it to Pep for playing that “cat & mouse” game which Arteta fell for.
What was Arteta thinking of when we have the best Prem Goalkeeper. At Cup Finals you go for the kill and not the kind-heartedness approach.
Halftime no changes! Come on Arteta we all saw that changes were needed! At halftime, he should have brought on Raya, Martinelli, Madueke, Calafiori and Dowman. Not make changes 15 minutes before the end!
The game would have turned around.
Slightly embarrassing that a 21 year old won it for them against some of our big players!
Yes not all lost but lets hope Arteta has learnt a BIG lesson here.
I have always said that games are won or lost in midfield and despite Kepa’s foul up I think that was where things got away from us . Pep lined up 4 across our penalty area and prevented us from playing out from the back . Consequently we played it long and as with all long balls the odds are about 75% in favour of the back 4 which means the midfield collecting the “”second ball “” which we failed to do.
Rodri , Silva and Cherki were having a field day as Rice and Zubimendi were chasing shadows , defensively Saka and Trossard were anonymous and the ball kept coming onto our defensive line in which I have to praise Saliba in particular who had Haaland in his pocket .
It became one way traffic and Arteta seemed to have no answer , sure we missed Odegaard and Ese but there seemed to be a lack of desire to fight for the cause .
I am not sure if I was involved in a ruckuss I would want some of them holding my coat.
What went through my mind at the time was had it been MLS at left back, being roasted by Semenyo whilst on a yellow card, Arteta would have subbed him at halftime. But he left Hincapie on the pitch to struggle.
Agree re our playing out in defence, that’s where Arteta needs to earn his stripes because hoofing the ball up the pitch wasn’t the answer. Personally, I thought Havertz was really poor yesterday, Saka and Trossard too.
‘morning all.
Nothing to say that hasn’t already been said really, just the sense of disappointment at such a lacklustre performance.
Perhaps the Wembley experience was too much for our lot. 😕
Calafiori should have started but I agree Rico, Arteta should have brought him on earlier for Hincapie. Ricky made an immediate difference to us offensively when he came on but by then we were 2-0 down and the game was done.
If it was Cicero, they should know better when we play the FA Cup final. 😜
I don’t think he should have started Kev, not with White at right back but after Hincapie was booked, he had to be really careful. He couldn’t get too close to Semenyo after that.
I was beginning to think that I would prefer to see MLS in the middle rather than Zubimendi who I feel is reaching the over played limit .
At least as Dowman showed the other day the young ones are prepared to die for the cause.
I reckon he’s well into too many minutes played. Why he’s not been rested more when we have Norgaard and MLS I really don’t know. Well, I probably do actually.
Only used 4 subs, why Dowman not given 10 minutes, you never know if a moment of majic?
Pleased for Ben White joining the England squad after all the past.
# Magic😀
I’m not Andrew, not when he’s been prone to injuries..
Having splashed the cash last summer, I thought we had a very good squad. At least two players in every position, in some places more. Since then, we have seen Mosquera and Salmon introduced as well as Max Dowman.
A pretty settled squad it seems, yet we have been linked with some very expensive players as well as some older ones who could arrive as free agents.
We are committed to paying £45 million for Hincapie already so any further purchases would need to be paid for by sales.
I have read that talks are happening with Manchester United regarding their purchase of Myles Lewis-Skerry. Nwaneri, on loan, at Marseille could also be sold. Neither will be in the top price band but should command a fee of £30/40 million.
After Sunday’s debacle Kepa’s value may have dropped a bit but I think he should be sold as we have a younger replacement in Tommy Setford. Getting Kepa’s high wages off the books would be good business.
Jesus will also be going in the summer, not for very much but getting his wages off the books will be a plus.
We must be close to PSR limits, we do not want a points deduction so must be canny in our transfer business.
We have got a very good squad yet still have players who clearly aren’t fully trusted by Arteta imo. If they were, the likes of Rice, Zubimendi, Saliba, Gabriel etc wouldn’t have racked up as many minutes as they have.
Supa Rico. I skimmed through the post just to rant my frustrations here first. It was another undoing by another Chelsea serial agent on a mission to ruin our chances of lifting a trophy. It was petr cech at the Europa league final years back.
I can now head back to read the post with a light heart.
I listened to a pretty good YouTube channel last week and whoever made it seemed to have a pretty good tactical grasp on things even if it was AI generated. They said that City would flood the midfield stifling our build up, which is what they did and that Calafiori would be a better pick as he can play in midfield and even things up, which he did when he came on for Hincapie.
Apparently this was the tactics, flooding midfield, that Man Utd employed when they won at the Emirates! Forcing us to go long as there was no space for Zubimendi or Rice to operate in.
It’s a tactic that Arteta had better get his head around because more teams are certain to employ it and stifle our build up
Losing Eze was massive loss as he would have affected the City strategy and he’s also what I’ve heard called a ‘moments player’ – in the old days we’d call them a match winner – or someone who scores big goals in big matches, and we’ve not got many of them, potentially Dowman…
But we’ve faced a four man midfield before surely? Why didn’t Arteta anticipate it, especially after the way City approached the game at the Emirates.
Maasai, I doubt Kepa did anything on purpose. He just had a brain f**t. One could moan about the missed chances, albeit few that we had, were equally as damaging. It’s just defensive errors are highlighted more imo.
Gabriel, Trossard and Saliba have withdrawn from international duty. Good
It looked like a five man midfield to me Rico because only Haaland was upfront at anyone given time and when we had possession the midfield was just a wall of sky blue shirts that’s why we was going over the top all the time. Yeah, I’m sure that Arteta knew what was going to happen. What he didn’t know was that the players would almost all, as a team, under perform in the way that they did.
4/5, we should have been more switched on to it Kev and had a plan. Saying that, it doesn’t help when 2/3 players are really off. Arteta needs to sharpen up his game management imo.
He needs to sharpen up when it comes to substitutions in situations like that, because if he’d acted a bit quicker and made the changes as soon as they scored, we may not have conceded the second goal, but they were still fiddling about when the second goal went in and it really pissed me off
Exactly Kev.
Thanks for the cool-headed post, Rico, and all the great “food for thought” comments about midfield, guys …
Whether it was a 4, or 5-man “wall” cutting our 2-man midfield off from our back-5 (including GK), there was always the solution to go over their heads, and target the muscle (Havertz-Gyö) we had upfront for them to battle for the ball, hold it up, link up with the now-free Zubi-Rice … and take their 4-5 pressers out, temporarily at least, give them something different to think about anyway, instil doubt surely.
Too old-fashioned, probably. The neverending passing in and out of our box with the GK acting like a “libero” has become such a never-to-be-questioned dogma it has become tantamount to one of the Good Book’s revealed truths …
Well, let bygones be bygones, I guess, but – other point you all made – Mick’s nonplussed expression, indecisiveness was puzzling (understatement for worrying). At some point, it almost felt as though he was going to walk over to their bench and ask Pep what the antidote to his own plan was …
Pleasure Lg, the cool headedness won’t last long I’m sure. lol
New post up.