Morning all.
Arsenal got away with it yesterday as Brighton could have easily put two or three goals past Aaron Ramsdale. But they didn’t so spoils were shared when Jon Moss blew the final whistle.
So many things were off at The Amex. Our passing wasn’t good, Auba wasn’t really in the game, Tomiyasu Takehiro struggled and at times, Mikel Arteta’s team looked disorganised and all over the place. Aaron Ramsdale pulled off a fantastic save late in the game but other than that, bad things outdid the good.
If Arsenal want to win matches like yesterday’s against organised teams, they really need to be doing more and certainly giving a lot more. The weather conditions were awful but that didn’t stop Brighton from zipping the ball around, or shooting, or finding a teammate with a pass.
An early chance created and taken by Bukayo Saka was saved easily by Sanchez in the Brighton goal but after that, it was all Brighton really. Thankfully though, their finishing was dire. Aaron Ramsdale had a dodgy moment when he spilled the ball but Dunk smashed the loose ball high over the bar. Thomas Partey lined up a free kick but sent it just wide. Apart from Aubameyang heading against the woodwork, that was about it from Arsenal.
The second half wasn’t much better as far as Arsenal are concerned. ESR managed a shot on target which was easily saved before later being bundled over the box but Moss and VAR weren’t interested. The best moment for an Arsenal player came towards the end when Aaron Ramsdale made sure his teammates left the south coast with a point with a good save from a Solly March shot.
Mikel Arteta said there would be bumps in Arsenal’s journey. Yesterday was one of them, or at least I hope that’s all it was. For all the good fortune Brighton might have had so far this season which has seen them win matches, it ran out yesterday. They were by far the better team on the day but they came up against a strong central defensive pairing with a goalkeeper to match. Plus, they couldn’t hit a barn door, their problem not ours.
By the end of the game, the stats were the same for both teams as far as shots on target go. Two! Graham Potter’s team had another hundred or so off target but Arsenal didn’t really create much at all. As said earlier, Aubameyang had one of those afternoons where he wasn’t really in the game and I’m surprised he wasn’t oiked off earlier than he was.
Anyway, we took a point from a game we could and probably should have lost so that’s a positive in my opinion. Another positive is that according to Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka took a knock but he should be fine.
Lastly, as the men huffed and puffed a bit in the rain, there were no such problems for the women. Aston Villa held on until half-time but during the second half, captain Kim Little scored her 150th and 151st goal for the club. Mana Iwabuchi and Katie McCabe scored the other two. The perfect start to the season continues for Jonas Eidevall’s team.
See you in the comments.
Conditions had a massive impact on that though, I reckon.
Morning all
New post up now
I think we will start seeing the real Martinelli again in a few months time.
12-18 months on the pitch after a major knee injury seems to be the timeframe til a player can be 100% again.
Potter I hope your planting it on different level I was told it grows better that way.
Rain has been biblical here , nipping out to plant some rice later.
A good striker should be able to score anywhere and if Auba doesn’t like playing away then Arteta has 2 choices
(1) drop him until he has decided that he will play good at both home and away games
(2) Pick Auba for home matches and Laca for away matches
If it was me I would be telling Auba to bring a blanket and a magazine too all matches until he can prove that he wants to put in 100% no matter where we play.
Ha ha Kev.
Potter, I still think we have a few players who don’t like an away match in the winter months and I reckon Auba is one of them.
I can recommend my dentist. 😉
Good point Cicero, although didn’t Martinelli play centrally at Brentford and was fairly innocuous for the time he was on the pitch, as was the rest of he team tbh.
The thing is Smith Rowe and Saka play if they’re fit, even Nicholas Pepe is gonna be struggling for minutes, so it’s doubtful that Gab is going to get one of the wide berths outside of cup games, he therefore has to make an impact when he gets a chance, be that a cup tie of if he comes on as a sub. It’s dog eat dog mate.
Rico, I don’t know anything about Aubameyang being toothless but if Gabriel ain’t careful he’s gonna be going down that road…
Our passing was off because of the pressure we were under and the weather conditions.
And also that Auba couldn’t trap a land mine everything was bouncing a couple of yards away from him
Is Aubameyang toothless because of the way we play though? It’s chicken v egg again imo. When our passing game works and we play with speed, Aubameyang is in the game. When we play the slow possession game he’s out of the game.
Against Brighton, our passing was right off I think.
Maybe it’s both. Anything to keep the peace. 😂
Kev, when Martinelli did play he was stuck out on the left wing but that is Aubameyang’s favoured position. Because we do not play with an old fashioned centre forward, there seems to be no opportunity for him to find a role suited to his talents.
Watching the Liverpool / City game yesterday we saw the blueprint for Arteta’s system. Guardiola, had Grealish playing in the central role with no recognised central striker, maybe that could be the position for Martinelli. Actually it wasn’t that successful for City yesterday so maybe not. 😉
Morning Non Binaries, to be fair to Aubameyang he was feeding on scraps and he did hit the post, he also scored a hat trick at the Hawthorns so cut him some slack.
I think that Aubameyang is still our best option starting up front, but he needs service, he’s just that kind of striker. Odegaard had an off day and that would have definitely affected Auba’s effectiveness.
Yeah Lacazette has something different in his game, it’s why Arteta used to start both of them previously more often than not, but we’ve moved on from that set up and we won’t see it evolve until Arteta brings in the striker he wants, someone to tie it all together from the front.
What worries me more is the form of Gabrielle Martinelli, a player who had us all jumping up with excitement but who since his injury has regressed to a point where I never see or hardly ever see anyone post about him, what’s happened to him and when is he coming back, that’s if he ever does?
Scott argues that it’s the opponent and he is right, but if you look at the other teams in the league I would suggest that only about 10 play an open style that enable us to play that quick passing style and frankly 3 or more of those have better players ..
The rest will have looked at those two games and compared the styles and the quick pressing style will be adopted in all but possibly 12 more games this season including the top 4 .
As season ticket holders my son and I soon realised that in the 19 matches at home in about 12 of those the other team came not to lose rather than win and except in the halcyon days of Henry , Pires , Llunberg and Bergkamp where most teams were beaten in the tunnel we watched wars of attrition .
As our main threat Aubameyang has been found out and when he is inneffective we are toothless as we revert to endless build up with no end product.
You mean the home game Scott? Lol
Agree with that, Rico, but when we build slowly, Auba is lost.
Quick counter, as we saw with Spurs, he’s electric.
Just my opinion, but more to do with the opponent than home or away.
I’d like to think so re VAR Potter.
And Xhaka plays better alongside Partey Adam so yes, I agree it’s all about partnerships. Same goes for Gabriel and White who are slowly getting stronger together.
Arsenal need to find a new central midfield pairing over the next year or so and like you, I think Bissouma could be the answer to one.
Rico. Possibly, but I think it’s more down to partnerships. He played next to Rodri (Man City) and others at AM and he looks best next to Xhaka with us but who knows how much future there is in that?
Two points on this :- on 4 seconds if the ball had gone in would VAR have called the foul on Ramsdale getting poleaxed
then on 52 seconds what Lacazette brings that Auba doesn’t.
https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/1201195803696675/
I’m sure Tomiyasu has played in the rain before whilst in Italy. Cucurella was just a bit good.
Maybe the answer is that the PL is far more robust than the Spanish League Adam?
Someone mentioned before that our Japanese player is not used to playing in the rain, if this is true then maybe Arteta should of rested him due to the weather.
I’ve been watching Partey for years with Athletico where he was great but, he just doesn’t really seem to have hit the same level since he joined us. No matter which way I look at it, I still think that Bissouma would be perfect for us.
Him and a top-end striker.
Most managers set their teams up differently at home than they do away imo.
My point is though, Auba often fails to turn up in an away match..
Nothing to do with home or away imo.
Every manager should be looking to improve him or herself but surely things like certain players not fancying an away match is a basic.
As long as he’s constantly improving like the team.
Nobody has said he’s perfect, he’s a work in progress as the club is.
😅 Cicero
Scott, should he not have learned that by now?
Agree Potter, and they were without Bissouma. They certainly looked better organised than Arsenal yesterday. It’ll be interesting to see how they do against the ‘bigger’ clubs like City, Liverpool and Chelsea.
I finally got a response from my dentist, he’ll sort my teeth out by teatime tomorrow if first thing in the morning I put them through his letter box. 😉
I reckon Arteta learned a lesson.
He made the right call taking Odegaard off, as we looked better, then Auba coming off improved us again.
Certain conditions, opponents etc etc require different starters and I reckon he learned a lot yesterday.
Graham Potter has organised his team really well and their position in the league is no accident .
They play to their strengths and do nothing particularly stylish just effective . They are a very tall team and use their height to their best advantage and whilst refs allow the obstruction of keepers they will physically dominate other teams .I see that Gabriel lost a tooth yesterday , I am not surprised.
They will be on the edge of Europe come the end of the season if they can keep injury free .
Arteta could learn a bit by studying the organising skill of Potter who has been in the Brighton job 6 months more than he has at Arsenal . It seemed yesterday that all of his players had a job to do and the all knew how to do it.
Morning Adam. Agree re Auba, he just looked like he’d miss regardless of the flag.
Morning Rico. I felt that, at no time, did the team look like it had come to terms with the conditions and yet I was curiously confident that Brighton wouldn’t score.
Every game is a chance to learn though and our strikers must be a massive concern. With an in-form top version we might even have nicked it. Unjust I know, but that’s what top teams do. Watching Auba go through, one on one, in what was an offside position, I never thought he would put the ball in the net. His body language was all wrong.
We missed Xhaka for sure and Lokonga is looking a bit lightweight to me. Maupay is a snidey git.
But they are asides. We got what was perhaps an undeserved point and Mikel agreed with this. We move on, cautiously hopeful, yet realistic.
Morning Geoff. To be fair to Brighton, they were a totally different team to Toots.
I’ve been on the phone for a couple of hours this morning trying to get an appointment with my dentist, my teeth are gnashed to pieces. 😉
Good morning all.
Looking at the way the top teams have been dropping points, anything could happen this season
Morning Rico and all
Having only watched highlights we looked a totally different side to the one that beat Tottenham but having said that the conditions were not good for both teams,
ESR had a good chance to set up party but chose to take a shot that was easy for there keep to save, let’s hope this match was just a hipcup due to the weather.
Ramsdale seems to be showing Us fans that he was a buy and why the fans prefer him over Leno
More importantly than our position in the League is perhaps the points difference which between us and 4th isn’t that big. 4 points is nothing really.
I do think that away from home, Lacazette is a better fit. Unless we’re totally bossing a team, Aubameyang can be ineffective. Especially against teams who are well organised. Brighton are definitely one of those teams.
I really liked their left back, Marc Cucurella. A good signing for them.
I swear I could hear Cicero gnashing his teeth from the other side of Norfolk ,
I recieved a what’s app from my mate in Norway that just said Aubameyang is washed up
.He is in this system with Saka , Odegaard and Smith Rowe we need Lacazette . Aubameyang patently cannot hold the ball and give our defence a break and he doesn’t knit things together with his midfield.
Even when Pepe came on nothing changed until Arsene’s magic 70th minute when Aubameyang went off Almost immediately a quick pass from Lacazette enabled the through ball for Smith Rowe to run through and shoot .
The opening 10 minutes showed that Saka had the beating of Burn but we seemed to stop going down that route and a few industrial challenges we reverted to the passing game looking for the non existant movement up front
.Tommy was getting a roasting from Cinderella and was left out to dry ( if Chambers was watching it must have sparked a few memories ) They always had a progressive outball and as soon as we lost possesion they were at our throats.
However we got away with a draw and until Spurs and Brentford play now sit in the top half of the table which most of us would have settled for after the first three games.
Progress, imo, is NOT losing games like that when are below par.