Morning all.
There are defeats which can be kind of accepted I think, or understood at least, but losing the game in the manner we did last night, really cheeses me off. To put it mildly!
I thought we started really well, on the front foot and with it, put Man Utd under a lot of pressure. A freak goal, albeit a great strike from ESR, in the sense that de Gea was sprawled on the ground when the ball flew passed him, gave us a deserved lead. Great I thought, now let’s go for the second and even a third by playing the same way.
No, we dropped deeper and deeper which simply encouraged Man Utd to have a go at us. Soon it was 1-1 after some pretty poor defending and then soon after that it was 2-1. Odegaard finished off a lovely move which began with Partey playing the ball out to Martinelli and his cut back into Odegaard was perfect, as was the finish. Then, the same player fouled Fred in our own box and that was that, game lost. I’m still cheesed off that neither Atkinson or VAR stepped up to the mark when Maguire tugged Takehiro over in the box on one of our corners, especially VAR. They weren’t so slow when Fred went over and Atkinson didn’t blow his whistle.
Aubameyang, Saka and Martinelli all had goal scoring opportunities during the game but all went begging.
If Mikel Arteta’s tactic away from home is to get a goal and then sit back and defend, then Arsenal aren’t going to go very far in this footballing world. If it’s the players who drop deeper and deeper naturally, without an input for Arteta, then their mindset is all wrong and Arteta needs to do something about it.
It’s been said before and no doubt it’ll be repeated many times more, how long is Aubameyang going to be given playing time when so often, he’s the worst player on the pitch? Great managers are ruthless with underperforming footballers yet week after week we have to put up with watching Arsenal pretty much playing with ten men. Honestly, I’d rather see Martinelli, Nketiah or Balogun leading the line because at least they try harder!
Talking of Nketiah, what a time to give him minutes. 3-2 down at Old Trafford and he’s expected to make a difference after the last four months of being ignored.
If Arteta wanted to rest Lokonka, where was AMN? I’ve nothing against Elneny but he offers very little in terms of attacking football and just because he was good in this fixture last season, it doesn’t mean he’ll repeat it a year later. He’s a safety first player which has its place I know but surely not when we’re facing a team who are there for the taking? His job wasn’t helped by an out of form Partey, who apart from the ball to Martinelli, struggled to get the better of Utd’s midfield.
If Mikel Arteta is going to continue with playing Aubameyang, I think we can forget about top four. No, that’s not a knee jerk reaction to last nights result, it’s a reality in my opinion. Our midfield isn’t strong enough and our main striker is finished. No wonder so many of us have been calling for Martinelli to play and despite not scoring last night from the wings, no one can accuse him of not giving 100%.
What is it with Ben White and his need to go to ground? If he stayed on his feet, he might have done better on the first Utd goal although Elneny could have done more before then. Partey and White were guilty of not marking Ronaldo for their second goal and their third came after clumsy challenge from Odegaard.
After the game, Mikel Arteta spoke to Arsenal.com.
First of all to show the character and the personality and the courage to play the way we did at Old Trafford [was pleasing]. But, the reality is, conceding three goals at Old Trafford, it’s very difficult to get any result and when the game was there with 2-2, and we were in our best moment and had total control and dominance of the game, that’s when you have to give the next step and go and win the match and then we didn’t manage one situation, we open up and we concede the penalty and we throw the game away.
We are here to win football matches and I’m disappointed because I have the feeling that we deserved more. But again, we have to be realistic that if we do what we did in certain moments, defend in our box against probably one of the best squads in the world, they’re going to punish you because they have so many goals and quality to define those moments and that’s the curve and hopefully the lesson that we have to take from today.
I too think Arsenal deserved more from the game but the reality is, if the team can’t take control of a game, put pressure on what I believe was a quite average Utd defence for more than 20 minutes, then winning will always be difficult. If a team plays at any ground with ten men, it’s certainly not going to be easy and that’s how it seems when Aubameyang plays. Henry said on Amazon Prime that he couldn’t understand why with fifteen minutes to go, Aubameyang was substituted whereas I couldn’t understand why after fifteen minutes, he wasn’t.
Anyway, the pack behind us are catching up and now there’s just four points between ourselves and Leicester City in tenth place.
See you in the comments.
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So Thierry Henry can not understand why Auba got taken off, simple reason Auba is sh.t he can’t even hit the side of a barn. Arteta has to set a standard and strip Auba of the captaincy and drop him.
Elneny is pitifully slow, drags the whole team down
I think the best pair is Laca-Martinelli. Playing with Martinelli on the right side is wrong. I no longer feel like talking about Auba, so this is the case. As usual, we won in almost every statistical aspect of the game, except for what matters most: the goal.
I completely agree with all that you say. I watched the whole game last night and what struck me the most was how little football we played. I also thought that after going 1-0 up, against a team that must surely be low on confidence and seems to repeatedly lose at home, that we would gain confidence and really give it to them.
It felt to me like watching a team typically from the bottom half of the table play against one of the big sides – stay compact, don’t be too ambitious and we might nick a chance. That isn’t Arsenal! Don’t get me wrong, I know we aren’t currently at the level of Arsenal teams of the past, but we are playing a very poor Man Utd side. When was the last time you saw us string 10 passes together? When was the last time you saw Arsenal have a negative goal difference so far into the season??
I try not to be too reactionary, but this notion that “Arteta has a plan and we can see what it is” is nonsense to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for his head, but the only reason I’m not is because there isn’t a great alternative out there right now – Arteta is as good as any in a bad bunch. We know we aren’t getting Pep, Klopp or Poch so might aswel sit tight. But having said that, the football itself is pretty dire. Even in Wengers later years we could still turn it on at times.
I really don’t know where we are going. Arteta is 2 years in and we still got spanked by Man City and Liverpool, and lost to Chelsea and Man Utd. Is that really progress? I wasn’t a great Emery fan but he was only 1 win away from finishing top 4 with an inferior squad to this.
I’d say the ship is relatively stable, but it isn’t actually moving forwards, it is just stagnant. Truth be told, if Wenger was to come back in now (not that I want that) I’d have no doubt that within a month we would be a better side than we currently are. I don’t want Wenger back, but I expected more than this after 2 years of someone getting their ideas across. This is his squad of players – he bought most of them – and we still look like a mid-table side right now. 4th is only up for grabs because Man Utd, Spurs and Leicester are making such a hash of it of late, not because we are a decent side. Our creativity is at an all time low.
And let’s not even get started on what on earth has happened to the £100m worth of talent that we bought in Pepe and Saliba. Whoever is responsible for spending such a huge sum of money on 2 players that don’t get on the pitch for us needs firing (unless it was Raul who is already gone), but either way the handling of them has been pretty disgusting and very un-Arsenal.
Sigh.
Morning Rico. An accurate piece I’d say.
As Arsenal supporters we are of course, masters of hindsight, but every result tells us something and this was no different. Who knows if Tierney would have made a difference? When he was playing he hadn’t been great earlier in the season, but I would reckon that his defensive qualities could have plugged the huge gap that Tavares left on his many forays forward. So, perhaps a bit of balance there. Elneny in midfield? Because he was good up there last season? A better choice than AMN?
He did get better as the game went on. Less suicide passes. So did Partey though it was difficult to see him getting any worse than an abysmal first-half performance. The man remains an enigma.
We were dominating them and their defence looked shaken. I thought they would lose possession and give us a goal, though I doubted Auba would accept the gift. But after we scored, we were awful. We could have seized the motivation and sorely needed an inspirational captain on the pitch who comprehended the situation and driven the team. Our captain holds the position as an honorary title though and we are missing a trick there.
Martinelli was excellent. Full of running and endeavour. He made Auba look even worse, if that’s possible. Please excuse me the “but Auba did run around a lot” shtick. He was awful and despite being offside a tad, he couldn’t manage to put the ball in from a few yards. There’s a massive decision there and I get the sense that Mikel has been putting it off in the hope that our captain will miraculously return to form.
He might!
We should have had a penalty but that’s nothing new.
Peeking out from its shell, the team capitulated and we were level.
More chances were missed as the second half progressed. We scored an excellent equaliser and then Martin O, trying to put some defensive work in, made a really stupid challenge from behind in the box and we all knew what would happen next.
Mikel was tardy with the substitutions again and for some reason Eddie, who had earlier rejected a contract, came on when Pepe, our record signing might have seemed a more interesting choice. Who knows what happened there, because I don’t.
We huffed and puffed a bit and then it was all over. What is really important now is that Mikel learns some lessons from it all and makes some serious decisions so at least some good comes out of what was a crushingly disappointing night.
Simple hard facts are that we lost that match through the middle and up front . The Partey / Elneny partnership just want good enough and I don’t completely blame Pharaoh for that. As said he is consistent , never spectacular but doesn’t make many mistakes and a lot of his covering for his partners goes unnoticed. Partey however is a shambles of giving away the ball drifting out of position and only finding any joy when spraying the ball wide because anything towards Aubameyang just gets lost and comes straight back .
We got a leg up with a bizarre goal which was quite rightly given , It wan’t our fault that Fred clattered his keeper who decided to milk things and stay on the ground . It was a fine strike by Smith – Rowe and quite noticable how De Gea was straight back up immediately after the decision was given. If there was any time to manage the game , get up the pitch , keep the ball and pass them to death this was it . We needed to keep the lead until half time but we got pinned back and one minute short capitulated and handed United the half time momentum.
This was time for change , We had Pepe , Nketiah , Saka and Lacazette sitting on the bench and a player upfront that was just totally unsuitable for the way the game was heading but we waited until 10 minutes to go to do the change that was bloody obvious from about 20 minutes in .
Maybe I am missing something but a centre striker needs to impose himself on the game , he needs to show for the ball , he needs to battle but our ever smiling captain hides when it gets tough and makes runs into blind alleys and misses chances that quite fortunately fall his way
. The African Nations cup can’t come quick enough for me , we seriously need to rethink our attacking options and change the system.
Morning Adam, all.
I’m really cheesed off with last night. Terrible game management by the players and the manager. Pretty strange team too although hindsight is easy. AMN over Elneny every day of the week for me and as said before the game, if Arteta was concerned about the booking, why not play him last night and get it over and done with.
Ditto Potter re the ACON, it shouldn’t take a forced change to make a change but in this case, I welcome it with open arms.
Sebastian, looking back, I think we have to give Arteta his first two seasons because of the players he had but this squad is better, much better albeit still lacking depth in strength. Even so, there is enough quality in the squad to not surrender in the fashion we do sometimes.
Morning all
Should have won last night, didn’t and we go again, not much wiser than before.
The Auba enigma is a bit of a conundrum, then again maybe it’s not! I’ve a feeling that Mikel is patiently biding his time. For whatever reason he seems unable to drop our charismatic (?) captain, so he plays on. However, the opportunity to play without him is now, just round the corner, in the form of the ACON. I’m not sure who will replace him, but someone will. Lacazette, Martinelli, Pepe, Nketia even Ballogun, who knows? Perhaps a new signing? One thing seems certain though once PEA disappears, the old king, the new king should step up and steal his tarnished crown and hopefully make himself indispensable.
Or, am I over thinking all of this and MA will welcome him back and return him to his former place, leading the attack and failing to score. Or, will he reinvent himself and come back rejuvenated and full of confidence plus a succession of goals, just to confound us all!
Morning Rico and all
If Arteta keeps playing Auba then he is putting his job as coach on the line.
Afternoon Hindsighters and Rico.
I didn’t see the game but then I didn’t need to, I’ve lost count at how many times an Arsenal team has visited OT to face a struggling Man Utd only to give them a helping hand?
It’s endemic in this club, it’s like Arsenal Omicron.
Anyway Everton is massive now as we don’t want a repeat of the Emery scenario when we visited Everton and Aston Villa just after our unbeaten run and played like a team of dustbins.
Yeah, blame the manager but footballers are a breed apart, they get themselves into positions where they can really make a statement only to fail and the statement they make is ‘we are mentally weak and lack the desire to make the most of what we have’ and there’s a few still in this squad that have that in spades.
Some of these guys are millionaires and I wonder how much it really means to them anymore?
Good Afternoon Rico and everyone
Yesterday’s game would have been killed off in the first half.
That’s all I have to say.
Thanks Rico, team,
As for me I don’t know what to say to start. For the many years in have cheered this team, Arsenal is the only team I know which opposition players always suddenly gain form when against us..This is a mentality issue, surely we cannot defeat/or get a point off a Man-united team in crisis? Quite baffling to me!
For any team, without productivity upfront (scoring goal) , then sitting deeper to defend a 1:0 lead is a waste of time..additionally, I have a question, is it too difficult to put a string of passes together in midfield for this team?
Again, speaking of the leadership in the team, me don’t think Partey will ever meet performance expectations, while Auba is no captain because of a lack of leadership..
Good day all.
What ever happened to the old adage “Play to the whistle”? It was always the rule, only the referee could stop play, it wasn’t and shouldn’t, be the prerogative of a player to decide when the game should be stopped. It has become a regular ploy for a player to “go down” in order to break up a period of play or to waste time by running the clock down. Sadly, there is no longer a thing called “the spirit of football”. Man U players were claiming that Arsenal were somehow playing outside of that no longer existant concept, unfortunatey for them their own players could well be accused of the same failing by two of them, Fernades and Fred, “going down” in the box with the intention of conning the referee into awarding them a penalty. Atkinson quite rightly refused the claim in the first two instances, but succumbed to the pressure on the third attempt.
Losing by the odd goal in five could be viewed as an improvement by Arsenal over recent results at Old Toilet. The differenc between the sides came down to two aging players, Arsenal’s missfiring Aubameyang and Man. U’s unerringly accurate goal scorer Ronaldo.
Afternoon Geoff, Kev, Mexzy, all.
Honestly Kev, I don’t think it had much to do with OT in itself, not after winning there last season. The team just went into its shell after taking the lead. We should have beaten them easily imo.
Just going to repeat three words from Kev, everything else has been said
Crushingly disappointing night
what’s new
Not what I’d call it. 😂
Ah well on we go , lets see what we dish up for Everton.
New post up. Oops lol