Morning all.
What a horrid afternoon for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal team. Leandro Trossard was ruled out through injury before the game, as was Gabriel Martinelli and to add to the days misery, Declan Rice didn’t reappear after half-time because he too had suffered an injury. Injuries seem to be a thing for a number of clubs this season though and not just Arsenal.
We went 1-0 up after Bukayo Saka’s strike took a huge deflection off of Romero and soon after came what I think was a key moment in the match. Gabriel Jesus pressed Totts defence, nicked the ball off of????? but fired what for him was a relatively easy opportunity to score, well over the bar. Just before half-time, Raya didn’t deal with a shot particularly well, Maddison took advantage, beat Bukayo Saka with ease before whipping in a cross for Son to equalise. Not the best of defending all round really.
After the break, Jorginho was on for Declan Rice, Kai Havertz for Fabio Vieira. Less than ten minutes into the second half, Arsenal were awarded a penalty after a VAR review. Saka stepped us and cool as you like, struck the ball straight down the middle of the goal. 2-1. Our lead didn’t last long though because Jorginho dithered in possession just inside our own half, Maddison said thank you very much, played in Son and it was 2-2.
For all the talk about Tottenham, I thought we were in total control of the game for most of the first half. Odegaard and Jesus especially were giving their defence no time on the ball in defence but as said, when the moment came to capitalise, Jesus fluffed his lines. To concede an equaliser so close to half-time was disappointing because of the manner in which it came but it wa# criminal to concede so soon after going ahead a second time. I don’t know what Jorginho was thinking, or doing really but it’s something which can happen when players dawdle on the ball. Too many of our players have been guilty of that before now, from the keeper right through the team but this time, it cost us. Jorginho had passing options, he ignored them.
The second half was pretty average from Arsenal in general I thought. Losing Rice hurt us, Saka looked dead on his feet, Odegaard was less effective than he usually is and Nketiah had a game to forget. His challenge on the Totts keeper wasn’t good at all. Reiss Nelson added a bit of a spark to our attack, Havertz played like a guy out of both luck and confidence and ESR didn’t really have enough time to get going.
David Raya made one fantastic save, the cameras panned straight to Ramsdale, probably expecting to show an unhappy man. They’d have been disappointed because like a true team player, he was applauding the save in acknowledgement of how good it was. The rest of Raya’s game wasn’t as good in my opinion. His distribution sometimes ending up out of play.
Mikel Arteta now has a problem, a big one. Dealing with the number of injuries we now have. Timber, Partey, Rice, Trossard, Martinelli – all big players who could be missing for a while. We go to Brentford on Wednesday night for the EFL Cup and then Bournemouth at the weekend. Things don’t get any easier after either as we head to France to face Lens before Man City come to The Emirates.
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning Rico, a fair summing up of yesterday’s game. Thank you.
I’ve only one question, why did we sell Balogun?
Morning Rico.
As I reminded my friend yesterday it was a draw, not a loss.
Basic errors cost us again. We really need to cut them out. Jorginho was guilty of a howler. When he played for Chelsea we pressed him into errors, so he can be ruffled, but that was just poor.
Maybe Arteta wants to lure the opposition into a trap, but it means our passing has to be near perfect. Yesterday it wasn’t.
Morning Cicero, Pete.
A question I asked all summer Cicero.
Errors, the officials, injuries – there’s always something to blame…
Cicero
Maybe because he’s not very good at taking penalties.
Just heard that 5 out of our next 6 games are away,the 1 home game is Man City.
Still our away results have been good for a long time,and we are surely due some sort of result against Man City.
Afternoon Rico and all, I reckon Odegaard picking up a silly yellow card so early in the game put him off his normal game, while at the same time we should have put more pressure on their players that were on yellow cards.
Although I am annoyed at the way we let them score, up to the final siren I still felt that we were going to snatch a late winner.
They were quicker to the second ball and in fairness the better team .We were unhinged by the injuries and the changes . players dropping like flies doesnt help . We need to sort out our tactics and trust in our reserve players because we will now need them .
ESR should have come on with 20 minutes to go not just 4 minutes, hopefully Arteta can lift them as we some winnable matches coming up
Does that include the EFL cup and CL Limey?
Hi Geoff.
Hindsight is easy eh but no one ever knows if a different player would have made a difference.
Yes all comps Rico,just a quirk,hopefully we can grind out a few wins.
A straightforward summary of the game. I’d also add the opportunity that fell to Nketiah from their defender’s back pass. A pass from Nketiah would have been almost certainly a goal but he chose to be….well, Nketiah.
Arteta has finally accepted that he needs a proper number nine and is interested in Brentford striker Ivan Toney, if you believe the Mirror that is. £68 million in January? Should have kept Balogun!
I hope so too Limey, much depends on the walking wounded and how those coming in perform.
Exactly Cicero, experience aside, they’re similar.
I think The Mirror suggest we’re selling Havertz in January too. If only. 😂
According to 90 min, Brentford have increased their demand for Toney, they now want in excess of £75 million. That’s almost as much as we paid for Pepe. If we buy him let’s hope he’s not another flop.
Edu is in talks with the agent of Villa striker Ollie Watkins who is represented by Two Touch, an agency owned by Edu. Strange that, it sounds like Edu is talking to himself. 😉
Brentford are holding a pre January auction , They know that goalscoring is a problem not only for us but also Chelsea and Man Utd and as the goals for columns are around a goal a game at the latter two they will be prepared to swallow any possibility of match fixing and the price will keep rising .
In our case it’s different , everyone knows that a consummate goalscorer in our ranks would turn us from there or thereabouts to a serious contender and to get one we will have to pay through the nose .
Watkins and Nketiah are both 6 foot tall , is that a big enough difference in their ability to bring us a more improved goal difference ?
My thoughts are that a Giroud type presence would be more likely to do so especially when Jesus has disappeared into midfield as he usually does for 70% of the game.
If Toney is the answer then Arsenal are going to have to cough up and cough up big or look elsewhere like Brighton seem able to do as a few years ago we were reported to have sacked most of our scouting unit .
Has it ever been replaced ? Or do we just rely on agents to produce their next big prospect.
I think I’d rather Watkins, always liked him. Isn’t he an Arsenal fan too?
Let Chelsea sign Toney, he might help them to avoid relegation 😂
New post up now