Morning all.
The picture above tells the Arsenal story that’s for sure.
Inter Milan bossed the opening part of the game, hitting the woodwork and coming close to opening the scoreline on a couple of other occasions. They went ahead courtesy of a penalty after Mikel Merino was penalised when the ball hit his arm. Harsh? Absolutely!
Talking about the game, Mikel Arteta said:
The worst thing of the night, for sure, is the result, because the performance, the attitude, the dominance that we showed against one of the best teams in Europe in this stadium, I haven’t seen it in all the other games that I’ve watched but the reality is the result and we participated in that because we had many situations that we can resolve much better in front of goal and score at least two goals and then extremely frustrated as well because there are two decisions that at the end marks the result and the course of the game.
I’m not going to harp on about the summer transfer window but when it closed without Arsenal adding a striker, I was left utterly disappointed. Yes we scored goals last season but to think our players would repeat such a feat was foolhardy in my opinion and such a decision is costing us dear. Mikel Arteta can go on about we could have should have scored goals last night, after other games too, but the reality is, we didn’t. Not having an out and out striker in a squad is unique to football and not in a positive way.
How could Arsenal go from allegedly trying to sign Sesko to not signing anyone? It was crazy, especially having made the decision to sell the only two strikers the club did have in Eddie Nketiah and Mika Biereth. And no, I don’t think they were the long term solution to our striker problems but at least they were strikers. Keeping one, even if was just for this season, might have been wise.
No one will convince me that there wasn’t a striker out there in football who would have said yes to Arsenal. I read things like such a player needs to fit the way Arteta sets his team up, well I think that’s poppycock because did Haaland fit Guardiola’s typical style of football? No, not in my opinion but that didn’t bother Guardiola.
Sky Sports
The overall performance, lack of Arsenal goals aside, was better I thought. Should we have been awarded a penalty? Mikel Arteta certainly thought we should and it’s hard to disagree:
I don’t understand [the decision], it’s just a deflection, there is no danger at all, you cannot react because you are very close but ok, they decide that is a penalty. But then if that’s a penalty then the one on Mikel Merino when he punches him in the head has to be 1000% a penalty and these are the margins in this game and it’s very very difficult to accept.
Mikel Merino and Kai Havertz took nasty blows to head but Mikel Arteta thinks both should be ok for the trip to Chelsea on Sunday.
To end on a positive note, Martin Odegaard made his return from injury at the end of the game which was a joy to see. I just hope he has a few goals in that left foot of his. Or his right, I don’t care.
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning Rico and all.
No need for anyone to stick their head in the gas oven, WE WUS ROBBED!.
The general consensus is that the Merino penalty would not have been given in the Premiership. He was jumping for the ball, one leg was in the air and he was trying to maintain his balance, no intent to handle the ball. NO PENALTY!
The Inter ‘keeper in trying to clear a ball punched, two fisted, Merino in the head, no contact with the ball. PENALTY!
Cheer up everybody, Michael Oliver we see us right on Sunday!
Morning Cicero, all.
Perhaps Oliver dislikes Chelsea more than us..
We should have spanked Inter..
Maybe Oliver will see Chelsea as more of a threat to his paymasters than Arsenal?
Regarding the goalscoring, sometimes you just need a bit of luck to go your way.
We do need Lady Luck to strike at Arsenal but you look at the chances we create, our players should be finishing more of them.
The thing about playing Chelsea is they can loose just as easy as they can win, so we have a chance unless we give away cheap penalties, and collect cheap yellow card early in the match.
Rico, we should have spanked Inter .Really .I must have been watching a different game .Didn’t they nearly crash our crossbar in the second minute ?. All the possession amounted to one decent shot by Havertz. I thought we were pants,no leadership on or off the field .
Why bring Jesus on at half time,the diving diva ? Nwaneri should have come on then.
Always looking for the perfect goal.
Trossard is completely out of form yet he starts .
Arteta is clueless when to make subs and who to sub. I can’t agree with most but i will admiit the ref had a complete howler .
We are a shadow of the team from last season and other teams have injuries .
Probably won’t get into the top 8 in the CL for automatic qualification.
I keep reading it was n improved display but what does that mean when we fail to score again.
I thought we played well,albeit in a meaningless pass,pass,pass,dominate possession but create very little way.
Of course the penalty was harsh,and we should have had one.
Apart from the first few minutes when they hit the post and had some good pressure,I don’t really remember Raya making a save. The busiest he got was picking the ball out of the net after the penalty.
One thing that annoys me is why do we always turn to Jesus first. I know he scored his first goal for a long time recently but come on you know what to expect – very little.
Chelsea play tonight but have the luxury of resting all their first choice players for Sunday. That conference league is so weak they might as well give them a bye though to the semifinals.
Halfway through the Champions league and some big teams outside the top 8.
Kelsey, as you imply, Trossard is out of form, but he is a striker, what are the alternatives? Jesus? Oh no he’s, in your words, a diving diva. Sterling? You’ve got to be kidding.
In hindsight, and to state the bleeding obvious, yes we should have signed a striker in the summer. For’ whatever reason we couldn’t get a deal over the line. So that ship has sailed. Now we can only hope for better luck in January when one name stands out £63million rated Gyokeres. Problem is Man. U, Bayern Munich and Chelsea are all interested in him too. I’m not holding my breath!