Morning all.
If Mikel Arteta achieved anything yesterday it was knackering his players who were already knackered. I know we’ve had injuries and we’ve played a few games with ten men etc, but even so, I’m pretty sure he could have rotated his players better than he has again this season. If he’s prepared to bring Sterling on from the bench then what was stopping him from using Butler-Oyedeji, Kabia etc?
What’s been stopping him from using Kiwior a lot more than he did before Gabriel suffered an injury? Or playing Tierney and Zinchenko more often than he has when they have been fit?
If I could be bothered, I’d look up how many times all five substitutes have been used in a game and I bet the simple answer would be, not very often. Just a quick glance back at some of the games we’ve been leading in, there have been opportunities for Arteta to make more and earlier substitutions than he chose to.
I thought both sides started quite brightly yesterday, but we created three really good goal scoring opportunities. One fell to Rice, or was it two, I’ve forgotten, one for Martinelli before Trossard at least hit the target. Finally, we scored through Rice, a lovely goal it was to, but any thoughts of pushing on to win the game soon vanished. Our performance dropped, Bournemouth scored twice and we lost. Their winner was a clear handball and perhaps offside too but it escaped a VAR review and was allowed to stand. How, goodness only knows.
Their first goal came through dreadful defending. No sooner had the commentator mentioned Semenyo had a long throw-in in his locker, the ball was in the back of the net. Dreadful defending is all I can say about that. Same can be said about their second despite it being wrongly awarded in my opinion.
Mikel Arteta on the team performance:
We started and we did the most difficult one to score the goal. I think after that we had four or five very open situations to score the second one. We didn’t kill it and after that, on top of that, you defend the box really poorly, the way we’ve done it in the two set-pieces that we have conceded again. So they’re going to punish you and a team like Bournemouth, they’re going to punish you. And after that the game becomes rushed, very chaotic. That’s why they want big spaces. They have more legs than us, especially with sets and plays that were struggling in the final minutes. And we weren’t able to get the result that we wanted, so we’re very disappointed.
On dropping points from winning positions:
Well, I think every game probably would have a different answer to that. Certainly what happened today is that if you defend the way we’ve done, very few set-pieces but very poorly, in the league you’re going to get punished. It doesn’t matter if you are ahead or behind in the scoring.
What was clear was the difference between both clubs options from the bench. Bournemouth had a game changer in Semeyon, who was given enough time on the pitch to hurt us but we had Sterling, Nwaneri, Zinchenko and Merino coming on with Merino being the only player to get fifteen minutes or more to try and change things. The other three came on with just four minutes of the ninety left. Hopeful, desperation, call it what you like but Arteta’s changes were certainly not tactical.
Finishing second in the league is still possible of course and if we win the remaining three fixtures we cannot be caught but let’s be honest, we’ll be lucky to pick up another point from our remaining matches let alone nine.
We move on to our Champions League match in France on Wednesday night. I’d like to think the occasion alone will focus the players minds, although I’m not sure how much they can give physically. All we can do is hope that over the next four days, training is light, they get plenty of rest and the physios can work their magic.
It’s a massive game. That’s the good thing, when you’re disappointed now and you’re angry and frustrated, you can use all those emotions into Wednesday. We know what we’re playing for, it’s a massive game, we have to stick together and create energy and be ready.
Mikel Arteta:
We really wanted to create a very different vibe, atmosphere, and energy to go to Paris. But we certainly created a lot of frustration, anger, disappointment, and it’s the time now to show our courage, our resilience, and go there using everything that we’re feeling right now to put an amazing performance there and win the game and be in the final.
On that note, catch up in the comments…
There is very little new to say that wasnt said yesterday. Once again we blew a lead at home . How we fix the mental problem that goes with the fact is a conundrum . We have better players but also seems to have an arrogance that causes our undoing . Does it come from the manager or on the pitch the captain ? Someone has to make sure that the level doesn’t keep dropping when we get 1 up
Agreed.
Arteta needs to sort whatever is going wrong out before Wednesday. At least let’s go there and put up a fight.
I’m not sure about Arsenal having an arrogance problem, more likely a confidence problem, tbh I wish we were more arrogant because then we’d probably play better.
You can only operate with the tools you are given, Arteta needed the attack strengthened and Edu’s leaving gift was Sterling. That left us with a centre forward who was signed as an attacking left 8 and another centre forward who has spent more time in the physio room than Thomas Partey, reinforced by another Chelsea reject.
I guess that Arteta is culpable as well because he could have said no to the Sterling deal but just as nobody could predict how well Lewis Skelly would turn out this season nobody predicted that Sterling would be quite as abject as he’s been…
PSI comes into the equation and maybe the Califiori deal prevented a larger pot and possibly a bid for a striker last summer? If Califiori had stayed fit we might not have discovered MLS in quite the way we have? One door closes another opens etc.
What has been obvious this season is that we don’t react well when we surrender a lead.
I missed the ex-Arsenal midfielder derby yesterday because of the early kick-offs but Jack Wilshere’s Norwich beat Aaron Ramsey’s Cardiff 4-2 at Carrow Road (last time I visited Carrow Road we had Serge Gnabry on the wing).
I wonder if Jack has done enough in his short audition to be seriously considered for the Norwich job or to maybe encourage other clubs to give him a chance?
For Aaron, it’s back to the drawing board for him.
I just hope that KSE get blamed for our average league performances because for five years, they’ve supported Arteta wholeheartedly. Not only with new signings but the departures too, many of which have been for nothing or a pittance.
I don’t think our home form has been good enough in the second half of the season Rico and that’s partly down to injuries and inactivity in January.
Why on earth did Odegaard take our first half free kick and not Rice? As anticipated, Odegaard drifted his cross into the wall. Bonkers.
I know I sound like a broken record Kev but after last seasons schedule and our relatively healthy squad for much of the campaign, I could see the injuries coming our way. Perhaps in hindsight, Arteta might wish he’d used his squad more during the opening months of the season….
We haven’t got a senior striker and he’s still so insistent on playing Trossard etc yet the under 21 squad has a couple who with minutes from day one, might have enjoyed a very good season.
I agree on that Rico, I mean Kiwior could have had a go, I guess it’s down to what happens in training?
I’m all for the Captain taking on the responsibility but maybe the Captain should also be humble enough to delegate.
Or simply applying common sense Kev, Rice set pieces are the best we have, followed by Saka. I’d rather a Sterling free kick than our captains.
Why isn’t the midget on the sidelines telling them that before the game?
Well, in retrospect Rico the club probably should have kept Biereth and not signed Sterling but maybe Mika wanted to go and maybe he had only one year left on his contract and after losing Hutchinson for next to nothing Arsenal took the fee offered.
We’ve since lost a couple of other promising youngsters and here’s the thing, maybe a decision was made to sell Mika and keep Obi Martin but then he buggered off to United
But I get why the youngsters bugger off Kev, they are not getting minutes.
Even 5/10 minutes from the bench would keep them interested but no. Nowt. Butler-Oyedeji caused Palace a few problems in just a few minutes on the pitch so I can’t help but wonder what this season might have been for him.
A clue to what went wrong yesterday can be inferred from Odegaard’s comments, the team were thinking more about the “big game ” to come on Wednesday and treating Bournemouth as easy meat.
We will be very much the underdogs in Paris, the whole squad have to stand up and be counted.
We will probably find out when he lines up for someone else , whether that’s on loan or he departs is the question. As usual we will probably chase all over the world looking for a tailor made solution when sometimes the answer is under your feet.
Too many prospects disappear because they are not the immediate player that our extremely voluble internet supporters demand .
We will never know how these players would have developed in this environment and too often they get shunted out to make up the numbers of lower teams squads or sold for a pittance.
It is a lose /lose situation , the club demands success and chases highly paid solutions but when they do not work out we find ourselves on a loss trying to move them on.
By all means buy a Sesko or similar but give Butler-Oyedeji some assurances about pitch time in the lower cups which our ” superstars” never seem to get past the early rounds .
I’m thinking about my summer holiday but it doesn’t stop me from doing housework 😂
Agreed Potter, but the more minutes at the end of the game had he been given them and the answer the might be clear by now.
I just don’t understand why we as a club overlook so many younger players.
Chido Obi Martin leading the attack for Man United.
Bringing young players through and competing for the big trophies at the same time isn’t a walk in the park. Of course Man United can be admired for playing youngsters at Brighton today and giving them a chance but I guess when your 14th in the table it’s easier to do?
Rico, do you wear a pinafore when your doing your housework?