Morning all.
This is a big game and Arsenal need a big performance with a big result in our favour. Not because the media suggest the wheels have come off but because it’s the best way to get over a defeat.
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference was all about injuries, Nuno Tavares, losing on Monday, Nuno Tavares, top four, the mood in training and Nuno Tavares. Seriously, whoever asked him the questions seriously lacks imagination.
Brighton?
They’re a team with a lot of personality. A coach that is very willing to play, that is very aggressive in the way they press, that wants to dominate the game and they have good players to do that but they are very difficult to beat. They don’t concede a lot of chances and opportunities in open play and also set pieces and they’re a threat.
When do we start taking the mickey out of Arteta’s English? Lol
Seriously though, Brighton are a good and strong team who are well coached by Graham Potter. I think they’re in a similar situation to Arsenal really in that they can’t/don’t, take their goal scoring opportunities. Like us, I’m sure they’ll rectify that problem in the summer. Arsenal certainly need to.
How damaging was Monday?
Embrace the challenge. You lost, now you want to win, it’s hurting and it’s still hurting. We lost two big players, two really important players for us for sure. But whenever that happens you can’t cry for it because they are not going to be available for us. So we have to find other solutions and we have to be as good and as competitive as we have been.
The logical solutions are Nuno Tavares and Sambi Lokonga but only because it’s like for like positionally. Whether Arteta goes down that route I’ve no idea but he’s said Tavares is ready and willing ahead of the game. I just have this feeling that there’s a good player in there somewhere which perhaps a run of games will prove. The more both he and Sambi Lokonga play, the more confident they should get and whilst Granit Xhaka might not be the perfect midfielder to you and me, he’s got a lot of experience which should help our young Belgian. With Tavares, if Gabriel Martinelli is ahead of him on the left, we know he’ll work hard to help our young left back too.
As said, I’ve no idea who Mikel Arteta will bring into the team today but I do know that the team needs to play a lot better than it did on Monday night if Arsenal are to beat Brighton. Individually and collectively.
See you in the comments.
Good Morning!
In my opinion, we have to play with the players we have in the usual positions they play. Even if the quality drops. In that case, it is necessary to “balance” in other positions. The neighbors reinforced themselves well with 2 good players, as I posted 2 months ago. We didn’t, it’s because we have solutions.
As for what I posted a few days ago, regarding the fact that we are in Ramadan. Braga in the Thursday nigth versus Rangers, as soon as the sun went down, the goalkeeper “lay down” to the pitch to receive assistance. In the meantime, this allowed player Al Musrati to recover with liquids and easily digestible food because he is Muslim. It would be 20 hours and 15 minutes maybe. This did not prevent him from not being substituted with muscle pain 10-15 minutes from the end of the game.
This is to say the following: it is very different to play at 15:00 or 20:00 for a player who is fasting. In the case of Partney, who came in for a very intense week and a half, it was worse. The probability of getting injured was very high, probably for the rest of the season, if he played the whole game and measures had not been taken in advance to mitigate the difficulties.
Hope we win!
Once a Gunner always a Gunner!
Hi Rico.. Jeez it’s been a nightmare trying to get on here the last few days! I sent you an email explaining what was happening, however it seems to have corrected itself now 🙂
Nice read.. After Monday I’m dreading later.. Welbz to haunt us, or Maupay (can’t stand him) – hate to think what celebration he’ll come up with if he does score..
You never know Laca may even find the back of the net 😄
Morning Sue, Jm, all.
Thanks Sue, I’ll check my emails. Seems to be a problem when the privacy notice comes up. Try refreshing the page and it works usually, for me anyway. I’m trying to sort it out.
Brighton are dangerous I think, despite their bad run. Hope w3 don’t gift them three points.
Good day all, Rico Sue I’ve been having difficulty too. I get a “we value our privacy” pop-up (blue and White) which no matter how many times I select either the cancel or accept button it just stays there.
It’s taken me seven attempts to sign in this morning without the pop-up appearing.
It’s the same on my tablet and desk top.
I hope we go with square pegs in square holes as far as left back and midfield go, even though I have misgivings about playing Tavares and I’m not that happy with Lokonga either but it’s probably the least worse option.
No email received Sue.
Morning Cicero, it’s certainly been a pain and I’m not sure why it’s happening. See my last though about refreshing the page, it works for me. 😆
Hey, the refresh button does the trick 👍, thanks Rico.
I sent it early Wednesday morning, Rico – very strange. Yes, problems with the privacy notice (just like Cicero) and also ‘400 Bad Report’ appears upon clicking on the post and even on HH itself – very frustrating!
Hi Cicero, so did you see John Travolta around Norfolk?
Sue, I tried e mail but it was bounced back with the message “the content was too large for the recipient’s server to cope with”. It was a two line e mail with about a dozen or so characters.
Hi Sue he did call round but I thought it was the Jehovah’s witnesses so I didn’t answer the door. 😉
It’s crazy, Cicero.. and it doesn’t help not being very tech-minded 😆
🤣 You crack me up, Cicero – shame, you could’ve donned your white suit and got down to Saturday Night Fever 🕺
Sue, my dad-dancing can clear a crowded nightclub in seconds. 😎
I’m baffled now Sue/Cicero…
#AFC XI vs Brighton – Ramsdale; Cedric, White, Gabriel, Xhaka; Sambi, Odegaard, Smith Rowe; Saka, Lacazette, Martinelli.
Pepe is back on the bench, and according to LiveScore it is 4-3-3 with Xhaka as LB, and Ode + ESR play midfielders around Lokonga.
Interesting. Let’s hope we will score a lot.
😂 Cicero
Rico.. I cleared my cookies/cache on my phone, maybe that was the problem?! Just couldn’t understand why this was the only site I had problems with though. Should any other problems occur, you’ll hear me scream haha!
Xhaka at left back then. 😳
Please do Sue 😂
3 youngsters on the bench (Hutchinson, Ogungbo, Swanson, albeit the latter is literally older than Saka and Martinelli). Meaning neither Azeez, not Patino is available, but we have Elneny would we need a CM substitution, and obviously there is Xhaka in the starting XI who can move back to CM assuming Tavares takes over his LB responsibilities.
Good on ya Toffees! 🔔🔔🔔
“He’s the toughest opponent I’ve faced”
De Gea on Maguire 😂😂😂
Great result for Everton…
Excellent re Everton..
Fuck! What team is this!!!??? It’s guaranteed to be lost unless someone’s individual trait appears!!!
Xhaxa to midfield now!!! Otherwise we play with 10. Nobody builds a game. Tavares to the left. smith or odegard one of them out.
Here we go again….
I’m only reading but it sounds like we’re dreadful…
Phew. 1-1
@Rico, wee just equalized but its been absolutely very poor to say the least!
Or not. ☹️
No, we did not.
It was a sloppy goal anyway.
Goal disallowed and deservedly so, this is one of the most disjointed performances you’ll ever see!
..and a cheap goal to concede!
offside…
We continue to play with Odegaard and Esr at the same time: it is going to reach the end of the game and they don’t realize that they played; nobody builds the game, because the only one who can build is forgotten the left defense. It’s the two centre-backs that are driving the game step by step; bad positioning of many players, with players occupying the same space and other spaces perfectly empty; in the goal: the “left defender” was not there and the defensive midfielder was absent. There were 2 players occupying identical positions.
We still win in corners…
So I gather Kyalo. Half expected it tbh.
If VAR takes so long then the goal should stand, We need to come out firing in the next half
Would have made more sense if we only replaced KT with Tavares, then Partey with Sambi, then played on of either Martineli or ESR.
Xhaka at left back is bonkers in my opinion. Bonkers.
Didn’t get my fast start, it’s just disjointed with no midfield just pumping long diagonals to nobody in particular.. movement missing apart from Martinelli and Saka who’s getting the standard treatment
The best thing about the first half was my Pizza and a glass of wine
Afternoon rico, house. Saka booked for diving. Martinelli at left back!
They could find no angle that showed offside or not, so after 4 minutes they decide
offside, nothing changes.
Don’t look like scoring from open play. Not a problem for Chelsea.
Nketiah getting ready
I have been saying for the last few weeks that Saka has been going to ground too easily now he has been given a yellow card for diving, must have been hanging around Kane too much when playing for England
Game over…. season over?
Afternoon Andrew.
Europa Conference anyone?
This team is a disgrace today. And unlike on Monday this is entirely on Arteta.
He is a really poor coach.
We’ll, well, we’ll! Who’d have thought that this would happen!
We’ll me actually. I was fearful about the Palace game and this was inevitable. Brighton hadn’t scored a goal since Xmas, who better to play now, but Arsenal…..the team that likes to give.
Ffs😥
This really is rubbish for 2nd match running. Lucky you rico not watching.
how do you explain a team imploding so easily?
And I shall not bother with highlights either Andrew. Arteta has to take the blame for this.
@pbarany, agreed this is entirely on the manager
@Rico, please don’t bother watching
Start playing with 5 minutes left.. you couldn’t make it up!
After a deflection off Welbeck, we suddenly have some urgency. What a disgrace that it has taken this long.
I won’t kyalo
Don’t need to Sue, it’s a reality.
@Sue, just imagine!
Played for two minutes
The same every season, Rico.. now for the spuds to win (sigh)
I have never been this disappointed for a long time!
Yes Sue, never seem to get over the line, regardless of how low that line’s become
Though the blame is entirely on the manager, guys since early 2000s when I started following this team, never witnessed a team that implodes so easily like this one
This is by far the worst return on my trust for Arsenal’s “process” under Arteta.
Sadly, the pundits called for our team to impload as we always do and bottle it to 8th place.
Surely we would do better moving Cedric and White to the full backs as we have capable Centre backs and minimal shuffle.
Kyalo , that’s the players too , honestly how many would you keep if you were in charge.
I partly blamed Arteta last week this week today I totally blame him for the crap that we played.
A free kick just outside the goal square and we try some crap pass to our player on the end of the wall
Our only hope now is for Tottenham to get beat later today
Arteta out coached 2 weeks in a row
I must not know anything about football but the evidence is: a) Tavares defends poorly but attacks reasonably, With another player on the left side (eg Martinelli) we had a strong left side, in addition to the right side. In the 2nd half, they pulled the game to the left side, due to adaptations b) Without the only midfielder that builds the game (xhaxa) poorly positioned, the construction of the game was in charge of the 2 central ones, who take two steps with the ball, step the ball and throw the ball to the side or backwards. They don’t even need to be pressured, because when they are, they delay it for the goalkeeper (who shoots forward) or shoot forward without any sense. c) Front free-kicks: either they are studied or what is obvious is done: the shot is taken. Two frontal free-kicks, to be invented, when nobody expects the ball, is doomed to failure. d) Players must be well positioned on the field and not occupy common spaces, leaving empty areas. The 2 goals appear from bad positioning, demonstrating that players are not used to playing in those positions, it was not studied how they should fill the space and they judge that another must be occupying that same space.
@Potter, yes the players too, the club has a mighty long way to shed off that “soft underbelly” tag that had always been associated with the team.
e) These players are well paid and shoot like beginners, make teenagers’ mistakes (as in the last corner returning the ball whoever scored it who obviously comes from an offside position), make unjustified fouls and at crucial moments (for example, the last of Nketiah).
They still badmouthed Unai Emery.
Against Crystal Palace it was the “same old arsenal” getting bullied and outfought by a more hungrier team..Today, the manager introduced alot of tactical tweaks and the team got confused..
Most of us have been here many times before.
It doesn’t get any easier though does it?
I am sorry for being too pessimistic today but, fact is, you will never see a team better than arsenal in suddenly turning opposition teams into instant performers..I have overwhelming evidence to support my statement..
I can’t comment on the Arsenal performance as I haven’t heard any commentary or seen any of the action. All I know is we went one nil down had an equaliser ruled out by VAR, conceded a second goal and got a very late consolation goal.
Arteta’s team selection was bizarre to say the least, midfielder at left back, left back left on the bench, rookie midfielder on his own with an experienced midfielder (Elneny) left on the bench.
Basicly, our season has descended into mediocrity.
I too wonder what Elneny has to do to get a game. Voted as one of the top players in the recent African cup he warms our bench in a team crying out for experience . Having seen that today , as much as I have defended the manager we are back to where we left off last season and the season before.
We have flattered to deceive , there appears to be no leadership on the field or off it . Even today Arteta hardly got into scream , shout , jump up and down mode .
I reckon he knows that it’s done and dusted.
I and probably all of us know that too.
There are 3 things pissing me off right now.
The first is that Mikel obviously sent the boys to the pitch saying “let’s translate the ball possession into crosses”. We know how it turned out: only 4 out of the 23 crosses found an Arsenal player. It was ineffective, unexciting… just plain wrong.
Surprisingly Rico and I were both right re: Lacazette. I said he is going to be useless against a defensive team, and she said that Arteta won’t bench him. The game proved both of us wrong, and proved Mikel lacking the cojones to cook something smart. Although it wasn’t proven that with a starting Eddie the game would have ended up differently, but these stats are impressive: in his 30 minutes Nketiah made the same number of key passes (1), made 50% more passes (12 vs. 8) made 2 more shots (2 vs 0) and hit the crossbar than Lacazette in his 90+ minutes.
For the third part I’m mostly pissed at myself as I was counting how we can leapfrog Chelsea at the 3rd place. That’s on me. And I know (and acknowledge) that many told that we have a difficult draw for the last 10 games (no we don’t, at least not harder than our competitors), and that the team is not ready or mature enough for the Champions League. But in my defense: where is the Arsenal, that won both games against Leicester, Aston Villa, Wolves, defeated Southampton, West Ham and Leeds impressively (and expected to do it again in the upcoming weeks), and why do we have to deal with the Arsenal that made 2 lucky points from the games against BHA, CP and Everton?
Lacazette has gone over 20 hours of Premier League football without scoring a goal from open play now – a shocking statistic!
I’ve run out of things to say really. Other than as Adam said, we’ve been been here before.
I don’t understand the playing square pegs in round holes either. Why keep hold of Elneny if he’s not going to play him? Imagine how he feels, I’d be furious with Arteta if I was Mo.
Did Pepe get on?
Pbarany, it’s not always good being right but look how long it took before Auba was dropped and even then it wasn’t for footballing reasons.
Totts are thumping Villa 4-0
Arsenal played with “10”. No left defense, “immobilized”, not advancing to support the player in front of him and constrained to defend because he knows he is being hit at speed and displaced from his usual position; then, a void in midfield, without a player who “sets” the game, who was a reference for who should go with the ball to build the game; with players “crowded” in the middle, occupying the same space and not supporting each other when necessary. It was enough to look at the team and realize that the line-up was wrong; as the game progressed, it was realized that only through individual traits could danger be created; that the team seemed to have fewer players on the field.
Like Palace, the team and players were not confident. They were and were different games. As Brigthon played and was expected to play, with an attacking left-back and a strong midfield, the game could have been different. And unbalanced from the start.
Rico. That’s right. We’ve certainly been here before, Last year in fact. So many bad decisions. Just like last year.
So much is just like last year Adam. Poor start, better period after Christmas and then bang, we’re bad.
Jm, honestly, I expected Brighton to turn up and cause us problems, their results don’t reflect their performances
That’s why I wanted us to hit them hard and early. However we didn’t and I have to conclude that I no longer understand the game or what’s needed .
You and me both…
The Arteta’s logic of team selection. We are short at LB so let’s weaken three positions instead of just letting a LB play LB and midfielder play midfield. And oh by the way, I will leave an experienced and capable midfielder on the bench, and who needs a striker to score? I have it all figured out because I am smart.
By the way, JM makes very good points and is also 100% right about playing Odegaard and ESR together.
Never mind Cicero boogieing to Saturday Night Fever in a white suit, I want to see him cutting-a-rug in his red hoodie…
I’ve been a ‘trust the process’ type of guy all the way from the off and despite some terrible setbacks I’ve stayed with the manager and really enjoyed some of our football this season, I could see a pattern emerging a pattern that gave me optimism about where Mikel was taking us, but maybe this is as good as it gets with Arteta, out-coached and out-thought by two of his contemporaries.
This wasn’t Klopp or Guardiola or even Conte these were two guys at the bottom of the coaching ladder at clubs’ with a fraction of our resources and when it really mattered, when we needed to make a statement the coaching staff blew it, it was a collective failure by the dozens of people we have on our coaching staff. They all blew it…
Forget top four, you’d have to be a lunatic to think from this stage that we can garner enough points to finish 4th – blimey it was only a few weeks ago that we were happily dreaming about finishing 3rd.
Poor selections, poor tactics, poor line-ups, too predictable, lacking in imagination and uninspiring substitutions, it smacks of a lack of ideas and a reluctance to change when things aren’t working.
We might do well to finish 6th…
The following is from Pedro of Le Grove, I think he makes some really really good points:
(Arsenal are out of the race for top 4.
Our season is over.
Let’s not pretend it can be any other way.
If you can be beaten by individual stupidity and the sheer drive of Brighton and Palace, you have next to no hope of finding the right tools against West Ham, Chelsea and Spurs.
There are a lot of hot takes as to why we failed. The main one is the January transfer window, but that is totally wrong in my opinion. If the right players weren’t available, then it was best we sit on the funds. I know that stings people because the obvious solution to everything is signings… but that mindset is old Arsenal.
The cold hard reality regarding our striker hunt is there are probably only about 5 players in the world that fit the profile of what we’re looking for. Vlahovic was one of them, but his agents pushed him to Juventus. Benfica and Sociedad both know the money will be the same in the summer as it is in January, neither is going to give up a season now. We’re not going to spend £40m on a backup striker, we’ll be looking at free transfers or promoting from within. If we get the striker signing wrong, we are fucked long-term. We don’t have infinite funds, so we have to be laser-focused on making the right signings.
The real problem is how Arteta has managed the squad. I’ve been writing for a long time that we need to give our backup players games. The striker solution is sitting in the squad, we didn’t need to buy, we just needed to give Eddie minutes. Those that say he’s League One are so, so wrong. He’s Premier League striker and when he’s given games, he will score goals. If he’d been given a 6 game run, we’d not be having these conversations about Lacazette right now.
Just think back to Tomi. He was overplayed, he broke down… and we all feared Cedric would break us. He didn’t. When he was given some minutes, he found a rhythm and he’s done an excellent job. Players need minutes, not everyone can hit the ground running. Just think back to Odegaard, the only reason he’s doing bits now is that we showed patience with him.
Nuno Tavares was the big one. He landed a run at the start of the season. He was so good, it was a legitimate question as to whether KT would get back into the side. Then Tavares was dropped for two months. When he came back at Forest, he was pulled after 30. Then he wasn’t given any time to address his performances. Is anyone shocked he hasn’t found his game?
If Arteta was as ruthless with Lacazette as he has been with Nuno, we might be in better shape right now. How Lacazette can offer up nothing for 3 games and face no recriminations is beyond me. Eddie did more in 30 mins than Laca has done in 3 games. The man hasn’t scored in open play in 2022. How is he still starting?
Arteta totally botched the starting 11 today. It’s not a hindsight thing here, putting Granit at left-back was a car crash idea. Sambi needed Xhaka next to him so he could do this thing. It was a tactical disaster. Granit can’t left back, Odegaard isn’t effective from deep, and because the system was so alien… the players performed like they didn’t know what was going on. That was all on Arteta.
We have learned many things over these past two games.
Arsenal are far too reliant on the brilliance of Thomas Partey. When he exits our system, our system crashes. We need to sign able midfielders this summer that can rotate with him. The Ghanaian is now officially injury prone. We cannot rely on him.
We need to put the Lacazette experiment to bed. He was a good bridge to get us on track, but he doesn’t score, he doesn’t cause problems, and now he looks dead to the world. Southampton needs to see Eddie given a run of games. Though the issue is now that Eddie is going to leave and he’ll feel the full force of being Arteta’s get out of jail free card. If he comes in and does what he’s capable of, we’ll see that a top talent was slept on. If he fails because he’s demotivated, we’ll be no worse off that where we are with Lacazette.
Arteta needs to think about his entire squad next season. He overplayed his favored 11 when he should have been giving out minutes to other players. That has bitten him. His ruthless approach to Tavares has now cost him top 4. It’s really sad.
I do have questions of some of the coaches around Arteta. Why didn’t anyone push an inexperienced manager on squad rotation? Seems like a real basic that should have been addressed. It seems like Arteta is the only voice in the room and his mistakes need to be learned the hard way. I’m a big believer in experience. Don’t make mistakes you don’t need to make. Overplaying the same talent killed Tomiyasu, that was the warning sign, but everyone watched on.
I also feel like we’re not as smart as other clubs, still. Why was KT allowed to go to those Scotland friendlies? He’s injury prone. He was crucial to our success. But he flew out anyway and broke himself. Liverpool would have faked a hamstring and given him two weeks rest.
Heading into next season, Arteta needs to take lessons from all of these problems, because tanking a great season against Brighton and Palace wasn’t the magical ending we had hoped for.
What I will say in his defence is this: Not many clubs could deal with injured first choice right back, left back, and central midfielders missing. Not to mention having no goal threat from a striker. This is a unique set of circumstances we hopefully won’t have to deal with next season.
That’s no help for today. This moment is one of sadness. Spurs are riding the luck train, they’ve scored 12 goals from 15 shots on target, Kane and Son are injury free, and their ascent to top 4 is now inevitable.)
Not getting a true striker in January is now costing us, as we all knew the was a good chance we would get some players injured yet Arteta didn’t think about it
Haven’t we all said something similar though Kev? Imo, Arteta could have done a lot more with the small squad he has.
Morning to you, Geoff, all.
New post up now