Morning all.
What a lousy way to end the Arsenal year. In fact December has been lousy full stop. Yes, the defeat of Brighton was good but other than that, Arsenal’s football has been pretty grim. Mikel Arteta can talk statistics and improvement all he likes but that’s all it’s been, talk. Talk is like possession stats, it’s only good if there’s an end product. Arsenal made Fulham look like a great team yesterday and ultimately got exactly what they deserved from the game. Nothing! 90 odd minutes of slow, sideways and backwards football which was painful to watch.
Fulham wanted the win. They chased every ball down and every Arsenal player when he was in possession of the ball. Fulham were hungry but it was Arsenal who both individually and collectively played like they were the ones in need of much sustenance.
Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead but Fulham soon equalised after a rapid breakaway and then around the hour mark, they scored a second. Mikel Arteta’s team huffed and puffed for an equaliser but it never came. To be honest, Fulham looked more likely to score a third than Arsenal nicking a draw.
Mikel Arteta’s post match comments:
On our performance:
Painful, that’s how I’d sum it up. We had the opportunity to be top of the table after 20 games with the consistency that we’ve shown, and we haven’t managed to perform well enough to earn the right to win the game. Three days ago we lost a game that we fully deserved to win, but today was a very different story.
On the reason for our defeat:
We weren’t good enough, we simply weren’t good enough in ball possession – we gave so many balls away, we didn’t have enough rhythm, enough purpose, enough threat, and defensively we were second best. We couldn’t control them directly, it was so easy for them to win that first or second ball and have the opportunity to run; we conceded two exact goals like we did against West Ham, and if you do that in this league, it becomes really difficult to win.
He also said that Oleksandr Zinchenko needs to have a scan on his calf which isn’t good news. He might be a dodgy defender but when we’re attacking, he does a lot of good things. If he’s ruled out for any length of time, defensively we’ll be dreadfully short in numbers.
There are two ways of looking at Arsenal right now I think. Either this is our blip, a blip many clubs go through at some stage of the season, or we’re in trouble. City, Totts, Utd and Liverpool have all suffered bad results at some stage over the first half of the season and we’ve just had ours. Yet we’re still just a few points off top spot and certainly not out of the race for the title just yet. There’s a break coming up after the FA Cup fixture against Liverpool which gives Mikel Arteta time to work with his players. To put right what he himself said has being going wrong.
If Arsenal can bring a player or two through the door this month, they have too. The need for a defender has just increased and there’s still a need for a goal scorer in my opinion. Rumours are that other clubs are interested in a number of our players so financially, there’s money to be made if Arsenal are prepared to sell. January is a transfer gamble I know but it’s a gamble worth taking if the right players can be brought in. Plus, there’s always the loan option.
Lastly, I just want to than’ you all for your support of Highbury House in what’s been its 13th year and I hope 2024 brings you happiness and good health. Strength too for those who are trying to adjust to life without a loved one. Yes, you all know who I’m thinking of.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico and all.
The thanks goes to you Rico for your site, infact it’s the only one that I comment on, even though a lot of the times I see things differently to most on this site.
It’s a shame I will not get to see us play live as you don’t get to see what our players do of the ball to prevent the opposition player from getting into the game.
As I said earlier, I hope this is the blip that we had at the end of last season and we do what Man C did last year and finish with a flurry of wins and hopefully some silverware.
Morning Geoff, thanks.
I think it’s healthy to have differing opinions. It’s how we express them which matters most..
A brisk walk by the sea is calling me. 😂
Good day all. Enjoy your walk Rico.
2024 has arrived and with it comes blue skies and bright sunshine. Unfortunately, also with it comes the perennial problem, endemic predictability.
In attack, we have two of the best wingers in the league but the predictability of Arteta’s tactics means that every manager knows precisely what to expect and how to counter it.
On our right we have Saka, Odegaard and White creating triangles with intricate passing movements aimed at creating chances of a shot on goal from the corner of the box. Predictable.
On our right we have Martinelli, Havertz and whoever is playing left back doing precisely the same. Predictable.
Sadly, both Martinelli and Saka have recently suffered a dramatic loss of form. Where before Martinelli would use his pace and dribbling skills to get round his fullback and aim at the near post, now he has reverted to the triangle approach. Saka has obviously been learning from Jesus how to fall over in an attempt to “win” a freekick, it was from one such action that he lost the ball which led to Fulham’s equaliser, which was scored while Saka sat on the grass demanding a freekick.
Both wingers need to dribble into the box and create a bit of panic among the defenders, draw fouls or create chances for others to take advantage of.
The main thing that I just cannot understand, is the snail like pace of moving the ball out of defence which gives the opposition ample time to get back to their own half and reset the formation.
Yesterday, the one time we broke quickly Martinelli left the defenders for dead, hit a ball across the goal which Leno could only knock into the path of Saka for a tap in. Probably the only unpredictable thing we did all game.
Happy New Year Rico.
Thanks for all your efforts during ’23. I think we’re all looking forward to the coming year and your tuned in comments on all things Arsenal. A super blog as are all the contributors. A must read every day despite all the other distractions that life throws up on a daily basis!
Not the best of year’s for me hence the lack of regular comments but I shall keep calm and carry on!
Best wishes to all and everyone. Let’s hope we all have a fruitful and fulfilling 2024.
Thanks Cicero, I did.
I’m in agreement re the snails pace we break from the back, it plays into the opposition hands. I suspect the hope is it will encourage the press so we can pass through it but teams aren’t falling for it. Instead, they’re getting behind the ball and closing the gaps which stops our play. Yesterday was particularly bad because our passing game was simply awful.
Everyone knows how slow we play out from the back, so other teams just sit back and wait for us to make a mistake then score against us,
Now for the next few weeks we will have to put up with every report claiming we are buying a striker from every club around the world.
Just a quick comment. I wrote a txt to my son after them game that went a little bit like this. ‘Crablike football, Wenger would have been really proud of how we managed to keep control of the ball without ever meaningfully moving it forward. And I have found the culprit, it’s Raya ever since he arrived he’s been like an albatross, our token of a bad luck charm.’ Apart from being responsible for starting the move that got Saka his goal yesterday, I thought his contribution to the defence was less than nothing at all. He doesn’t command his area, he hasn’t got Ramsdale’s shot stopping qualities and doesn’t have either his agility nor his, often frenetic instructions. Raya is a bit like silent Stan, silent!
Time to end the experiment and send him back to Brentford. Bring back the ‘goalie’ the best Englishman we’ve had since the last ‘goalie’, Seaman.
Mikel is fast turning into the last 10 years of a Wenger clone. Not a good look!
Rant over, NY resolution resolved (for me).
Happy New Year, again to one and all
Ha ha Geoff, Toney is still the favourite it seems.
Wavy, I wrote this earlier:
“That’s what mean about having a plan b Cicero. Arsenal right now reminds of of the days when Arsene Wenger refused to change tact and it cost him as well as the club. We’ve become too easy to play against imo. We’re too slow going forward imo, much too slow.”
Similar views I think. As you know, I totally agree with you on Ramsdale.
Partey is not in the Ghana squad for the ACON. Excellent.
The only good thing about was the date which gave a perfect excuse to go to the pub and have a few beers .
I suppose 8 games in the month has taken it’s toll as young players like Saliba Saka Martinelli looked dead on their feet .
I think last years World Cup mid domestic season didn’t help.
Yes we have had a bad draw in regards to the amount of games played in a short period, but you have to look at how Arteta has managed the team and rotated his players
Agree Geoff, it’s like he doesn’t trust many of them which if the case, why sign them.
In the last 5 games, we lost 3, drew 1 and won 1. In other words: out of 15 possible points, we scored 4 points. Anywhere in the table would be a poor performance.
The first conclusion is that the squad lacks confidence in the coach to face all the challenges. And “short squad” doesn’t mean having to add more players; It means having a squad that guarantees confidence when a player is called up because a squad cannot have 30 or 40 players.
Playing with the same players, in a short space of time with a tight schedule, means not only being muscularly and mentally fatigued but also creating routines, which, because they are so routine, make everything predictable. If there is no time to prepare and change, keep what is, and it will work. Until it “stucks”.
Leads me to the 1st question: there are more players who don’t play or rarely play. Either they are only useful for training or/and they are not of sufficient quality to maintain their quality. But if they don’t have competition, they never evolve or gain confidence. But if they also don’t play in periods when the competitive demands are great and the schedule is tight, what are they doing there?
The game against Liverpool could be the new click and the necessary injection of confidence.
Let’s hope that’s the case
I wonder how much we could get for Jesus and Zinchenko, would it be enough to buy a decent left back or a proper striker?
Happy New Year everybody, and thanks rico for keeping the site going another interesting year in the world of Arsenal. How things change in a week, although to be fair, we were scraping single goal wins, and now just suffered one. We really do need to freshen thngs up quickly because our predictable style has been found out.
We have a left back Cicero but he’s on loan. lol
Happy New Year to you too Andrew, definitely need a freshen up..
The only reason why I can think Arteta doesn’t rotate he players is that he wants the bench full of specialists who can play the last 20 minutes to bail out the team when we are behind or equal goals or simply he has no confidence in the bench players.
What I find annoying is players going on the media making all these statements that they know what they have to do to fix things up and to keep the heads up, yet the next match they make the same stupid mistakes, Fans need to see action not cheaps words
New post up.