Wasteful! A collective poor showing.

Morning all.

I didn’t enjoy that Arsenal performance one bit. Mesut Ozil probably burned up more calories moaning at the referee than he did playing football. He shouldn’t have started. Personally, I don’t think he’s much better at home but that’s just me. With a two week break right after the game, I really don’t understand why both Torreira and Pepe were left on the bench. Not when Lacazette is so out of form and has been for a while. The best football is played with pace and we have that in Pepe, Martinelli and Aubameyang as a front three. Ozil and Lacazette are slow in comparison. For a number 9, our Frenchman simply isn’t doing enough to justify his starting place.

But isn’t that what this time of Arteta’s new job is all about, seeing who can do well in training and then transfer that effort onto the pitch? And not just for a game or two but a sustained period of time.

Lacazette really should have put us ahead soon after the game kicked off. Aubameyang should have made it not long after but goals don’t come easy for this Arsenal team. Thankfully, the same can be said about Burnley because overall, they certainly had enough chances to win the game. The best fell to Jay Rodriguez who beat Leno from close range but his shot hit the bar, landed on the line before being headed behind for a corner by Mustafi.

We’ve played here before, and we knew what we were expecting. I think we dealt well with it because it’s not obviously our type of football but you know when you come here you have to deal with it first, then try to put your game on the pitch. Unfortunately we only had it on a few occasions and only 15-20 minute spells where we could do what we wanted to do. Unfortunately it was not enough to win the game in the end and I think we have to work more on that to try to put our game more on the pitch for 90 minutes, not only for parts of the game. When we do that we’ll start winning games. – said our German defender.

Exactly – and take our bleedin chances.

The focus will of course be on the chances created by Burnley but as said, Lacazette and Aubameyang might as well have spent time on the beach as to try and score because they wasted chances of our own. Auba wasted another in the second half, albeit a slightly more difficult one. Bury those and Burnley are all but out of the game.

I thought we were poor. Reminiscent of the latter years of Arsene Wenger and the eighteen months of Unai Emery. Not even a half time talking to improved us much. Nor did the changes Mikel Arteta made.

 

 

Perhaps this two week break has come at the perfect time for Arsenal. Arteta will finally have an extended period of time to work with his squad without the worry of a fixture to prepare for. A chance for his two additions to get to know their teammates, as well as Arteta and his coaching philosophy. Also, the injured, which now includes Saka, have more time to recover.

This job was never going to be easy for Arteta and just as one really good performance with ten men against Chelsea was nothing to get overly excited about, one lacklustre performance shouldn’t mean we’re back to where we were. There was always going to be ups and downs as Arteta strives to improve the performances and the results.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will a very good Arsenal team be.

Needless to say there won’t be a post every day during this break. Just news and updates from the club’s time in Dubai.

See you in the comments, as and when…

 

 

 

 

19 thoughts on “Wasteful! A collective poor showing.

  1. Potter says:

    Boy or girl or gender neutral or just not sure ?
    I did my summary on the last thread ,when I get home I will repost it if it’s still relevant.
    Until then I will read everyone else’s thoughts.

  2. ScottfromOz says:

    I slept LC hahahaha
    Obviously never watched the game, reading the comments everywhere it seems once again we had plenty of chances to score and yet could not.
    Arteta is criticised for poor team selection and on face value it’s easy to agree, but if we had so many chances to score, was he wrong?
    We simply miss too many easy chances and have done for quite a while now.

  3. Le Coq Monster says:

    Baby will be playing for Arsenal, not Arsenal Women, Potter……………………..well, unless he turns out to be transgender.

    Draw away to a mid table rival is a good result isn`t it ? 🙂

  4. rico says:

    I think it’s about two different things though Scott. Our strikers not taking at least one of their chances and then the room Burnley were afforded in order to create their own chances.

    Seemed a bit disjointed to me.

  5. ScottfromOz says:

    Fair enough Rico, but we’ve been wasteful in front of goal for quite a while.
    So many draws could and should have been wins but I guess confidence has taken a fair old hit lol

  6. rico says:

    Absolutely agree Scott.

    Ultimately, Arteta knows the players far better than any of us do and unless he’s suddenly lost his mind, there has to be a reason he selects who he does. I think we all throw our ideas out there because we can. After all, it’s his career that’ll be judged, not ours…

  7. ScottfromOz says:

    I’m thinking he’s giving every player every chance to show what they can do, and make some hard calls in the summer.
    The seasons been a write off for a while now, and a mate wrote earlier that this could well be the worlds longest pre season.

  8. Limey says:

    A painful watch -I kept turning over to the rugby,that was no better.
    Then Spurs go and win.
    As you say Rico maybe the winter break comes at a good time.

  9. Cicero says:

    Manchester City are having a tough time since Arteta left, if the owner’s get nervous they may sack Guardiola and come calling to get their boy back. 😉

  10. Positive Kev says:

    Lacazette with a header, unmarked, in the 1st 45.
    Aubameyang put through clear on goal in 2nd 45.
    Aubameyang header, unmarked again in 2nd 45.

    Three absolutely fantastic opportunities and the goalkeeper didn’t need to make a save!

    Ozil, Lacazette and Aubameyang had plenty of rest leading up to this game and were shit.
    Somehow I can’t see a mid-season break making any difference to some of our players?

    In fact if I recall properly, our season faded badly after last seasons short break in Dubai, so maybe we should be worried?

    These guys want the mega bucks but if that’s what they require then there’s no excuse for not performing, the mega bucks come with an expectation to deliver and that means every game, not just the odd flat track bully performance.

    I’m really sick to death of some of these big timers failing to do their job…

  11. Aussie Geoff says:

    Hi All was this the worst match we have played under Arteta The first 20 mins we were looking good, then we were out played we were very lucky when they had a shot that bounced of the top bar and hit the goal line and stayed in play maybe our players were thinking too much about the break

  12. Aussie Geoff says:

    We should of took Saka of we he got injured in the first half and replaced him with Torreira and not waited to half time

  13. ScottfromOz says:

    Morning all.
    Kev,
    Liverpool’s players seem to be going ok so I’m with you, we shouldn’t be making excuses for these guys.
    We are too soft and too forgiving of our attacking players when they don’t get the jobs done yet our defenders are torn to shreds for a single error.

  14. Cicero says:

    It’s okay chaps, nothing wrong with the players it’s all down to the pitch. Grass too long and too dry according to Arteta.

    I blame Global Warming. 😉

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