On a Monday night in East London, in front of two sets of fans who were largely there for the spectacle of seeing how their team could make an even bigger mess of the season, Arsenal and West Ham conspired to play nearly an hour of the worst football anyone has seen in a long time. But a young Brazilian had different ideas and ruined the pity party with his first Premier League goal.
From a technical standpoint the match was fine: touches were good and passes were to feet (mostly). This wasn’t head-tennis football and aside from one scissors tackle by Aaron Cresswell on Pepe – which should have been a red card but Mike Dean is Mike Dean – it wasn’t even that violent or brutal. The football wasn’t brutal or ugly, it was just Zombie football; two sets of players going through the motions of a previous footballing life.
Overall there was a weird vibe to the game. Bellerin pulled up injured before kickoff, which is just bad luck or possibly due to his lengthy recovery from ACL surgery. So, Maitland-Niles stepped in and did his best but it looked like that entire right side of the pitch struggled to get going for Arsenal.
Then Kieran Tierney went down with a freak shoulder injury and Kolasinac stepped in to cover. Again, he did a fine job but the injuries set the game up with a feeling that things might not go Arsenal’s way. Instead of a lineup that featured two of Arsenal’s most talented fullbacks, Freddie was forced to play two backups.
But even the subs can’t explain the feeling that for the first 50-60 minutes it looked like neither team wanted to be there. Play was often slow, Arsenal passed the ball backward and sideway among the center backs and West Ham was happy to let them. Challenges were even half-hearted, and on more than one occasion Granit Xhaka physically shrank away from a duel, one of the two costing Arsenal a goal. After which he did the now patented “throw your hands up and look around at your teammates as if it was somehow actually their fault” gesture.
But then something changed. Just at the moment that fans were about to lose their rag over Nicolas Pepe’s 100th turnover (actually his 22nd) Gabriel Martinelli did the thing he does, put his head down and just started to drive at the defense – like a racehorse with the bit between his teeth.
Kolasinac slipped him a nice cross, Martinelli still had work to do to catch up to it, but West Ham were caught back-peddling and Gab poked in the goal. That goal is better than you think: Martinelli hot that cross in stride, and curled it away from the keeper into the side netting.
And just like that Arsenal decided to play some football.
In ten minutes Arsenal scored 3 goals. Just to underscore how wild this match was: Arsenal took 3 shots in the first 60 minutes, four shots in the next ten minutes, and 3 shots the rest of the game. A curling effort from Pepe scored the 2nd, a nice little chip from Pepe to Aubameyang was the 3rd and relief flowed from all corners of Goonerdom.
The Pepe goal is a Pepe Special. He did that many times last season in France. He’s the Ivorian Robben: always goes left but if you switch off for even a second and give him space to get the ball onto his left foot he will curl in that shot.
And you could see how much the win meant to everyone after the match. There were plenty of hugs and smiles all around. Freddie and Pepe exchanged some words and though we don’t know what was said, Pepe wore a huge grin.
It’s probably a bit early to talk about turning corners and the like but it’s perfectly appropriate to celebrate a win. We needed it.
Thank you, Mr. Martinelli.
“Play Auba at the tip of the spear, Martinelli/Saka wide left, Pepe wide right, Ozil in the 10. Have Laca and Auba compete for the spearhead role. Easy peasy, no?”
________________________
Great to see not only that Freddie reads 7amkickoff, but that he took my advice from the last thread 🙂
Joking aside, Freddie played folks in their preferred positions and got the reward. The thing I most wanted to see was Auba NOT wide right (or left), even if it meant dropping Lacazette (whose goal productivity is not what it should be anyway). If Laca plays, it should be on Auba’s terms, since he’s an elite striker and one of the few world class talents in our squad. He was superb yesterday, as was Martinelli, in whom I’m a big believer. Say it again… he’s got a higher ceiling than Gaby Jesus, and he allies that with Sanchez-like workrate. Luckily for Laca, the Christmastime congestion means that everyone will get games.
Once Arsenal started to play, Ozil was superb, and according to Alan Shearer, he ran the midfield, with Rice and Noble being unable to handle his craft and movement. Comparison to Robben spot on for Pepe. Pepe has a superb left peg, but he’s still a bit one-footed and you should never show him the inside from wide right. That said, his shot and assist were terrific plays.
Maybe slightly concerning is that Freddie played 3 different CB combos in 3 games… Luiz/Mustafi, Luiz/Sokratis and Sokratis/Chambers. I suppose a good way of looking at things is that he isnt afraid to switch from what is not working. And Luiz was poor last game
Yes about Martinelli. I love that kid. It’s not just his fearlessness and talent, it’s that he works so damn hard for the team, every single minute. His attitude is perfect.
I love Wengerball with all my heart. Even with its flaws, it brought me back every 2 to 3 days to watch. Emotionally it was a roller coaster, but entertainment wise, it was second to none for me.
But now, It’s hard for me to watch an Arsenal game with expectations of entertainment that will come along with result. Seeing everything that has happened in the last 18 or 19 months, It seems a bit unfair for the team to do a complete turnaround in 2 or 3 weeks. Especially if the last season of Wenger’s tenure was bad too? We havent been that great for almost 2 and a half seasons now, so being really down feels a bit like overreacting for me.
From Freddie’s first game and probably till February, if he is still here by then, I am giving him the same leeway, understanding and support that Emery was given at the start, probably more because Emery had a pre-season. I am now watching the games to see what characteristics Freddie is trying to give this team and how they develop from game to game.
This team, under any new manager who comes in mid-season, will have its growing pains. But the impressive thing about these group of players, which has somehow gone unnoticed, is how hard they worked under Emery and that effort seems to be reborn after they gave up on Emery, and that has surprised me. They went from “They wanted it more” around February/March 17/18 to being the best running team in the most intense League in the world in 18/19. They are nowputting in the same level of effort for Freddie.
It’s now up to the Freddie to come up with an attacking way of playing, tactics and drills designed to protect and lay the plartform for the side’s attack, and conveying all of that as clearly as possible to the players. The players are eager to win, or as eager as I have seen an Arsenal side to succeed.
Quite agree. Put players in their best positions or don’t play them at all. Having two wide players who can go past people makes all the difference. The two full backs didn’t do bad, allowing for the fact that the whole team were crap for 60 minutes. I hate to bang on about this, but how on earth does Xhaka get a game? He was appalling and for some reason he seems to set the tone for the whole team. A simple quick fix? Find someone else. Instil a bit of discipline into Guendouzi and play him. Why not? It’s lucky for Granit that Adams and Keown aren’t in that dressing room. He’d be hanging on his clothes peg by his testicles.
I’m happy we won.
But that first 60 minutes was gruesome.
You suggest that from a technical standpoint it was fine; yes, we had 80% possession. But the cowardice on display was hard to stomach. And by cowardice I mean playing not just the safe pass, but the safest pass out of all options available. I got the sense they weren’t so much afraid to try a pass between the lines or between defenders as they had zero confidence that their teammate could receive the ball and do something positive with it. Xhaka is emblematic of this problem; he plays so many sideways safe passes and almost never makes a short hard run to come collect the ball off the defenders, instead he watches them struggle to build out from the back like some battle scarred WWI veteran who can’t tolerate the idea of heading into the trenches. And then he reinforces his own trepidation by actually trying stupid cross-field passes that get intercepted. There’s no middle ground.
I thought that taking Guendouzi out of the line-up would be a positive for improving the speed of our ball circulation. I like that Torreira parks himself more centrally and I think that helps control the game a bit better. But neither he nor Xhaka made any brave passes in the first 60 minutes trying to quickly break the lines before West Ham got set up.
But once we scored, oh, lo and behold the one-touch passing reappeared. Torreira starting getting the ball out faster. We actually built through the middle rather than trying to build through the flanks.
If I’m Freddie, it’s steady small-sided games with one-touch condition put on the matches, start them feeling more confident that they can play with that rhythm they had the final 30 minutes. And we need an answer to Xhaka, I’m sorry, he slows the team down, he cannot play against a opposition that harries him, he picks either disastrous options or extremely safe options.
On the down side, I really don’t understand the whole ducking out of the way thing. For West Ham’s goal, I counted at least three players who ducked out of the way, starting with (I think) Kolasinac on the initial cross in. I know it can’t be personal cowardice… we’re talking about a man who charges *out* of a car to take on armed men, for chrissake. Knives are a lot scarier than an air-filled bladder wrapped in synthetic leather. And the West Ham defender made himself big and blocked Pepe’s shot late on.
So is it something that’s drilled into them at the youth level? Some sort of injury prevention technique? Or is it something that’s drilled into them by their agents, a-la Corbin Bernsen in “Major League”: “Year after this I go free agent. Plus me and my agent got a couple of plans for life after baseball. So I am not about to risk major injury or displace this property for a collection of stiffs!”
Hugely relieved for the win of course, but based on a totally subjective analysis of our play, it didn’t look like our passing and movement off the ball has improved at all. I’m guessing it’s a combination of low confidence, lazy execution (WTF?!), one-eyed refereeing, and the fact that teams know that if they put us under pressure, we’ll consistently cough up the ball in dangerous areas. And how many times did we miss a chance to counter through ultra-conservative passes going backwards and sideways? It had me tearing out the sad remnants of my hair.
Three fantastic goals however. Kudos to Claude for setting Freddie on the right track. Although he’ll probably switch to Saka, Nelson and Smith-Rowe for the next game…
I don’t know if there’s any mystery over why the first hour was so dire. The players’ confidence is shot to pieces, especially over losing the ball in transition. The result was that Torreira and Xhaka barely passed the ball forwards at all, let alone taking on more challenging passes. Chambers came out a couple of times to thread balls through to Pepe, as if to remind his midfielders how it could be done.
When Emery was hired I was worried about the culture shock between a manager who loves systems and functional players, and a team who had been recruited on the basis of talent, character and creativity, and encouraged to find their own solutions to problems on the pitch.
By essentially retraining the squad to play in a way they didn’t want, he undermined their confidence in themselves almost fully. They’ve forgotten how to play, and forgotten how to enjoy the game. That first hour of football I was watching a broken team.
As Freddie said afterwards, we are still a long way off from where we need to be, and there is no time to work with the team over December. It’s all on the players’ character now. Can they build themselves back up? Can they trust each other and work for each other? Can they get themselves back to the Arsenal identity of fast, pass-and-move, unpredictable football? I’m watching Ozil closely – this is his opportunity to lead through example and really show his quality
This all makes good sense to me, and you’re spot on about Ozil.
It’s just a shame our next game is against a City team out to banish the effects of a derby loss. That will almost certainly be a loss, regardless of how rejuvenated our spirits. I hope the team is able to look past it.
I was ok with the first half. I honestly didn’t understand the frustration. This was a team low on confidence just making sure to keep the ball. The goal was a bit unfortunate in that first the Tierney injury and then the Pepe non call (and near escape) broke our concentration. Ok, so maybe not unfortunate as much as understandable. What was good was we didn’t let ourselves panic because of it.
I don’t think the second half comeback would have happened were it not for keeping like 80% of the ball and getting some touches going, even if it was all sterile. That was us with the handbrake on and the passing helped oil the machinery. A goal and we were riding high on confidence.
It was only West Ham, and poor Pellegrini looked so sad after the game. Obviously a much tougher test up next. But this was the beginning of us moving past Emery’s issues.
Personally, I hope Freddie gets a chance to stay at least till the end of the season. The players seem to like him and we finally saw them playing with a smile, as Freddie put it.
like most, i’m happy with the result but the performance was awful. like jack and others have already mentioned, the passing was, and continues to be, far too conservative. not only were they making the safest pass but they’re not even looking to play the ball forward.
don’t get it twisted. arsenal weren’t that great. it was the injury to creswell that changed the game. until that point, pepe could do nothing right, continually giving the ball away. another thing that changed is torreira began to look to advance the ball instead of his backwards passing. mesut began to drop a bit but i noticed he began to lead torreira with passes, almost forcing him to play the ball forward.
lastly, going against the popular grain, aubameyang is a huge step-down to lacazette at center forward. he hardly found space to receive the ball without dropping super-deep to get the ball. whenever the ball got played forward to him when he was high, he couldn’t keep the ball. he’s not a center forward. playing him there is as smart as liverpool playing salah there. the reason arsenal he found some success is that west ham sucks. we shouldn’t believe that auba is the answer. maybe i’m wrong. we’ll see.
Cresswell shouldn’t have been on the pitch to get injured. Pepe had the better of him, or rather, would have bad the better of him more often, but, to Cresswell’s delight, Mike Dean gave the latter’s dirty antics a carte blanche instead of carte jaune. There was that one especially egregious lunging tackle…switch the shirt and put Sokratis’ name on the back, and that’s a carte rouge. Mike Dean is a fool.
Auba is not a #9. He and Pepe should, ideally, be playing as mirror-images of each other in the half-channels, allowed to cut into the middle onto their stronger foot, but threats with their pace such that it pins both the CBs and full-backs. To line up that way though we need a #10 that can pick the ball up and turn – how we do depends so much on Ozil. Once he took more control the final 30 minutes, we looked a lot better. My perception was that he was on the ball more, taking it off of Torreira in the middle and distributing it. I’m not the biggest Ozil fan, but when you have two “lightweight” strikers that rely on pace and skill vs. power and guile, then you need the #10 to be able to pull the CB’s out of position so our strikers can make runs in the channels and get balls to feet.
Move Martinelli into the CF spot. Henry Mk II.
Also– him as the tip of a spear defensively? His instincts, quickness, and ability to change direction to chase up top– make him a natural for the role between Auba and Pepe as you’re describing.
I think Martinelli is supplementary to Auba and Pepe, the same half-channel runner/finisher type. That said, he does have some Coutinho like qualities and Coutinho played in the withdrawn striker/#10 role for Liverpool. Firmino plays a little more as a #9, but he’s also a bit more physical. Martinelli may get stronger as he ages though.
Yes, I think Martinelli has an eye for a pass AND a finish that might make him an excellent 10/false 9. He likes to take a strong defensive role. Right now, the spine of our team has no one that can play more defenisvely up the pitch. I love Ozil, but when paired with Xhaka, they create that massive crater in midfield that we see teams exploit. I think having a bit more tackling and speed in the position could have a ripple effect that helps the defense as well as attack. Am I crazy?
Couple of good points.
Comparison to Coutinho does strike a chord. But I also get more of an in-the-box poacher sense about Martinelli too (a la Auba). Yeah, just 18– he’s going to add some muscle mass, and be more of a load for defenders than Coutinho– in the not too distant.
Don’t think you are crazy in the least LA. Martinelli’s presence up front can dictate with pressure . Auba, Pepe and he, all have pace to pressure– though neither of the former closing on the ball seems to influence flow. Consider too, near future ESR in the MF spine. He’s looks a terror too.
Auba’s productivity and efficiency in front of goal is what matters, he’s one of the best strikers in the league and in Europe period, and he had an involvement in all 3 goals.
Sometimes we get too cute and overthink things. What is most important? Lacazette is better at holding up play, he does not score enough goals or provide enough assists, or supply enough key moments. Auba did his job yesterday… has been doing his job since he arrived at Arsenal. Broken all kinds of landmark goalscoring records. I’d prioritise that. He’s not a classic No 9, but he scores by the trailerload. Giroud is, but I know who I’d rather have to get me goals.
Auba playing through the middle serves Arsenal best; classic No. 9 or not. Lacazette will have to fight his way back into the starting XI. Luckily for him, it’s December, and EVERYONE will play a lot. Competition is good, and Martinelli is the real deal.
I like his hard working on the flanks, because Arsenal full backs traditionally need, but often don’t get, defensive support. Looking at you, Nick Pepe.
lacazette doesn’t score enough goals? in eight league starts, the man has 5 goals this season. what more do you want?
there’s this belief that your leading scorer has to play center forward but for most of the top teams, it’s not the case. auba won the golden boot last season making runs off of lacazette. the other strikers that auba shared the golden boot with weren’t center forwards either. if arsenal were a counter-attacking team like leicester, i’d understand wanting auba’s speed up top.
arsenal need to do what’s best for the team. the biggest problem at arsenal is they have no penetration; the ball seldom get’s played forward and when it does, it often doesn’t stick. lacazette at center forward, scoring at a rate similar to auba, also allows the ball to stick. arsenal getting their first win in over two months against a crap west ham team because aubameyang played center forward is no validation that this is the way forward. it’s not like arsenal created a ton of chances. they won’t be able to sustain that efficiency rate. they’ll need to create more chances and that only happens when the ball is near the goal. if auba has to be facing the goal to keep the ball, it’s unsustainable.
I see Auba as something similar to Vardy or a less-injured Michael Owen. Speedy, poacher, fox-in-the-box. But very effective at it. Martinelli has many of the same qualities, but I wouldn’t want to put the pressure on him of leading the line at this point.
Lacazette has scored some important goals. But the one in the prior game was a fluke. That was intended to be a flick-on header, not a header on goal.
Beyond that, I honestly see him as a faster but less effective Giroud. He’s the best hold-up, back to goal option we have. But not as good as Giroud in that role. And not good enough to sacrifice Auba in the middle. If we could get a good return for him in Jan, and find a good central or attacking mid, or a very good CB, I’d have no hesitation in selling him.
Josh- I admire your contrarian view about Auba. It’s nice to have a forum to discuss this rationally, as always. Not sure I agree, though. I have been disappointed with Laca’s recent form (as with most of the team), and I think he might be over Arsenal at this point. I’m alos seeing Auba’s link up play improving – his back heel was lovely, and he seems to be finding more of those opportunities recenty. It’s impossible to play him and Auba together, though.
I was releived to see Pepe finally get his goal, because I have not forgotten your prediction that he will be a higher priced Iwobi talent-wise (or something to that effect), and up to this point, I was starting to think you were right. (we have long memories at 7am) Here’s hoping we see more evidence disproving you, 🙂
* It’s impossible to play Auba and Laca together is what I meant!
i don’t make predictions on players i’m unfamiliar with. in this instance, i knew nothing about pepe as i’d never seen him play. i just felt he was pretty expensive, scoring only 13 goals from open play in ligue 1 and wondered what that would translate into in the premier league.
what i said was we don’t know if pepe is better than iwobi (or zaha) and if so, we don’t know how much better. like i said, pepe was super-expensive and i felt arsenal had bigger needs than to spend that much on him.
Given that we’re pretty much assured qualification to the next round, and with an eye on the City game, what’s our Europa first eleven on Thursday? The fullback injuries are worrying.
Three at the back. I hate to suggest it, because we should be trying to perfect one system, not confusing matters. But;
Martinez
Mustafi/Luis/Sokratis
Saka/Willock/ESR/Burton/Nelson
Lacazette/Martinelli
Saka and Nelson have played WB before. Freddie apparently loves Burton, I would not be shocked if he gives the kid his first start.
(I’m not sure if ESR or Nelson are healthy though…)
Nelson finished the match last night– coming on for Pepe late.
…but we’re not assured of qualification.
Standard would have to beat us by nine goals. Do I have that right?
I think we’re assured.
The dude racially abuses Arsenal players. Anyone who defends him is an asshole.
How ironic that in a piece on the toxicity of the Arsenal fanbase you come out with this statement. The unsubstantiated statements you attribute to Troopz did not seem racist to me. There has been a history at Arsenal of speculation on the desire of certain Spanish players flirting with Barcelona to name a recent instance. Not racist. Questioning whether Xhaka is Albanian without the context of the statement leaves it open to interpretation.
We talk about “the toxic fanbase”. I hear it every day. And the toxic fanbase is friends with the captain of the team. But we need him. He’s the only one scoring us goals.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/12/aftv-troopz-reveals-real-reason-pierre-emerick-aubameyang-box-11082814/ There are friends and then there are acquaintances and what defines each is in the eye of the beholder.
My point yesterday and now is that Arsenal has enough problems within and blaming fans whoever they are solves nothing.
Just an FYI: when you make a comment on my site, I see who you are even if you try to hide your identity by changing the display name. Now, maybe you aren’t a well-known commenter here and you’re just using their email address, perhaps that’s happening. But it’s a very unusual email address and if you’ve somehow found out that other person’s email address i wonder if they would like to know. Anyway, the fact that you’re hiding your identity shows me that you know that this line of argument is BS and you don’t want to out yourself.
Anyway, it’s racist to question Xhaka’s Albanian heritage or whether a Spanish player (who isn’t actually Spanish, he’s Catalan FFS) is throwing Arsenal games because he’s Spanish. These aren’t unsubstantiated quotes. Troopz looked into the campera and said that Bellerin was throwing the game for Atletico because he’s Spanish. It’s a direct attack on his ethnicity.
Just ask yourself this. What if Troopz had said “Bellerin’s a Jew, I wonder if he would rather play for Tel Aviv harder than Arsenal?” Or what if he’d said of Aubemeyang “Auba isn’t black, black people have heart and Auba doesn’t have heart”. Just sub in the ethnicity/race of anyone else and you can see how disgusting his statements are.
Honestly can’t believe anyone would attempt to defend this stuff.
Perhaps I’m confused because I haven’t read the original comments, nor do I know who Troopz is, but just to clarify: “Spanish” is a national or cultural designation, not a racial or ethnic one. There is no equivalence, for example, in subbing “black” for “French,” any more than “Jew” for “Spanish”, etc. One could be both, but they are not the same thing.
Indeed, history has taught us the danger of tying a racial or ethnic category to a national one.
It seems to me (again, as an outsider) Troopz made an unfair claim based on assumptions of national loyalty. At worst, it’s xenophobic. Even then, is it inherently xenophobic to question someone’s bias towards their own national or cultural identity? Such bias is often felt by the people who claim it of others, so it’s not an accusation necessarily founded on a prejudice against other countries.
Yes, B, it is bad to say that a guy is throwing an Arsenal game because he’s Spanish (which he isn’t, he’s Catalan) and wants the Spanish team to win more than his own club. It is also racist. This is an Englishman talking about someone from Spain. It’s not like the English don’t have a troubling history of hatred toward the Spanish. And by history I mean, oh I dunno, when was that Brexit vote?
You try to make racism logical. It’s not logical. If it was logical, there wouldn’t be racism because there’s no such thing as race.
Also, why do you (and others, though specifically you) need to see a difference between racism and xenophobia? If there is one, it’s extremely small. In fact, so small it’s unnecessary to differentiate. I use the terms interchangeably because “racism” is the stronger word but if you need to call it xenophobia I guess we can call it that. Either way, it’s appalling.
But I can’t figure out why so many “smart guys on the internet” need to police my use of the word racism. Any time I use the word, I get people telling me “what this is isn’t actually racism.” Does it offend you like when I use; semicolons wrong: or something? Why? Why is this a thing you need to fight?
ctpa is who I am. I didn’t change the auto fill-in from my actual name to my email name. So no I am not trying to hide my ID.
Now that you’ve added context on Bellerin, you have a point. Of course, it is ignorant to question a person’s heritage under any circumstance.
My questions and defense were from not understanding how in your examples you got to racism. That’s why I asked for the context which you have supplied. You’ve explained them more clearly and I would not have defended them.
Nobody who comes onto your site should be labeled an asshole whatever the disagreement because we should be able to engage in civil discourse on any topic.
“But it’s a very unusual email address and if you’ve somehow found out that other person’s email address i wonder if they would like to know. ”
Have mercy. Didn’t think that one through did they?
Irony meets sophistry. 😶
Tim’s line made me give it a think.
‘Of all my friends or acquaintances who might post under my email address?
How many would write with the same style and cadence that I do?’
Hmm. Nope. Can’t think of one.
My, my aren’t we the clever one.
I would like to see Freddie given a decent chance, if we pull him before the end of the January transfer window the record on his cv may not look great even though he has probably taken over at the worst time since Bertue Mee left.
Without a crystal ball it would be difficult to say that Arteta would be better and he could just be recruited at the end of the season the same as Allegri and it would give him more time to brush up on his english.
Even then Freddie would have a big challenge to turn this around without a summer transfer window to get rid of a few and get a midfield deep playmaker in.
I would love for Freddie to be given until the end of the season. The only manager I’d be OK with him stepping aside for right now is Vieira and only because I think Vieira would keep him in the assistant role. Any other new manager will probably want his own guys on staff.
Latest rumor is… Paulo Sousa?!?! Another manager with links to Jorge Mendes (I guess Mendes arranged his move to Fiorentina). His release clause is only 3m – perfect for Arsenal!
I would love to have Vieira in but has he really made his mark yet?
if he does well Roy Keane would have to give him credit at something he himself has failed at.
If Patrick wasn’t ex Arsenal his name wouldn’t come up.
This season has gone in the league and I don’t see a gain in appointing another mistake.
we need to take the pressure off Freddie and see if we can see a definate improvement or just take stock and see who is around if we need a change no point in change for the sake of it why buy a vauxhall when we can wait until a porsche becomes available
Moaning about a poor 60 minutes is silly. The first 20 were THE way to play away from home. Silence the crowd!
Agree that beyond that point they should then look to attack more. But confidence is a factor in that.
Kolasinac doesn’t get the credit he deserves. The guy works hard.
If he had “Tierney” on his back hisnperformances would get alot more credit.
Xhaka again gets over scrutinised and too harshly commented on.
Auba wasnt great for me.
Pepe got my MOTM. Yes he lost possession on occassion. But he was brave, tireless in getting back and showed attacking intent.
Ozil for me took up dead spots far too often. He looked to be hiding. When he did get the ball his passes were so simple to almost be pointless.
Big thumbs up for Chambers too!
agree about kolasinac and chambers. auba did okay. pepe got the goal and the assist so he put food on the table but he was far from good. he’ll have to improve and i believe he will with a run in the side. he needs an overlapping fullback or they’re simply going to double-team him every time.
xhaka gets what he deserves. torreira was very good but i truly believe it was the competition; west ham are going down. likewise, i thought mesut was very solid.
Agree with all of that!
There’s still lots of improvement to be made. But I’m pretty sure a big chunk of the recent performance issues were psychological. Probably going back to last season and the failures in league and Europa, and made worse by recent setbacks. It was obvious during the first half. But there really did seem to be a different spark after getting the first and second goals. Hopefully with a good win against Standard, and at least a decent showing against City, we can get back on track. There are good players on this team…certainly better than what they had been showing.
Agree that confidence has hit us hard. I feel it was a festering sore that just eventually popped though, what with the treatments of ozil, mustafi, Koscielny and then recently xhaka (by us the fans).
For me, you either move a player out of the club quietly and respectfully or you back them to the hilt.
Leaving them in the ranks to fester and cause unrest has never worked.
Ancelotti has been sacked by Napoli.
Come on down.
‘sup Dean.
Swiss Ramble just said the club are going to be £50 million in the red this season. If anyone thinks the Kroenke group are interested in a long term project like Mikel you are dreaming. I bet you Carlo Ancelotti worked this out with Napoli an he’s going to be Arsenal coach by the City game. The Kroenkes want back into the Champions League ASAP. Then they can sell to the Chinese to pay off the LA stadium and that’s the kind of deal Jorge Mendes is known for greasing. Of course they will hire Carlo Ancelotti.
Does anyone know whether Swiss Ramble’s verdict/outcome from going through the finances is also a reflection of the financial health of the club or just the financial performance? A few years in the red, by 50 mil, for Arsenal isn’t going to make us unable to purchase top talent or compete for such talent. But if it’s a reflection of the financial health (financial position) then we will be in trouble.
For now, if its performance then it isn’t an excuse I will be worrying too much about and one I will not be accepting if it is highlighted as the reason for not making moves. And to be fair, it hasn’t been a lack of moves made by the Kroenkes that has been the problem, but the way the funds have been used and under Arsene, how they have not been used.
FYI: I’m using Tom’s email address and his real name but I’m actually someone else. This might blow up in my face because the dude writes in such a sophisticated way that’s probably impossible to imitate.
Here goes:
If there ever was a time to let Arsenal players slide for any shortcomings outside of a half hearted effort , this is it.
We lose that game and the next one against City, while Southampton beat WH at home ,and we are one point off relegation.
Let that sink in.
This is obviously a season from hell and until we put some distance between ourselves and the bottom three I’ll refrain from criticizing anyone ,
Except Xhaka of course but that’s a given.
Just kidding, He gets a pass too.
I checked my inbox multiple times if the article from 7amkickoff was published after this much-needed win. Glad that it is finally here but not as spicy as I was expecting it to be. Haha.. Even though we got a win, it is pretty obvious to notice the Arsenal DNA missing from the players. We’re so much afraid of our opponents. The goals were all beautiful but it is not too hard to see that West Ham were extremely poor with their defending. All three of our goals could have been easily stopped. I’m happy that the team got a win finally and hopefully we can come back to the winning ways. But I’m so sick of looking at our team being scared. If you’re not brave or not ‘feeling’ brave, the other way to overcome fear is through anger. That ‘anger’ is actually the Arsenal DNA. We need that anger towards our opponent. Seen Xhaka and Aubameyang specially blaming other players multiple times. That’s rubbish. Show anger towards the opponents not towards each other.
A lot of comment today which goes to show some bit of relief for we fans out here.
I will go on to point out some of the differences that gave us the win.
It was same old Arsenal and if we had started the same team against Brighton, at least we could got a draw.
The first obvious difference was the opposition we faced. West ham too is going through an Arsenal phase and they were very lucky to win at Chelsea. But they are suffering too like us from a confidence crisis, reason why a flat first half. So in essence we faced a team like ourselves.
Secondly but most importantly we had runners. Gabby, Torreira, Miles, Pepe and Kolasinac. The first four listed players have hardly started games the past few matches. While Xhaka was fooling himself, Torreira covered up spaces and did a lot of marking. Maitland has more pace and energy defensively than Bellerin (kid has got a lot to work on the luck that follows him), while kola was his usual and young Gatsby putting in defensive tackles like he was a left back. This pace also helped us moving forward a lot.
Thirdly the defence pairing was on point. I think that is our best defensive pairing. Chambers/Holding is a better version of Luiz. We have no other versions for Sokratis whom I feel is a good defender who isn’t nice to his opponents. So one ball playing defender and a bully playing defender. Gives that center quite the balance. I think Sokratis should just pull out the ball whenever he has the ball to his feet.
The Negatives that may still cost us.
First is Xhaka. No comments it is so obvious. And I need to state that I think its pure suicide from the bench to keep playing someone whom I feel has made it clear that he’s got something against us. All his patent mistakes were on two folds yesterday. Xhaka has to stop playing.
i feel the need to continue the center forward debate. i always will when we’re talking about defensive mid and center forward positions; it’s what i know.
let me start by saying that arsenal’s biggest problem isn’t center forward play. it’s that they don’t penetrate. if you ask dillon, he’ll tell you that the first principle of attack is penetration; having possession of the ball as close to the opposition goal as possible. this is a struggle because of arsenal’s strategy to play out from the back and the lack of impetus of the arsenal players to play the ball forward, among other things.
once arsenal get the ball forward, they fail to keep the ball. this is where laca adds value that the others don’t. we need longer memories. go back to the pre-season and the start of the season and arsenal were decent with laca leading the line. he was able to show for the ball, win the ball, keep the ball in the final third, and draw fouls. it was when he got the ankle injury that arsenal struggles got real, so much so that emery had no choice but to bring ozil back into the team as ozil can also keep the ball. auba can keep the ball, too. he’s just not nearly as good as lacazette or mesut.
i find it ironic that when laca first arrived, i said that he would be a step-down at center forward to giroud and everyone said i was wrong. going back further than that, folks were saying that alexis and theo were better center forward options than giroud. we remember how that worked out. now, folks are saying that auba is a better option than laca. sorry folks, he’s not. if you play auba at center forward he will score more goals. if you play laca at center forward, the team will score more goals. west ham are an outlier because they are so bad. we’ll see it when arsenal plays a team with a proper defense.
the real question is who should start of martinelli and pepe.
also, be mindful of the stats on the season.
auba has 16 league starts and 11 goals. laca was out for nearly two months so he only has 8 league starts but 5 goals. one could make a semi-rational argument that if laca had played as many minutes as aubameyang, he would have nearly as many goals.
when laca went out with the ankle injury, emery went to a 4-4-2 diamond with auba and pepe as the counter-attacking strikers. it suited pepe as he had quite a few chances but not aubameyang. arsenal need the ball and the best guy to help arsenal keep the ball in the final third is lacazette. this will lead to arsenal creating more chances, hence scoring more goals.
lastly, laca’s a freaking monster; he’s a predator in the box, a fighter, and likely the most clinical finisher in the side. my point is that auba doesn’t have to line up at center forward to score a lot of goals.
I think there’s the trap of thinking that failure to keep the ball in the opponent’s half is a direct function of “hold-up” play; the strong center-forward, good at shielding the ball with a defender at his back and buying a few seconds to allow the midfielders to join the attack. That’s only one model. Liverpool don’t have this. Barcelona don’t have this. Their ball retention in forward areas is built upon more dynamic interactions, quick lay-offs or playing the ball into the feet of players in motion.
I think the concern with Auba at center-forward is his role in a 4-2-3-1 set-up, where the striker should be a better hold-up player a la Lacazette because there’s increased chance of him receiving the ball in transition when the supporting midfielders are too far away for immediate lay-off passes.
But is it worth shunting Auba out wide to satisfy a system/set-up that best fits Lacazette, or would it be better to use a system that can move Auba more central but not ask him to be a hold-up striker? 4-3-3, with a withdrawn #9/#10 would seem best to me. The other option is a 4-4-2 (not great for Pepe or Martinelli, both more natural wingers/half-channel operators who’d be asked to play midfield) or a more traditional 4-3-3 with the strong #9, but then that’s a system that wants wingers crossing the ball into the middle to be attacked. And not that Laca can’t be that #9, but we don’t want Auba and Pepe’s primary role being the delivery of crosses into the box.
Personally, I think tactically the best solution currently would be 4-3-3 with a front line of Auba/Ozil/Pepe, with Ozil playing the withdrawn Messi role and pulling CB’s out of line and occupying the opposition DM’s and then finding gaps for Auba or Pepe to run into. Then later in the game, say we have a lead and want to protect it, invert the system, swap Ozil for Laca, have him play at the head of the spear and ask Auba and Pepe to sit back a bit.
tierney dislocated his shoulder…don’t expect him back anytime soon.
xhaka’s out, too with a concussion. david luiz at cdm? heck yeah, especially against man city. we’ll see.
I think this team has been struggling thru a fun of terrible form. Form is cyclical and usually tends to even out over the course of a season and at some point we are going to have a run of good results to counterbalance the bad. The game on Monday might be a start of the upswing but unfortunately we have Man City Chelsea and ManU in the next few games so it will be tough to put together an unbeaten run. However, I expect us to go have a run of good results in early 2020 which hopefully will bring us back into one of the Europa league spots. Anything is possible but realistically top 4 looks out of reach.
Martinelli will go thru some struggles but out of this group of U21’s he looks like the one who might be real keeper. Hopefully Pepe will come on strong after a slow start.