Arsenal (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[Chippy_boy]

Relax lads, it's just a Khaldoon cunning plan, so that when we're found innocent of 115 charges, no-one is bothered because they think we are shit now.

 

[Chopper2115]

We all know that there are certain boxes to tick now but agreed Nedum simply shits on Richards to me for that advert alone he should not be anywhere near any panel

It’s really weird how he is on the programme for his entertainment purposes rather than bringing someone on who actually can analyse a game at a high level.

 

[Micky Blue]

Disclaimer: I am making this post simply because I always do and I guess I’m superstitious!
I haven’t seen one nano second of the game, I read about 8 or 9 posts on the match day thread at the beginning.
However I still maintain that the Boys in Blue never gave in. They fought to the end.
Whatever happened on that pitch today I doubt that any one of our players said to themselves‘I’m not going to try’. I doubt that they expected to lose by that many, I doubt that they gave up.
It was a very bad day on the field. Rubbish happens and they will be travelling home tonight feeling depressed.

This sounds bad but that is my hope as, obviously, I am not travelling with them, that that is how they are feeling because if they aren’t then I guess they are not the team I love. I stand with them when they win. I will not disrespect them when they lose. I will just say. You can do so much better Boys in Blue. Please come back and show us.

Shout me down, insult me (or not because you are always kind to me) tell me off for defending them but hopefully you will also acknowledge that I am as gutted as you all are.
Thank you.
Sorry @jimharri … We are MANCHESTER CITY THE BEST TEAM IN THE LAND AND ALL THE WORLD (STILL) :-)

I like your posts, you always seem level headed and talk sense.

 

[Robinho's Subbuteo]

And to think, people thought Walker was the reason for our defensive fragility

He was but sadly not the only reason.

 

[Frankie lad]

Sick of this hands behind backs defending turning sideways and hey presto the ball sails into the net.I know the rules are shit but players seem more intent on not giving a handball than actually defending a shot.

 

[ancoats]

Nothing more than I expected. Said their midfield would run at will through ours and thats pretty much what happened.

Not a player out there played well and we can hide behind the fact that we gave them 2 goals BUT that defeat has been coming for a while (amongst others).

I said back in October when Rodri got injured that the real issue is that there is nothing that Pep can do to change this...no one to bring off the bench to sort out the midfield and that is still the issue.

We have bought players int he transfer window that might turn out to be good or even great players but none of them address the real issue...Those 2 new lads could turn put to be the reincarnation of Maldini BUT that wont stop teams stuffing us - No defender - even the best in the world can do anything when you have a whole forward line plus opposing midfielders running at them at will repeatedly.

Its not Bernardos fault - he aint a DM and at least he puts himself about
Kovacic is good player but a level below what we needed.....
Gundo - is finished as is KDB - he came on and looked totally disinterested - he aint got the fight in him anymore - offering him a deal extension at this point would be criminal

Foden had a bad game but he has a future here

Sav and Marmoush need to show more fight to get into a game...
Haaland - cant do anymore - he scored his chance and you cant ask much more than that in games like those.

Yes we made individual mistakes but I said this team needs an overhaul back in October and I stand by that....the whole midfield needs shifting out baring Foden and possibly Bernardo -

We are in a fight for top 4....top 2 we know will be Arsenal and the Scousers - but the last two places we are going to struggle to get....Newcastle are now our direct opponents and with our midfield unless we get someone in in the next two days and that player is able to adapt very very quickly - they will beat us...Joel Linton et al will bully us off the park....the scousers will take us to the cleaners with how strong they are in the midfield and upfront...another 6 pts dropped and we may finish outside the top 6 - knock on affect - the rebuild in the summer suddenly becomes harder with no CL to tempt players in.

We are being patched up mid-season and new faces do not always guarantee success at any time of the season
Why Pep and City did not buy a holding Midfield player in the summer, We have 24 hours in the winter window to Buy one and that is not good enough for me

 

[dadnlad]

It did in the end. The last 30 minutes was pure dominance

i dont get why dont we distrupt the game once a team get on top regroup and go again

 

[Len Rum]

Arsenal were excellent today and deserved their win. You cannot gift two goals, and nearly a third, with poor passing in your defensive third, and that's exactly what we did.
Ederson's absence was pivotal. Arsenal closed the passing lanes from defence and it made nervous players more vulnerable to taking unnecessary risks. Ortega's distribution was unusually poor too. Arsenal let us have some possession but pressed aggressively in the right areas to deny any time and space on the ball and tracked any off the ball runs. They were really good. Nevertheless, at 1-1, we had a genuine foothold and were creating chances before we equalised. Then we give the ball away again for them to score. It kicked us in our goolies and gave them the momentum that they built upon.

Couldn't disagree more.
Arsenal were frightened and timid and we were the better side up till 1-1 having gifted them the lead.
We let them back in they got confidence and we collapsed ( Feyenoord, Sporting,Juventus etc).

 

[malg]

So, any positives from today's game? 5-1 is a fucking pumping.

 

[garyCTID]

Foden needs to make himself scarce. As big a fuck up as Nunez against the rags.

He makes himself scarce in almost every game he plays in.

 

[willipp]

Same as with most of them, their confidence is incredibly fragile right now.

Yeah it’s so fragile isn’t it. At 1-1 I really thought we were favourites to kick on and win it. We were playing well and really controlling the game. I literally went to the kitchen to get a beer and hadn’t got to the fridge and heard the goal go in. Sat down with that sinking feeling and I think the players were the same. They threw the towel in and game up.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Weird and very frustrating game.

If anything we were better until the last 15 minutes, but we seem to have a death wish at the moment.

Lesson isn't that Arsenal or anyone else is much better than us, it's that IF YOU PASS TO THE OPPOSITION IN FRONT OF YOUR OWN GOAL YOU LOSE!!

 

[super_city_si]

I'll be amazed if we're still 4th come 15th March.
Our run of league fixtures likely relies on other managers NOT learning what we're currently so bad at.
We held the ball OK in the first half (after their goal) but only created a couple of chances - second half we simply folded.
We don't have a solution for our holding midfield problem and the rest are lightweight/slow, Phil seems to have plateaued as well which isn't helping.
Defensively without Dias and Ake we're a disaster - Nunes isn't a RB and Pep's insistance on playing him there is doing him no favours, Akanji playing without Dias/Ake compounds our issues.
Forward wise we're more interested in retaining possession than actually creating a chance for Haaland - hence why (as we were told ad nauseum by rat boy) he has so few touches.
Pep is still being royally stubborn, but equally I don't see he can change much based on the above. We don't have the personnel to simply sit in and play counter attacking football imho

I think we do when it’s called for. I thought how we were going to play today when I saw the team.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

Getting excited about being more threatening going forwards when you look like conceding every time your defenders are backing away for 40 yards - time after time - is simply burying your head in the sand.

Who's getting excited? Fucking strawman argument or what?

 

[flb]

We can’t actually play for 90 minutes can we. We are gassed on the hour and if a team ups the ante we get blown away. Pep continuing not to start Oreilly is infuriating if he plays and shite fair enough but he can’t be worse than what we are watching

Peps comments after are utterly delusional.
Personally, don't think this gets fixed in one-two transfer windows, we need open heart surgery.

Peps always maintained he will walk when the team don’t perform anymore.
It’s 100% open heart surgery.
Totally agree , this it two/three windows to sort , and overhaul this squad.
Ederson
Stones
Aki
Kovacic
KDB
Bernardo
Have reached the end of the line

 

[David White]

Predictable again. Looking at our results this season, I didn’t give us much of a chance there, but we really don’t help ourselves.

We defend apologetically, we don’t tackle, we don’t harass, we don’t close down. We back off, we lose our shape, we have nothing in midfield at all. Going forward we have ability but the manager has them playing in handcuffs. I’m certain of it. They’re absolutely petrified of losing the ball because Pep is on their back when they do, so we take no risks whatsoever apart from at the back where we have no choice but to take risks because the manager wants them to play that way.

Why after so many months of us being ran through have we not changed our style of play? Why can’t we become stubborn and difficult to break down, or the opposite and go a bit gung-ho?

We’re rapidly turning into Wenger’s Arsenal where everything had to align perfectly for us and we couldn’t deviate from a style of football that was once successful against almost everyone, to being successful against teams that let us play our game, don’t press us and fluff their lines when they break on us. To being rolled over by anyone team that fancies it and has a go.

Haaland is a complete waste of a shirt in this side. 30+ minutes without a touch when we’re chasing a game is fucking unbelievable. Either play to him, or change his role and get him dropping deeper.

Pep sets them up, he has to take responsibility and he isn’t doing his job unfortunately because he hasn’t changed a thing in months. He has unlimited credit in the bank because of what he has done. But he surely can’t reflect on this again tonight and think it was right, can he?

I think we’ll be lucky to get more than 1point this month, and that’ll be a draw at home against Newcastle.

Bernardo is on a hiding to nothing. He needs a break. Same for Gvardiol. Stones can’t do it anymore. Akanji is having a mare every game. The swapping and changing of goalkeepers is doing nobody any favours. Kovacic is trying. Foden needs to get his head straight. Nunes is massively out of his depth but in his defence he’s never a right back.

On a positive, I think Marmoush really looks a player. I hope he gets time to shine before the tactics weren’t employing nullify him completely. I think Savinho looked decent in spells. He really needs to toughen up though.

 

[meltonblue]

Again it begs the question why are we playing such risky football?

Again because of that lack of confidence. Bear in mind Peps style of play is designed to minimise risk, which is why he mentions about the players not being patient enough.

 

[ysmsa]

Don't think many were saying that midweek. He's far from shit but the current set-up certainly isn't helping him.

Spot on, there are many issues with our squad at present, he isn't one of them.

 

[blueballs84]

Yeah shame Joe isn’t used more or Nedum.
I can’t understand why Nedum isn’t used at all.
He’s really eloquent, makes really good points and he’s actually a blue.
As a pundit he pisses all over Richards.

Nedum is a great pundit, far better than Richards.

 

[eyalluvitt]

We are being patched up mid-season and new faces do not always guarantee success at any time of the season
Why Pep and City did not buy a holding Midfield player in the summer, We have 24 hours in the winter window to Buy one and that is not good enough for me

Gross negligence is what it’s called