Arsenal (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[City Raider]

I’d have bitten your hand off for the week we’ve just had after Brighton

 

[Dribble]

FUCKIN GUTTED!!​

I really dunno what to make of this more pragmatic City. Would I have taken a draw before the match started? Probably yeah. Did this match tell us more about this evolutionary Manchester City squad in a season of transition? Again, probably yeah! But I'll comment more on that later.



We looked relatively comfortable in the opening stages, when the ball broke to Reijnders who spun & attacked ArseAnal's stretched back line. He had Doku to his left & Haaland to his right, but chose Erling who shifted the ball to his right & slotted it past Raya to make it 0-1 City!

From that point onwards, ArseAnal grew in dominance, but still weren't taking many out & out risks, as the early goal seemed to shake their confidence, & reminded them that the Manchester City of old might still be in us somewhere, as the opener proved.



As the half wore on, ArseAnal continued to grow in dominance, but the whistle blew for half time with City comfortably holding on to their 0-1 lead.

After the break, the Tarquins made two attacking substitutions, & came out with bad intentions. City were forced to introduce Nunes to replace the injured Khusanov, a reminder about the criminal lack of right backs at the club. However, we stuck to a rigid 4-1-4-1 formation & showed a pragmatism to retain the points the goal had brought us, that I've rarely seen from a Guardiola side.



As the second half wore on, ArseAnal were becoming more & more desperate as they threw on even more attacking players chasing a point or three. City responded by taking off the clearly knackered Foden, to be replaced by Aké, which heralded a City 5-4-1 formation.

Bernardo was fuckin immense! It was his third game in 8 days, but he revved up his W16 motor once again & gave us all the horsepower he could muster.

Rodri was brilliant too. He controlled our midfield & shielded our defence, & I think it was sheer willpower that saw both he & Bernardo last the full 99 minutes.

A special mention must also go out to Jeremy Doku, who proved to be the pressure relief valve during extended periods of increasing ArseAnal dominance. Could we do the unimaginable? Could we hold out for the win? Unfortunately not.

With minutes remaining on the clock, the ball was ping ponging around ArseAnal's midfield & it broke to substitute Ezé. He chipped a superb ball into the space behind our high defensive line toward Martinelli, who brilliantly timed his run to spring our offside trap.

Donnarumma came out to force a Martinelli decision, but Martinelli lofted a world class ball under pressure with the outside of his right boot, which left Gianluigi in no man's land. Aké tried in vain to stop the ball crossing the line for the equaliser, but his effort was more in hope than expectation. ArseAnal 1-1 City with 5 minutes to go.

What we learned...​

After the equaliser, we then began to see the Manchester City we've become accustomed to, & it was ArseAnal who seemed happier to settle for a rescued point.

City poured forward & showed more ambition in the final 5 minutes, than we did for the previous 95. That's when it hit me that City aren't just evolving. We're now mixing our usual dominating swagger with a big dollop of pragmatism.

Previously, there's no way we'd have ceded control & territorial advantage for such extended periods. But this newly evolving City were already thinking points above performance accolades, something we're not used to seeing from us until the business end of the season.

This is evidently a transitional season for us, & it seems the team, squad, coaching staff & manager have bought into the points above performance accolades ethos that we saw on show today. But when you peer through the smoke, we were disciplined, well marshalled & showed energy & heart amid an Emirates onslaught. Crucially, we were relatively unphased & very controlled in everything we did.

HOWEVER, during the final 5 minutes we saw the re-emergence of the former champions & that burning desire to win. I'm gutted we conceded so late, & this match will never go down as a classic, but I saw a lot in this display to seriously lift my spirits for the season ahead.

City are prepared to mix it up in the pursuit of points. Our substitutions & finishing formation proved that point. My target for City this season hasn't changed. Signs of significant progress & CL qualification.

On today's showing, we've taken a massive step in the right direction against one of the PL's top contenders, & on their manor too. We've all got to understand that it will take another couple of seasons until the dominant City are truly back, & that's if we ever return to the halcyon levels that we regularly achieved. But in comparison to last season's game at the Emirates, today's performance was night & day.

ArseAnal won't be fancying the return trip to the Etihad, as they know we'll want to murder them for the 5-1 defeat, & their late equaliser today.

Our late rally which had them making late defensive substitutions to secure a point at home, will be playing havoc with their confidence. They threw everything at us, & could still only manage a draw. They also know we only played on Thursday, giving them a two day rest & home advantage, & we've still got several injured players to return during a season of transition.

Today was a moral victory for City, albeit we've only got a point away to show for it. It's also a reminder to ArseAnal that they've played two of the PL's top three teams from last season, & only got a point out of both encounters. They can't blame injuries or lack of rest in between a midweek CL game & today either.

This season is about to get VERY interesting! C'mon CITY!!! :-)

 

[hilts]

I like to think I exist in a reasonable middle. It’s more that these games always have comments that seem to exist on the extremes.

The arse and the scouse are the ones that show us where we are, late late goals never help.

 

[citymad]

Thought that was shit.

It’s only a resolute shithouse defensive performance if it works.

It fucking didn’t. Again. Reijinders and Savio A fucking joke for that goal. Take it to the corner.

Didn’t even try to attack 2nd half. 2 points pissed away.

Fuming.

Calm down you fool. The players were out on their feet that second half. For me it was a really top performance of resilience and bravery. Some brilliant defending from Nico, Gvardiol, Dias, Donna, Khus and even Nunes when he came on. Rodri was nothing short of magnificent. Just one silly error by Donna cost us all three points. Mind you it was a brilliant pass from Eze. Other than that they had just one shot on target.I really can't see how you can't be proud of that performance.

 

[bluemoon32]

No it doesn't, if anything it tells us we'll be up there come the end of season

I hope you're right mate, i just think Pep knows he hasn't got the squad that he's used to, hence the tactical changes.

 

[Vienna_70]

We almost made it, not our usual style, very resilient, loved how the goons were getting wound up with City taking our time.

I bet the irony of that flew right over their heads, after their disgraceful, cowardly performance at Etihad last season.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

In true happy clapper fashion, last Sunday morning would have taken a derby win, a CL win and a point at the Emirates, however in my usual Reverend Otto Witt (you're all going to die) mode - that highlighted all our issues and shortcomings, including Pep currently.
Doing the basics badly and players not stepping up.

Being glad with beating utd, Napoli, drawing at Arsenal is happy clapper? I'd call it being pleased with your team or club.

 

[coolcity]

Forget Liverpool mate as we are not good enough for that yet .

Liverpool are not that good, they have scraped 4 late wins that could have seen them drop up to 8 points and they could have dropped points yesterday after a bang average performance against a bang average team.

But we won't catch them by parking the bus.

 

[calumdown]

This further cements Pep’s reputation as the greatest manager of all time. He’s able to adjust and evolve. I think the other Pep and Kolo are probably helping Pep adjust as well, and I don’t think he wants to play like that but sometimes you have to adapt. I have always said, even up to two years ago, that in those games where teams, would just park the bus against us, (including Arsenal) that it would be better suited for Erling and our fast players to play more on the counter. Sit back little and use Erlings pace and punish teams. We use to play like that in the Sterling and Sane era.

This game showed that we have a solid defensive spine especially on set pieces where we struggled for years, especially last year. I would add Donnaruma is a big contributing factor in that as well. And on that note, while everyone wants to focus on our low block, park the bus tactics let’s talk about Arsenal’s stoke city long throw in, set piece tactics. Let’s have a towel on the side, Rory Delap style. Defense which ultimately won us titles in previous years was the most important thing we had to correct from last year and. I think this game showed we have take huge step in the right direction.

you were doing really well until your incorrect spelling of defence.

but
today is no day for grammarwankering
so i've given you a like

 

[hilts]

Or you, presumably, starting a post match cunts thread...

Ironically I wasn't the one complaining about posters views in this one sweetie, not sure why you want me to start a cunts thread for you.

Do it yourself ya lazy twat:-)

 

[Trojan63]

Great defensive display considering how we conceded last season from every attack
A points ok against these fuckers.
I’m torn on the erling sub think he gave them something to worry about, once he was subbed this allowed all 12 of arsenals players to camp in our half.
Special mention to captain black running 15 yards out of his tech area to get the ball and sped up the throw in, again not mentioned.

Arsenal had 12 players on the pitch - happy with a point then

 

[BLOOMUEN]

Why are we still having to suffer Gary ‘Smug’ Neville during our games? He’s always been a tw$t but for a short period after he retired he was current and offered a modicum of insight into the modern game. That was now a long time ago and the game has moved on considerably.
His negativity towards City today was plain embarrassing. No balance was offered when reflecting on a City team running on fumes and his calls for Nico O’ Reilly to be booked late on were laughable. What a tosser ….

 

[ysmsa]

On another note that was the bentest referee performance since the last bent one, doku got nothing but breathe on saka and it's a free kick, and where they found seven minutes I will never know

Helicoptered up from Klanfield yesterday by the PL.

Add the fact he played about 2.5 minutes over the 7 too.

Couldn’t find time to take our only corner at the end of the first half though!

 

[Micky Blue]

Agreed that he was very good today, but in em goal he was in a feckin wrong position....so they equalised by our fault... By just one and only serious our fault.... Life goes on ....

Yeah I get that. I agree, he was in the wrong position.
If I’m honest I think I misread the tone of your post initially.

Yeah. With a bit of luck we’ll beat Huddersfield lol.

 

[ancoats]

After that I think we will win the champions League. A team that can defend, a top keeper and lots of flair players to come back.

Little signs that Pep is building something special again, City will be ok with lots of great days to come

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

i guess last season you never saw every goal we conceeded everyone shouting for change whats saying doing it once is ok keep doing it is a sign of madness

Sorry, mate. Don’t understand what you are trying to say.

 

[coolcity]

I did we fought hard like an Everton
But thats pretty much all we showed. Could have been any team digging in and almost snatching a victory. You need a bit more quality tbh.

Like Pep just said we played this way because the opposition are better, its been a while since thats been the case. Last season was the start and if we're honest we dont know where we are. People got too giddy over the last 2 results.
Best just to chill and see what happens.

I think we have the quality, just need time to gel and get a bit more belief in the side but we need to start playing again and stop hoofing it around. We have the world's best striker on the pitch and we're playing for a draw for 90 minutes after going in front?

 

[chris85mcfc]

I’d have bitten your hand off for the week we’ve just had after Brighton

I think give it 24 hours and a nights sleep, and everyone will come to this conclusion.

Think there's just a lot of raw emotion at the moment, and i get it because we were so close to what would have been an immense 7 days.

I totally agree with you though, I thought we'd get beat today but I've seen plenty to be excited about this season.

 

[homerdog]

Do it yourself ya lazy twat:-)

I'm sure you're more than capable :-)

 

[citymad]

Liverpool are not that good, they have scraped 4 late wins that could have seen them drop up to 8 points and they could have dropped points yesterday after a bang average performance against a bang average team.

But we won't catch them by parking the bus.

WTF ? do you know football at all ? You think we would have won that game going all out attack ? Dippers lucky? Their a top team who create their one fortune by going right to the end and believing themselves. They'll walk the league this year but man I was impressed with our bravery today and it gives me hope we can push for a domestic trophy and top 4.