Arsenal (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

Although it wasn't a performance I would normally want to see I was very pleased with the way we kept the Arse at bay for all bar that one damn chance with the flooky hook over Donnarumma. So a really encouraging performance which suggests Pep has learned out to play differently against some teams, which is good to see and proves that he STILL is the best manager in the world!
 
BillyShears said:
Probably the best we could have hoped for performance wise with the short turnaround. Felt like but for a tiny bit of poor game management from two very experienced players, we take the 3 points and run. This team is more of a team than it was at any point last season. Excellent defensively, compact, and with Haaland/Doku/Foden beginning to get real chemistry, a nightmare to play against.

This team is going to lose very few games between now and the end of the season. They're already in a groove.
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For me the spine looks really good now
dona, Dias, Rodri, foden, haaland
We seem more solid and less likely to concede
Once we start getting the confidence back and get a run of results teams will be scared
Only problem is we cannot control games or press like we used to
 
Big Joe Corrigan said:
If we hadn’t employed such agriculture methods we’d have left with fuck all.
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I can understand and have to accept the reasons why we played this way, but why has it come to a situation where we felt we had to do it.
We have been so critical of teams who have parked the bus against us (including Arsenal) and now it's become acceptable for us. But to some, its being lauded as some sort of tactical awakening from Pep. Even Steve Nicol was singing Peps praises and that confirms how far we have fallen
 
I thought City were great yesterday.
Arsenal had 2 full days more rest than City.
We had a midfielder at left back, a central defender at right back who had to be replaced by a midfielder.
Rodri getting a full match under his belt was a bonus.
We actually looked good counter-attacking, and doing it at pace, and arguably had the better chances in the 2nd half.
It was a shame to concede so late on, but I think we would have been happy with a draw before the game.
A good week of football overall.
 
Tb1981 said:
For me the spine looks really good now
dona, Dias, Rodri, foden, haaland
We seem more solid and less likely to concede
Once we start getting the confidence back and get a run of results teams will be scared
Only problem is we cannot control games or press like we used to
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Wrong we can in certain games we have been changing for each team we play.
 
On reflection the most frustrating part was that after defending so deep and so intelligently, especially for their set pieces (Rodri deliberately standing in front of our keeper to stop any attempt at blocking etc) we then effectively get caught on the counter attack for their equaliser.
Yes,. there was a potential foul, but there were no team mates close enough to take one for the team.

However I'd have taken 1-1 before the game and I thought our defenders were brilliant
 
mcfc315 said:
Travelled down there yesterday thinking i'd snap your hand off for a point. obviously conceding in the last minute is sore and tough to take but i was impressed how we dug in especially in that second half and nullified their threat and hitting them on the counter (haaland and doku chances). we're not gonna play like that all season, sometimes you've gotta hold your hands up and say they're a better team than us at the moment so how do we get a result here. 3 games in 7 days is tough for any team and we've come out with 7/9, we'll take it
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It was a great point at a club that have been doing well of late, but when you concede an equaliser with only 4 minutes of injury time left it stinks of poor game management, and the inability to successfully close a game down .... you do whatever it takes to hang on to the three points, and City took their eye off the ball there ... so it left us with a good point, but a totally frustrating result!

But as you rightly say, it's been a demanding week.
 
SamBlue said:
Anybody who wants to manage us playing CA football, plenty of candidates home an abroad.

We all have different views on the state of our current team and my view is this is the most un-Pep team we ever had, so I have right to ask myself what is the point of sticking with Pep and going through all this contract extensions.

Unless I follow ever more prevailing attitude here that after 18 years in management he is turning into prime Mourinho or Conte at the end of his City career.

Didn't he say himself that one of the reasons he extended his contract was because he didn't want to leave when we were in such bad form.
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Are you asking " what's the point of sticking with" Pep fucking Guardiola? Seriously?
 
TonyBookEnd said:
I can understand and have to accept the reasons why we played this way, but why has it come to a situation where we felt we had to do it.
We have been so critical of teams who have parked the bus against us (including Arsenal) and now it's become acceptable for us. But to some, its being lauded as some sort of tactical awakening from Pep. Even Steve Nicol was singing Peps praises and that confirms how far we have fallen
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We were very pragmatic in tough away games in Europe when we won the treble. A point at Arsenal is a great result. It was great to see how resilient we were. Brighton was a car crash and we have learned our lessons,
 
Eaststander1 said:
It was a great point at a club that have been doing well of late, but when you concede an equaliser with only 4 minutes of injury time left it stinks of poor game management, and the inability to successfully close a game down .... you do whatever it takes to hang on to the three points, and City took their eye off the ball there ... so it left us with a good point, but a totally frustrating result!
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yeah we've tossed it away and it's frustrating but i'm not gonna criticise the team yesterday, it was great to see some fight and not capitulate like we did there last season
 
coolcity said:
It's not the way we have won anything in the past decade. It's not our game, you might get away with a point here and there or even a win - how many times have we played teams who have parked the bus and hit us late on the break? Southampton have done it a couple of times. But it doesn't usually win matches, few teams hold out for 90 minutes.
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It's a one off and got us a point at a place we lost 5-1 last season. If he didn't park the bus we'd have been dicked all over. It was the right decision and only a momentary lapse in concentration cost us the win. Arsenal weren't creating fuckall.
 
Gone for a Burton said:
Truth !!

A VERY poor goal to concede.

A 40 metre long ball ( NO pressing by Savinho ) over the top of NINE players who were 10 meters to high with too much space behind them leaving a 6.5' goalkeeper in no mans land.

If our back five were in the correct line that goal wouldn't have happened.

Poor organisation !!
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Ake just coming on not up to speed he wasn’t in line with our other defenders if he was player would of been offside
 
TonyBookEnd said:
I can understand and have to accept the reasons why we played this way, but why has it come to a situation where we felt we had to do it.
We have been so critical of teams who have parked the bus against us (including Arsenal) and now it's become acceptable for us. But to some, its being lauded as some sort of tactical awakening from Pep. Even Steve Nicol was singing Peps praises and that confirms how far we have fallen
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Yeah, loads complain when much lesser sides sit back against us especially Arsenal. They learnt from their slapping in the treble season and we haven't beaten them since. I was happy to see Pep adapt though, too many times he has said he isn't going to change anything which was worrying to hear. Glad we had a different performance in us to get a result. Had we tried to play Arsenal I don't think we would have walked away with a point. It was extra pleasing to see we had a fighters performance in us, something we had lacked for a while.

We need to keep this momentum going over the next few games. Up the blues
 
mcfc315 said:
yeah we've tossed it away and it's frustrating but i'm not gonna criticise the team yesterday, it was great to see some fight and not capitulate like we did there last season
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Yep, it was definitely much improved on last seasons result there, no doubt about that, and our performance defensively was absolutely outstanding, the late equaliser aside .... but pressure like that is always likely to pay off eventually, one way or the other, unless you can close the game down effectively and completely shut the home side out.

But we can learn from it, and move on.
 
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