Arsenal (A) - PL Post Match Thread

Gumzy97 said:
Understand why Pep wants / wanted Paqueta he’s what our midfield needs. Energy and creativity. Why did he have to be such an idiot.
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Why did we even sign Nunes then? We can't afford more transfer mistakes next year; we need to make quality signings. If we get stuck with Nunes and Doku now, and we still have that total flop Philips on our hands, who seems to have no intention of leaving because he's comfortable on the bench and earning astronomical wages... Well, we can't afford to make a bad player selection mistake next summer.
 
Today we attempted to control the midfield and the tempo and didn’t take any risks in doing so. Evidently concerned about getting turned over more than imposing ourselves.

The drop off is huge in game reading though. KDB, Rodri and Gundogan (three players who have dominated that fixture for half a decade) would have sensed Arsenal were terrified in that first half, increased the tempo and very likely gone through them. That didnt happen today, the only player with urgency was Alvarez trying to unsettle the backline and panicking Raya.

We need to have a real think over the next two weeks about what we do when Rodri isn’t available and not just fall back into the comfort that his suspension is over.

We coped well without KDB in the past, but usually that was thanks to Gundogan, Alvarez has shown he can possibly fill that void… but we are going to be without KDB permanently sooner rather than later and the planning needs to be in practice.

I do think Nunes could well do the Rodri role in time. He can drop his shoulder and skip through the lines, he just needs to bulk up a little more.

The loss that was the least concerning of the past three domestic games was today, the more concerning were Wolves and Newcastle when nobody stepped up to make a claim at all.
 
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How we missed a Aguero type striker today, create something himself. Not sure what Pep can do, it was a really poor transfer window when other clubs strengthened. Not sure if it’s FFP related but the purchases were not top drawer. Gundo said we moved too late to offer him terms, Laporte wanted to stay, and was a mistake in selling him. Mahrez was a much better player than given credit for. Kova, Nunes, Doku jury still out, and who actually sanctioned the Philips deal. Think we stood still transfer wise after last season. I’m sure Pep will get it sorted and the club will open the cheque book in January. I did find it interesting how Pep was obsessing with the CL, then qualified the statement about qualifying asap. Just wonder if the focus is on back to back CL.Only 2 points off the top so nothing to worry about at this stage. Pep said as long as we are in touching distance come February… and not like we haven’t done it before.
 
But to be honest they created fuck all either..it wasn't a great game all round but no way will Arselona win the league
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Nope, agreed. like us they'd had 1 shot on target before then. But that's 1 more shot on target then some teams have had. In the big scheme of things it means nothing but would be nice to keep them in their place.
 
Two nervous teams. Neither looked at their best and possibly more likely to make a mistake than to score.
We've been here before - lacking ideas and struggling to break down teams, but we've always had enough creativity to get through those spells. I think we're lacking in creativity at the moment, but we aren't so far ahead of the rest that we can afford creativity players (at the expense of workrate).

The game could have gone either way.

Expecting a tough season. A very tough one.
 
Let’s not get too down. We’ve got our boys playing a really important non-competitive match against the mighty Australia to look forward to on Friday night…
 
CityFan1970 said:
Guardiola was too negative and we came for a draw, as shown by Silva in the Rodri role and Foden playing central. The limited width we did have came from full backs Walker and Gvardiol.

Gvardiol's passing is a bit suspect. Something I've noticed in other matches.

Haaland had nothing all game.
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Haaland didn't have anything all game ,but neither did Julian, however he nearly made himself a goal by running his bollocks off and closing down the keeper, something Haaland refuses to do.
 
SWPISHOME said:
I worry for Phil, People can say what they like about it but he needs to do more in games.

With KDB being missing for a long time I really thought it's Phil time to shine, He's an unbelievable talent but he tends to go missing for large parts of games.

Is it a thing of Phil Foden not having a set position by Pep (then again not many players have set positions) or is it a case of it's just not happening for him?
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Piss poor today
 
FatedBlue77 said:
Not true. We can handle an absent KDB but not an absent Rodri. Rodri with Phil/Alvarez in KDB’s spot was perfectly fine so far. Rodri doesn’t play and suddenly things don’t click.
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You don’t seem to get my point. The issue is that BOTH of our best midfielders are out. If KDB was in it would mitigate Rodri’s absence

I give up
 
Toothless, transparent, boring.
BHA, Ncastle, dippers and spurs scored more than us, that's our problem in a nutshell.

Still glad we've won the key CL away match.
Onwards and upwards.
 
come-on-barney said:
How we missed a Aguero type striker today, create something himself. Not sure what Pep can do, it was a really poor transfer window when other clubs strengthened. Not sure if it’s FFP related but the purchases were not top drawer. Gundo said we moved too late to offer him terms, Laporte wanted to stay, and was a mistake in selling him. Mahrez was a much better player than given credit for. Kova, Nunes, Doku jury still out, and who actually sanctioned the Philips deal. Think we stood still transfer wise after last season. I’m sure Pep will get it sorted and the club will open the cheque book in January. I did find it interesting how Pep was obsessing with the CL, then qualified the statement about qualifying asap. Just wonder if the focus is on back to back CL.Only 2 points off the top so nothing to worry about at this stage. Pep said as long as we are in touching different stance come February… and not like we haven’t done it before.
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Hard to get a hold of these types of players, I'm hoping alvarez will be that for us. Can't really see many out their that are attainable. Mbappe maybe the only one who is a dead cert game changer and available next year.
 
BolinCell said:
Phil's not a problem he's a City type player, he does a decent job and is always a threat. He's not a KDB but then who is.
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It's more so his development than being a city type player.

He hasn't progressed as much as we all thought he would in recent seasons. No doubt he's a City type player but his development as a player seems ti have stalled in recent seasons.

Just my opinion.
 
While we had our best season ever last year, I'm not sure it was the best team or indeed football we've seen under Pep
Having a bloke who scored so many goals took some of the pressure off the team early in the season and meant that at the business end of the season while he was no longer scoring we had a few players who hadn't run out of juice.

It was and still is debatable whether a striker in the Haaland mode is a good fit for the way we play. And with the absence of Kev and Ilkay it's just a bit more obvious.

Not saying we should sell him but we probably need to alter our possession heavy game to get the best out of him.
 
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