Arsenal (A) - PL Post Match Thread

[Gordyola]

For the best part of an hour we deserved to lose that. Unlucky to lose only in the sense that bar the flukey goal they couldn't finish their dinner?

Oh yeah they battered us

 

[akrh215]

Understand why Pep wants / wanted Paqueta he’s what our midfield needs. Energy and creativity. Why did he have to be such an idiot.

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.

 

[svennis pennis]

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.

 

[come-on-barney]

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.

 

[glauberbertistossedshirt]

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
[/QUOTE]
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.

 

[FanchesterCity]

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.

 

[super_city_si]

Worry today was that there was no fight. We had no desire to grab that game and dominate. Plus we had no fucking idea.

 

[chesterbells]

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…

 

[uwerosler28]

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.

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.

 

[bernard o'silver]

Eh?

Sorry , predictive text...what was amusing is that sky were still playing the song ( forever north London, I think its called) in the background even though the stadium was clearly empty