Arsenal (A) - PL Post Match Thread

All is not lost quite yet even after such a lacklustre display. No team is looking amazing, though Spurs are surprisingly solid considering the huge loss of Kane. We have a much tougher run of fixtures coming up (yes including United, poor as they are) and then the stupid World Club Championship so we must see where we are in the New Year.

As usual in recent seasons we will hope to be top or within touching distance of it and have key players fit and in form and with those caveats then we have every chance of retaining the title. Obviously if recent performances continue to be replicated then we will be standing aside and allowing someone else to have the honour of being Champions. There's plenty of good reasons why no team has won four in a row in recent times as it's incredibly difficult to maintain the required intensity and we certainly don't have it right now.
 
Stephen230 said:
It might not seen fair but it would have been the right decision.

There was one a couple of years ago. Involving Wolves possibly, where a defender accidentally handled the ball and knocked it straight on to the arm of the attacker, who then scored.

The correct decision was a free kick to the defending team, as the defenders accidental handball was not an offence but the attackers accidental handball was, because he then scored. Even though it only hit his arm as a direct result of it coming off the other fellas arm.
Click to expand...

Fair enough mate, happy to stand corrected. But you're right, that doesn't seem fair at all.
 
Just seen the shooting stats. 4 in total, last one being in the 58th minute.

That’s absolute gash.
 
Most people seem to have accepted that the payback for finishing every season so strongly, is that we start the season a bit sluggishly and under prepared.

It’s a fair trade off. No team in history has ever been bang at it week in week out for 10 months straight.

Yet the excellent start to the season points wise, has seemed to make a few forget that.

A defeat by the narrowest margin to your biggest rival on their own pitch, with your two most influential midfielders both out, at this stage of the season is annoying but pretty insignificant in the grand scheme.

If we’re still in touch by Christmas, and even if we’re not like last season, you can be pretty confident you’ll be watching a different City team when things start getting serious.
 
A really disappointing set up yesterday . Played for the draw, but in fairness id have been happy with that with the current personnel but not sure hoe it bodes for the season

Im worried our recruitment this summer has seen a big drop in talent.
Gvardiol looks great but doku isnt better than mahrez, nunes looks a bit headless chicken and kovacic is a serious down grade on Gundo.
Yeah yeah i know its early days and players take time to bed in, but the concern is there for me.
 
Stephen230 said:
Most people seem to have accepted that the payback for finishing every season so strongly, is that we start the season a bit sluggishly and under prepared.

It’s a fair trade off. No team in history has ever been bang at it week in week out for 10 months straight.

Yet the excellent start to the season points wise, has seemed to make a few forget that.

A defeat by the narrowest margin to your biggest rival on their own pitch, with your two most influential midfielders both out, at this stage of the season is annoying but pretty insignificant in the grand scheme.

If we’re still in touch by Christmas, and even if we’re not like last season, you can be pretty confident you’ll be watching a different City team when things start getting serious.
Click to expand...

I think it’s the manner, mate. I agree with you in the sense of the grand scheme of things but yesterday we sat there with our pants down and let Arsenal do what they wanted to us.

Real lack of ambition which is something we’ve not particularly seen before in a big game under Pep. No evident gameplan to win, just one to contain and hope for a scabby draw.

We’ll come good and we’ll win the league but at the same time, yesterday can be called out for what it was - disappointing and shite from Pep and the (majority of the) team.
 
skillman said:
Just seen the shooting stats. 4 in total, last one being in the 58th minute.

That’s absolute gash.
Click to expand...
Under Pearce I'd have been happy with 4 shots in 4 games. On the face of it, it does appear 'gash'.

However, it also shows that the way Arsenal defended prevented us from getting a shot off, and forced us into making passes and runs we wouldn't normally try. That's football. Sometimes the opposition execute their game plan better than we do.

It didn't help us that both our midfield play makers were walking a tightrope, and that's on them, particularly Kovacic. That made it difficult for us to scrap for possession in the middle of the park and from that point on Arsenal had the upper hand.

Draw would have been a fair result, but it wasn't to be.
 
skillman said:
I think it’s the manner, mate. I agree with you in the sense of the grand scheme of things but yesterday we sat there with our pants down and let Arsenal do what they wanted to us.

Real lack of ambition which is something we’ve not particularly seen before in a big game under Pep. No evident gameplan to win, just one to contain and hope for a scabby draw.

We’ll come good and we’ll win the league but at the same time, yesterday can be called out for what it was - disappointing and shite from Pep and the (majority of the) team.
Click to expand...
Was just going to post along the same lines of this!

It was the manner and style of the defeat.

On many occasions, both Foden and Haaland were making runs off the ball, only for the midfield to just turn and pass it back, or to the side!

I was frustrated, so god knows how Foden and Haaland felt!

Let's use this International break wisely, and hopefully those that are playing return free from injury.
 
Bluesince1979 said:
A really disappointing set up yesterday . Played for the draw, but in fairness id have been happy with that with the current personnel but not sure hoe it bodes for the season

Im worried our recruitment this summer has seen a big drop in talent.
Gvardiol looks great but doku isnt better than mahrez, nunes looks a bit headless chicken and kovacic is a serious down grade on Gundo.
Yeah yeah i know its early days and players take time to bed in, but the concern is there for me.
Click to expand...
Nunes may need a bit of time, however he's offering next to nothing up to now. Yesterday and last week at Wolves were very mediocre by our standards. Hopefully we get back on track in the next few weeks.
 
bluemoon32 said:
Yep, we were utter shit, end of.
Click to expand...
Extremely poor other than the first 5 minutes, we nearly got away with a draw and I am not certain Arsenal deserved the 3 points but at least they tried to win the game, for a majority of the game , we seemed happy for a point.
 
One positive in all of this for me is that it has shown the total over reliance on one player in Rodri, that is unacceptable and hopefully it will be addressed in the coming transfer windows.

Also if the Kalvin Phillips fan boys on here have not realized the reality of a player that is simply not rated or trusted by his manager there is no hope from them.

Phillips has to be out of the club ASAP and a suitable replacement brought in.
 
Gundoggin said:
Long old season .
Click to expand...
Manuel Pellegrini not the first Manchester City manager to get his sums wrong


LOL
 
skillman said:
Just seen the shooting stats. 4 in total, last one being in the 58th minute.

That’s absolute gash.
Click to expand...
And two of those were in the first 4-5 minutes.
Only Bernardo seemed to be angry after we conceded and Kyle and Erling shown a bit of energy after the game had finished.
It was a laughable performance from us with nobody on the pitch having balls to take the game to Arsenal.
 
HelloCity said:
Just like the last one.

A handful of long time posters on here wanted Pep gone in Jan/Feb…
Click to expand...
Our fan base has become a joke the last couple of years . The social media city fans who have latched onto us a total embarrassment. Our home and away fans still the best in the world though .
Football eh ! We live in a fucked up world for sure !
 
Bluesince1979 said:
A really disappointing set up yesterday . Played for the draw, but in fairness id have been happy with that with the current personnel but not sure hoe it bodes for the season

Im worried our recruitment this summer has seen a big drop in talent.
Gvardiol looks great but doku isnt better than mahrez, nunes looks a bit headless chicken and kovacic is a serious down grade on Gundo.
Yeah yeah i know its early days and players take time to bed in, but the concern is there for me.
Click to expand...

Early days for some of these players, however you are right the drop off to what we had is huge. Nunes was a panic buy because of the Paqueta situation, it does look like Paqueta will happen next summer and they worryingly see him as a replacement for De Bruyne. Doku has made a good start, but one observation is he does like to hold onto it when he should be passing to a safer option. A few times yesterday he gave the ball away cheaply.

We seem to be pinning our hopes on De Bruyne coming back in January and he will turn it on again. I’m not too sure if that will happen or if he will even be at the same level given the time he has had out.

One big plus was John Stones getting back on the pitch. The difference in the passing by forward to the midfield was huge, if we can get him and Rodri shutting attacks down we will lose the soft underbelly we seem to have at the moment.

Plenty for Pep to ponder over the international break. We’ve been here before like last January when the team looked lost at sea, he sorted it and he will sort it again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top