Arsenal (H) | PL | Post-match Thread

[Blue_Lightsaber]

I think after a while to cool off and dissect things yesterday.. there were 5 things that came to mind.

1. Arsenal came to injure our players and steal a win on the counter.

2. They seemed younger, faster, hungrier especially against Walker and maybe Bernardo. The rest of the City players held their weight and justified their selection. We were solid in the other areas.

3. Rodri injury rattled us for a good 15 minutes

4. Once they went ahead 1-2 they gained so much confidence like they could do the 1-6 and signal a powershift they became boneheaded and got the red card.

5. The Red Card affected us more than them.. they setup a low block and the entire City strategy seemed to become Ruben/ Akanji at the pivot and Kyle Walker/ Kovacic long shots.

Pep had a bad game.. he went to his most trusted and stuck with them but they didn't pay dividends (almost exactly like Sterling in the CL final)

And I'm purposely not faulting Gvardiol for giving away corners because he defended great and a defender is permitted to give a corner away rather than a tap in. However that corner needs to be defended and Walker didn't do a good job.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

I think after a while to cool off and dissect things yesterday.. there were 5 things that came to mind.

1. Arsenal came to injure our players and steal a win on the counter.

2. They seemed younger, faster, hungrier especially against Walker and maybe Bernardo. The rest of the City players held their weight and justified their selection. We were solid in the other areas.

3. Rodri injury rattled us for a good 15 minutes

4. Once they went ahead 1-2 they gained so much confidence like they could do the 1-6 and signal a powershift they became boneheaded and got the red card.

5. The Red Card affected us more than them.. they setup a low block and the entire City strategy seemed to become Ruben/ Akanji at the pivot and Kyle Walker/ Kovacic long shots.

Pep had a bad game.. he went to his most trusted and stuck with them but they didn't pay dividends (almost exactly like Sterling in the CL final)

And I'm purposely not faulting Gvardiol for giving away corners because he defended great and a defender is permitted to give a corner away rather than a tap in. However that corner needs to be defended and Walker didn't do a good job.

Don't agree with point 2, seems the point may be serving some agenda you have with regards to Walker and Silva.

 

[Blue_Lightsaber]

Pep and Arteta are going to explode at one point. It’s slowly bubbling under the surface.

I think Pep's successor whenever he decides to pack it in will be Gundogan, not Arteta.

Outside chance of Vinny and Maresca.

 

[Blue_Lightsaber]

Don't agree with point 2, seems the point may be serving some agenda you have with regards to Walker and Silva.

Nah I absolutely love Bernardo, will defend him against anyone. Infact I wanted him to be captain if you remember my thread.

He just seemed fatigued. Maybe Inter game did that.

Nothing more, not less, no agenda.

 

[mexico1970]

Pep and Arteta are going to explode at one point. It’s slowly bubbling under the surface.

Arteta desperately trying to be Pep.

 

[eastmanc]

Loves Oasis but wouldn't buy tickets because he hates City. Definitely got a problem.

Ridiculous really.

 

[thismeansfour]

Pep had a stinker, Foden was the choice with KDB being out. Very little central creativity, even more so when Rodri went off. We clearly didn't work enough on defending corners, Doku was on Gabriel for the first one ffs. Then there was no in game management to defend them differently, we switched to Walker marking which was even worse than Doku, but we still set in the exact same way as the first corner which should have been a goal too. I don't know what he was thinking watching us refuse to go wide, overlap, stretch them as much as possible, instead he watched us pass it without purpose from one side to the other, staying very central and our worst strikers of the ball having pop shots. A change needed to happen much sooner, Insanity expecting different results from the same approach.

Gundog hasn't settled back in yet, Bernardo had a stinker as did a few others. Given the circumstances a point was perfectly ok. I enjoyed the passion from the boys, Haaland especially. No question of desire or commitment to go on and win again, thats 3 poor home games on the spin though.

 

[Paladin]

It's smart by arsenal and there set piece expert you watch ederson on the corner there is no Arsenal fan that close but once the ball is being delivered 3 players move towards him and stand there ground which is allowed! It's up to our players to help ederson out in that situation

It's against the Laws of the Game (Law 12) and should be penalised with an indirect free kick.

 

[vmsuhail]

You can even see Gundo pointing to where the free kick is

Yeah, just noticed that. It's clutching at straws comparing Doku's pass to Trossard's double yellow offense.

 

[eastmanc]

I think after a while to cool off and dissect things yesterday.. there were 5 things that came to mind.

1. Arsenal came to injure our players and steal a win on the counter.

2. They seemed younger, faster, hungrier especially against Walker and maybe Bernardo. The rest of the City players held their weight and justified their selection. We were solid in the other areas.

3. Rodri injury rattled us for a good 15 minutes

4. Once they went ahead 1-2 they gained so much confidence like they could do the 1-6 and signal a powershift they became boneheaded and got the red card.

5. The Red Card affected us more than them.. they setup a low block and the entire City strategy seemed to become Ruben/ Akanji at the pivot and Kyle Walker/ Kovacic long shots.

Pep had a bad game.. he went to his most trusted and stuck with them but they didn't pay dividends (almost exactly like Sterling in the CL final)

And I'm purposely not faulting Gvardiol for giving away corners because he defended great and a defender is permitted to give a corner away rather than a tap in. However that corner needs to be defended and Walker didn't do a good job.

Walker wasn't on his own, it was a mismatch between him and Gabriel. What Haaland and Akanji are doing at the front post when the ball was obviously going to go towards either of their central defenders is anyones guess. City fucked up as a collective for that goal. Get your tallest and best headers of the ball marking them and try and nullify the threat and if they score from there then fair enough.