Arsenal thread | 2025/26

Arsenal against a very slightly improved United (not saying much) were pretty poor.

Gyokeres and zubimendi hardly affected the game, other than giving the impression that Arsenal could be playing with only 9.
Saka was really bad.
The defence seemed to have never played together before.

1st game of the season and all that…but they were very meh, for a side that finished 2nd and have spent a fortune.

… but then again ;-)
1st game of the season and all that…but they were very meh, for a side that finished 15th and have spent a fortune.
 
BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
+1
Manure were the far better side, creating more chances while mostly keeping Arsenal out. If not for the keeper's gaff, it would have finished 0-0.

Pundits having high hopes for Arsenal point to Gyokeres as the missing peace to the puzzle - finally a true #9 to lead Arsenal to the league title. This is the first time I've watched Gyokeres - but for me, he's some big guy who isn't good on the ball, isn't fast, got totally schooled by de Ligt, and was basically a waste of space. Unless this game was a massive one-off horrible performance, there's no way that Gyokeres will help Arsenal at all.
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To be fair to Gyokeres he got no service whatsoever. Haaland looks similar in certain games when the opposition drops deep and we can't get the ball to him quick enough. Arsenal will need to learn how to play to his strengths. Artetas safety first set up will cost them too many points on yesterday's evidence. They won't score enough goals to win the League.
 
Kippax Street 1880 said:
To be fair to Gyokeres he got no service whatsoever. Haaland looks similar in certain games when the opposition drops deep and we can't get the ball to him quick enough. Arsenal will need to learn how to play to his strengths. Artetas safety first set up will cost them too many points on yesterday's evidence. They won't score enough goals to win the League.
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Fair enough. And agree with the lack of service.

But Gyokeres was supposedly able to function as a holdup player - able to control a long ball out of defense, hold it up for a bit and then build the offense. What instead happened is the de Ligt won nearly every long ball dual.
 
Odegaard gets pelters but the running off the ball was shit by them yesterday and in the end he made poor decisions because of that. I suspect they'll get better. I'm not putting gyokeres in Nunez territory yet, ask me again in 6 games tho.
 
BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
Fair enough. And agree with the lack of service.

But Gyokeres was supposedly able to function as an out-ball player - able to control a long ball out of defense, hold it up for a bit and then build the offense. What instead happened is the de Ligt won nearly every long ball dual.
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De Ligt will battle a centre forward all day long he's massive and strong, he hates having to turn and face his goal and Arsenal didn't get him doing that enough. Don't get me wrong it was a poor debut but you don't have the record he does without knowing where the net is and I'd back him to start firing sooner or later.
 
Kippax Street 1880 said:
De Ligt will battle a centre forward all day long he's massive and strong, he hates having to turn and face his goal and Arsenal didn't get him doing that enough. Don't get me wrong it was a poor debut but you don't have the record he does without knowing where the net is and I'd back him to start firing sooner or later.
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Cheers.

I guess we'll find out for sure as the league goes on.
 
Interesting that Pulis has already tried exploiting the new 8 second rule with Gyokores preventing the keeper from playing it out in an attempt to win a corner.

I just hope every team gets the same officiating the rags got today (bar the pen at the end) and the refs don’t fall for Arsenals dark arts.
 
BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
Fair enough. And agree with the lack of service.

But Gyokeres was supposedly able to function as a holdup player - able to control a long ball out of defense, hold it up for a bit and then build the offense. What instead happened is the de Ligt won nearly every long ball dual.
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Gyokeres was poor yesterday but was still our 'best' attacker - that's how bad Saka and Martinelli were. And Madueke resembled a recently decapitated chicken when he came on.

I watched Gyokeres in pre-season - he's clearly not match fit but was a handful against Bilbao and the difference was we were playing into space for him to run, and his hold up play was better. I don't want to make the exact comparison but in many ways he plays a bit like Haaland in so far as he's not a Thierry Henry player who you just give the ball to and let him do his thing - you have to play to his strengths (albeit Haaland is of course better).

I reckon it will take a few games for it to settle down a bit - the idea though is that if you do a 'De Ligt' on him and mark him out of the game it then opens up space for Saka etc. The problem yesterday was Saka was terrible and Martinelli sadly just isn't up to scratch. But also Hooper was letting them foul us constantly and not pinging them (I know they probably could have had a pen at the end but for most of the game they were allowed to kick us).

Still, we were terrible and got 3 points at a ground where I'm sure other title contenders could drop points. For example you don't want to have had a tough midweek CL game at Atletico and then go to Old Toilet when the Rags have had the whole week off preparing to ambush you. Chelsea dropped points at home yesterday so it shows there's plenty of jeopardy in the first matches. Take the points and run and move to the next match. It would be dangerous to watch yesterday's match and think that's anything like what will turn up against City at the Emirates in a few weeks.
 
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Gazza said:
They should ban anyone (except the keeper) from being in the six yard box on a corner, until the ball has been touched again.
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They don't need to, they just need to enforce the current rules. Anywhere else on the pitch, if you barge into a player who's jumping for the ball and you obviously have no intention of winning the ball yourself, it's a foul. But Arsenal literally have that as a tactic. They routinely have one player whose only job is to barge into the keeper when he jumps for the ball. It's already against the rules.

For contrast, later in the game, De Ligt smashes into Raya, who manages to get a decent punch on it, but the difference is that De Ligt is actually jumping to head the ball. Saliba is literally ducking out of the way once his job is done, but pundits never mention it.
 
Ok read most of this thread and nobody has seen the elephant in the room. Sat with rag mates in my local bar( I know we all have em). And watched the game has a person who detests both clubs and can honestly say it was ping pong football from both teams and the goal that the Tarquins scored was legit. No foul in the name of the law. Any other time I would be happy rags lost but a draw would sit better for me.
 
havefaith said:


Brilliant, seems their glad to have got rid of the big donkey :-)
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He'll finish 2nd top scorer in the league after Haaland.

I find it hilarious that for years we were criticised for not being able to win ugly. Now we win ugly we get criticised. Comes with the territory I guess - I noted also that City dry bummed Wolves at the weekend and the first comment from the TV host at the final whistle were 'did you see some signs of encouragement for City today?' whereas Liverpool looked shaky and scraped through against Bournemouth's depleted defence but in their case it's 'the sign of champions to find a way'.

If the Rags did get towards the Top 5 (and based on what I saw yesterday they might) we'll all be drowning in jizz from the pundits.
 
Gazza said:
They should ban anyone (except the keeper) from being in the six yard box on a corner, until the ball has been touched again.
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Do you know what, that’s actually a great shout!

Puts more use to that almost arbitrary rectangle n’all (it’s only used as the goal kick restart point and nowt else).

Maybe do away with it being a box and make it a semicircle from one post to the other, six yards out at the mid-point, if the whole 120 yards-squared is too large a space to not be allowed in at corners.
 
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bridgeno1 said:
He'll finish 2nd top scorer in the league after Haaland.

I find it hilarious that for years we were criticised for not being able to win ugly. Now we win ugly we get criticised. Comes with the territory I guess - I noted also that City dry bummed Wolves at the weekend and the first comment from the TV host at the final whistle were 'did you see some signs of encouragement for City today?' whereas Liverpool looked shaky and scraped through against Bournemouth's depleted defence but in their case it's 'the sign of champions to find a way'.

If the Rags did get towards the Top 5 (and based on what I saw yesterday they might) we'll all be drowning in jizz from the pundits.
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its a banter at this point. Gyokeres gonna find his goals, no doubt, but against top teams need to find his form on the ball. Been good against Bilbao, very poor against Utd.

By the end of September Arsenal gonna be after United/Liverpool/Newcastle away, City home etc. If you collect enough points, even in a poor style, then you will have a perfect situation for a period of much greater fixture congestion.
 
bridgeno1 said:
He'll finish 2nd top scorer in the league after Haaland.

I find it hilarious that for years we were criticised for not being able to win ugly. Now we win ugly we get criticised. Comes with the territory I guess - I noted also that City dry bummed Wolves at the weekend and the first comment from the TV host at the final whistle were 'did you see some signs of encouragement for City today?' whereas Liverpool looked shaky and scraped through against Bournemouth's depleted defence but in their case it's 'the sign of champions to find a way'.

If the Rags did get towards the Top 5 (and based on what I saw yesterday they might) we'll all be drowning in jizz from the pundits.
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You seem to be incredibly confident of that when most of his goals have come in the championship and a championship standard league and before you start that he scored a hat trick against us, 2 of them were penalties and he was playing against a defence that contained a young lad that is now on loan in the scottish league.
 
bridgeno1 said:
He'll finish 2nd top scorer in the league after Haaland.

I find it hilarious that for years we were criticised for not being able to win ugly. Now we win ugly we get criticised. Comes with the territory I guess - I noted also that City dry bummed Wolves at the weekend and the first comment from the TV host at the final whistle were 'did you see some signs of encouragement for City today?' whereas Liverpool looked shaky and scraped through against Bournemouth's depleted defence but in their case it's 'the sign of champions to find a way'.

If the Rags did get towards the Top 5 (and based on what I saw yesterday they might) we'll all be drowning in jizz from the pundits.
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1-0 to the Arsenal ring any bells?
 
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