Arsenal thread | 2025/26

Vienna_70 said:
I know I'm biased, but I reckon Fernandinho is as good as we’ve seen in the Premier League era.

He basically patrolled the midfield on his own. He was the link between the defence and the five-man attack that Pep used.

Yes, I know all the players pressed, but Dinho was a one-man midfield for us.
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That’s a tricky one.

Fernandinho did all of Yaya’s defensive work and won the league.

Kante won the league in a midfield two with Danny Drinkwater.

I don’t think Rice would have won the league doing either of those roles.
 
Can you imagine the flak City would get if we only drew against a rival who was reduced to 10 players for an hour? Imagine the flak if we had 6 players booked! And, do you think VAR would have intervened at all if that had been Caicedo on Gonzales?

Keep kidding yourselves that it was a great point against the Chavs. The rest of us can live in hope that a wobble's coming. There's still a very long way to go, so let's see where we are when you come to the Etihad in early April.
 
Vienna_70 said:
What do you think about the lack of yellows for time wasting during your "performance" at Etihad last season? Do you think the referee "favoured" cheating Arsenal that day?

Every team has an injury crisis at some point. We had players on the pitch for several games last season, because they were the least injured.

Every game we’ve played over the last eight seasons has been a "cup final" for our opponents.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.
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Is it true Donnaruma was ordered to sit down and do the needing treatment routine so Pep could do the old tactical huddle?
 
Danny Tiatto said:
No that’s a fair shout. I would have Dinho on par with Kante and would certainly have both ahead of Rice.

We saw what happens to this type of player though. They can become a liability at an earlier age than other positions.

How many more years has 27 year old Rice got playing at the current level that he does?
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Dinho was 37, when he left us.

It was only during his last couple of seasons that his performances dropped, so you can’t really use him as an example.

He was a monster in that position. Up there with the best ever.
 
GunnerGer said:
Is it true Donnaruma was ordered to sit down and do the needing treatment routine so Pep could do the old tactical huddle?
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I have no idea, but he wouldn’t be the first Premier League goalkeeper to do that, would he?

Here’s a clue. You can look a lot closer to home for examples.
 
Vienna_70 said:
I know I'm biased, but I reckon Fernandinho is as good as we’ve seen in the Premier League era.

He basically patrolled the midfield on his own. He was the link between the defence and the five-man attack that Pep used.

Yes, I know all the players pressed, but Dinho was a one-man midfield for us.
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Still criminally underated. I think he surprised Pep with how good he was as a player and impressed him with how good he was as a man.
 
Vienna_70 said:
I have no idea, but he wouldn’t be the first Premier League goalkeeper to do that, would he?

Here’s a clue. You can look a lot closer to home for examples.
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Chris in London said:
Arsenal fans don’t really do irony do they?
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Oh, there was definitely irony in my post, because It's people complaining about Arsenal tactics and stuff they do that made me bring it up, like we are the only 1 that do these things and their teams would never resort to them, which is obviously not true.

Was a good weekend for irony, because I noticed that Liverpool scored off a long throw, despite Slot complaining about them and we haven't actually scored from any. Also Utd getting both goals from set pieces despite most of their fan base calling us Stoke FC and thinking we play long balls, even though we are 2nd last for long balls played and and they are actually 2nd for long balls played.
 
Danny Tiatto said:
People have lost their minds

I honestly think if Rice wasn’t English his profile would diminish massively.

People keep telling me how good the guy is but I just can’t see it. He looks very awkward on the ball. His workrate is impressive and he can whip in a nice corner but I just feel he is a pretty limited footballer.

Surround him in midfield with players like Xavi,Iniesta, Busquets & Rodri and I think he would stand out and look like a complete donkey
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Same I think he’s decent but nowhere near elite on the ball
 
GunnerGer said:
Wonder who came up with the tactical foul on transition as well, Pep influencing Arteta or Arteta influencing Pep?
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Arteta he is very anti football, time outs, long throws, park the bus, long ball, fake fouls.
Pep perfers to lose trying to win. Arteta perfers not to lose when trying to win
 
AFCAndy said:
It was a poor performance and you'd have hoped we'd put 10 men to the sword. But there are caveats. This wasn't a football match. They played like it was their cup final and came to kick us off the pitch. The red was a leg breaker. They should of had 3 red cards. Cucerella should have had about 6 yellows. The ref favoured them throughout letting them get away with murder. This gets no card:



Saka was well below par aside from his assist. We've had an injury crisis too. No Havertz, no Saliba, no Gabriel, no Trossard, no Jesus. That meant Hincape and Moscuera both starting together for the first time.

Martinelli/Madueke/Gyokeres all out for month or 2 and they only just came back yesterday - Bayern for Martinelli. So they're well off being match fit.

We've played Spurs, Bayern and Chelsea in the last 7 days, players were tired
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You clearly haven't seen that Enzo video in real time from the actual camera angle that shows the play. It's a strong tackle where he takes all of the ball, not even a foul.

They shouldn't have had 3 red cards, it was a physical game where both teams were flying into tackles. Cucurella made a few fouls but not every one was a yellow, and in the context of game management, none were enough for 2 yellows.

Arsenal wanted the physical game too, from kick off, one of the centre halves deliberately blocked a Chelsea player from closing Raya down, so the Chelsea player flattened him. Your players did exactly the same thing to Rodri/Haaland (can't quite remember which one now) in the game where Rodri did his ACL. Arteta and your lads wanted this type of game, I just don't think you thought Chelsea would be as good as they were.

Arsenal want the physical game whilst also trying to carry out their own dark arts and that doesn't run with me, Arteta has always wanted the theatrics and the dark arts, trying to get away with as much of your own stuff as possible. For example this:


Whilst Enzo pushes him in the upper chest, it's 100% a dive in an attempt to get Enzo booked. That's Mosquera on a yellow card by the way. Not saying it's a 2nd yellow, just merely that Arsenal have their own antics too. So I just think Arsenal fans have to stop acting pathetic about refereeing every time they drop points. However teams behave against them, they give just as much back.

Injuries were an issue but the players that were on should be winning a game against 10 men for an hour, getting done at one of your own corners isn't great.

One of the genuine issues Arsenal have is that there isn't a lot of quality in open play and in the games where it starts to open up, it's usually on the foundations of a set piece, you're almost too robust and tight and not expansive enough. Look it'll be enough this year because the upper quality of the league is terrible but it's definitely a reason why games aren't being won by big margins.

Any Arsenal fan moaning about decisions though is living in cuckoo land.
 
Think it shocked Arsenal that Chelsea are actually a better footballing side than them. I copped pelters from a lot of city fans earlier in the week (also got support from others) when I was extremely confident that Chelsea would get something from that game.

The Chavs are building something decent and their weakness last year which was defence and gk whilst still not great has definitely improved significantly and that will be enough to get them over the line in most games.

If Cole Palmer returns and hits last seasons form they are going to go real close.
 
MCFC1993 said:
You clearly haven't seen that Enzo video in real time from the actual camera angle that shows the play. It's a strong tackle where he takes all of the ball, not even a foul.

They shouldn't have had 3 red cards, it was a physical game where both teams were flying into tackles. Cucurella made a few fouls but not every one was a yellow, and in the context of game management, none were enough for 2 yellows.

Arsenal wanted the physical game too, from kick off, one of the centre halves deliberately blocked a Chelsea player from closing Raya down, so the Chelsea player flattened him. Your players did exactly the same thing to Rodri/Haaland (can't quite remember which one now) in the game where Rodri did his ACL. Arteta and your lads wanted this type of game, I just don't think you thought Chelsea would be as good as they were.

Arsenal want the physical game whilst also trying to carry out their own dark arts and that doesn't run with me, Arteta has always wanted the theatrics and the dark arts, trying to get away with as much of your own stuff as possible. For example this:


Whilst Enzo pushes him in the upper chest, it's 100% a dive in an attempt to get Enzo booked. That's Mosquera on a yellow card by the way. Not saying it's a 2nd yellow, just merely that Arsenal have their own antics too. So I just think Arsenal fans have to stop acting pathetic about refereeing every time they drop points. However teams behave against them, they give just as much back.

Injuries were an issue but the players that were on should be winning a game against 10 men for an hour, getting done at one of your own corners isn't great.

One of the genuine issues Arsenal have is that there isn't a lot of quality in open play and in the games where it starts to open up, it's usually on the foundations of a set piece, you're almost too robust and tight and not expansive enough. Look it'll be enough this year because the upper quality of the league is terrible but it's definitely a reason why games aren't being won by big margins.

Any Arsenal fan moaning about decisions though is living in cuckoo land.
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I certainly wouldn't be moaning about the Madueke incident, Enzo is a bit of a c*nt in that situation but there was nearly an identical situation with Hincapie and Neto so we can't complain. There's a bit of the fiery South American temper with these types of things, i think of Bruno Guimares as well as a prime example. The only thing i'd say against the ref is it didn't seem like a game where 1 team merited 1 yellow card & the other merited 6 when you seen the fouls getting dished out by both teams, but not to the point where i'm annoyed over it.

Danny Tiatto said:
Think it shocked Arsenal that Chelsea are actually a better footballing side than them. I copped pelters from a lot of city fans earlier in the week (also got support from others) when I was extremely confident that Chelsea would get something from that game.

The Chavs are building something decent and their weakness last year which was defence and gk whilst still not great has definitely improved significantly and that will be enough to get them over the line in most games.

If Cole Palmer returns and hits last seasons form they are going to go real close.
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I think Chelsea are definitely improving, and i think at home they can beat anyone on their day. I actually think off the ball they play very similar to Newcastle when they are at their best at St James's Park. They play very aggressive, they disrupt the opposition, & they have very quick, athletic players in transition. It's about getting that consistency to become title challengers, & trying to minimise the games like Sunderland at home, Brighton at home etc.

In terms of the game itself, i think we obviously missed the defensive duo of Gabriel & Saliba, we missed their physicality & their build up from the back. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Chelsea created that much in open play, even when they had XI, but they were defo winning the midfield battle. Not making excuses though, as Chelsea were obviously missing players as well.

I do disagree with @MCFC1993 analysis that Arteta wanted it to be a physical game. Arteta wants control more than anything else, i think he understands Chelsea's strength & speed on transition. He swapped out Calafiori at half time, he swapped out Zubimendi 10mins later as both were on yellow cards and he wanted 11 men on the pitch and to play calmer to try & take advantage of having an extra man. The subs brought on weren't ideal because many were rusty coming back from injury, like Madueke, Gyokeres & Odegaard.

I think after the 3 games this week at the start of the game, if you offered me a point at the start of the game i'd have taken it no problem. The disappointment comes when obviously playing against 10 men for over a full half you automatically think you should get more.
 
GunnerGer said:
Is it true Donnaruma was ordered to sit down and do the needing treatment routine so Pep could do the old tactical huddle?
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Is it true you’re a massive ****?

The fucking cheek of an Arsenal fan commenting on a keeper blagging injury so the team can have a team talk.
 
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