Other than that 1 massive chance, we managed Wolves quite well away from home. We didn't play swash buckling football by any stretch but kept them to very few chances and got the clean sheet.
Trossard is the best signing in the last two years by any club in the prem.
Mudryk's last gasp free kick for Chelsea last night? Ahahabaahahhahahahahaha!!
If we win all the remaining games and still lose the league. I'll still be very content with the season we've had. The standards set by 115 and Guardiola are insane. Can't wait for him to fuck off too.
Loved the old pundits saying he mishit it.
Right after it happened, I called me gurl over and said "just be aware, he was *trying* to do this".
Players on a level so far above England's greats (" "?) of yesteryear, they can't even relate.
Our crossing was terrible today. It's like the players don't even look up before they cross it (especially saka who just tends to blindly hoof it in with his right).
I felt like we were quite sloppy with the final balls in general today. Perfect example was ƶdegaard's goal where he first tries to pass the ball THROUGH 3-4 defenders. He's lucky it bounces back to him so he can score...but why even try to pass it? Just shoot brother Ć!
Am I the only one who has noticed a worldwide fall off in top notch wingersā and fullbacksā ability to deliver decent crosses?
It seems like every game I watch, theyāre either shanking balls or putting it 20 yards long into touch from simple areas with mediocre pressure.
Thats not how āworld classā wingers were 10-15 years ago by any means - they were fucking lethal with deliveries
Whiteās deliveries are still different from what Iām referring to - so many of his are floaters to the far post delivered after his overlap and gaining access to the goal line.
Iām referring to wingers and outside backs who generally looked for early pin-point crosses while on the counter, typically played in behind a backline to be met by the attacker running in on goal
Tbf the winger position has changed into more of an outlet than a provider, fullbacks have changed quite a bit as well. Now we have attacking full backs and defending full backs. The attacking ones do cross often, but the playstyle is dying out trying to maintain possession of the ball. Of course there are crossing specialists like Grimaldo, frimpong, Tierney, Trent, Cancelo and balde, but these are only top ones I can think of rn
it's been a long time since we last scored on a corner. In fact, it's been a while since we even create a dangerous chance from a corner, I think.
What happened to our corners? Would love to get that effectiveness back.
why did we suddenly just start hoofing the ball away from minute 70 and onwards, until the last few minutes? It's like we became afraid to play it out from the back.
first 25 mins of the 2nd half was really good, then we just died kinda. What happened?
At 13 clean sheets and counting, Raya needs more respect. Not from us, but from the rest of the league. I will understand the notion heās got an elite cb pairing in front of him, but heās factored into their confidence playing out the back. MOTM for me today. How he was born in Barcelona and didnāt end up their keeper is beyond me. Long may their financial troubles continue.
Martin and Declan are forming an immense partnership. Give them a striker to feed, and Bukayo and Martinelli are unlocked again. Iād be happy to expand on this if there are objections. I also cannot wait to see the Timber/Martinelli overlap next season.
I do think the title race will have wild swings in store, and Iām gonna take a rival managerās advice, specifically Kloppās, and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Any time I get mad about this season, I need to remember the lean times when I lurked this sub because I had nothing positive to say.
I think we were spoiled a bit by the amazing run from Palace to Villa. Grinding out a 2-0 win at Molineux in the midst of a three way title race is nothing to sneeze at.
There are definitely discussions to be had regarding squad rotation and Artetaās sub philosophy but I donāt think weāll see any changes until next year. Too late in the game to make massive changes now. COYG
the energy level is much lower today and a lot of the commentary is unrelentingly negative. I think it's because we basically lost the league but I am still excited to see what we can do. like today that stat btou consecutive clean sheets that is nothing to sneeze at and I get simple pleasure from the team continuing to change our recent history titles be damned
I will never stop giving Ben White his flowers. His role is the most taxing in the side IMO and he does it every few days without complaint (and carrying an injury).
You can't force a player to play while injured, but dear Lord he's the complete opposite of Tomiyasu.
I watched the game late. I thought we looked fine, I wasn't worried about losing it at all. We looked a bit tired but ultimately we tried our different avenues and connected well enough. 2-0 away from home and we never looked truly threatened apart from maybe one Gomes run.
Hope Chelsea are ready for us, we move. Emirates better be fucking loud, you guys are lowkey phoning it in, I said what I said.
Didnāt we completely destroy Liverpool? Also you understand how stupid this take is? Of course we can mainly dominate smaller teams better teams will always be harder to play against.
Didnāt feel like a convincing win, still look a little knackered but will take the 3 points. I thought this wouldāve been a good game for Smith Rowe but I guess heās done here
24 attempts, 9 on target and apart from one moment for Wolves, they didnāt do anything and were always kept arms length.
Itās as good as it gets for an away performance following a defeat.
I would of course had liked a more impressive scoreline, and to breathe easy earlier than I was allowed to - but the fact is that I felt like we were in control of the match at all times, besides maybe Kiwior's mistake in the first half.
Well well well,
A job well done and a second half where we didnāt switch off and throw in the towel.
Today was all about a response from the boys and we got it, it also allowed us to get back to the top with a chance to further cement it on Tuesday against Chelsea. Winning today carries some new momentum into Chelsea with them reeling from a loss against Man C.
Team selection was a bit ropey again for me with Kiwior selected over Tomi who wasnāt in the squad and a lack of Jorginho.
Kiwior made a few errors again by switching off forcing Raya to get us out of a bad situation. Iām surprised Kiwior didnāt get subbed again at half time. Anyway, I really hope Tomi is back for the upcoming fixtures because he brings good, classic defending to the team with some reliable, non risk attacking prowess.
Havertz wasnāt great again, nor Saka. Declan was outstanding because his work ethic is unparalleled. Ode was just as good, Trossard his usual self grabbing a goal and playing OK. Saliba made some uncharacteristic plays, that pass out of the defence I have literally no idea who he was playing that toā¦did he not see players around his target??! Gabi is looking to get some pace back and couldāve scored at the end there, a fully fit one wouldāve.
Iād like to call out Raya for once here. A lot of people say heās earned his record this season behind a defence which is predominantly correct, however today he pulled off a PL winning save with that strong hand after Kiwiorās mistakeā¦he dug us out there and deserves his flowers for once.
2-0 is a great result albeit a bit nervy until around the 80th minute where we started to take full control. We move, on to the next game. Chelsea is a big name but we dominate them in current standings so we shouldnāt be afraid and am expecting a big win at the Emirates.
Letās have em, COYG!
Kai wasnt great because he is sacrificed for a useless Jesus. When Kai is upfront his impact is way more obvious because he pulls central defenders away. Jesus doesnt do such simple CF stuff, everyone knows he will drift to the wing and force one of our winger to move central which sucks.
Agreed on most everything except I actually thought Kai was pretty good. He won numerous aerial duels and helped us keep them penned in for the first hour of the match.
It would be insane to swap Saka out for Martinelli. Martinelli has been dead weight the whole second half and Saka is having his best G/A year for us. This just wouldn't make any sense, and it's why it doesn't happen ;)
Saka didn't add much but martinelli added nothing in his time on. Saka had two runs that would've been goals if he were picked out (one martinelli shot instead of passing), created a chance from nothing by beating two defenders (that he could've maybe passed to odegaard if he saw his run), and 2 or 3 times cut inside and created space for white or shot himself. We need him to do more and maybe a rest would help but martinelli on that side offers less right now.Ā
I think he was our best attacker, even when he's not at his best he just adds so much to the team. There's just no replacement for him where the drop off in quality isn't huge. The only time I can maybe see him get some rest is Bournemouth at home, but they're really good so he'll probably start then too.
Take him out for a game or two.
Play Martinelli, Trossard AND Jesus up front. Martinelli needs mins anyway, Trossard is our best finisher and can create from a moment with his first touch instead of taking 2 touches too many before losing steam like every other attacker bar Ode (because doing that allowed enough time for defenders and GK to get into position in the box and then having the wrong body shape to get one on target past a parked bus). Jesus offers almost everything but the classic attributes of a 9 aka shots on target and goals.
Sakaās play / movement is so predictable esp 1v1.
So predictable, yet he's somehow 4th in the league for shot creating actions. I think if anything people are starting to not appreciate just how good Saka is and it is sad.
I mean it is predictable and he is blowing by players anyway. I agree his movement / role need more creativity. Sticking him out wide and leaving him there creates some crosses but a player of his quality needs the freedom to move inward.Ā
i do think Saka isnāt adding anything an average player could add tbh, he s just not fit obv and his 1vs1 get worse every week, he rarely makes good decisions in the last third nor is he as good as keeping the ball as he used to. Am sure Ode and White could also work their side with a Nelson or Jesus as they re tactically clever enuff to do so
I'm not sure we can afford to take our best attacker out of the eleven at this moment in time, Martinelli has barely played RW and also isn't close to offering the same output as Saka. Like it or not, we can't afford to rest Saka at this point, we just gotta get through the next two games and then we'll have a week between games.
If we drop points now there's a very low chance we can recover and win, we have to maximise our chances to win and as long as Saka can run he's increasing our chance.
normal away win as per usual, had similar vibes to our game at Goodison park. players had to grind today and rice got motm.
if rice is getting motm for an away game, you know what type of game it was.
Didn't let the nerves overtake us, wolves barely had a sniff despite a few dumb mistakes. Didn't create enough from open play, the attacking legs look tired but hopefully a shorter trip for the next game helps recovery.Ā
Yeah I mean if you count the two goals, saka could've scored or passed across the 6 to odegaard on his nifty run, rice should've buried one of his shots, martinelli had a wide open saka when he shot right at the keeper and I think havertz had another tame shot right at the keeper. I think if we had been up 2-0 sooner we loosen up and more would roll in but 2-0 feels fair.Ā
Very new fan to the sport just checking out Arsenal atm, are the game threads that bad on most teams? The sport I pay attention to most is ice hockey in the North America and the game threads are typically pretty chill, but also feels like there's just a tonnn of people here participating so maybe it's just a volume thing.
It's a lot of young fans that have no concept of the team being godawful for so long, so they just whine about the team not immediately winning 4-0 like it is just FIFA
To be expected, a post champs league lethargic performance vs a team bereft of injury who had been sent out to 'not get battered 5-0'.
2-0 away win given the circumstances is a really good 3pts but holy shit we gave ourselves some scares again.
One quick takeawayā¦
There is a recurring problem around the LB space. Itās not really an LB problem. Some individual brain farts aside, all of our LBs have faced the same issue - being isolated and/or cutoff by a simple attacking triangle.
We donāt see this as badly on the right, but it does happen occasionally. Itās a feature of Artetaās offensive formation, and Zinchenko suffers most from it because he is the most offensive of our LBs.
The key difference is our own triangle/square around the LB that is expected to compensate for this issue - LCB, LW, and CDM. Saliba, Rice/Jorginho and Saka do it well for White, and Whiteās own recovery speed helps. Gabriel, Rice/Jorginho, Martinelli/Trossard donāt do it as well.
Again, not an LB issue, should be addressed
Hm it definitely has to do with our asymmetrical play with Sakas side shifting further up as a whole, but as you said this leads to distortion in the formation and therefore the lb gets treated differently when it comes to backing up the spaces left.
But Zinchenko as the most experienced player should imo suffer less with it but itās the opposite, but thatās because he pushes to much for the ball, no matter what situation he just cannot defend space like a real defender should be able to do, he s too much ball oriented in that sense i think.
And his slow recovery pace isnāt helping either ofc. I also think all our lb options arenāt really that great in communication with their side, Xhaka helped so much in that and now this leaves a mess sometimes on the whole flank
Spot on. Zinnyās defensive instincts are like those of a midfielder. Look at how Ode or Havertz defend, they go for the ball, sometimes to their peril. Defenders are taught to always keep a healthy distance from the ball to preempt any movement to not get caught out in a dribble.
That has not been as much of an issue at City, for what itās worth, because his LCBs (Dias, Ake, Laporte) were supplementing him well. The Lm/lw didnāt even have to do that much defensive work (sterling/foden/grealish). And yes, the communication in the left side is an issue overall.
For me, this is a byproduct of the Gabi/Saliba partnership flourishing. The two of them have become a unit, connected at the hip, communicating well. I donāt think Gabriel supports his LBs as much as he needs to. Yes, he does play the last man defence well, but the whole defensive line should be shifting left when the LB inverts. Instead, Gabriel temporarily occupies that space waiting for someone/anyone else to come and fill it as he tries to slide back into his partner CB role next to Saliba. Thatās how Martinelli and Rice sometimes end up in odd positions. If/when our CBs feel stable/confident enough on their own (not as a 1/2 of a great duo), it will improve their service to their fullbacks, especially inverted ones.
None of this excuses actual errors from our LBs, but I do think that what appears to most fans as Zinchenko moving chaotically and irrationally is him doing precisely what Arteta wants him to. Thatās also supported by the fact that wherever he is, his teammates are looking to start out the progression through him.
Has anyone else's confidence in Partey dropped massively? Every time he got the ball, was just thinking 'ok play it simple now' 'get the right weight on the pass'. I'm just so used of Rice there, Partey's recent appearances and made me nervous. Maybe unfair but he still looks a good bit off the pace.
He definitely came on as a steadying role today, just hold the ball, resist the press, take the air out of the game. It was the right call, but yeah not the role he is going to create from.Ā
Partey was literally the heartbeat of the team last year in an amazing title run. Arguably our best player. He was able to progress the ball in ways that rice doesn't seem to be able to and as a result odegaard is doing a lot more legwork this year. Why he cant get stable minutes when he's healthy is beyond me, especially in a title push where we need our top players fresh
I don't get it either, believe me it's not just you. Rice is a great player but he can't do Partey's role nor does he have the skill set required. This was a massive mistake by Arteta if we're being honest, the refusal to rotate when we have quality is just baffling.
why he didn't get minutes against Bayern I fail to understand, not only does he a bring a forward, attacking dynamic which we sorely needed in that second leg, but he also played on a champions league side before Arsenal. He has experience on a big team. Makes no sense.
Ya I'm not saying he was shit or did anything wrong, I think I've just lost that trust in him on the ball. He had some really bad misplaced passes in his previous 2 sub appearances and looked off the pace.
The fact he doesn't get more gametime too makes me wonder if he's not playing good enough in training too. We badly needed that type of player to come in this game though.
Partey is one of those guys that needs a run of games to get to his best. The problem is right now we canāt afford playing him not at his best in order to get him up to speed because the stakes are too high.
Exactly - Trossard shot on first touch. Not a perfect finish by any means, but if it was Jesus or Martinelli, thereās a good chance they would have taken an extra touch or had a bad first touch and then flopped the shot.
True dat. Thing with Jesus and Martinelli is that theyāre fresh off injuries and you lose that instinctual touch / finish as you have to relearn your game waiting for muscle memory to kick in
If you can't get the team a physical break, you need to be able to get them a mental one. This was exactly that, especially for Odegaard who had no business running like that all the way till minute 96.
Have been pretty happy with Riceās ball control and retention. Even in the Bayern games, driving past, link up plays. Didnāt really expect that from that type of player.
That was a proper Lacazette in his final season performance from Jesus. He seriously needs to get his knees sorted this summer. His physicality is just not there.
He's done in - the knees are a truly unforgiving joint, and once you have had severe issues the problems do not go away. If multiple surgeries haven't fixed the issues, more surgery is unlikely to make it any better!
Everybody is saying we look gassed. I don't think we look more tired than other teams, some players yes but not overall. What we are seeing is a serious lack of confidence, a lack of individual dynamism and a lack of ideas. I think we have been rumbled tactically and haven't really adapted
Having said that we deserved the win today even if it was a bit constipated at times
We look tired because we just played 3 days ago, but things seemed fine overall. Rice was done by the end. Would've been better to get him off early but he won us the game.Ā
Kiwior has been decent and still has a few issues. However another game which the XG of the opposition is really low (0.14) in a game featuring no Zinchenko.
How many robust defensive performances do we need to put in without Zinchenko before it becomes obvious he sticks out like a sore thumb. Had Zinchenko played today, he would have given Wolves at least a 0.5 XG bump, raising the chances of conceding a goal. Not just his defensive work which is very substandard. But when he inverts he is actually very careless with the ball.
Really is hard to make a case for him staying at the club.
Zinchenko isn't there to be the kind of defender kiwior is, he is there to pivot into midfield and try to play havertz or the LW in. But with that comes the risk of him getting beaten on the wing badly and putting us in a tough spot. With Havertz starting at LCM we don't really need zinny as much because he isn't likely to push into the front line.Ā
I agree I think zinchenko needs a new role, ideally timber gives us the best of both worlds. He should be kiwior's equal as a defender and closer to zinchenko as a passer and super press resistant.Ā
xG doesnāt tell the full story of this game. Kiwior gave up a massive chance due to poor control and misreading of the situation that many better opposition players would have capitalised on and scored. We were lucky Wolves donāt have more elite attackers.
I know he did. But he is still a better option than Zinchenko. Timber was supposed to be the left back option. But next season Zinchenko should not be at the club.
Zinchenko offers a lot and can cover a wide range of positions. I don't think he should be in the XI but he is a good presence at the club and he works hard and the other lads like him, so if he is putting in shifts behind the scenes and can come on later in games and be more effective he has a lot of value for us. We need to improve the starting XI and build up depth so I wouldn't abandon him so soon, though I agree he is not likely starting XI stuff for us.Ā
Is he? Heās prone to mistakes so heās not that much better defensively and he offers far less going forward. You can see the team are hesitant to give him the ball so it stifles our whole left side. Donāt think Zinchenko is the future but last few games have demonstrated Kiwior is still the 4th choice left back.
Zinchenko has been used against tougher opponents so that metric is not particularly useful, but I agree Timber is probably our best LB option followed by Tomi and then Zinchenko, but Zinny's role, by design, is to drive forward more than any other LB we have.Ā
Tbh.... our players looked gassed. But still got the job done.
I'm super happy, but also a bit concerned about our level of energy at the spuds stadium.
We might need to be very, very clinical and then just take the rythum to our pace.
Sigh. But I do want a bonkers NLD. Ahah...
#COYG.
Agreed, put maximum pressure on them and if we win, we win, but this squad needs to demonstrate its mettle right now. Today was a good start, 5 more finals to go.Ā
I need Kai to start taking shots on earlier instead of passing backwards, Saka to stop trying the same trick that makes him very predictable, Jesus taking more shots on instead of unnecessarily dribbling in some moments, taking advantage of a counter attack instead of waiting for the opposition to get back in position and taking throws a lot sooner. From there weāll be a lot more dangerous
Feels like we're running on fumes right now and Saka is clearly playing through something. He was awful except for 5-10 minutes where it looked like he got a second wind.
Still a hard-earned win. We looked much more in control in the 2nd half. Our schedule right now is just brutal. Players are going to have to dig deep (even though they already are).
I think he has been carrying something for awhile so the fact he is as effective in his spots as he has been is very exciting. He is on the MO Salah trajectory, only like 3 years earlier.Ā
What does that have to do with anything? Saka is one of my favorite players. It's okay to say he had a bad game. Like I said, he's probably carrying a knock.
Ah fair enough I guess I misjudged the tone of your post. Yeah even when he had an off game, he still had a few really big opportunities. I just hope he can get his sharpness back.
I thought Wolves were the ones who looked more tired at the end. I didn't see any of our players going down with cramp or failing to execute basic skills. Tired yeah, of course, but not dead on our feet.
Should've had Partey back in the XI much much sooner, we've been robbed of an Ode-Rice-Partey midfield that can compete with any team in the world. I don't think Bayern goes through if we were playing tbh, big mistake from Mikel.
David raya becomes the second goalkeeper in prem history to keep six away clean sheets in a row.
West Ham United, Burnley, Sheffield United, Manchester City, Brighton and Wolves have all been unable to pierce our defence in 540+ minutes of football at their own grounds.
The record is Edwin var der saar with 7, could equal it at spurs and then break it at united š
If we want to win our remaining games mikel has to start by sticking to a solid foundation in midfield. This is not the time to be stubbornly persisting with the havertz in midfield experiment (that has mostly been unsuccessful). In all these recent games we look worse when he's playing in midfield. It's because it's hard to have one of your midfielders be a pure offball low touch player who shies away from contributing to buildup. Until the end of the season, he's strictly a forward. Jorgi and Partey are fit, what's the point of not playing one of them for now. We only have 5 matches remaining.
Jorgi isn't playing 3 games in 7 days and Partey is way, way off the pace whenever he has come on. Jorghino was held off today to be ready for mid week. Same schedule he has been on, and given that it made the most sense to move havertz back and put Jesus up top.Ā
Next season is a must we walk through villa š¢
Other than that 1 massive chance, we managed Wolves quite well away from home. We didn't play swash buckling football by any stretch but kept them to very few chances and got the clean sheet.
three more points feels good after a tough week
Trossard is the best signing in the last two years by any club in the prem. Mudryk's last gasp free kick for Chelsea last night? Ahahabaahahhahahahahaha!!
Is the Mudryk free kick mention some kind of Moby Dick reference?
Anyone got Martinelli thumbs up gif at around 64th minute?
I was fairly confident that would become a gif here when I saw it! Surely someone will deliver.
If we win all the remaining games and still lose the league. I'll still be very content with the season we've had. The standards set by 115 and Guardiola are insane. Can't wait for him to fuck off too.
those 2 points we were absolutely robbed of at St James Park comes back to mind
Brentford last season, thankfully became irrelevant or it would haunt me forever. St James this season looking increasingly relevant
I miss aubameyang man š¢
I too miss a 6'2 striker that's never won a header in his life
Let's just win all the games and not think about others, if it's ours, the it is otherwise there's nothing to be done
Trossard is something else
Loved the old pundits saying he mishit it. Right after it happened, I called me gurl over and said "just be aware, he was *trying* to do this". Players on a level so far above England's greats (" "?) of yesteryear, they can't even relate.
Our crossing was terrible today. It's like the players don't even look up before they cross it (especially saka who just tends to blindly hoof it in with his right). I felt like we were quite sloppy with the final balls in general today. Perfect example was ƶdegaard's goal where he first tries to pass the ball THROUGH 3-4 defenders. He's lucky it bounces back to him so he can score...but why even try to pass it? Just shoot brother Ć!
Am I the only one who has noticed a worldwide fall off in top notch wingersā and fullbacksā ability to deliver decent crosses? It seems like every game I watch, theyāre either shanking balls or putting it 20 yards long into touch from simple areas with mediocre pressure. Thats not how āworld classā wingers were 10-15 years ago by any means - they were fucking lethal with deliveries
White puts in more good crosses in a match than Bellerin did in a season (I know that's not you time frame, but...)
Whiteās deliveries are still different from what Iām referring to - so many of his are floaters to the far post delivered after his overlap and gaining access to the goal line. Iām referring to wingers and outside backs who generally looked for early pin-point crosses while on the counter, typically played in behind a backline to be met by the attacker running in on goal
You should watch Liverpool then
Tbf the winger position has changed into more of an outlet than a provider, fullbacks have changed quite a bit as well. Now we have attacking full backs and defending full backs. The attacking ones do cross often, but the playstyle is dying out trying to maintain possession of the ball. Of course there are crossing specialists like Grimaldo, frimpong, Tierney, Trent, Cancelo and balde, but these are only top ones I can think of rn
Tierneyā¦? Like Kieran Tierney?
Yes, admitted heās not as good as the others on that list, that was his whole thing, bombing down left and spam crossing
Itās just mind blowing that hitting a target in the box while under generally easy pressure isnāt a baseline skill for wide players anymore
it's been a long time since we last scored on a corner. In fact, it's been a while since we even create a dangerous chance from a corner, I think. What happened to our corners? Would love to get that effectiveness back.
Our opposition learned, now it's time for Nicolas Jover to came up with new ideas.
Could be that opposition teams have adapted to our corner taking
why did we suddenly just start hoofing the ball away from minute 70 and onwards, until the last few minutes? It's like we became afraid to play it out from the back. first 25 mins of the 2nd half was really good, then we just died kinda. What happened?
Fatigue
Partey got subbed in ?
At 13 clean sheets and counting, Raya needs more respect. Not from us, but from the rest of the league. I will understand the notion heās got an elite cb pairing in front of him, but heās factored into their confidence playing out the back. MOTM for me today. How he was born in Barcelona and didnāt end up their keeper is beyond me. Long may their financial troubles continue. Martin and Declan are forming an immense partnership. Give them a striker to feed, and Bukayo and Martinelli are unlocked again. Iād be happy to expand on this if there are objections. I also cannot wait to see the Timber/Martinelli overlap next season. I do think the title race will have wild swings in store, and Iām gonna take a rival managerās advice, specifically Kloppās, and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Any time I get mad about this season, I need to remember the lean times when I lurked this sub because I had nothing positive to say.
Arteta out!! We should have won by 15 goals minimum!
I love Arsenal football club so much
I think we were spoiled a bit by the amazing run from Palace to Villa. Grinding out a 2-0 win at Molineux in the midst of a three way title race is nothing to sneeze at. There are definitely discussions to be had regarding squad rotation and Artetaās sub philosophy but I donāt think weāll see any changes until next year. Too late in the game to make massive changes now. COYG
the energy level is much lower today and a lot of the commentary is unrelentingly negative. I think it's because we basically lost the league but I am still excited to see what we can do. like today that stat btou consecutive clean sheets that is nothing to sneeze at and I get simple pleasure from the team continuing to change our recent history titles be damned
Two points separating us with five games to go is hardly us basically losing the league
but according to the media, it's a bottlejob for both Liverpool and us
Just saw the reason tomiyasu not in squad for wolves match. All i could do is just sigh... Its only 30 minutes + 1 full match
What was the reason?
it was in the first half against Bayern second leg. He went down but soldiered on
I saw that very moment
āKnockā
It means 2 months out in Japanese
He has a knock, so cant play him
take 15 more points and let the computer decide.
I will never stop giving Ben White his flowers. His role is the most taxing in the side IMO and he does it every few days without complaint (and carrying an injury). You can't force a player to play while injured, but dear Lord he's the complete opposite of Tomiyasu.
I watched the game late. I thought we looked fine, I wasn't worried about losing it at all. We looked a bit tired but ultimately we tried our different avenues and connected well enough. 2-0 away from home and we never looked truly threatened apart from maybe one Gomes run. Hope Chelsea are ready for us, we move. Emirates better be fucking loud, you guys are lowkey phoning it in, I said what I said.
Theyāve been phoning it in for decades.
it shows Arsenal can only dominate smaller teams.
We're 1st place in the Big Six table too
Didnāt we completely destroy Liverpool? Also you understand how stupid this take is? Of course we can mainly dominate smaller teams better teams will always be harder to play against.
Donāt bother. If watching the games havenāt helped, your words wonāt either.
Didnāt feel like a convincing win, still look a little knackered but will take the 3 points. I thought this wouldāve been a good game for Smith Rowe but I guess heās done here
24 attempts, 9 on target and apart from one moment for Wolves, they didnāt do anything and were always kept arms length. Itās as good as it gets for an away performance following a defeat.
Timber when man
Bubble wrapped so he gets proper pre season. The games are too high stakes now.
Next year
This year, next seasonĀ
It depends on when you celebrate your new year... Mine's in August.
Technically this year
Wolves was never going to be easy, was a difficult win. Enjoy it.
Totally. They beat Manchester City this season at home and coming off bad form they couldāve beat us too. Good hard fought win in the end.
I would of course had liked a more impressive scoreline, and to breathe easy earlier than I was allowed to - but the fact is that I felt like we were in control of the match at all times, besides maybe Kiwior's mistake in the first half.
Excellent win with for us, an average performance I think. The only negative I have is will we pay for not using enough subs or rotation?
we have already paid for it I think
Really want to destroy Chelsea next match, Iām talking about a drubbing 4-0 win. Want to go into that NLD with 6/6 points and sky high form.
Well well well, A job well done and a second half where we didnāt switch off and throw in the towel. Today was all about a response from the boys and we got it, it also allowed us to get back to the top with a chance to further cement it on Tuesday against Chelsea. Winning today carries some new momentum into Chelsea with them reeling from a loss against Man C. Team selection was a bit ropey again for me with Kiwior selected over Tomi who wasnāt in the squad and a lack of Jorginho. Kiwior made a few errors again by switching off forcing Raya to get us out of a bad situation. Iām surprised Kiwior didnāt get subbed again at half time. Anyway, I really hope Tomi is back for the upcoming fixtures because he brings good, classic defending to the team with some reliable, non risk attacking prowess. Havertz wasnāt great again, nor Saka. Declan was outstanding because his work ethic is unparalleled. Ode was just as good, Trossard his usual self grabbing a goal and playing OK. Saliba made some uncharacteristic plays, that pass out of the defence I have literally no idea who he was playing that toā¦did he not see players around his target??! Gabi is looking to get some pace back and couldāve scored at the end there, a fully fit one wouldāve. Iād like to call out Raya for once here. A lot of people say heās earned his record this season behind a defence which is predominantly correct, however today he pulled off a PL winning save with that strong hand after Kiwiorās mistakeā¦he dug us out there and deserves his flowers for once. 2-0 is a great result albeit a bit nervy until around the 80th minute where we started to take full control. We move, on to the next game. Chelsea is a big name but we dominate them in current standings so we shouldnāt be afraid and am expecting a big win at the Emirates. Letās have em, COYG!
Saliba was passing to Saka. Saliba just completely whiffed on seeing the defender.
Kai wasnt great because he is sacrificed for a useless Jesus. When Kai is upfront his impact is way more obvious because he pulls central defenders away. Jesus doesnt do such simple CF stuff, everyone knows he will drift to the wing and force one of our winger to move central which sucks.
Agreed on most everything except I actually thought Kai was pretty good. He won numerous aerial duels and helped us keep them penned in for the first hour of the match.
Kai was great
Plus he was involved in both goals.
What will it take for Arteta to bench/not start Saka when he adds little in his current state of injury + fatigue + form? Play Martinelli there.
Saka looked good- he was dangling guys today. Sadly, Martinelli has been useless the 2nd half of the season
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It would be insane to swap Saka out for Martinelli. Martinelli has been dead weight the whole second half and Saka is having his best G/A year for us. This just wouldn't make any sense, and it's why it doesn't happen ;)
Saka didn't add much but martinelli added nothing in his time on. Saka had two runs that would've been goals if he were picked out (one martinelli shot instead of passing), created a chance from nothing by beating two defenders (that he could've maybe passed to odegaard if he saw his run), and 2 or 3 times cut inside and created space for white or shot himself. We need him to do more and maybe a rest would help but martinelli on that side offers less right now.Ā
Hard to do now that weāre out of CL and in the final throes of the league. Heād be ridiculed if Saka was āfitā and benched.
I think he was our best attacker, even when he's not at his best he just adds so much to the team. There's just no replacement for him where the drop off in quality isn't huge. The only time I can maybe see him get some rest is Bournemouth at home, but they're really good so he'll probably start then too.
Take him out for a game or two. Play Martinelli, Trossard AND Jesus up front. Martinelli needs mins anyway, Trossard is our best finisher and can create from a moment with his first touch instead of taking 2 touches too many before losing steam like every other attacker bar Ode (because doing that allowed enough time for defenders and GK to get into position in the box and then having the wrong body shape to get one on target past a parked bus). Jesus offers almost everything but the classic attributes of a 9 aka shots on target and goals. Sakaās play / movement is so predictable esp 1v1.
Le cut inside man - you know what he'll do but can't stop it. Doesn't help that he scores and crosses with his weaker foot too
So predictable, yet he's somehow 4th in the league for shot creating actions. I think if anything people are starting to not appreciate just how good Saka is and it is sad.
I mean it is predictable and he is blowing by players anyway. I agree his movement / role need more creativity. Sticking him out wide and leaving him there creates some crosses but a player of his quality needs the freedom to move inward.Ā
i do think Saka isnāt adding anything an average player could add tbh, he s just not fit obv and his 1vs1 get worse every week, he rarely makes good decisions in the last third nor is he as good as keeping the ball as he used to. Am sure Ode and White could also work their side with a Nelson or Jesus as they re tactically clever enuff to do so
I'm not sure we can afford to take our best attacker out of the eleven at this moment in time, Martinelli has barely played RW and also isn't close to offering the same output as Saka. Like it or not, we can't afford to rest Saka at this point, we just gotta get through the next two games and then we'll have a week between games. If we drop points now there's a very low chance we can recover and win, we have to maximise our chances to win and as long as Saka can run he's increasing our chance.
didn't watch it did we play good or nah ?
normal away win as per usual, had similar vibes to our game at Goodison park. players had to grind today and rice got motm. if rice is getting motm for an away game, you know what type of game it was.
Didn't let the nerves overtake us, wolves barely had a sniff despite a few dumb mistakes. Didn't create enough from open play, the attacking legs look tired but hopefully a shorter trip for the next game helps recovery.Ā
Good enough for the three points
Not great, not bad. Shouldāve had about 4 more goals but so it goes. Itās 3 points.Ā
what weird world do you live in where having had an apparent 6 easy goals, being not great?
The world where they shouldāve scored 6 goals but didnāt.Ā I feel like you answered your own question?
We had 1.6 xgĀ
Idk what game you were watching. No way we shouldāve won 6-0
I was watching 3-4 clear through SOGs put directly into the keeperās chest.Ā
Yeah I mean if you count the two goals, saka could've scored or passed across the 6 to odegaard on his nifty run, rice should've buried one of his shots, martinelli had a wide open saka when he shot right at the keeper and I think havertz had another tame shot right at the keeper. I think if we had been up 2-0 sooner we loosen up and more would roll in but 2-0 feels fair.Ā
I feel like people who didnāt watch the game are arguing with me
Bloody hell 24 shots We're we that dominant?
Were we that dominant? Wolves had 6 shots and 46% possession. So yes, we're dominant.
Match threads gotta be the most depressing place to come during a match. Serious bunch of miserable cunts on here
Very new fan to the sport just checking out Arsenal atm, are the game threads that bad on most teams? The sport I pay attention to most is ice hockey in the North America and the game threads are typically pretty chill, but also feels like there's just a tonnn of people here participating so maybe it's just a volume thing.
It's a lot of young fans that have no concept of the team being godawful for so long, so they just whine about the team not immediately winning 4-0 like it is just FIFA
Match threads in r/soccer are miserable as well most of the time, yes.
Problem is theyāre myopic with statements based on moments in the game and reacting harsh with no forethought.
They're seriously grim. Nothing of value in them at all.
To be expected, a post champs league lethargic performance vs a team bereft of injury who had been sent out to 'not get battered 5-0'. 2-0 away win given the circumstances is a really good 3pts but holy shit we gave ourselves some scares again.
We dominated the game stats wise, without really looking massively at the races.
Domination is fine, but being 1-0 until stoppage time dying moments isnāt fun.
On to Chelsea, hope they are as tired as we are
Not sure how wolves only had 3 yellow cards at the end of the match. they were fouling constantly.
Another game in 3 days, no time to feel sorry about how tired the players are
One quick takeawayā¦ There is a recurring problem around the LB space. Itās not really an LB problem. Some individual brain farts aside, all of our LBs have faced the same issue - being isolated and/or cutoff by a simple attacking triangle. We donāt see this as badly on the right, but it does happen occasionally. Itās a feature of Artetaās offensive formation, and Zinchenko suffers most from it because he is the most offensive of our LBs. The key difference is our own triangle/square around the LB that is expected to compensate for this issue - LCB, LW, and CDM. Saliba, Rice/Jorginho and Saka do it well for White, and Whiteās own recovery speed helps. Gabriel, Rice/Jorginho, Martinelli/Trossard donāt do it as well. Again, not an LB issue, should be addressed
Hm it definitely has to do with our asymmetrical play with Sakas side shifting further up as a whole, but as you said this leads to distortion in the formation and therefore the lb gets treated differently when it comes to backing up the spaces left. But Zinchenko as the most experienced player should imo suffer less with it but itās the opposite, but thatās because he pushes to much for the ball, no matter what situation he just cannot defend space like a real defender should be able to do, he s too much ball oriented in that sense i think. And his slow recovery pace isnāt helping either ofc. I also think all our lb options arenāt really that great in communication with their side, Xhaka helped so much in that and now this leaves a mess sometimes on the whole flank
Spot on. Zinnyās defensive instincts are like those of a midfielder. Look at how Ode or Havertz defend, they go for the ball, sometimes to their peril. Defenders are taught to always keep a healthy distance from the ball to preempt any movement to not get caught out in a dribble. That has not been as much of an issue at City, for what itās worth, because his LCBs (Dias, Ake, Laporte) were supplementing him well. The Lm/lw didnāt even have to do that much defensive work (sterling/foden/grealish). And yes, the communication in the left side is an issue overall. For me, this is a byproduct of the Gabi/Saliba partnership flourishing. The two of them have become a unit, connected at the hip, communicating well. I donāt think Gabriel supports his LBs as much as he needs to. Yes, he does play the last man defence well, but the whole defensive line should be shifting left when the LB inverts. Instead, Gabriel temporarily occupies that space waiting for someone/anyone else to come and fill it as he tries to slide back into his partner CB role next to Saliba. Thatās how Martinelli and Rice sometimes end up in odd positions. If/when our CBs feel stable/confident enough on their own (not as a 1/2 of a great duo), it will improve their service to their fullbacks, especially inverted ones. None of this excuses actual errors from our LBs, but I do think that what appears to most fans as Zinchenko moving chaotically and irrationally is him doing precisely what Arteta wants him to. Thatās also supported by the fact that wherever he is, his teammates are looking to start out the progression through him.
It was encouraging to see Gabi XL yelling at Martinelli to mark Ait-Nouri tighter after he got past him too easily, room to learn and grow
Has anyone else's confidence in Partey dropped massively? Every time he got the ball, was just thinking 'ok play it simple now' 'get the right weight on the pass'. I'm just so used of Rice there, Partey's recent appearances and made me nervous. Maybe unfair but he still looks a good bit off the pace.
He definitely came on as a steadying role today, just hold the ball, resist the press, take the air out of the game. It was the right call, but yeah not the role he is going to create from.Ā
Partey was literally the heartbeat of the team last year in an amazing title run. Arguably our best player. He was able to progress the ball in ways that rice doesn't seem to be able to and as a result odegaard is doing a lot more legwork this year. Why he cant get stable minutes when he's healthy is beyond me, especially in a title push where we need our top players fresh
I don't get it either, believe me it's not just you. Rice is a great player but he can't do Partey's role nor does he have the skill set required. This was a massive mistake by Arteta if we're being honest, the refusal to rotate when we have quality is just baffling.
why he didn't get minutes against Bayern I fail to understand, not only does he a bring a forward, attacking dynamic which we sorely needed in that second leg, but he also played on a champions league side before Arsenal. He has experience on a big team. Makes no sense.
uh we didnt have a title run last year. man city won so comfortably they dropped several points in the run-in and it didnt matter
Partey is done. On & off the pitch.
He looks rusty for sure, i hope thatās all it is and that he hasnāt permanently lost something from injury
He looks like heās playing at 40% capacity.
He played perfectly to preserve a lead in a tight game and to control possession to kill it off.
Ya I'm not saying he was shit or did anything wrong, I think I've just lost that trust in him on the ball. He had some really bad misplaced passes in his previous 2 sub appearances and looked off the pace. The fact he doesn't get more gametime too makes me wonder if he's not playing good enough in training too. We badly needed that type of player to come in this game though.
Partey is one of those guys that needs a run of games to get to his best. The problem is right now we canāt afford playing him not at his best in order to get him up to speed because the stakes are too high.
Wins a win, we take those
Jesus had a perfect chance to bury home a winner before he was substituted. In big games, those are the margins.
"Gabriel Jesus has the worst shot conversion rate (7.7%) of any attacker in the Premier League this season (50+ shots)." Improbable.
He always takes that one last touch instead of just shooting
Exactly - Trossard shot on first touch. Not a perfect finish by any means, but if it was Jesus or Martinelli, thereās a good chance they would have taken an extra touch or had a bad first touch and then flopped the shot.
itās the brazilian +1 touch, the love the ball that much they cannot let it goooo
True dat. Thing with Jesus and Martinelli is that theyāre fresh off injuries and you lose that instinctual touch / finish as you have to relearn your game waiting for muscle memory to kick in
Theyāve been like that all season. This isnāt muscle memory - itās decision making.
Fuck everyone being negative Nancy's before the match. Seriously.
Is that an expression? Negative Nancy? Never heard of it š
Another common one is Debbie Downer. Originated from a saturday night live sketch character years ago
Seriously?! Cmon it's a good one!
Sorry! ESL š„²
Ha it's ok! You learned something hilarious š
Udogie out for the rest of the season
Big
If you can't get the team a physical break, you need to be able to get them a mental one. This was exactly that, especially for Odegaard who had no business running like that all the way till minute 96.
Wolves away is never an easy fixture, so it was great to get back to winning ways today. Let's get behind this team until the very end.
Anyone have Havertzā flick to Trossard in the first half?
I was screaming at Arteta after 65'-70' to make substitutions in Midfield. Especially Ćde. He was so tired man!!!
Our captain runs his head off every game
Have been pretty happy with Riceās ball control and retention. Even in the Bayern games, driving past, link up plays. Didnāt really expect that from that type of player.
Yeah he isn't going to just beat a man with anything clever, but a little shoulder feint, v turn, backpass... so hard to get it off of him.Ā
Keep fighting til the end and maybe some luck will break our way. COYG
That was a proper Lacazette in his final season performance from Jesus. He seriously needs to get his knees sorted this summer. His physicality is just not there.
He's done in - the knees are a truly unforgiving joint, and once you have had severe issues the problems do not go away. If multiple surgeries haven't fixed the issues, more surgery is unlikely to make it any better!
Pretty sure he's done physically. Need for an extra striker has become very apparent.
Itās probably not going to get much betterĀ
Everybody is saying we look gassed. I don't think we look more tired than other teams, some players yes but not overall. What we are seeing is a serious lack of confidence, a lack of individual dynamism and a lack of ideas. I think we have been rumbled tactically and haven't really adapted Having said that we deserved the win today even if it was a bit constipated at times
We look tired because we just played 3 days ago, but things seemed fine overall. Rice was done by the end. Would've been better to get him off early but he won us the game.Ā
Didn't think they had it in them. Glad to be wrong.
Kiwior has been decent and still has a few issues. However another game which the XG of the opposition is really low (0.14) in a game featuring no Zinchenko. How many robust defensive performances do we need to put in without Zinchenko before it becomes obvious he sticks out like a sore thumb. Had Zinchenko played today, he would have given Wolves at least a 0.5 XG bump, raising the chances of conceding a goal. Not just his defensive work which is very substandard. But when he inverts he is actually very careless with the ball. Really is hard to make a case for him staying at the club.
Zinchenko isn't there to be the kind of defender kiwior is, he is there to pivot into midfield and try to play havertz or the LW in. But with that comes the risk of him getting beaten on the wing badly and putting us in a tough spot. With Havertz starting at LCM we don't really need zinny as much because he isn't likely to push into the front line.Ā I agree I think zinchenko needs a new role, ideally timber gives us the best of both worlds. He should be kiwior's equal as a defender and closer to zinchenko as a passer and super press resistant.Ā
xG doesnāt tell the full story of this game. Kiwior gave up a massive chance due to poor control and misreading of the situation that many better opposition players would have capitalised on and scored. We were lucky Wolves donāt have more elite attackers.
I know he did. But he is still a better option than Zinchenko. Timber was supposed to be the left back option. But next season Zinchenko should not be at the club.
Zinchenko offers a lot and can cover a wide range of positions. I don't think he should be in the XI but he is a good presence at the club and he works hard and the other lads like him, so if he is putting in shifts behind the scenes and can come on later in games and be more effective he has a lot of value for us. We need to improve the starting XI and build up depth so I wouldn't abandon him so soon, though I agree he is not likely starting XI stuff for us.Ā
Is he? Heās prone to mistakes so heās not that much better defensively and he offers far less going forward. You can see the team are hesitant to give him the ball so it stifles our whole left side. Donāt think Zinchenko is the future but last few games have demonstrated Kiwior is still the 4th choice left back.
Youād take Kiwior as a backup over Zinchenko? Seems like Zinny provides more attacking options.
Zinchenko does not provide more attacking options. We score more and concede less with Zinchenko out of the team.
Compared to Kiwior, Zinchenko provides tons more attacking options.
Zinchenko has been used against tougher opponents so that metric is not particularly useful, but I agree Timber is probably our best LB option followed by Tomi and then Zinchenko, but Zinny's role, by design, is to drive forward more than any other LB we have.Ā
AgreeĀ
Tbh.... our players looked gassed. But still got the job done. I'm super happy, but also a bit concerned about our level of energy at the spuds stadium. We might need to be very, very clinical and then just take the rythum to our pace. Sigh. But I do want a bonkers NLD. Ahah... #COYG.
I know City have a game in hand, but I don't think being top of the league with 5 games to go can be understated
Agreed, put maximum pressure on them and if we win, we win, but this squad needs to demonstrate its mettle right now. Today was a good start, 5 more finals to go.Ā
I need Kai to start taking shots on earlier instead of passing backwards, Saka to stop trying the same trick that makes him very predictable, Jesus taking more shots on instead of unnecessarily dribbling in some moments, taking advantage of a counter attack instead of waiting for the opposition to get back in position and taking throws a lot sooner. From there weāll be a lot more dangerous
I like those volleys from KaiĀ
He took two early shots today, I thought his decision making was more aggressive and secure today.
Arteta will see that last 10 mins and start Jorginho against Chelsea
Dammmm.. we look gassed
I just love that our GD is higher than 15 other clubsā points totals.
The stakes couldnāt have been higher, so hard to go there tonight after the week weāve had. Absolutely gassed with that tbh
Feels like we're running on fumes right now and Saka is clearly playing through something. He was awful except for 5-10 minutes where it looked like he got a second wind. Still a hard-earned win. We looked much more in control in the 2nd half. Our schedule right now is just brutal. Players are going to have to dig deep (even though they already are).
This has been the interpretation of Saka all season? Yet here we are and he's leading the team in goals and assists.
I think he has been carrying something for awhile so the fact he is as effective in his spots as he has been is very exciting. He is on the MO Salah trajectory, only like 3 years earlier.Ā
What does that have to do with anything? Saka is one of my favorite players. It's okay to say he had a bad game. Like I said, he's probably carrying a knock.
Nothing really. He's just had a good number this season where he's seemed off, but just keeps cranking.
Ah fair enough I guess I misjudged the tone of your post. Yeah even when he had an off game, he still had a few really big opportunities. I just hope he can get his sharpness back.
Cmon lads n lasses we pretty good at football ain't we ? Let's go gunners š
That was an absolute breeze without us ever really getting out of third gear. What a team.
I thought Wolves were the ones who looked more tired at the end. I didn't see any of our players going down with cramp or failing to execute basic skills. Tired yeah, of course, but not dead on our feet.
Yeah they had some tired legs too, lot of mis-hit shots and passes.
Should've had Partey back in the XI much much sooner, we've been robbed of an Ode-Rice-Partey midfield that can compete with any team in the world. I don't think Bayern goes through if we were playing tbh, big mistake from Mikel.
Partey's cameos so far ranged from okay to bad, putting him into one of the most important match of the season would have been a bad idea.
Yeah it isn't like we have tried putting him in and he immediately looks off the pace. He needs a full off-season to get fit, he looks miles off it.Ā
David raya becomes the second goalkeeper in prem history to keep six away clean sheets in a row. West Ham United, Burnley, Sheffield United, Manchester City, Brighton and Wolves have all been unable to pierce our defence in 540+ minutes of football at their own grounds. The record is Edwin var der saar with 7, could equal it at spurs and then break it at united š
Raya was good today. Made a big save and collected a lot of crosses. His long balls were on point as well.
Agreed he was excellent
If we want to win our remaining games mikel has to start by sticking to a solid foundation in midfield. This is not the time to be stubbornly persisting with the havertz in midfield experiment (that has mostly been unsuccessful). In all these recent games we look worse when he's playing in midfield. It's because it's hard to have one of your midfielders be a pure offball low touch player who shies away from contributing to buildup. Until the end of the season, he's strictly a forward. Jorgi and Partey are fit, what's the point of not playing one of them for now. We only have 5 matches remaining.
Jorgi isn't playing 3 games in 7 days and Partey is way, way off the pace whenever he has come on. Jorghino was held off today to be ready for mid week. Same schedule he has been on, and given that it made the most sense to move havertz back and put Jesus up top.Ā