Not only we lost two easy games against Crystal Palace and Brighton, we gave away our lead for Champions League spot. It is neither PV4 schooling Mikel nor a toothless Brighton scoring 2 against us at Emirates that saddens me. It isn’t even the horrible football we played. It’s the fact that some of us feel the season is almost over.
If a team sitting in 5th position, three points short of fourth with 8 more games to play without any distraction of cup games is considered lost in a two legged race against a shi*t team, you are not doing justice to your expectations. If you are okay with it and looking forward to the next season in the hope of improvements, there is a pretty high chance you will be disappointed again.
On a given day, you can lose to anyone. The manner and reason of our loss in last 2 games makes it unacceptable.
Partey picked up an injury and we struggled in the midfield. Was it not clear already before the start of season that he is injury prone and it’s a too much of ask to depend on him for a whole season? Why was 50m dropped on a CB when we could have used that money to bring in an experienced midfield? Why was Sambi not sharing a bit of game time between Xhaka and Partey?
Xhaka at left back experiment had failed earlier against Villareal in a semi final. What made Arteta think that it’s going to work fine now? Why didn’t we go with Saka at left back when we know he can cover that area pretty well? At some point, it was difficult for Tierney to get back his starting position from Tavares but he wasn’t given any game time to keep up his form. Why didn’t we show some confidence in a young player if it’s a project youth?
At the top, Lacazette is playing every 90min. He hasn’t scored much and does nothing except falling over because a fly touches him every now and then. We had a golden boot winner who is scoring for fun at Barca, whom we paid (or paying) to get rid of. We have another young player who has broken few records at U23 level but manages to get 9 min of game time every week. We have a prolific and pacey player in Martinelli who has never been tried at CF when we all know he can’t do any worse than Laca.
We are short in midfield but have loaned two players in Guendouzi and Torreira who are doing good enough at their club. Auba has scored 8 goals for Barca in 9 games but we felt he was not good enough for us. We decided to buy a CB when we had Saliba and that money could have been used to strengthen any other place.
This is all on Edu and Arteta. They are accountable for the players coming in, going out and the results. You can’t cry of shortage in MF when you have loaned couple of players who were good enough to play 2 years back and has only improved. You can’t cry of a goal scorer when you pay Auba to fu*k off to Barca.
For me, season is not over yet. We have 8 games to play, and beat Spurs to the Champions League. I don’t care if we have to play Liverpool or Chelsea. If we make it, kudos to the team, Edu and Arteta. If not, they must be held accountable and failures should have consequences.
Short one today, we are playing Southampton on Saturday and I will be back before the game.
Mb,
Spot on. I’d sure like to think the season isn’t done yet,particularly with a 6 pointer derby to come. Either way you’d hope that the latest flaws exposed in our planning will be dealt with but the pace at which change occurs at a club our size is,quite frankly, baffling. Literally any scoreline is possible on Saturday, let’s hope it’s in our favour. Otherwise the wheels may not be replaceable……
I didn’t realise spuds v brighton was 12.30 k.o.sat. 7 points lead would be psychologically intimidating especially considering our 2 games in hand are imminent fixtures away to saints and chelski. Really puts the last 2 defeats into perspective. Leaving Arteta out of it for a minute, some of the players that had been touted as safe hands into which Arsenal put it’s future need to start justifying wearing the shirt. The anger against the manager is allowing some of them to hide,just as in the last days of Wenger some players were only too happy to use the friction to excuse their own poor attitudes.
Against Crystal Palace, even when we were 2-0 down, fans made their presence felt, there were Arsenal chants noticeable on television.
When fans started leaving before full time against Brighton, it only mean one thing – sadness has crept in along with anger and it’s not an ideal thing for a manager.