City v Arsenal – matchday blog

Now keep your heads and take a point.

that was difficult to watch, considering the luck involved, but I’m still very impressed by the resolve we displayed today…not to mention the far more positive tactics in the first half

It feels like a loss but the truth is I would have taken a draw before kickoff, I definitely would have taken one at half time when down to 10 men and if you offered me a draw away at City next season I’d take that as well.

Ultimately its more two points dropped for City than us.

Not bad considering it was fourteen against ten. Cheating cunts.

And Roy Keanes being a massive cunt so usual service being resumed.

Raya and Saliba and Gabriel are crucial for current Mourinho style of play. Without those 2 we might hover around10

this was the most positive I’ve felt in quite some time in light of all the negative tactical pursuits of our manager when it mattered most…if we can find someone of consequence up top, then have Cala and Timber in their proper positions and bombing up the wings, I think we just might have something here…this will ultimately help whomever plays up front, on both sides, thus providing us with a far more balanced attack…just think of the space a new Striker would have in the middle of the pitch…as such, I’m very bullish if we get the next window right…of course, I still think we can get some good things done this season, I just think we’re a piece away from truly mattering

TRVL

I think this will boost the confidence massively for the lads. A draw at City is good on it’s own, but with 10 men? That’s some job done well. I’m a bit worried after the Calafiori and Timber tired legs, and hoping it was due the intensity and they would be ready for the next. Martinelli, too.

Ambarish—I don’t really care about the whole 10 men gig because MA just brought on every defensive player known to mankind then sat deep, who the fuck can’t do that…it’s the fact that he didn’t come into the match with a negative plan in mind and took one of his previous untouchables out of the starting lineup…this kind of flexibility was seriously required if we ever wanted to be a contender and not just the world’s most expensive pretender

Hi Marc
I think your points at 18.39 are right, but the 20th century Gooner in me is fucking furious that we only drew Christ I hate City.

Just playing Timber and Calafiori in their natural positions improves us. White and Kiwior can be back ups across the back line .

Need an 8 and Ode back up as well as a striker.

A strange but good day at the office and a point gained.

This season has many bumps in it from the top 10 playering each other.

Great for the neutral.

Kroenke

Well City’s case is going forward at the moment and I don’t think the major clubs are going to let them get away with a one off points deduction so we might just get to sit back and enjoy the fallout.

Good morning all, what a game that was last night. City were always going to score in the 2nd half when El B refused to play by battening down the hatches and hoping to keep the 2nd half scoreless against the best team in the PL; up there with RM & Barca.

Everyone knows the new rules – none more than us with the Rice sending off.

Did we learn with El B drumming it into his players to think when they are on a yellow card? I mean he uses pickpockets and speakers at the training ground and brought in Win all in the name of improving us to win the league. But to imbue common sense into our players was a step too far for El B, where potentially, it cost us the game yesterday or did it? It certainly cost us 2 points.

We ended up playing a 5-4-1, but had we started with 3-5-2, and with Rodri and KDB missing, we could have won the game. We didn’t, where City’s first goal saw Haaland centrally in space being uncontested by Willie or Gabs to slot home.

Sunday mooning park football CB spacing error we don’t normally make.

With 3 at the back and wingbacks that doesn’t happen.

We came to play and were settling in when they scored. However, I’m sick of the dark arts or plain simple cheating by us. I know all teams use such negative tactics, but it seems to be a main feature of our play because our players are need deemed good enough to win honestly with better football by El B. We hated the Italians doing it in the 80s & 90s and the Spanish and French in the noughties onwards.

Now it’s at pandemic level in football and needs to be wiped out.

The problem is it’s why the new laws are brought in to combat such ugly football. To stand and jostle a keeper is, in my mind a foul. Interfering with and restricting a keepers’ movements in the way defenders man handle attackers in their boxes is wrong. Block runs by standing one’s ground is fine.

It’s slowly being addressed by the game’s officials, but needs more defining rules for yellow/red cards.

I agree refs and VAR need to improve consistency with the new implementation of the new laws for brandishing yellows with gay abandon. However, I’m all for ridding the game of as many dark arts as is humanly possible or if not, today’s managers are no better than Pulis and Dyche type managers who thrived on such antics.

I feel we are more concerned with dark arts than scoring in open play with scintillating football.

Our set pieces are riddled with off the ball fuckery, especially Gabs pushing defenders in their backs and or wherever he can foul the defender to get an edge.

Why can’t Gabs just lose players fairly like he did against the hapless Walker? Great movement and great goal.

As TRVL and others here have eluded to; not buying a striker has cost us this season. Sterling is not from the promised striker land or he’d be playing and scoring and assisting. The reality is he is just another expensive misfit with Jorginho’s pace.

We can’t score from open play – even with Ode for 3 games, we have played 5 and scored mostly from free kicks and corners.

I feel we are riding our luck rather than properly deserving sitting at the PL summit. We are 4th, but open play goals are fantasy goals for us. Some reports are suggesting Ode is out for 12 weeks. If so, El B has to rethink his selections and tactical plans to score from open play each game.

Relying on set pieces will not win us the PL trophy; a tin cup maybe, but not what we Gooners covert: a PL title and CL trophy.

We can’t get a Bunga Bunga Dubai rejuvenation as KP rightly suggested, but our next 4 games are at home:

Bolton EFL cup
Leicester City PL
PSG CL
Southampton PL

All very winnable games where we can start playing and scoring freely at home, right? If we don’t take 6 points from LCFC and S’hampton being at home, then we have no right thinking we can win the league.

In a way Ode being injured has forced El B to play differently, but he still can’t play a 9 without expecting too many defensive duties from the player. Our games are built on solid defense, which is how it should be, but not at the expense of our midfield and attack.

Too much has been spent on defensively minded players.

We don’t even have a free kick specialist other than Ode and Saka who are not really specialists as Ward Prowse and similar are. We’ve got no one who can bend-it-like-Beckham or Rorberto Carlos who seemed to have a radio operated car ability in sending the ball in outrageous directional curves of in and out – bending in Uri Geller fashion.

Roberto at his best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC97_I6VigI

Our current specialist is er, well um, hoof-it not float with pace – oxymoron but does seem to happen – by Rice following in Xhaka’s supreme failure as a specialist free kick taker’s place.

Best left to Saka for now, but Saka is more a corner specialist.

In sum, we gained a point from a game we expected nothing from other than hope, cashing in Karma chips and praying for the win or a point.

The worry is it’s another game we scraped by in scoring 2 goals from set pieces including Calafiori’s opening rocket of a goal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne9OA99OdaM

Bournemouth away Oct 19 after the next international break is our next potential banana skin and four weeks away.

I’d like to see Nwaneri with Rice and Partey in midfield for the next run of games including PSG.

See what the lad can do?

Tony—sound analysis, especially the whole “not at the expense of our midfield and attack” narrative, which is actually just a polite way of saying can we win in spite of our manager…I very much doubt we can thread that needle as we’re presently constructed, but I’m fairly certain we can remain well within the title mix so long as our key defenders remain healthy

so the bigger question becomes what exactly are we doing here? are we simply trying to create a reimagined version of what we witnessed during the Wenger Cup era or are we truly focused on becoming the best of the best…if it’s the latter, which I find difficult to believe, we’re going about it all wrong…as such, I’m quite convinced that either our “real” sights are set considerably lower or those in charge don’t have the acumen required to actual reach such lofty heights…sadly both things are likely true

logic would seem to suggest that, if winning football’s heightest honours matters above all else, he wouldn’t continually go against the grain, like with all his harebrained shoehorning schemes and his unwillingness to properly address those positions that move the needle most when it comes to big game trophy hunting…so either he’s purposely sabotaging our efforts or he’s so arrogant that he literally views himself as the center of the managerial universe, which would help to explain why he seems to care far more about winning in “his” particular way than doing whatever it takes, even if it means him taking a backseat at times

on a more positive note, like I stated earlier, I was pleasantly surprised by our tactical intent before Tross’s red flipped our script…now this might have had more to do with both City’s selection concerns and/or our inability to impact things more centrally, with Ode being shelved, but no matter the reasons I’m hopeful nonetheless…even though there’s no guarantee that what we witnessed today will become the new norm, I find it difficult to believe that even MA could ignore the potential benefits of opting for this course of action on a more regular basis…fingers-crossed

“or he’s so arrogant that he literally views himself as the center of the managerial universe”

Hammer hits nail squarely on its head here with that statement, TRVL. The problem is such grandiose self opinions are constantly being fed with new contacts without oversight or even the slightest modicum of accountability for his lack of success and willful waste of company finances.

I’ll concede we might have the new Maldini with Calafiori: he’s a ‘proper’ Italian defender who can strike a ball like a 9 does. Let’s hope he scores more than Xhaka did in his first 8 seasons as bth hit the ball with the same power with little back lift.

I’ve maintained for 3 seasons that we have the squad to win the PL but not the CL yet. Our problem is we haven’t had the manager for either.

I would love to share your positive leanings that El B is finally seeing the light with selections and tactics. A more braver El B if you will.

The next 4 games are not really going to tell us much unless El B really changes his tactics up.

What worries me is El B will use excuses to paper over his tactical flaw cracks; the excuses will take center stage in El B’s mind and egomania, where he thinks he’s always right, and so everything that happened this season was everyone’s fault but his own.

I, as always, live in perpetual hope, TRVL just that reality aways has its way with me.

not the result everyone was expecting. The Etihad became Rorke’s Drift in the second half – if the posted 7 minutes of extra time was the only time played then it would have been a win. Forget Fergie time – we now have Pep time.

“Watts has explained that White was not dropped for tactical reasons or any other technical decision, but just because there is some concern over his current injury status…Watts explained that White had some issues with his fitness last season, but largely played through the pain for the club”

Tony—so either I was wrong about MA’s tactical maturation or he’s up to his old “injury” tricks again…here’s hoping it’s the latter, even though I despise his child-like managerial antics

looks as if Rodri might be gone for the season, due to a knee injury he suffered yesterday…the potential impact of this on their title chances shouldn’t be underestimated, as he’s the best DM in the world and there’s a substantial dropoff between him and whomever his replacement is