We were able beat Monaco at home 3-0 with the help of two goals from Saka and the other one from Havertz earlier this week. It brought us closer to the round of 16, we are sitting 3rd with equal points between 3rd to 8th ranking teams. There’s no sure thing in football and 2 game weeks are still left but another win should get us the automatic qualification to next round. Top 8 qualifies automatically and the next 8 teams are selected between 9th-24th ranking teams when they will play a 2-legged knockout game between them. We don’t want to end up in that situation and for now, it looks like we won’t – unless we lose both.
In the Premier League, last 2 weekends have been shit for us. We shared points against Fulham at Cottage and then Everton restricted us to a goalless draw at Home. When you are competing for the title, a draw is 2 points lost. We have now got enough chances to cover the gap with Liverpool but we have failed to do so. Remember last season when we gave one of these chances to Man City and they took it with both hands and never looked back? Well, Liverpool gave it to us by dropping points against both Newcastle and Fulham and we couldn’t capitalise on that. As a result, we are sitting on 3rd, 1 point behind Chelsea and 6 points behind Liverpool when both of them has played 1 less game than us.
What’s going wrong for us?
First, team selection. Injuries are coming in dozens. Ben White is ruled out for the season after a minor knee injury. Gabriel / Calafiori / Timber has been IN and OUT of the line ups and we had both Saka and Odegaard absent for more than 2 weeks earlier. Coupled with injuries, the poor team selection from Mikel hasn’t really helped us. Moving a RB Timber to left and putting Thomas Partey to weaken the only strong side of our game was a very poor decision. Mikel did game MLS a start on the left and reinstated Timber on the right which looks better which he should have done earlier. Also, we are failing to score goals. Let’s be a bit blunt here – Premier League teams have found out what we are trying to do. They can just shut Odegaard and Saka on the right and sit back happy while we struggle in the middle and on the left side of the pitch. There is no real threat either Martinelli or Trossard are creating on the left. The fact that there are two DMs playing behind them isn’t helping them either. We hated Xhaka but he was more of an attacking player than a DM and it helped Martinelli.
Second, poor player’s form. Havertz have been struggling, Martinelli / Trossard are struggling too. Mikel Merino is slow for Premier League football or is going to take some more time to adapt to a new league. We needed a CF who can score and win us a game every once in a while which Havertz isn’t capable of. He has started 15 of our 16 games this season and has scored 5 goals. Please remind me how many of those goals have won us a game? When we are in the 70th minute on a level score, we need a brilliance from our CF to win a game which he fails to provide. This creates an over reliance on Bukayo. On the left side, Martinelli has been struggling with goals. I can count 3 factors – his form, no support from middle and his reluctance to go in the middle.
Third, poor game planning. If it’s not working, you should find a way to fix it. Bringing Gabriel Jesus in 65th minute when the scoreline reads 0-0 is not going to help. Jesus can’t score if his life depends on it so what’s the point. If your left side is not clicking, putting an attacking player behind him might help, and Nwaneri can play on either side of the pitch. Thomas Partey on the RB creates a lot of mess, it puts the player on the injury risk, hampers our right side chemistry, our mid field struggles and some more. There’s no point playing a fit Partey in defence. Declan Rice is not Odegaard, stop treating him like one. He is a defensive midfielder and both Partey and him shouldn’t be on the pitch at the same time unless you are trying to protect a 1-0 win. Or else, you will end up with lots of draws and that’s what we are doing so far this season.
Right, I have a lot to say but the Champions League run is keeping me positive so far. Monaco was the toughest game of December and lets hope we better ourselves in Premier League.
Would love to hear from you, see you in the comments.
Fonts on all devices should be fixed now, let me know if you still see it.
(reposted this here because it was just posted recently on the last thread—I apologize if you’re seeing it for the second time, as it’s so fucking long)
Tony—any discussion pertaining to our selection process is always tainted by the knowledge that both Rice and Havertz will be on the pitch no matter the circumstances…as you know, I have no issue with the former so long as his tactical deployment always has the greater good in mind, which hasn’t the case this season…I’m of the belief that the Euros made matters significantly worse, due in large part to Southgate’s similarly dire tactics…when they struggled offensively there was a lot of chatter, manufactured or otherwise, which tried to suggest that things would look vastly different if only Rice was playing in more advanced spaces…of course this was either unfounded grasping nonsense or a careful constructed yet somewhat mismanaged PR campaign on the player’s part, as the real stumbling block was Southgate’s Arteta-like teeny-tiny tactical balls
on a bit of a side note, I did find it interesting that Rice actually looked the part of a deep-lying pivot at times yesterday, as his passing and set pieces were generally crisper and more deliberate than usual, yet he was replaced by Jorginho…hopefully he didn’t suffer an injury of some sort and it simply hasn’t been disclosed as of yet (update—he was taken off due to an injury concern, the nature of which I’m not totally sure)
as for Havertz, it’s not as if I wouldn’t play him, were I in MA’s shoes, I would just do so in a far more sparingly manner…in my opinion, he’s a luxury/specialist type, especially on a team that’s hoping to compete for titles, whereas if we were a middling side, without the financial wherewithal to compete at the top of the pitch, I would evaluate things much differently…on a side that’s not competing for European positions and isn’t expected to score with the same frequency as the top clubs, having someone who can put in a shift and poach 10-12 goals could be the difference between finishing mid-table and finding yourself in a relegation battle…conversely, on a top 4 side, he functionally caps your potential output, due to his lower ceiling in front of goal and the fact that he restricts your ability to switch things up, tactically speaking
now if he were simply a change of pace option, kind of like Jesus, and we had a REAL Striker leading the line, his presence would make infinitely more sense…problem is his fees and wages would make him a poor choice for either of the sides I described above…the middling club would never reinvent their wage structure wheel simply to accomodate this particular player, as they would much rather roll the dice on a “similar” type option for a fraction of the price…we, on the other hand, should have never invested so heavily on a player who’s not a bona fide needle mover…if he were a 40M get on Tross’s wages, our present problematic dynamic would never exist, as that sort of investment wouldn’t have hindered our potential Striker transfer plans and any pressure to start him would be functionally nonexistent
I know I keep harping on it but when you pay 100M for DM, then deploy him as a AM, and likewise pay 75+M for someone who doesn’t fit your tactical script, only to shoehorn him into a position he’s simply not qualified for, it will undoubtedly have a profoundly negative impact on your ability to compete with football’s finest…shit it’s had a negative impact on our ability to consistently beat far lesser sides…just imagine what might have been if we made all the same moves, had Timber at RB, Cala at LB, Rice at DM, then Merino in the 8-hole, and had bought an actual Striker instead of Havertz…that seemingly simple transfer adjustment alone would have put us in a far more competitive position today
btw things with my mother-in-law were far more complicated than we originally thought…thanks for asking…I actually wrote this post after returning back home at around 3 in the morning…things are already bonkers around here as we prepare for the holiday season, so this situation ought to make things exponentially more difficult…I’m sure we will discuss it at greater length at a future date…Cheers
Madhu—as to the Pedro banter, it makes perfect sense…he knows that those with a legit axe to grind with the manager have had issue with Ethan’s lack of minutes, so he’s the perfect scapegoat for the Kool-AId crew…anyone who knows the game can see that he’s not being given the same service opportunities as Ode, likely because MA doesn’t trust him to be on the ball that often…as such, the chances of him lighting things up are slim to none…the fact that he’s prodcued what he has, considering his limited opportunities, speaks volumes about his actual potential…I still believe that MA doesn’t want to provide him with too many “wow” moments before he signs his re-up, which is a classic MA cost-saving measure that we’ve witnessed before on several occasions
“Please remind me how many of those goals have won us a game?”
I can’t remember the exact details but I did a breakdown of Havertz’s PL goals last season and a huge percentage of them were in games we were either already winning (often getting the 3rd goal etc) or would go on to win by a comfortable margin.
Add to that Jesus doesn’t look like he could score in a brothel having consumed a tonne of viagra and you’re praying for a corner.
Good post Ambarish. Thanks for resolving the font size issue as well. It’s all good now.
TVRL- regarding Ethan and MAs treatment of academy players are a scandal in itself. Let’s unpack it for a moment.
Nketia – struggling to get into CP team may be MA has wrecked him completely. Last season start he got games and scored 5 goals and then MA started his Havertz project completely ignoring Nketia and reducing him to bit part. I am not one moment suggesting he could have been our striker but just the way an academy player is treated. He is the same manager who gave him a 100 K salary as well. See the inconsistency and that would really put serious doubts in anyones mind
ESR – currently playing without any injuries I Fulham and doing well. Still feel he is holding himself back due to the rain at MA treated him last season after his come back from injury. I watch all Fulham games just to watch him and you can feel that his head is messed with. Hopefully a full season with Silva he may get his head fixed. He is a fabulous player and MA just wrecked him
Nelson – again saved MAs ass with that goal in the last min. Most times at the highest level it’s all mental and more so for younger players. He is capable of getting goals and in no way inferior to Martinelli if you look at his contribution but was hardly trusted and given time. Again MA have him a salary of 100 K but completely ignored him.
Chido OBi, Hutchinson left early seeing how MA has messed with other academy players. Can you argue against Chido obi being a valuable plan C when our so called strikers are firing blanks. It’s proven in multiple instances that a player gets better when he plays with better players and at a higher level. That’s where Wenger scores over MA in his treatment of academy players.
Now it’s the time of Ethan and MLS to endure this treatment from MA. MLS was a breath of fresh air when we played against Monaco. When you see the talent you have to give them the space and time to get better. They will do mistakes but then that why exp players are there to cover up. On the left you have a Gabriel who will make MLS better as the season goes of he plays regularly. Similar Ethan’s talent is beyond doubt but the trust and love from the manager is not there. if the manager cannot trust Ethan to pair with Ode with a 100 center mid behind him to protect him then what is the point of 100 buy. For Ethan to make progress he needs to play at least 30 min each game on an average. If Cesc was treated like this i wonder if the world would have seen the Cesc the way we did.
Finally I get frustrated because neither Per nor any other official within the club grows a pair and confronts MA on his treatment of academy players. How can they allow him to roughshod over our academy like that. The way club is run now is unsustainable unless we blood couple of academy players every season. Otherwise shit th academy and redirect the spend to only first team. It breaks my heart to see young academy players with so much potential being treated so badly by a rookie manager. The audacity of this Manager with nothing to show boggles my mind. Somebody need to put him in his place.
watching Mount go out today reminded me of just how obtuse we’ve been when it comes to injuries…I wouldn’t have Timber at LB unless absolutely necessary, I would have a rethink about Cala being a LB, as that’s the position in which he’s suffered the most injuries over his relatively brief playing career, and I wouldn’t target any recruits with a history of muscular-based injuries that lingered, as I believe them to be more susceptible moving forward…now this doesn’t necessarily apply to those who’ve gone under the knife, as oft-times they come out the other side in better stead, depending on the nature of the injury…have we learned nothing from our absolutely atrocious history when it comes to injuries, especially those of the niggling/lingering variety…there’s so many examples that I won’t waste your time by creating a list…shout-out to paper mache Tomi
What the fuck are City doing?
5 minutes plus injury time and 1 nil up against a ManU team who look really poor and then a bad back pass (which they’d half recovered from) and a defender ploughs straight through an attacker for a pen.
1 all.
Utd have just won it in the 90th minute.
City don’t know how to win any more.
Ambarish
We are all singing from your hymn sheet – El B’s galaxy brain has disappeared into a black hole and no new ideas are forthcoming. Unless Stan & Son wake up and smell the coffee I can see us slowly going backwards. We are already points down compared with last season at the same stage.
City have picked up 4 points out of the last 21 available and yet we’re only 3 points in front of them!
Norg
I think we can reasonably say Liverpool look favourites for the league and at the moment Chelsea could also finish above us.
If 2 managers in their first seasons (Liverpool spent £40 million in the summer and Chelsea were a complete basket case) finishing above Arteta who has spent almost €800 million and inherited Saka, Saliba and Martinelli doesn’t get the Kroenke’s asking questions then I don’t know what will.
Marc—your 6:47 point is a most telling and disturbing one!!
a few notes to sum up the weekend:
(1) we not only drew against Everton, we likewise failed to score—in that regards, MA’s first choice Striker, Havertz, has managed just one league strike in the past two months…hardly the kind of return that justifies his continued presence on the pitch or the very fact he was brought here in the first fucking place…there’s a reason why all the Artetites spend so much time waxing lyrically about all the things he contributes besides actually scoring…just for the record, Jesus likewise does all those things, yet his current narrative couldn’t be more different
(2) more and more it’s starting to look like Roberto Olabe’s the frontrunner to replace Edu…just what we needed, another ring kissing hire so our little project manager can continue to find new ways to cock things up with little to no resistance…why not hire a close relative or conduct some sort of random Mayor for a Day-like raffle/draw instead??
(3) the Joao Pedro rumours continue to make the rounds, which worries me greatly…it’s not like I don’t think he has something to offer, but he’s another Striker/midfielder tweener with no history of being a prolific goalscorer…his best season saw him pot 11 goals in 35 appearances and that was in the Championship…why the fuck would we want another Havertz/Jesus type?? not to mention, you just know the higher ups at BHA will milk us again, as they know it’s amateur hour over here when it comes to negotiating
(4) finally, here’s another nonsense comment by MA that speaks to his delusional nature:
“Arteta insisted fatigue is not beginning to affect his side…when we have to track back 70 metres, we are the best in the world by far,” said the Spaniard. “So it’s not about energy. The way they want it is unbelievable…every single player is playing with a purpose to make things happen. The frustrating part is that they are there. We are trying everything and not getting the points. We have to continue.”
hard to imagine how Unai got so much grief yet this word salad fuck gets a free pass time and time again
Great stuff guys enjoyed the reading. You realistically show us how bleak things are looking for us with MA’s continuance as manager.
To outline the further read the below except from the Mirror online: it’s the reason in black & white as to why we are dropping down the table being unable to beat even Everton at home.
To Tim Lewes & KSE with hope that you read, and at least talk amongst yourselves using accountability as your measuring metric.
Do you listen to what comes out of your manager’s mouth on the daily and agree with his thinking?
Were you expecting us to be challenging for the title after capitulating the last 3 seasons?
Are you happy with the completely unbalanced squad you have so generously allowed Arteta to spend £800m on and which we at LIR are grateful for?
Are you expecting profits from the sale of Edu’s & Arteta’s investments in players?
Are you aware of your player investment losses under Arteta so far?
Are you all happy that Arne Slot & Enzo Maresca are playing the best football in what is going to be a 2-horse race, where they could well finish 1st & 2nd in their first year?
May we all at LIR respectfully ask you what your realistic expectations are now for this season for The Arsenal, and will anything change if we finish below 2nd, such as 5 to 6th?
If you don’t shoot, you don’t score. Surely one day KSE will be asking questions. Such a sad state to be in after 5 years guys.
Have a good one…..
“Mikel Arteta and his players are not concerned about their lack of goals from open play in the Premier League but there is a fear amongst the fans that history is repeating itself.
Gunners boss Arteta scoffed at the suggestion they have a problem, pointing to the fact they did not require any set-piece routines to put three past Monaco in the Champions League last Wednesday. But they scored six times against Lens at the end of November last year before dropping 11 points in their final five games of 2023.”
After 25 years here I’m immune to Xmas as it simply doesn’t exist except to make money from here. New Year is different and more widely celebrated with TV as around the globe.
I just like we have a lot of football over the period……
Ambarish
Thanks for the font normality again. It’s surprising how much I reply on my phone during games. The iPad seems unnatural compared to my phone trained hands, so trying to multitask watching the game as well it all goes tits up. lol. I suppose I can claim being in my 70th year, but I’m not one for excuses.
I think Walker should get a 3+ game ban for the shameful acting the cameras were on hand to show in detail.
Watched Chelsea last night, they are right back in the thick of it. Not just this season, but the next 5 years.
They are exactly what we should be.
Powerful, youthful, nasty, top goalscorers and winning. The difference is they will do everything to win, including selling hotels , sacking managers, changing players, owners and managers. Whatever it fucking takes.
Us cunts, well we get promised the world every season after this one.
How this cunt in charge is the second best paid manager in the league astound and sickens me, when Dyche and Ashley Young have your number, you know that man is a fraud.
Cunt.
Good to see you AF
Merry Christmans, Tony
Cheers for the cunt seal video.
We need the whole crowd in unison singing it not that dirge they currently sing.
Nothing sums up the modern day Arsenal fan this pathetic woke little ditty.
How about being the best of all of London, UK, Europe , World not just beating those cunts down the 7 sisters Rd and being the best in North London.
North London Forever, fuck off. Barnet have more passion and demand more in their fanbase.
Merry Xmas AF, couldn’t agree more, but the Pedroites will always be Fanboys Forever……
“Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for his latest Daily Briefing column, Watts discussed the disappointing draw, and admitted he felt Merino wasn’t really making the kind of impact many fans will have hoped for.
The Spain international joined Arsenal from Real Sociedad in the summer, but aside from a goal against Liverpool earlier in the season, he hasn’t done much of note and still looks like he’s settling in.
Watts thinks Arteta would have been better off using Ethan Nwaneri in Merino’s role at the weekend, taking the pressure off Martin Odegaard to be the only real creative player in that midfield”
looks like the LIR message is starting to resonate with some mainstream punditry and all I can say it’s about fucking time
Tony—some very vaild and insightful questions/points, unfortunately we both know that whenever this organization hands over the reigns to a single entity accountability goes out the window…just think of the disrespectful manner in which Wenger treated the fanbase once Dein had left the building
AF—good assessment of what appears to be a Chelsea resurgence…we’ve allowed several teams to rediscover themselves, in relative short order I might add, while MA kept preaching patience and continued along his plodding 8-phased approach…I guess the tortoise doesn’t always win the race