Fulham away – weird team selection

“Despite criticism and comparisons to Stoke City in recent weeks, Arteta says he is ‘not worried’.

“Watching the games back and seeing what we created in open play and what the opposition have created from open play I don’t know if we can do much more than that. Especially when we watch Fulham in previous games and how they’ve played.

“Also, the set pieces are a consequence of what we do in open play and what we do defensively. It’s a phase that is part of that.

“I know you guys see it as (picks up two separate water bottles) this is set pieces and this is open play, but I see it as (picks up a bottle of Gatorade and begins to swirl it) this is open play and set pieces – they are all together with the restarts.”

upon reading this a couple words that I haven’t used for quite some time instantly came to mind, the first is milquetoast, which speaks to our current style of play, and the other, ignoramus, requires no further explanation…stupid is as stupid does

Marc

What is the thought of match day punters that attend games? One of my season ticket holding friends said the feeling towards Arteta seems to be changing. The question is being asked ‘what happens if we finish below Liverpool & Chelsea where their managers are new to the premiership’.

just for a little perspective, Club Brugge beat Sporting today

It should be quite interesting to see our lineup against Monaco…you know MA will do everything possible to avoid having to start Tierney, as he never wanted him here in the first place

Good morning dear Gooners.
I say plates MLS and Ethan. What is the worse that can happen. No MA will move all the pieces all over the place to accommodate his fav. This guy will kill our academy and it infuriates me that Per as academy head just accepts these nonsense. I cannot stand sterling in the squad and on the pitch when one of our academy starts could have done the same job.

Afternoon all
Thanks TRVL for your thoughts on DA, seems I was right to have concerns.

For tonight’s game totally agree Madhu let Skelly and Ethan loose if anything goes wrong they can be subbed and MA can say ‘not ready yet’. The fans boys will nod in unison what a good decision by MA it was.

Sicknote KT looks like he might get a call up tonight even though MAhas long held reservations the Mirror reports. I like KT as he’s the old Stuart Piece type LB who takes no prisoners. KT’s problem is he’s great at whipping in crosses, but we only had aerially challenged forwards; still do.

Too late for me so a morning game when I get up. Being a home game I’ll go with a 2:1 win from…. ……wait for it drum roll…………. set pieces… Enjoy lads..

Thanks

But he is a cunt. So I am not lying.

The manager I rate is the Brentford one.

He can coach a team with smaller resources and they score goals, despite losing Toney.
There front two are better than our 2 lumps of cack, Havertz and Jesus thats for sure.

They keep scoring after one minute, so he can motivate a side as well.

If Chelsea get their 2 forwards , we wont be winning fuck all for a long time.

I would have anyone but this fraudulent cunt and his sleep inducing formations , tactics. Including Hag,

If Tierney can’t start tonight surely the club have got to tell him if he can find a club in Jan he can leave on a free?

At least get him off the wage bill.

So far this looks like a mid-summer friendly

Jesus is starting to make Havertz look like a clinical finisher…he’s simply got to go

he should have that number 9 ripped off his jersey in some sort of biker club-esque patch removal ceremony

good on Saka…just not sure if that was a pass or a shot from Jesus lol

MLS with few eye catching vertical passes. Isn’t he the one that hit the long ball to Jesus as well. This is what you get from a young fearless not coached to death player. That’s we need Ethan as well to play more before he is completely coached out of his natural abilities.

AF—I’m of a similar mind when it comes to Thomas Frank…sometimes I worry about how a manager who’s had some success at a “smaller” club will handle his shit when the stakes are raised, like with Potter or even ten Hag, but I think TF could get the job done if he could bring a player or two with him, preferably Mbeumo and maybe WIssa…this would provide us with ample cover on both flanks and enable him to employ two distinctly different tactical approaches…I do wonder why he hasn’t been plucked away as of yet, which gives me cause for pause…maybe their off-year last season took the shine off a bit

Marc—talk about killing to birds with one stone, in that MA didn’t have to start a player he clearly doesn’t favour, Tierney, while likewise propagating the false notion that he’s the kind of manager who’s willing to give minutes to one of our up-and-comers…his choirboys are hard selling that narrative online as we speak

Madhu—totally agree with your thought-process…I’ve always contended that the reason why we needed to recruit some readymade talent up top is that they could help us manufacture goals in spite of our manager

let’s see how this shoehorning triple sub gig pans out

unlike Havertz and Jesus, Ode does enough to offset his shooting deficiencies, but he really needs to up his game in front of goal…this is what makes Ethan such an intriguing prospect

well that was certainly a nice gift, especially against the run of play in the second half

TRVL – prime example of over coaching is martinelli. When he joined he was such a natural talent and his shooting abilities were top class. mA has coached him to being a blunt tool now. What a waste of talent. It’s like in cricket you never change the natural ability of batsman or the bowling action of a bowler. let them do their natural things but coach him enough to refine him and teach them strategies at highest level. Martinelli is a wasted latent not sure here does he goes from here.

Madhu—totally agree…to a lesser extent, I would say the same about Saka…the key difference being that Saka receives considerably more help on the right side…of course, this isn’t meant as a slag against Saka, as I think he has bags of talent, but we’ve already seen how much better he could be if Timber was deployed on a regular basis instead of White, which likely wouldn’t happen if the latter weren’t injured…meanwhile Marts has been banished to the left-side wastelands, where the backer is usually inverted and your help consists of players the likes of Rice…let’s face it, Marts is just out there to keep the defence somewhat honest and to collect the odd corner kick

Monaco are a decent side, but they don’t have enough goals in them to win away matches against better sides, which wouldn’t be so problematic if they were a bit more stout at the back…they’re like a PSG-lite side, with lots of little passes but no real end product (I’m talking about the PSG side we faced earlier)

it’s great that we secured all 3 points and I’m thankful that we didn’t appear to suffer any further injuries, but this was far from a stellar performance…the scoreline was flattering, as everything was still up for grabs until they gifted us our 2nd goal…after that Monaco functionally mailed it in…of course if you went online right afterwards you would have thought we put on an absolute masterclass…what else is fucking new

meanwhile back on planet earth all signs point to us needing a player or two in January to inject some life into this side, as it’s glaringly obvious that opposing teams have become way too accustomed to our tactics…surely this latter fact was the impetus behind MA’s most recent script change…unfortunately when one goes full bully ball it’s always going to be tough to manufacture the requisite amount of open play goals…so now we need to identify and acquire the kind of players who can ignite our somewhat stagnant offence, then when we find ourselves behind MA can simply rollout our big boys and let them have at it…might be easier said than done because I just don’t think MA can walk and chew gum at the same time

Morning all
Great commentary above and sums everything up.

Still no Ethan? Skelly I’ve been calling for all season to get minutes as a MF who can play defense better than Zinny.

Look what happens when we play a real 8 and not some cumbersome CB with forward skills of said CB. Monaco must have shit their pant seeing us play really good attacking football between Merino and Marts. Along with LS joining the attacking party with slide rule passes.

Who’s have thought? All of us for starters only clueless MA again stumbling into another ESR moment.

Will Skelly get more starts or be relegated to Ethan’s level of minutes?

Would that team last night have beaten Fulham? I think yes because we used the right more, but all week the press have been denigrating our lack of right-sided attack, so MA probably read that and thought, why not as well as being forced to play players who would never get minutes?

A well crafted open play goal from the right, now there’s a rarity this season.

We got the job done efficiently enough, but our football is too predictable and stale, where without Saka this season we would be well and truly fcuked!

Dare I say we looked like a Wenger CL team last night?

A few comments by Charles Watt that further supports my theory that even paid pundits are dropping by on occasion to get the straight skinny on all club-related matters lol

“The real tight games when it’s not quite happening for you, but you are basically camped around the opposition box, and maybe you need someone to score a goal out of nothing. Arsenal don’t really have that player, and it’s been an issue.

“You go back to the big games last season. The Bayern Munich defeat in the Champions League, when it was really, really tight. Two-one in the first game, you go over to Munich, it was tight, 0-0 for a long time. Can someone score a goal out of nothing and send yourselves through? Arsenal don’t really have that type of player, whether it be a striker or a kind of X-factor attacker…such as former Crystal Palace sensation Michael Olise.

The 23-year-old has come up with nine goals and seven assists in 21 games for Bayern since joining in the summer, snubbing reported interest from Arsenal”

We have had many discussions regarding our need for clinical finishing up top, some of which included Olise, but where I would disagree with CW, at least in part, is the notion that a non-Striker would do the trick…I still think if we went all in for the likes of Raphinha or Nico, it still wouldn’t totally solve our issues, as Havertz would still be closest to goal and it would still encourage Rice to come forward…what we need is a bona fide talisman, thereby forcing Havertz into a more number 10-like role, as we all know he’s going to be on the pitch regardless of what happens, which would in turn likely require Rice to spend more time in the midfield…that said, in a perfect world we would acquire both a readymade Striker and an Olise-type forward, but I doubt that’s happening anytime soon so long as MA’s in charge

Amen TRVL you and I were boring the blog with our constant shouts for Olise to be our 8.

We got Merino who suits his price tag as being a useful 6/8 who demonstrated last game he can work well with Marts, but he is a far cry from what Olise would have given us and where Edu & MA we useless in the windows by players who have sub value and little else.

When looking at Havertzinho for me, he is the same: a good and annoying sub to bring on. He’s not an 8 or 9 and yes you say TRVL he could play 10 or false 9 but is not the level we need to be winning the biggest trophies.

Simple failsafe question is would Chelsea, City, Manure in their winning prime or Liverpool buy Merino or Havertzinho as their starters to help them win the League or CL? The answer is a resounding NO!

Merino is ok as a utility player as is Havertzinho really. He’s a defending 9 and all inbetween and what I would call a nuisance player which is good to have when you want to close out a game from the front. Havertzhino is the more intelligent chaos player than Jesus who is a championship player these days out should go to MLS or Saudi; his prem days are over.

Jesus is the action man without the action and goals.

So? We are back to needing an 8 & 9 of elite proportions as Olise and VG and Isak have that potential that Merino & Havertzinho lack and will never have, but MA is too full of his losing ways to see differently.

5 years has proven MA is a bottler, loser and BS/Lip service merchant. His pressers are embarrassing where journos see seeing MA for what he is and reporting why he is a loser.

If you feel the above is harsh, ask yourself one honey question? Can we win the league this season?

I’d love to see your reasoning if you feel we can win, not to put down your thinking, but to see if my vision is wrong and why? I welcome all thoughts openly.

Now, if we were to steal Olise and buy Williams and VG in January, I could be persuaded to change my opinion of our chances, but would still worry Olise would be played at LB, Williams in goal and VG deep defending as a 6 first before being a striker.

Anyone think differently? Let’s make Friday the 13th a fun LIR day.

Tony—simply put Jesus no longer possesses the qualities required to lead the line for a team vying for titles, if he ever did in the first place…MA miscalculated badly when he thought that Jesus would flourish if only he was given the starting nod…once his initial bump wore off, following his first injury setback, it became increasingly more obvious why Pep felt he was expendable…let’s not forget his former boss functionally replaced him with an untested kid…flash forward to the present, there’s a reason why the only suitors that appear interested in him are in “lower” tier leagues, unless he was willing to take a massive paycut and accept a vastly reduced role

above all else I worry about MA’s ability to both attract the necessary talent and/or get the best out of them, especially now that he’s dumbed-down his tactical approach…tbh unless we actually invested so heavily in a player or two up top, thereby forcing MA’s hand when it came to our tactics, I just don’t see how our title dreams can be realized…we all know that since the arrival of Havertz and Rice their interests have become paramount, so the only way we can reverse that course is to bring in more substantive pieces, from both a monetary and end product perspective…of course, the likelihood of that happening without a directive from above appears unlikely at this juncture…this is why I’m so fixated on our search for Edu’s replacement…frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if we simply brought in another yes man muppet or actually allowed MA to assume both roles, which would be such a fucked-up full-circle Wenger Cup era moment

“frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if we simply brought in another yes man muppet or actually allowed MA to assume both roles,”

Leaves me feeling sick in the pit of my stomach, TRVL. Problem you know it’s at least 75% likely to happen

“According to a report from The Times, Mikel Arteta is very unhappy with Oleksandr Zinchenko, after the Ukrainian opened up on how the Gunners boss operates behind the scenes in his autobiography. Arteta is well known for his ruthless nature, so it’s little wonder why we haven’t seen much of Zinchenko this season.”

This says two things about our manager, (1) he’s a two-faced fuck and (2) he missed the mark when it came to bringing Zincenko on board, an individual that MA specifically recruited to be a central figure in his new inverted backer schematics…of course, neither of these statements are revelatory in nature, except maybe to those who’ve bought into MA’s public persona hook, line and sinker…since the off this cake and eat it too mfer has ghosted players who don’t toe the line or aren’t on his besties list, knowing full-well that no matter if they chose to remain silent or tried to publicly refute the rumoured narrative, (i.e. they’re always, not training well, didn’t follow the rules etc..) he could easily shift any blame in their general direction or at least shirk any personal accountibility…I would suggest that this is one of the reasons why many players have refused to join, as they know better than us about what’s really going on behind the scenes…I have no issue with hard line manager, as there’s been plenty of them with world-class CVs, but typically they embrace/own it…not our little fraudulent dictator, who reminds me of Ben Stiller, when he made a cameo on Friends