Well, we all knew we weren’t a match to Man City with their 33-goal scorer Haaland and the best midfielder on the planet in Kevin De Bruyne. But no one expected that we won’t show up for a fight. In the title race when a win was a 6 pointer, we lost and we lost badly. A 4-1 score is as bad as it gets, but the way we played it could have been worse.
So, where did it go wrong? As a starter, Arteta failed to adjust to the Pep’s tactics. Their first goal was a result of the free space De Bruyne was enjoying between our midfield and defence. In the first 30min, it happened couple of times when the pair of Haaland and De Bruyne were left with our CBs. I don’t think anyone can beat Haaland for the pace, it was a fight to be lost. We should have adapted, we should have dropped down and closed the space . We could have switched back to back 3 and fight on counters.
Second, we stuck to the playing XI which didn’t work against Liverpool, West Ham, and Southampton. Yes, Xhaka was back in place of Vieira but it doesn’t make any difference. Both are poor! If you say what options we had, I would like to point out that it’s our own doing. We haven’t been polishing the bench. We gave Vieira couple of matches in spite of his poor performance in his first, but we didn’t try an ESR. We haven’t tried a Partey + Jorginho midfield pairing. Saka looked knackered but we didn’t see Nelson allowing him some rest. Kiwior was brought into the fold against Liverpool, in last 20 min; I’m sure it wasn’t the perfect time to begin your premier league career.
Arteta’s stubbornness to play his favourites and not adapting to what’s in front, has cost us games. If you expect a player to deliver in 60 games a year, and if he don’t, you switch things up. Jesus might be great in compact spaces and running into 3 opposition players, but where’s the end result? If your CF do not have a goal in him, bring on Eddie. Revert to Trossard at the front who looks more clinical.
I don’t know, there has been a lot of things which we can see is wrong, but our manager sticks to the same old – same style, same player, same tactics.
Here’s the bitter truth. We didn’t lose the title because of this City game. We lost it against Pool (going 2-0 up), West Ham (going 2-0 up again), and Southampton (going 2-0 down at home in first 15min). I understand we are a young team, but young guns can fire too. It don’t matter if it’s your captain, if he is not having a good day, bring on your other no. #10, who saved your career at some point and was considered the next DeBruyne.
I’m not sure how much Arteta will learn from this but I’m sure of this – he is going to spend another 200m to bring some more enforcements, but with this stubbornness and Champions League + Premier League next season, we will have the same conundrum. Unless he buys another playing XI, which is not likely.
Here’s another one – if you think it’s a progress to finish 2nd this season, remember that Arteta was appointed as the head coach of Arsenal on 20th Dec, 2019. It’s been 3.5 years, with half a billion spent on a completely new playing XI bar our academy products. This season has been anomaly, Liverpool is having a bad one, Chelsea are sh*t, Spurs are spursy, and United is going through a rebuild under Tan Hag. If you think allowing 3 years for a manager, only to see him finish second after having a 9 point lead at some point, is considered a progress, then you have very low expectation.
With money coming in for New Castle, Chelsea appointing Poch probably, united getting stronger, Pool back in their form, what happens next? It would be tougher than this season. There will be 2 games a week and more Saliba-esque injuries. Who will we blame? Fixtures? Injuries? Bad weather? Because that’s what we have been doing apparently from like last 10 years.
We need an upgrade. We need an upgrade on Xhaka, whose average performance looks like a world class by his standards. We need a midfield, because you buy all the 50m defenders as you want, but it’s not gonna work if you don’t have functioning midfield. We need a better goal scorer if you don’t have confidence in Eddie. And we need an upgrade on the manager. Learning on the job is not a bad thing, but the pace is too slow for a club as big and as ambitious as Arsenal.
We need courage. We don’t need a captain who goes missing in big games, we have had enough of Ozil for years. We need the winning mentality, not the one we saw against West Ham of dropping performance after going 2-0 up. We need players who make fun of the opposition, on the pitch; who can bully the opposition, who are not satisfied with 2-0 lead at Anfield and want more.
Frankly, it has been a depressing month. We have thrown away the title and there’s no one else to blame. It was ours to lose, and we lost it. I’m angry, I’m frustrated and I’m sure you are, too. I hope the players feel the same, and motivates themselves to make the best of rest of the season.
It’s over for me, but we fight again tomorrow.
Chelsea certainly give the lie to the old adage that you just need to throw money at a problem.
Its crazy to say it but what we’re seeing from Chelsea is actually going on the CV’s on Potter and Tuchel.
In a job interview it’ll be “it was an impossible job but at least I wasn’t that bad”.
Kroenke
But prove “good money after bad”.
I’m actually quite surprised that FF hasn’t been told to start a far more youthful squad, for obvous reasons, but considering their ridiculous roster size this might be all about putting all the soon-too-be periphery players in the shop window
obvious & soon-to-be
one could say that my texting today is Chelsea bad
I do worry about this being the wrong kind of fixtire ahead of a Newcastle affair, so we should push quickly for a 4th then get Tierney, ESR, Nelson and Vieira on the pitch for Zinchenko, Trossard, Saka and Jesus
fixture
Chelsea’s last 3 fixtures.
City away
ManU away
Newcastle home
If I were a Chelsea fan I’d want to go into an induced coma until June.
can you imagine Jesus passing to the right flanks if anyone but Xhaka was on his left…the fact that Xhaka displayed such displeasure shows just how little self-awareness he truly possesses
why the fuck would this be the first sub on this particular night???
I get why Tierney’s getting the cold shoulder, as he’s already planning for life after Arsenal, and I likewise understand the Nelson scenario, in that he’s further highlighted MA’s piss-poor asset management, as he’s got a whole host of suitors looking to lock him up when he leaves on a free come the summer, but the ESR ghosting gig is both baffling and just plain stupid
Really sloppy when goal difference might come into it.
Zinchenko is under the weird impression that playing defence is optional…really Chelsea should have 2 on the board by now, after that bungling of a 4 v. 2 fast break
Marc-can you even fathom the response if we got turned over by this Chelsea shit show?? of course, even I’m not so pessimistic as to believe that could be possible, but with this club and our manager’s disdain for tactical adjustments, never say never always applies
TRVL
They get a second and we shit ourselves – with Newcastle on Sunday a confidence building comfortable win is required.
TRVL
Mate its shocking and 2 more subs but still no ESR.
finally some of the lost boys have made an appearance
If Mudryk had an eye patch, he’d be a perfect Bond villain.
I feel like something unbeknownst to us has occurred behind the scenes, as that seems like the only plausible explanation