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11:30pm kickoff for me. Decided not to stay up late which was a wise decision. Although, I probably would have snoozed off well before the end of the match.
My aspiration that we would hang in there at least until the next international break doesn’t look good but we can still have a turnaround before Christmas and thereafter, especially getting Ødegaard back soon. 🤞
I’m trying to exist inside a healthy space between these two Alexander Pope quotations:
Hope springs eternal in the human breast/the hearts of Arsenal supporters
Blessed is the man/Arsenal supporter who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed
RIP our PL season
I would love for a mathematician to tell me how it’s possible that we seemed completely outnumbered in midfield but also Martinelli and Saka were constantly being triple-teamed whenever they went forward.
By the way, over the course of this season we have the 6th highest xG — we’ve played an extra game than every non-Newcastle team cuz we’re at the start of the weekend as well. Defence is also only 7th best in terms of xG conceded but I’m willing to let that slide given the red cards and injury stuff.
Just not good enough.
According to Cannon Stats’ stats on 11v11, we are defensively better than City and slightly worse offensively. But you wouldn’t know it watching us today. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F949d5c4f-ab20-402e-8b28-adc2dd85e81c_2557x2673.png
What’s the point, if we’re down a player for 2 90s, and probably will be more given the refs.
Don’t worry, according to every Liverpool fan I’ve ever met, it all evens out so we should get some power plays soon
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You know the worst part? Isak’s goal wasn’t that special. It was just a cross and a header. Gabriel doesn’t get it because he’s not a Mexican jumping bean.
Everyone is carrying something and exhausted because we’ve already played so much football. I’m sure they’re all jaded because on pure merit we shouldn’t be 5 points behind City.
It was a pretty well-weighted cross, tbf, and a decent finish, but Raya needs to do more and the cross shouldn’t have been allowed in the first place.
That’s what I mean, it’s not a worldie like Leicester’s second. It’s just that none of the events leading up to it should have occurred.
Also, Nwaneri was kinda fucking invisible this game, ngl. He’s 17 so I don’t care that much but I get why he’s not starting now.
He’s not the Messiah, (but) he’s a very talented boy.
It’s great to see him given more minutes and I don’t want it to stop. But, he is still incredibly young and he’s sitting in Ødegaard’s position, which is a physically intense and demanding role alone, let alone filling in for our best creative and attacking player.
It was never going to be an exact like for like, of course and he’s still learning. But, although Newcastle were dangerous at times, they mostly sat deep and behind the ball and absorbed pressure and hit on the counter. It looked like they were largely fine with taking a 1-0 win. They also congested the midfield, which made it harder to pass through.
So, it was going to be a tough ask for Nwaneri to help break down the defence, which I think Ødegaard helps us do. I also feel like we missed Calafiori’s ability to switch the ball across field. It looled like there was space down the right a nice lofted Calafiori pass would have helped for a nice break down the wing that was never used as an option.
Hopefully everyone shuts the fuck up about him being the solution to our problems. Just like people wanting Trossard to start because he was getting goal returns.
Yeah, I of course wanted to see more of him and I think he can play a role for us. But, it was difficult to see him as the answer to all our questions.
The answer is just to hope our luck shifts or chances just fall our way more often and our players remain fit and healthy long enough for us to hit our stride again.
I wonder if the intensity of the last two seasons, as well as the fixture list is finally taking its toll on the players.
I was angry, but I wasn’t calling anyone specific out. More just people who latched on to the idea that his creativity could help in Odegaard’s absence and were mad that Arteta was being too conservative to him.
I hate waiting and hoping. :/
I never got the feeling you were. I agree with your thoughts. I don’t have that big an issue with the way Arteta is slowly acclimating him into the team.
Trosaard has been shite for weeks. So many moves break down because of him. He offers goals, but we lose so much more. With Nwaneri, it’s a kid that came on and didn’t even receive the ball for the first few minutes he came on. Comparing the two seems harsh to me.
I’m not… comparing the two…?
I’m saying that both have had a lot of fans calling for them to start because they’ve looked so good. Trossard began starting in Martinelli’s absence and immediately started plummeting in performance. Nwaneri has had some good cameos and appearances in cups, but predictably he is 17 and cannot be expected to stand up to Newcastle’s big burly men.
Nwaneri isn’t going to get good from the bench especially when he’s the closest thing we’ve had to what we’re missing in the absence of Ødegaard. Okay, he never had a good game today, but who did?
You seem intent on ascribing a lot of intent to my comments that I don’t intend.
I don’t blame Nwaneri for not playing well. I blame the rabid supporters who were convinced that he needed to just be thrown into the deep end and he’d magically fix our problems.
We could’ve had prime Messi out there today and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Arteta had us set up incredibly brokenly. Havertz was playing in the Ødegaard spaces and Trosaard was floating around doing a whole lot of nothing. There was no urgency or impetus in our play and so there was no way to drag Newcastle around or break the lines. If Nwaneri had even half the minutes that Trosaard has wasted over the past few weeks, by all means write him off and say we rushed him in. But he essentially came into a terrible, unorganised and unbalanced team and failed to carry it in the half hour he got. Hardly a damning indictment on him or his advocates like me. It’s also important to note, I was advocating for him based on his profile. If Arteta had bought cover for Ødegaard, it would be a moot point.
It took him some time to get into the match. Given that the passing was pedestrian and conservative, there wasn’t much he could do. He was in pockets of space and our players weren’t even attempting to find him. Don’t get me wrong, he misplaced some passes, but I’d argue bringing him in earlier would’ve been more beneficial to both him and the team.
Where to start? I’m so annoyed.
I think we need a better and natural striker. Also Ø as soon has he can. Wish Arteta does something in the Christmas window or make arsenal’s attacking lineup to be more clinical. Set pieces ain’t alone gonna help us for long, it just merely increases the chances.
Being good at set pieces doesn’t even really help us if we’re also vulnerable against them. And we’ve let in a lot of goals from them recently.
With defenders like Saliba yeah, we gotta do better. At least to have a clean sheet against relegation and lower mid table clubs.
At the same time, everything in football works this way. We did have the best set piece attack and defense (I believe) in the league for a long time. That’s not an accident. It’s also not an accident that teams have figured us out - they were always going to eventually. If we can rework things and improve, it’s nbd - but it’s come at the worst time, when we’re also dealing with an injury crisis.
Genuine question: if we come 3rd but win the CL, will people be mad?
Of course not. But we’re not gonna win the Champions League
And why is that? I would argue the Champions League is actually easier to win. A knockout competition means that the margin for error is greater.
In theory? Yes it’s easier to win, in practice? No.
Okay then.
It’s on us at this point. Fucking disgrace after failure after disgrace. How do you hope to win the league if you can’t even win a match in 3?
Our attack looks impotent without Ødegaard, our midfield gets run over with Trossard up front for some reason, our defence changes literally every game cuz nobody can fucking stay fit. At this point we might as well hope for 4rsenal again cuz that’s what this season is shaping up towards being. Can’t keep a clean sheet, can’t score, what are we even doing here?
I am fucking pissed off at this club. How can I not be when we’ve regressed so much from the past two seasons? I understand why — injuries, refs, whatever — but it’s just not even fun to watch this season compared to expectations. Feeling like I should just go back to expect nothing and be happy with fourth.
You don’t really mean that. It’s always better to be in the mix than it is settling for mediocrity. And as we’ve seen, settling inevitably means you get kicked down a peg.
We’re all furious but I’d rather be furious than apathetic.
I’d rather be settled and hope out of unexpected success like 22-23 even if it’s for just CL qualification, honestly, but ehhhhhh
I’d rather get fourth as a success than get second/third as a failure.
Of course, I’d rather be happy than furious.
Easy, dude. How quickly we forget. Letting ‘expectations’ ruin your enjoyment of football is about the dumbest most immature thing you can do
After the last two seasons, anyone judging the club based on expectations could only be happy with clearly winning the league. It’s the issue with coming second. We have to remember that when the margins are so fine, it does not take much to feel like we’ve fallen far even if it’s not true or there are legitimate reasons. We have had the misfortune of suffering injuries to some of our most important players this year and to assume we can get away with that is just naive.
I mean, fair. It’s just also annoying cuz we’ve definitely sacrificed a bit of the entertainment factor for results — so when those results aren’t coming… just gets annoying.
