Match Reaction v Liverpool (home)

[I am invisible]

We defended well and didn’t fold under the constant pressure, that was pleasing to see especially as we limited their clear cut chances to just 1 or 2. The result is hilarious because we offered practically nothing at the other end, embarrassingly so. That’s one of those games we’d lose 9 times out of 10 playing like that but it was our night fortunately.

Hopefully we haven’t used up all our luck yet because we’ll need a lot of it this weekend.

We're at least starting to get a lot of goals through forced errors now - that's promising in as far as it goes. Still massive amounts of work to do on the creative side of things, but at least it's hammering home the importance of work rate and pressing from the front.

God willing we might at least squeak through to the FA Cup final, even if we don't go on to win it - if we can crawl up another couple of places in the league, and the other finalist already has a European place secured through the league, then that gives us two decent chances of a EL spot.

[Mac76]

for some reason i didn't care at all that we won last night as the performance was so disjointed but i think it would be hilarious if we pubbed the FAC

[I am invisible]

...and it neatly deflects from his having to face up to his poor team selections in the past don't you think?

he did better having Holding and leaving out both Kola and Mustafi

and Nelson for all people's criticism did well enough

It's ironic that Laca has finally remmebered how to score goals again, although hopefully it might help us sell him

although knowing us, we'll sell the constantly-misused Auba and keep Laca who will no doubt drop back into his poorest form come next season

Dude... we only have shit (or at least flawed / one-dimensional options) to choose from in some areas. Maybe there are no good team selections here?

I agree with you that Holding is far better than Kolasinac, but up until the sp*rs game that crazy defence had only conceded something like 1 goal in 4 games. Don't ask me why, but for some reason that unlikely combo was working. And as soon as it wasn't working, Kola and Mustafi found their asses dumped back to the bench. Hopefully Holding will now get a decent run in the side (although I do wonder whether there's maybe still some careful fitness management going on there after he was out for so long). I certainly don't think there's any personal issue there, though, or that the manager is playing favourites with senior players - just look at how often Pepe and Lacazette get benched for Nelson and Nketiah.

Oddly enough, playing Auba out wide really doesn't bother me - he still seems to bang in the goals at the same rate, so I'm easy with it. I get why he's doing it, anyway - we desperately need goals from someone and somewhere else in the side, and looking through the squad that's only really going to come from Lacazette, Nketiah or Martinelli. If Martinelli had been fit then maybe we could have kept Auba central, but unfortunately the other two will only get us goals playing as CF, so that means Auba moves.

It's not ideal, but what can you do? This is what we have to work with.

[I am invisible]

Also, on team selections, I suspect there's been an element of flinging shit at the wall and seeing what sticks going on? If you take out time spent on lockdown then Arteta has really only been at this for about 4 months - it's really not much time to figure out, not just which players work, but also which combos of players work. This season was pretty much a write-off before he even took over, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's been using it to stress-test everyone to see who breaks...

[Özim]

He was probably resting the likes of Mustafi for the FA Cup, so picking Holding wasn't a choice, he doesn't seem to fancy him so I expect he'll be dropped. I'm not saying he's top notch but Holding is the best CB, he at least does a half decent job of defending.

Likewise Torreira, he doesn't fancy him either, but he makes us more solid, would pick him over Xhaka every day of the week. We rode our luck big time, it was a combination of Liverpool having won the title and not being as focussed as they were (understandable), lady luck and some of the players he was forced to bring back helping to make us more solid. Tierney is very good too, the only issue with him is that he's injury prone, but again he can defend.

Liverpool had 70% possessions, 24 shots to our 3 and 13 corners to our 2 which says a lot about which team was the offensive team and which one was defensive.

Good win definitely and I guess a confidence boost, but it's not really indicative of where we are, the defeat by Spurs in the NLD was more so because even though it was pretty meaningless in terms of achieving something, it was a derby and thus a game you want to win.

Weekend will be interesting, I expect Arteta will drop Holding and Torreira for that.

[Niall_Quinn]

We defended well and didn’t fold under the constant pressure, that was pleasing to see especially as we limited their clear cut chances to just 1 or 2. The result is hilarious because we offered practically nothing at the other end, embarrassingly so. That’s one of those games we’d lose 9 times out of 10 playing like that but it was our night fortunately.

Hopefully we haven’t used up all our luck yet because we’ll need a lot of it this weekend.

I'd rather they beat the spuds. That was the main challenge. A freak win against a team with boarding passes stuffed into their shirts doesn't tell us much. But the loss to the spuds tells us not much has changed here.

[Letters]

Just read a stat that the Arsenal player who registered the most touches last night was Martinez

[Niall_Quinn]

Just read a stat that the Arsenal player who registered the most touches last night was Martinez

Inevitable when you have the most efficient backwards passing game in football. The backpass stops with him.

[Mac76]

Inevitable when you have the most efficient backwards passing game in football. The backpass stops with him.

that passes stat is the biggest piece of BS in football - it's the reason Xhaka and Mustafi get loads of completed passes because they just pass back and forth along the line or to the goalie - and mugs like Arteta just lap it all up

[Letters]

mugs like Arteta just lap it all up

Do they, though? I mean, maybe, but is this a stat Arteta focuses on?