What happened with Tierney? Did he ever get cleared to play?
What happened with Tierney? Did he ever get cleared to play?
I never saw it as fearful - I thought it was a clever way of weaponising the high press against opponents, and turning one of our many (many!) weaknesses into a strength. It carried an element of risk, of course, and we got caught out in that last league game against Liverpool, but as GP pointed out we’ve also won 5 of the last 6 games against Liverpool, City and Chelsea (picking up two bits of silverware along the way) (well... one and a half), so there’s obviously more to it than just keeping our guard up and hoping not to take a pounding.
I don’t particularly want to be playing this way forever, and I agree that we’re going to have to freshen things up pretty soon, before we become predictable - I just don’t get the criticism of Arteta’s management and decision-making? The results just don’t justify it. In a very short period of time, and in the middle of a global pandemic, he’s managed to get a broken, flawed, unbalanced group of players looking competitive, he’s sorted out the defence, he’s turned around the players’ and the group’s weak mentality and addressed the culture at the club, he’s winning tactical battles against top managers, he’s winning trophies... isn’t this everything we’ve been asking for the last 10 years?
Citeh: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Ake, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Mahrez, Foden, Bernardo, Sterling, Aguero.
Subs: Steffen, Stones, Gundogan, Torres, Fernandinho, Delap, Garcia.
Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Saka, Xhaka, Ceballos, Willian, Aubameyang, Pepe.
Subs: Runarsson, David Luiz, Matiland-Niles, Elenny, Partey, Nketiah, Lacazette.
At least it's a more ambitious team selection, though it's strange how he'd pick Xhaka, Ceballos and Willian because that likely means Willian goes wide when we clearly saw he's 10x more effective playing more centrally. Unless he's pushing Ceballos wide.
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We'll be bunched together in midfield defending anyway I would guess.
He's played Willian wide before
Glad Tierney's in, i heard some doubts about fitness as well as the isolation thing
Aguero starting for Citeh isn't such good news...
Holding injured in the warm up Luiz starts...