Match Reaction Arsenal 1-1 Sheff Utd

[Niall_Quinn]

Sideways. Sideways. Backwards. Backwards. Slooooooooooow.

[Unai Tea]

Clear cut penalty ignored by corrupt bastard refs, and corrupt bastard VAR bastards. Disgusted.

[Marc Overmars]

Strange to think there are (or were) fans who thought we could still finish 4th.

This team has only won 6 fucking games all season. Get real.

A point closer to the magic 40 mark though. :bow:

Arteta proving his credentials.

[Globalgunner]

We are just terrible. In the opposition box we are timid indecisive. In our own box we have improved marginally. Under Emery or Freddie. we would have lost that. Team going no where.

[Niall_Quinn]

MOTM Saka though. Excellent from an 18 yr old. Very composed. Very competent. Wasted in this shit show. Martinelli was busy but he makes things complicated for himself. Got the goal because he got into the danger zone - which Laca and Pepe seemed allergic to.

Pepe must be watching Gervinho videos in training. His main strength is nobody can guess what he'll do next, including himself.

All the signs of a coherent team performance from a few games ago - gone. Back to normal.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

More draws.

Seems highly unlikely we'll end up with more wins than draws this season.

Stamford Bridge next. :lol:

[Marc Overmars]

On the plus side, doesn’t look like we’ll be qualifying for the EL through the league at least. Can’t be bothered with that shit next season.

[Niall_Quinn]

We haven't hit 30 points after 23 games. That's pure mid-table dross. Wenger's legacy. For a decade this writing has been on the wall and Wenger, the board, nobody did a fucking thing. The staff has changed. The players have changed. But that cancerous culture is still the beating heart.

[Marc Overmars]

New manager bounce. :lol:

More like a hop at best.

[Master Splinter]

Martinelli and Saka slumming it with lacklustre senior players who have little nouse, composure or technique.

Pepe is impressive in how even the one thing in ten he gets right looks like a fluke. So far, he's genuinely not even half as good as Gervinho.

Remember when Ozil hustled for a few games? Even then he was creating next to nothing and now he's doing neither which means he's the same pointless player he has been for multiple season now.

Lacazette is all bluster without any threat.

Mustafi and Xhaka are Mustafi and Xhaka.

If Arteta can't get anything out of these flops, then he has to give other players a chance, otherwise he's just as bad WUMger and Emery in rewarding experience that has so far given nothing in return.


Also, Pepe obviously jumped into the player's leg for the pelanty shout, but these are given every week to cheats like Zaha, Sterling, Mane, Kane, Salah, Alli and Vardy. So another game where the officials decide to alter their rules on a whim.

[dostoy]

Why take Lacazette off and put 14 year old Nketiah on, who looked like a boy playing in a mens match for the first time ?

It would have been a miracle keeping a clean sheet with dumber and even dumber playing as central defenders so its not a surprise that Arsenal conceded one goal.

Arsenal are a mid-table team and everyone will have to accept it, for the rest of this season at least.

[Letters]

We haven't hit 30 points after 23 games. That's pure mid-table dross. Wenger's legacy.
No Wenger season - even his last, which was by far his worst - was anywhere near this bad.
I don't even know if there's been an Arsenal season this bad since we went down before World War I.

The season after Wenger left we got 70 points, we really should have got more and finished top 4, we weren't far away.
We scored more goals than anyone outside the top 2
And we got to the Europa League final.
That's what Wenger's squad (more or less) was able to achieve after he left.
A reasonable platform to build on and push on.
It's all went to shit this year under Emery.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

On the plus side, doesn’t look like we’ll be qualifying for the EL through the league at least. Can’t be bothered with that shit next season.

7th is likely to be opened up for the Europa League. So yeah probably right.

[Niall_Quinn]

7th is likely to be opened up for the Europa League. So yeah probably right.

Nobody is safe then?

[Özim]

Another poor result, same players being rewarded despite average performances, who'd have thought hiring a rookie might have made no difference to results whatsoever?

I'm not liking Arteta's decision making so far, poor subs often too late, not dynamic enough and he's giving certain players a free ride, needs to improve big time and fast.

[Letters]

Arteta would not have been my choice but there were a few encouraging signs early on and he's saying the right things.
I genuinely can't believe how terrible we are but I wouldn't write Arteta off quite yet.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

2 wins in 6 is better than 1 win in 10 tbf.

[Özim]

2 wins in 6 is better than 1 win in 10 tbf.

6 points out of 15 and one win against a lower division team, the improvement is negligible at best.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

MOTM Saka though. Excellent from an 18 yr old. Very composed. Very competent. Wasted in this shit show. Martinelli was busy but he makes things complicated for himself. Got the goal because he got into the danger zone - which Laca and Pepe seemed allergic to.

Pepe must be watching Gervinho videos in training. His main strength is nobody can guess what he'll do next, including himself.

All the signs of a coherent team performance from a few games ago - gone. Back to normal.

He did well, though somebody needs to tell him to just put his flipping foot through it when he's clearing the ball.

They targeted his side the whole game but we weren't punished because of it really.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Martinelli and Saka slumming it with lacklustre senior players who have little nouse, composure or technique.

Pepe is impressive in how even the one thing in ten he gets right looks like a fluke. So far, he's genuinely not even half as good as Gervinho.

Remember when Ozil hustled for a few games? Even then he was creating next to nothing and now he's doing neither which means he's the same pointless player he has been for multiple season now.

Lacazette is all bluster without any threat.

Mustafi and Xhaka are Mustafi and Xhaka.

If Arteta can't get anything out of these flops, then he has to give other players a chance, otherwise he's just as bad WUMger and Emery in rewarding experience that has so far given nothing in return.


Also, Pepe obviously jumped into the player's leg for the pelanty shout, but these are given every week to cheats like Zaha, Sterling, Mane, Kane, Salah, Alli and Vardy. So another game where the officials decide to alter their rules on a whim.

I thought Ozil turned the ball over 3/4 times today which must be up there with anybody else and Pepe was certainly a lot better than the last game.

Unfortunately I don't think we're really going to get any better defensively, so we are going to need to be more ruthless.

[Mac76]

It's all my fault, i caught myself thinking with ten minutes to go that we'd probably won, and then...

This is the first arteta game when i felt we were not up to scratch throughout except parts of the second half, but we weren't clinical and then at times we seemed to revert to Wengerball a bit which didn't help

I noticed arteta was about to bring Guendouzi on just before they scored but then he didn't.

If that had been done before the goal, maybe we'd given them something new to think about.

[Chippy]

Sideways. Sideways. Backwards. Backwards. Slooooooooooow.
Arteta, Wenger, Emery out.
Mid table shit.
Not worth it anymore. 😴

[Mac76]

It's just proof we need a clearout

Mustafi, xhaka and one or two others need to go so Arteta can get the type of players he needs, ones that won't play sideways or backwards all the time until they get it wrong and give the ball away in a dangerous poaition.

Both of them played passes that nearlyled to Utd goals yesterday

[Chippy]

Strange to think there are (or were) fans who thought we could still finish 4th.

This team has only won 6 fucking games all season. Get real.

A point closer to the magic 40 mark though. :bow:

Arteta proving his credentials.

:gp:
Like you, my eye is on the magic 40 points.
This team is a million miles away from top 4.

[Globalgunner]

There is something intrinsically wrong with this team. They are so wired into repetitive passing. There was an incident where one of our players ran into the box, received a pass and unbelievably passed it right back. Why run into the box to receive a pass if not to take a shot. That's why we spend a whole 90 mins and take only 2 or 3 shots all game. I despair for this team. They simply dont want to win badly enough.

More than anything, there is no way you can expect great things of a team that has so many dumb players like Ozil, Xhaka, AMN, Mustafi. They are certified mediocrity. No getting around that.

[Mac76]

Obviously i agree on xhaka and mustafi, but slighrly reluctantly i've also got to agree on ozil, he had 2-3 shooting opportunities yesterday but always chose to pass or deploy his increasingly-used dummy - though tbf if Laca was using his wits he'd have been ready for it and maybe scored instead of fumbling the moment

As for AMN, i believe he can get better, he's already improved enormously and if he accepts the RB role i think could be a good player for us

[Niall_Quinn]

There is something intrinsically wrong with this team. They are so wired into repetitive passing. There was an incident where one of our players ran into the box, received a pass and unbelievably passed it right back. Why run into the box to receive a pass if not to take a shot. That's why we spend a whole 90 mins and take only 2 or 3 shots all game. I despair for this team. They simply dont want to win badly enough.

More than anything, there is no way you can expect great things of a team that has so many dumb players like Ozil, Xhaka, AMN, Mustafi. They are certified mediocrity. No getting around that.

The most bizarre moment (and one of the weirdest things I've seen on a football pitch) was when AMN had the ball wide right just past the half way and with Pepe maybe 10-15 yards ahead of him on the sideline. AMN gets the ball. Pepe then RUNS BACK towards his own goal, beyond AMN and then makes himself available for the BACKWARDS pass from AMN. I couldn't believe my eyes. They were actually putting in extra effort to be as negative as possible.

Oh, and then Pepe immediately gave the ball away and stranded AMN, IIRC. Or maybe that was one of the other countless times he misplaced the simplest of passes. Not just him. But all of them. Arsenal, pass masters to past it.

I have a feeling this might be round 2 of Arteta's requirements. You get the basics down (shape, press, hustle for the 90), next we're going to try to do something with the ball. And I think that's where it may be a bit too much for some of these players. Work AND think.

[Özim]

If the players are passing backwards and not making the most of opportunities, then it's down to the manager, if you don't tell your players not to pass back when in attacking positions but instead to think positively the won't. Arteta ball though looks like Wengerball and that included a lot of that kind of passing sideways and backwards rather than going for it when well positioned, so not too surprised.

[Marc Overmars]

There needs to be consistent movement though to provide the option to pass forward. Liverpool’s forwards are constantly on the move chasing down balls that sometimes aren’t even in their favour. It makes the opponent panic each time.

Our lot are statues.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I didn't think we pressed particularly high (in comparison to a few other games) against Sheffield United. I wonder whether Arteta was worried about further injury or fatigue.

[Özim]

I didn't think we pressed particularly high (in comparison to a few other games) against Sheffield United. I wonder whether Arteta was worried about further injury or fatigue.

Could be the new manager bounce wearing off as well.

[IBK]

Could be the new manager bounce wearing off as well.

I'm not sure that we should be expecting a new manager 'bounce' as such. There was so much wrong with Emery's team, both in terms of mentality and organisation that things were not, and will not be sorted overnight. What we have seen is greater solidity and better game management. What we cannot expect - particularly where there has been such a vast improvement in the fitness, talent and organisation of most other teams in the league, is the manager improving all areas of performance overnight. I was one of those who thought that we had talent in our team, but the past couple of results have shown that in fact we have a pretty small squad, and imbalance in terms of our goal threat. I see Arteta as trying to create a more solid platform, and I think that he has been quite successful in achieving this. More work, and personnel are required to convert this into winning performances.

[Marc Overmars]

Don’t think there’s even been a bounce tbh.

I suppose visibly we appear to be a little more structured (which is the barest of all minimums) but it’s a huge repair job. I don’t see anything changing until he at least has a summer to whip them into shape and weed out the rubbish, of which there is a lot.

He picked up a team with no culture or identity and it’s shown so far as we still can’t win games with any regularity. We’ve won 6 games, sit in 10th and have a negative goal difference after 23 games. He can’t really do much worse, at this rate this crop are set to be the worst Arsenal team of the PL era.

[Niall_Quinn]

I didn't think we pressed particularly high (in comparison to a few other games) against Sheffield United. I wonder whether Arteta was worried about further injury or fatigue.

To me it looked like all signs of improvement from prior matches disappeared in this one. Very much back to the Arsenal of old. No tempo. No confidence on the ball (excluding Saka and Martinelli). A really ponderous transition from back to front, often involving repeated sideways and backwards movement. Very sloppy mistakes across the team. Suicidal moments in defence again. Ozil back to his old tricks too. Disappointing performance that derails a lot of the building hope that maybe Arteta could do something with the current bunch of players. Maybe they are too set in their ways for any sustained progress.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

To me it looked like all signs of improvement from prior matches disappeared in this one. Very much back to the Arsenal of old. No tempo. No confidence on the ball (excluding Saka and Martinelli). A really ponderous transition from back to front, often involving repeated sideways and backwards movement. Very sloppy mistakes across the team. Suicidal moments in defence again. Ozil back to his old tricks too. Disappointing performance that derails a lot of the building hope that maybe Arteta could do something with the current bunch of players. Maybe they are too set in their ways for any sustained progress.

Maybe you've forgotten how bad it was under Emery!

I thought Torreira was as good as he has been lately and that Xhaka (a silly moment or two aside) was solid. Ozil struggled to really impact the game but I counted at least 3 tackles he made AND won the ball so he is at least trying. There was a game recently where we pressed like maniacs and yet was pretty ineffective. In the second half Arteta just got them to press higher. All sorts was said about hair dryer treatment, being arsed, running around and the usually lark, but I think when it came back to it, the key difference was that we pressed higher up the pitch.

Martinelli should have basically played every game this season and Saka though clearly targeted against Sheffield whatstheirname held his own. Even Laca is still trying very hard but is awfully ineffective right now.

I don't actually think we will get much better defensively than we are, so unfortunately we are going to need to score a lot more bleeding goals.