Match Reaction v Man Utd (home)

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Bit shit. At least we have the excuse of Saka, Tierney and Aubameyang missing this one.

Not sure what excuse Man Utd have. :lol:

[I am invisible]

Plus we brought Willian on

[Marc Overmars]

Fair result, I think both sides had their chances and were maybe a bit hesitant in going all out for the 3 points.

With Saka and Tierney it may have been different but oh well.

On we go.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Only three wins away from the magic 40 now. :bow:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Plus we brought Willian on

He actually did relatively well. Not that it is saying much given how terrible he has been for the rest of the season.

[Bumble]

Bit shit. At least we have the excuse of Saka, Tierney and Aubameyang missing this one.

Not sure what excuse Man Utd have. :lol:

recovering from losing at home to Sheff Utd probably.

[I am invisible]

He actually did relatively well. Not that it is saying much given how terrible he has been for the rest of the season.
Relatively well or relatively well for Willian?

[Bumble]

He actually did relatively well. Not that it is saying much given how terrible he has been for the rest of the season.

well apart from that glorious chance start of 2nd half

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Heavy use of relatively!

[Letters]

It wasn't a great game. Two decent sides but nothing special.
Remember the intensity of this fixture back in the day? And it's this rubbish. Sad really.

[WMUG]

Missed half time due to watching the Raspberry Racers romp to a gold in the Ice Hockey in the Winter Marble League, why was Martinelli taken off?

[Ollie the Optimist]

Any reason why Maguire didnt get booked for his foul on Lacazette outside the box?

His second one then should have been a second yellow.

Also how the fuck did VAR review Fernandez stamping on Xhaka Achilles and decide it wasn’t a red?

[fakeyank]

Did Martinelli injure himself? Or did he get subbed because Willian sucked better Dick at HT?

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[I am invisible]

Tactical reasons, apparently.

[Mac76]

Tactical reasons, apparently.

You mean Arteta actually didn't want to win the game?

[Niall_Quinn]

I suffered this. But was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't as soul crushing as a typical Arsenal match. It did have it's moments and there did seem to be more of an emphasis on moving the ball towards the opposition goal - which is a huge shift in tactics that I approve of. Mind you, such improvement came in small segments, the rest of the time it was as dire as ever.

When Willian came on for Martinelli it was a game changer. But in every terrible way imaginable. Did he have a 100% success rate in fucking everything he touched? I think he did.

Taking Smith Rowe off was pretty dumb too, as he's one of the few players who hasn't been Bellerined.

Xhaka was hopeless. Sideway, backwards, the usual.

Partey looks like an inferior Xhaka. He's had a few injuries so maybe he's getting back up to speed. But on that showing he represents a huge waste of money - which is par for the course.

Willian, Xhaka, Bellerin and the hard working Cedric. Three of those things make one of those things redundant going forward.

Pepe looked a bit brighter, as if he's starting to get a clue. Nowhere near yet, but signs of improvement.

I thought Laca did well enough when he was on his feet. Which wasn't often. If he could cut out all the diving and screaming and crying, he'd be a decent pro. But that's unlikely, isn't it?

But, judging by the lowest standards I've ever seen at Arsenal, this was better than usual. At one point I hoped Utd didn't score, which kind of makes me think there's still something in there that connects to the past.

[I am invisible]

You mean Arteta actually didn't want to win the game?
Don’t ask me, man, I just work here.

[I am invisible]

Seriously though, not too bad all things considered. We know there’s about 4 players who we really struggle without; we were missing two of them (Saka and KT) and the other two (Partey and ESR) both had late fitness checks, so may not have been 100%. Gotta say I still thought we could win this one, but I’m not unhappy with the draw - as long as it keeps confidence high and the unbeaten run going.

Positives for me are that 4 at the back and 5 in midfield looks like it’s here to stay - no reverting back to 3 CBs as soon as we have a tough game and a couple of injuries. Generally speaking we’re starting to find a good balance between solid defensive work and attack now - considering where we were this time last year, where we could only really defend (with a lot of effort!) and then had to rely on Auba being ridiculously efficient with a handful of chances, I think we’re moving in the right direction.

Need to build out the options we need to make it consistent now, and work on speed of execution - we see moments of fast transitions / combos (usually when all of our best players are out), but there’s a little way to go before it becomes automatic.

[Mac76]

Need to build out the options we need to make it consistent now, and work on speed of execution - we see moments of fast transitions / combos (usually when all of our best players are out), but there’s a little way to go before it becomes automatic.

agreed, Pepe's clearly in his element when the ball's moving upfield quicker and there's others making moves around him - he got ignored a few times yesterday though by our midfield when he'd taken up good positions on the right and Arteta needs to give a steer to the others on that.

i think we might finally be seeing the Pepe signing (if not the amount paid) coming off and Arteta needs to back that - i get Saka is our first choice RM but i'd put Pepe on the left in that case, ahead of Auba

while he's obviously in theory also a good bench option, i think he's a better starter of a game than an impact sub - for some reason he can't come on and turn the game

[I am invisible]

agreed, Pepe's clearly in his element when the ball's moving upfield quicker and there's others making moves around him - he got ignored a few times yesterday though by our midfield when he'd taken up good positions on the right and Arteta needs to give a steer to the others on that.

i think we might finally be seeing the Pepe signing (if not the amount paid) coming off and Arteta needs to back that - i get Saka is our first choice RM but i'd put Pepe on the left in that case, ahead of Auba

while he's obviously in theory also a good bench option, i think he's a better starter of a game than an impact sub - for some reason he can't come on and turn the game
Tbh I think that’s more on Pepe. Arteta can instruct the players to pick him out all he wants, but ultimately it will come down to the trust he builds up on the pitch: keep playing well and his team mates will instinctively seek him out; play badly and his team mates will automatically look for other options that they do trust.

Glad he’s fighting for his place though - would have been really easy for him to just slip into the background and hide, while Saka takes all the burden. Really pleased with his defensive contribution yesterday - was at fault for Southampton’s goal earlier in the week, but he looked switched on yesterday (and saved Bellerin’s ass a couple of times). That shows that he’s humble enough to want to learn and improve.

[Mac76]

i think he definitely is humble enough - it's about the club adjusting to the fact he's more of a £30-40m player than a £72m one and getting on with helping him develop, which tbf they seem to be doing

i quite like the guy btw you can tell he's not an arse

[selassie]

Considering where we were a month ago, this is a fairly decent result, even more given we had arguably our 3 best players out. I think we can take a lot more positives out of this game than them considering they are supposed to be challenging for the title.

Moreover we have gained a point on all the teams ahead, I still don't think top 4 is impossible, but highly unlikely.

[Mac76]

Considering where we were a month ago, this is a fairly decent result, even more given we had arguably our 3 best players out. I think we can take a lot more positives out of this game than them considering they are supposed to be challenging for the title.

Moreover we have gained a point on all the teams ahead, I still don't think top 4 is impossible, but highly unlikely.

i'd say it's a good bet, maybe 50/50, but we need to keep the good form going and get at least 8 points from our next four matches, which are relatively tricky compared to the ones we've had recently (Moan U not withstanding)

[Marc Overmars]

Top 4. :lol:

It’s possible I guess given how tight things have been but we’d need to pick up another 5 or 6 wins on the bounce at least before we can think about that. The next 5 games look like they will be tougher than the ones we’ve had since Christmas, so if we come through them relatively unscathed I’ll believe we could actually do it. At the moment we’re fairly stable but it won’t take a lot to knock us out of our stride.