Match Reaction v Spuds (home)

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Us for 75 minutes. :bow:

Us for the remainder. :haha:

Lamela. :haha:

[Marc Overmars]

Deserved win, well played lads!

Did our best to throw it away as usual but held on.

Mourinho. :lol:

[Mac76]

i actually couldn't watch the last 2-3 minutes of that it was unbearable

but...

Arsenal :bow:

spuds :haha:

Maureen :haha:

[Gooner23]

Well deserved 3 points, despite the wobbles in last 10 mins. Fuck Maureen and the spuds.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Anthony Lacazette according to Dave SkyBot. :lol:

[Globalgunner]

Next time an opposition player gets sent off we should lobby the ref to rescind it. WTF was that last 20 mins?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Dawson whining. :haha:

[GP]

Mourinho can gargle my dillsack (the nutte sac)

[I am invisible]

Tbf, the last 20 could have just been the flight from Greece catching up with us - wouldn’t mind betting their whole “game plan” was to keep it tight and try to outrun us late on...

[Mac76]

Next time an opposition player gets sent off we should lobby the ref to rescind it. WTF was that last 20 mins?

ESR coming off made a big difference, epsecially with the replacement being WIllian

good performances from Pepe, Gabriel, Tierney, Odegaard, ESR, Saka (until taken out by spuds), and Cedric

got to say i like Cedric he's got a really good attitude and not a bad player at all

[Niall_Quinn]

Chucked fortunes down the drain on Pepe and Partey. They may have their moments, but the rest of it is dire. The lad from Real is a good player though. And Tierney and ESR are proper players. Only saw it from 70 mins but Laca looked decent enough in the bit I saw. But Partey and Pepe are real liabilities. You just know the play is gojng to break down when they get the ball. They're not terrible players, neither is Xhaka, they are just so ordinary and unremarkable. Amazing to think they are playing at this level when they can't even pass a ball 5 yards, under no pressure, without giving it away.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Mourinho. :pal:

[Gooner23]

Smith Rowe and Tierney were brilliant today, dominated that side of the pitch. Odegaard is also starting to look the business. Nice to see Gabriel getting his early season form back as well.

[Globalgunner]

Son can play well without Kane. kane without Son is a Reliant Robin. Basically only good for 1 thing: Moving in a straight line

[Globalgunner]

Chucked fortunes down the drain on Pepe and Partey. They may have their moments, but the rest of it is dire. The lad from Real is a good player though. And Tierney and ESR are proper players. Only saw it from 70 mins but Laca looked decent enough in the bit I saw. But Partey and Pepe are real liabilities. You just know the play is gojng to break down when they get the ball. They're not terrible players, neither is Xhaka, they are just so ordinary and unremarkable. Amazing to think they are playing at this level when they can't even pass a ball 5 yards, under no pressure, without giving it away.

Xhaka only made about 5 mistakes which for him is bordering on being brilliant. Smart managers just need to rile him up and we will soon be down to an actual 10 players, except when Willian is already on , when we are down to 9

[Slacker]

Chucked fortunes down the drain on Pepe and Partey. They may have their moments, but the rest of it is dire. The lad from Real is a good player though. And Tierney and ESR are proper players. Only saw it from 70 mins but Laca looked decent enough in the bit I saw. But Partey and Pepe are real liabilities. You just know the play is gojng to break down when they get the ball. They're not terrible players, neither is Xhaka, they are just so ordinary and unremarkable. Amazing to think they are playing at this level when they can't even pass a ball 5 yards, under no pressure, without giving it away.

Agree on this one. I'll give Partey the benefit of the doubt in that I think he can get better and that it's a confidence thing. Pepe I'm hoping will all of a sudden have a transition and become the trickiest and most lethal finisher in Europe.

We look a couple of poor passes and the odd mistake away from an embarrassing defeat or a good hiding from a quality team. Still not getting Arteta as to who or what his puzzling tactics are at times. Taking off players looking good and replacing them with players who on the face of it are determined to lose the game doesn't help. Arsene when he had it in him would have set us up to hit them on the counter. Christ knows what he told our subs to do. It's a win against Spurs for the first time in a good while but I'm not feeling anything anymore.

[Gooner23]

Son can play well without Kane. kane without Son is a Reliant Robin. Basically only good for 1 thing: Moving in a straight line

Hes also quite good at getting away with snidey fouls

[LDG]

Partey just hasn’t got the pace of the game yet, and I think he looks a little short of fitness.

He’s doing some good things, I think there’s a decent player there.

Pepe is frustrating. Proved he has the pace over that piece of shit left back, so why not knock it past him. He has decent feet, and the guy was on a yellow.

[Niall_Quinn]

Xhaka only made about 5 mistakes which for him is bordering on being brilliant. Smart managers just need to rile him up and we will soon be down to an actual 10 players, except when Willian is already on , when we are down to 9

I just don't get how a professional footballer (and let's face it, if they were in the back yard doing keepie-uppies they'd look like worldies) can have time, space, a view of what's around him - and still give the ball away. Surely that's the most basic of absolute basic skills? Then 2 minutes later they play a 50 yarder to feet. It's some sort of sloppiness in their character.

At least Pepe is trying to go forward now, I suppose, instead of playing with his back to goal and just laying it off. One day he may even beat his man. He never pushes it and tries to use his pace. He always waits until the defender is set up, instead of on the back foot. Surely Arteta can see that? Just tell him to push it on and run. Even Theo knew how to do that.

[Niall_Quinn]

Partey just hasn’t got the pace of the game yet, and I think he looks a little short of fitness.

He’s doing some good things, I think there’s a decent player there.

Pepe is frustrating. Proved he has the pace over that piece of shit left back, so why not knock it past him. He has decent feet, and the guy was on a yellow.

Exactly. The game's begging for him to do that. Then the defence is in panic mode and other players can take advantage. I mean, like football used to be played. What is this new stuff where you play 503 passes to get into the opposition box then turn you back and hit a long ball back to the keeper? What's that all about?

[hobson's choice]

Great win:satan::dancingman::jumpnana:

[Letters]

Arsenal have now developed the ability to win games and still completely enrage me.
We completely dominated the first half and then went behind from their first shot :doh:

We were great for 75 minutes and Spurs were awful. Got our noses and front but didn’t kill them off.
Then when Lamela got sent off we completely shat ourselves. We did everything in our power to gift them a point.

All that said...

Mourinho :pal: :haha:
Spurs :haha: :pal:

Oh. And I’m with Arteta on Auba. Fuck him if he’s late for a NLD. Can you imagine captains like Vieira or Adam’s doing that?

[Marc Overmars]

Yeah no issue really with Auba being dropped. I’m big on timekeeping personally, unless something is unforeseen there really isn’t any excuse for being late.

[Mac76]

Germaine Genius throwing his toys out of the pram on MOTD about the pel :haha:

[Letters]

Mourinho crying about it too :pal:

[GP]

https://i.imgur.com/HKeuSqP.gif

[LDG]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56393306

Grumpy wumpy

[Letters]

Germaine Genius throwing his toys out of the pram on MOTD about the pel :haha:

Lots of scrutiny about that. I thought it was fair enough.
Yes, the ball had gone but is that relevant?
The ball was in play, Laca might well have gone after it but couldn’t because he was fouled.
Anywhere else on the pitch that’s a free kick, so why not a pel?

[dazthegooner]

Out of all the former spuds players this was the least critical the rest are using every excuse in the book, if we had taken advantage of the possession we had it wouldn't have been a problem but again we didn't.

[Letters]

Ian Wright, Wright, Wright! :d

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=287837639369378&id=100044294326500&comment_id=287844246035384&notif_t=comment_mention&notif_id=1615747791115831&ref=m_notif

[Gooner23]

Lots of scrutiny about that. I thought it was fair enough.
Yes, the ball had gone but is that relevant?
The ball was in play, Laca might well have gone after it but couldn’t because he was fouled.
Anywhere else on the pitch that’s a free kick, so why not a pel?

Its an odd one as there is a weird unwritten rule that in the penalty box these don't often get given, but as you say anywhere else on the pitch and its 100% a foul.

I thought we got a bit of luck as was expecting VAR to overturn it, but we've been due something like that to go our way. We fully deserved the win, dominated for 80 minutes. Jenus can cry all he wants.

[Gooner23]

Just watching MOTD now, absolutely loving it. Keown on the windup is masterful :tiphat:

[Ollie the Optimist]

Perhaps the penalty was a bit harsh on spurs (but then again, we should have several this year and there were turned down so we deserve some luck!) but Sanchez was no where near the ball and collided with Lacazette. It’s reckless.


Jenas on MOTD is completely wrong on Lamela though, especially with the first booking being harsh. Yes he gets teh ball but in every repay, you clearly him see him sweep his back leg along to take out Partey. Taht was why he was booked.

His second yellow is not even debatable (unless the debate is whether it is a straight red) but he should have been sent off a few minutes earlier for a shocking lunge on Xhaka. Jenas goes on about how it is his first red card, he is correct of course but he is one of those players like Costa. Dirty, snide & reckless but never gets a red card

[IBK]

Tbf, the last 20 could have just been the flight from Greece catching up with us - wouldn’t mind betting their whole “game plan” was to keep it tight and try to outrun us late on...

You know, given that we are basking in a NLD win this morning, I'm going with you on this - particularly their game plan. Sometimes going down to 10 men isn't as much of an issue as it seems on paper, and in a sense that twat going off with 14 minutes to go was not the issue for Spurs that it might have been if it had happened earlier. It motivated them with a sense of grievance - and produced energy that had been lacking up till then in the knowledge that they could sustain the extra effort. As you say - their game plan was probably to attack late anyway, and - again with the timing - it had a psychological effect on us that it would be easier to preserve the game state - and our performance and concentration levels dropped.

Not ideal from us - but as you say we had a trip to Greece on Thursday and lost a day's training, and Spurs played at home. We are fine tuned to look for mistakes given our recent performances, but I'm not sure that our missteps in this game were anything out of the ordinary for most teams.

Did I mention that I fucking hate Harry Kane?

[Ollie the Optimist]

Arteta’ s attitude to team discipline continues to baffle me.

He drops Auba for being a bit late to the squad meet up. Understandable.


However, Willian went to dubai in November against Covid regulations and nothing. Carried on playing.


He seems to pick & choose when to enforce discipline and its a struggle to work out

[Mac76]

Ian Wright, Wright, Wright! :d

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=287837639369378&id=100044294326500&comment_id=287844246035384¬if_t=comment_mention¬if _id=1615747791115831&ref=m_notif

:gp:

[IBK]

Arteta’ s attitude to team discipline continues to baffle me.

He drops Auba for being a bit late to the squad meet up. Understandable.


However, Willian went to dubai in November against Covid regulations and nothing. Carried on playing.


He seems to pick & choose when to enforce discipline and its a struggle to work out

Agreed, but in fairness we don't know what really happened between Willian and the manager over the Dubai thing...

[Mac76]

Arteta’ s attitude to team discipline continues to baffle me.

He drops Auba for being a bit late to the squad meet up. Understandable.


However, Willian went to dubai in November against Covid regulations and nothing. Carried on playing.


He seems to pick & choose when to enforce discipline and its a struggle to work out

it's the same with the way he was so harsh on Pepe for getting sent off, yet basically let Xhaka off when he tried to strangle a Burnley player

total inconsistency and that's not good for team morale or discipline, if that's what the Auba thing is supposed to be about

[Ollie the Optimist]

Agreed, but in fairness we don't know what really happened between Willian and the manager over the Dubai thing...

Well he wasnt dropped.

Yes there may have been a fine etc but which one is the worst offence? Breaking Covid regulations to go to Dubai (potentially risking being quarantined for two weeks on return if rules changed during trip) or being a few minutes late to meet up?

[Letters]

Arteta’ s attitude to team discipline continues to baffle me.

He drops Auba for being a bit late to the squad meet up. Understandable.


However, Willian went to dubai in November against Covid regulations and nothing. Carried on playing.


He seems to pick & choose when to enforce discipline and its a struggle to work out

This feeds into the other thread about Arteta having favourites.
But he was spot on yesterday about Auba IMO. I like him, he's a great striker but he's not captain material and showing up late to a NLD shows you don't really "get" what being an Arsenal player, let alone a captain, is about.

[IBK]

This feeds into the other thread about Arteta having favourites.
But he was spot on yesterday about Auba IMO. I like him, he's a great striker but he's not captain material and showing up late to a NLD shows you don't really "get" what being an Arsenal player, let alone a captain, is about.

YEP - 100% with you re Auba. Very poor from him.

[Gooner23]

I really think Tierney should be made captain next season

[Letters]

I really think Tierney should be made captain next season

I think literally everyone thinks that :lol:
With the possible exception of Arteta...

[Mac76]

YEP - 100% with you re Auba. Very poor from him.

well we don't know why he was late - we know he drove to the ground but maybe his car broke down, or there was an accident that caused a jam etc etc

either way Arteta took a big risk in disrupting the team ahead of that game - if we'd lost I suspect some people's views would be different - i've nothing against some kind of discipline in those circumstances but it didn't have to be instant - he could have left it until after the game and told Auba he'd be benched next time out

[IBK]

well we don't know why he was late - we know he drove to the ground but maybe his car broke down, or there was an accident that caused a jam etc etc

either way Arteta took a big risk in disrupting the team ahead of that game - if we'd lost I suspect some people's views would be different - i've nothing against some kind of discipline in those circumstances but it didn't have to be instant - he could have left it until after the game and told Auba he'd be benched next time out

...and it could have been kept private. In any management role, it's consistency (whether you are a disciplinarian or more touchy-feely) that is paramount. From what we are able to see, Arteta seems a bit inconsistent, and he needs to be aware of this.

[Mac76]

...and it could have been kept private. In any management role, it's consistency (whether you are a disciplinarian or more touchy-feely) that is paramount. From what we are able to see, Arteta seems a bit inconsistent, and he needs to be aware of this.

exactly

[Letters]

...and it could have been kept private.

This is a good point.
Easier said than done perhaps in a game which is so scrutinised.
But it doesn’t seem like there was much attempt to keep this internal.

[IBK]

This is a good point.
Easier said than done perhaps in a game which is so scrutinised.
But it doesn’t seem like there was much attempt to keep this internal.

Yes - I agree that there would have been speculation - but Arteta could have simply said that it was an internal matter - or that his omission was for management reasons or something...

[dazthegooner]

The enquiry is still going on into the penalty Clattenberg is adamant that is wasn't Moron suggesting the ref was tired but hey shit happens :)

[I am invisible]

You know, given that we are basking in a NLD win this morning, I'm going with you on this - particularly their game plan. Sometimes going down to 10 men isn't as much of an issue as it seems on paper, and in a sense that twat going off with 14 minutes to go was not the issue for Spurs that it might have been if it had happened earlier. It motivated them with a sense of grievance - and produced energy that had been lacking up till then in the knowledge that they could sustain the extra effort. As you say - their game plan was probably to attack late anyway, and - again with the timing - it had a psychological effect on us that it would be easier to preserve the game state - and our performance and concentration levels dropped.

Not ideal from us - but as you say we had a trip to Greece on Thursday and lost a day's training, and Spurs played at home. We are fine tuned to look for mistakes given our recent performances, but I'm not sure that our missteps in this game were anything out of the ordinary for most teams.

Did I mention that I fucking hate Harry Kane?
Trip to Greece, a lost day of training / recovery and, let's face it, there's probably still an element of PTSD to this group of players that's taken root after years of chaotic / non-existent structure and heavy beatings. Any kind of pressure and some of these guys are straight back in the trenches!

We've made strides in this area over the last year - I no longer fear that we'll go from zero to 5-0 down in the space of 15 minutes any more - but there's clearly still some anxiety there that can see us retreat into safety mode until we get our heads straight. Don't really see that changing until the turnover fo players is complete, tbh.

[WGC Goon]

Partey played a solid game, more Gilberto like at the moment but will hopefully show a touch of Vieira (without the red cards) when probably fit.
Odegaard is going to be a bit special in my opinion, full of confidence with good technique.
ESR also, he just gets better and better.
The sending off did us no favours whatsoever, we lost focus thinking the game was already in the bag, couldn't happen to a nicer player though...wanker

[I am invisible]

Arteta’ s attitude to team discipline continues to baffle me.

He drops Auba for being a bit late to the squad meet up. Understandable.


However, Willian went to dubai in November against Covid regulations and nothing. Carried on playing.


He seems to pick & choose when to enforce discipline and its a struggle to work out

Has Auba even be disciplined? It might be as simple as they didn't know if / when he was going to show up and had to make a call on who was going to start. The clock was kind of ticking at the time, and a decision needed to be made - do you wait for another unspecified number of minutes for him to show, or do you start prepping the team to work with the guy who is there?

The Willian thing was bloody stupid, but at least it wasn't half an hour before kick off on a match day, so it gave the club plenty of time to react - not just time to consider an appropriate punishment, but also enough time (and distance) to compose a statement. There wasn't a team of match day reporters hanging around outside the dressing room, waiting to shove a mic under the manager's nose.

[I am invisible]

Partey played a solid game, more Gilberto like at the moment but will hopefully show a touch of Vieira (without the red cards) when probably fit.
Odegaard is going to be a bit special in my opinion, full of confidence with good technique.
ESR also, he just gets better and better.
The sending off did us no favours whatsoever, we lost focus thinking the game was already in the bag, couldn't happen to a nicer player though...wanker

Yeah, you've got to be happy with Odegaard - he probably won't even be fully up to speed with the league until the end of the season and he's already looking useful.

[I am invisible]

Yes - I agree that there would have been speculation - but Arteta could have simply said that it was an internal matter - or that his omission was for management reasons or something...


Yeah, I think it needed a little detail in this instance. The reporters were already there, and they knew something had happened - if we'd gone with silence then they would have just started speculating.

I'm not sure Arteta got it quite right here - as I said above, I think he could have buried this one by saying that Auba was late / held up in traffic / whatever and we simply had to start prepping the team to start the game with the players that were present. More details, if anything. But these are the things he's going to have to learn as he goes - he is a rookie, after all, and this current project is as much about his development as it is the team's...

[Mac76]

Partey played a solid game

I thought he was terrible, hopeless shots, giving the bill away, conceding stupid FKs - i think it was the worst game by far he's played for us

[IBK]

Trip to Greece, a lost day of training / recovery and, let's face it, there's probably still an element of PTSD to this group of players that's taken root after years of chaotic / non-existent structure and heavy beatings. Any kind of pressure and some of these guys are straight back in the trenches!

We've made strides in this area over the last year - I no longer fear that we'll go from zero to 5-0 down in the space of 15 minutes any more - but there's clearly still some anxiety there that can see us retreat into safety mode until we get our heads straight. Don't really see that changing until the turnover fo players is complete, tbh.

:gp:

Just like muscle memory - I think that psychological 'muscle memory' is a real thing. progress for us will be incremental and it will take time for the collective to deal with the anxiety...

[Xhaka Can’t]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210315/3b6d200d50e0d32661cd161e3fafbe41.png

[WMUG]

That guy was funny 4 years ago.

[WGC Goon]

I thought he was terrible, hopeless shots, giving the bill away, conceding stupid FKs - i think it was the worst game by far he's played for us

The free kicks near the end were tired challenges from a player who is still trying to find his full match fitness.
Yes his shooting could have been better and let's hope he not going to take as long to score as John Jenson did! :d

[Mac76]

this is a really great video of Odegaard v spuds - what a player

https://twitter.com/HMDComps/status/1371171991370280960

[Letters]

this is a really great video of Odegaard v spuds - what a player

https://twitter.com/HMDComps/status/1371171991370280960

He is a proper player. Remember when our team was full of those? :(

[Mac76]

He is a proper player. Remember when our team was full of those? :(

well they're coming back i guess - ESR, Saka, to some extent Pepe and now Odegaard - would be great to think we could keep him but i guess the irony is the better he plays the less chance we have...

[Letters]

well they're coming back i guess - ESR, Saka, to some extent Pepe and now Odegaard - would be great to think we could keep him but i guess the irony is the better he plays the less chance we have...

Yeah. I don't think he'll stay. But I agree there are a few other good prospects.

[GP]

well they're coming back i guess - ESR, Xhaka, to some extent Pepe and now Odegaard - would be great to think we could keep him but i guess the irony is the better he plays the less chance we have...

Yeah agreed

[I am invisible]

:gp:

Just like muscle memory - I think that psychological 'muscle memory' is a real thing. progress for us will be incremental and it will take time for the collective to deal with the anxiety...

I think this is what the bulk of Arteta's work in his first 6-8 months was all about - restoring structure and basically giving the players a safety net / insurance policy that they could fall back on whenever they felt those jittery moments coming on. We were never going to be able to eradicate all of those jitters overnight, but we could at least teach the team how to keep its guard up effectively instead of letting panic take over.

I wouldn't be surprised if this then caused a lot of our woes in the first half of this season? At some point we were always going to have to stop playing it safe and become more expansive again, but when the time came I think it proved more difficult than anyone was expecting to get the players to start taking risks again? I guess you can understand it - after so many years of playing in stressful, shambolic setups, never knowing when everything might fly apart at the seams around you, that feeling of security and control that came with sitting deep must have felt good - but you can't hide behind it forever. In the end it took the introduction of the younger players (players with the least cumulative damage) to inject that bit of fearlessness back into the side and nudge / shame the others into action.