Leicester v Arsenal 12.30 30 Oct 2021

[Mac76]

3-0 Teilemans hatter

[Mac76]

good early work by Laca and Saka, almost caused an OG

[Mac76]

goonersweb :tumbleweed:

[Mac76]

GOAL! Gabriel header

[Letters]

:lol: Can’t see it lasting but yay, I guess!

[dazthegooner]

3-0 Teilemans hatter

Good prediction :unsure:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Gabriel. :bow:

[Mac76]

Partey long-range shot on target :faint: - Schmeichel saves :(

[Mac76]

Good prediction :unsure:

:lol:

[Mac76]

ESR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GP]

pretty good

[McNamara That Ghost...]

COME ON!!!

[WMUG]

I like it :d

[Mac76]

I like it :d

...Saka and Emile Smith Rowe :scarf:

[Letters]

ESR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the hell?! :lol:

[Mac76]

Great save from Ramsdale :bow:

[Bumble]

Still early days but Ramsdale could be a fairly decent keeper

[dazthegooner]

Well at least Leno's smiling on the outside :good:

[Mac76]

0-2 HT

Bodgers :pal:

[Letters]

3-2 Teilemans hatter

Fixed your typo

[Mac76]

the sun's now in Schmeichel's eyes - we need to pepper him with shots

[Maestro]

We need a nice counter attack goal to kill off this game before it gets nervy

[Mac76]

Odegaard on for Laca

Laca played well :clap:

[Mac76]

yellow if not a red there - where tf is VAR?

[dazthegooner]

Not even a free kick <_<

[Mac76]

Pepe on for Saka

[Mac76]

ESR off, Kola on :wacko:

[dazthegooner]

5 minutes + added ref time.

[Mac76]

5 minutes + added ref time.

if a Schmeichel is in a team they always get an extra 5 minutes...

[GP]

FT

Great performance. Great win.

Ramsdale is world class.

[Mac76]

0-2 FT

very good performance

Arsenal :bow:

[Marc Overmars]

Cracking result!

Well done lads.

Didn’t watch it but sounds like Ramsdale is proving to be an exceptional signing.

[I am invisible]

A man could get used to these early weekend wins - easy street!

[Letters]

Arteta…in? :unsure:

[I am invisible]

Yeah, why not? Things are just starting to get interesting.

[GP]

Up to 5th currently.

[Letters]

Up to 5th currently.

W5 D2 L0 since those opening 3 games.
Some of those games we really should be winning but some good results in there too - like today’s.
I wouldn’t say I’m 100% convinced in “the process” or Arteta yet but he’s out of the sack race for now.

[Coney]

Ramsdale is the new Seaman. It's about time our defence had some spunk.

[Letters]

Ramsdale is the new Seaman. It's about time our defence had some spunk.

We haven’t had a really top ‘keeper since Seaman - maybe Lehman, but I wouldn’t put him in Seaman’s class. Haven’t seen enough of Ramsdale but it’s certainly promising. He’s getting us points we wouldn’t be getting without a top ‘keeper.

[Coney]

We haven’t had a really top ‘keeper since Seaman - maybe Lehman, but I wouldn’t put him in Seaman’s class. Haven’t seen enough of Ramsdale but it’s certainly promising. He’s getting us points we wouldn’t be getting without a top ‘keeper.

It starts with a keeper the team can trust. If not, you have a back four looking over their shoulder, a midfield looking back at the defence and a poorer display. Players attack with more confidence if there is trust in the defence.

[I am invisible]

W5 D2 L0 since those opening 3 games.
Some of those games we really should be winning but some good results in there too - like today’s.
I wouldn’t say I’m 100% convinced in “the process” or Arteta yet but he’s out of the sack race for now.
Yeah, I think that’s the right way to look at it - he’s piqued interest, eliminated any mediate panic and bought some breathing space. Maybe enough that we don’t need to have the Arteta in / out debate after every single match? Break the season down into blocks and review it after every 10 games or something?

[I am invisible]

Really think we’ve stumbled onto something with this 442 - it’s a great fit for this group of players. All the partnerships look good - Auba-Laca, Partey-Sambi, Gabriel-White, ESR-Tavares / Tierney, Saka-Tomi - and there’s also a lot of flex there: Tomi can give us 3 at the back, Laca can either be an extra striker or an extra midfielder, ESR and Saka can be either wingers or extra midfielders, Tavares could play as a winger / wingback, Saka can play wingback.

Interesting that we all thought Ødegaard and ESR would be fighting it out for the same spot - as it turns out it looks like ESR is competing with Martinelli and Ødegaard is competing with Lacazette!

[I am invisible]

It starts with a keeper the team can trust. If not, you have a back four looking over their shoulder, a midfield looking back at the defence and a poorer display. Players attack with more confidence if there is trust in the defence.
:good:

It raised a few eyebrows when we spent most of our summer budget on a keeper and 3 defenders, but I think we’re starting to see why now. The defence needed to be rebuilt.

Last season’s defence could defend well, but they couldn’t play high and that seriously stretched our midfield and isolated our attack. It also needed midfielders to constantly drop back to get moves started.

This year’s defence has the athleticism and recovery pace to play high and they can also distribute (some of them can even take the ball for a walk if they need to) and there’s far less distance between front and back, and we no longer need midfielders to drop back to get things started. It’s debatable whether we even need a deep passer like Xhaka at all in midfield now we have Ramsdale, White and Tomi showering balls around (Gabriel’s distribution looks like it’s come on a level too this year).

[Bumble]

:good:

It raised a few eyebrows when we spent most of our summer budget on a keeper and 3 defenders, but I think we’re starting to see why now. The defence needed to be rebuilt.

Last season’s defence could defend well, but they couldn’t play high and that seriously stretched our midfield and isolated our attack. It also needed midfielders to constantly drop back to get moves started.

This year’s defence has the athleticism and recovery pace to play high and they can also distribute (some of them can even take the ball for a walk if they need to) and there’s far less distance between front and back, and we no longer need midfielders to drop back to get things started. It’s debatable whether we even need a deep passer like Xhaka at all in midfield now we have Ramsdale, White and Tomi showering balls around (Gabriel’s distribution looks like it’s come on a level too this year).

it is pretty impressive how quickly they have synced together. Of todays team only Gabriel played last year. Ramsdale has added personality to the keeping position. he appears confident and is confident. confident keeper gives confidence to the rest of the team as has been said earlier.

i still dont know where this team is though. 3 points behind city but in reality miles behind. so perhaps the league table can lie for a bit.

one thing though for definite.. spurs are hopeless.

[I am invisible]

it is pretty impressive how quickly they have synced together. Of todays team only Gabriel played last year. Ramsdale has added personality to the keeping position. he appears confident and is confident. confident keeper gives confidence to the rest of the team as has been said earlier.

i still dont know where this team is though. 3 points behind city but in reality miles behind. so perhaps the league table can lie for a bit.

one thing though for definite.. spurs are hopeless.

We’re doing ok - let’s leave it at that for now. I’m trying not to have to many expectations for this season beyond wanting to see progress and an identity develop. We’ve just brought in half a new starting XI, all 21-23yos, and that makes us the youngest team in the league - games like Villa and spurs would be great every week, but the reality is it’s going to take this group of players a while before they gain enough experience to know how to deal with different types of opponent, different playing conditions, disruption to momentum (like international breaks), dips in form, etc. I expect we’ll see a few more peaks and troughs yet.

Right now we’re a 1:3 / 1:4 team in terms of really good performances - by the end of the season I think a reasonable target is to have moved that closer to 1:2. Then over the course of next season, if we have another summer like the last one, I think we can start thinking about pushing closer to the kind of consistency that your Liverpools and Citys show. If we’ve timed it well then hopefully it will all coincide with those sides starting to break up and being in transition.

[selassie]

Yesterday was a good result, but our performance aside from the first 20 minutes or so still leaves me thinking we are a "work in progress". We look pretty decent defensively now and Ramsdale has been a superb signing. Midfield still leaves big question marks for me and I'm not convinced we are consistent enough offensively. Despite that, we are on a good run now and firmly in the mix for a top 4 battle with Man Utd, West Ham and i guess Spurs and Leicester. I'm still sitting on the fence...but the signs are a lot more positive now.

[Bumble]

Yesterday was a good result, but our performance aside from the first 20 minutes or so still leaves me thinking we are a "work in progress". We look pretty decent defensively now and Ramsdale has been a superb signing. Midfield still leaves big question marks for me and I'm not convinced we are consistent enough offensively. Despite that, we are on a good run now and firmly in the mix for a top 4 battle with Man Utd, West Ham and i guess Spurs and Leicester. I'm still sitting on the fence...but the signs are a lot more positive now.

Spurs????

[I am invisible]

Yesterday was a good result, but our performance aside from the first 20 minutes or so still leaves me thinking we are a "work in progress". We look pretty decent defensively now and Ramsdale has been a superb signing. Midfield still leaves big question marks for me and I'm not convinced we are consistent enough offensively. Despite that, we are on a good run now and firmly in the mix for a top 4 battle with Man Utd, West Ham and i guess Spurs and Leicester. I'm still sitting on the fence...but the signs are a lot more positive now.
We’re absolutely still a WIP - this team only really came together about 7 games ago (9 inc. cups), and it’s made up of a hell of a lot of young players. There’s going to a lot of peaks and troughs to come still.

Consistency will happen when it happens - if we’re very lucky then all of these new / young players will maintain this current form and never look back, but more likely we’ll work towards consistency over the next year or two. The important thing for me right now is being able to see direction and intent: what are we trying to do? Where are we going with this? How are we trying to do it? Those things at least need to be clear every game from now on, even if it doesn’t always come off.

[Marc Overmars]

Watford at home next which should be fairly straight forward but 3 of the following 4 games are away to Liverpool, United and Everton. :popcorn:

Looking forward to seeing what we can do there now the team is somewhat settled.

[Letters]

We'll get nothing at Anfield and I'm OK with that so long as we don't get thumped. We're still very much a work in progress, they're a level above us.
Utd Away, we always struggle there but a point is possible. Should be looking to win at Everton.
2 of the next 3 games are home to Watford and Newcastle, only 3 league games in November so we could be ending that month pretty well.

[Bumble]

We'll get nothing at Anfield and I'm OK with that so long as we don't get thumped. We're still very much a work in progress, they're a level above us.
Utd Away, we always struggle there but a point is possible. Should be looking to win at Everton.
2 of the next 3 games are home to Watford and Newcastle, only 3 league games in November so we could be ending that month pretty well.

i would be stunned if we get something at Anfield.... Liverpool would have to underperform. United i fancy a bit as they are struggling at home since last season. Everton is interesting as anything could happen. we could perform like we did at Leicester or perform like we did at Brighton.

home games are sorted watford and newcastle arent good teams and cant see them getting anything at all.

we are a team in progress - i still dont think top 4 although united are trying to throw it away. even though its early season still i think united away is very important.... get a good result there and it can really push us to 4th. lose and then its probably 6th at best.