The Arsenal v Brighton 3pm on a Saturday :) 9 April 2022

[Mac76]

0-3 Maupay hatter

But seriously we need a MUCH better performance today

[McNamara That Ghost...]

We don't just need a win, it needs to be a hammering.

2-0.

[Marc Overmars]

Season is over if we don’t win this one.

[GP]

Ramsdale
Cedric
White
Gabriel
Xhaka
Lokonga
Odegaard
ESR
Saka
Martinelli
Laca

[McNamara That Ghost...]

16 games since Lacazette scored in open play. :lol:

[Letters]

16 games since Lacazette scored in open play. :lol:
Holy shit :doh:

[Letters]

I just heard Xhaka is playing left back?! :haha:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka and Smith Rowe, sort it out.

[Gooner23]

16 games since Lacazette scored in open play. :lol:

May as well be playing with 10 these days because he's offering fuck all in the build up as well.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-1 Brighton, Trossard. Oh dear.

[dazthegooner]

0-1 Brighton

[Letters]

The Collapse

[Gooner23]

Looks like the gamble on stripping the squad has back fired. Couldn't have asked for a better chance at top 4 and we've fucked it.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I have absolutely no hope of us turning a game around.

[Letters]

Big half time for Arteta.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

GABRIEL (Martinelli)!!

Maybe offside.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Why do we have uber-Spud Michael Dawson doing our game for Soccer Saturday?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

If they can't decide they have to allow it surely.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

It has finally been disallowed.

[GP]

How? Did they just guess?

[Marc Overmars]

Going well then.

[dazthegooner]

Thought Sideshow's boot kept Martinelli onside.

[Letters]

I hate this bullshit where they’re looking at pixels to see if someone is a micron offside.
If it’s not clear then just give it and get on with it.

[cricketsi]

Ah, that good old "clear and obvious" overruling of the on field decision...

Can only assume it took so long as they were asking the question "can anyone prove we're just screwing Arsenal over" before doing so.

[dazthegooner]

Shit freekick from Cedric

0-2

[Marc Overmars]

0-2 :haha:

We’ve fucked it.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fucking useless.

[Ralpheroo72]

Goodnight Vienna

[Marc Overmars]

Let’s face it, with Lacazette as your only striker you don’t stand much chance of doing much.

[dazthegooner]

Another shit freekick

[McNamara That Ghost...]

We did wonder how far we could get without any regular source of goals.

[Letters]

Let’s face it, with Lacazette as your only striker you don’t stand much chance of doing much.

I said this ages ago but was pleasantly surprised that we were getting away with it and the goals were coming from elsewhere. Started to think we were going to get away with it but, alas…

[dazthegooner]

No one has scored more premiership goals against Birighton than Pepe so a hat trick would be nice :good:

[dazthegooner]

1-2 and now the ref about to earn his two rent noys.

6 minutes ET

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Odegaard with it.

Bit late now.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Short corner. :haha:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-2 FT.

Well done you berks.

[Marc Overmars]

Lack of firepower has killed us unfortunately. We did well to plod along as we did but with no reliable route to goal it was always likely to end in tears.

Season on the verge of being in the gutter now unless Spurs do something Spursy.

[Letters]

Even if they do, with our run in I don’t trust us to finish the job.

[dazthegooner]

And again another team facing relegation getting a helping hand from Uncle Arsenal <_<

[selassie]

Lack of firepower has killed us unfortunately. We did well to plod along as we did but with no reliable route to goal it was always likely to end in tears.

Season on the verge of being in the gutter now unless Spurs do something Spursy.

it’s over, those lot won’t be collapsing under Conte, they are gathering momentum. If anything we could start sliding down the table with the run in we have.

[Marc Overmars]

Seems that way, wasn’t expecting us to blow it in these games though. Disappointing.

[selassie]

Seems that way, wasn’t expecting us to blow it in these games though. Disappointing.

Aye me too. Can't be bothered to rant and rave, I'm disappointed too. Didn't see it coming with these games, almost feels like we have given up after today, feels like the belief has gone which is incredible considering we looked bang on it a few weeks ago.

[Letters]

It’s funny how quickly things change in football.
Not long ago Spurs fans were throwing in the towel. They were going Spursy, we were digging out results. Now we are falling flat on our stupid faces while they are flying.
It could swing back but it’s looking unlikely.
In brief: bugger.

[dazthegooner]

Not only did January leave us with a painfully thin squad no with out and out goalscorer relying on Martinelli, Saka and Laca who isn't known to be prolific even when on form and Smith-Rowe hasn't looked the same since his injury so think we might me able to snatch 5th this depending on Manure being as bad as we are :(

Oh and just checked we have Southampton away next week that should give them a lift after the Chelski defeat <_<

[Marc Overmars]

Aye me too. Can't be bothered to rant and rave, I'm disappointed too. Didn't see it coming with these games, almost feels like we have given up after today, feels like the belief has gone which is incredible considering we looked bang on it a few weeks ago.

I did say after Palace it felt like a bit of a watershed moment. It certainly didn’t feel like just a bad day at the office, bit of bad luck etc. We looked tired and not really up for the challenge. Injuries in key areas have exposed the limited squad and having a striker who can’t score goals suddenly matters because hold up play isn’t going to make a difference long term.

I’m sure we’ll rally again but now we’re chasing I’m not sure we’ve got enough to take it to the wire.

[Mac76]

REALLY DISAPPOINTING YESTERDAY BUT WHILE WE CAN LOOK AT THE PLAYERS IT REALLY DIDN'T HELP THAT arteta reorganised the midfield because he wasn't prepared to play Tavares, which was a mistake in itself IMO, if you aren't going to give a player more minutes at home v Brighton you're basically writing them off so we're now another player short

Having Odegaard further back was a mistake, ESR can't play CM IMO, he's better on the wing

If arteta really didn't want to play Tavares he could have put Cedric at LB, White at RB and brought Holding in

And how about all those players unavailable through being loaned or sold - Chambers, AMN, Balogun, Saliba, Torreira, Guendouzi, Kola....

Chambers in particular can play at RB, so could have allowed Cedric to swap without moving White

[selassie]

REALLY DISAPPOINTING YESTERDAY BUT WHILE WE CAN LOOK AT THE PLAYERS IT REALLY DIDN'T HELP THAT arteta reorganised the midfield because he wasn't prepared to play Tavares, which was a mistake in itself IMO, if you aren't going to give a player more minutes at home v Brighton you're basically writing them off so we're now another player short

Having Odegaard further back was a mistake, ESR can't play CM IMO, he's better on the wing

If arteta really didn't want to play Tavares he could have put Cedric at LB, White at RB and brought Holding in

And how about all those players unavailable through being loaned or sold - Chambers, AMN, Balogun, Saliba, Torreira, Guendouzi, Kola....

Chambers in particular can play at RB, so could have allowed Cedric to swap without moving White

As yourself and others have said on the Arteta thread in the Main forum, Arteta's game management of some of the squad players has been atrocious. Starting Xhaka at left back and putting that alien Midfield together of Sambi, ESR & Odegaard was a sackable offence. Way too many positional changes necessary in such an important game irrespective of the opposition.

His game management of Pepe hasn't been great either, all this talk of "Nico has improved he looks a different player" yet he hardly gives him any minutes. I accept hindsight is a wonderful thing but Arteta has definitely fallen short in this area.

What worries me is this appears to be a trait of his and quite a knee jerk one at that. Assuming we buy a whole heap of players this summer similar to last summer, is Arteta going to discard any player who comes in and performs poorly? He needs to trust his squad more.

[KSE Comedy Club]

REALLY DISAPPOINTING YESTERDAY BUT WHILE WE CAN LOOK AT THE PLAYERS IT REALLY DIDN'T HELP THAT arteta reorganised the midfield because he wasn't prepared to play Tavares, which was a mistake in itself IMO, if you aren't going to give a player more minutes at home v Brighton you're basically writing them off so we're now another player short

Having Odegaard further back was a mistake, ESR can't play CM IMO, he's better on the wing

If arteta really didn't want to play Tavares he could have put Cedric at LB, White at RB and brought Holding in

And how about all those players unavailable through being loaned or sold - Chambers, AMN, Balogun, Saliba, Torreira, Guendouzi, Kola....

Chambers in particular can play at RB, so could have allowed Cedric to swap without moving White

Yep - putting Xhaka at LB when it has already been proven, he is a disaster in that postion, was suicidal.
Not to mention, then moving Martinelli to LB and destrying the attack further - what the actual fuck?!?

[KSE Comedy Club]

As yourself and others have said on the Arteta thread in the Main forum, Arteta's game management of some of the squad players has been atrocious. Starting Xhaka at left back and putting that alien Midfield together of Sambi, ESR & Odegaard was a sackable offence. Way too many positional changes necessary in such an important game irrespective of the opposition.

His game management of Pepe hasn't been great either, all this talk of "Nico has improved he looks a different player" yet he hardly gives him any minutes. I accept hindsight is a wonderful thing but Arteta has definitely fallen short in this area.

What worries me is this appears to be a trait of his and quite a knee jerk one at that. Assuming we buy a whole heap of players this summer similar to last summer, is Arteta going to discard any player who comes in and performs poorly? He needs to trust his squad more.

Again, the players have let us down badly the last two games - but both games have highlighted the serious limitations of Arteta's current management level.

[Marc Overmars]

Can’t believe Lacazette has gone 17 games without scoring in open play. The worst part is that it’s not like we’ve even needed a 25 goal striker. Just a contribution of 10-15 goals, which for a player of his supposed ability is a fair ask. It would have made all the difference in our chase for 4th.

Absolute bum striker and not deserving of a new contract, you’d think he’d be playing for his next move at least but he just looks so lethargic and unfit. Can’t wait until we get some new options up front.

ps, why is the Arteta thread closed?

[Mac76]

I think we could really go into a tailspin here - we've a tired and disorientated first team plus a whole load of disaffected players on Arteta's fast-growing scrapheap

it's not looking good...

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Can’t believe Lacazette has gone 17 games without scoring in open play. The worst part is that it’s not like we’ve even needed a 25 goal striker. Just a contribution of 10-15 goals, which for a player of his supposed ability is a fair ask. It would have made all the difference in our chase for 4th.

Absolute bum striker and not deserving of a new contract, you’d think he’d be playing for his next move at least but he just looks so lethargic and unfit. Can’t wait until we get some new options up front.

ps, why is the Arteta thread closed?

No idea why it was closed. It isn't the first time threads have been mysteriously closed though, must be a forum bug somewhere.

[Letters]

Hmm. Yeah, odd. Must be a bug somewhere. Doesn't happen often enough to be worth bothering Joff about but tis a strange one.

[Mac76]

so when you were reopening it could you not have renamed it 'By when will Arteta be sacked' in an effort to save our dear old English Language..?