Martinelliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Martinelliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MARTINELLI!!!
Dannmmmmmm......I've been off for the last 7 mins.
I only get to see our shit moments :(
Not bad from Timber.
To think Martinelli scores from the more difficult chance.
damn - what a shot from Neto though
1-1 Neto. That was poor from Havertz, just let him go.
Merino :doh:
that should be a red for Cucurella
and a yellow for Caicedo
Hopefully that knock keeps Saka out of the England games :ninja:
Jesus is hopeless
Great defending from Trossard there.
1-1 FT.
how did we not score at the end?
A better performance than what we've become use to seeing, but honestly, at the moment, we're nothing special and pretty average.
In fact, if things stay the same, we'd be lucky to make a CL spot. We are that average now.
It’s all relative isn’t it, compared to who?.Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs even City and Liverpool (who play almost all their toughest fixtures at the second half of the season)
It’s all context as well, had we not lost the last two games this would have been a decent result
It’s a case of regrouping after the break.
I don’t think we are any worse than any other team in fact in most areas we are better, but because of the fact that we’ve spent so much money in defensive areas, we don’t have a goalscorer to bail us out.
I’m disappointed to have lost to Bournemouth, drawn with Liverpool and lost to Newcastle
But I also think by far we’ve had the hardest six away fixtures of any team in the league. And the likelihood is if we can build up some form, by Xmas we will be in touch with the leaders (I don’t think there’s anyway this Liverpool team is going to be nine points ahead of us by then)
I think this is a decent side, held back by an inferior coach…but as before we can get results despite him
A point at Chelsea is usually not bad but we really needed to win today to get our season going. I liked some of what I saw today, but only in short spells. I don't like how we are defending this season, we have looked really shakey defensively all season, stretching far back to the Villa away game where we basically got out of jail with Watkins missing sitters.
I have personally conceeded the title this season, I think we are going to be in the chasing pack for a while if we don't improve our performances, i think 3rd is the best we can hope for this season in PL.
I think it will be Xmas time/new year where we can properly assesses where we areQuote:
Originally Posted by selassie
I don’t think City are going just through a bad patch, they are heamoraging. Take away losing Rodri for the season which is a far bigger loss than Odegaard for them. Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Stones, Ederson and Walker are not the players they were…Grealish and Foden are off the boil and they can’t just buy their way out of their problem
Liverpool? I’m sorry they just don’t impress me. I think they won against a wasteful Villa team last night…with the exception of us they haven’t really been tested. They were lucky to beat Chelsea and get a point from us, and aside from that they’ve had by far the easiest fixtures.
We’ve been in shocking form since the last international break. And we definitely, definitely need a striker. There’s no way we can win the league without signing one in January. We’ve ridden our luck at times but so have a lot of teams. That’s my takeaway that no side has looked good, and because of an obdurate manager we could be in danger of missing the open opportunity to get to the top of the pack
The problem we are going to have is to break teams down that will play a deep block
The solution will be to keep players like Merino as far away from the first team as possible, if we need to bring him or Timber on for fresh legs that’s one thing. But hopefully Calafiori is back after the break and we will have more width and a quicker attack.
The other thing is Arteta has to stop being awkward and admit that this Rice at number 8 is an utter failure that has to end
Not worth thinking about the title at this stage, we’ve lost too much ground but granted we’ve had a lot of difficult games.
It is absolutely essential now that we put together a run of wins from now into the new year.
Yeah you are probably right, at the very least we need to go on a deep winning run and it needs to start now.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
I agree with you regarding City, they basically need to rebuild parts of their squad but that doesn't happen overnight. I still think they have the potential to go on a deep winning run assuming they improve, i mean they will improve, as will we.
Yep, Liverpool are being talked up but they haven't even been that good, I wasn't impressed with them against us and I've seen bit and pieces of their other games and they have not looked convincing. Despite that, 9 points is a lot to make up on them.
Aye, it's still early days but we have given ourselves a mountain to climb now. I still think we are capable of going on a deep winning run now that the difficulty of our fixtures has eased up. Basically the target should be to win the remaining games this year, easier said than done, but it is definitely achievable if we can keep our main starting XI fit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I agree with this.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
In isolation it's a pretty decent point against a side who have been doing well so far this season. And while we're here, the points vs Liverpool while a better result for them than us, wasn't a disaster either. But in the context of the other games we've lost and the bad run we've been on it's another 2 points dropped which we might not be able to afford.
That said, our season has been front loaded with difficult away games and Liverpool's hasn't. Up to and including City we were dealing with them very well, since then not so much. If Liverpool keep getting points at the rate they have then they'll end up with about 97, I cannot see them getting anywhere near that. They're going to start dropping points sooner or later, probably sooner. We've got a much kinder run up to the end of the calendar year and our run in is pretty good too so let's see where we are at the turn of the year. I don't think I'm going to throw in the towel just yet and while I am increasingly thinking Arteta has taken us as far as he can (which, it has to be admitted, is pretty far) I think we need to get further into this season before pushing any panic buttons.
The thing which concerns me is we don't have enough up front - which we haven't had for a few seasons, and continuing to not address that feels pretty negligent - and we can no longer rely on our defence to keep clean sheets. It's not an ideal combination but last 2 games (which, as is traditional now, I haven't seen) we have played a lot better by all accounts. But for a soft penalty we could have got a very creditable point in Milan and today's result was pretty good in isolation.
I don't agree Arteta is a dragging factor - I mean, we are miles ahead of where we are since he took over. And yes we've spent big but other clubs have too for much poorer return. He's taken us a long way in terms of squad cohesion and restoring the relationship between the club and the fanbase. And were it not for the City juggernaut we'd have at least one title under him, maybe two. I'm not sure he can push us over the line to land a really major trophy but I guess he deserves a bit longer to indicate otherwise. If we don't get a run of results up to Christmas given the fixtures we have then it will be very Arteta Out for me.
Arteta and Edu could and should have done more to improve the offensive side of the team in the Summer, Arteta still has a chance to do so in January though I am pretty sure the main targets won't be available at any price.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I am still sitting on the fence with Arteta, I don't think he is the dragging factor, but I'm also not convinced he has what it takes to take us over the line. Last season we almost got their but that was after making a bit of a mess of the first half of the season. The same thing could well happen this season if we sort ourselves out, but is that really acceptable? We are constantly in this cycle of giving ourselves too much to do when we all see the quality of this team, they finished last season like a title winner. I realise there are levels to this, and many things make us the team we are, but is another season of falling short really acceptable if we don't win a trophy elsewhere?
Arteta does deserve a bit of time simply for the work he has done to date, but another season trophyless without a credible title challenge should raise a lot of questions about whether he is right man for the club going forward.
My expectations going into this season were title winner / title challenge, given the squad we have now and our past few seasons I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation. At the very least I honestly expected / want / hoped for a title challenge and a domestic trophy.
I think he very much is a drag factor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I think we’ve a set of excellent players, but it’s ridiculous that when you look at the money we have spent and less than a third has been spent on attacking or creative players. We also set up in a way that’s not getting the best out of these players
The left sided inverted full back why?
Playing Rice in almost an attacking midfield role why?
He experiments with the side and doubles down when it clearly doesn’t work. Playing Havertz in midfield.
It’s called being “Galaxy Brained” where he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.
He doesn’t rotate and we risk injuries to our best players
He falls out with players
I don’t know how good this bald Dutchman is at Liverpool. But what he seems to be getting right so far is not to fuck around too much. Keep it simple
I know you do, but we got 89 points last season.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
If Arteta is a drag factor then that implies we'd have got well into the 90s with a better manager which given our lack of a proper striker I just don't buy.
But I do think he's probably taken us as far as he can.
The lack of a proper striker is one of the key reasons why he’s a drag factorQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
We dropped points in only 10 games last season and we’re already at 6 now. I guess you can attribute that to the fixture difficulty so far but dropping points from winning positions in the big games is something we rarely did last season, more often than not we got the job done when it mattered. This season we have regressed and are not the same team, it is messy and not anywhere near as ruthless.
We’ll know for sure after the break if this team can challenge again because if we don’t string together some wins it’s almost certainly over regardless of what Liverpool are doing.
Spurs at home we dropped points from a winning position, as we did against Liverpool at AnfieldQuote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Also the fact is, I’d say it’s hugely unlikely that the team that wins the title will do so with the same high points total as in the last two seasons.
Forgot about that Spurs game. 3 big games though we’ve failed to see out so far and imagine it won’t stop here.
Yeah unless Liverpool go all peak Klopp I think the title can possibly be won with less than 90 points this season. Whether we will sort ourselves out to be in that conversation though, I don’t know now.