Match Reaction v Chelsea (away).

I'm not expecting us to do much in January, if anything.
One thing which really encourages me yesterday is that after City cheated their way to a win (Oi, VAR, what are you playing at?!), our game became a "must win" in the context of a title challenge. It fees like if City get their noses in front that they'll just keep going. And I wasn't confident, but we won a tricky away game in a pressure situation. All the stuff about us "not having played anyone yet" is gone. The thing which will scupper us is probably injuries and squad depth, but there's something about this lot which makes me think we're going to be closer come May than any of us dared dream pre-season.

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Originally Posted by mandela8

I mean, I'd love to share your confidence but they're as capable of Leeds and Southampton performance as they are Chelsea and Liverpool ones, man. That's the worry for me. They could go on a bad run of 3,4,5 games...maybe the pessimism is just ingrained in me noo, ffs...the positive thing is none of the other top 4 rivals look capable of really capitalizing on a bad run of form, tbh. I do think Liverpool will go on a run at some point but Chelsea, Man U, Spurs and Newcastle will all lose games too.

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It's not even confidence, it's based on what I have seen so far this season. Not just the results, the performances. We have controlled and dominated pretty much every game we have played so far this season in PL, we have dropped points in 2 games, 2!!!

Not only that, but no team can put in a perfect performance every single week, not even Man City who have been wobbling a bit lately.

At the moment consistency isn't our issue, we are consistently putting in good performances with the results to match. There is a long way to go but right now we are in a good place and it's not by luck.

Was having a look through the fixtures for fun and saw that we play Liverpool and City away in April. :rose:

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Was having a look through the fixtures for fun and saw that we play Liverpool and City away in April. :rose:

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6 points :bow:

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Originally Posted by Letters

I'm not expecting us to do much in January, if anything.
One thing which really encourages me yesterday is that after City cheated their way to a win (Oi, VAR, what are you playing at?!), our game became a "must win" in the context of a title challenge. It fees like if City get their noses in front that they'll just keep going. And I wasn't confident, but we won a tricky away game in a pressure situation. All the stuff about us "not having played anyone yet" is gone. The thing which will scupper us is probably injuries and squad depth, but there's something about this lot which makes me think we're going to be closer come May than any of us dared dream pre-season.

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Well we certainly Won’t bring in three players but I can see some activity even if it’s just a loan (which wouldn’t be a terrible idea)

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Originally Posted by selassie

It's not even confidence, it's based on what I have seen so far this season. Not just the results, the performances. We have controlled and dominated pretty much every game we have played so far this season in PL, we have dropped points in 2 games, 2!!!

Not only that, but no team can put in a perfect performance every single week, not even Man City who have been wobbling a bit lately.

At the moment consistency isn't our issue, we are consistently putting in good performances with the results to match. There is a long way to go but right now we are in a good place and it's not by luck.

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All fair...I'm just not quite there.

Watching the games, I dont think they've "controlled and dominated". Even if they have, it's certainly not been reflected in the scorelines with most games being won by 1 goal.

It's actually weird, Arsenal are the only team to score in every game but every game I worry about where the goals are going to come from. Maybe I'm being irrational, after a couple of false dawn's over the past two decades...I just don't see the quality in the team to sustain this. I've said before that Partey is Arsenal's only elite player and that's still the case for me, although hopefully Odegaard, Sailba and Martinelli can take that next step.

If they signed a goal threat wide/striker type player then I may get onboard.

We should sign that guy from Napoli whose name I can't pronounce.

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Originally Posted by GP

We should sign that guy from Napoli whose name I can't pronounce.

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Osinheim??

Would be expensive and think he plays CF...although I've no issue bumping Jesus out wide as he's not scoring anyway.

More realistically, someone like Zaha would still be good. 3 years too late but I'm sure his contract is expiring and he's still a top performer. The Murdyk boy, all the rumours focus on, looked very good against Scotland and Celtic, the 3 times I've seen him play...but it was 3 games...against Scotland and Celtic. I really don't follow as closely as I used to so fuck knows on alternatives.

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Originally Posted by mandela8

All fair...I'm just not quite there.

Watching the games, I dont think they've "controlled and dominated". Even if they have, it's certainly not been reflected in the scorelines with most games being won by 1 goal.

It's actually weird, Arsenal are the only team to score in every game but every game I worry about where the goals are going to come from. Maybe I'm being irrational, after a couple of false dawn's over the past two decades...I just don't see the quality in the team to sustain this. I've said before that Partey is Arsenal's only elite player and that's still the case for me, although hopefully Odegaard, Sailba and Martinelli can take that next step.

If they signed a goal threat wide/striker type player then I may get onboard.

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You’d be right to be irrational anyway because of the shit we’ve endured for years. It’s hard to be optimistic when we haven’t been in this conversation for so long, it’s almost like the fanbase can’t really compute what we’re seeing.

We don’t have killers up front and that’s where I think we’ll come up short. Players who will turn a 1-0 into a 2 or 3 goal lead before the opponent has a chance to impact the game. We were so much better than Chelsea yet still could only muster a goal via some dodgy defending.

Thankfully our defenders are excellent though.

I know Salah is at the top of his game but just contrast the chances he took against Spurs with the fluffed chances by Saka and Odegaard. We could have dropped 2 or even 3 points if Chelsea had played any better. We have to be more lethal it could cost us dearly in really tight games.

With Salah it was 1 touch to control and another to put it in the net. Even Jesus isnt that incisive