Zirkee to win it
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Zirkee to win it
Out we go.
Arteta. :haha:
Fucking hell we're out.
Pure embarrassment, except I don't think any of the pampered prancers will be embarrassed in the least. 60 minutes playing against just 13 and we still couldn't win against the most ordinary Utd we'll ever face.
Never happy to lose any game but I regarded both today and Tuesdays game as pointless fixtures that we could do without. Don’t think it will make any difference because our morale is so completely gone. Unlike Tuesday we created more from open play (although it took United to go down to ten for that) but all our players are completely useless at finishing chances. Seems almost cruel to see them out there, playing with zero confidence. Coached to death by a controlling sociopath
We were always going to go out once it got to penalties.
It's really tiring to keep mentioning the same thing over and over again, but well done our attackers, well done!
Right so same time next year? <_<
Havertz was an embarrassment today.
Should be dropped for Spurs but we haven’t fucking got anyone else.
You forgot to mention that the ref was firmly in our corner and everybody would have been watching being a sunday..... brace yourself, as we'll definitely pay dearly for this in the next few games with funny decisions going against us.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
I remember those days when he led the line for Chelsea, I always loved seeing him start as I knew he'd miss chance after chance....like I said before , it was during his era that we started getting real results against Chelsea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Anyway, what's done is done, he's firmly out headache now.
Still could be worse the major decisions at the football club could be made by someone like youQuote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
A Todd Boehly on amphetamines :lol: or I should say Todd Boehly really :haha:
Anyway the season isn’t over today, it was over a month ago when we couldn’t beat Fulham
Arteta has decided just to make it worse by grinding our players into the dirt. Bereft of fitness, confidence…totally robotic.
No even point sacking him at this point because either way we can’t put a first team out and we can’t seemingly afford to bolster the squad
BTW, I'm really thinking we should make Gabriel the captain of this side, he's single handedly carrying us this season..... and to think he's probably the worst remunerated among our undropables.
https://www.arsenalinsider.com/news/...ly-incredible/
Whats the point. Apart from writing in the matchday programme, you’re either a leader on the pitch or you’re not. And you don’t need an armband for that. The only thing I can see this achieving is alienating Odegaard who hasn’t been great since he came back….but this idea that players suddenly become shit rather than low on confidence. If he was being a prick or something like that, I could see the argument for stripping him of the captaincy but he’s not going to get dropped because we have no one else to play there.Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
Odegaard has always reminded me of a tortured artist....how anyone can look at him and the way he plays and burden him with the captain's armband is beyond me.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Taking that penalty was showing who's the boss. He had no business taking it when we had Jorghino still on the field.
But you are right, he won't lose the armband, only a new manager would have the balls to correct this and identify proper leaders.
6 points from Spurs and Villa and we can move on from this woeful week hopefully.
Or just embarrass ourselves further. Who knows.
As said above, I’m glad you’re not the one who makes decisions for this club.Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
Because apparently there are ways to make things worse. I would have favoured Jorginho taking the penalty, but in the absence of Saka it’s Odegaard who takes penalties and actually stepping up to take a penalty (not only that but taking the first one in the shootout after having missed) does show both courage and leadership.
Gabriel has had a great season I agree with you, but he got himself a bit too involved in that Melee prior to the penalty, and he’s always been combustible and easy to provoke. I don’t know if we need to look at the captain role at some point, but the last thing I’d do at this moment in time is to fuck up morale anymore than it is. Arteta has done that enough by running his team into the ground. One of these competitions (if not both) should have been sacrificed especially given the squad available.
At this point, I'd be happy if we just don't get beat against both of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I really wish there was something we could inject Saka with so he could get back....
I don't think there's horse placenta potent enough to get Saka back before the March international break.
March???!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
:lol: ......serves us right for expecting one guy to repeatedly do the job of 4 other highly paid individuals week in and week out.
Football fans are such goldfish :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Or it could have been that when we were arguing to no good purpose about Liverpool that I stated emphatically that we couldn’t afford to drop a single point in these more favourable fixtures because of the stupid situation we got ourselves into in October and early NovemberQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
I thought this performance was supposed to be reducing knife crime.
We've also noted between us that we're actually in a very similar position that we were at this stage last season - Liverpool were well clear of us then too. And we've got easier fixtures to come. My point here is every season has ups and downs and people always seem to overreact to both as if they've never lived through a season before and can't imagine that a season can feel different at different points. This season is admittedly feeling like a slog, the lack of a striker is such an obvious and glaring omission and it sounds like it cost us again today (didn't watch, was at the snooker and sounds like that was a better use of my time). But there's still a long way to go, I'm not sure how helpful changing managers mid-season would be. Utd's season was a car crash last season and then they kept Ten Hag because they won the Cup, which was as stupid as knee-jerking in the other direction.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
There’s no point comparing it to last season now. We did not have anywhere near the injury pile up we have now.
Our squad is dangerously depleted. For the Spurs game it’s likely we will be without the following
White, Timber, Calafiori, Jorginho, Nwaneri, Jesus, Saka
We are at the point where we can barely put a team out. I don’t think there’s a bottom we can reach at this point with fixture pile up. It’s not going to get better, it’s going to likely get a lot worse.
Was out today, just saw highlights, WTF, disallowing that Martinelli goal was daylight robbery
But still a typically erratic Arsenal performance, spuds will trash us on Weds for sure
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Since when have they ever “trashed” us at our place?
The problem is we are all hoping against hope that somehow we are going to click the way we did a year ago
There’s nothing, nothing that suggests to me that will happen. We are first and foremost without Saka till March, the rumours are at the moment that Jesus has done his ACL which means he’s likely to be out for about six-nine months (so we can’t even sell him to get him off the wage bill). We have Trossard and Havertz who are both in horrendous form, the amount of abuse Havertz gets when he’s not an out and out striker anymore than he is a no8.
Odegaard our captain looks broken, I think again the criticism he’s getting when he’s clearly unfit seems unfair as well.
We have an over coached team that has been ground into the dirt, it’s a joke that we have one of the biggest wage bills in the premier league when outside the first team we simply have no back up.
There’s no obvious solution to any of this and it’s going to get worse in all probability
Even before this weeks cup misery and really even before the Saka injury most of us felt this season was at high risk of flatlining. I know we pulled it together last year but there isn’t a chance in hell of that happening again with such a run down squad where players are getting injured every week. We can’t even field the same line up twice on the bounce because of the fitness issues every player appears to be dealing with.
We are in salvage mode now because this season is hanging on by the thinnest of threads and I do think it’s going to get very ugly should we lose to either Spurs or Villa.
Going to try to be a bit measured here.
Fans of other clubs are rightly going to point to this game to debunk the theory that adverse referreing decisions have cost us games. We had a few favourable decisions in this game, yet couldn't exploit a 10 man opposition and missed 2 penalties.
It is becoming embarrassing how we can't convert chances. I called HCZ out on another thread for labelling a loss unacceptable...well I think that our repeated failure to score from clear chances is unacceptable from a team with title aspirations, with expensively assembled players on high wages. Teams do not fear us. We are like the monster in Scooby Do - always revealed at the end to be some bloke in a costume.
It's so Arsenal to contrive to get the worst possible outcome from this game. A loss. A full strength team suffering further injuries and fatigue from playing extra time. The confidence sapping scenario of conceding in the first serious attack on our goal and seeing us again so toothless in our own attacks. The further evidence that our 'get out of jail' card of corners is no longer effective. A confidence 'striker' that will be further affected by his performance.
Going out of the FA cup is no biggie for me. We did create a shed load of chances against a fairly ordinary Manure team, so we are not a shit team. But failure to concert chances is now a serious issue, as is form and injuries to our forwards. Its inconceivable that the manager does not see the need to bring a forward/striker in immediately. If we don't then I will put this down to the owners/executive more than him and for me this will be evidence that we are not serious about winning anything.
Had a look at those Havertz missed chances again and they are absolutely atrocious. To miss the target on both occasions as well especially that one in the six yard box that he took down and lifted over the bar, unbelievably bad.
Laugh after the game not before it ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Agreed - and we could very well lose to both IMOQuote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I really do think even top four is something we will really struggle with this season if we don't act to a) strengthen the squad and b) adopt a more positive tactical approach
A couple of weeks ago I think it was highly unlikely that we could or would lose both these games. But with the team available to us, it wouldn’t matter what coach we have. Spurs is a game that could go either way and Villa is a highly probable defeat.
I don’t believe Now that Arteta is being stubborn about signing attacking player(s), his reputation is on the line at this moment in time and even I don’t think he’s insane enough to burn everything down in service to prove he’s right…about what ?
The noises he’s making is suggesting that the wage bill restrictions make it hard to sign someone. The Jesus injury is a disaster, not because he’s any use to us as a player because he isn’t…but it removes any chance of us getting him off the wage bill in January.
As for changing the style of play, I’m not sure that’s tenable now either. I’ve made as much noise as anyone to scrap the number 8 nonsense and play with two creative midfielders in front of the holding midfielder, problem is we don’t have two creative midfielders available. We don’t have one arguably, we have Odegaard who any other club would have rested for both cup matches….a player who looks dead on his feet.
I think ultimately the only thing we can do is play for a draw in both games, and have some luck with players coming back in the next couple of weeks. The title if it wasn’t over before last week is definitely over now, we simply can’t put out a team that can win games at the moment.
The sad thing is that our injury list is not that different to a number of EPL clubs and we have a bigger squad than most in MF and defensive positions. The problem is that we have made ourselves too light in the attacking department - so the injuries to Saka, Nwaneri and now Jesus have crippled us more than should have been the case.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Can't disagree with any of that. My (blind) optimistic side says that Spurs are also seriously depleted, and surely for this home fixture at least the players can get up for this home game (like I say, we are creating chances). I am still hoping that we can somehow win on Wednesday. Saturday I am more pessimistic about. If we can get 4 points from the 2 games this will be a good couple of results, in the context of where we are...Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Spurs are more depleted than us especially at the back however they do have a better forward line than us that won’t miss the kind of chances we did yesterday.
It’s a game that I still think we’ll win because Spurs are Spurs, it’s Villa that I can see doing a number on us.
I don’t know how our squad can be so thin yet we have one of the largest wage bills in the premier league (certainly no lower than 5th). We spend 310 million a year on wages approximately. Players like Jesus being on such a ridiculous amount contributes to why we can’t bolster the attacking line.Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
I fancy us against Spurs because...Spursy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
They're not going to come to defend and we'll definitely get chances. Whether we have anyone competent enough to actually take them...
But yes, Villa definitely a tougher nut to crack.
:blink:Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Holy shit...