Arsenal 1-0 Shatkah Player ratings and match Reaction

Raya 7.5 - Didn’t have much to do but was switched on to make a good save late on


White 6 - Doesn’t look fully fit


Saliba 6.5 - Didn’t have a great deal to do


Gabriel 7 - Solid performance


Calafiori 5.5 - Mincing like a tart on the ball, still think it was a foul you can’t just barge someone off the ball


Rice 5 - Apalling


Partey 6 - Would have given him an 8 on his first half performance but being put at right back where he can’t play changed the game, as we lost control in midfield and were vulnerable on the left hand side


Trossard 4 - Stank out the place like a beer shit


Jesus 6 - Showed some moments of quality, surprised he was taken off


Martinelli 5 - Cunt


Havertz 7 - Held up the ball well and worked his bollocks off as usual



Subs


Merino 5 - Could have just kept 25 million in the bank couldn’t we or actually signed a striker


Sterling 4 - Pathetic


Lewis-Skelley 5 - Not going to judge him too harshly because he’s a youngster but he looked out of his depth


Jorginho - Not on long enough to give him a rating



Well that was special wasn’t it, the first half was poor and the second half exceeded all expectations in how terrible we could be. I’m glad we missed the pel because it would have given us an extended lead we in no way deserved. In fact we didn’t deserve to win tonight, take away that they were utterly toothless as we were up front and they definitely deserved at least a draw, against a bunch of listless cowards.

https://youtu.be/t6dALp4VPU8?si=IOpUqAgbRmF2ySDA

This sums it up

Absolutely shit really. Don’t think anyone saw that second half coming after a fairly bright first half.

Quite clear we are bereft of ideas at the moment and the forwards have gone off the boil. Well, they haven’t really been on the boil all season if we’re honest.

No harm done in the grand scheme of things as far as the CL goes so I’ll forget this game but we need a massive improvement for the weekend or I have no doubt that Liverpool game will be a painful watch.

We are heading for serious trouble if we keep playing like we have been.

It's a total shit show, even the defence is not as solid as before because we are sitting back and being too cautious.

And don't even let me get started on our attack - WTF is going with them all?!?

To quote Patches Houlihan: They "look like a bunch of retards trying to fuck a doorknob"
It's gone back to every attack putting the ball out to the wing to cross in (even on a 2v1 counter attack ffs!) and passing the ball 50 times in the box.

It's fucking terrible!

Poor...and worrying.

We are looking similar to last season at this time - when the team appeared disjointed; low on confidence and bereft of a clear game plan...despite picking up some points. This malaise culminated in December's shit show before the January Dubai trip seemed to re-set the team.

Yes we had an OK first half against sub-standard European competition, but the stand outs for me were the stodginess of a MF dominated by 6's; the lack of verticality and ball progression, and our ponderous attacking build up play (Martinelli excepted).

Arteta seems to be obsessed with physicality rather than playmaking ATM. Trying to use Rice as an attacking option sums this up - and he looks half the player he did last season - and certainly not like a £105M signing. I think this is down to the manager not playing him where he can use his strengths rather than the player himself. FFS Rice used to be regarded as a player who could anchor MF on his own and do the job of 2 defensive No, 6's. Anyone noticed how toothless our much vaunted corners look with him delivering them?

I was hopeful that Sterling could provide cover for Saka but every time I see him play I'm thinking Sterling = Willian. To me he looks like a busted flush. Jesus was looking better than he has for a while playing at RW. Given Sterling's totally underwhelming displays this season, plus the fact that we owe him nothing, could jesus not have been left on to try to play himself into some form? How about a change that put him up top with Havertz dropping deeper where he could help to instill some creative spark?

Partey was one of our best players last night but has noone to pass to when he remained in MF. Merino alongside Rice made us even more stodgy. The guy can win tackles but slows us down. I am worried that we will suffer from Arteta's obsession with making his pet signing work.

I'm wondering what happened to the Kai/Trossard relationship that seemed the answer to Odegard's absence. Trossard was dog shit. Havertz so isolated that he could do nothing.

...and seeing MLS come on instead of Zinchenko or Kiwor (I know - but for all his faults Zin can be a playmaker and Jacob has done OK at LB), was a head scratcher - not least because Nwaneri was kept on the bench despite being (1) needed and (2) ahead of MLS in his development.

We are missing key players in Saka and Odegard but even so, the manager seems confused in his approach to games and even the team suddenly seems to lack cohesion

Is there a problem in the camp? Aretea now seems to be freezing Zinchenko out (I know that he is not everyone's favourite player, but the problem as always is that if we do need to call on him going forwards he won't be ready for it). Taking Jesus off will merely compound his lack of confidence, and what did it achieve?

We are looking unrecognisable from the team we saw between January and May this year. The absense of Saka and Odegard does not fully explain this.

I didn't watch the game and am therefore accepting it was as bad as people say (although I think there's a tendency towards the negative on here)

But we need to consider it's a team playing it's second game in three days after many had been on international duty, are recovering from injury or still being accomodated into the side, either as young players or new purchases, ultimately they got the job done despite playing badly - isn't that what good teams are supposed to do? I wonder if some players had Liverpool on their minds and so played within themselves?

That said, I think it's another game that exposes Arteta's flaws

I'd much preferred to see more rotation, particularly a Nwaneri start, but that's Arteta's caution again, something I think is holding us back more and more clearly after every game.

consider:

1. buying more defensive players but no attacker (apart from the Sterling loan)
2. going into full retreat against Brighton and Bournemouth when Citeh would have kept all their attackers on the field and gone for the win regardless
3. not willing to trust younger/fringe players

If he can't get himself out of this mindset he has to go at the end of the season - it's not a winning mentality

It was a (narrow) win, yes - and we had a number of chances (including a fortuitous but then missed penalty) to increase the margin of victory.

But I think that the negativty - not just on here but in the wider Gooner community stems from:

1. The knowledge that we must win a major trophy to maintain the development of this team now. We won't keep our world class players if we don't, and Arteta must justify his project/spending.

2. We have to be almost perfect to do so. Last season showed us that. Our competitors are finding ways to win when up against it. We have been found wanting in the EPL, and shot ourselves in the foot in this regard already.

3. We have undoubtedly regressed from where we were in the second half of last season. Player absenses account for part of this, but not all.

I hate the fact that the pressure not to drop points is affecting my midset (and I feel that of the players and our mananger), but it is what it is.

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Originally Posted by IBK

I hate the fact that the pressure not to drop points is affecting my midset (and I feel that of the players and our mananger), but it is what it is.

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This is a fair point and it makes it a bit miserable - particularly as most of the dropped points have been due to incredibly harsh refereeing - I'd even include the Bournemouth one in that as if you see the nuances in the rules there was enough there for him to stick to his decision of a yellow and in the Liverpool game later a similar incident wasn't punished with a red

The combination of Citeh and referees feels like it's sucking all the joy out of football, at least for those who watch at a distance - i do at least have the matchday experience for most home games, but the world's against us and it does turn things a bit grey...

I think IBK is correct in that the momentum we built up from the beginning of 2024 is gone, however it’s equally true that a) I think performance like last night was an outlier, I think even against Bournemouth we didn’t start great but we’d started to establish control before the sending off and b) we have won every game bar one where we have had 11 men on the pitch. It’s not worth dwelling too much on the red cards…I think we all agree that at its most generous we can say we have fallen afoul of officious refereeing

I think overall we look better than we did a year ago, but there seems to be an obsession with control over creativity. Jesus was probably the only player that offered something a bit vaguely different and even then his confidence is through the floor.
But absolutely we can see that he has potential playing on the right.

Nwaneri is not going to get much from ten minute cameos when we are doing game management at the end. If he was meant to be Odegaard’s understudy than us him as such. Stodging midfield the way we do actually means we have to push up more and leave ourselves exposed.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

I think IBK is correct in that the momentum we built up from the beginning of 2024 is gone, however it’s equally true that a) I think performance like last night was an outlier, I think even against Bournemouth we didn’t start great but we’d started to establish control before the sending off and b) we have won every game bar one where we have had 11 men on the pitch. It’s not worth dwelling too much on the red cards…I think we all agree that at its most generous we can say we have fallen afoul of officious refereeing

I think overall we look better than we did a year ago, but there seems to be an obsession with control over creativity. Jesus was probably the only player that offered something a bit vaguely different and even then his confidence is through the floor.
But absolutely we can see that he has potential playing on the right.

Nwaneri is not going to get much from ten minute cameos when we are doing game management at the end. If he was meant to be Odegaard’s understudy than us him as such. Stodging midfield the way we do actually means we have to push up more and leave ourselves exposed.

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I would say that most of our performances have been below our normal standard with the exception of City, Villa & PSG games.

Against Leicester we had a brain fart for some of the game and let them back in and against Southampton we were awful, made them look like a top 6 team at times!

Arteta said he wanted us to be better defensively but we seem to have sacrificed most of our attacking nous to focus solely on that.
The team need to realise they need to keep doing the other things well on top of defending better.

Defence hasn't been that great since the city match either. Especially Raya. His distribution is woeful. And that tippety-tap BS around the back five that results in serious error on 1 in 10 occasions, who they hell knows what that's about?

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Originally Posted by KSE Comedy Club

I would say that most of our performances have been below our normal standard with the exception of City, Villa & PSG games.

Against Leicester we had a brain fart for some of the game and let them back in and against Southampton we were awful, made them look like a top 6 team at times!

Arteta said he wanted us to be better defensively but we seem to have sacrificed most of our attacking nous to focus solely on that.
The team need to realise they need to keep doing the other things well on top of defending better.

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I agree with this. I would add also that we were fortunate against Villa that Watkins' radar was off and had Raya's heroics to pull off those 3 points. I understand that this is football, but I'm not sure that the 0-2 scoreline was so indicative of a dominant display.

While acknowledging that we are missing and have missed key players, I think my main gripe is that we have been timid against lower opposition, and are not playing like future champions ATM. If our defence is as good as people make out, then we should trust in our ability at the back to deal with threats and show more attacking intent. The problem with Arteta's current approach is that teams do not fear us, and for me this is part of what has made Citeh so effective in recent years. They dictate games and have half won many of them before they step on the pitch.

I don't think a safety first approach is the way to win the EPL, neither is lamenting loss of players. We have spent a lot of money supposedly raising the floor of our team. The manager needs to trust and nurture players like Nwaneri; Jesus and even Zinchenko in our current circumstances, not retreat into his shell - because their potential input is needed, IMO.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KSE Comedy Club

I would say that most of our performances have been below our normal standard with the exception of City, Villa & PSG games.

Against Leicester we had a brain fart for some of the game and let them back in and against Southampton we were awful, made them look like a top 6 team at times!

Arteta said he wanted us to be better defensively but we seem to have sacrificed most of our attacking nous to focus solely on that.
The team need to realise they need to keep doing the other things well on top of defending better.

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Oh I’d even say Aston Villa was a bit of a shit show in honesty. My point is more that last season at the same point we were chaotically bad mainly because of Arteta experimenting with positions. The irony is for all the focus on defence we’ve ended up conceding seven in seven.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

Defence hasn't been that great since the city match either. Especially Raya. His distribution is woeful. And that tippety-tap BS around the back five that results in serious error on 1 in 10 occasions, who they hell knows what that's about?

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True

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Originally Posted by IBK

I don't think a safety first approach is the way to win the EPL, neither is lamenting loss of players. We have spent a lot of money supposedly raising the floor of our team. The manager needs to trust and nurture players like Nwaneri; Jesus and even Zinchenko in our current circumstances, not retreat into his shell - because their potential input is needed, IMO.

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Exactly my point, except for Zin, he's beyond redemption and needs to go in January, until then it's maybe a start v Preston to rest others (though not at the expense of a young player), but no involvement in the PL please, we've enough problems there already

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Originally Posted by Mac76

Exactly my point, except for Zin, he's beyond redemption and needs to go in January, until then it's maybe a start v Preston to rest others (though not at the expense of a young player), but no involvement in the PL please, we've enough problems there already

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I take a different view to the majority on Zinchenko. He can be a defensive liability, but we are ridiculously short of playmakers ATM and he tends to fullfill a part MF role. Playing MLS at LB when we needed attacking intent (plus not introducing Nwaneri until it was far too late to salvage anything) on Saturday kind of sums up Arteta's midset ATM. We are hardly playing with our chests puffed out...

To be honest without Odegaard and Saka we lose pretty much the entire creative hub of our team. I don’t know the stats but I bet they are way out in front in terms of who creates the most chances in this squad.

That doesn’t excuse how dreadful the past 2 games have been but we are not going to be competing for anything if they miss too many more games. If Saka doesn’t make it for Liverpool I think we’re going to struggle to get anything from the game.

It doesn't sound like Saka will play, so we'll be without our best defender and our best attacker

God only knows what we'll do - if he plays White inside and Timber's still not fit then it's Partey at RB again?

And without Tomi at LB to look after Salah it will be very difficult.

From the available players for LB it's Kiwior I suppose but while I think he's ok, he can't cope with the better attackers e.g. when he was up against Sane

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IBK

I take a different view to the majority on Zinchenko. He can be a defensive liability, but we are ridiculously short of playmakers ATM and he tends to fullfill a part MF role. Playing MLS at LB when we needed attacking intent (plus not introducing Nwaneri until it was far too late to salvage anything) on Saturday kind of sums up Arteta's midset ATM. We are hardly playing with our chests puffed out...

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He's a good player that makes the same number of mistakes as all our other good players. But for some reason he gets called out for it when they don't.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

He's a good player that makes the same number of mistakes as all our other good players. But for some reason he gets called out for it when they don't.

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No he's an average-to-below-average player who in every game makes hugely dangerous errors by giving the ball away in risky positions, abandoning his position and failing to tackle adequately

He has zero defensive capabilities

It's partly Arteta's fault for playing him at LB where he is a total disaster, at best he's a midfielder to play against lower-league opposition in cup games