Arsenal v Southampton/Arteta player ratings

[Mac76]

But I would query the idea of starting Eddie Nketiah, he simply hasn’t done enough to warrant a start. And as for Reis Nelson are you fucking kidding me.

Eddie N has not even been that great this season in the Europa league….incredibly wasteful.

Sure, I knew that when i wrote it, but for me at some point you have to do it, even if you know they aren't good enough (though I'd argue Nelson has never really been given a proper chance to build some confidence), I just can't accept the logic of running players into the ground.

The fact is Arteta has either 100% faith or 0% faith in most players and that just isn't healthy.

Ultimately though, to make top four we need to spend in January, on another striker, another RW and another CM at least

And he needs to play our best LB at LB...

[Globalgunner]

Completely missing the point.

"Its his claim to fame...and its a damn shame"

[Marc Overmars]

Sure, I knew that when i wrote it, but for me at some point you have to do it, even if you know they aren't good enough (though I'd argue Nelson has never really been given a proper chance to build some confidence), I just can't accept the logic of running players into the ground.

The fact is Arteta has either 100% faith or 0% faith in most players and that just isn't healthy.

Ultimately though, to make top four we need to spend in January, on another striker, another RW and another CM at least

And he needs to play our best LB at LB...

I don’t believe Nelson has a future here, I can see him getting sold at the earliest opportunity. Marquinhos is the one who should be getting some minutes.

I agree we need another option up front though or at least another wide player who can score 10 goals or so.

[Mac76]

Yeah, I'd already forgotten about Marquinhos, but then again so has Arteta I think

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t believe Nelson has a future here, I can see him getting sold at the earliest opportunity. Marquinhos is the one who should be getting some minutes.

I agree we need another option up front though or at least another wide player who can score 10 goals or so.

Cannot see us signing three players in January but think we need to. Central Midfielder, Wide player and striker

[selassie]

Mental that Tomi is playing left back.

It’s one thing to come in and do a job on someone (Salah) but it’s another thing to actually play every week when the same threats aren’t there.

Self sabotage IMO.

It's the kind of thing Pep does at City, mind you he has higher calibre players to choose from. The Tomi left back experiment needs to stop though, it's not like there is anything wrong with Tierney unless he is still working his way back to full fitness? I don't know.

[selassie]

Like others I wasn't too impressed with our performance yesterday or Arteta's, however I am not sure I agree with rotating the squad too much, we simply lack quality depth options, we are still in that stage of upgrading our squad depth. I do agree that Arteta made some strange decisions yesterday with the Tomi continuing at left back and taking off Ode and Martinelli, but it could be worse and we have only dropped points in 2 games, yes 2 games so far this season!!! Our start has been near flawless. That doesn't mean we should now let standards drop, but we have to accept we are not going to get perfect performances every week or even win every week!

[IBK]

Disappointing result. Horrendous officiating - but we should have won this game nevertheless.

For me, the team was guilty of complacency. We were alright in the first half, and scored too early - but IMO the players dropped several levels in the second half because they thought we had the game.

The other thing that worries me is that teams have inevitably worked us out. If we don't go 2 goals ahead after our customary first half an hour blitz, they play a low block and wait for the inevitable opening that our high line will present. Earlier on in the season, Jesus' genius would keep the other team well penned back and he would tend either to score or pull the other team so out of defensive shape that someone else would profit. For the past few games he has been marked out of the game, and seems to be playing at 75% since the Liverpool game. Xhaka aside, we have begun to look a bit predicable, and there seems to be an absence of game changers to bring on. I do not think that either Nketiah or Vieira are impact subs.

And I agree with those questioning the manager's personnel decisions. Tomi at LB worked against Liverpool, but he should not be being started there every game. There is nothing wrong with Tierney there. We are seeing the same mistakes made with our back up players that we saw last season. It won't work - either phsychologically or in player effectiveness not giving starts/playing time to the likes of Eddie; Vieira or Marquinos, and then expecting them to make the difference when a game is already drifting away from us and the general level of the team has dropped. We saw last season how Eddie needs consecutive starts to reach full performance, and its not fair to him to play him out wide and expect results. If anything it should be the other way round. Give these players starts and bring on the so-called 'big guns' if things arent going to plan. Arteta's lack of faith in players on the fringes of the first team is worrying, when everyone can see that we are looking a bit flat recently.

That said - the weekend results have shown is that almost any team can take points off those in the leading pack, and our good start sees us top. We can't let the rot start though.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Like others I wasn't too impressed with our performance yesterday or Arteta's, however I am not sure I agree with rotating the squad too much, we simply lack quality depth options, we are still in that stage of upgrading our squad depth. I do agree that Arteta made some strange decisions yesterday with the Tomi continuing at left back and taking off Ode and Martinelli, but it could be worse and we have only dropped points in 2 games, yes 2 games so far this season!!! Our start has been near flawless. That doesn't mean we should now let standards drop, but we have to accept we are not going to get perfect performances every week or even win every week!

I have to say I agree with this, it’s really not like the players not getting a look in are particularly showing that much in the Europa league. Nketiah who I do like was poor in the last two games he started, and he was giving the ball away a lot against Southampton.
The Tomoyasu thing is galaxy brained and I think he didn’t seem to know what he was doing when trying to defend against Elyounoussi for their equaliser.

Whilst I far from agree with all his transfer decisions I do think he is slowly building a squad, I am it’s abundantly clear no fan of Arteta but I’m not going to get too much on his case yesterday…the players needed to be more clinical in front of goal in the first half but equally I’m not heartbroken about dropping points against Southampton.

[Mac76]

i agree with the comments about Eddie, but Jesus wasn't up to much yesterday so we have to use what we have until we can buy in January when we really need to buy