Quote Originally Posted by IBK View Post
[FONT="]This from Lewis Ambrose's Tactics column on Arseblog:

[/FONT][FONT="]If Partey didn’t push to press, City found gaps to play through Arsenal all the same. These players are fluent in Guardiola’s language in a way that Arsenal aren’t in Arteta’s yet. They can make these tweaks because they know exactly what to do and how it will play out. You can see from his constant barking of orders on the touchline that Arteta does not believe his players yet know how to adapt.[/FONT]
Guardiola saw Arsenal’s high press coming from a mile off and Arteta did not adjust. We should remember he is still a young manager and Guardiola is (in)famous for making errors in big games even now. Maybe in time Arteta will get there when it comes to tweaking. And even with a better gameplan on Wednesday, it’s hard to see how an Arsenal side that couldn’t string passes together or compete physically would have stood a chance. Maybe there was a golden bullet solution Arteta couldn’t see. Maybe this result was inevitable anyway.


Food for thought...

Speaking for myself a 1-0 defeat where we’ve put everything into it, is no real different to me than a 4-1 defeat where City were able to win ridiculously easy. And ultimately I think the issue against City is the issue I’ve constantly raised about our central midfield.
You say that Xhaka is a lightning Rod, but ultimately how can he not be when we know that even when by his standards he’s had a decent season he’s not good enough for us to go toe to toe with City/Liverpool …Partey for all his flaws in the last few weeks probably is but without a midfield partner at his level it’s all for nought.

I think Guardiola as this master tactician is massively overstated, he has always been at clubs where he’s able to afford top oven ready professionals rather than polish rough diamonds. Odegaard has been in my opinion our most improved player this season yet he still doesn’t look quite at the level where we can go away to city or Liverpool and do what he does in other games…he retreats and becomes anonymous. He’s only 24, maybe he will become that player I don’t know.

But ultimately this comes down to central midfield being the main area of focus for squad reinforcement in the summer