Arsenal 1-0 Shatkah Player ratings and match Reaction

[IBK]

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.

[Mac76]

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.

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...

[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.

[KSE Comedy Club]

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.

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.

[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?

[HCZ_Reborn]

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?

True

[IBK]

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.

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.

[Mac76]

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.

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

[IBK]

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

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...

[HCZ_Reborn]

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.

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.