Arsenal 0-1 West Ham Match Reaction

[HCZ_Reborn]

Anyway that’s mine and Letter’s feud. Don’t try and muscle in on it

[Letters]

I still don’t get why people use the term heavily edited as if it’s relevant to any counter argument. Unless the suggestion is the editing was done to make Arteta appear even worse than he is, rather than a more sanitised version.

Oh are we still doing this?
Go on then, for old time's sake.

By heavily edited, I don't mean they were trying to edit it to promote any particular narrative. But in that whole series there were a few minutes of footage with him with his wife. From that you're inferring this whole narrative about their relationship. Give me a break. Body language analysis is widely regarded as a pseudoscience anyway.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Oh are we still doing this?
Go on then, for old time's sake.

By heavily edited, I don't mean they were trying to edit it to promote any particular narrative. But in that whole series there were a few minutes of footage with him with his wife. From that you're inferring this whole narrative about their relationship. Give me a break. Body language analysis is widely regarded as a pseudoscience anyway.

Yeah if I’m being honest that was the biggest reach, however even with that admittedly small snapshot there’s the same avoidant body language and emotional distance that you see in his interactions with others. Of course it could be that he’s more natural and tactile with his family without a camera around him, and actually the one thing that would go against my belief that he could be on the spectrum is that he wouldn’t have sought out having a wife and having children in the first place not even to assume a pretence of normality.

[HCZ_Reborn]

And don’t give me that “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” shit . You thrive on this stuff

[Letters]

And don’t give me that “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” shit . You thrive on this stuff

Hey! I resemble that remark

[IBK]

City have a bigger job to do in my view

They have no idea what condition Rodri will be in after being out for so long. They have to replace defence, they have to replace De Bruyne and they have to contend with the fact that the spotlight will be very much on them even if they ultimately aren’t punished for their piss taking cheating.


Liverpool also have work to do. They will need replacements for Van Dijk and Salah


We really arent in a situation where we have to tear up everything and start again. I think there are players we could do with getting rid of, but they are largely on the periphery. We need to add to what we have. And ultimately we are dependent on how much KSE wants to be generous.

Players like Saliba? We need to sit down and talk to them. And say give us to 2026 to win something big, if we do you sign a new extension…if we don’t….we agree to sell you to Real Madrid.

I don’t think we are on a downward trajectory long term. We haven’t gelled as a team because there’s been almost no point during this season where we’ve been able to play our best team. Do we need to adapt? For sure. But at the most objective I can be if we take away the absolute crushing sense of disappointment we feel at not toppling a Liverpool side we all deep down know we are better than (to the point of wanting an inquest into it). Given everything that’s gone wrong for us this season (and yes it’s as much self inflicted as it is misfortune) we’ve actually shown remarkable resilience. That title ending defeat was the first league defeat in 15 games and it took our entire first choice front three to be out for it to happen.

Do I accept that in football if you’re not moving forward, you’re invariably moving backwards. Yes. And if we don’t get what we need to get this summer…I think the fanbase will not tolerate it. But ultimately whilst we do not want to stagnate we also don’t want to be a chaotic entity like Chelsea (a state that predates that American cretin taking over despite the shortness of other people’s memories)

I've thought more about this.

I think we have regressed this season. On the playing side, even with all our players fit, we had dropped from our form during the back end of last season. If you look at individual form, it's difficult to think of any player - apart from Saka; Raya and Partey - who has not dropped off. Outside a few games where we have found conditions to our liking, goals have been harder to come by - and looking at the top scorer charts is, frankly, embarrassing for a team with our aspirations. I'm not downplaying the fact that we have scored a lot of goals from corners - they all count - but IMO this has masked disfunction in open play...and our set pieces have now been worked out.

We are currently second, yes, but it's difficult to escape from the feeling that this position is despite of our patchy form, not a result of us playing particularly well.

We can point to injuries, yes - but this metric is a sharp regression too. Something is not right with our player conditioning. And it's getting worse.

We have undoubtedly regressed in terms of transfer business. And Edu's departure is a regression as it stands.

I asked who an objective observer would back going forwards. The fact that Liverpool have managed their players so well, and not been affected by their 3 key players running down their contracts; also their excellent track record in the transfer market (not to mention that they will walk the league and are likely to do better than us in Europe) suggests to me a firmer foundation for next season than we appear to have. Citeh have regressed further than us, but their wealth and consistent track record over the previous 5 seasons suggests that they will bounce back (I'm not particularly confident that the charges against them will turn out to be a huge limiting factor).

Favouring us to come good over these 2 teams requires faith that potential outgoings like Partey; Jorghino; Trossard (sigificant factors for us last season) can be replaced adequately; that players like Odegard; Rice; Martinelli will reach their heights again; that we will invest heavily in our forward department; that Saka will be the same again after his injury. That MLS and Nwaneri can continue their trajectories as very young additions to our squad. We have an incredible amount of work to do; a lot of money to spend and require a following wind to end up calling this season a blip. I think we have as much work - or more - than Liverpool and Citeh have to do. And whether our board have the will and the expertise to do this properly is by no means a given.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t really agree. Apart from anything else this team is a unit so it’s not 100% fair to assess individual performances without including the context of who they are playing with (and more importantly without)

At almost every point this season the side we’ve put out is a patched up side. In fact I can only think of one game where we had our strongest side available to us and that was away at Sporting Lisbon. And we demolished them

The only two players who I think have noticeably been poorer this season than last are Trossard and Odegaard. Trossard hasn’t been terrible but compared to last season the goal output hasn’t been there, and Odegaard looks unfit and he looks bereft of confidence.

For me the only other thing that is different is in the second half of the season we had the set piece routine to allow us to break down stubborn teams and then we could go berserk (and that accounts for why in the last 18 games we averaged 3 goals a game)

I think where I would agree with you is that there was a complacency in believing that what worked in 23/24 would work now. But to suggest the whole team is regressing, or we need to tear things up and begin again is for me a panic measure. Now it might seem hypocritical me saying this when I’ve been screaming for Arteta’s head congealed in its own evil blood. But actually the system and the squad is largely what I’ve wanted to preserve.


The main thrust of this team is that we are hard to beat, and that’s largely proven to be the case. There is adaptation for sure that’s needed, but when you look at what we’ve had to put up with in terms of being able to put out a team, and the way we’ve overplayed so many players….it would seem churlish to throw the baby out with the bath water

[Niall_Quinn]

We're 2nd because city have fallen away. If they'd even been a shadow of themselves from last season we'd be a fair distance behind them too.

White has been a big loss. He allowed us to use the flanks effectively (one of them anyway) rather than as a temporary stop-off point for our pitter-patter progression. White was also the main spoiler in the box when those set pieces were coming in. Take Saka out too and we're a bit fucked really.

[HCZ_Reborn]

We're 2nd because city have fallen away. If they'd even been a shadow of themselves from last season we'd be a fair distance behind them too.

White has been a big loss. He allowed us to use the flanks effectively (one of them anyway) rather than as a temporary stop-off point for our pitter-patter progression. White was also the main spoiler in the box when those set pieces were coming in. Take Saka out too and we're a bit fucked really.

Yeah in regards to what you say about Saka and White on set pieces I tend to agree, it’s not a coincidence that we haven’t scored from a set piece since January 1st.

[Marc Overmars]

Saka and White’s link up combined with Odegaard consistently feeding them was what made the team tick. That right side was everything.