Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.: Page 201 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

flobaba

Thought the title and narration seemed a bit cheese, but it's surprisingly spot on analysis

Coombs

Enrique gave Arteta a lesson today. Looking forward to the response.

Claudius

Coombs what lesson?
In our last game they out possessed us. They are the highest possession team in the champions league, at over 60%. So them having more of the ball was always expected. They are definitely the best looking team we’ve played this season, but they weren’t generating chances at will. We basically matched them on xG - stats show we were higher but I think one of our shots was offside.

Their team is skilled and works hard. The manager has proudly said he carries Barca traditions, and it showed.

Our biggest issue tonight was we spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to mark in midfield. On the goal, we committed bodies on the press and then left a large gap behind the first wave. That’s the space that Dembele popped into and carried. Our defenders then (rightly) protected the centre (largely because PSG flooded the box extremely quickly). That left Kvara free, and then he hit the ball and cut it back. And then there were a few more moments like this, until we closed the spaces on the press

Having Partey back will make a big difference.

JazzG

Coombs In the first 20 mins he did, after that it was a fairly even game.

They went into the match with their first XI and we went with Partey, Jorginho, Gabriel, Calafiori, Havertz and Jesus missing.

Sicario2

Coombs what lesson? Artera changed it after 20 mins and if it wasn’t for fine margins we would have drawn or won. Fuck Enrique, bring on the second leg.

Tam

Claudius That left Kvara free,

I thought Timber got dragged inside very easily. It was a heart in mouth moment when you could see the space open up behind him. I expected he wouldn’t have an easy game but given his history with good wingers I was surprised at how much he struggled in the opening 15 minutes.

Qwiss

Claudius We basically matched them on xG

apparently 0.8 of our xG came from that "chance" for Martinelli where Saka crossed it and Marti was offside trying to get a foot on it in mid air. That was never a real chance never mind a big chance.

Gurgen

Love the optimism but there’s no chance we’re getting something over there.

tazmania

Gurgen why not

Claudius

Qwiss that chance was 0.59xG. If we exclude it, that takes us to 1.05 xG versus their 1.1 xG.

We are also off the bat excluding other chances we created like the Merino offside goal etc. overall what you have is a very tight affair (like most of our games are) decided by a good early shot.

Coombs

@Claudius and @Sicario2 you've both answered your own question. Arteta got out-prepped and by the time we found an answer, we were down.

I said myself it was an even game. What I hope to see in Paris is a PSG team that struggles to cope with our prep for 20 mins.

Claudius

Coombs you've both answered your own question. Arteta got out-prepped and by the time we found an answer, we were down.

I said myself it was an even game. What I hope to see in Paris is a PSG team that struggles to cope with our prep for 20 mins.

Honestly think the bigger issue is one rich team had its entire squad while the other rich team was missing several players including 3 down the spine of its typical starting line-up. The team missing players took some time to adjust to this handicap and eventually got its shit together. However, by this point they were a goal down and had looked vastly inferior for half an hour.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Coombs we need to show the technical quality we showed away at Sporting. That was some elite shit, and seemingly a one-off.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Didn't have a fantastic view of the game at the stadium, was in the corner above the Paris fans (Club Level - shite atmosphere).

Looked like Kiwior was quite poor. Wish we could get Gabriel back for next week.

Partey will make a difference too (also as it means no Trossard up front, who was poor).

Coombs

Claudius that we sorted it out is proof positive of my claim. Enrique knew our weaknesses and exploited them, predicting how we'd set up and completely evading our press. We dropped into a mid block out of necessity and were able to even it out. But that's not how we dominate, and we never really managed a truly dominant spell. Arteta has some work to do on the whiteboard, and that's not really a criticism. I'm genuinely looking forward to what he comes up with.

Segway

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert Ødegaard was unplayable that day. Wish he'd dig up that version of himself again. We're miles better when he's on song.

Claudius

Coombs good clarification.
But Enrique can’t do it alone. The technical quality of his squad. I’ve honestly only seen City 2021-23 play an Arteta team off the park like that. Not even Bayern - if I recall the Bayern tie was the opposite of this. We started incredible and then ceded territory.

Coombs

Claudius that kind of quality is part of the lesson, imo. We should be fielding more players like that. Perhaps even some of those very players should be with us.

flobaba

We were clearly out-tactic'ed and it took us way too long to adjust. After their goal, within the first 10 minutes Arteta should have revised our approach. But you can tell it's not something we are practiced at doing. Odegaard was waving his arms in circles but nobody knew who exactly to press or what the trigger was. And whenever we went full press there was room in the middle for Dembele to drop into to receive the out ball. And with their pace on the wings, it was easy for them to force us to drop back and control the game in our half. Used our own discipline and tactics against us. Clever from Enrique.

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