Man City vs Arsenal | Sat Oct 17 - 17:30 | Etihad Stadium: Page 18 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Man City vs Arsenal | Sat Oct 17 - 17:30 | Etihad Stadium

tazmania

Pretty neutered performance. We need to switch things to be more aggressive in attack. Man City were there to be beaten today, it feels like our formation was setup wrong to take advantage of that

Mirth

Tbh had Bellerin not over committed on his block we'd be walking away with a point. Despite City's possession, they didn't create many high % chances.

Clrnc

Mirth wrote:
Tbh had Bellerin not over committed on his block we'd be walking away with a point. Despite City's possession, they didn't create many high % chances.

Neither did we though. City defence is weak and we never really troubled them in the 2nd half at all. Their last 3 opponents gave them more of a game than us.

The difference in braveness of possession and creativity between us and Leeds was something. Mikel need to work on attacking patterns and possession threats as soon as possible once Partey is integrated. We are so devoid of ideas.

Claudius

Mirth wrote:
Tbh had Bellerin not over committed on his block we'd be walking away with a point. Despite City's possession, they didn't create many high % chances.

That problems in that move started earlier when Xhaka and Ceballos pushed up too far and left our defenders exposed. From that point on they were just backpedaling. Especially tough when those central midfielders can’t gallop back like Vieira.

awooga83

I don't think city are that great right now so I feel that's a pretty disappointing result. You can get at Citi and Liverpool this season but we don't really seem able to do that.

Gazza M

Clrnc wrote:
By the way, I think its time to say this.

Since the first game against Fulham, Willian looks like what I was worried about. Slow, unagile, touches always off and pretty much pointless in most games for us.

.Looked more useless than mlhitaryan thus far. I was by and large against the signing, but tried to pick out some of the upsides, none of which are eventuating. He looks out of place, and for a guy of his profile there should be no bedding in period

banduan

Clrnc wrote:
By the way, I think its time to say this.

Since the first game against Fulham, Willian looks like what I was worried about. Slow, unagile, touches always off and pretty much pointless in most games for us.

welcome to the club, Willian is a total waste

tazmania

You can't play 5-3-2 or whatever we're playing with the attacking players we have. It works sometimes when auba's clinical but all other times you have willian, laca and pepe bobbling the ball about each time they get it

Kel Varnsen

We sit too deep and with too many players. We are defensively solid, but boring and way too catious.

Jed

Ceballos does a lot without really doing anything. Not giving us enough in the midfield.

Gazza M

awooga83 wrote:
I don't think city are that great right now so I feel that's a pretty disappointing result. You can get at Citi and Liverpool this season but we don't really seem able to do that.

Yeah I'm not quite understanding how people think losing to them this way is a step in the right direction, given they were missing some key players and have looked vulnerable in the last 12 months. Teams that get after them will have more joy than our incremental countering approach

Wilson

Yeah, Willian was disappointing (and Ceballos was a bit too). I don't think any of the front 3 shone. Gabriel, Xhaka, Saka and Tierney had plenty about them though.

All that said, it's worth remembering that about 12 months ago we were being torn to pieces by Watford with dozens of shots on goal. I didn't particularly like that team whereas I'm fully behind this one and appreciate the effort and teamwork. By getting Partey into the team, bringing Saka/Gabriel/Tierney/Pepe on further and breaking into the CL there's a lot to work with for next year. We just aren't on City's level, especially in terms of a top level front 3 or creativity in the middle, but I can live with that for now.

It's interesting that Arteta is hell bent on playing with a linking CF after Willian played there today. Given that Auba is on the left, I can understand that impulse.

Oh and it's nice to see that Luiz didn't crumble against top opposition while playing right CB in a four.

swider

Mirth wrote:
swider wrote:
IMO the only positive and a change of sorts is a total discipline of entire team. However at the same time we lost creativity and flair, I am not too sure if it is a good trade. What additionally made watching the game joyless for me is my strong preference to play Auba up front, especially in the front three we used today. Also watching two uninspired CM's for nearly entire match was meh. At least we were somewhat competitive today, I guess.

The trade off is that previous years the game would be over at half time whereas now we stay within touching distance for the entire game. It's shit to watch at this time but it's a reasonable trade off assuming it's a pathway to something better.

I'd buy this argument if we have shown some creativity and desire in play against weaker teams than us prior to today's game. I realise my comment seems to be a bit harsh, especially that we got thrashed so many times in recent years against quite a lot of teams, but they were really average today and there wasn't any moment in the game when we would gain momentum and create a few goal scoring chances within short period of time. My problem is that we rarely do. Also I really wanted to see what we could expect from Partey in the future, in the game when both our CM's had such poor performances, he could and should have gotten much more minutes.

Mirth

Clrnc wrote:
Mirth wrote:
Tbh had Bellerin not over committed on his block we'd be walking away with a point. Despite City's possession, they didn't create many high % chances.

Neither did we though. City defence is weak and we never really troubled them in the 2nd half at all. Their last 3 opponents gave them more of a game than us.

The difference in braveness of possession and creativity between us and Leeds was something. Mikel need to work on attacking patterns and possession threats as soon as possible once Partey is integrated. We are so devoid of ideas.

Obviously we need to do better, I'm just calling for perspective.

As for Leeds - this time last year you'd be pointing to Norwich and how they pushed Liverpool at Anfield. It's not really a rebuke, it may be at the end of the season but that remains to be seen.

Gazza M

Aguero trending for wrong reasons. Idiotic stuff from him

Wilson

Clrnc wrote:
Mirth
Neither did we though. City defence is weak and we never really troubled them in the 2nd half at all. Their last 3 opponents gave them more of a game than us.

You say that but between Diaz, Ederson, Walker and Laporte I see four of a very able back 5.

Mirth

Wilson wrote:
You say that but between Diaz, Ederson, Walker and Laporte I see four of a very able back 5.

Also this isn't the same line up from previous weeks - Pep had a completely different system for us.

Claudius

Gazza M wrote:
Aguero trending for wrong reasons. Idiotic stuff from him

Fucking nutter. Should’ve been carded.

Clrnc

Claudius wrote:
Gazza M wrote:
Aguero trending for wrong reasons. Idiotic stuff from him

Fucking nutter. Should’ve been carded.

What he did was really not on. That attitude towards her was clear for all to see.

IBL

On the plus side Partey looked good while he was on and Gabriel again impressed. If the others around can sort themselves out we might be on for a decent season.

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