Burnwinter

No, that's true, they didn't, but within minutes, seconds even, of his arrival Xhaka was ferociously fighting for the ball by Oxford's corner flag. I think he either won a corner or a throw, it doesn't really matter. But in that one piece of play, he showed more than Sambi had all evening. And for me, it represented an aggressive action, the like of which you need to bring to games and we had failed to do this all game. We turned up the gas, basically.

Essentially I agree with what you're saying in respects of the "up and comers", but I think it's a lot easier said than done. History tells you that. I remember me and Sabret00the (remember him?) being massively frustrated that Jermaine Pennant wasn't given more of a chance during the Invincibles season. Were we right to be? We thought we were at the time, history suggests otherwise. Conversely, Gael Clichy took his chance to shine and acquitted himself incredibly well for a 17 year old kid, but he only got that chance because of what went down at Old Trafford.

What seems to be true of Arteta, a bit like Arsene, is that once you've lost his trust, it is incredibly difficult - perhaps impossible - to get it back. That seems a bit hardline to me, but again - it's elite sport, once lost, it should be difficult to win a manager's trust back. Particularly at a club like Arsenal. I guess it depends whether Arteta sees his fringe players as up and comers, or as with the Conservative, dead weight.

Conscious that I've started to waffle now, so I'll leave it there.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert Seen Patino played at #6 this week and did great. He should come back this summer and take Sambis place. I had hopes for Lokonga but he doesn't look like he's improving for whatever reason, lack of football can't be helping but he isn't going to change that here. Time to move on. We'd have been a lot better off if we'd just kept Willock.

goon Its funny you mentioned Tierney and Holding as Tomiyasu was the one sticking out like a sore thumb last night. Guy looks way off the pace since his return. We need him to get back up to speed before the Europa league returns.

One thing those stats show is there's no way we could play the way we do without proper footballers right across the back five. The days of specialist centre halves who can't pass and move are over.

Put simply, the players topping our "passes per 90" are all defenders except for Partey. And everyone forward of Partey is accountable for generating and finishing chances, not recycling the ball. And of course White and Zinchenko also participate heavily in our build-up.

I bet we see very different numbers if we go back prior to the squad overturn of the summer before last.

Burnwinter central defenders of almost every team top their pass %, DMs too but its just the way that stat goes. Its just easier to pass the ball in your own half. Our central defender do it well compared to other defences though. I think they move it much more quickly than they used to and make less major errors on the ball compared to Luiz, Mustafi, etc

Spiers as Xhaka

Big Willie But yeah the Xhaka was hilarious. Where is the Xhaka yellow card when you need him.

I love that Xhaka's name is the only one in yellow.

Pepe LeFrits exactly. I was looking for the name with the yellow card image but didn't realise how to do it.

goon
Brilliant!

Big Willie It's an HBO mini-series(10 episodes, about hour each) called Band of Brothers. It's absolutely brilliant! Definitely recommend if you haven't seen it yet. For me, it's certainly among the best TV series ever made.

Lakonga and Holding

Lol. Yep Band of Brothers is wonderful. Thoroughly recommend.

Qwiss ️ I want to see the old stats.

Charged over the handball appeal, which is hilarious.