⚽ Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest, League, Saturday 12 Aug 12.30pm: Page 21 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

⚽ Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest, League, Saturday 12 Aug 12.30pm

Panda

At least we got the 3 points and win.

Better for us to hit peak condition and form for the end of the season...🫠

naz

Did anyone see the post match interview?
Wondering if someone asked about Gabriel. Arteta trying to be too smart with these tactical changes and left out one of our best players.

We suffocated them for a while but our offensive stat line was depressing.

Clrnc

naz Nothing. Was pretty short. Just answered about why he chose Nketiah over Trossard. Said Nketiah trained exceptionally well to the point he would be an idiot if he did not start him

awooga83

Very mixed game. Looked pretty good in the first half but in the second slipped into a bit of a passive mindset of almost being happy with 2-0 and went into cruise mode but that is always risky and Forest had some big chances as well and they are by no means a particularly good side. The defensive concerns I had are still very much there and not sure I saw today what Havertz is going to bring to us.

But need to win these matches while we are finding our feet particularly in these opening fixtures.

The ticket stuff before the match was a shambles, not sure what caused it but doesn't seem to be working as intended I wonder how it'll go next fixture.

Mirth

I feel like I need to rebase my expectations for the season. On the whole, the summer has been a net positive but I didn't expect Arteta to change the structure of the team to this extent from the first game week. The result is that we feel more disjointed as players don't look fully sure where they should be standing or running into. It'll probably take a few months before everyone beds in so we'll just have to hope that Ode, Saka and Martinelli carry us through this period.

Panda

Timber knee injury apparently. Hope he's ok 😪

USArsenal

I think he will be fine. He was able to start the second half, and i think they took him off as a precaution when he felt something early in the second. Maybe a week or 2 at the most. Luckily, we have options there.

TambourineMan

Everything felt a little disjointed. We have gears to go but we weren't fantastic. Not concerned just yet but we don't have things working at 100% for now

Am worried about Havertz though. He just doesn't look like he's going to improve us. Too lackadaisical.

Clrnc

naz

You are right.

Qwiss

Clrnc yeah thats not good reading. Can't rely on Saka worldies every week.

goon

Clrnc

xG swings too wildly on how a ball lands or doesn’t land. Below is more relevant. Main takeaway there is the drop at 2-0 and how we stopped playing our game:

We need to keep playing our game when we go a couple of goals up. Seems like when space opens up we start to force up but just keep giving the ball away instead. Need to keep cool in those situations and make the right decisions.

naz

Clrnc that's terrible. Against forest at home with that set of players?

Pepe LeFrits

Qwiss yeah thats not good reading. Can't rely on Saka worldies every week.

No, although i think that xg is in part a reflection of the game state, if we weren't 2 up and cruising/coasting we'd have created more.

Burnwinter

Am I alone in not being too worried that we fielded an unconvincing experimental lineup at home to Forest? I'd been hoping for this, not this selection as I definitely would have started Trossard and Gabriel, but otherwise ... we've got a mixture of new faces in the squad and preseason was never going to be enough to evaluate all our options. This kind of home game has to be the laboratory.

Likewise not too worried about Havertz, I still reckon his apparent awkward, misfit or "lackadaisical"* style is why he'll be counterintuitively useful.

The main things bothering me today are how poorly Arteta used the bench and how we couldn't retreat to a safer configuration when challenged. I'll save the darker judgements for if and when we're playing this sort of XI away to Newcastle.

* Not having a pop, it's just two or three people have called him this and it's an interesting word.

Claudius

Burnwinter I’m only worried that you’re still awake.
We have 3 points and there’s still 50 odd games to go.

Burnwinter

Claudius Burnwinter I’m only worried that you’re still awake.

I moved ninety minutes westward so it's only just gone midnight here Claude ... just spent the last hour setting up my old four poster bed that's been in storage for a couple of years.

goon

Wow, reaction on here completely different to my general feeling and takeaway from the game.

Very good first half, completely dominant. So impressive how we were able to win the ball back whenever we lost it. It looks to me like we will be on another level this season in terms of being able to suffocate teams.

Second half was a bit disjointed, too many forced passes. But even then it was only really one counter attack that caused the problems - and it was a good counter.

Ways to go but a good start and 3 points.

Clrnc

goon That's actually quite bad after 2-0. Not a coincidence too.

banduan

goon we always coast at 2-0 and play like we get kicked up the bum after they get one back. Annoying.

MistaT

I loved our team selection last year (consistent and obvious) until Arteta became hesitant to rotate. Hopefully, today was more of an experiment than Arteta overthinking tactical changes and heading towards weekly changes.

To me, the advantage from tactical changes (week to week) are generally marginal and riskier than the optimized performance from consistent partnerships/line ups.

Partey at DM and White at RB just makes too much sense for me. Both have fantastic partnerships with those around them and are critical to our ability to control games.

Rice needs to play, I get that but I’m not yet sold it should be at the expense of Partey (as our DM). I would rather he start as an 8.

Also think this would have been a perfectly fine game to give Kiwior a go of Gabriel wasn’t available.

Coombs

Thought we were generally excellent apart from not taking so many of the great opportunities we had to score more. Just not clinical enough with the final ball or the finishing. If we go 3 up, I bet they don't score.

Partey needs to be subbed at 70 or less. Other than that I have little issue with either the line-up or the approach.

Qwiss

Coombs I didn't think there were that many great chances today. When we scored the first we hadn't threatened at all. We were great between the first and second goal and for a while after the second but after that we seemed to drop off pretty hard. Even when we were dominant we didn't create many clear cut chances though.

Coombs

Qwiss we had plenty of opportunities to create chances, though. It wasn't like we were out of ideas, we were just a bit crap at the pointy end a few too many times.

Qwiss

Pepe LeFrits thats true but I think its also part of an issue we have. We have a tendency to drop off after the second goal and its dangerous, certainly bit us in the arse late last season a few times.

« Previous Page Next Page »