I thought Havertz was dire, and I can’t justify starting him ahead of Trossard or Rice at 8 (Partey at 6).
Good professional performance from the boys tonight.
New season, same shit by the refs and VAR. Feels good being so good that we're able to overcome it.
Havertz needs to benched. We can't carry passengers. Trossard twice the player at the moment.
TambourineMan Arteta isn’t going to bench Harvetz. He’s doing what he wants.
TambourineMan don't think Arteta will change things on merit. Have seen it many times the player in good form doesn't play and the player who's been poor or overplayed stays.
A hard won 3 points. We were in total control until the ref decided to do some despicable.
Saw it out in the end. Thought Jorginho was excellent when he came on.
Hard to pick between Saliba and Rice for MotM.
Ricky1985 Thought Jorginho was excellent when he came on.
Did you see how fast he sprinted in the 95th minute? I was genuinely surprised to see it.
Loved the way the boys celebrated every successful defensive play in the end. Squad looks united.
Clrnc
It wasn’t just him. Partey started it. Wasting time in the 55th min? We are so dumb at times especially with the new rules.
Ridiculous refereeing. The whole sport is broken in England. Winning, losing, it doesn't feel particularly meaningful. Either there are rules or there aren't rules. Why have we introduced even more "interpretation" and "game management" into it?
Eddie MOTM. Rest were meh. Fullbacks were crap.
Claudius he's a problem. If he doesn't click soon it's going to look like another Willian situation.
Claudius There will be an element of Arteta persisting with Havertz so it doesn't look like a mistake might have been made.
This and Raya vs Ramsdale will be the main story arcs this season. I see both events splitting the fanbase.
It's early days but you can already see a bit of a split on Havertz. Some are willing to persist/are seeing some upside. Others already want him out of the starting XI.
big 3 points there. we're making things a bit harder than they should be. need to get to that well-oiled stage asap. every game can't be a narrow slog. at some point we have to start blowing teams out to make our lives easier physically and mentally
KingslandBarge if Zinchenko can come back in we have to play Gabriel, Saliba won't cover left back like he does.
Qwiss small glimpse of the quality Zinchenko brings on the ball tonight
Gabriel was excellent and he’s plus to the squad. That said, I liked the look of Guehi who has been linked to us. Front footed defender who is very good on the ball
Qwiss I am desperate to see the return of that defensive unit that soared us to the top. Believe they haven't played since March!
One of the commentators in the Asia (India) feed just ridiculously biased.
lorddulaarsenal Havertz impressed me. I recon it won’t be long til things really click for him
"Impressed me" is a bit much but I'm much more positive on him than it seems a lot of people are. It's funny that the talk of Havertz replacing Xhaka centered around whether Havertz was good enough defensively when the early evidence is that Havertz is waaaaaayyyyyy better defensively in that position than Xhaka was. Still needs to find his feet offensively. I can see the vision, though.
DiabyKungFu
Yeah I said the same last week. He’s very gritty and hard working which goes completely against perception.
swider Yeah we got done dirty. I sensed the Havertz transfer and put him on the anti-wish list; would have preferred an Oyarzabal, Anguissa, Barella-type experiment. However, it's done now and I think there is an abundant route here to make this work - but ideally not via the next few league games. DiabyKungFu his second wind/game pacing is impressive. I actually thought there was some promising things on display when he went to 9 and we were down a man.
Anyway will take that. Rice was superb, Saliba good too.
Eddie had a good game but I think the team suffers when he plays, the connections don’t materialise.
goon Eddie brought Saka into the game plenty. It's from deeper that the connection problems for the wingers are coming.
goon
Martnelli suffers the most when Eddie plays.
Check out Mart’s stats when Jesus/Trossard play v when Eddie plays.
The second yellow card should be always checked by VAR imo, we were done dirty today. Also I cannot believe we wasted so much money on Havertz, he is so bad, clumsy and slow, doesn't contribute positively in any meaningful way.
If Zinchenko comes back, as I suspect he will soon, Partey will drop to the bench as we won't need him to invert anymore.
Qwiss
Thought Havertz was better than last weekend but still it was a 6.5/10 performance imo
Qwiss the thing is he is doing a great job on possession and recoevery. He is a pressing beast when we don’t have the ball. And he gives us a good outlet as well when we are being pressed.
The bigger issue we have is at 9 - where we need Nketiah to do much more of the Jesus / Trossard vertical and horizontal movement that creates space for others around the box.
est
I thought it was Rice, shocked when it turned out to be the Brazilian!
HomeSteak positions he took up. Like his presence and link play. He also worked hard when we’re up against it with 10 men. Bit of patience is needed here
lorddulaarsenal positions he took up. Like his presence and link play. He also worked hard when we’re up against it with 10 men. Bit of patience is needed here
For £60 mill you'd expect a bit more than hard work and some link up play.
It's early though and he can and will improve. The problem is that there is no room for average/decent players in the team if we are going to compete with City. We need 11 players who can all add value to the team.
Maybe. But I just remember Xhaka and Martinelli being really poor when he came in the side last season and both improved massively when Trossard came in. Now we’re seeing Martinelli, Havertz and Ode not getting involved.
Harsh to blame Eddie maybe, but it’s a pattern I’m finding hard to look past.
Racist fucking ref, softest two yellow cards I’ve ever seen.
Rice MOM. Thought Partey did ok as RB.
We look one level below one season though, can’t put my finger on it.
Sicario2 - Tier 1 it’s the attack. Jesus not being there and the lack of minutes for Trossard and Nelson are contributing to it.
We need another attacking addition to add competition and verve
