Bournemouth away sat 30th 3pm: Page 19 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Bournemouth away sat 30th 3pm

Big Willie

DiabyKungFu I think this is the main bone of contention. I think it's pretty crazy to think expectations should be higher than that. I made this point during the offseason and got jumper all over for it, but we outperformed our xG by a good amount last season. Cruising to CL qualification + CL quarters would be solidly successful to me.

OK so its a difference in expectations then. No biggie in wanting just top 4 I guess. I just don't feel that way personally.

DiabyKungFu

Big Willie Finishing at a distance in the 70ish points range even if we qualify for CL would be disappointing for me

Ignoring all context and only evaluating the performances of this season, this looks like a high-70s to low-80s point team to me.

DiabyKungFu

DiabyKungFu Ignoring all context and only evaluating the performances of this season, this looks like a high-70s to low-80s point team to me.

Hell, to say even more here: This season's performances have made me more confident that we're better than Liverpool than I was feeling before the season.

Coombs surely by your own logic we should be looking to capitalize on our main rivals' problems?

To be clear, there's a distinction between finishing ahead of Man City over the course of the season and beating Man City at home in a game when De Bruyne, Rodri and Bernardo Silva are out. I just found the "Wait until we play City" thing a little weird on a day where we beat the shit out of a team and City undoubtedly put in a much worse performance than any performance we've put up all season.

DiabyKungFu

I think people need to come to terms with the fact that there's over a 50% chance that the title equity of this team will never reach the heights that it did after the Man U game last season and still find a way to enjoy watching games.

Dragan

I thought that was a very good performance (possibly our best this season) which will bring us wins against the majority of the weaker teams in the league. It is not free flowing and we are creating a lower volume of chances compared to last year, but we slow the game down and concede fewer chances as a result. I didn't feel at any point that Bournemouth are about to score which is a result of both them being poor offensively, but also our setup.
While not pretty, we control matches much better and it should lead to more routine wins such as this one. A non-penalty xG of 2 is sufficient to win most matches on merit. There will be outliers where our finishing fails us down or the opponents score all their chances (see Villa - Brighton today for reference) but that's football. There is definitely room to improve going forward and our attack hasn't fully clicked yet, but if we perform like today we should be equalling/improving our points tally from last season and being the closest challengers to City.

swider

DiabyKungFu
Well, I guess the main worry for people who see cracks in today's performance is that there is no improvement in our general play compared to the last season. And I agree with this sentiment, at least so far after seven league games. However we suffered a significant number of injuries that clearly are affecting us, especially losing both Martinelli and Trossard at the same time is a hindrance, so there is a high chance that quality of performances is going to improve once we have those players available.

daredevil

swider

You can't lose one of the best midfields in the league and expect not to have teething issues.

The reality is that we lost Partey and Xhaka whom most fans underrated, and now Rice and Havertz are understandably taking long to adjust to the demands of the role.

Our football is obviously not going to be as good until they both acclimatise and excel.

Gazza M

swider that's where im at. and it stems from arteta for me. the recruitment and subsequent selection is leading to malfunction that's there by choice and design. we're 3.5 years and 600m in here, lest we forget.

daredevil

DiabyKungFu

Completely agree. People set themselves up to be disappointed from the start. Expectations are always out of wack with reality.

swider

daredevil
I cannot speak for others, but for me the issue are Havertz and Nketiah. Moving Jesus on the left side so we can play with Eddie and playing Havertz as a midfielder who really slows us down are mistakes in my eyes and directly influence quality of our game. And I always expect us to at least attempt to play quick and fluid football.

Qwiss

I thought we played pretty well. It was a bit dull at times and I'd like us to be more ruthless but it's a long season and it's important to get results while we're not at our best.

RowJimmy

The discussion here about lucky goals and penalties seems very strange to me. We earned those penalties in the sense that we got into scoring positions where they made desperate challenges. It's not as if they were random gifts from the ref.

flobaba

RowJimmy exactly. It's the pressure and dangerous situations that caused the errors and resulting penalties. It's a desperate argument.

Me I still don't enjoy our football. I thoroughly appreciate the win though

flobaba

Lol. Painful loss for Liverpool.

Spurs' confidence will be flying right now.

They feel like us last season.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

flobaba

Liverpool losing much more important.

flobaba

One of the highlights of this game for me was watching Rice drive through the midfield and release Nketiah or Jesus? down the left wing. Think that was early in the first half. That's what I expect to see a lot more of as he settles in.

banduan

This was a good and comfortable match. Defended well and attacked much better.

I'm not sure if the complaints in this thread are about our attack, cos we were good. The fact that 2 chances to be clear on goal were denied by peno-causing challenges should not be glossed over in the effort to discount penalties. Those were stonewall penos, not those we were lucky to get. But on top of that, we also missed two clear chances. Eddie was actually good today too, even though I would still start Reiss and have Jesus up top, cos Jesus is so much better up top.

If there were clear weaknesses it's in our sloppiness transitioning out of defence. We keep losing the ball dangerously during these moments which results in 3-4 players being behind the play.

flobaba

banduan

That's what having a press resistant midfield does for you. Xhaka I realize now was press resistant as fuck. But he didn't do it the traditional way - by carrying the ball - He had/has no physical attributes to that effect. He did it by passing the ball.

Which brings me to a waaay different thought I have had lately about Jorginho, and how come we don't try to use him in the #8 role? He seems to have similar flaws and positive traits as Xhaka did. So put him in a position where his flaws are hidden or minimized and his positive aspects are highlighted. As long as he can show the discipline and intelligence, and put in the work the role requires, it could work.

Edit: just took a look at how Rice compared to Xhaka and he has a lot of the raw material to be a huge step up in that 8 role. I suspect once Partey is back we'll see some restructuring to that effect again.

goon

flobaba just took a look at how Rice compared to Xhaka and he has a lot of the raw material to be a huge step up in that 8 role. I suspect once Partey is back we'll see some restructuring to that effect again.

We played it in pre-season/community shield. We’d have definitely seen it here and there if it wasn’t for injuries.

QuincyAbeyie

Playing it in preseason and then immediately putting Partey at RB when it mattered was already a weird move.

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