Fulham v Arsenal Sunday 31 December 2pm: Page 16 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Fulham v Arsenal Sunday 31 December 2pm

QuincyAbeyie

daredevil everyone and their grandmother had heard of Guimaraes before he went to Newcastle. Was a wishlisted player on here.

Soured on him bebause he's a psycho out to hurt other players though.

Qwiss

QuincyAbeyie we could do with some of the Guimares crazy TBH, we were absolutely bullied today and not one player stood up to it.

Clrnc

QuincyAbeyie judging at how insane some of the takes are here to defend what we have done, if Guimares is our player and hurt opponents every week these people would find ways to celebrate it

Lukazan

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert Best manager in the world apparently.

est

mdgoonah41 4 of those would probably be CBs and we'd still be shit going forward.

naz

To remind everyone, because it's so easy to forget after that shit we just watched, our goal today was a lucky one. We haven't consistently scored non-corner goals n a while. I can't even remember at this point

daredevil

Qwiss

It's just as tiresome listening to people using survivorship bias and citing a couple of midfielders (Palmer and Maddison) who have done well this season as proof we could have done the same and ignoring the vast number of midfielders (Nunes, Kovacic, Mount etc.) who have been duds.

Why stop there, might as well whinge that we didn't sign Bellingham.

Qwiss

daredevil the existence of other bad signings doesn't make Havertz any better. Arteta failed his midfield rebuild, its really that simple.

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah the issue is that Rice isn't a 6. Its not the fucking 90's you need someone slicker on the ball with more vision there and just way more tactical awareness. Rice is best when he plays as an 8, it lets him run about, use his engine, chase people, carry the ball, etc

The real problem is we signed Rice who is a downgrade in those terms on Xhaka (but an upgrade overall) and we also signed Havertz who's a downgrade in every way bar height. So our midfield is completely out of whack.

And Parteys fitness is a problem but even when he was fit Arteta had decided he wanted him at right back instead of midfield so I've no doubt that todays starting midfield was Artetas plan all along.

Coombs

Arteta and the players have crumbled under the weight of even the smallest expectations this season. Very disappointing.

Hard to talk about individuals when they were all so, so bad. I actually thought we'd win this game comfortably, even after finally watching the West Ham debacle. Seemed it was about execution, but now seeing our players' frustrations boiling over, it seems that it's all symptomatic of a more fundamental problem.

Curious to see what Arteta can do about this, but it'll be in the context of a top 4 battle from here on out.

Qwiss

Coombs Hard to talk about individuals when they were all so, so bad. I actually thought we'd win this game comfortably, even after finally watching the West Ham debacle. Seemed it was about execution, but now seeing our players' frustrations boiling over, it seems that it's all symptomatic of a more fundamental problem.

This is the thing, when everyone is playing this poorly its not just down to the players, something much more fundamental is wrong. You can get caught out with a result like the West Ham one, its frustrating but you have to respond the right way. We even scored early today, you couldn't ask for more to settle the nerves but we still played terribly. Why were so many passes so poor? Why were players who usually fight tooth and nail letting people run past them without challenge? Everything was off today.

daredevil

Qwiss

It doesn't, it's merely to point out that it's a difficult task. Given that out of the 12 odd midfielders that joined top PL clubs last summer, only 2 or 3 are obvious successes, that should tell you it was no easy feat.

We have failed to replace Xhaka and Partey in the short term this season. Long-term they may end up being good enough, but currently isn't the case.

Gazza M

we're playing like it's the nadir of 2021 when I wanted mikel sacked, but we're a few years and a few hundred million pounds into the project.

this is meticulously designed, high-functioning malfunction. don't know how you unpick this situation when the manager gets all the pieces he wants and serves up this dreck

RocktheCasbah

Thought there was a moment towards the end of the game which summed us up - Saka beat his man (eventually) got tackled again, won the ball back lost it to a second Fulham player - or something like that and there was not one Arsenal player ready to help him out. We're not playing as a team now, it's a collection of individuals doing individual things in moments.

The West Ham game was frustrating, but I think you have to say we were objectively unlucky to lose it. This game was possibly our worst performance of this year and I hated almost every minute of it..

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah Thought there was a moment towards the end of the game which summed us up - Saka beat his man (eventually) got tackled again, won the ball back lost it to a second Fulham player - or something like that and there was not one Arsenal player ready to help him out. We're not playing as a team now, it's a collection of individuals doing individual things in moments.

Exactly what I was saying at half time. Rice might have good games but does the midfield function well together? Maybe Saka tears it up and scores and assists but is the front 3 gelling? The only cohesive part of the team IMO is Saliba and Gabriel. They work together and for that reason have been our biggest strength this season. Rice and Odegaard are nailed on in midfield but we still lack that glue to tie it all together.

I think we've a similar problem up front but there are more issues there. We do need a CF who can make it work IMO but we need more options too. You look at City who can swap Doku, Grealish or Foden around. Liverpool have Nunes, Gakpo, Diaz, Jota all coming in and out of their attack. We need that. We need options. Even earlier in the season when Arteta played Eddie more and rotated Jesus and Martinelli around him a bit we were better.

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah oh the moment that summed up the match for me came in the first half. Shortly after they equalised we won a throw in our own half. They were slowly walking back into their defensive shape and we just strolled over to the throw and allowed them to reset with zero effort. We should be sprinting to that throw and going at them before they can reset, or at least making them work for it. It just summed up the lack of urgency about us the seems infect everything we do.

goon

RocktheCasbah

Yup. This was the most disheartening game for that reason. We lost almost every single second ball. We didn’t press as a team.

I didn’t even like how we celebrated the goal. Like a bloody pre-season game.

lorddulaarsenal

Lost interest in the league now.

Can’t stomach watching Martinelli, Nketiah, Trossard and the the likes.

We’re in a real fight for top four.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

lorddulaarsenal all three of those are brutal technically. Painful to watch.

Clrnc

Qwiss hate to break it to you but most of them are at least 20-30m cheaper than Havertz. For 65m you could have Kovacic/Madisson + Palmer/Szoboslaiz

JazzG

We look mentally and physically shot at the moment, we were always going to have a bad spell and need to keep this to a minimum.

I think some of our fans are getting carried away, we are within a few points of our main competition and very much still in this title race.

Qwiss Rice might have good games but does the midfield function well together?

He isn't the problem, the problem is we needed a proper No.8 with him and we don't have that.

Qwiss

JazzG He isn't the problem, the problem is we needed a proper No.8 with him and we don't have that.

I think he needs a 6 with him.

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