Manchester City vs Arsenal - Sunday, 31 March, 4:30 pm: Page 19 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Manchester City vs Arsenal - Sunday, 31 March, 4:30 pm

JazzG

daredevil One thing this game showed me is apart from Rice we don't have any legs in midfield. Something we need to address in the summer.

Partey looks washed physically, we saw it at the end of last season as well especially in the game against City. Him and Xhaka were completely overrun.

MistaT

JazzG - Odegaard has taken his athleticism up a level, easily. Last year he was found wanting in most physical games vs Liverpool and City.

This year though, I doubt there’s a 8/10 that puts in as big of a shift as him in the league.

goon

Not sure how you can watch this game and take away that we have no legs. City broke our press a few times and still couldn’t take advantage because we were so quick to get men back behind the ball.

JazzG

Look at Jorginho and Partey, both physically just aren't up to it imo.

Today was a massive team effort but we also played compact and very deep.

est

GooneriC If Martinelli and Trossard were in each other's positions we would have probably scored there.

The one Saka played across the face of the goal and Jesus didn't gamble at the back post hurts too.

est

MistaT Tbh, Odegaard is a beast. It's crazy a creative attacking player like that can have such an appetite for dirty off-ball work. I think Ode had a wonderful performance. One overhit through-pass is pretty much the only mistake he made all night.

Regarding Rice- would be cool to give him a rest. Especially with Partey back to looking like a footballer again and Jorginho playing alright. I don't expect Arteta to give him any rest though. He'll play him into the ground like he did with Saka. And Rice is so good I can't really blame him.

Claudius

In awe of so many players yesterday. Going to shoutout each of them. Forgive me if I miss any.

Ben White: our one reliable outlet. City’s press tried to force the ball to our left. Plus Saka was clearly unfit. So Ben had his work cut out. But he constantly got us out, and created some threat down the right.
Saliba and Gabby: another immaculate central d performance
Rice: in the 4-1 last year, there were big spaces in front of defense. Rice stopped about 4 plays with tackles/ interceptions. Destroyed typical buzzing movement you see from Foden/KDB. Makes us serious
Jesus: great two-way performance. Covered a lot of ground supporting Kiwior. Also created his own threat on attack. No clear opportunities, but promising.
Ode: captain said he was too tired to pass. Pressed his heart out. Disciplined

Tam

Clrnc Liverpool are extremely good against teams outside of the top 6. If I am not mistaken they only dropped points against Luton. Flat track bully

That's what wins the league. It's nice to take points off the top teams but it's not necessarily determinative of your league winners. The mini table with Arsenal on 8 pts ahead of City and Liverpool shows that. We're by far the best amongst the top teams, but we're still sitting behind in the league table because we throw too many points away elsewhere. This is what I was saying after the Liverpool games when Arteta's tactical genius was being hailed - I'm not wanting to be down on Arteta but he's shown he can deliver in big games, he's yet to show we can get to a level where we can consistently bag the points we should expect to. We're having to beat the rivals in individual games just to keep pace over the season. The bigger issue has to be in preparing and executing better against the rest of the league.

Claudius Ben White: our one reliable outlet. City’s press tried to force the ball to our left. Plus Saka was clearly unfit. So Ben had his work cut out. But he constantly got us out, and created some threat down the right.

There was a move down our right that I think might have ended with White crossing to Kiwior and then on to the Jesus shot? In any case, we played around their press like they were amateurs and White was at the heart of it. Love him.

est

Regarding our overall game- two things I observed.

I'm so glad we've become so disciplined when defending in our box. No one lunging into tackles or swinging their feet around. Just staying on our feet, crowding out the player with the ball and closing out angles. What a stark difference to the banter-era Arsenal.

Our throw-ins were actually good. Not sure whether it was just City or we've been working on them, but hopefully it's the latter.

Gurgen

JazzG To be fair there was also a lot of dogshit finishing from City, from Haaland missing the ball from 6 yards out and Doku being Doku on various occasions.

JazzG

Sicario2 - Tier 1 It’s a great point but looking back I think we could have taken a few more risks. Will we ever get a better chance of beating city than yesterday? Think they were for the taking

If we went into this game with a fully fit Saka & Martinelli I think we would have taken more risks, with both of them clearly nowhere near their best it was going to be difficult. Despite that we had a couple times where better decision making could have resulted in a goal.

Gurgen True but I think Haaland was a bit rattled yesterday with how well we defended him.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

RocktheCasbah

I met him last summer and he is a top bloke

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Given our goal difference all we need is Liverpool to draw one game and we are back on top assuming we keep winning

Sicario2 - Tier 1

RocktheCasbah
It’s a great point but looking back I think we could have taken a few more risks. Will we ever get a better chance of beating city than yesterday? Think they were for the taking

Claudius

Sicario2 - Tier 1 go back to look at games where we’ve taken risk against City. KDB, Silvaand Foden in open space will cut you up.

RocktheCasbah

Sicario2 - Tier 1 sign of our progress that you feel this way I think.

City are unbeaten at home since before the World Cup, this was the first time they haven't scored at home since 2021. I totally understand what you are saying with their injuries, but we were one Trossard touch away from a perfectly executed (albeit adapted!) game plan.

As it is, we've come away from our two games with City and restricted them to scraps. This is a team who put 7 (SEVEN) past us in 2 games last season.

goon

Sicario2 - Tier 1

I don’t think it’s about risk, it’s about composure and belief.

Raya’s distribution was not good, Saliba was a little nervy on the ball too and Jorginho was swallowed up. Supporting runs were slow too.

When Partey came on things improved, but the the final pass was off.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Claudius
This is a different Arsenal team who came into the game in the best possible condition. No risk no reward.

Gazza M

a bit more pace and power up front for us and we win that, I reckon. we just need a few more guys who we can spam with those long balls, who can also finish

awooga83

As I said it was a great result for us with the context of who city are but at the same time this is probably one of the more vulnerable city defensive sides and we've also not been able to really create much against them despite the deflected goal. I still think it's good to be able to go there and shut them out but if we are the highest scorers in the league you'd hope we could offer a bit more attacking threat.

The main annoyance I feel is about we have such a small margin for error now but it won't be these results that have undone us. It's the villa, Newcastle, Fulham X2 and West ham just change one of them and we are in a much better place.

JazzG

I'm not sure if they were that vulnerable. They went into the match with Ake, Akanji, Dias and Gvardiol in their back line, that is a £200m defence they put out there. All three except Dias are also very comfortable playing as full backs.

goon

JazzG

Yeah, the poverty defence narrative is hilarious.

awooga83

JazzG I meant more this season they have been more vulnerable defensively. Liverpool made them look very shaky at times. It's not that they don't have some decent players still but they are unquestionably not their top players in those positions so that makes it a better prospect then if they had those.

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