Arsenal vs Villa, Sunday @ 4.30pm (🤞for a 'good ebening'): Page 24 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal vs Villa, Sunday @ 4.30pm (🤞for a 'good ebening')

Qwiss

What does "hedge our bets" even mean in this context? We play Bayern on Wednesday, we'll obviously put out as strong a side as we can field. If we win that people looking for Fabio Vieira, Nelson, Cedric and Eddie in every game until the semis? What if we lose against Bayern?

If Arteta starts playing weak teams in the league he should be sacked. He won't though because he's not stupid.

Clrnc

Qwiss Not playing that weak a team. Basically rotating like what Tam mentioned in the other post.

Remember what Wenger said in 03-04 when he said he wished he rotated in the league and FA cup? We went for all 4 competitions and lost 3 of them within a week. The theory is put your eggs in the basket that is most likely to win when you have to choose one. I am not saying giving up the league now. I am saying if we get into the semis, we have to focus on the CL. If we have to field a slightly weaker team in the league to ensure freshness in the semis so be it.

Burnwinter

Qwiss What does "hedge our bets" even mean in this context? We play Bayern on Wednesday, we'll obviously put out as strong a side as we can field.

Exactly. We'll obviously throw the kitchen sink at a CL semifinal, if we get there. If we get past Bayern, then we've got Wolves away this weekend, Chelsea midweek at the Emirates, then Spurs away in the fortnight before it arrives.

"Hedging our bets" is either irrelevant because we don't get a win in Munich, or it means something like Arteta choosing to squib the NLD when we may have our first league title in two decades still to play for.

Best and only policy is gonna remain what it has been of necessity: rotate in the handful of positions where we can pray it's not going to hammer our performances, and pray to wrap up league matches early and rest key players.

Can't see a change in that unless we drop points in two out of three of our next three league fixtures, in which case sure, if we're 6–7 points behind City with three left to play, send the reserves out for the second leg.

Let's say we're set to visit Spurs 4 points back from City and still in the CL. You'd have to despair if Arteta's thought process was "Ooh, I should start Vieira over Ødegaard"—the sort of change that would risks a demoralising performance just as likely to knock our next efforts as Øde not having fresh legs would be.

A better question would be who it might be sane to bench for a match …

Qwiss

Clrnc we aren't in 4 competitions though. We are in 2. And the bookies give us a better chance to win the PL than the CL.

When Liverpool lost yesterday I didn't think they were completely done in the PL, I didn't think they should focus on the cups. So why would I think that about us? What I did think was Liverpool can't drop another point. Thats where we are. That necessitates stronger selections, not weaker ones.

QuincyAbeyie

Qwiss When Liverpool lost yesterday I didn't think they were completely done in the PL, I didn't think they should focus on the cups.

Tbf they've lost the first match 3-0. 😆

Although I don't think we should give up either.

Gazza M

it would be nice if our returning players could actually produce for us. we have the healthiest squad, but guys like partey, tomi, jesus, zinchenko and martinelli are all various shades of underwhelming lately

Gurgen

Martinelli in particular has had a terrible season. If he hit last season's numbers we would be in a much better position. Saka has to do too much on his own.

JazzG

Gurgen Jesus and Martinelli have 10 PL goals this season between them, last season they scored 26 between them.

Gazza M

yep. we need to go big on sharp objects in the final third

Burnwinter

Jesus you expect this at least, but the impact of Xhaka departing and Havertz starting at 8 for the first half of the season has pitched Gabi down to a level we can't really roll on with. He still hasn't recovered.

I'd include our issues at left back in the bits and pieces affecting Martinelli too.

Coombs

Burnwinter I think Martinelli is the biggest reason Martinelli hasn't performed this season.

Gurgen

Yeah it's absurd. Ode also hasn't hit last season's numbers but his overall play has been brilliant and more than makes up for it. Jesus and Martinelli need to up their output though. I really want a clinical striker this summer, no more messing around with these false nines and midfielders.

Clrnc

Actually watching sky post match made a great point. Since Dec Villa dropped 10 points in matches they completely dominated and also had a handy lead (twice against United, one against Sheffield and the Brentford game). They are a very good team that people underestimated. Unai bottled those easy matches, otherwise they could still be in the title race.

awooga83

The drop of this season for the forwards involved in the goals last year is certainly an issue. One of the questions is maybe Martinelli or Ode over achieved last season and that's not going to be their regular output. It's why we do really need to add a goal scoring forward who we can count in to get us 20 goals in addition to what we've had.

Jesus was never someone you could count in for goals it's what he's always been so we have to know that by now. It's why he wasn't played up front for city. A rotational winger is his utility to the team.

goon

Ode is on track to score around 9 or 10, that's not a huge drop off and about what I expected.

Martinelli is the big problem, we needed him to at least match what he did last year but he's fallen off a cliff in terms of end product. Jesus was unreliable but he's also been a big disappointment, in terms if fitness if nothing else.

Trossard has been a good addition though.

Qwiss

Martinelli obviously needs to do better but it was always unrealistic to expect him, Odegaard and Saka to keep carrying the teams goal scoring responsibility. We can't keep going without a top striker. Even with Havertz up top we look much better and he's far from a top striker. If we had a serious CF at the club it'd solve a lot of issues. Martinelli is facing the same sort of double up now that Saka does. How is it that teams can double up on us on both wings but we aren't destroying them through the middle?

Gunner89

Barring 3-4 weeks in Nov-dec, martinelli hasn't really missed too many chances.

Jesus continues to do so.

You get a top striker and the team selects itself.

Also, yesterday I think on arteta given the havertz-mid, jesus-fw move

goon

Gunner89 Barring 3-4 weeks in Nov-dec, martinelli hasn't really missed too many chances.

That's actually one of my disappointments with him, is that he hasn't figured out how to get more chances, or we've not figured out how to get him more chances. He's a great finisher but his xG per 90 is nearly half that of virtually every other front line player.

Claudius

We have 75 league goals versus city’s 76. We are on a marginally higher clip than last season. Goalscoring is fine overall. Because we have brought in scoring from other forwards and set pieces.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Claudius

Disagree. When push comes to shove and in critical moments you need a world class number 9. This is where we fucked up.

Gazza M

Claudius feb-march was crazy for our goal difference and imo blew it out a bit disproportionately. it's those crunch time moments when the system falters and legs get heavy, your last line of defense is individual get-out-of-jail quality, and we lack it. we have collectivism down pat, but even the invincibles needed Thierry Henry to save them against Liverpool when everything came crashing down in 1 week. we're on the precipice of another week like that, but who can save us when the time comes?

FEBravo

Our set piece form has also dried up. we're not getting those goals from set pieces which did mask a little bit our difficulty in scoring from open play I find.

Claudius

FEBravo … and then we went on a crazy run where we were scoring about 1.5xG, largely driven by goals in the run of play.

Claudius

Sicario2 - Tier 1 world class number nine’s don’t grow on trees especially now in a post Rangnick and Cruyff world, we’ve moved to ever fewer number 9s. I struggle to criticise the club for not getting one when I see the number 9s that our biggest rivals have. Would be good to get Isak if Newcastle need to sell though.

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