Fucking we fucking play tonight. 8pm.: Page 12 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Fucking we fucking play tonight. 8pm.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Very worrying performance, midfield looked like Wenger’s latter days when we just pass the ball for the sake of it.

We’ve been shit for the last month. Liverpool is the biggest game of the season for many reasons now. We need to put in a proper performance and beat those cunts as right now we’ve lost something.

RocktheCasbah

Insert plane crashing GIFs here...

Sicario2 - Tier 1

This is why last year we should have won the title when we had the chance. Football is not linear and you don’t get the same luck with injuries as we got last year.

RocktheCasbah

Sicario2 - Tier 1 crikey, you're so literal! 🤣

USArsenal

So..... No Ode.. No Saka.. No Saliba... possibly no Calafiori... This weekend could be a bad weekend.

awooga83

These midweek late games no fun to travel home from when you get a bit of a dud 😑

That was in the range of pretty bad outcome for me outside of the result. Shakhtar are very much a poor side and really didn't have any quality to hold us defensively so a result like this at home is not a good indicator for our prospects this season. We should have been able to display some real attacking quality and make the most of the gulf between us but we just lacked the quality to execute from an attacking perspective. When we missed the pen it gave them a boost and we didn't really have the personality as a team to do much to counter it.

That's worrying to me and that attacking identity is something I think we've struggled with under Arteta more generally. When we went to Porto and Munich away it was that underwhelming attacking approach that saw us struggle and eventually exit and I don't feel this team look like they are better in that regard. Not that we won't be up there but I don't think that is the quality that's going to see you win the big honours we'll just drop too many points in my view.

Anyways on to Liverpool this team and Arteta need a big response for that it's looking like we are wobbling right now and if we lose that's a big blow for season.

Big Willie

QuincyAbeyie Wish I watched the Real Madrid game instead

Same

Mirth

Without Odegaard and Saka we are essentially are a Sam Allardyce team with a paint job.

SimplyThePest

Mirth Allardyce played some decent footy with Anelka and Okocha at one point... Maybe more a Tony Pulis special.

Gazza M

so we've been become swagless wonders without our key players. it's going to be ugly stuff until odegaard and saka are back running the right flank. hopefully the season hasn't imploded by then

Dom

I'm not sure. Being ultra negative is not the same as being defensively solid.

Arteta's had one season with an outstanding defensive record and that was last season. The team was so dominant in every area of the pitch that we rarely had to play negatively in the league.

Without Saka we have no serious counter-attacking threat (I'd class Martinelli as a minor threat since he doesn't get many assists). As for the fullbacks, White and Calafiori are better further up the pitch and can be caught out at the back. Both of these details mean Arteta's playing ultra defensive football with a defensively compromised team.

Qwiss

Claudius we are relying on him for everything now.

Claudius

Qwiss which is understandable. Let’s look at this game

our right winger, one of the best in the world, out
our right 8, probably best in the world in that role, out
our right back looks unfit, has to go at the half
the best centre mid we have this season has to move to right back to accommodate
and then we have the half fit guys also taking minutes to get ready - Jesus, Sterling, Merino.
and finally Calafiori done

I’m fine with an inconsistent 1-0 that guarantees us a knockout round. Only worry is that our injuries persist like they’ve done for Liverpool in some recent seasons. But how the team is adapting hasn’t killed me yet.

Clrnc

Claudius Come on. Shakthar don't even have a home to train.

Tam

Claudius Arteta has been building this squad for years. If he doesn't have a plan for missing big players that's on him. I'm not wanting to be overly critical of him, still fully behind him, but he's not beyond critique and injuries to Odegaard and Saka would be number one and two at the top of the threat list pre-season simply because of our attacking reliance on them (to an extent we have like-for-like cover available for Saliba/Gabriel).

The worrying thing for me is that we don't have an identify with Odegaard and Saka out. I'd expect Arteta to have an idea of how he wants to play but that's not coming across. We aren't adapting, at best we're surviving.

MistaT

Arteta said Ben White was taken off more for being on a yellow than injury.

So he should be good for Liverpool....meaning Zinchenko vs Salah 😮‍💨

Qwiss

MistaT So he should be good for Liverpool....meaning Zinchenko vs Salah

If that was the case wouldn't he have brought Zinchenko on last night to get him up to speed?

Burnwinter

Glad I didn't watch this ... it was on at 4 o'clock or so local time. I'll be pretty gutted if Calafiori's injury is serious. Between him, Timber and our fullbacks from last season we were looking so good in those areas, so now is everyone crocked? Fucking frustrating season so far.

Claudius

Clrnc so you’re telling me the guys who ran us ragged in the last ten minutes haven’t trained? Okay

Clrnc

Claudius All your excuses are not valid because you are only looking at us in isolation and not the opponents.

We have a far better team out there than Shakthar, first half or 2nd half. No contest there.

We also have far better facilities as their home and training ground is shelled by the Russians and they need to constantly move to temporary locations.

There are 0 excuses for us hanging on to our lives in the 2nd half being dominated by them and pinned back.

Neverthless, a win is a win but our performance in europe is once again concerning.

Claudius

Tam normally i would agree with you. But with all the other forced churn involving guys like Timber, White, Rice, Martinelli, Merino, Jesus, etc., it’s not like he’s solving a linear equation. There’s a ton of things going on every game that he’s trying to solve,

Burnwinter

Øde got injured about a week into September, and since then our all comps record is WDDWWWWLW.

Notably in the two league matches where we've dropped points since Ødegaard's injury (City and Bournemouth) we've had a player sent off. We've won the other three.

Our great rivals Manchester City have dropped 4 points to our 5 over the same period in the league.

When we played Leicester at the Emirates during this period we had a post-shot xG of over 6, and had the most shots on goal in Arsenal history, tied with a match from the Invincibles season. Not sure "at best we're surviving" is an accurate summary of that effort.

Obviously none of that's the full story and I am taking the piss slightly, but it's a lot more worrying now with both Øde and Saka out than it has been just missing our captain.

« Previous Page Next Page »