Author: TotalArsenal

Blowing hot and cold – player ratings on Arsenal 1:1 Southampton

Bernd Leno 6.5

Didn’t have much to do, the goal was not his fault and prayed well when Redmond hit the crossbar. His distribution was worse than usual, probably related to playing less from the back than usual. Not the weak link in the team. Based on his post-match statement he seems to understand the problem with the way Arsenal played in recent months.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 6.0

A mixed bag of a performance I. Our interception king for the night, but gave the ball away multiple times (without pressure) in dangerous areas. Tied with Saka leading the ’lost possession’ department (with 18) which is something people don’t appreciate for a defender. Had the worst passing percentage of all 27 players on the pitch bar Leno. None of his mistakes led to a goal, yet it was a missed opportunity to stake his claims as RB/RWB.

Rob Holding 7.5 – MotM

A (slightly) mixed bag of a performance II. Was our best passing defender, albeit some of his long balls seemed overly ambitious. Made the most clearances on the pitch, and won all of his aerial duels, delivered crucial blocks. Yet almost gave a second-half penalty away, and lost his man Redmond in a critical moment. He hit the crossbar himself in the dying minutes with a beautiful, powerful header that deserved to go in. Among the few who can be proud of his performance.

Gabriel Magalhaes 3.5

There are some cases where it makes sense to sacrifice yourself as it is often easier to keep the score than to come back from behind. This was unfortunately not the case here. Gabriel was sent off for needlessly fouling Theo Walcott on the halfway line. It was his worst performance in an Arsenal shirt, undid some of the good things with letting his teammates and manager down.

Kieran Tierney 6.0

I have to come clean: I really think Kieran is one of the best LWBs in the league, but LCB is not his best position. He was solid in the second half of the game, but couldn’t really contribute to the attacks, and looked shaky when facing fast wingers. Could have made Walcott’s life a bit harder, but that would have been the task of a hardcore CB. Made 4 clearances though, but only a single interception.

Bukayo Saka 7.0

A mixed bag of a performance III. On one hand he often was Arsenal’s bravest player going forward and played a huge part beating 3 men building up Aubameyang’s equaliser. Dared to dribble at times. On the other hand he was wasteful in possession: only 1 out of 5 crosses connected, made pitch high 3 bad controls, and quite a few wrong decisions spoiling some of our promising counterattacks. (Interesting fact: Arsenal made 12 bad touches, Southampton only 2.) Still he was one of the brightest players on the pitch, but that tells more about the rest of the team than Bukayo.

Mohamed Elneny 5.5

Mo’s performance was not a mixed bag this evening. As usual, he didn’t make major errors, but nothing extravagant either. He made his short, efficient (side) passes, took his part in the defence with a block and 2 clearances, but his offensive contribution was non-existent. He had 3 good games this season (against Fulham, MU and Rapid), so he should rather play away from home. J Despite his high workrate and cheerful personality, he doesn’t seem the proper midfielder if we want to win a game.

Dani Ceballos 6

A mixed bag of a performance IV. If I were watching only moments of the game (e.g. during a family dinner) I could feel Dani being our best player, or even the worst depending on which parts I saw. He was our most creative player, (maybe the only one), especially in the final third. He spotted a few delightfull passes, and even had a decent shot from Nketiah’s „assist”. Yet he blew our best chance by going down for a tame penalty claim (which was not impossible to get) when – looking for – an assist would have been the better choice on so many levels. Was booked for dissent, which is quite stupid for a player of his intelligence. He had to cover for Tierney as he joined our attacks which suits Xhaka more, as it limited his value creation. And another reason for not playing Kieran as LCB…

Nicolas Pepe 5.5

Another missed opportunity to stake his claims. Had a shot blocked in the first half. Did not offer much offensively, but was surprisingly active in defence. Won 7 of his 8 duels which is uncharacteristically high in his position. Gabriel’s red card affected Nico, had only 35 touches. He was substituted in the 85th minute – and while Cedric couldn’t change the game, it wasn’t a bad or unfair decision from Mikel.

Eddie Nketiah 7.0

A striker with tackles and clearances. Struggled to get in the game in an offensive capacity as Southampton controlled possession. Nicely set up Aubameyang for the goal, and was sacrificed after the red card. Not for his lack of efforts, as he worked incredibly hard pressing the Saints’ defense all night. Overall Eddie did well, probably enough to start against Everton on Saturday.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 6.5

Finally a goal – and a really nice one – and from open play. I hope it does a miracle with his confidence. But this rating won’t, as to be honest he took the only chance that fell his way to end the goal drought but offered little else. But now let’s celebrate his superb finish and hope for more to come. He should work his socks off in the remaining 4 games in December not to let TA down. 😉

David Luiz 6.0 (for Nketiah, 65)

The Brazilian is a quality six-yard-box defender and did a good job of marshalling Arsenal’s back line under continuous pressure. Will most likely start the next game following Gabriel’s red. Important cameo.

Joe Willock 5.5 (for Ceballos, 67)

Seemed to demonstrate Arteta’s will to win the game as he is a box-to-box attacking midfielder, but Joe was preoccupied with defence. Provided more legs than creativity. Made only 3 passes in 28 minutes (with 100% efficiency).

By Péter Bárány

Theo and the Levitating Saints will visit the Home of Football tonight and oh how they would like to finally get a win over us in the league. The last time they did that The Bangles sang ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ – yes the year was 1987. However, they will be brimming with confidence to finally do it this time round, and who is to argue with them?! They are flying in the league and a win could even see them TOTL again for a couple of hours tonight.

What can we say about Arsenal right now? We are searching for our identity and desperate for some renewed confidence and a dollop of luck. The Saints of course know all about being in the doldrums; just ask them about the Leicester beating in October 2019. Their manager Hasenhuttl was also in charge then and took full responsibility for the incredible 9-0 humiliation. The club stuck with him and look where they are now? It is just another example that adversity is part of life and can actually lead to good things, to progress. The Stoics believe strongly in Amor Fati, that adversity is part of life and actually enriches an individual’s life; they even believe that without adversity we will not make any progress so we should love and embrace it when things go awry. I am not sure whether I fully agree but their wisdom has survived for a couple of decennia and has been very popular doing the C19 lockdowns.

Well, the manager, players and the fans are facing adversity right now, and I cannot say I am enjoying it huh huh 🙂 Will some good come from it? We will have to see.

With a few injury doubts and a couple of suspensions, Arteta will have to make some changes to his usual starting-11, and in a way that will help him to appease the support. Pepe is back and the likes of AMN, Willock, Eddie and Nelson are keen to start making their mark for Arsenal in the PL.

My preferred team would be:

I know many would prefer Ceballos in central midfield or in the nr10 position, but I think we have better players. I also think that ESR and Nelson are close to a start and I hope they, as well as Laca, will make an appearance at some point. Who knows, maybe even Balogun will see some PL football. But key for me is a solid, athletic midfield and I believe that the combo of Elneny, AMN and Willock(ESR), would work a treat in terms of defensive cover, and they offer fight in midfield and good ability to support the attack. Willock is one of the few midfielders who regularly finds the net in the cup games, and maybe he can do it tonight. Saka and Soares should be able to push up a lot with this formation and provide the width, and we would have both Auba and Laca in and around the box to hurt the lofty Saints…

… and avoid making them walk like Egyptians once again.

Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners!!

By TotalArsenal.

Just play the youth, Mikel. They cannot be any worse than the expensive bunch you sent out every week and who are all just losers! Get rid of the lot of them; we will be fine.

However romantic and attractive this thought may be, it is of course a naive nonsense. It is something we can say from our armchairs and keyboards but if we were responsible, really involved in the club we would know this would never wash. I have heard people suggest to play something like this from now on (and bench or sell the rest):

Really? I like every single player of this team and have high hopes for them all, but it is a fantasy to think that they would keep us from relegation this season, let alone get us into the top six.

The Premier League is unforgiving and the standards are very high. Most(!) of the best managers in the world earn their living in the most competitive league in Europe. Most clubs have a decent amount of money to play with and have become very shrewd in buying quality players, on or off the radar. The days of Arsene finding unknown, high quality gems are truly over. Our competitors are fully attuned to the wider football world now and have put in place great management structures to make the most of their resources. Many teams have also excellent youth academies; we are not alone.

Arsenal football club, and we the fans, cannot afford to be romantic, and of course the former will not do this. We are in a huge battle to stay in the top six, let alone getting CL football or win the league. Arsenal are miles away and it is no time for dreaming, however appealing such escapism is. The only option Mikel has is to keep working with the squad, experienced and youth players, and get back to winning ways.

Who knows, the team above could well be very good in 2023 or 2024, but they really would stand little chance with the current top-ten teams, and possibly other league teams too.

I know it looks like some of the experienced players are not pulling their weight and they carry a bigger burden than the youth players in turning it round. I can see how much there is on Auba’s shoulder at the moment. He is a natural introvert and so not everybody will see how he is struggling, but I have no doubt about his commitment to this club.

There is no excuse for Granit’s action on Sunday, but, as Arteta said, this may have been down to over-eagerness and frustration rather than flippancy. He was having a committed and good game until he saw black and then red.

Elneny, Laca, Willian, Hector did really put in a shift and I saw real commitment to win the game, but we are just down at the moment and in need of a bit of luck, renewed confidence and then momentum. Over the next 12-24 months all of these players will be challenged by our young players, and that is healthy and great!

The sensible thing to do is for Arteta to make some subtle changes and yet to keep everybody reasonably happy. Again, we can have all sorts of views on this but if you are responsible like Arteta then you know you have to look after all the players – who are not just fellow human beings but also very, very expensive assets to the club. A fine balance is what it is all about.

Like many on BK – thank you all for keeping this site sane and passionate in these turbulent times – I feel a few young(ish) players are now ready to get much more PL time. AMN is so ready to make the jump, Eddie needs to play five to ten games in a row, and Balogun should be getting 30 minutes stints as a sub. Same goes for Joe and ESR, in fact they could start a few games too, but possibly not together. Nelson and Chambers should also get more opportunities.

But we will continue to rely on the return to form of the senior players, who in my opinion are all intrinsically motivated rather than mercenaries, to really get us back on track.

Inevitably, everybody is putting enormous pressure on the manager and the senior players to make it happen. With so many games coming up there is no time to breathe or think, they just have to find a way to get back to winning ways again. I believe in them, experienced and young, to get us back where we belong. VCC.

By TotalArsenal.

I have a few theories why a relatively decent team is unable to find the net from an open play for eight games in a row.

My first theory is the scariest one. I’m afraid Arteta is being sabotaged by his own players. Say whatever you want but David Luiz, Xhaka, Willian and Aubameyang look disinterested in making things better for the club. To make things worse, all four seems to be un-droppable for different reasons. Auba used to press the goalkeepers – he no longer does it. His body language is awful. He picks wrong solutions in the final third so often that it’s unbelievable. And when I say unbelievable, I mean I don’t believe what I see. Willian’s name is mentioned in the Panama Papers. He used to play for Chelsea and Kia Joorabchian was involved in his transfer. Now, there are too many dots that, if connected in a way I have done it, make a really ugly picture, especially if we add his compatriot DL into the equation. David Luiz played for Chelsea. Twice. He was part of three weird transfers (Benfica to Chelsea, Chelsea to PSG, PSG to Chelsea) and each one of those looks suspicious. Xhaka has already sent Wenger to deserved retirement and then he helped Emery going there as well. He looked lively under Arteta but right now he looks lost in every possible way. What he did last night in the moment when we were on top is beyond idiotic. If I were Arteta, Xhaka would have returned home on stretchers. What worries me, it’s almost like Xhaka (v Burnley) and Pepe (v Leeds) had the whole script written about their self-combust. You don’t do that unless you want your gaffer to get sacked. (Now, this is a madman theory, LE GALL!)

The second theory is the most lenient one and slightly resembles to the one of LE GALL. Simply, the players were hoping Mesut Özil, who is still a popular figure among the players, would be restored to the team. Since his name didn’t find the place on the “25” list and he publicly expressed his disappointment, our team has looked like a hopeless bunch of players. I feel players were holding onto their positions with desire and optimism as long as there was hope the cavalierly would arrive. Once they realized the cavalierly wouldn’t come because Arteta decided to go along with Edu’s wishes and shot Mesut’s horse, they have downed their tools and want this season to end as soon as possible.

Finally, there is a third theory that should worry us the most. We are simply not good enough. Arteta is not a good manager even if he is an excellent coach. Aubameyang is a third-rate player who is a first-rate goalscorer and, what is the worst thing, a fifth-rate captain. Lacazette is a second-rate player who is a third-rate goalscorer with a fourth-rate mental strength. Willian is a 32-year-old has-been. Bellerin is a 25-year-old RB who has never learned how to cross the ball with technique and never fully restored his form following an ugly injury. Holding is a £2m central defender with huge potential who went through the series of ugly injuries that reduce the chance of fulfilling the potential. Saka is a teenager who has been overplayed because he is the only one capable of showing creativity week in and out. Pepe is another example why Arsenal Football Club should not be given big money to spend. Leno is an excellent shot-stopper with poor commanding skills. Gabriel is an excellent central defender and Tierney is an excellent left back who would have had immense stats had we had a Giroud as our CF.

I once quoted Ante Mladinić here. He was a great Yugoslavian/Croatian coach. Here is a quote I only recently read. Mladinić once said about his mother-club Hajduk Split: “Hajduk can go through the crisis of performing and the crisis of results but Hajduk must never go through the crisis of management!”

Unfortunately, Arsenal have managed to complete the sh*t hat-trick of crises.

By Admir

Another loss at home and it all is hard to take. Yet I thought we played some good football but were unlucky once again. Does anybody do astrology? Are we soon coming out of this dark corner, hey?!

I am Granit’s biggest fan but there is no excuse for that behaviour and letting the team down so badly. And then, op top of it all, Auba’s egg-shaped head somehow scores an own goal. Tough times at the home of football, but we have got to keep going.

There were once again some good performances and they need to be highlighted, as well the under-par ones of course. However, nobody stood out enough to deserve the MOTM accolade.

Player Ratings:

Leno: 6.5 – not much to do and not at fault for the goal.

Tierney: 7 – solid at the back and worked his socks off in attack.

Gab: 6.5 – couple of dodgy passes at the beginning, but another committed performance.

Holding: 6. – same as Gab.

Bellerin: 6.5 – always willing to receive the ball and tried hard to get forward.

Elneny: 5 – lucky to stay on the pitch and added very little to the attack this time.

Xhaka: 3 – he let us down. The haters will hate you even more, Granit… That was dumb.

Saka: 7 – once again very driven and played really well in the last twenty minutes.

Willian: 6 – I know many have it in for him, but imo he had a committed game.

Auba: 5 – tried hard but he had an unlucky game. I cannot blame him for the own goal.

Laca: 5 – tried hard but just lacks composure at the moment.

Subs:

Ceballos: 5 – chicken in search of its head.

Maitland-Niles and Eddie: not long enough on the pitch to make a judgement.

By TotalArsenal.

With nine points to be won or lost in six days, now is the time to make a change for Arteta.

Three at the back. Everybody who can count to three knows that Mikel will have to fall back on his previous formula for success. The right side of the team is not working well, we don’t have a top quality nr.10 and also miss a CF that can do it all. But we have a very good set of players to sit a bit deeper, control the game at the back and create enough chances to win most of our games.

The latter is much less sexy but Arteta simply has no choice at this juncture: the current style and set up is not working and remaining in the bottom half of the table is untenable. Something has got to change.

Going back to basics is not something to be ashamed about. There was no proper summer break to really work with the team and establish a new way of playing football. C19 has truly messed everything up and every club is in survival mode and hoping for the best.

Playing 4-3-3 attacking, beautiful winning football is the end game, the apex. Mikel tried but until now failed, and it is time to put his plans on hold for a while. Try again in August. Now it is time to start winning games again. We have three PL games in six days coming up next; that is nine points to win or lose. Imagine if we win these games – two home games against Burnley, Southampton and an away game at Goodison Park – how different our position in the table would look like?

Arteta is young and he has learned so much in the last twelve months. By the end of his first calendar year as manager he will have faced both Jurgen with the Teeth and Slap Head Pep a whopping four times in all competitions. It is truly amazing that he has been victorious over both of them already – both teams of exceptional quality and fully developed to conquer all. Neither Wenger or Emery pulled this off. But he really cannot afford to keep losing winnable games because of a change of philosophy/ an apparent stubbornness to see through his vision and will, come what may. For this he is too young and inexperienced and our fan-base is simply too impatient.

So what would our strongest team look like with three at the back? Would it be 3-4-3, 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2? Let’s discuss this on the blog today.

I have given it some thought and came up with the following formation and line-up:

All of a sudden it seems we have plenty of players who will compete with each other to make it into this set-up; there is quality in all positions and by moving the line of five in midfield effectively between defence and the two central attackers we should be both solid when we are defending AND on the turnovers, as well as aiding the attack much better.

The above team would use the whole of the attacking area much more and focus less on continuous, narrow and claustrophobic wing-play on either the right or left. This is tiring and also very un-Arsenal like. We have always been a team that has a strong and dominant midfield in the good Wenger eras (and then use the wings too of course). Arsenal have the players to dominate midfield and to use the area in front of the opponent’s ‘D’ much better. But Arteta has to play with a nr10 and it is exactly what he has been doing recently. In an ideal world he buys a beast of a nr10 who creates and scores bag fulls of assists and goals. But this may have to wait till the summer and we have a few players who may well turn into such a beast: Willian has the experience but is still to find his form; Martinelli could revel in that position once he is fully fit again, and of course we have ESR too who now is knocking hard on the door for first team opportunities. I also think that Saka in the hole could work a treat.

By playing more through the middle we are less reliant on aerial qualities of our CFs, and thus use their strengths much better. They need to be mobile and link up well with the midfield. And maybe that is the biggest challenge for Arteta at the moment. Many may think that Giroud is missed most for his aerial ability but his hold up play was equally important: it created space and a solid passing opportunity for other attackers and both Sanchez and Ozil profited from this continuously.

Auba and Laca are not great at playing the ‘Giroud-role’ and playing both of them just does not make sense to me anymore. Here Arteta may have to be bold and force into the team the likes of Balogun, Eddie or even Moller. And when the TW opens in just a few weeks time, he can get us a Giroud like player on loan or permanently, so we have a plan B again and those wonderful crosses from Tierney, Saka, Soares and Willian will not go to waste.

Anyway, those are my thoughts but what are yours? How can Arteta quickly get back to winning ways?

By TotalArsenal.

Arsenal 4 – 2 Dundalk

P L A Y E R R A T I N G S

Rúnarsson: 6 – some good footwork and passing, but probably should have done better with Dundalk’s first goal?

Chambers: 6.5 – nice to see him back on the pitch and a committed performance with some good progressive passing. One point deducted for letting in two goals through the middle of defence (same for the other two CBs).

Mustafi: 6 – energetic and committed performance. One point deducted for letting in two goals through the middle of defence.

Mari: 6 – see Chambers and Mustafi.

Soares: 7 – pretty solid, all-round performance. He just looks better on and off the ball than Hector: a more natural passer and mover, better crosses, better shot on goal and defensively not inferior to Bells.

Willock: 8 – solid, energetic AND intelligent performance, and he topped it off with a goal. A scoring midfielder…. a scoring midfielder. Extra point for the goal. Almost MOTM.

Elneny: 8 – tidy and mature, links up play so well and what a screamer! Extra point for the goal.

AMN: 7.5 – solid, energetic, masterful performance. He is so Zen.

Pepe: 7.5 – harder game for him to be motivated about but Super-Nic played with verve and enough desire to make a difference. Half a point extra for his assist.

Eddie: 7.5 – got his goal through perseverance and put himself about with a fine combination of energy and Zen-calmness. Extra point for that goal. Still feel there is more to come from Eddie this season.

Smith Rowe: 8 – fine ball control, movement and passing. He gave us momentum and options and Dundalk had no answer to him. An assisting midfielder….. an assisting midfielder. Half a point extra for the assist (Elneny). Almost MOTM.

Subs

Ceballos: 7 – kept it relatively simple with a few fine passes.

Balogun: 8.5 MOTM – benefited well from the tiredness of the Dundalk defenders and available space. Good hold up play, positioning and anticipation. Fine goal for which he gets an extra point, and another half point for the assist. Some return for 30 minutes on the pitch.

Cottrell and Azeez: not long enough on the pitch to score them but especially Azeez made some impressive passes, showing good awareness of his fellow players around him.

By TotalArsenal.

Nothing has been welcomed more by Arteta, no doubt, than the luxurious situation of playing a couple of superfluous UEFA League games. I feel for the man who has so much pressure on him mainly due to a lack of philosophical resolve to see things in the right perspective by most of the fan-base.

There are plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with Arsenal’s performances and current position in the league, but the season hasn’t even started properly and it will be the next three months that will make or break it. Yet, if you read some of the blogs it’s like we are already relegated and Arteta is a nasty virus that has become us.

We do seem to be stuck in a painful discrepancy between Arteta’s vision/theory and the execution of it on the pitch right now. We are getting it 40% right and 60% wrong right now and hence have not taken many points from our recent games. Key is for Arteta to find a number of (temporary) solutions which make Arsenal do the majority right rather than woring, and so start winning games again.

When it goes wrong one of the things we fans like to look at is who the club can buy to make it all better. For me, like any other fan, there is always a need to buy one or two players to turns things round, but I am also fully confident that our squad is really good. Arteta has plenty to work with.

This is what he had to say during the press conference (see also Arsenal.com):

on how long he thinks it will take to build a team to play in the ideal formation and tactics he wants to play and the sort of players he will want to add to the group...
There are players that can develop perfectly into that formation [4-3-3] and one thing is that the ideal thing you would like to do and the other is the possibility that you have to achieve that. As a coach, you have to adapt to what we have and what we can do in the future, obviously we have to work to evolve it to where we want because as well we have to recruit players that are very specific for certain areas and whether you have them or not is a question that is at the moment one of the issues that we have.

on whether five or six players is an accurate number of new players he will need…
No but it’s not just to recruit because there are players that are evolving that you could not see that they could play in those positions and now you see how they are performing and playing. We’ve got a lot of players that are here that weren’t capable to play in that way of playing and they are. So as well, it’s about timings, it’s about coaching them and about them evolving in the right positions and maturing. It’s a bit of everything.

I think the responses by Mikel sum up how difficult it is for him to get things right straightaway; it simply takes time: developing and coaching players takes time; recruiting the right sort of player(s) takes time; making everybody understand the way we are going to play and their individual tasks and roles… takes time.

However, for tonight we, like Mikel, need not to worry about any of this. We are playing a game of semi-meaningful football in Ireland and we have a group of eager youngsters who would like to impress the manager and fans. What is not to like about that?

So how are Arsenal going to line-up? Will Arteta go all-Academy or will he play some experienced players in key areas? Some experienced players need game time and the manager simply needs to play them.

I am hoping for something like this:

Mari, Chambers and Soares simply need the game and the same goes for Pepe, AMN, Joe and Nelson. Kola also needs to stay fit in case Tierney gets injured, so another game for him makes sense. But in attack Mikel can try something out and it would be great to see starts for both Moller and ESR. Height in the box is sorely missed and a creative, attacking midfielder with an eye for a goal would be very nice too.

So for me, it’s these starting eleven this (early!) evening, but what do you say?!

By TotalArsenal.

Arsenal have not scored a goal in the league this season from a losing position. The recipe to defeat Arteta’s Arsenal has been to go up a goal and to set up a low block. Most people will point to our lack of creativity and a #10 to be main contributors for why we cannot break down low block teams, but the truth is that a good low block generally negates your creative players from creating in those central positions.

Today, I offer three main ways to break down a low block:

1. Crosses into the box

2. Movement to pull defenders out of position (usually overlapping and underlapping runs)

3. Quick switches of play from one flank to another to create overloads

In order to do #1 effectively, you either need a target man (like Giroud) to capitalize or at least be a threat (we don’t have one) or swing in a mix of fast, low and early crosses before the defense is set (we don’t do this). The high, lofted crosses we are sending in are even difficult for a target man to slot home, as they rely on power and strength when heading to add pace to the cross.

Crosses into the box can also include cutbacks, which was the classic Emery specialty and something that Pep’s City teams often leverage for easy goals. However, we only used cutbacks on one occasion on Sunday and a dogged Laca could not get onto the end of the chance from Bellerin.

#2 only happens if you have an ultra-athletic midfield that understands the soft spots in the low block and how to capitalize on the half spaces (AMN is the only midfielder we have that can do this, along with Partey if he’s paired with a fairly mobile DM like Elneny).

#3 is a trained pattern of play that requires the player making an early, quick switch of play by sending the ball high to the opposite flank to begin an overload immediately before the defense can set itself. This is something Klopp’s Liverpool and Ancelotti’s Everton frequently do regardless of the low block, in order to create a numerical advantage in a dangerous attacking position.

As you can see, we have not been doing any of the above lately, which is why we have still not been able to solve this puzzle. Of course, having a world class creator that is confident and skilled enough to play those incisive passes in central areas helps, but your attacking players still need to make the correct runs to capitalize on those chances (our off ball movement is more or less non-existent most of the time). The irony is that the low block was exactly what Arteta employed last season to get results against the top sides and the futile high, lofted crossing was what Pep’s City resorted to once they could not break us down.

The answer then, is to coach your team on a combination of all three of the above, in order to provide some level of unpredictability in your attack. Liverpool, for instance, do #1, 2 and 3 exceptionally well, which allows them to often succeed against the low block. City do #1 and 2 well.

Are there any solutions that I have missed? Which of the above do you think would be easiest for us to implement with the current pieces we have?

By Highbury Harmony

Spuds 2 – 0 Arsenal

So that was painful to experience, especially the first half. What not to do against Mourinho…? Allow them to give us the ball and go attack them whilst they are sharpening their knives. Yes it was a great goal by Son the Spud and the keeper should have done better with his positioning, but the fact was that the goal was predictable to a large extent. Our weakest side defensively is the right one and whether it is Mustafi or Holding, or whoever we play as RCB it seems, we just cannot get it right. This is largely due to Bellerin role of wing-back, one that does not suit him as he is not a natural winger and finds it hard to defend properly when played in such a way.

Half moon face received the ball in midfield, he passes it to Son the Spud and a dangerous attack is on us in just two moves. Even if that worldy by Son (made me think of Pires) had not gone in, sooner or later we would have been hurt from that flank/combination. The gap was there, and it was done. After conceding the first goal so early, what were we to do? Attack more and leave gaps only for the second one to go in at some point. Painfully, it came just before the end of the first half, and that was that. Bellerin joined the attack and for some reason decided to pass the ball behind Auba rather than in front of him so he could try and slide it in…. The Spuds break from that move and in no time have four attackers against two totally unprotected CBs. So painful to watch.

I wanted Elneny on the right side of midfield, so Partey could do the b2b stuff without leaving gaps behind him that neither Bellerin or Holding could fix. But I am no football manager and WTFDIK.

In the second half the boys put up a fight and they made me proud. It looked futile and that is probably how they felt about it, but they did not hang their heads and if either Laca or Auba had had a bit more guts, quality and luck, we would have been back into it. It was not to happen and that didn’t surprise anybody, as the team are in a valley psychologically and our opponent have the dirty wind of Mourinho in their backs and are on top of the mountain right now. For many, many years it has been the other way round but not so at the moment. Yet I believe Arsenal have the better future and I would not swap with the swamp dwellers one bit.

Player Ratings:

Leno: 6 – not much to do and was caught out a bit by Son the Spud for the first goal.

Tierney: 8 – shared MOTM. he is better than Bellerin in every department and delivered some phenomenal passes whilst defending with ease. Played with the right spirit for 90 minutes.

Gabriel: 7 – love that guy. Utterly unfazed by the occasion and just power and brains everywhere.

Holding: 6 – he is no Gabriel but was left far too unprotected by his colleagues. Has no relationship with Bellerin which is very costly to us.

Bellerin: 5 – asked to do a role that does not suit him, which makes his defending look much worse than it is. Has no relationship with Holding which is very costly to us.

Xhaka: 7 – much maligned player and I hope for him that Arteta will let him go back to the continent where he will be much more appreciated (and that is against my selfish wish of keeping him). Kept the left side of defence/midfield/attack ticking over as he always does.

Partey: 6 – loved his b2b stuff and fight all over the pitch, and he showed the right spirit from the moment the ball started rolling. Yet, he left gaps behind him and I am unsure whether he was instructed to play a more advanced role or not, but that cost us the game. I feel that Arteta is mostly to blame for this, though.

Saka: 8 shared MOTM – like Tierney he played with the right spirit all game long. Tried so hard to create chances and space for others despite being bullied throughout the game by the vile Spuds. Never gave up and ALWAYS wanted the ball. Fecking loved him for it.

Laca: 6 played with the right spirit from the start and made a nuisance of himself in the Spuds’ box and allowed to keep the pressure on them in front of their ‘D’. But no goals (or assists) once again.

Auba: 5 his fellow attackers and ‘suppliers’ worked their socks off but Auba is so out of form both mentally and technically. I don’t think it is a lack of attitude but Pierre is in a bad place right now. We have to stay behind him.

Willian: 7 a fans’ favourite for ire but I saw a very driven and committed player who was desperate to get us back into the game and made some fine moves and passes.

Subs:

Ceballos: 7 – sat back and stayed in position and had a very good half in Partey’s position.

Eddie: 6 – brought some new energy.

By TotalArsenal.