The new Arsenal Club Thread - *No Spoilers & Read OP Before Posting*

Yeah, my response was more about the fact they are always being injured so don't get in the starting 11 - but as you say, the main frustrations are the slow build ups, not putting teams away (when we were all over Fulham why did we stop playing?) and the lack of subs being used.

I said to my mate at the start of the season, we strengthened the first 11 but we lack the depth what with c/l football this season. Should have kept Xhaka but I guess that gives us funds...didn't need to replace Ramsdale but Arteta has his ideas and generally he's been quite good with his purchases.

Unfortunately we need to free up funds to make any purchases, how the hell do Chelsea get away with it? I know they were spreading out payments over 8 years - but they had still spent shed-loads.

I definitely see ESR going which breaks my heart, he reminds me of Wilshire in that he has so much potential but is always injured...but as he's home grown that's good money (the irony that FFP encourages you to sell home-grown players!).
 
I feel ESR has not been given a proper chance since his injury. 5 minutes here and there aren't going to prove anything. I really rate him, think he can do a job as a 10 and take Havertz's position off him too. Nelson nowhere near as good but still worth giving some starts in the easier games so we can rest Saka occasionally. I honestly think Havertz coming in and doing pretty much nothing every game is the main reason for our change in playstyle.

I have tickets to the game at the weekend and it's the first in ages where I don't even feel slightly optimistic.
 
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Arteta will play Partey and Tomiyasu as soon as they are available and both are injury prone. There are also reports that Saka and White are playing with issues. It seems Arteta simply does not trust ESR, Jones to start, and would rather play a not-fully-fit White than Cedric. I thought our lack of rotation last season was an issue and I have an ominous feeling it will be the case this season. Xhaka was not great for the majority of his Arsenal career but developed into one of the best mids in Europe, it was insane to not keep him during his peak and allow him to light up the Bundesliga! The recruitment and transfer decisions this year have been too disruptive, in hindsight keeping Xhaka and Ramsdale as 1st choice and strengthening in other areas could certainly have been beneficial, but it is what it is...
 
CliffyG said:
I feel ESR has not been given a proper chance since his injury. 5 minutes here and there aren't going to prove anything. I really rate him, think he can do a job as a 10 and take Havertz's position off him too. Nelson nowhere near as good but still worth giving some starts in the easier games so we can rest Saka occasionally. I honestly think Havertz coming in and doing pretty much nothing every game is the main reason for our change in playstyle.

I have tickets to the game at the weekend and it's the first in ages where I don't even feel slightly optimistic.
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My biggest issue with Havertz is the wage, it's just crazy we are spending that and I worry for another Ozil/Abamayang situation. Having said that he has been getting better of late...agree though, ESR needs to be given a real run.

eurokage said:
Arteta will play Partey and Tomiyasu as soon as they are available and both are injury prone. There are also reports that Saka and White are playing with issues. It seems Arteta simply does not trust ESR, Jones to start, and would rather play a not-fully-fit White than Cedric. I thought our lack of rotation last season was an issue and I have an ominous feeling it will be the case this season. Xhaka was not great for the majority of his Arsenal career but developed into one of the best mids in Europe, it was insane to not keep him during his peak and allow him to light up the Bundesliga! The recruitment and transfer decisions this year have been too disruptive, in hindsight keeping Xhaka and Ramsdale as 1st choice and strengthening in other areas could certainly have been beneficial, but it is what it is...
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Yes, but those are proven to be extremely good players, ESR is still young and due to injuries/lack of playing time way behind where he could/should be.

Rice was absolutely the best signing possible, but I think keeping Xhaka for one more season (or until this Jan) to see how things pan out...
 
Out of the race now in my opinion. I could hack the Liverpool draw, as I felt we played ok. But the West Ham and Fulham games were shockingly bad.
Teams play 5-5-0 against us most weeks. We do not have a solution to that.

The solution is not 80% possession, down to the corner flag with Martinelli and Saka being marked by two players.
It's not building up slower than a dog with no legs.
It's not always refusing to shoot.
It's not trying to walk it in.
It's not stubbornly doing the same thing over and over being "patient" and playing build up.
It's not refusing to cross it ever.
It's not failing to beat the first man on corners.
It's not short corners or free kicks back to the keeper.

We get caught on the counter and concede poor goals.
Zinchenko a liability.
Havertz - whilst he has improved - I have seen under 8s move faster and with more enthusiasm. He's out of his league. Arteta will stubbornly stick with him as he wants to be seen to be the person that believed in him and that it was the right call. Meanwhile title race evaporating for us. Emile needs to be in the team NOW. Starting. Arteta has an issue with accepting wrong decisions. Which brings me on to...

Raya/Ramsdale situation is a complete joke in that Raya is not even an upgrade anyway. He's actually worse in every aspect. I don't think he's even that much better with his feet at all. Ramsdale has great feet and ball control if you look at some of the things he can do in training/warmups/social media. He has great touch and is a better shot stopper. Gives better confidence to the defence anyway even if he is more aggressive in his approach. Despite all that said, if he is going to sit on the bench forever, then we need to move him on. Complete waste.

We lack an option like when we had Giroud. A powerful striker who is also good in the air. Nketiah is not reliable. He's a 3rd class striker. Jesus I think is actually good, but just having a poor run and not getting the service or suiting this play style compared to last season. He's probably 2nd class at best. We need a 1st class striker. We have not had one since Auba left. We need someone that can force a goal and make something from nothing but who is still clinical and will continuously score and not get injured. Moon on a stick I know.

Sometimes we just need to be more Burnley and play some air balls in to the mixer. We also need to stop obsessing about playing it out wide and instead just go straight through the middle hitting Jesus actually putting defenders under pressure, rather than out to the corner flag to allow teams to get back and reset.

I don't really know how we even went top. Feels like we've been stuck in 2nd gear all season.
 
I don't think I've seen anyone state Raul is an upgrade on Ramsdale or Smith Rowe is not worthy of playing in place of Havertz or we don't need a dedicated no. 9 , all are saying build up play is so slow and predictable and yet Arteta seems oblivious to it, up to now I've always thought he's on it as a manager but now starting to have doubts he can adapt and change the team to get us out of this slump, this is probably his biggest test yet. These are the players he wanted so no excuses really.
 
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I'd like to see players like Saka actually run at a defender properly, at pace. None of this cutting in side predictable AF chops, just bang it 20 yards passed the defender and run to the byline and cross it, old skool. He has the pace to do that. This playing of wingers on the opposite side so they can chop in for stronger shots is all well and good, when they actually are shooting and scoring. Maybe swap them sides and deliver better quality crosses instead?

I think we've got so technical now football has lost it's directness. You don't see as many 25-30 yard screamers now either. We just need to try a variety of approaches and that starts with giving players like ESR a start as he brings something different and fresh. It's a result driven thing so sometimes we just have to take chances from corners. I can't think of many more frustrating things than to watch Saka, Trossard, Martinelli take corners which don't even beat the first man. One was taken the other day that I swear did not even get over the 18 yard box line. This is basic ****.
 
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Drukk said:
I don't think I've seen anyone state Raul is an upgrade on Ramsdale or Smith Rowe is not worthy of playing in place of Havertz or we don't need a dedicated no. 9 , all are saying build up play is so slow and predictable and yet Arteta seems oblivious to it, up to now I've always thought he's on it as a manager but now starting to have doubts he can adapt and change the team to get us out of this slump, this is probably his biggest test yet. These are the players he wanted so no excuses really.
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He's not oblivious to it, it's deliberate. Last season we were too open and conceded chances because of it - now we are creating a similar amount but have tightened everything up so we don't concede as many chances...what we don't seem to be able to do is switch between last seasons 'free-flowing but risky' football to this seasons 'safe and slow but methodical' football.

We beat Man City for the first time in ages and were top of the league just 2 games ago...the over dramatic reaction is silly really (not aimed at you), we are still in the race, we just need to make sure this is just a blip...I think we just need to know when to play the correct way (and start converting more of our chances) - we've also got a few players all a bit under par at the same time which doesn't help.

We need this break
 
A good win against an admittedly poor Palace side and really coming up we should beat Forest without too many issues but for me crunch game will be the Liverpool match, we have to be able to start putting chances away against teams like this if Arsenal are ever going to be a genuine challenge, Liverpool always seem to pull through against us though. That will show if they have managed to address the slow build up play and poor shot rate. Palace game was a big score but not from the players who need to be stepping up to the plate really. Still got no faith in Nketiah, I don't think he is ever going to be consistent enough with his goals and don't see much happening on the transfer front until the summer.
 
I firmly believe that persisting with Havertz is costing the whole team. He so much worse than Xhaka and we spent 65 mil on him! It's like playing with 10 men every time he is on the pitch, he just meanders around contributing bugger all every time he plays, I'm not sure he even knows what he's supposed to be doing. Look at how ESR impacted the game against Palace when he replaced him, was progressive, energetic and made a difference. Did more in that 25 minutes than Havertz has done all season.
 
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To be fair he was beginning to settle and look half decent before his injury, you know when he started scoring and then the ridiculous disallowed goal for hand ball.

Hopefully ESR will start getting some game time.
 
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Going to have to disagree. Don't get me wrong, it was nothing special, but he's ultra-low on confidence.

We should never have bought him, but we have so we need to get behind him and hope he fulfils the potential and form he's shown he's capable of.
 
Playing someone who is rubbish continually expecting something different to happen is not good management. Especially when both ESR and Trossard have been better in that position.
 
I love Trossard, but he was awful in a couple of games - problem is we spent so much money on Havertz (moreso the wages) that we have little choice but to try and make it work.

Overall our buying has been pretty good, but Havertz made no sense whatsoever...but I do feel we have suffered due to Partey being injured - we've never really seen what Arteta planned.

I still think ESR is all about easing him back into the team, he's had a lot of setbacks but I'm hopeful we'll start seeing more of him.

Overall Arteta needs to rotate a hell of a lot more and make changes in matches earlier, this was an issue with Wenger as well IMO.
 
Our best midfield is easily Partey, Rice and Odegaard but will we ever see Partey fit again and will Arteta actually drop Havertz if we do? Don't forget he was playing Partey at right back at the start of the season to accomodate him!
 
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He's bought Havertz as a replacement for Xhaka, and let's be frank, Xhaka had one good season...I never wanted to see him play for us again after he stropped, what a total arse IMHO...and that is frankly the biggest turn-around ever, so who knows - we need to trust in the process and hope it works because it won't be easy to shift Havertz due to wages.
 
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