12/08/18 | Arsenal 0-2 Man City | Premier League

[indy23]

The front two have been given a very easy ride on here .... and yes the service was poor .... but when your team is under pressure you need your front players to make themselves available, drop deeper to help, and when they do get the ball feckin' hold onto it ...

Ours managed none of the above .... we must play as a team not a bunch of prima-donnas ... Emery's biggest challenge by far ....

We need better players

[jayramfootball]

The front two have been given a very easy ride on here .... and yes the service was poor .... but when your team is under pressure you need your front players to make themselves available, drop deeper to help, and when they do get the ball feckin' hold onto it ...

Ours managed none of the above .... we must play as a team not a bunch of prima-donnas ... Emery's biggest challenge by far ....

We need better players

Agree.
Neither of them are good enough. Lacazette had some good moments holding the ball but his finishing was once again woeful. I think aubamayang is a good finisher but he is way too easy to keep out of the game.
Remember that both of them are older and never played for a top club. There is a reason for that.

[Dejan]

Aubemeyang isnt good enough?

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[Phil71]

There are more knees jerking in here than you'd get in a epileptics' disco.

[elkanofan]

Some of the criticism is a completely joke! Some fans are just entitled and play too much of shitty FIFA.

We played well, just our finishing was so poor we let ourselves down but i can't fault too much. City are miles ahead especially as a well oiled team and what the biggest difference wasn't ability at all, it was how Pep has that team playing exactly how he wants, everyone knows what to do, who to play passes off and how each of their teammates make runs with eachover. Their team is not just settled but the core of that team has been together since 2015/2016, we have 5 new signings plus two who have been here just 6 months in Miki and Aubameyang. It was always going to be a seriously hard game vs easily the best team in England by some distance.

Also, team selection was fine! Leaving Leno out i didn't mind, Cech did well, Leno is not just the future but hes the plan but he'd had a mixed pre season so it was important to start with as many experienced and settled players from last season as possible vs such a strong side especially. You got Sokratis and Guendozi who was wonderful despite the two mistakes starting! Thats more than enough changes and workable since both had full pre seasons to get interwoven into the team.

Torreria who had only played ONE! yes the ONE pre season game in a new team yet people where stupidly crying he wasn't starting? Along with Litchsteiner again? This is not a video game where you just throw players in and they magically play well, don't bring up moronic examples of Kane, Alli, Dier, Stones, Walker and Sterling who all are fully settled and understand their respective systems so could easily come back early and play for City. Torreira still speaks no English and has had just one pre season game and now 20 minutes for his new club, its going to take TIME!

I like how Emery set the team out, i liked his defensive ideas to play narrow, it didn't work but again we are playing vs a far superior team who know their roles, this was a FIRST GAME! Some of our players had barely even played at the grove before. In attack Ozil really let us down i'd say, laca looked good when he came on but we where disjointed in attack, this will come in time. Once we all get settled into new roles and get used to how Emery wants everyone to work we will see results.

Nobody likes losing and i was disappointed to lose even against such a great team but i saw more positives than negatives out there, we have a good team and capable manager so i'm hopeful given time we can do some great stuff! Emery will till need at least 2 windows to get the perfect team he wants so we will need patience but i'm positive. Good things will come to us in time. One thing we did seriously lack was a winger, we really lack raw pace outwide!

[StLGooner]

We're playing the wrong players in this 4-3-3 tho.

Surprised no one has noticed it yet.

Ozil is not a winger, especially if you need him to press and track back in this system, and Ramsey isn't either, so one of them will need to sit in that formation unfortunately.

[StLGooner]

Ozil should only be played at CAM for me, if you put him on the wing his lack of defence means their wingers run riot.

It's so f**king obvious ain't. He's pointless to have on your team if you don't play him at CAM. How everyone that knows how to spell football doesn't know this is beyond me.

Yes he had a poor game, can't just blame it on being out of position though, his final ball was crap all day, but so was everyone elses cause we didn't score a goal, so that means every body's final ball wasn't good enough.

[EliteKiller]

Some of the criticism is a completely joke! Some fans are just entitled and play too much of shitty FIFA.

We played well, just our finishing was so poor we let ourselves down but i can't fault too much. City are miles ahead especially as a well oiled team and what the biggest difference wasn't ability at all, it was how Pep has that team playing exactly how he wants, everyone knows what to do, who to play passes off and how each of their teammates make runs with eachover. Their team is not just settled but the core of that team has been together since 2015/2016, we have 5 new signings plus two who have been here just 6 months in Miki and Aubameyang. It was always going to be a seriously hard game vs easily the best team in England by some distance.

Also, team selection was fine! Leaving Leno out i didn't mind, Cech did well, Leno is not just the future but hes the plan but he'd had a mixed pre season so it was important to start with as many experienced and settled players from last season as possible vs such a strong side especially. You got Sokratis and Guendozi who was wonderful despite the two mistakes starting! Thats more than enough changes and workable since both had full pre seasons to get interwoven into the team.

Torreria who had only played ONE! yes the ONE pre season game in a new team yet people where stupidly crying he wasn't starting? Along with Litchsteiner again? This is not a video game where you just throw players in and they magically play well, don't bring up moronic examples of Kane, Alli, Dier, Stones, Walker and Sterling who all are fully settled and understand their respective systems so could easily come back early and play for City. Torreira still speaks no English and has had just one pre season game and now 20 minutes for his new club, its going to take TIME!

I like how Emery set the team out, i liked his defensive ideas to play narrow, it didn't work but again we are playing vs a far superior team who know their roles, this was a FIRST GAME! Some of our players had barely even played at the grove before. In attack Ozil really let us down i'd say, laca looked good when he came on but we where disjointed in attack, this will come in time. Once we all get settled into new roles and get used to how Emery wants everyone to work we will see results.

Nobody likes losing and i was disappointed to lose even against such a great team but i saw more positives than negatives out there, we have a good team and capable manager so i'm hopeful given time we can do some great stuff! Emery will till need at least 2 windows to get the perfect team he wants so we will need patience but i'm positive. Good things will come to us in time. One thing we did seriously lack was a winger, we really lack raw pace outwide!

Ahhh pot and kettle were never so well matched .....

Emery has had the whole summer to sort us out ... it's not as if we half our squad in the later stages of the world cup .... whilst I agree 100% he needs time, that doesn't excuse the poor selection, poor tactics, and frankly poor performance from yesterday ....

He gets a pass because it's his first game, in fact he gets a pass all this season, that doesn't mean he and the players can't be criticised .....

[StLGooner]

Perspective, reason, and logic go a long way, but not for some on this forum. The knee jerking is embarrassing.

City is a tough team to start off with because we really don't know what our measuring stick is after that game. Plus it was just one game.

I think Emery chose to let city get space on the wings, maybe thought they'd be more clinical going thru the middle. Or maybe he thought we'd better defensively defending the width? IDK, but with City you have to pick your poison, and know they will probably have the bulk of possession, and are going to get their chances.

We pressed well at times, but not well enough or coordinated enough, but that should get better, especially against other teams.

I knew Emery wanted to play from the back, but didn't think he would try it so much against City. We didn't do that great with it, but at times we did ok, so hopefully we can get a bit of confidence from that, and that will help us against other teams not named City and of course against teams that don't press as hard, or as good. I think we'll be ok with that, and of course that will get better too.

The formation doesn't suit Ozil and Ramsey starting together. Neither are wing players, so neither should be playing there. Make them two fight for the CAM role. Ramsey pressed well and ran his head off like he always does, but just never has that it factor or that touch of class that we need. Ozil was poor with his decisions and final ball, and our front 3 didn't seem to gel at all, so that didn't help.

Xhaka, well it was one game under the new coach but same ole mindless mistakes from him. Still not seeing why we got this guy.

Matteo, made some 19 y/o mistakes, usually instantly corrected them, and played very well for a young man. I was worried this game was too big for him, and it almost was, but hopefully he can only build more confidence from playing pretty well against the best team in the league. Unfortunately if he keeps it up he'll probably be playing for City before we know it.

Hard to criticize Auba or Laca cause they didn't get many chances, but we weren't clinical enough with the ones we had obviously.

Torreira looked good when he came on, hopefully he gets the nod over xhaka.

Defense wasn't as bad as I expected, but still too many errors for a team like City.

Overall I don't feel horrible about our performance, but there are still concerns of course. Still too early to really tell how we'll be.

[DiamondGooner]

Perspective, reason, and logic go a long way, but not for some on this forum. The knee jerking is embarrassing.

City is a tough team to start off with because we really don't know what our measuring stick is after that game. Plus it was just one game.

............ its almost as if some of the fans thought we'd beat City 3-0?

I began today expecting to lose, we are not ready, even Bellerin pointed out "We did better than last year when we were 3-0 down at half time".

Aubemeyang isnt good enough?

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Its not even funny is it, doesn't he have the best start to an Arsenal career ever goal wise?

Quite frankly we're lucky to have him.

[indy23]

Auba and Laca are def good enough. Problem lies with xhaka mustafi . We bring in two 60-70 million players for those positions we should be ok. Also citys squad is just leagues better. Pep spent money n time to get players to suit his system. Why you think a 19 year old is standing out in Emery's system. Embarrassing if your xhaka. Emery needs funds and players to suit his system .... Probably why we were linked with ever banega in the summer.

[LMAO]

I haven’t read any other posts yet, but I’m sure I’ll echo some of what’s been said:
• Oh happy days! It’s wonderful to see purposeful pressing instead of half-assed pressing for pressing’s sake.

• Leno surely has to be the starter if we’re going the build from the back route. From my count, Cech trying to play the ball out of the back almost gifted City three goals; other than that, Cech looked good.

• Sokratis and Mustafi did a decent job, but we need CBs who are more comfortable on the ball.

• Xhaka is still making the same mistakes he was two seasons ago. If he doesn’t get his act together fast, then he won’t be here much longer.

• We looked better with Torreira and Guendouzi in the middle. Don’t care if Torreira’s English is muy malo, he needs to start.

• Speaking of Guendouzi, he made a youthful mistake, allowing Aguero to get in on goal, but Cech came up with a huge save. Other than that (though I may have forgotten some other blunders), he played fairly well—trying to find forward passes and winning the ball.

• The second goal was on Lichtsteiner. Don’t know if he even noticed Bernardo sneaking behind him.

• I understand Emery played Ramsey because of his pressing ability, but my deity-of-your-choice, that’s about all he offered. It’s no surprise our best period occurred when Laca came on for Ramsey.

• Laca’s presence took pressure off Auba. From an attacking perspective, I’d prefer to see Laca starting instead of Ramsey.

• Auba was largely invisible, but a lot of that came down to Ozil and Mkhi being poor today (and Ramsey utterly failing as an attacker). Hopefully our two maestros grow into the season.

• Gonna channel my inner Wenger: Oliver was hella shit. Sterling should’ve been sent off with a second yellow after running through Guendouzi, Gundogan should’ve received a yellow for his tackle on Xhaka, there was the missed penalty when Mustafi was seductively dragged down by Mendy, and more.

You can tell Emery needs a couple more months (and 3 or 4 more windows to bring in players who fit his vision) for his ideas to be fully implemented, but from what I saw against City, I’m pleased with the direction we’re heading. Also, Emery being a regular on the touchline instructing the players and giving them encouragement is a welcome change from the days of Wenger doing his best mute paraplegic imitation from the bench.

I know this is a premature evaluation, but City doesn’t scare me, even though they'll most likely finish top 2 and make a deep CL run. If this game was played in November, we take at least 1 point.

[LMAO]

Just read through the past few pages.

Jfc it was like a preteen girl whine fest. Imagine being Chicken Little after one competitive game, which happened to be against last season's champions who have been playing together for a couple seasons under one of the best managers in the game. Mofos acting like we shit the bed against some poverty tier League Two team.

Gain some perspective p&ty

[indy23]

Just read through the past few pages.

Jfc it was like a preteen girl whine fest. Imagine being Chicken Little after one competitive game, which happened to be against last season's champions who have been playing together for a couple seasons under one of the best managers in the game. Mofos acting like we shit the bed against some poverty tier League Two team.

Gain some perspective p&ty

Still need to have a big boy summer though. 70 million summer is what would have been big for a team a decade ago. Everton blew that on two players.

[LMAO]

Just read through the past few pages.

Jfc it was like a preteen girl whine fest. Imagine being Chicken Little after one competitive game, which happened to be against last season's champions who have been playing together for a couple seasons under one of the best managers in the game. Mofos acting like we shit the bed against some poverty tier League Two team.

Gain some perspective p&ty

Still need to have a big boy summer though. 70 million summer is what would have been big for a team a decade ago. Everton blew that on two players.

True. I wish we'd have signed a pacy wide player during the summer window, but it wasn't meant to be.

Winger needs to be the number one priority next summer imo.