As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
• 0.08 Expected Assists
• 0/3 crosses arrived
• 0/0 long balls
• 0 shots on target
• 0 shots off target
• 5/6 dribbles failed
• 14 times possession lost
• 6/8 ground duels lost
And thats a good day, it can and often is worse
Went onto Yellow Ribbon facebook earlier and some knobhead tried to claim that "it's obvious that he is carrying an injury" I pressed him on how it is obvious seeing as there has been nothing from the club or in the media suggesting it, and that he is only going on the fact that he has been playing shit. He got sarky with me then and asked who should be playing instead of him (to which I replied Nwanieri who has scored more goals this season from much less game time) - my point is that he couldnt even back up the nonsense statement about captain invisible carrying an injury and just deflected
• 0.08 Expected Assists
• 0/3 crosses arrived
• 0/0 long balls
• 0 shots on target
• 0 shots off target
• 5/6 dribbles failed
• 14 times possession lost
• 6/8 ground duels lost
And thats a good day, it can and often is worse
Went onto Yellow Ribbon facebook earlier and some knobhead tried to claim that "it's obvious that he is carrying an injury" I pressed him on how it is obvious seeing as there has been nothing from the club or in the media suggesting it, and that he is only going on the fact that he has been playing shit. He got sarky with me then and asked who should be playing instead of him (to which I replied Nwanieri who has scored more goals this season from much less game time) - my point is that he couldnt even back up the nonsense statement about captain invisible carrying an injury and just deflected
We have some stunning buffoons amongst our support. Clueless and no idea about the game they’re watching.
While I agree that Nwaneri ought to be given a chance in the number 10 position, the other answer to the clown was that if there is no ideal replacement, then we buy one in the summer and get shot of the passenger. It’s become part of the club and supporter mentality to accept mediocrity, although I’m convinced that many idiot supporters think players like Odegaard are “world class”.
Arteta’s lack of tactical flexibility shown through last night.
I thought it at the time and noted that it was mentioned on other platforms as well, did Arteta not see how easily MLS turned his man in midfield and threaded the through ball for Martinelli and think, this could be a good set up. Remove a largely ineffective Odegaard with Tierney to provide more thrust and directness and put Trossard in Odegaard’s spot, return Merino to the place where he has been flourishing recently and basically try something different. PSG appeared mostly comfortable with what we were bringing to the table.
Also Timber looked absolutely gassed around 70 minutes to me, maybe I’m wrong. But to then wait until the 80th minute to make any kind of change and that being like for like seemed like a rear off trying something new, although I get it was critical not to fall any further than 1-0 behind.
As it stands we have taken a hold ol smack but not the KO blow. But we’re going to have to play a lot better in Paris and I think Arteta is going to have to come up with something different that PSG may not anticipate ie dropping a woefully out of form Odegaard and playing Nwaneri, maybe even Tierney at left back. If I recall right Villa have PSG plenty of problems with the directness of their attacking fullbacks, maybe pushing PSGs back in the process.
I really hope we can pull it off as I’m desperate for Arsenal to put this trophy in the cabinet. Going to be a long wait until next Wednesday and we have a job to do against Bournemouth first. Hopefully we get a morale boosting win under our belts.
His loyalty to Odegaard is something very Wenger like when we often saw players like the Ox (back then the equivalent of Nwaneri) left out whilst someone like Ramsey was shunted into wide midfield. Time and again it would prove ineffective and yet he was still wedded to some self indulgent idea that it would work
Looking at augie's post, there is no win for Arteta here. If Odegaard really is injured then it's gross mismanagement to have played him every week. Not fair on him and there are other options. Nwaneri, Trossard, and hey why not send every fucker like Nelson out on loan either.
If the bloke is fully fit and just playing absolutely shite as I also suspect is the case then how can the manager accept that? Captain or not (and that's also a self inflicted pain), it just makes him look as stubborn as Wenger did with some of his square pegs. The bloke has been god awful for months.
You would think the match this weekend would be the time to try something different in midfield ,play Tierney, move MLS into midfield, or as some.suggest play Nwaneri there drop Odegaard
You would think the match this weekend would be the time to try something different in midfield ,play Tierney, move MLS into midfield, or as some.suggest play Nwaneri there drop Odegaard
You just know that he is going to start sterling dont you ?
I didn’t think there was any more cliff remaining for Odegaard’s form to fall off of but fuck me last night was the pits.
This is a guy who was on last year’s PL team of the season who now looks like he’d be out of place in legaue 2. He has absolutely fucking tanked this season, consistently the worst player on the team week in week out.
Can’t shoot, can’t cross, loses possession easily, kills momentum by taking 7 touches and spinning in circles instead of moving the ball on quickly. This from a guy who would regularly fizz them in from the edge of the box or ghost into the middle to clinically finish off a flowing move.
Rarely have I seen a player crash and burn as spectacularly in such a short space of time. Sad to see but he has tanked so far it’s hard to envisage him ever getting it back.
I’m his biggest critic on here but Partey was a huge loss tonight, and not just because he wasn’t out there but because it also forced us to move our best finisher back into midfield.
That then gets compounded by yet another Odegaard 0/10 disaster performance, combined with an anonymous Saka display and a now customary Martinelli gilt edged miss.
Those few ministers either side of HT were pivotal. Martinelli’s miss and the offside, score either/both of those and it’s a totally different game.
We got neither and here we are in a big bag of shit as a result. In huge games like this you need someone to stand up and grab it by the throat, sadly we collectively shit the bed from the off and looked like rabbits in the headlights.
Spot on - I guess we got to the stage where we were just missing too many players. I only got carried away with the optimism pre match by coming on here really.
The problem I had with the Real Madrid match was that I always knew really that we hadn’t actually beaten much.
The reality is that we don’t have a striker - this champions league run has covered up Arteta’s limitations big time. He is unlikely to ever win a trophy again with the club.
I know what you mean as there was some hope/optimism on here after the Madrid games. However, it still made me laugh to think of the Gooner forum being a bastion of optimism!
I pressed him on how it is obvious seeing as there has been nothing from the club or in the media suggesting it, and that he is only going on the fact that he has been playing shit. He got sarky with me then and asked who should be playing instead of him (to which I replied Nwanieri who has scored more goals this season from much less game time) - my point is that he couldnt even back up the nonsense statement about captain invisible carrying an injury and just deflected 
