Spuds aka Nolia Cup(Sweden) Winners 1977 H Sun sept 24th KO 2pm

[the playing mantis]

Just proves how crucial Rice is to this time. That second 45 minutes brought out all out leaderless traits when he was off. Crowd sensed it too because they went flat

Don't agree. Not today anyway. Rice was very quiet in that first half. He did very little. We were poor in the first half too. I said at half time we needed Rice to step up in the second half. Unfortunately he didn't get the opportunity.

But as good as Rice can be on occasion, even him at his best is not enough to overcome the amount of poor players we have.

We have deep problems with our team and the wider squad and all of it comes down to Arteta.

Like in the late Wenger years, we have the nucleus of a good side but it's missing too many key parts and the manager either can't or won't see that.

Disagree.

We were in total control. Most if the first half. Winning everything across the pitch bar eddie. Eddie lost a 60 40 upfield and they scored. Rice was quietly effective, no more, our attitudes compeltley fell away with that. And we looked shocked.
Jesus miss was crucial in thr end. It shouldn't have been as such was our dominance we should ha e created far more. But we let then back in.

2nd half we had nothing in central midfield and it showed big time. No ideas no presence nothing.

[the playing mantis]

Thought we lost the physical battle all over the pitch
Losing all the 50/50’s and second balls too.

Hardly created anything got an OG and a penalty ( nailed on, despite Neville crying about it )

Maddison ran the show

We look a shadow of last seasons team so far, by the time it “clicks” we might be 15 points behind City ( if it ever does)

Oh and Raya’s just as bad as Ramsdale with the ball when under pressure by the looks of it, lots of kicks out for a throw.

Usually agree with you bit not sure what you watched!

He was gash.

We bossed the first half till they scored and thr last 20. We created naff all 2nd half as we had nothing upfront all game.

We created f all vs Everton too.

2nd half with jorginho yes we lost all duels. But still looked untroubled by this fabled scum team.

[the playing mantis]

They were better than us today. On paper we should mop the floor with them. They played their game, we played ours, but it looked like they wanted it more, we'll probably beat them at theirs using today as motivation but we'll be out of the title race by then, back to qualifying for cl every year, citeeh learnt from their slow start last season, it's a race for the minors.

That's the thing they were not better than us. Only an idiot would say they were .

They were turd and offered nothing.
We simply let them into it.

Complete self harm.

[augie]

Odegaard is not the signing of the century

Arteta is far away from being an elite manager.

we are not as good as we think we are.

I knew you would come around

Trouble is though, while I agree that we are not as good as some think we are, we are way better than what we have shown so far this season - some fans seem like they are shocked that we were that bad today, but we were shit in first 3 league games and stepped to beat the manc c.unts, so this is where we are all season imo

[SteveO 35]

When everyone was celebrating our EL exit last season as being a good thing for our title bid (went well eh), I remember asking how people really felt we would get on in the CL if our squad was so thin that it couldn't handle playing the second tier clubs of Europe every other Thursday. I think we got our answer today. Our CF options for a season that we hope to be 50+ games are Eddie and Jesus

We're already looking patched up and for the first time ever I'm going to say "play an academy team" on Weds at Brentford. To be without Timber, Partey, Martinelli, Trossard and now possibly Rice as well just exposes the level of backup we have. We had Cedric and Elneny on the bench today, and in Elneny's case he is increasingly looking more and more like he will actually feature.

I said a few weeks back that what started as a great transfer window ended up a shit one. Rice and Timber are excellent additions, but whilst I will defend Havertz as a better player than most on here are saying, he wasn't needed anywhere near as much as a CF. We then fucked about trying to sign Raya and for the life of me I don't understand why that was a priority. We then just focused on trying to sell Balogun, Tierney and a host of fringe players, but somehow still ended up with Cedric on the bench today.

We aren't kitted out for CL demands with this squad. They looked fuck today and already down to the bones. When its got to the stage for ESR that he gets a runout in the 96th minute with other players out there playing out of position, nobody could begrudge the lad a move. The next accident waiting to happen is if if White or Zinchenko get injured as we are looking at Tomiyasu and Cedric who are just about as woeful as it gets

[BobbyPires7]

This squad is still paper thin. Take out a couple of first 11 players and it looks bang average. We have two strikers that are probably top 6 level. Which will never get you anywhere. We then decide to play them in to the game with a couple of bits of real sloppiness/clangers. I think the squad has regressed over the summer. It isn’t stronger in the first place and then you are in Europe. This was a home game after a Champions League strollathon (at home). What happens when we have a midweek away and are then away to someone like Brighton on the Sunday? I said it at the start of the season we are top 4 at best this season.

[the playing mantis]

Odegaard is not the signing of the century

Arteta is far away from being an elite manager.

we are not as good as we think we are.

I knew you would come around

Trouble is though, while I agree that we are not as good as some think we are, we are way better than what we have shown so far this season - some fans seem like they are shocked that we were that bad today, but we were shit in first 3 league games and stepped to beat the manc c.unts, so this is where we are all season imo

We have been less than thr sum of parts all season. Worrying. 1st 3 games as havertz was forced in. I do tthink we have recovered and got used to how things were having compleltey changed it in the first 3 games.
But the striker situation is becoming huge if Eddie is chosen as he offers nothing and can't even hold onto it amd effecting the whole way we play.

At least Jesus can hold onto it and causes problems even if he cant finish.

We need a big upgrade in Jan


Eddie does f all other than lose it.

[arrgee]

And all the while ESR could possibly have developed into exactly what we need, that these 3 plonkers are never going to give us.

It is puzzling that Captain Black signed Haven'tz and Vieira given how good Smith Rowe was. Injuries and fitness may be an issue last season, but squandering £100m on this pair is as wasteful as the £70m spent on Pepe when the best options are coming through the academy.

[the playing mantis]

I'm off to chop some wood!

Will stop ranting on here and ruining it for you all!

[rodders999]

Bit worrying that after only 6 games injuries are already biting us hard.

Martinelli has been our best winger for a while now, he’s absolutely electric and the way he runs at defenders is one of our biggest weapons in how we attack teams so his absence hurts us.

Trossard comes into that position and has been outstanding so the fact that’s he’s now injured too means we’re at option 3 of Jesus out there and Eddie up top. Far from ideal.

Rice injured today, ideally you’d slot Partey in there but he’s also crocked so again we’re at option 3 - Jorgihno - which proved fatal today.

Don’t be surprised if Saka has picked up a bad one today and we’ve left him play on just like we did with Timber. With all the discussion of him playing 70 odd consecutive league games I haven’t heard one person question the sanity of that work load on such a young player. It’s bat shit.

He’s burned out from being completely overplayed and it’s only a matter of time before he breaks (if it hasn’t happened today).

Timber, Partey, Rice. Martinelli, Trossard and now possibly Saka - 6 games in and the club most impacted by injuries. No change there then

[SteveO 35]

Just proves how crucial Rice is to this time. That second 45 minutes brought out all out leaderless traits when he was off. Crowd sensed it too because they went flat

Don't agree. Not today anyway. Rice was very quiet in that first half. He did very little. We were poor in the first half too. I said at half time we needed Rice to step up in the second half. Unfortunately he didn't get the opportunity.

But as good as Rice can be on occasion, even him at his best is not enough to overcome the amount of poor players we have.

We have deep problems with our team and the wider squad and all of it comes down to Arteta.

Like in the late Wenger years, we have the nucleus of a good side but it's missing too many key parts and the manager either can't or won't see that.

He's a leader though mate - may not have been as great as he was in other games but look at the ragbag midfield when he went off. I looked at the body language of the team when Son scored, and they were as flat as the crowd were. That was back to where we have been before without him - leaderless and looking there for the taking. To be honest, when they took Maddison and Son off I was absolutely amazed because those two were ripping our Rice-less midfield to ribbons - I think they'd have won if those two stayed on.

[Naki_Gooner]

They were better than us today. On paper we should mop the floor with them. They played their game, we played ours, but it looked like they wanted it more, we'll probably beat them at theirs using today as motivation but we'll be out of the title race by then, back to qualifying for cl every year, citeeh learnt from their slow start last season, it's a race for the minors.

That's the thing they were not better than us. Only an idiot would say they were .

They were turd and offered nothing.
We simply let them into it.

Complete self harm.

"...an idiot..." ok Jeremy.

[SteveO 35]

Bit worrying that after only 6 games injuries are already biting us hard.

Martinelli has been our best winger for a while now, he’s absolutely electric and the way he runs at defenders is one of our biggest weapons in how we attack teams so his absence hurts us.

Trossard comes into that position and has been outstanding so the fact that’s he’s now injured too means we’re at option 3 of Jesus out there and Eddie up top. Far from ideal.

Rice injured today, ideally you’d slot Partey in there but he’s also crocked so again we’re at option 3 - Jorgihno - which proved fatal today.

Don’t be surprised if Saka has picked up a bad one today and we’ve left him play on just like we did with Timber. With all the discussion of him playing 70 odd consecutive league games I haven’t heard one person question the sanity of that work load on such a young player. It’s bat shit.

He’s burned out from being completely overplayed and it’s only a matter of time before he breaks (if it hasn’t happened today).

Timber, Partey, Rice. Martinelli, Trossard and now possibly Saka - 6 games in and the club most impacted by injuries. No change there then

It has been mentioned about Saka mate - I've been saying for ages that we are doing to him what we did to Wilshere and look how that ended up. An amazing season where he played 49 games including big CL games plus internationals and he never hit those heights again. Saka is getting doubled up on and kicked every game, and we expect him to keep doing it week in week out. He didn't play well today - the massive deflection and penalty will deflect from that. He had the Italian lad on a booking for over an hour and did absolutely nothing. If we were prepared to give Nelson a new bumper deal, you have to wonder what the point is when we've got people half crocked and blowing out of their arses

[Natural Born Gooner]

Home form a big concern already this, especially the amount of goals conceded.

[robbo10]

Fuck me,I’ve just been on FB and there’s people actually defending Nketiah and Havertz,we have some right divs in our fan base,