Good afternoon Positives,
I shall make it brief and, I hope, to the point. I admit the positives of the game today, though not impossible to find, are a little thin.
Let me however get the brutal bit out of the way.
We played today as a team lacking or short in probably two essential elements.
First, we lacked confidence that when we have the ball and we are in the final third of the field, with the white painted oblong things in sight, we are actually able to ‘do’ something with the football. We look so hesitant in our approach play as we move towards the opposition box we don’t seem to believe we will score.
I do not blame individual players and as individuals we have very good players. Jack for example for long periods was very effective in controlling midfield and winning us the ball. It is a collective failure to transform possession, and often good field position, into serious scoring efforts and to test the keeper. Begovic had bugger all to do today, and even that he messed up with Hector’s shot.
To what extent that loss of collective purpose is a consequence of missing ” star” players, through injury in Mesut and Santi’s case and by reason of the transfer shenanigans in the case of Alexis I shall let others decide.
Giroud’s absence is a gap that probably few Arsenal fans, me included, thought would be so significant. We have only young Eddie on the bench to change our attacking options, and that ain’t enough. Even so the players out there today should have coped far better with the Bournemouth challenge.
Second, the quality of our passing from open play and from the occasional dead ball we gained today was poor. Pass after pass went astray. I saw maybe one incisive, accurate ball ( for Hector’s goal). Add that to our tentative, nervy approach play and where the next goal is coming from I do not know.
And well done the Cherries. A deserved result in which what you had, as a team, you used better than what we had.
Right that is the sack cloth and ashes done.
Luckily, probably very luckily, our next two games are at home. Our record in front of the Emirates faithful remains impressive. Let us put our travel woes behind us.
Of our players today Jack, as I said above, I thought played well. He looks fit, and more important he looks as though his brain is back up to full PL speed. Subject to his physical condition remaining intact I think we can expect him to have a Summer in Russia. Another good effort from AMN. Very good going forward and the only AFC player to open up the home defence on his own, before clipping the bar. He was a little off it in defence first half but more solid in the second.
Off you go then – this is not Anfield.
Positively Arsenal 
not sure how Eddie did not get his hattrick there, keeper and post deny him
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FT: 4-0
Arsenal dominated the game, Reine-Adelaide, Dragomir, Nketiah(2), with our goals, could have had many more too. Very impressive performance from the lads.
Mavropanos made his debut and was untroubled.
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Arsenal looked levels above United
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Enjoyed that. Fouling calmed down considerably until late flurry. Looked like our cb’s were prob told at half time to give a bit back as they upped aggression.
Masses of talent in that group.
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The big thing about the U23 squad at the moment is the sheer number of talents we have at this level. If you go through the names and say can he make it? well its difficult to turn down ant of them. We have seen clubs make title and even CL winning teams from a core of five youth players and the the amount of potential we have here is amazing.
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Bah, Utd on for comfortable intakes away a bit of the good cheer. Not been looking at points since Dean’s intervention but it can’t be looking good at moment.
I knew that pen decision meant that, with chelsea next, our margin for error took a significant hit and we could be in top four trouble in no time.
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I wonder will any of those lads go out on loan for the rest of the season, Nelson, Nketiah, DaSilva and Sheaf probably could do with the experience.
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ha ha ha, BBC reporting that Man City have pulled out of any deal to sign Alexis, due to his excessive wage demands, that would have seen him become city’s highest earner.
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Think I heard Leeds scout was at our game.
I’d guess, if we suppose Nelson excluded, Nketiah, Da Silva, Sheaf the three championship clubs would like most.
All levels want brilliant finishers; Da Silva’s power allied with ability will have big appeal; and Sheaf is just a quality footballer.
They or others might have a cheeky enquiry for Mavropanos as well.
How long since club have had a cb who relishes and is so good at heading as that!? Just wanted to see what he’d do in their box with a spot on delivery. Attack it with great vigor and quite likely score was my guess
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I don’t think it is worth getting excited about top 4 right now. If we go on a run (which we might easily do) then things could turn out well, if not then it won’t be the end of the world. From an entirely selfish and juvenile point of view I would love to see us go on and win the Europa League. We could do it – we might not. I just hope it is fun seeing us try. I have no doubt in my mind that should Alexis leave the club this month we will see a rapid growth of confidence from the rest of the team. The youngsters today showed there is much talent in our Academy and that wouldn’t happen if the club was not being run on a secure and long-term footing. There is much to be excited about.
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Hadn’t seen your 9.10 Ed. We picked same 4.
Could be enquiries for a number of others, though- surprised if no one has been impressed by Pleguezuelo, for instance.
Macey a tricky call. Grew a lot last loan but don’t think we have keeper to step up to 3rd choice.
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eduardo792
It would be good if a couple could, but where would they get the minutes?
Which manager is secure enough in his job can afford to take a chance on a young player who is on loan in the lower leagues?
Permanent players with mortgages on the line in the managers ear.
Maybe Lee Johnson?
or Exeter Paul Tisdale?
How many more?
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I’ve never enjoyed watching rivals against rest, when upset isn’t on cards, less.
Been a growing thing for a few years with me, but with top four not looking good its gone to whole new levels.
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had to laugh at neville and carragher discussion as to why alexis looks like joining man u over man city. they showed the financial side of things, talked a lot, covered lots of angles on it, theories etc, but totally ignored one piece of info they themselves showed
man city offered £20M
Man utd offering £35m
so can anyone spot why Arsenal would agree a deal with utd over city, but then of course with the Arsenal in Crisis narrative, the two pundits are certain to write Arsenal’s part in striking any deal out of the equation
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Lukaku getting the Pogbas by looks of it. Reacting furiously to sort of fouls we routinely face, and Utd routinely make, each game.
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now chelsea are trying to sign Alexis, SKYBET will love it.
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I can’t even spot why Neville or Carragher would have a clue what is going on – I assume they get all the hot info from Twitter
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of course, twitter is the greatest source of info for jounos and pundits, I don’t know the last time I seen any football story or speculation in the media that had not been on twitter first.
Pundits constantly take a view on latest stories depending on which side is getting most clicks on twitter
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so now the story is we are getting £30M and Mkhitaryan for Alexis, now that would be an amazing deal. what is it that they say with this sort of thing , oh yes, “if true”
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so at what point of his press conference tonight does Jose say he dosen’t even know who Alexis is.
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Watched the U23s trounce ManU earlier. Completely, dominant performance. Our new signing, Konstantinos Mavropanos looked like highly experienced pro. He is a beast. Didn’t put a foot wrong. Great in the air, great distribution, cool demeanour. He looks ready to me, but then what do I know…
Eddie Nketiah is a natural goal machine…
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really hard to know if he is ready GP, as that utd team did not look up to much, they were really outplayed, none of our players looked troubled by them at all.
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New post up. The State of Denial.
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