Good morning all.
It’s been a while , how are ya?
International breaks used to be a horrible time, no Arsenal got me down, but I have to admit that recently they have become a welcome break. But the break is over and we have to get back to watching, even if enjoying is a more difficult task.
We are 7 games in and the enjoyable football has amounted to about the first 30 minutes against the Spuds. There’s no getting around it’s been trudged stuff. The days of entertaining football with a wallop of swash and buckle are long gone. It’s all paint by numbers and effort with endeavour replacing skill. However, even if performances haven’t much, if at all, improved, results have. If we ignore the quality of our opponents 3 wins and a draw is somewhat encouraging. So perhaps we should do just that, and just enjoy counting points rather than watching to be entertained?
We play Crystal Palace who have hardly been pulling up trees themselves since our greatest ever centre midfielder to over. They have one win, and 3 draws but their win did come recently against Spurs so they too will be writing blogs about how things are on the up?
I think we will see the same starting eleven that got comprehensively outplayed at Brighton, we just have to hope that being at home sees them play a lot better.
Having watched Palace a few times recently, I do believe they are going to test us. We historically have dominated them at home, but history is just that.
I don’t know about you but I just want to watch some good football that allows our good players, and they are all good players by the way, to perform within a structure that enables exciting football.
Enjoy your day and the game.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks George for getting the ball rolling again. Seems a real long time since the Guns played.
“I don’t know about you but I just want to watch some good football that allows our good players, and they are all good players by the way, to perform within a structure that enables exciting football.”
I agree! We wait in hope…
Cheers>”!
COYG!
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You are right George apart from the Spuds game we haven’t produced any performance of note. I suppose folks will say winning when you are playing badly is a good sign, but we seem to play poorly regardless the result. I will certainly take an entertaining swashbuckling 5-3 win any day.
I don’t know about the game today being easy George. They have good technical players, pace and one or two players who can score. Saw their game against a Brighton and they comfortably dominated them bar the lapse to let in a last gasp goal.
So I expect a tough game as we also have to contend with the usual apprehension when playing at home.
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Tough game this evening, Palace have looked decent at times this season
Hope we are better than at Brighton
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Formation 4-2-3-1
32 Ramsdale
18Tomiyasu 4White 6Gabriel 3Tierney
5Partey 8Ødegaard
19Pépé 10Smith Rowe 7Saka
14 Aubamenyang
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Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, White, Tierney, Partey, Odegaard, Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Lacazette, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Cedric, Tavares, Lokonga, Elneny, Martinelli.
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Palace: Guaita, Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell, Gallagher, Milivojevic, McArthur, Ayew, Edouard, Benteke.
Subs: Butland, Tomkins, Olise, Kouyate, Hughes, Mateta, Schlupp, Clyne, Kelly
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time for Odegaard to step up
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Very attacking line up but we have seen Odegaard play centre before and he is a surprisingly tough little cookie. But this line up will require a really effective pressing game. Options to tweak if things don’t go well by bringing in Sambi and still have an attacking front three.
Let’s hope for a swashbuckling win
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Good players can play anywhere but its frustrating to see Odegaard in the 2 as opposed to the 3.
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Aubameyang gives us the lead, a corner is way overhit, pepe retrieves it and palys a one two before curling in a shot that the keeper palms out only for PEA to hit home
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HT: 1-0 to the Arsenal
Aubameyang gave us the early lead, we’ve been poor ever since, can’t pass to save our lives. Mike Dean also being Mike Dean.
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Almost as if we are missing someone.
And almost as if Paddy knows you can take liberties with Arsenal with English refs, can’t think how he would know that
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After a good 15 mins or so we did our best to revert back to shitty aimless disjointed game. Palace should have been level at the very least. They have controlled the game won every second ball, I don’t man! What does Arteta coach these players to do????
Only three players get credit in that shitty first half, Tomiyasu for winning all his duals (though passing was horrible) and Auba for the goal and back tracking and Ramsdale. Otherwise changes needed urgently at half time as we need to get control of the midfield.
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Palace should be a man down at the very least
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Why do this team so often let complete cart horses like Benteke score
A. (Shane) long history of doing just that
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1-1, Benteke, no more than Palace deserve
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Can see them getting a soft pen
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this is sterile stuff from Arsenal
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Lacazette on for the very disappointing Odegaard
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a minute after lacazette has a one on one saved, palace take the lead, sambi lost the ball near their area and they broke at speed and finished in off the bar. Arteta is a bum
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2-1 to palace and am done for the night
Can’t watch this turgid football no matter how positive I would like to be
We can’t control the midfield can’t defend,
Feck it
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Partey off, Martinelli on
once again Partey has been poor
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Partey needs Xhaka to function in this team
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Tierney shot hits the bar and comes out
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only 4 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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I seriously cannot understand that professional players who do nothing else but eat and sleep football can turn up and put on such a performance.its unacceptable and there should be repercussions.
No more effing excuses
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Maybe a little lesson there for Arteta in playing Lacca up with Auba rather than worrying about intricate tactics coming out of defence and in mf
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FT: Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace
Lacazette with a very late goal to get us an undeserved point
PEA had given us an early lead, but our play from there on was awful, sideways, backways, slow plodding paint by numbers football, the trademark of Arteta
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Wow thanks Lacca he’s been brilliant since he came on.
Arteta doesn’t deserve this. Serious questions needs to be asked of him and his coaching team.
Now he’s going to go on about character blah blah and gloss of the obvious lack of coaching.
Glad we got a point though at least I can sleep less angry
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8 EPL games played W3, D2 L3 GD-5
trust the process
oh sorry its not longer trust the process this season, its character and leadership, ha ha ha, Partey and Odegaard two of the leaders subbed off after being dire once again.
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Surely aren’t we lucky that we snapped up such colossal players like Partey and Odegard.
Partey first name on the team sheet, yes?
The question always seems to be who will partner Partey, rather than why is he playing for us at all?
To say we were lucky to get a draw is an understatement
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Very hard to win football matches without a solid midfield. And its been a while since we had one of those.
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Both Partey and Odegaard are extremely talented footballers
On paper the arsenal team starting today should have taken palace to the cleaners.
But Arteta has gone all Lampard – the team has no identity, no coherent football philosophy, no discernable tactics on evidence, the work rate is poor, can’t press can’t beat a press. There is one common factor and its Arteta and his coaching team period. I have always maintained I am not Arteta out but he needs to be held responsible. There is no way Arsenal should be playing like this.
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Arsenal 8 EPL games played, 12th in the table, and 8pts off top spot and 9pts off bottom spot, just the 7 goals scored, and 12 goals conceded by our fixed defense, -5 goal difference. Sterile, boring, slow paint by numbers football. Its a good job Arteta got his players in and has no midweek european games to disrupt his great coaching of the team, or God knows where we’d be
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Partey is a decent player, when fully fit / Xhaka is playing
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Palace should have been down to 10 at the end of the first half. Trouble is i’m not convinced the result would have been any different. Are Maitland-Niles and Elneny injured, because I thik they’d make a better fist of thngs in midfield than what we have at the moment.
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Gollum true to form with Saka.
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Partey probably not leaving a large number of fans with the impression he was hoping for against the former great midfielder’s team. The team improved when he was hooked?
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Clarke clear and fair with his summary of this game “a green tick for Viera” as Palace played as Ehab described they would though the match would’ve taken a slightly different journey if they’d have been down to ten for half the game.
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Yet again some of you are extolling the virtues of Partey. “Extremely talented footballer” and ” a decent player”.
Please help me. He has been with us for 2 years. On what do you base either of these statements?
How many times in this period has he shown himself to be a talented player, let alone an extremely talented one.
What about Odegard, in what way has he shown to us in the time he has been with us that he is an “extremely talented footballer”?
How many defence-splitting passes does he do a game?
Both of these have only one thing going for them. They are players that Arteta wants.
I am afraid the rose-tinted glasses and the wishful thinking bug has now infected this blog as well as all of the others.
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Everyone always love a late equaliser Auba following up Laca’s finish a goal that feels like two goals haha!
It was an attacking line up as hoped and by all accounts the start was good but I missed that, I guess Palace settled into their plan got the handicap bonus on the card and once they took a good chance anything could happen.
Certainly looks atm like Elneny who had decent form in his last run could do a better job in that midfield.
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Jjigsol it’s not some of us that said Partey and Odegaard are talented, it’s me. So feel free to disagree directly no problem. But it’s rather churlish to refer to rose tinted glass etc
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Well, it is called Positively Arsenal Jjgsol.
And when Partey gets a run alongside Xhaka, who I rate as the best player in this team, he looks decent to me.
From what I have seen of Partey recently in recent games, his main problem is being outnumbered. Sambi is not up to speed as yet, and not surprising, yes, there is a case for Elneny or AMN. Not very creative, but one of our main creative outlets was cynically taken out, unpunished as usual by Mike Dean.
Rose tinted glasses in Arsenal blogs? Haven’t seen many of them for a while!
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Tfl, you are not alone in making such comments about him.
I see similar comments regularly elsewhere.
Ok, so let me direct my question to you, in the 2 years or so that he has been with us, obviously, in between the many injuries, how often have you seen him play a game that would justify the description, “extremely talented” or just even “talented”.
Clearly, there must have been so many to justify the “extremely” appellation and they must have inspired you to give him such a generous compliment. So how many is it, once, twice, 3 times, ten times?
Can you list those games in which his wonderful performances encouraged you to state that he is “extremely talented”?
In the absence of that list or even one such game, can you suggest a reason why I should not consider the possibility that you may be viewing him with “rose-tinted glasses”?
Now, I dare say that a player who regularly shows great talent can be described as “extremely talented”, but I humbly suggest that in order to earn that description, a player has to be consistent in the high quality of his play.
In the case of Partey, in my view, and I have to accept that I have not seen that many games, the only consistency is one of poor and indisciplined performances, punctuated with regular errors and poorly placed passes.
He was billed as someone who would marshall our defensive midfield, in the Vieira mode.
As far as I have seen the only similarity between the 2 is that they both have an “a” and an “e ” in their names.
Of course, you may believe what you like, but do they not say that “seeing is believing”?
I have seen nothing that could justify the belief. What have you seen?
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Yes Mandy, of course, it is all the ref’s fault, as usual. I should have known.
So now, it is Xhaka, the player so many fans love to hate, who is the catalyst that turns Partey from a nobody, into the superstar that so many fans have labelled him as.
Yes, that makes sense, the player who so many people say should be the first name on the team list, the player who the whole team should be built around, the player who is so extremely talented, actually needs the support of the supposedly untalented embarrassment to a large number of fans, who should never wear our shirt again and the player whose sale would be the cause of celebration amongst a large part of the blogging world.
Ok, Mandy, perhaps you can answer the question I raised to Tfl. “In the 2 years or so that he has been with us, obviously, in between the many injuries, how often have you seen him play a game that would justify the description, “extremely talented” or just even “talented”?
By the way, would you not agree, that there is a world of difference between “decent” and ” extremely talented”?
I am sure most of us would agree that virtually every player we have is “decent”, including the players that Arteta threw away. Many of them are established internationals, which medals and titles.
AMN and Elneny could also be described as “decent” and yet Arteta would not pick them unless and until he really has to.
I would love to be positive. However, I can find nothing to be positive about as far as it comes to Arteta’s Arsenal.
Perhaps my positivity can be shown by the fact that I still both to come to this or any site.
I have hopes, but scant expectations.
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You can be positive or negative about whatever you want jjgsol, but Jeez, I’m glad I’m not you!
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Partey, I have seen him play decent games, used that word. Started well enough, played a decent game against Utd I seem to remember, gets injured , time after time, his form suffers, he gradually builds it up again, with Xhaka and sometimes Elneny alongside . He was what I would call decent in the decent run at the end of last season, including beating the soon to be European Champions at their place. If Partey was billed as Vieira like, that is extremely unfair, because there are no players like PV now. Would agree that AMN and Elneny are decent, but many moan about boring football under Arteta, Elneny for one doesnt have the rep of being especially attack minded in most games. Bit if you are implying Arteta has his favourites, yes he does, as do all managers .
As for refs, of course they are never at fault, just ask Jack Wilshere, Rambo, Eduardo, Diaby and other of our skilled technical players that referees completely failed to protect time and time again, and witness some of Wengers comments on the matter. Can only see Saka and ESR going the same way, that foul today was one incident but could also be part of a disturbing pattern of recent years, it’s like the Palace player knew he would get away with it. But if you think all is fine and dandy with the refs we get, and our players get the same treatment as certain other teams, and there is nothing odd about consistently getting considerably more cards than the likes of Burnley that is youR opinion.
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Oh dear. Maybe I’ll break it into two so don’t get accused about making it all about referees.
Us: worrying. 2 games in without him, the amount of good games we’ve played sans Xhaka remains unchanged, and very low. We basically have no flow in his absence. It seems the aim is to nail quick crisp passing moves, typically counters, but what about the rest of the time, and what can you expect the success rate of them to be, especially when opposition will try stop them at source with a foul whenever they can?
Could, maybe, work well enough points wise if you are fantastic at them, especially if you are a team who defends very well, with numbers, and are almost sure to see opposition leave you some big gaps if you are patient enough (like leicester title team)
But as it is..
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Still us : but that Lecister team hardly ever played out from back or in situations where losing ball would lead to big danger. We do. All three of their chances 2nd half came from being dispossed.
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Not us: (ok still us for a bit) Don’t think we can put down our increasingly crummy 1st half performance, after decent start, to anyone else, but the stage was being set for what was to come with the off ball trip on Auba and, more importantly, Dean misusing advantage rule to avoid booking for two of their centre mids (or at least I’m assuming 1st one, on Saka, central, wasn’t also Mccarthy)
Breakaways now very important to us, so doing so with one less, with player on deck, not normally an advantage, especially if deeper, and with Smith Rowe one without the extra who knows how much he would take ball on at speed after beating his man.
Also leaves their players unbooked, free to…
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Impossible to be sure of but evidence in past suggests it often disturbs players when there’s lack of justice on pitch. Similarly, a big incentive to opponents to do it, not just for the individual gains (not getting booked when should be etc) but for a whole team effect.
Anyway, Saka’s booking, correct in normal circumstances, was out of character and v likely result of the two cynical fouls, including Smith Rowe moments before, on break not being correctly punished.
In turn, presumably led to Mcarthur, the player fouled, doing what he did in next piece of action. The insult, the little shit, an Arsenal player thinking he can make such a blatant trip. Would fit with him appearing to glare down at Saka after booting him (though I think tv decided not to explore that and show it fully)
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So it wasn’t the ref, us being pretty shite from about 15 mins on till that moment (although the non bookings didn’t help and it may be there was a bit more besides on the getting into us that helped them and hurt us)
But there it is, the moment, has to be a red, 100%, but isn’t.
Can’t blame it for the three moments of lost possession leading to chances, nor the lack of any flow until we went near all out once they sat to protect lead, but whole thing 2nd half was a different game to what it should have been.
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