Arsenal 2023/24

Starting side for Leeds? 

Willian, Elneny out. Everyone else available?

Almost impossible to guess what Arteta will do, but if I could pick the team I would love to try:

                 Leno

Bellerin-Luiz-Gabriel-Tierney

    Willock-Partey-Xhaka

  Pepe-Aubameyang-Saka

I think that works, especially if Aubamayang isn't dropping into midfield like Laca needs too, due to Willock filling that space...

Few clubs in for him. He's younger than Willock. I'd rather we saw Joe getting more game time and saved our pennies for a more senior acquisition in the summer.

Our lack of creativity won't be solved in a single player, otherwise Ozil would have been included in the squad. It's a reflection of our formation and how Arteta instructs the players to attack.

I'm not advocating Arteta out, but I am advocating a change in approach, or at least a difference in how we play United away vis Villa/Leeds/Leicster at home.

Hopefully Willian being out means a start for Pepe and that he does enough to confine Willian to the bench/Europa. Saka has just played 232 out of 270 minutes for England in the last week so wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't start this one.

I disagree, if he alone was the key to us being more creative and transforming us into a title winning side he'd be getting more leeway for the issues you mentioned.

But he's not that guy anymore, and I don't think the 20 year old we're excited about is either. 

Before we splash the cash and try to fix this through the market we need to shake up our style and give Willock a shot at that role, or Saka.

The numbers for Saka, Tierney, and PEA are crazy - especially when you consider PEA spent the night in an airport.

I really hope the clubs kick off about these windows, as we're looking at this through an Arsenal lens but I'm confident it'll be similar for all the leading clubs across Europe.

I know we're not universally liked but this is a bit extreme. Maybe there's a lot of Spurs fans in Russia and Syria :)

Interesting looking lineup:

Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka, Ceballos, Pepe, Willock, Willian, Aubamayang

I think it'll be a 4-3- with Auba through the middle, Willock in behind him and Willian and Pepe out wide.

Very disappointed to see Willian start, the club should have taken a stronger stance against his trip to Dubai. 

We look so much better with this shape. Extra man in midfield is making such a difference, such a joy to see Willock carrying the ball and taking players on.

WTF???

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/300165087/nicolas-pp-sent-off-for-headbutt-as-arsenal-draw-00-at-leeds

So I've been thinking that Pepe is a flop for a while now and tonight didn't do anything to change my mind. Anyone see anything else in him?

I wouldn't say a flop, I just don't think our style suits him. His breakout season had him destroying teams on the counter attack, but Arsenal don't get the chance to do that.

I do think we've been a bit mad to sign Willian into a position he plays and bench him - essentially giving him less opportunities to prove his worth, devaluing one of our most promising attacking asset while we employ a former chelsea has been to do sweet fudge all instead.

Tonight was absolutely daft, but I think it's a one and done thing - i.e. learning that players in the EPL are little bitches that make the most of everything.

I just hate how soft the card was - like at least break his bloody nose like a proper head butt. Bloke who took the hit won't even have a headache tonight, unlike Pepe who would have had Arteta screaming out him in the sheds afterwards given the way he chatted to the Sky reporters post match.

This morn showed how much we already miss Partey when he's not playing. I think his absence was the single reason Leeds were able to dominate our midfield all day. 

Xhaka, Ceballos and Willock all have problems with close control in midfield. With Leeds style that's a huge issue. Need to be strong over the ball, and fully in control of it, when you are being so closely man-marked. 

Haven't seen our keeper go long so often since Arteta came in, we just couldn't get the ball moving and create the triangles at all in the middle.

Despite that, we showed good defensive grit to keep the clean sheet, and could've nicked it with some big chances there in the end. Bellerin's pass to Saka was beautiful, really should've finished that one.

The red was pathetic but they always get given, hopefully Pepe's learned the silly lesson there. I don't think Pepe's been a flop at all, he does have decent numbers, but he's taken a long time to acclimatise and I agree that the Willian signing has hurt him, and for nothing, since Willian's not done a lot.

Saka has to get a role in this attack, no more wingback or midfield roles, I want to see him on the left, pepe right, auba through the middle please.

We have only scored 1 penalty in our last 5 league games and haven't scored a goal in open play in the league for 8 hours now. Dismal.

I've been thinking about this overnight. I don't think Partey is going to singlehandedly convert our side from being over run or not over run. Don't get me wrong, I rate the guy and think he's our best midfielder and should be close to the first name on the team sheet, but I think we'd still have struggled with him playing yesterday given we were playing 4-3-3 for the first time in awhile.

I think we're going to get worse before we get better sadly, as Mikel has to find a way to improve the offence which will likely come at the expense of our defense.

EDIT: this post from Arseblog outlines what I'm trying to get at much better https://arseblog.com/2020/11/arsenal-need-to-find-calm-waters-after-two-years-of-chaos/

Qualified for the next round of the europa league with 2 games to spare, excellent. We can rest more players in those games now and give the youngsters more chances. Although Pepe will probably continue to play given his 3 match suspension in domestic football.

This Balogun kid is quite highly rated and made his debut this morn, scoring with his first touch. Nice start.

We do seem to be going fine scoring goals in the Europa League, need to bring that back to the premiership now! 

Wolves on Monday is another huge game. We've got Spurs after that which looks a bit scary at the minute, Mourinho has them going very well. 1st full season is his peak year in jobs so this will be as good as they ever get under him, they better not do anything silly like win a trophy.

He actually debuted against Dundalk :)

Great to see we're trying to keep him.

this is a hard watch......no idea where goals are going to come from

2-1 down with 10 minutes to go against wolves, we look very laboured in attack

Well that was shark! dropping points to teams we should be beating - same old.

that was awful performance, Partey can single handly carry us through. She's gona be a long season

I wrote this a month ago and nothing seems to be improving in the EPL.

Auba is badly out of shape, he looks tired and unenthused. It may have been the injury but Luiz was awful, he's just no good in a back 4. I think we really missed Pepe tonight, and Partey.

I'm not exactly Arteta out - but I'm very critical of where this team has got to and his team selections/playing styles aren't working.

Despite the poor result that was a much better attacking performance. We should've scored a bagful in that second half, poor finishing. How many free headers do we want??? Geez. Saka should've finished that chance too. Saka showed that he is indeed our best creative player.

Dire situation with results now, and Spurs next up. This is terrible with crowds seemingly about to come back in. Arteta needs to get some vibes back or the crowd will be on their backs and make things a lot worse. 

We are missing Partey a lot. Our midfield just isn't strong or mobile enough off the ball. We didn't take control of things until the 2nd half, when Wolves were happy to play on the counter anyway.

I dont know I think things are on the up. Everyone expects results so quickly but you need to spend time on the basics to start with. My only critscims would be to start Nelson over Willian, he looked very exciting and as we are rebuilding I think it's better to develop the hale end future over someone who is a good player but is winding down his career. The other thing I picked up is that Holding may not be a finished product, but he has a lot of energy and fight for this team and I think with the heads down he needs to feature more. Big ask maybe, but if we win against sp*rs then im sure we can forgive a few bad games.

We need to turn this around ASAP.

Partey out til January. FARKKKKKK.

This midfield needs to sort it's sh*t quickly. 

I like the intent with Willock on the pitch but he's not bringing much to the table in the PL games as of yet.

Therein lies the problem, we go wide and put crosses in for Auba to head, or Saka or whomever else bothers to get in the box.

If we're sticking with this system we wouldn't do badly to pick up Giroud - seriously.

We showed a lot more attacking intent, but I don't think our current strikers are up for being dominant in the air, which defeats the purpose of all these arial crosses.

Not really sure what the formation is with the lineup Arteta's put out this morn. Possibly 4 at the back with Kola as LB and Maitland-Niles in midfield? Really hard to tell. 

Main attraction for me this morning is seeing how Mari goes. He's only played a few times since we signed him due to injury, but I've been very impressed each time.

This is actually intriguing. The coverage has put up the team in a 5-3-2 which doesn't look feasible at all.

               Runarsson

    Mustafi Mari Kolasinac

Soares                     Maitland-Niles

       Nelson Pepe Elneny

         Lacazette Nketiah

First look suggests it's something like:

               Runarsson

Soares Mustafi Mari Kolasinac

      Maitland-Niles Elneny

     Nelson Lacazette Pepe

                   Nketiah

2-0 and it should be a lot more.

Lacazette is having a field day in this no.10 type role.

holy shark. Mari is playing! I had totally forgotten about that guy.

That was a much more enjoyable watch. Great to see Mari, Chambers, and ESR return from injury, goals for Laca, Mari, Nketiah, and ESR.

Laca in the 10 role showing signs of promise, certainly offers more forward emphasis than our traditional CM's.

AMN looked excellent in midfield, he even got forward like Ramsey did and should have scored 2 himself but for terrible finishing on his part. Speaking of finishing we should have had 10!

Their goal was a tad concerning, Kolasinac did well to clear off the line twice, only for the other 7 Arsenal players in the box not to bother shutting down the high ball which feel to a Rapid player who tucked it away. Several plays held their position instead of rushing him, very worrying.

Based on whom didn't get any minutes tonight you'd think Holding, Gabriel, Bellerin, Tierney, Saka, Leno, Auba, Xhaka, and Willock will all start for the NLD. The question is whom makes up the remaining 3 spots. My guess is Elneny and Willian although Nelson was energetic tonight and showed plenty of enthusiasm getting forward and linked up well with Soares all night.

Ceballos seems to work slightly better with Xhaka than Elneny, whereas Elneny looks a better foil for Partey, when he is fit again. Hard to say who Arteta will go for, I'm guessing Ceballos.

Lacazette sitting behind Auba looks like it could have promise as a formation, going by this morning's game. Might be a different story against PL sides mind you.

Well, perhaps the kind of PL sides we've lost to at home (Villa, Wolves, Leicster) but not perhaps the top 6 sides away as we seem to have a formula for that...

We’re back to looking toothless in the final third. So easy to defend against. Given we’re using Laca at 10 the Ozil decision looks worse and worse.

Jesus wept. This is fudgeing awful viewing. Our best move of the half we managed to fudge up, giving Spurs a 5 v 2 and boyhood arsenal fan Kane scores.

Xhaka lucky not to be on a card yet. Partey trying too hard. Set piece deliveries shark. 

This is last season all over again. An exciting off season only to come crashing down when the team can’t score.

We’ve also got worse set piece delivery than you’ll see in Cap 11 on Saturday’s.