Arsenal will ‘bottle it again’ with ‘pragmatist’ Arteta ‘missing’ final puzzle piece; Saliba ‘incredibly dumb’
Arsenal ‘cannot and will not’ win the Premier League title after Mikel Arteta’s ‘pragmatism’ added to his side’s woes at AFC Bournemouth…
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Mikel Arteta the pragmatist misses one piece of the puzzle…
Yesterday was one of those days. Nothing worked, almost every player had an off day and the first fully deserved red certainly didn’t help but we werent looking like winners yesterday before the red card either.
I wrote a long time ago about Arteta needing to get better at substitutions to round out his managerial skillset. He slowly but surely got better, still can improve but in managerial terms he’s still relatively new and it was good to see progress.
Now he has to improve another piece of the puzzle hes missing. Arteta has always been a pragmatist, preferring to control and dominate games than free flowing attacking football. Nothing technically wrong with this, we have been amazing for some time and the results speak for themselves. But if you are too pragmatic, you have a strict formula which you need to strictly adhere to come what may.
What happens if, say, your 2 most creative players are injured at the same time? Arteta chose to play 3 defensively minded midfielders instead of trying to replace the creative threat. You can instantly see they are sitting too deep, not pressing high enough and not transitioning quickly enough. You lose the middle of the pitch as you have no attacking threat there. Even with 11 men I think we lose without any central threat to an energetic Bournemouth side.
Arteta the pragmatist wanted Moreno, Rice and Partey so he wouldn’t lose. Klopp, Guardiola, Ferguson, Wenger and Anciolotti would have played Nwaneri as the next most creative central minded player in our roster so they could win. He is good enough, everyone knows it. But Arteta the pragmatic can’t take that risk, he won’t take that risk today. Here’s hoping this is a lesson learned for Arteta and Arsenal.
As I said I think that generally we just had a bad day but Arteta didn’t make it easier for us either.
Rob A (I genuinely think Nwaneri is ready for premier league football) AFC
READ: Arsenal conspiracies powerless against mistake-ridden reality in defeat to Bournemouth
Saliba red
Hello, I feel moved to write in about the red card today for Saliba. Apparently the letter of the law is important (when it supports Howard Webb’s argument) so let’s start with the rules.
A player, sent-off player, substitute or substituted player who enters the field of play without the required referee’s permission and interferes with play or an opponent and denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is guilty of a sending-off offence.
The following must be considered: Distance between the offence and the goal. General direction of the play. Likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball. Location and number of defenders.
The referee has given a yellow card during play and then sent to the VAR. So he thinks it’s a foul but does not deem it a goal scoring opportunity. This means in his mind one or more of the mitigations provided above is active; most likely the distance because the guy has half the pitch to run before he can shoot.
So there are 2 questions:
1) What can the VAR have possibly seen that the ref did not such that it was necessary to review again? I.e. what is clearly and obviously wrong here?
2) What could the ref have possibly seen in his second watching that was different from before?
Personally. Using the “letter of the law” I cannot see any reason why the original decision would not stand.
We were sh*t anyway mind.
James
READ: Carragher stokes Arsenal conspiracy flames as Premier League release Saliba red card statement
Arsenal finding a way to bottle it again…
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Arsenal cannot and will not, win the PL. If you gave Arsenal a 9-point lead with 3 match days to go, they would find a way to lose the league on Goal Difference.
We know that we will get the usual MAGA tinfoil DEEP STATE PGMOL bollocks from various Arsenal fans, but let’s analyse the fact of the matter.
On three separate occasions this season, Arsenal have gone down to 10 men. That’s a lot. The first concerning thing, is the sheer stupidity behind all three reds: Rice needlessly kicking a ball away. Trossard, with full knowledge of what happened to his team mate, doing the same. And now the usually-impeccable Saliba appears to be catching the dumbo virus. What kind of decision is it to foul a guy, who’s a decent attacker (but not George Wray FFS), who is 50 yards from goal and still has the in-form PL goalie to beat? Incredibly dumb. So dumb that it means Arsenal’s best defender got sent off, Bournemouth then won the game anyhow, and Saliba now misses Liverpool. Oh Dear.
The second salient point to iterate on all three occasions Arsenal have gone down to 10 men: Arsenal have scored zero goals with ten men. None. You’d think they’d be used to the numerical adversity by now, but Arsenal are utterly toothless when a man down. This is in stark contrast to past PL Champs – how many times have we seen a man-down Citeh somehow find a goal? Fergie teams did it regularly. The Arsenal Invincibles themselves went unbeaten all season despite playing games with a numerical disadvantage. Just because you’re a man down, doesn’t excuse total attacking incompetence. Of course, there’s another obvious point that you can’t play on the break when your “number 9” has sod all pace.
Of course, signing that exact player Arsenal need in that position was obvious to everyone except Edu and Arteta.
This season is a Golden opportunity to dethrone Citeh because they’ve lost their most influential player and captain for the entire season. And yet…Arsenal are going to find a way to bottle it Again.
Beautiful bridesmaids, destined to never catch the bouquet. Plus ca change….
Stewie Griffin (The bottling is actually impressive at this stage)
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Red alert!
You know the old saying? That the only sure things in life are death and taxes?
Well, after a day like yesterday, the F365 mailbox equivalent is an inevitable missive from Stewie G and the Arsenal conspiracy kings out in force (and for the next four days).
Red alert. Shields up Mr Worf!
Mark (We all have off days). MCFC.
Are Arsenal fans the equivalent of QAnon? Every game is followed by sad conspiracy theories. No actual analysis of the game just straight into where is the referee from and who does he support. I mean Man City are actually at war with the EPL but let’s not let that get in the way of conspiracy crap that the PMGOL (or whatever they are called) want City to win. They are bringing the game into disrepute and should be ridiculed for their sad deranged and weird behaviour
Rosie popppis
Spurs are better than people think…
Let’s start with a question for those reading the mailbox – in Spurs’ 11 games this season, how many times have they conceded more than once?
The fact that I’m asking means people will lower their guesses, but I bet the overwhelming majority were still above the actual answer, which is twice. Of course that didn’t stop Darren Fletcher from talking about how spurs are in shootouts every week on TNT, or the guardian opening their match report with a reference to yet another defence meltdown. Similarly there are an obligatory 20 references to how weak Vicario is from corners at every spurs game, despite them conceding a grand total of 1 goal from a corner all season.
The second half at Brighton was awful, but it’s also a massive outlier. Every spurs defeat this year has been by a solitary goal whilst their 4 league wins have been by 4, 2, 3 and 3 goal margins. As I write, they have the same goal difference as City and Arsenal. That’s another surprise isn’t it?
They definitely aren’t the finished article, but they are also clearly better than any point last year except the very beginning when ange’s tactics surprised everybody and progress is being made. It would be nice if reporting was about what spurs actually do, rather than the tiresome narrative driven nonsense I’m currently subjected to whether we won or lost. Oh, and while il here can we get some praise for Kulu, who has been one of the best players in the league and an absolute revelation since he moved inside?
Phil, London
READ: Maddison sacrificed as abysmal West Ham help teach Postecoglou ‘irrelevant’ subs lesson
Lineker wrong on Gerrard
I was listening to the Rest is Football the other day and they were talking about the England manager and complaining that an Englishman wasn’t in consideration.
Gary Lineker then said that Steven Gerrard wasn’t given enough time at Villa.
Can someone call out to these lads the truth? He was over promoted based on his name, he relied on his No 2 who left, he fell out with the players, had no identity, lost a considerable amount of matches, and the club was sliding out of the league. He was allowed buy older players on massive wages which has contributed to FFP issues. This is all fact.
It is 2 years since he was fired. We lost 3-0 away to Fulham in his last game. We have beaten them 3-1 today. In his first season Emery got us to 7th with the same squad. We are 4th in the league now. We are in the Champions League. We beat Bayern Munich 2 weeks ago.
How can supposed pundits say he wasn’t given enough time?
Paul
Contrarians FC
I’ve just read Souness losing his shit because Fergusson has lost his £2m annual seat on the gravy train at a time 250 folk who are not sitting on a £60m nest egg are left go.
You don’t have to be a triggered Woke to think that keeping Fergusson on such a ticket milking the United tit at a time others are receiving their P45 is an injustice. But Souness is one of footballs irritating contrarians and they’re a breed of the smuggest, most self-entitled dullards in the game.
Keane is another. That withered sh*t-stick Jeff Powell, a paid-up card-carrier. The Custis Brothers (to me, to you), Andy Gray and his fuzzy muppet Richard Keys, who happily lead the celebration police, dedicated to the Cult of Contrary.
What a bunch! Wilfully hypocritical and always taking an alternative stance to feed their own egos.
I wouldn’t mind if they were relentless pursuers of injustice in a world where social ills were repeatedly ignored, but so many are also arseholes who surf that Katie Hopkins wave of xenophobia, racism, sexism and general c@ntiness.
Football desperately needs a succession plan for the media.
Alexander
Tuchel and the press
All this “It’s a dark day” shit from the Daily Mail can be met with consequences, but it requires some cojones from the FA. Just ban the Daily Mail from press conferences.
They’ve essentially slagged off the FA for their choice. And now they can continue to attend press conferences as if nothing has happened?
Does the England team need the support of the Daily F***ing Mail? That is the question, and the answer is surely no. It might make the halfwit “journalists” think twice before writing such utter tripe.
Simon “Yeah, I know the Premier League is back this weekend” S, Cheshire
