Van Arsenal 🇳🇱

2006. This always gives me goosebumps. Cruyff, Van Basten adored Wengers Arsenal. This is why ie Unai Emery was never an Arsenal man. We have our place in world football and it should be looked after very carefully. It surrounds us with the people we need to carry our club. 😊

Like Leverkusen, we win that without Saka and Eze in one of the legs. We mostly win/score by stability, team effort anyway. CL is a bonus. Rotate massively vs Sporting and even vs Barca, Madrid. The mental blow losing PL to City again, the project could collapse. Zero risk.

Feel we should be v realistic about offensive quality we have, rethink ambitions. Losing PL title to City now would mean serious damage to our image, project, trust by fans etc. And.. 📢Whoever we play, we never lose easy OR win easy! So rest the stars, ruthlessly. PL=vital.

People finally waking up solutions before the summer are in midfield. 👏🏻

Good. Good. Good. Priorities. Taking responsibilities. Well done Arsenal, Mikel and players.

I genuinely see the need for more quality upfront. But I think we have massive options in the squad to be more of a threat going forward. Like Jesus, MLS, they have amazing on the ball skills. Jesus is sloppy but has a moment in him. All we need? Can we use them in phases?

@clivepafc The main discussion for me may be: What is our strategy to create and score vs bigger teams? Do we use our stellar defence enough to take more risks? Do we facilitate passing options for criticized Saka, Zubi, Kai? MLS, can we use his on the ball qualities as a MF?

In gym early Pre podcast thinking time

We can talk errors or mentality... But how about yesterday second half we play like this: Kai Trossard MLS Saka Madueke Rice We play in zone 14 more, we will create. We will give more space away. But we have the best defenders in the world to deal with that.

Rodri has 5 creators floating around him yday. If teams mark Kai & Saka, what are Zubis passing options? Partey could beat a press but he lost the ball too much people said. The problem isnt Partey or Zubi its whats around them, its too static to be creative vs the best.

@Tripple____M Rodri has 5 creators floating around him yday. If teams mark Kai&Saka, what are Zubis passing options? Partey could beat a press but he lost the ball too much people said. The problem isnt Partey or Zubi its whats around them, its too static for an elite level team.

Enough time has gone by and it's time we accept that we need a Thomas Partey like player in our build up. We are so mid at it right now

@timstillman_ Agreed especially with that last bit.

What yesterday showed was that, without Odegaard in particular, technical level not high enough at Arsenal. (Missing Odegaard, Eze and Merino for the same position proved to be a bridge too far too). History tells us Arteta sees issues and, if anything, over corrects in the market. Strongly suspect technique on the ball in small spaces will be a very big priority in the summer.

@AFC_Adi06 They play 5 elite creators in front of Rodri. Switching, linking. We play 4 in front of a flat double pivot. One of 4 is Gyokeres who doesn't like the ball. How do we build attacks, who links up upfront? Its not focus, ability or occasion. It's just maths. Outnumbered.

Arsenal - Cheap giveaways in possession vs Man City Appalled by the technical level on display. Outclassed and outchoached in every department. The occasion clearly got to us. For a team built on discipline and control, we completely lost composure.

@LeGrove You feel we do enough going forward in the bigger games?

You'll hear all the nonsense about Man City and their technical ability... they had two shots on target against Arsenal at their worst. We hit the woodwork twice and had the best chance of the game. One of those days, but we gifted City, won't happen in the next game.

Its absolutely crazy to judge a player so out of context of what's happening with the team...

Play him 5 games less and see a fit Saka... Also. The scouting and tactics destroy him. He's our only real threat , gets all the marking and fouls. We play 4 on islands not really choosing tactics that allow more flow. This doesn't help him at all.. Its just work work work.

With Saka, people are now criticising him... Big big sigh. He's structurally pushed into minutes while clearly being fatigued. For years now. People say that's what asked from big players. Or. Its just stupidity to not respect his body and lose the moments he could impact?

Maybe Mikel did make a ruthless fitness decision and left Timber and Eze out to pull them out of the national teams as well?

@HeirToWoeGunner Yes so maybe this is a good thing, if we learn from it. 👏🏻

@Jesperl4 Yeah agreed. He has us top of the league deservedly because we can adapt to any game style, but we just witnessed what happens when a team fully impose their game style on us, and it was a lesson, same as PSG last season.

I’m happy Dowman is being left out of this, it’s unfair when more senior players have not shown up today.

@deekson Nah but he is someone we can make connections with. The only one at CF who can do that. I see his limits. But we enable others through him.

@Jesperl4 What exactly do you guys expect from Havertz that you constantly mention his name like he’s a world class player?

If we want to win stuff... We need Calafiori Eze Trossard Kai Saka All fit and starting. Otherwise its not enough offensively.

All in all maybe we look back in May and feel this is exactly what we needed.

@kimmoFC This is an issue in general. We should trust the defence more. Just attack.

I think our gameplan was wrong, and Pep gambled on Arteta making this a cautious staring contest with little pressure on the ball. The team with more technical players will benefit from this. We had the personnel to make this a physically dominating game. We didn't. We let them used their technical players as they pleased.