Victor

🚨 After Arsenal’s elimination against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, the feeling among the hierarchy was that the team lacked a certain X-factor in attack — something special to unlock defences on the biggest occasion. [@gunnerblog] #afc

@LeGrove Sounds familiar x.com/VictorAFC49/st…

Gyokeres has been disastrous tonight. Can't control the ball, win duels, or play one-touch passes. Need something else to get a hold on this game. Kai or Jesus would be better here. Madueke not much better. Lost all his sauce.

@CannonleoGeek @htomufc Source: telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/…

@CannonleoGeek @htomufc For your education.

On the piece yesterday about Arsenal I found something quite interesting with Arteta [& the players] instructing of the build-up in lead up to Bournemouth's second goal. Arsenal have been pretty poor at solving issues in their 4-2 build-up when facing more of a zonal high press. Similar to City, Bournemouth wanted to time their jumps and still leave enough bodies in central areas to increase the chances of winning second/loose balls. However, most importantly, LOOK at Arteta's body language in the build-up. Him, MLS & Trossard in this goal ALL instruct a long channel ball to Gyokeres for this goal - this isn't good enough. Not only is Gyokeres not efficient enough against PL CBs to win a good proportion of these duels. It's also losing Arsenal the vast majority of all their control. I framed the latest piece as Arsenal are 'losing control' because in the last 5/6 games their territory hasn't been as good as months gone by and it's wasteful solutions like this that are killing their possessions & in this case losing them games of football. I've attached some data to compare some of the 'directness' of Arsenal / City since the turn of the year, they're losing control, going longer, being more wasteful on the ball & playing too fast. They are not getting the ball in areas to create danger in open play enough. It's a problem they've faced in 2/3 games now and the solutions are NOT good enough for me. And even if Gyokeres is your cause, it's still on Arteta to change who he is selecting. A reminder too, these long balls were being instructed AFTER taking off Havertz and putting the likes of Dowman, Eze & Trossard on. That's not good enough.

@YankeeGunner Arsenal's attacking recruitment (LW-CF-RW) since 2020 tier list: S) A) Trossard (great value for money) B) Jesus, Havertz, Gyokeres C) Madueke D) Sterling, Willian, Marquinhos

All anyone wants to hear is that the manager is a bum. If you offer any other analysis than "the manager is a bum" on this website, you will be shouted down. But maybe the biggest issue for the manager is the way he (and the club) have approached attacking recruitment. The talent level of our attack is simply nowhere near what you see at other big clubs. It's a can we kept kicking down the road and last summer we did a poor job of addressing it.

@Jcomps123 @jamesbenge Havertz Martinelli, Eze, Saka Rice, Zubi, Calafiori, Gabriel, Saliba, Timber Raya

@jamesbenge What would you say is arsenals best 11 to still maintain a strong defensive base but increase the creativity, ability to play between the lines and overall attacking threat / create more open play chances?

Arsenal average 1.04 open play xG per 90 this season. When Martinelli and Gyokeres share the pitch, that number drops to 0.29. In a small sample size it’s even worse with Madueke in too. On Arteta’s weird, unsticky attack & other thoughts. cbssports.com/soccer/news/ch…

@jamesbenge "Gyokeres averages 25.7 touches and loses the ball 11.3 times per game in the Premier League. No forward has a higher proportion of possession lost per touch in the entire division." Damning stat for Gyokeres. If Arteta plays him against Man City, we will lose.

@exokagura @RohanJivanAFC 1) Karim Adeyemi 2) Lee Kang-in 3) Bazoumana Touré 4) Tyler Dibling 5) Takefusa Kubo

@VictorAFC49 @RohanJivanAFC yes, but Noni hasnt trained or played for us for 7 years, on the market name me 5 better wingers for cheaper and would hold the bench for Saka?

In terms of Madueke, without the ball, he certainly puts in the effort/intensity. I don’t question the desire. But his understanding is clearly lacking and has been throughout the entire campaign. He doesn’t know when to jump and when to stay tight to keep us compact. And what this leads to is a serious ripple effect that leaves Zubimendi and White stretched when the opposition pushes their FB up. Case in point for the opening Bournemouth goal.

@exokagura @RohanJivanAFC Noni is the same age as Saka! So far he has been a mediocre signning.

@RohanJivanAFC which is why Saka's availabilty is hurting us a bit. Noni is young, still room to learn, same reason Im not calling Dowman to start rn, he is in a similar state to Eze at the start of the season in terms of OOP. Its the main con of going for a win now approach in transfers

@EduardoHagn What about a new manager?

Elliot Anderson/Adam Wharton Bradley Barcola/Yan Diomandé 👍

@MeiaArmador__ Gundogan was a unique player who excelled in all phases of play. He wasn't just an 8/10 hybrid. Arsenal's problems in midfield is linked to the departures of Partey and Jorginho - who where both build-up specialists. Rice and Zubi are more box-to-box midfielders like Gundogan.

@VictorAFC49 Compare Gundogan’s IP open play threat to Zubimendi/Rice. That’s my whole point, you need that 8/10 hybrid alongside the 10 if you don’t have attacking full backs.

Almost two years down the line, this is still true. Most of Arsenal’s offensive issues are because of what has been prioritised in squad building. I don’t think Arsenal would have any open-play creativity issues had the idea been a 6 and two interiors, like City did for so long. If you play Rice alongside Zubimendi, I don’t see the point of it unless you play with attacking full-backs like Bayern, which Arsenal don’t. To put it simply, Rodri, Bernardo, and De Bruyne should have been the blueprint for midfield. Arteta has gone for two DMs and one interior/10. Four DMs at the club, and two interiors prove that the squad building is intentional. It has obviously been done to leverage OOP, but the trade-off is not worth it for an elite team.

@JECook96 He is. Zubi has been good at snuffing out danger. The problem with Zubi is his technical security due to fatigue. Arsenal needed Zubi, Rice and Ødegaard on the pitch against a team like Bournemouth. It be the same against Man City next week.

@VictorAFC49 Not sure Zubimendi is offering us any sort of defensive security

We need to rethink our midfield because Zubimendi just isn’t a viable option for me at the moment, not on this form. Gut instinct tells me Rice at 6 and Ødegaard playing a bit deeper could give us something, but he needs to be fit first.

@1_2spaces Arteta will be condemn for all eternity if Arsenal win nothing this season.

I just clocked that Arteta is Sisyphus.

@JECook96 Yes it will be even worse because you're sacrificing defensive stability for build-up security. Arsenal suffered because we played Havertz in midfield (who is better as a CF) with no Ødegaard and zero technicians in our front line.

@VictorAFC49 Is it any worse than what we’re currently seeing?

@YankeeGunner Arsenal simply need more technicians in the midfield and attack.

Our right hand side was our attacking identity and it’s gone now. Meanwhile, as our technical leaders have fallen away, it’s gotten easier for teams to keep the ball and find their way into the game. I think it’s time for Mikel to finally move rice to 6 and bring more quality into midfield

@TMtalksball No. It's bad team selections and poor performances. Zero balance in midfield and attack. Can't play through or over a press. Can't create chances in open play. 3 defeats in 4 is not a coincidence. Arsenal are just dreadful.

#AFC | It is pretty sad that we all know how a game will go when we start 3 runners. The problem is if we go behind and bring all the ball to feet guys on whenever we are in our OOP shape we won’t have any runners to get us up the pitch and vice versa. Injuries are killing us.

@ShevaughnRacha @nonewthing Yep. x.com/nonewthing/sta…

@nonewthing Surprised you have White here. Didn't you prefer him over Timber a few months ago? Not being a smartass, just curious

MUST LEAVE Gyokeres Trossard Gyokeres Jesus White Gyokeres CAN LEAVE Martinelli Nwaneri MLS Norgaard Odegaard There's your summer window.