Timid Arsenal get what they deserved - ratings

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:09:11:07:17:11 by Flava.

Fair rating. Not happy with the result nor the performance but this is the third game of the season at the toughest place in the EPL to get a result. Arteta needs to look at his own game plan and understand that to win games, Arsenal needs to be more adventurous up front. That is why so much is spent on new talent especially in attack and he has to make better use of them.

I thought Madueke was our best player and Mosquera really good too - I think both are fantastic additions to the squad.

We bossed the first half but when Slot figured us out we needed to make changes much earlier. I’m a fan of Martinelli but he was poor today - a real weak link. We were one sided again just as when Saka plays. Eze should have come on for the second half. Disappointed as they were there for the taking but I don’t read too much into early results

It's not that damaging. Plenty of time to turn it around. I just think we could've left out Merino and played Nwaneri or Eze. Or taken off Zubimendi or Rice when we were 1:0 down and played with two ball playing 8s and Eze

Liverpool were rubbish. They were there for the taking and we let them off the hook

I was watching with one of my very best mates and a big Liverpool fan who goes to a fair amount of games, he was fuming with them pretty much all game. He is very critical of Wirtz. Yes he started to do bits in the second half but he's going to need a lot of time to become dominant.

Quote:

Flava
It's not that damaging. Plenty of time to turn it around. I just think we could've left out Merino and played Nwaneri or Eze. Or taken off Zubimendi or Rice when we were 1:0 down and played with two ball playing 8s and Eze
Liverpool were rubbish. They were there for the taking and we let them off the hook

Agree with every sentence.

Watching the game it had the look of us just playing out for a draw.
1st half especially Liverpool were poor but we just had no intention of trying to finish them off

They scored a cracker and it gave us little time to try and up our game to scoring mode.
Can't just switch like that.

Midfield is a mess.
Merino is not good enough
Zubimendi was poor again.
Rice was crap.
Not one can unlock anything.

Martinelli terrible today.

Madueke looked our most dangerous player on the break.
At least he went past a man.
Ferk all come of it mind

And before anyone slags Gyokeres off.
Just remember he needs bloody service.

One effort on target. 🤷🤔🤷

And we bloody managed a draw last season against a Liverpool team playing better than this lot this season.
So we are already a point down on them.

Disappointing.

"𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴."

Very poor team selection and tactics

Raya 6 thought his kicking for the most part was good

Timber 7 some decent runs and nullified their attack on his side
Mosquera 6 thought he was v well given context
Gabriel 6 solid
Calafiori 7 probably his best defensive performance for us and linked well in attack. Doesn’t seem natural when he’s far forward though.

Zubimendi 6 has a real steel annd determination about him but looked a bit light weight at times.
Rice 5 he doesn’t look right to me. I’m not sure what he offers at all.
Merino 5 decent back up but isn’t really good enough

Madueke 7 our best player in attack but that’s not saying much. Hes very direct and Kerkez doesn’t seem a good defender.
Gyokeres 5 not much impact but not his fault either
Martineli 4 I thought that was probably his worst performance. You don’t win a league with a LW/LF like him unfortunately. Not good enough.

Eze, Dowman and Odegaard all on late and not much impact

our conservative team selection and tactics today reflect what we already knew?
Arteta needs help.
Arteta does not know what he is doing when it comes to designing and implementing a goal-scoring offence from open play.

When Saka is back in the team, Madueke needs to start on the left side in place of Martinelli. If Saliba is not 100% ready to play, continue to partner Mosquera with Magalhaes. Based on their performances today, Madueke and Mosquera deserve more game time. Also need to blood Hincapie into the team asap with a couple of sub appearances.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:09:01:00:40:35 by mapleleafgooner.

Quote:

tigerline
our conservative team selection and tactics today reflect what we already knew?
Arteta needs help.
Arteta does not know what he is doing when it comes to designing and implementing a goal-scoring offence from open play.

We need a forward-looking coach after Cesta left.
And he decided on a dinosaur called Heinz.

When Arteta brays, hee-haw and stubbornly refused to advance, he is a donkey and not an Arabian stallion.

There's a reason we have been successful against the top clubs in the league since Arteta took over. If you are not conservative , you will get punished for being too open.

With so many first teamers out and this early in the season, the tactics were perfectly okay.

Liverpool were way more conservative as well and hardly tried to press us in the first half cause they were vary of our threats.
They were playing like an away team.

Players let us down but only slightly, it was so tight that it was always one moment that was going to decide the game from either side.

Lets move on. My rants have mostly been about the recruitment because Zubi and Madueke don't fix our issues in attack completely but now we are vulnerable defensively.

But in terms of their attitude, both played to the great if their abilities, as did most of the others. Martinelli included. His strength is getting on the end of things. Creating for others, he can't

Have to commend Calafiori for his defensive performance today as many including myself were concerned with him abandoning his defensive duties to join the attack. Today he was disciplined - no doubt under instructions from Arteta to play it safe.

There was a worry before the game with an enforced change at RW with a new player and Gyok settling in that if Odegaard wasn't fully fit to start Arteta would air on the side of caution. Both Merino and Martinelli told that tale.

I don't particularly have an issue playing it safe from the startz especially after Saliba went off injured, but we needed to be more adventurous in the second half after Liverpool providing tap all. It was a scrappy game, decided by a moment of brilliance, but we never looked like winning either.

Gyokeres needs service of course, but elite CFs also have the ability to survive on scraps and forge their own opportunities. He struggled again against a quality defence, not a criticism per se, as he's still finding his feed just an observation. On a positive note Madeuke looked good and will give us another dimension when hopefully Saka is back fit.

Not a diaster of a result, but it would have been nice to get that monkey off our backs against a Liverpool who are still finding their own rhythm. Unfortunately our absences blunted us even further and Liverpool's class showed through in the end.

We had players playing in positions that aren't good enough.
And that's after a nearly finished window.

"𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴."

I think the timing of yesterday's match, the contineous injury list and Eze just in the door, lead to a disjointed performance and a we'll take a draw here and move on atttiude.

Its not what we want to see though after spending over 300m and the pressure to challange at all costs this season.

I would have hoped getting in the likes of Zubi and Gyok realitvely early in the window would have lead to a more coherant style of play and getting out of the traps sooner like we did in 2022, but we are still in figuring it out mode, injuires arent helping but there are some sub par performances in there for good measure as well.

I hope with some extra time on the training ground before the games start to ramp up with the CL and EFL we can hone those understandings better, I worry though that without Havertz our ability to operate an effective and collective attacking unit is going to be undermined unless we can get the meld the beat parts of Gyoks game with more vertical play from our MF.

I think if we got Odegaard back in there for the counter press and intelligence on the ball, with the flair of Eze alongside him it could unleash the potential of our attack, left side is going to be a problem all season though I fear unless Noni can nail it down with consistant performances.

We were rarely troubled but that came at a cost. If we'd come away with a point and that performance I'd probably feel differently. We're good enough to release that handbrake and play with a little more freedom.

One doesn't necessarily win things (games/trophies/titles) by continually attempting not to lose.
Question Vik as much as you want, but one can't live and profit on nothing.
Creation of chances ??
Judge for yourself...

But sometimes one has to take a chance or two, Jose, in his first spell at Chelsea got the balance right. Thus far we have not.
My opinion only.

Quote:

CazOnARola
There's a reason we have been successful against the top clubs in the league since Arteta took over. If you are not conservative , you will get punished for being too open.
With so many first teamers out and this early in the season, the tactics were perfectly okay.

Liverpool were way more conservative as well and hardly tried to press us in the first half cause they were vary of our threats.
They were playing like an away team.

Players let us down but only slightly, it was so tight that it was always one moment that was going to decide the game from either side.

Lets move on. My rants have mostly been about the recruitment because Zubi and Madueke don't fix our issues in attack completely but now we are vulnerable defensively.

But in terms of their attitude, both played to the great if their abilities, as did most of the others. Martinelli included. His strength is getting on the end of things. Creating for others, he can't

Quote:

With so many first teamers out. Give over please.

"𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴."

Quote:

Jonny Bravo
I think the timing of yesterday's match, the contineous injury list and Eze just in the door, lead to a disjointed performance and a we'll take a draw here and move on atttiude.
Its not what we want to see though after spending over 300m and the pressure to challange at all costs this season.

I would have hoped getting in the likes of Zubi and Gyok realitvely early in the window would have lead to a more coherant style of play and getting out of the traps sooner like we did in 2022, but we are still in figuring it out mode, injuires arent helping but there are some sub par performances in there for good measure as well.

I hope with some extra time on the training ground before the games start to ramp up with the CL and EFL we can hone those understandings better, I worry though that without Havertz our ability to operate an effective and collective attacking unit is going to be undermined unless we can get the meld the beat parts of Gyoks game with more vertical play from our MF.

I think if we got Odegaard back in there for the counter press and intelligence on the ball, with the flair of Eze alongside him it could unleash the potential of our attack, left side is going to be a problem all season though I fear unless Noni can nail it down with consistant performances.

The team is still struggling to understand the movements and preferences of Gyok.
Throw in Eze, more complication on teamwork.
It will take them a few weeks, if not months, to blend them into an effective unit.
Hopefully, by Oct/Nov, this team will takeoff like a rocket.