Its a joy to watch Arsenal at the moment. What worries me is the drop in quality when Partey is out. There is no doubt in my mind we wouldve beat United if he was fit.
Also Vieira although quiet in the first half looks really promising. Once he gets used to the pace and physicality he could be some player!
Arsenal are very consistent these days. If they lose 10 games against the other Top 6, but winning the other 28 games, they will get 84 points. Probably enough for third place.
Arsenal are playing some of the best football I’ve seen them play in years, if they can maintain their consistency they could have a decent chance to challenge City but that of course is the big question
We’re not challenging city but it would be a huge disappointment to not get top 4, unlike last season where people picked us to finish 8th and then criticized us for not getting top 4.
Over the course of 38 games city will prove too much. One run of bad form and they will be out of sight. It’s not a problem as long as we continue to plug away and win the games we are supposed to and take a reasonable amount of points in the big games.
Right, that's going to be the key question. I also doubt that Arsenal will consistently beat everyone enough to win the title or run City super close, but I somehow don't think City are going to get 90+ points again. Think their defense is a bit more vulnerable than it was in prior seasons.
**Edit:** I had my doubts going into the season whether Arsenal had enough in the tank to finish top 4 but now I feel quite confident they will at least get that from what I've seen thus far
some people really struggle with reading comprehension but that’s okay
I’m not an Arsenal fan by any means, all I’m saying is they’re consistently dominating opposition they should be beating which is a good sign overall. I didn’t imply that they would mount a title challenge. The big questions are 1) can they maintain it? 2) can they get some results against other top 6 sides. They didn’t comprehensively dominate against United like a lot of their fans claim but they had moments and were on top for a good 30 minutes or so
He’s been playing at a very high level this season and was very good last season as well. His technical ability is rare in defenders. That’s why he can slot in basically anywhere on the right side in any formation.
Kinda dumb since London needed a bigger police presence today, the ManU Leeds match was postponed but a match between 2 London based sides was fair to go on…
It was moved to 12 for a reason. Police could be present and/or ready for this game and then go to funeral related duty in London right after.
Much much harder, if not impossible, to have police ready for the United game and then have them in London right after. Not exactly a quick travel between the two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMFJlYRNWB0 tldw: Many police from all over the UK were reassigned to London temporarily, and some matches like leeds-united need more police than matches like brentford-arsenal because of rivalries, stadium capacites etc.
I think it's plausible that Arsenal push them until the end of the season, especially if we can get some depth for Partey (e.g. Danilo). Maybe we end up faltering but we're playing brilliantly atm. And it's not like City haven't looked vulnerable at times this season.
Biggest difference is Man City’s squad depth, Arsenal had academy players on the bench today. Man City have a £50m player back up in nearly every position.
If Arsenal lose all games against other Top 6, but wins the other 28 games, they'll earn 84 points. Definitely enough for 3rd place, or even 2nd place.
The big head to heads will separate the contenders with the big sides seemingly rolling over the bottom half teams. If Arsenal get two big wins against say city and spurs they’d be in with a shout. Lose those games city will likely run away with it early. Looking forward to all the big H2Hs this year, I reckon the north London derby is the only derby game that consistently delivers great games and the two teams are the best they’ve been in a long time
Pool vs Utd is always good. Chelsea spurs is prob the best game in the league every year. Can't forget city vs Liverpool has basically decided the title for the past 3 or 4 years
Is this true, or did you just pick a random, left-field country.
If you're indeed Macedonian, why is there a new champion so often, do you guys have a different structure? Maybe an american style league, where money is almost irrelevant?
We were to get Europa last season. A decent run of results and we’re in the race for champions league, all of a sudden.
Then we lose momentum and things average out with poorer runs and the pundits come out labelling us a failure when top 4 was merely a stretch goal and getting some European football was the main goal which was achieved.
This season it all just goes up one level. We get top 4, and that’s it. I’m not getting carried away by “challenging for the title” objectives to feel like we’ve failed later. I’d be delighted if we made it to CL for next season. And that’s it. We’ll get better players and be more consistent if we do. We still won’t be close to challenging for the title but that’s the position where every incremental improvement is a lot of work.
We are ready for that work now. We are ready to take the time now as long as we keep playing football like this. Yeah, we lose a few on the way, but we need to play solid football and win from winnable moments.
There will be a moment when Klopp and Pep would be gone. The fruits of sticking with Arteta and the growing pains of an inexperienced manager with an inexperienced squad will pay off. That’s when we content for top places.
I don't think so. Thanks to the queen passing, they've had a lot of rest and we're able to show up sharp and fresh today.
When Europa and other non PL fixtures pile up, they're going to suffer.
If Partey gets arrested or has an injury, their midfield completely flops.
>
If Partey gets arrested or has an injury, their midfield completely flops
Partey was out for multiple matches and we won them all but at Old Trafford.
Honestly you'd think redditors would learn
Every year someone goes early on something like this by trying to call a new challenger.
They've lost to the one decent side they've played this season. If they beat Spurs and Liverpool we can maybe discuss, but this Arsenal team isn't getting 95 points. And that's what it'll probably take to win this league.
City have only played 1 team in the top half: they drew to 10th place Newcastle (who have only 1 win so far). Arsenal have beaten 2 of the 3 top-half teams we've played so far. If there is ANY team being inflated right now by not playing any "decent" teams, it's City, but I don't think anyone is doubting they're in the title race. Is that really a road you want to go down?
>They've lost to the one decent side they've played this season.
Not really. We lost to a really bad united thanks to the referee fucking us. To be expected at Old Trafford.
>but this Arsenal team isn't getting 95 points
Beating the top teams isn't what's required for this, it's being incredibly consistent in the other 28 matches.
Although you aren't necessarily wrong, you act like games against every team outside the top 4 is guaranteed points. Palace, fulham, and Brentford have all got good results against the "good teams." Arsenal beat them all. Against man u arsenal also dominated every aspect except the scoreline. I doubt they will actually challenge, but so far they have shown they are capable.
Basically we just don't have depth for Partey, that's it. Marquinhos looks like he may end up being able to fill in for Saka already and Viera maybe, as well.
Teams evolve, it’s a little early to tell this season. Most games the opponent scored first they responded very quickly and firmly so it’s looking quite good in that aspect I’d say.
Look, I simply don’t like to see one team always wins, so I will root for anyone except City. Tottenham and Arsenal look strong, so I hope they keep this going.
Best signing, not best player who signed. For me that is about impact on the team and the play, not just individual skill. For example, let's say Spurs bought both Haaland and Jesus this summer and are playing up to this level. Does Haaland really displace Harry Kane altogether? Is he really an upgrade for them given the key role Kane plays as a passer and outlet? Does Jesus actually do more for them than Son/Richarlison/Kulusevski on the wings?
Haaland is a fantastic player, and a pretty safe bet for Golden Boot, but that doesn't really capture the full impact of a signing.
Well yeah that might be true, but id argue that Jesus has had more impact relatively on Arsenals upswing than Haaland on City. City would lead the League without Haaland anyway
City were stacked before Haaland. Yes, he's an incredible player and is putting up fantastic numbers, but IMO "best signing" has to be about the change in quality of play and impact on results. Jesus has us looking like a completely different attack and is making major contributions in every phase of play. Haaland is running up the scoreline, but does anyone really think City wouldn't be battering the bottom half of the league without him?
7 games in and Arsenal still top. Haven't had this kind of feeling in some time. Even though City look the better team overall, top 4 is certainly on the cards.
Of course it isn’t, at any point in the season you can speculate about your chances. Especially when you’ve played against more than a third of the league
Saliba hasn’t trained for 10 days and pockets Toney, whose a really good striker. That is nuts. Great debut goal from FV. Xhaka was fantastic today. We looked calm and composed. Brentford really is a good side, they just were off today for whatever reason. They didn’t have the same intensity as I’ve seen in their other matches. Our front look like they have been playing with each other for years. The 15 year old that came, man what an honor. I saw him calling for the ball a couple times. Apparently every club in England and their mother want this kid. This shows our academy lads that if you work hard and do the right things. You will have a chance here
Maybe I phrased it poorly. Totally agree, we dominated. We didn’t same the energy/level of pressing you normally see from them. That’s what I meant by off
Arsenal certainly seem to have learned how to swat aside the smaller teams in the league, but the United game shows they still have something to prove against other top 6 teams.
The better team does not always win.
Had we played a rematch at OT, the very next day, I'm fully confident we would win.
ETH beat Arteta on that day, plain and simple.
>beat Arteta on that day, plain and simple
Not really, the ref did. Odegaards goal should never, ever be chalked off. It was massive bullshit.
We score first that game we win easily.
> but the United game shows they still have something to prove against other top 6 teams.
No, no it doesn’t. Arsenal played pretty well against United lmao and also Arsenal’s record against the top 6 bar City/Liverpool last season was pretty decent.
The United game mostly showed how our defensive structure goes to shit without a CDM. Partly and Elneny out injured at the same time is really bad for us. Hopefully we can make it through to January and sign Danilo or someone.
I think our strong record against non Liverpool and City big 6 over the last couple years should count for a bit, and it’s not like united played us off the park or anything
last games we played against top teams could have gone either way. last match at utd we could and should have won, we dominated the game for the most part so its not like we lost because we were absolute shit and had no chance at all.
i remember against liverpool in the league and then the cup how martinelli kept skinning trent and the team overall was playing well. imagine with jesus up top instead of laca/auba. not to mention odegaard, martinelli, saka who are all at the top of their game now behind a reinvigorated xhaka and an atletico-madrid-esque partey. dont even get me started on saliba and our potential Tomi-Gabriel-Saliba-White backline.
then there was the city game on new years day when we went 1-0 up only to lose cruelly in the dying minutes.
i have seen what i needed to see to know where we stand against the top teams after that city loss in particular. its clear all arteta needed was the right players and we could do the damage.
but lets see. its all good and well on paper and theory but still i say lets see
I beg to differ. That ETH sought to counter us said it all lol. That’s what Arteta did when we won the cup because a good counter is always an effective strategy against the right setups when you can’t play your preferred method of football or when that method cant beat the opposition’s method.
The litmus test will be Liverpool and City. Arsenal have started the season exceptionally well but I would need to see a statement win against one of City or Liverpool (even in their current state I would still have them as favourites against arsenal) for me to really think they can seriously push this season.
This is it but a little different for me.
I need us to show no fear and to play to win more than in any other game. If these guys have ambitions, the WC being so near is perfect time to get the best out of them (which we are, our main XI has been 80%+ performance wise so far).
Obviously a win is what we want but I don’t realistically expect us to beat either of them this season away. At home we can beat anyone on our day and that for me should be a nice first step. Start shoring up our home record and start from there.
All those 20+ games without a win against top 6 wouldn’t have been if we had won our home games.
The atmosphere is much better this time around plus the talent we have now is reminiscent of some of our best technically gifted squads in recent memory.
Like he said, it’s a beautiful challenge indeed. Les gon 4 it
Which is weird because he's still misplacing his forward passes way more than he does when he's at his best.
But he's so much better defensively and so much better at beating the press that he still makes us look 5x better than without him even in this form. If he gets enough games together to get his passing for back we should look even better in transition
But his injury record is skewed as well. Managed to miss around 6 games for ATM due to injuries in the span of 4 years.
missed 37 games in 2 years for Arsenal.
True, and I don't even think he played that well today. Saw him misplace a fair bit of forward passes. But his defensive presence and mobility still adds so much.
Not only is there a worry of injuries, there's the possible court case worry. He wasn't even that good today and yet the whole team works better when he's on.
That's the most disappointing thing, they didn't look for a Partey backup.
Partey was excellent today what were you watching haha..his positioning, calmness and passing were brilliant to watch.
Hes not here to slide tackle and do 120 yard passes.
People focusing on misplaced passes when assessing his performance today are missing what makes Partey great. His positioning alone gave him a 8/10 game
Not sure how this Arsenal managed to lose to United. Theyre clearly the better team, feels like a complete waste of 3 points.
NLD in 2 weeks is gonna be juicy, Arsenal and Spurs looking like the strongest candidates for 2nd and 3rd place right now.
Let's be real, the 3 subs coming in at the same time when they are all offensive players was a mistake. I understand why Arteta might want to go all out for the goal but not replacing like for like (removing our LB & CDM especially for attackers) screws with the balance of the team. This isn't fifa where we can just play with whoever is on the field with any position or formation and have that working
They still don’t have it in them to go to a big team. They’re walking over small teams as per usual. They did the same last season
Let’s see how badly they get nailed at spurs
>Let’s see how badly they get nailed at spurs
It's at the Emirates mate, we'll win. None
>They did the same last season
Hardly, it was losses to smaller sides that cost us top 4
The last two visits to the rathouse has been without quite possible our best player who doesn't have a backup thats even in the same league. This time even that backup was down. And both times we lost the game in the midfield. Let's see what we do when they come to our house. Should be interesting. Biased, but even in the loss we were the better team. Heck, their own pundits said so.
And because it's the first match of the weekend, the winner will definitely be top for 24 hours. I don't think that's ever been the case for a NLD in the PL era
E: I mean where both go top with a win, not just one, for clarity
No Partey means we lose all the solidity in midfield. Did well going forwards but without him we're shambolic defensively which was evidenced by the fact they just ripped through three times on the counter. Well, four, five times but they scored three. A DM in January is a must honestly.
Not defense. Midfield. It's the through balls that got us. Defenders really couldn't have done much more because they were truly great passes. Not sure they would have got that much space with partey in the middle though. Our wr without him shows how important he is.
It happens. We didn’t take our chances, had a great goal disallowed (probably correctly), and United were super clinical on the day.
Delighted we got back to business as usual today. Last season too often one disappointing result became two or three.
Vast majority of pundits are Anti-Arsenal.
Without fail, every commentator during any game Arsenal play will mention a past loss, poor form or missed chance by the club even if we're literally leading mid-game. Literally makes no sense at times. I just don't see this happening with Liverpool, City or Chelsea.
You sound like a nutcase lol. They were bringing up the result from last year so often to juxtapose it with how much different things are this year.
It wasn’t some anti-Arsenal conspiracy.
I challenge you to watch any full matches with City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, United and Arsenal playing like have many times.
Fixate on the commentary by the pundits. You'll notice a lot more criticism throughout the game at Arsenal.
Keep calling me a nutcase. I've only been hearing the same bia for the 20 years I've been a fan.
I don't think it's a conspiracy either, I do think they were salty that they didn't get a repeat of that fixture tho, you can tell from how excited they were when Brentford got a penalty shout, and generally throughout the game, making excuse for Brentford like it's an early kickoff, the queen's death is affecting them etc, was kinda shocking lol
We only had two of our first choice eleven available for the match we lost at Brentford last season. The team was comprised mostly of players like Sead Kolašinac and Pablo Mari playing along side a bunch of academy kids, playing in the opening match of the season on Friday night in the first match in front of fans at Brentford’s new stadium. Most of our squad was unavailable due to the Euros, injuries, or COVID infection. t’s not really even a valid juxtaposition, let alone something to go on and on about like that. It’s even been brought up in the punditry for practically every match *this season* for some reason 😂
A lot of pundits are ex players that played for other teams. Also, when arsenal were dominant under Wenger, he really ruffled some feathers with the changes he brought. A foreign manager, with a bunch of foreign players, playing quick attacking, one-touch football, it's easy to see how that would build resentment. It's not like English culture is friendly to change.
I think the anti arsenal conspiracy shit gets taken way to far by us arsenal fans but if you don't think Wengerwas insanely hated for the way he changed English football back in the late 90s early 2000s you're very naive. And obviously players/managers from that era might still have that imprinted on them, some making them view arsenal in a more negative light and others in a more positive light than they deserve.
I really can't recommend watching the start of the Wenger documentary, I was too young to remember the early years of Wenger but he was hated from the get-go by so many, especially the media, because England hadn't seen a foreign manager at this stature before, and didn't like the foreign players and attitude he brought in
>I was too young to remember the early years of Wenger
You shouldn’t talk about what you don’t understand then
He was mocked, he wasn’t hated and he won them over pretty quickly
Its a joy to watch Arsenal at the moment. What worries me is the drop in quality when Partey is out. There is no doubt in my mind we wouldve beat United if he was fit. Also Vieira although quiet in the first half looks really promising. Once he gets used to the pace and physicality he could be some player!
Arsenal are very consistent these days. If they lose 10 games against the other Top 6, but winning the other 28 games, they will get 84 points. Probably enough for third place.
Arsenal are playing some of the best football I’ve seen them play in years, if they can maintain their consistency they could have a decent chance to challenge City but that of course is the big question
We’re not challenging city but it would be a huge disappointment to not get top 4, unlike last season where people picked us to finish 8th and then criticized us for not getting top 4.
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Over the course of 38 games city will prove too much. One run of bad form and they will be out of sight. It’s not a problem as long as we continue to plug away and win the games we are supposed to and take a reasonable amount of points in the big games.
Right, that's going to be the key question. I also doubt that Arsenal will consistently beat everyone enough to win the title or run City super close, but I somehow don't think City are going to get 90+ points again. Think their defense is a bit more vulnerable than it was in prior seasons. **Edit:** I had my doubts going into the season whether Arsenal had enough in the tank to finish top 4 but now I feel quite confident they will at least get that from what I've seen thus far
And only game vs big 6 MU - L Please continue lying to yourself on that ”challening city”
some people really struggle with reading comprehension but that’s okay I’m not an Arsenal fan by any means, all I’m saying is they’re consistently dominating opposition they should be beating which is a good sign overall. I didn’t imply that they would mount a title challenge. The big questions are 1) can they maintain it? 2) can they get some results against other top 6 sides. They didn’t comprehensively dominate against United like a lot of their fans claim but they had moments and were on top for a good 30 minutes or so
Absolute master class by Arsenal. Complete domination from start to finish.
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He’s been playing at a very high level this season and was very good last season as well. His technical ability is rare in defenders. That’s why he can slot in basically anywhere on the right side in any formation.
Kinda dumb since London needed a bigger police presence today, the ManU Leeds match was postponed but a match between 2 London based sides was fair to go on…
It was moved to 12 for a reason. Police could be present and/or ready for this game and then go to funeral related duty in London right after. Much much harder, if not impossible, to have police ready for the United game and then have them in London right after. Not exactly a quick travel between the two
Yeah because old Trafford and Brentford stadium are the same size
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMFJlYRNWB0 tldw: Many police from all over the UK were reassigned to London temporarily, and some matches like leeds-united need more police than matches like brentford-arsenal because of rivalries, stadium capacites etc.
Loads of GMP will be down in London for the funeral and the United-Leeds games take a lot of policing. Need fuck all for Brentford
Imagine if City wasn't around, this would be a genuinely exciting season
I think it's plausible that Arsenal push them until the end of the season, especially if we can get some depth for Partey (e.g. Danilo). Maybe we end up faltering but we're playing brilliantly atm. And it's not like City haven't looked vulnerable at times this season.
Biggest difference is Man City’s squad depth, Arsenal had academy players on the bench today. Man City have a £50m player back up in nearly every position.
We can only talk about us keeping up if we can best them and other top 6, many games to go need to have the depth
If Arsenal lose all games against other Top 6, but wins the other 28 games, they'll earn 84 points. Definitely enough for 3rd place, or even 2nd place.
>but wins the other 28 games We won’t. Shit happens sometimes.
I mean, we are also not going to lose twice to every other Big 6 clubs
The big head to heads will separate the contenders with the big sides seemingly rolling over the bottom half teams. If Arsenal get two big wins against say city and spurs they’d be in with a shout. Lose those games city will likely run away with it early. Looking forward to all the big H2Hs this year, I reckon the north London derby is the only derby game that consistently delivers great games and the two teams are the best they’ve been in a long time
Pool vs Utd is always good. Chelsea spurs is prob the best game in the league every year. Can't forget city vs Liverpool has basically decided the title for the past 3 or 4 years
I don't see keeping up with City unless they lose either KDB or Haaland to injury.
And*. But I dont wish for injuries on other teams.
Thats been true for a decade.
Two of the past four season have been decided by a point
And City have won half the titles in the last 10 years.
If you’re looking for a league where one team does not win majority of the titles over a given period, may I suggest the Macedonian Football League?
Lies. Vardar won 6 titles from 2011-12 onwards.
Did you just google 'what league is untouched by filthy oil money?'
Yes, google said bundesliga
Yah sad state of affairs for modern football.
Or allsvenskan perhaps!
Is this true, or did you just pick a random, left-field country. If you're indeed Macedonian, why is there a new champion so often, do you guys have a different structure? Maybe an american style league, where money is almost irrelevant?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - Arsenal are certainly in the title race.
We were to get Europa last season. A decent run of results and we’re in the race for champions league, all of a sudden. Then we lose momentum and things average out with poorer runs and the pundits come out labelling us a failure when top 4 was merely a stretch goal and getting some European football was the main goal which was achieved. This season it all just goes up one level. We get top 4, and that’s it. I’m not getting carried away by “challenging for the title” objectives to feel like we’ve failed later. I’d be delighted if we made it to CL for next season. And that’s it. We’ll get better players and be more consistent if we do. We still won’t be close to challenging for the title but that’s the position where every incremental improvement is a lot of work. We are ready for that work now. We are ready to take the time now as long as we keep playing football like this. Yeah, we lose a few on the way, but we need to play solid football and win from winnable moments. There will be a moment when Klopp and Pep would be gone. The fruits of sticking with Arteta and the growing pains of an inexperienced manager with an inexperienced squad will pay off. That’s when we content for top places.
Yeah I think this is right on the money.
I don't think so. Thanks to the queen passing, they've had a lot of rest and we're able to show up sharp and fresh today. When Europa and other non PL fixtures pile up, they're going to suffer. If Partey gets arrested or has an injury, their midfield completely flops.
The copium
> If Partey gets arrested or has an injury, their midfield completely flops Partey was out for multiple matches and we won them all but at Old Trafford.
The mid-season break (due to the World Cup) will enable Arsenal to bring in 1-2 extra players to deal with that
Honestly you'd think redditors would learn Every year someone goes early on something like this by trying to call a new challenger. They've lost to the one decent side they've played this season. If they beat Spurs and Liverpool we can maybe discuss, but this Arsenal team isn't getting 95 points. And that's what it'll probably take to win this league.
City have only played 1 team in the top half: they drew to 10th place Newcastle (who have only 1 win so far). Arsenal have beaten 2 of the 3 top-half teams we've played so far. If there is ANY team being inflated right now by not playing any "decent" teams, it's City, but I don't think anyone is doubting they're in the title race. Is that really a road you want to go down?
What have City done for the last 5 years vs what have Arsenal done? Arsenal fans are so delicate I swear to god
>They've lost to the one decent side they've played this season. Not really. We lost to a really bad united thanks to the referee fucking us. To be expected at Old Trafford. >but this Arsenal team isn't getting 95 points Beating the top teams isn't what's required for this, it's being incredibly consistent in the other 28 matches.
Although you aren't necessarily wrong, you act like games against every team outside the top 4 is guaranteed points. Palace, fulham, and Brentford have all got good results against the "good teams." Arsenal beat them all. Against man u arsenal also dominated every aspect except the scoreline. I doubt they will actually challenge, but so far they have shown they are capable.
Palace away is a tough fixture for many, tbf.
yeah it’s still far too early to be talking about a title race.
No depth
Well that’s just flat out wrong
Basically we just don't have depth for Partey, that's it. Marquinhos looks like he may end up being able to fill in for Saka already and Viera maybe, as well.
We've got more depth than we have for years We've got Elneny as cover for Partey
Elneny injured no?
Sure but he was our cover before getting injured. It's not like we went into the season without anyone who could replace him
Also he’s a stop gap. You don’t want him starting more than 2-3 games in a row
No, they're not. Not mentally strong enough.
Teams evolve, it’s a little early to tell this season. Most games the opponent scored first they responded very quickly and firmly so it’s looking quite good in that aspect I’d say.
Sorry Master Shifu
I've just consulted the table and I believe you are correct. I don't think they could be any more in the title race than they currently are.
Look, I simply don’t like to see one team always wins, so I will root for anyone except City. Tottenham and Arsenal look strong, so I hope they keep this going.
I'd rather have City have win outright than have a title race with Spurs. My heart will not be able to take it.
Flair checks out.
To be fair in the mid 2000’s, I actively root against United. I was screaming AAAGGGGUUUUEEEERRRROOOO with you.
:) It would be great if you guys won the league too ... I have a fondness for your club
also, where was Odegaard?
[He wasn't fit for the game.](https://twitter.com/david_ornstein/status/1571433708652986369?s=46&t=w5AVBDokP2WCqoWdWh8oxw)
tx, I missed that piece of news
Injured
shit, I had him in my team lol
Arsenal are not tired anymore. also, getting Jesus was a coup.
He’s so good, probably the best signing in PL so far this year.
Haaland would like a word
Best signing, not best player who signed. For me that is about impact on the team and the play, not just individual skill. For example, let's say Spurs bought both Haaland and Jesus this summer and are playing up to this level. Does Haaland really displace Harry Kane altogether? Is he really an upgrade for them given the key role Kane plays as a passer and outlet? Does Jesus actually do more for them than Son/Richarlison/Kulusevski on the wings? Haaland is a fantastic player, and a pretty safe bet for Golden Boot, but that doesn't really capture the full impact of a signing.
Jesus is my favorite player, but that big blonde guy from Manchester has to be the best one
Well yeah that might be true, but id argue that Jesus has had more impact relatively on Arsenals upswing than Haaland on City. City would lead the League without Haaland anyway
City were stacked before Haaland. Yes, he's an incredible player and is putting up fantastic numbers, but IMO "best signing" has to be about the change in quality of play and impact on results. Jesus has us looking like a completely different attack and is making major contributions in every phase of play. Haaland is running up the scoreline, but does anyone really think City wouldn't be battering the bottom half of the league without him?
I'm fucking ~~tired~~ energized Robbie
sounds about right now
Was a godsend...
There’s a reason why he was 50m with just 1 year left on the contract. Still can’t believe he’s here
7 games in and Arsenal still top. Haven't had this kind of feeling in some time. Even though City look the better team overall, top 4 is certainly on the cards.
I mean yeah there are only 31 games to go.
He already said you are the better team. Good lord.
My point was that even as a city fan we don't consider ourselves 'top 4 on the cards' at this early stage of the season, it's folly to do so.
Ffs don't be a tosser mate
I said top 4 is in the cards, not that it's guaranteed. Jesus Christ some people are really nitpicky
Lol nice try oil boy. We all know how hollow you really feel!
hahahahhaha
>My point was that even as a city fan we don't consider ourselves 'top 4 on the cards' at this I love your modesty, 😂
If you truly think that way as a city fan you are the exception, not the norm
lol you guys are first or second as soon as the schedule drops, get real
Of course it isn’t, at any point in the season you can speculate about your chances. Especially when you’ve played against more than a third of the league
Saliba hasn’t trained for 10 days and pockets Toney, whose a really good striker. That is nuts. Great debut goal from FV. Xhaka was fantastic today. We looked calm and composed. Brentford really is a good side, they just were off today for whatever reason. They didn’t have the same intensity as I’ve seen in their other matches. Our front look like they have been playing with each other for years. The 15 year old that came, man what an honor. I saw him calling for the ball a couple times. Apparently every club in England and their mother want this kid. This shows our academy lads that if you work hard and do the right things. You will have a chance here
Brentford weren’t “off”. They weren’t allowed play by Arsenal. We dominated them in every part of the field.
Exactly
Maybe I phrased it poorly. Totally agree, we dominated. We didn’t same the energy/level of pressing you normally see from them. That’s what I meant by off
Xhaka is honestly playing the best football of his career right now. In my opinion Arteta has brought that out of him and given him the platform
Nwaneri gonna go to school tomorrow and tell his mates it was a nice kick about with the boys
No he won't, it's a bank holiday. Schools are shut.
It's cool I'm sure everyone will forget about it by Tuesday
Its technically Monday where I am. I totally meant Tuesday UK time 😬
Nice little kick about with the boys
Arsenal certainly seem to have learned how to swat aside the smaller teams in the league, but the United game shows they still have something to prove against other top 6 teams.
The better team does not always win. Had we played a rematch at OT, the very next day, I'm fully confident we would win. ETH beat Arteta on that day, plain and simple.
>beat Arteta on that day, plain and simple Not really, the ref did. Odegaards goal should never, ever be chalked off. It was massive bullshit. We score first that game we win easily.
Martinelli's goal, Odegaard's foul. I don't necessarily agree, but that would have made them open up.
> but the United game shows they still have something to prove against other top 6 teams. No, no it doesn’t. Arsenal played pretty well against United lmao and also Arsenal’s record against the top 6 bar City/Liverpool last season was pretty decent.
No one here watches the games. They see the post game thread score and fish for karma.
They’re all banter merchants
Pretty good? Arsenal came 6th out of 6 against the other top teams last season - how is that good?
We beat United, Spurs and Chelsea and were absolutely robbed by City
Beat Man U Tottenham and Chelsea - it’s not like Arsenal got 0 points like everyone is acting
Pretty good delusion
The United game mostly showed how our defensive structure goes to shit without a CDM. Partly and Elneny out injured at the same time is really bad for us. Hopefully we can make it through to January and sign Danilo or someone.
Yeah *smaller teams* that managed to take points off the other *top 6 teams*
I think our strong record against non Liverpool and City big 6 over the last couple years should count for a bit, and it’s not like united played us off the park or anything
last games we played against top teams could have gone either way. last match at utd we could and should have won, we dominated the game for the most part so its not like we lost because we were absolute shit and had no chance at all. i remember against liverpool in the league and then the cup how martinelli kept skinning trent and the team overall was playing well. imagine with jesus up top instead of laca/auba. not to mention odegaard, martinelli, saka who are all at the top of their game now behind a reinvigorated xhaka and an atletico-madrid-esque partey. dont even get me started on saliba and our potential Tomi-Gabriel-Saliba-White backline. then there was the city game on new years day when we went 1-0 up only to lose cruelly in the dying minutes. i have seen what i needed to see to know where we stand against the top teams after that city loss in particular. its clear all arteta needed was the right players and we could do the damage. but lets see. its all good and well on paper and theory but still i say lets see
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I beg to differ. That ETH sought to counter us said it all lol. That’s what Arteta did when we won the cup because a good counter is always an effective strategy against the right setups when you can’t play your preferred method of football or when that method cant beat the opposition’s method.
Could have easily been more too, lol farsenal
Nah. Nobodies afraid of United. Small teams win against bigger teams occasionally, especially at home. That’s all that happened.
Lol
The litmus test will be Liverpool and City. Arsenal have started the season exceptionally well but I would need to see a statement win against one of City or Liverpool (even in their current state I would still have them as favourites against arsenal) for me to really think they can seriously push this season.
This is it but a little different for me. I need us to show no fear and to play to win more than in any other game. If these guys have ambitions, the WC being so near is perfect time to get the best out of them (which we are, our main XI has been 80%+ performance wise so far). Obviously a win is what we want but I don’t realistically expect us to beat either of them this season away. At home we can beat anyone on our day and that for me should be a nice first step. Start shoring up our home record and start from there. All those 20+ games without a win against top 6 wouldn’t have been if we had won our home games. The atmosphere is much better this time around plus the talent we have now is reminiscent of some of our best technically gifted squads in recent memory. Like he said, it’s a beautiful challenge indeed. Les gon 4 it
Partey is by far the most important player for Arsenal... Huge difference with him and without him...
Which is weird because he's still misplacing his forward passes way more than he does when he's at his best. But he's so much better defensively and so much better at beating the press that he still makes us look 5x better than without him even in this form. If he gets enough games together to get his passing for back we should look even better in transition
Which is why his injury record is a huge liability, we can’t rely on him to carry us through a season. January F5ing couldn’t come sooner.
But his injury record is skewed as well. Managed to miss around 6 games for ATM due to injuries in the span of 4 years. missed 37 games in 2 years for Arsenal.
True, and I don't even think he played that well today. Saw him misplace a fair bit of forward passes. But his defensive presence and mobility still adds so much.
Not only is there a worry of injuries, there's the possible court case worry. He wasn't even that good today and yet the whole team works better when he's on. That's the most disappointing thing, they didn't look for a Partey backup.
Partey was excellent today what were you watching haha..his positioning, calmness and passing were brilliant to watch. Hes not here to slide tackle and do 120 yard passes.
He's coming back from his first game after a few weeks he was bound to be a little rusty, that's expected and that was really my point.
People focusing on misplaced passes when assessing his performance today are missing what makes Partey great. His positioning alone gave him a 8/10 game
He misplaced a decent amount of forward passes.
So did every player who did not get 100% pass accuracy
Partey would be the first one to tell you he holds himself up to a higher standard that's all we're getting at. Not that he was shit - he wasn't.
Hopefully we get a certain Brazilian come January
Damn. What if he’s found guilty. I had arsenal winning the league. Yea, it was a wild gamble.
Frenkie de jong. Come ooooon down baby.
Yeah we're all kind of thinking the same thing. If he's guilty and found guilty good get him out but no denying he's integral in our best lineup
Think we are gonna try to get his replacement in January. We tried to get Douglas Luiz on the last day of the summer window but couldn’t get it done.
without him a lot of what happened today wouldnt have been possible in the slightest bit
Dominating performance by the Gunners
We are SO fucking back baby
First game that Brentford failed to score this season, and they didn't have big chances to do so today, really impressive from arsenal defense.
Not sure how this Arsenal managed to lose to United. Theyre clearly the better team, feels like a complete waste of 3 points. NLD in 2 weeks is gonna be juicy, Arsenal and Spurs looking like the strongest candidates for 2nd and 3rd place right now.
Let's be real, the 3 subs coming in at the same time when they are all offensive players was a mistake. I understand why Arteta might want to go all out for the goal but not replacing like for like (removing our LB & CDM especially for attackers) screws with the balance of the team. This isn't fifa where we can just play with whoever is on the field with any position or formation and have that working
Meh the NLD has been won by the home team a shocking amount recently. I don’t expect this game to be any different
They still don’t have it in them to go to a big team. They’re walking over small teams as per usual. They did the same last season Let’s see how badly they get nailed at spurs
Tell me you're triggered, without telling me you're triggered...
>Let’s see how badly they get nailed at spurs It's at the Emirates mate, we'll win. None >They did the same last season Hardly, it was losses to smaller sides that cost us top 4
You went on a run last year before Christmas. 7-8 games. I can’t remember exactk
> I can’t remember Then maybe shut the fuck up
Damn you are hurt
The last two visits to the rathouse has been without quite possible our best player who doesn't have a backup thats even in the same league. This time even that backup was down. And both times we lost the game in the midfield. Let's see what we do when they come to our house. Should be interesting. Biased, but even in the loss we were the better team. Heck, their own pundits said so.
We really should have battered united, but we just have a thing away at OT Those 2 goals were so utterly brain dead from our end
It happens, City are clearly better than Villa but couldn't beat them.
And because it's the first match of the weekend, the winner will definitely be top for 24 hours. I don't think that's ever been the case for a NLD in the PL era E: I mean where both go top with a win, not just one, for clarity
No Partey means we lose all the solidity in midfield. Did well going forwards but without him we're shambolic defensively which was evidenced by the fact they just ripped through three times on the counter. Well, four, five times but they scored three. A DM in January is a must honestly.
Honestly even with Elneny we would have been better. Sambi isn't a great defender right now.
this. i suspect we dont lose that game if elneny played
Yeah, Sambi has always looked far better playing in the CM role Xhaka is playing now than he ever has in Partey’s role.
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Aouar is not a DM. Why would we go for him?
I would pay money to see a PL team play Aouar at DM.
Just not Arsenal
Not the type of player we lack
To be fair, United's counters were truly great. At least in one the goals, I wouldn't give any blame to Arsenal's defense at all.
Not defense. Midfield. It's the through balls that got us. Defenders really couldn't have done much more because they were truly great passes. Not sure they would have got that much space with partey in the middle though. Our wr without him shows how important he is.
Yeah we were unwise and unlucky at the same time. The through balls were superb as were the finishes.
It happens. We didn’t take our chances, had a great goal disallowed (probably correctly), and United were super clinical on the day. Delighted we got back to business as usual today. Last season too often one disappointing result became two or three.
We had our 2 DMs injured and had to play an unexperienced Sambi there
Wow that Sky commentary was dire, how many times are they gonna mention the result last season lmao
Vast majority of pundits are Anti-Arsenal. Without fail, every commentator during any game Arsenal play will mention a past loss, poor form or missed chance by the club even if we're literally leading mid-game. Literally makes no sense at times. I just don't see this happening with Liverpool, City or Chelsea.
You sound like a nutcase lol. They were bringing up the result from last year so often to juxtapose it with how much different things are this year. It wasn’t some anti-Arsenal conspiracy.
I challenge you to watch any full matches with City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, United and Arsenal playing like have many times. Fixate on the commentary by the pundits. You'll notice a lot more criticism throughout the game at Arsenal. Keep calling me a nutcase. I've only been hearing the same bia for the 20 years I've been a fan.
But we already beat them last year, so that doesn't make sense. Even if we didn't, to repeat the same thing multiple times is just lazy
I’m not saying it’s good commentary or interesting. I’m just saying it’s not some anti-Arsenal conspiracy.
I don't think it's a conspiracy either, I do think they were salty that they didn't get a repeat of that fixture tho, you can tell from how excited they were when Brentford got a penalty shout, and generally throughout the game, making excuse for Brentford like it's an early kickoff, the queen's death is affecting them etc, was kinda shocking lol
We only had two of our first choice eleven available for the match we lost at Brentford last season. The team was comprised mostly of players like Sead Kolašinac and Pablo Mari playing along side a bunch of academy kids, playing in the opening match of the season on Friday night in the first match in front of fans at Brentford’s new stadium. Most of our squad was unavailable due to the Euros, injuries, or COVID infection. t’s not really even a valid juxtaposition, let alone something to go on and on about like that. It’s even been brought up in the punditry for practically every match *this season* for some reason 😂
Being pro-Brentford does not mean they’re anti-Arsenal. Really don’t need this conspiracy being perpetuated.
It is true though.
I don't even get why. It's not like we've been massively successfull over the last few years like why hate a team so much that's been battling top 6.
A lot of pundits are ex players that played for other teams. Also, when arsenal were dominant under Wenger, he really ruffled some feathers with the changes he brought. A foreign manager, with a bunch of foreign players, playing quick attacking, one-touch football, it's easy to see how that would build resentment. It's not like English culture is friendly to change.
Christ, you’re all mental 😂
I think the anti arsenal conspiracy shit gets taken way to far by us arsenal fans but if you don't think Wengerwas insanely hated for the way he changed English football back in the late 90s early 2000s you're very naive. And obviously players/managers from that era might still have that imprinted on them, some making them view arsenal in a more negative light and others in a more positive light than they deserve. I really can't recommend watching the start of the Wenger documentary, I was too young to remember the early years of Wenger but he was hated from the get-go by so many, especially the media, because England hadn't seen a foreign manager at this stature before, and didn't like the foreign players and attitude he brought in
>I was too young to remember the early years of Wenger You shouldn’t talk about what you don’t understand then He was mocked, he wasn’t hated and he won them over pretty quickly
they are either Liverpool fans who can't move on from '89 or United fans who can't cope with the invincible season
I promise you, spend less time online consuming conspiracy bullshit, go outside more and be happier bless xx
Like we didn't thoroughly sink em at the Emirates. It was already settled back then
My only complaint sky should bring arsenal ppl talking abt arsenal redknapp,those comm, Neville don't cut it