Chelsea vs Arsenal 11.11.2024 - KO: 16:00

[selassie]

I think it will be Xmas time/new year where we can properly assesses where we are

I don’t think City are going just through a bad patch, they are heamoraging. Take away losing Rodri for the season which is a far bigger loss than Odegaard for them. Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Stones, Ederson and Walker are not the players they were…Grealish and Foden are off the boil and they can’t just buy their way out of their problem

Liverpool? I’m sorry they just don’t impress me. I think they won against a wasteful Villa team last night…with the exception of us they haven’t really been tested. They were lucky to beat Chelsea and get a point from us, and aside from that they’ve had by far the easiest fixtures.

We’ve been in shocking form since the last international break. And we definitely, definitely need a striker. There’s no way we can win the league without signing one in January. We’ve ridden our luck at times but so have a lot of teams. That’s my takeaway that no side has looked good, and because of an obdurate manager we could be in danger of missing the open opportunity to get to the top of the pack

Yeah you are probably right, at the very least we need to go on a deep winning run and it needs to start now.

I agree with you regarding City, they basically need to rebuild parts of their squad but that doesn't happen overnight. I still think they have the potential to go on a deep winning run assuming they improve, i mean they will improve, as will we.

Yep, Liverpool are being talked up but they haven't even been that good, I wasn't impressed with them against us and I've seen bit and pieces of their other games and they have not looked convincing. Despite that, 9 points is a lot to make up on them.

[selassie]

Not worth thinking about the title at this stage, we’ve lost too much ground but granted we’ve had a lot of difficult games.

It is absolutely essential now that we put together a run of wins from now into the new year.

Aye, it's still early days but we have given ourselves a mountain to climb now. I still think we are capable of going on a deep winning run now that the difficulty of our fixtures has eased up. Basically the target should be to win the remaining games this year, easier said than done, but it is definitely achievable if we can keep our main starting XI fit.

[Letters]

]It’s all context as well, had we not lost the last two games this would have been a decent result

I agree with this.
In isolation it's a pretty decent point against a side who have been doing well so far this season. And while we're here, the points vs Liverpool while a better result for them than us, wasn't a disaster either. But in the context of the other games we've lost and the bad run we've been on it's another 2 points dropped which we might not be able to afford.

That said, our season has been front loaded with difficult away games and Liverpool's hasn't. Up to and including City we were dealing with them very well, since then not so much. If Liverpool keep getting points at the rate they have then they'll end up with about 97, I cannot see them getting anywhere near that. They're going to start dropping points sooner or later, probably sooner. We've got a much kinder run up to the end of the calendar year and our run in is pretty good too so let's see where we are at the turn of the year. I don't think I'm going to throw in the towel just yet and while I am increasingly thinking Arteta has taken us as far as he can (which, it has to be admitted, is pretty far) I think we need to get further into this season before pushing any panic buttons.

The thing which concerns me is we don't have enough up front - which we haven't had for a few seasons, and continuing to not address that feels pretty negligent - and we can no longer rely on our defence to keep clean sheets. It's not an ideal combination but last 2 games (which, as is traditional now, I haven't seen) we have played a lot better by all accounts. But for a soft penalty we could have got a very creditable point in Milan and today's result was pretty good in isolation.

I don't agree Arteta is a dragging factor - I mean, we are miles ahead of where we are since he took over. And yes we've spent big but other clubs have too for much poorer return. He's taken us a long way in terms of squad cohesion and restoring the relationship between the club and the fanbase. And were it not for the City juggernaut we'd have at least one title under him, maybe two. I'm not sure he can push us over the line to land a really major trophy but I guess he deserves a bit longer to indicate otherwise. If we don't get a run of results up to Christmas given the fixtures we have then it will be very Arteta Out for me.

[selassie]

I agree with this.
In isolation it's a pretty decent point against a side who have been doing well so far this season. And while we're here, the points vs Liverpool while a better result for them than us, wasn't a disaster either. But in the context of the other games we've lost and the bad run we've been on it's another 2 points dropped which we might not be able to afford.

That said, our season has been front loaded with difficult away games and Liverpool's hasn't. Up to and including City we were dealing with them very well, since then not so much. If Liverpool keep getting points at the rate they have then they'll end up with about 97, I cannot see them getting anywhere near that. They're going to start dropping points sooner or later, probably sooner. We've got a much kinder run up to the end of the calendar year and our run in is pretty good too so let's see where we are at the turn of the year. I don't think I'm going to throw in the towel just yet and while I am increasingly thinking Arteta has taken us as far as he can (which, it has to be admitted, is pretty far) I think we need to get further into this season before pushing any panic buttons.

The thing which concerns me is we don't have enough up front - which we haven't had for a few seasons, and continuing to not address that feels pretty negligent - and we can no longer rely on our defence to keep clean sheets. It's not an ideal combination but last 2 games (which, as is traditional now, I haven't seen) we have played a lot better by all accounts. But for a soft penalty we could have got a very creditable point in Milan and today's result was pretty good in isolation.

I don't agree Arteta is a dragging factor - I mean, we are miles ahead of where we are since he took over. And yes we've spent big but other clubs have too for much poorer return. He's taken us a long way in terms of squad cohesion and restoring the relationship between the club and the fanbase. And were it not for the City juggernaut we'd have at least one title under him, maybe two. I'm not sure he can push us over the line to land a really major trophy but I guess he deserves a bit longer to indicate otherwise. If we don't get a run of results up to Christmas given the fixtures we have then it will be very Arteta Out for me.

Arteta and Edu could and should have done more to improve the offensive side of the team in the Summer, Arteta still has a chance to do so in January though I am pretty sure the main targets won't be available at any price.

I am still sitting on the fence with Arteta, I don't think he is the dragging factor, but I'm also not convinced he has what it takes to take us over the line. Last season we almost got their but that was after making a bit of a mess of the first half of the season. The same thing could well happen this season if we sort ourselves out, but is that really acceptable? We are constantly in this cycle of giving ourselves too much to do when we all see the quality of this team, they finished last season like a title winner. I realise there are levels to this, and many things make us the team we are, but is another season of falling short really acceptable if we don't win a trophy elsewhere?

Arteta does deserve a bit of time simply for the work he has done to date, but another season trophyless without a credible title challenge should raise a lot of questions about whether he is right man for the club going forward.

My expectations going into this season were title winner / title challenge, given the squad we have now and our past few seasons I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation. At the very least I honestly expected / want / hoped for a title challenge and a domestic trophy.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I agree with this.
In isolation it's a pretty decent point against a side who have been doing well so far this season. And while we're here, the points vs Liverpool while a better result for them than us, wasn't a disaster either. But in the context of the other games we've lost and the bad run we've been on it's another 2 points dropped which we might not be able to afford.

That said, our season has been front loaded with difficult away games and Liverpool's hasn't. Up to and including City we were dealing with them very well, since then not so much. If Liverpool keep getting points at the rate they have then they'll end up with about 97, I cannot see them getting anywhere near that. They're going to start dropping points sooner or later, probably sooner. We've got a much kinder run up to the end of the calendar year and our run in is pretty good too so let's see where we are at the turn of the year. I don't think I'm going to throw in the towel just yet and while I am increasingly thinking Arteta has taken us as far as he can (which, it has to be admitted, is pretty far) I think we need to get further into this season before pushing any panic buttons.

The thing which concerns me is we don't have enough up front - which we haven't had for a few seasons, and continuing to not address that feels pretty negligent - and we can no longer rely on our defence to keep clean sheets. It's not an ideal combination but last 2 games (which, as is traditional now, I haven't seen) we have played a lot better by all accounts. But for a soft penalty we could have got a very creditable point in Milan and today's result was pretty good in isolation.

I don't agree Arteta is a dragging factor - I mean, we are miles ahead of where we are since he took over. And yes we've spent big but other clubs have too for much poorer return. He's taken us a long way in terms of squad cohesion and restoring the relationship between the club and the fanbase. And were it not for the City juggernaut we'd have at least one title under him, maybe two. I'm not sure he can push us over the line to land a really major trophy but I guess he deserves a bit longer to indicate otherwise. If we don't get a run of results up to Christmas given the fixtures we have then it will be very Arteta Out for me.

I think he very much is a drag factor.

I think we’ve a set of excellent players, but it’s ridiculous that when you look at the money we have spent and less than a third has been spent on attacking or creative players. We also set up in a way that’s not getting the best out of these players

The left sided inverted full back why?

Playing Rice in almost an attacking midfield role why?

He experiments with the side and doubles down when it clearly doesn’t work. Playing Havertz in midfield.

It’s called being “Galaxy Brained” where he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.

He doesn’t rotate and we risk injuries to our best players

He falls out with players

I don’t know how good this bald Dutchman is at Liverpool. But what he seems to be getting right so far is not to fuck around too much. Keep it simple

[Letters]

I think he very much is a drag factor.

I know you do, but we got 89 points last season.
If Arteta is a drag factor then that implies we'd have got well into the 90s with a better manager which given our lack of a proper striker I just don't buy.
But I do think he's probably taken us as far as he can.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I know you do, but we got 89 points last season.
If Arteta is a drag factor then that implies we'd have got well into the 90s with a better manager which given our lack of a proper striker I just don't buy.
But I do think he's probably taken us as far as he can.

The lack of a proper striker is one of the key reasons why he’s a drag factor

[Marc Overmars]

We dropped points in only 10 games last season and we’re already at 6 now. I guess you can attribute that to the fixture difficulty so far but dropping points from winning positions in the big games is something we rarely did last season, more often than not we got the job done when it mattered. This season we have regressed and are not the same team, it is messy and not anywhere near as ruthless.

We’ll know for sure after the break if this team can challenge again because if we don’t string together some wins it’s almost certainly over regardless of what Liverpool are doing.

[HCZ_Reborn]

We dropped points in only 10 games last season and we’re already at 6 now. I guess you can attribute that to the fixture difficulty so far but dropping points from winning positions in the big games is something we rarely did last season, more often than not we got the job done when it mattered. This season we have regressed and are not the same team, it is messy and not anywhere near as ruthless.

We’ll know for sure after the break if this team can challenge again because if we don’t string together some wins it’s almost certainly over regardless of what Liverpool are doing.

Spurs at home we dropped points from a winning position, as we did against Liverpool at Anfield

Also the fact is, I’d say it’s hugely unlikely that the team that wins the title will do so with the same high points total as in the last two seasons.

[Marc Overmars]

Forgot about that Spurs game. 3 big games though we’ve failed to see out so far and imagine it won’t stop here.

Yeah unless Liverpool go all peak Klopp I think the title can possibly be won with less than 90 points this season. Whether we will sort ourselves out to be in that conversation though, I don’t know now.