Match Reaction v Southampton (away)

[selassie]

I like Guen. I mean, he’s not a particularly great player but I like the fact he’s got a bit of fire in him and clearly he’s a massive troll.

Hopefully he can develop into a more rounded, polished CM. If he does he could nail down that position for years.

Honestly not sure about him, he’s a kid still and definitely has a high ceiling. I just think his misdemeanours are stunting his development. He has shown flashes of brilliance with some of his displays. He’s technically pretty good too. But...he can be a real arsehole to the detriment of the team and he’s not good enough to get away with it, he needs us more than we need him and that says a lot about him given we are a bag of shite these days.

I personally think our current situation means we will suffer with a few of the young guys coming through, we have a good group but they ain’t going to develop under the likes of Luiz, Mustafi & Xhaka, not all of them anyway.

[Letters]

Seen some brief highlights. Hard to get a sense of how the game went but overall it looked like a game which could have gone either way.
This is the trouble with pubbing through games, some will go your way but a lot won't, we need to start dominating games again.

[Marc Overmars]

Seen some brief highlights. Hard to get a sense of how the game went but overall it looked like a game which could have gone either way.
This is the trouble with pubbing through games, some will go your way but a lot won't, we need to start dominating games again.

I think that is the biggest task facing Arteta. This team rarely appears to have control over any game and of course as you say that will throw up a mixed bag of results.

Teams should not be confident of getting at us, they should instead be wondering how to stop us. Once that respect is earned then we will start to move forward.

For all the best teams half the job is already done before a ball is kicked, because the pub teams are shit scared to have a go.

[Letters]

Exactly that. I remember Parlour saying that back in the day he'd be lining up in the tunnel and he'd see in the other team's players eyes that they knew they'd lose. We've lost that.

[Globalgunner]

Southampton are gash. Should have been a stroll but we managed to clunk our way to a win. Auba and Eddie passing simple chances to put each other through. Xhaka had a reasonably good game, but like I said the opposition was mediocre. If this is anything like our starting team next season we are royally fked. Other teams will get better, We will just stagnate. The defence looks ok though, Still hate the sight of Mustafi and Kola is another colossal waste of space. Rakitic and Partey for CM pls, job done.

[I am invisible]

Jury's still out on Guendouzi for me - there's definitely a talented player there, but I still can't quite work out what kind of midfielder he actually is, or where he fits?

His attitude definitely needs reining in, though, as it seems to spill out everywhere, not just in matches. Not sure he deserves any particular praise for standing up for Leno? I didn't watch the game, but from what I've read it sounds like the only player who said anything to Maupay when it actually happened... was Leno! From his stretcher! Mostly it sounds like Guendouzi just started gobbing off after the final whistle.

He seems like a bit of a hot head, if I'm being honest - if I was an opposition player and I saw our players going into meltdown and resorting to name-calling then I'd know I'd gotten to them. What we need is cold anger, not players flying about in wild rages - don't get mad, get even.

[I am invisible]

Seen some brief highlights. Hard to get a sense of how the game went but overall it looked like a game which could have gone either way.
This is the trouble with pubbing through games, some will go your way but a lot won't, we need to start dominating games again.

I don't see us dominating games again until next seaso, tbh, and even then it could be well into next season. Sure, we might have the odd game where the stars align and we look like world-beaters, but if we want to see it happen consistently then Arteta will need a chance to go shopping for the attributes he needs to be able to implement his own ideas in a meaningful way.

For now, I think it's more about a) giving the players a crash-course in shape and structure to get them through this season, and b) laying down a marker about standards and culture. Part of the reason why I think we've looked so pubbish at times is because Arteta has been so ruthlessly consistent about benching anyone who he feels isn't giving Arsenal 100%. I'm fully behind that, but the the problem is it means a lot of chopping and changing, and having to replace big names with less talented or very inexperienced players, so it comes at the expense of fluidity and consistency on the pitch.

Needs to be done though, and you can't back down once you start, otherwise the players will walk all over you (see Emery's pitiful attempt to oust Özil and Mustafi at the start of the season) - it might cost us results and pretty football in the short-term, but in the long-run I think Arteta sees it as more far important to hammer that message home (especially now we're not really playing for anything): you either give this club 100% or you're out.