But I’ll tell you what, If we get four points from City and Chelsea and also beat Sevilla and raise our overall level…I’ll be happy to say I’ve been precipitous.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday or maybe Sunday
Saturday
But I’ll tell you what, If we get four points from City and Chelsea and also beat Sevilla and raise our overall level…I’ll be happy to say I’ve been precipitous.
The league table after 7 games doesn’t tell you who you’ve played.Originally Posted by Letters
You can of course only beat who is in front of you, but we failed to do that twice in seven games…both very winnable games against london opposition (which we took apart at the joints last season)
Honestly this is getting us nowhere. Go back, watch the games in full and then tell me or anyone else that we are being silly. Because then you’ll have the full picture on which to base that assertion.
Watching the games wouldn’t tell me anything I don’t know.
Performances have been patchy. We aren’t creating enough chances.
If that continues then we aren’t going to keep winning, and the number of goals we concede at home is frankly ridiculous. Arteta is playing people in weird positions and he’s run Saka in to the ground.
I’m not disputing any of that.
But I’ve been following football for long enough that I know that form can change during a season, there are ups and downs in every season. I don’t accept that the patchy performances so far are definite proof of anything. We’re in touch, that’s all you need to be for the first half of the season. The title is won in the run in. I wouldn’t put my money on us being champions right now, but neither would I write us off. There’s too much football to be played
As not just me but I’m sure many people have pointed out in one way or another, it’s not about poor form. It’s about a system being used by the coach that is not working.
You speak about the patchy performances, lack of chance creation as if it’s a complete mystery how it’s come about. It isn’t…
It’s not form that needs to change, it’s the way we are set up. Almost four years of Arteta should tell you that two things cause him to change - player injury or a multitude of defeats that it’s taken to get him to understand that no matter how many times you insist a large square can get through a small circular hole…it can’t.
Guardiola is the same, I don’t think the system he plays is particularly conducive to the best outcome but he has spectacular ball players all over his team, players that will attack but will also drop deep to receive the ball. We don’t…Arteta tried playing Odegaard in central midfield and it’s been a disaster, same with Smith Rowe, same with Vieira, same with Havertz.
Odegaard is a very good player but his position is in the hole, not on the right side of an attacking midfield two.
Martinelli before he was injured was isolated because he doesn’t come and get the ball deep, and last season got possession as a result of give and go’s with Xhaka and to a lesser extent Zinchenko. Now? He’s waiting on Havertz to find him…and you will see when Havertz plays that significantly fewer attacks come down the left hand side, which makes Saka our primary attacking outlet and makes us even more toothless when he has to come off injured.
This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature of the system Arteta is playing. If you play something for two or three games and it’s not working ok you can maybe give it time. But 11 games in, it’s not working and you can tell it simply cannot work because we don’t have the same players Man City do to emulate their style.
Rice is not Rodri, Vieira is not Bernardo Silva, Odegaard is not De Bruyne etc
Arteta as I say isn’t stupid, but he is extremely stubborn. You tell him he can’t walk on water, and he will spend all day climbing out of his swimming pool as a result of an act of failed defiance and preparing to go in again because this time he will get it right
Almost there Letters, two down one to go in the triumvirate
It’s fair to say I’d have absolutely taken four points from city and Chelsea games all day long.
Not sure today counts as raising our overall level though. That said you can’t knock coming back from 2-0 down
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 21-10-2023 at 06:37 PM.
IMO it's pointless beating City and drawing to such a rubbish side like Chelsea due to a clear lack of motivation, which clearly is the coach's job....but hey, that's my opinion.Almost there Letters, two down one to go in the triumvirate
It’s fair to say I’d have absolutely taken four points from city and Chelsea games all day long.
Not sure today counts as raising our overall level though. That said you can’t knock coming back from 2-0 down
Not looking good for you and Raya, Mikel…
Don’t get me wrong, everything Arteta got right two weeks ago he got wrong today, but the players despite a rather wretched performance got a draw which I’d have taken at the beginning. Stamford Bridge has long been a tricky venue for us and to be unbeaten in five matches there is pretty decent.
It’s not that these results have suddenly changed my view on Arteta’s shortcomings but I’m not going to lie, they are results that I in no way was expecting us to get given how we’ve been playing at times (I thought before a fortnight ago we’d lose to city and Chelsea). I think as Chelsea grow in confidence they are going to be a tough team to beat…I think they are still ropey defensively and have very little up front but they have in personnel probably one of the strongest squad of midfielders in the league arguably.
Fucking Raya
ArtetaAlmost there Letters, two down one to go in the triumvirate
I would too but we were a bit lucky against City and yesterday pissed me off a bit.It’s fair to say I’d have absolutely taken four points from city and Chelsea games all day long.
As per I didn’t watch, and I guess if you’re 2-0 down away from home with 15 minutes left then a point is a good outcome. But it sounds like the performance was a mess (that didn’t come across in the highlights). And I do not understand Arteta’s boner for Raya who is not an upgrade on Ramsdale. Although the latter is probably on parental leave so possible he would have played yesterday otherwise.
Overall I’d say your concerns remain valid. But I do also think that up till Christmas you just have to hang in there and stay in the race. The real work starts after that in terms of a title challenge. So far we are doing our bit and that’s mostly what I care about.
This difficult run of games was said to be a test of our credentials and I’d say we’ve pretty much passed the test. Maybe not with flying colours but we’re still up there. Concerns remain about our ability to last the course but there hasn’t been a standout team yet. We are in the mix which is all you can ask at this stage.
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