So many issues today.
1) how did Westwood stay on the field? Of Xhaka or Gabriel elbow a player in the face, that would have been a straight red never mind a second yellow. How did Lennon and Pieters not get yellow cards for multiple fouls?? The refs in England are just so so bad. Meanwhile, Liverpool get the softest of penalties that even Liverpool fans on BBC live text say was never a penalty and the Oxs goal is allowed despite Firmino being offside and trying to play the ball. We get absolutely nothing from the refs whilst every opponent gets a significant dose of assistance.
2) Arteta and the board need to take a serious look at themselves. We have known we need a striker since Aubas form took a nose dive and Lacazette forgot that scoring is a requirement to be a striker. He is finished when it comes to goalscoring and we needed a replacement this month for sure. Considering we knew this in November/December, it it gross negligence that we are 23 days into the window with no new players in. Nketiah is absolutely dross and yet we hear Arteta singing his praises. We could have won games if he knew how to head a ball.. We also have known we needed a replacement for Xhaka (hence the almost sale to Roma) and we knew we needed cover for January. Lokonga is too young to play without an experienced player next to him. He looks worse than he did earlier this season and looks shot of confidence.
3) Arteta needs to sort out the discipline. Especially as it looks like we are targeted for soft yellow cards. Gabriel, Xhaka and Partey have all fallen foul of this but ffs...get them to be more controlled. 14 red cards in 2 years is a massive problems. We seriously needed Xhaka today so that we could push Odegaard up and have ESR as an impact sub. We cannot play with all 4 of Saka, ESR, Martinelli and Odegaard. Especially with Lokonga as the dm.
4) I wrote in another article about how mad I get at the slowness of movement. Our passes are slow and hit so softly. We play at walking pace for much of the game...and this is not acceptable when chasing a goal. Something has to change.
All in all, we won't get top 4. We have too many of these games. Couple that with the pathetic showing in a semi final again and getting knocked out of the FA cup for the second year in a row in the 3rd round, there is no reason he should retain his job.. I would NOT extend his contract until the season is over and only if we get top 4.
Watching Us is Frustrating
posted on 23/1/22
We are not getting top 4. We will finish 6th or 7th at best
The squad isn't good enough and we have a manager who isn't really capable of turning things around.
posted on 23/1/22
Lacazette has turned back into Crapazette when it comes to finishing chances. Thats against Liverpool and Burnley now
posted on 23/1/22
comment by AMG (U22768)
posted 1 minute ago
Lacazette has turned back into Crapazette when it comes to finishing chances. Thats against Liverpool and Burnley now
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Turned? No, this is nothing new.
posted on 23/1/22
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 17 minutes ago
We are not getting top 4. We will finish 6th or 7th at best
The squad isn't good enough and we have a manager who isn't really capable of turning things around.
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I am FAR from Arteta's biggest fan, but I can see what he has done to improve the squad. The issue is that so much of the problem with the team is easily fixed if he w were not such an arrogant pr1kc. The issue with AMN...sell him for 20 mill in the summer or really give him a chance. Nketiah is useless yet is a favoured child. Xhaka should have been sold for 13 mill in the summer...but got a new contract. And now he is going for unavailable players in Vlahovic and Arthur. I would get Schick who had been scoring for fun or David at Lille. Renato Sanches is actually available and potentially Guimaraes...it makes zero sense.
I am just so sick of us being 2 or 3 players away from a credible top 4 challenge.
posted on 23/1/22
I think our English players need to be more vocal towards the referee.I have noted with other teams when their players are fouled it’s the English players who surround the referee e.g if it’s Liverpool you’ll find Henderson,Milner etc in Tottenshiet you’ll see Kane and Dier doing it.I don’t want to say the referee are racist but they seem to listen to there fellow countrymen.Also before and English player is red carded they would need to commit and outright foul that even the ref can’t get away without a yellow! I think referees are still hang up to the days Arsenal had few to no English players in our team during Wengers time and the refs still view us with that resentment!
We also need Arteta to come out and call out the refereeing no matter the repercussions!
posted on 23/1/22
comment by KenAfroGunner (U7570)
posted 2 minutes ago
I think our English players need to be more vocal towards the referee.I have noted with other teams when their players are fouled it’s the English players who surround the referee e.g if it’s Liverpool you’ll find Henderson,Milner etc in Tottenshiet you’ll see Kane and Dier doing it.I don’t want to say the referee are racist but they seem to listen to there fellow countrymen.Also before and English player is red carded they would need to commit and outright foul that even the ref can’t get away without a yellow! I think referees are still hang up to the days Arsenal had few to no English players in our team during Wengers time and the refs still view us with that resentment!
We also need Arteta to come out and call out the refereeing no matter the repercussions!
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I would take the 25k fine and speak about the refs. Call out decisions that would be given as red for us (Westwood both tackles) and compare to when say Gabriel or Xhaka do that. Also call out the time wasting. But don't do a "fact" monologue like Rafa did.
posted on 23/1/22
It’s easier said than done to bring in the players you want quickly in January unless you’re willing to pay over the odds. Im sure the club are working on it because it’s obvious we need players, so it’s hard to really hammer them as we don’t know what’s going on. But considering we knew we had AFCON, and aubas form long since vanished, plus loaning our players added in with risk of Covid isolation, it does appear quite negligent from the club. You’d think they’d have had plans in place. Especially as we got ourselves in with a great shout of top 4. If we don’t bring in players, it will seem like a massive opportunity missed
posted on 23/1/22
comment by A Catalyst For Change (U7080)
posted 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
It’s easier said than done to bring in the players you want quickly in January unless you’re willing to pay over the odds. Im sure the club are working on it because it’s obvious we need players, so it’s hard to really hammer them as we don’t know what’s going on. But considering we knew we had AFCON, and aubas form long since vanished, plus loaning our players added in with risk of Covid isolation, it does appear quite negligent from the club. You’d think they’d have had plans in place. Especially as we got ourselves in with a great shout of top 4. If we don’t bring in players, it will seem like a massive opportunity missed
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I think the issue is thst this has been happening for 10 years with this ownership in place. How many seasons have we finished thinking we could have won the league or finished top 4 if we strengthened the team. Yes part of it was Wenger and his stubbornness at times, but there is a widespread rot that exists at every level.
I think we have done well to get rid of the dross and bring players in..but I think due to how poor the squad became over the past 10 years, we WILL need to spend over the odds here and there to get back to compete. Bissouma would add steal to that CM...Brighton wanted 40 mill or so in the summer. Sell AMN and Xhaka for the ~33 mill offered for both players and add the 7-10 mill to get a player who will noticeably add to the team.
Sances is available...and he would help us get into that top 4 I believe. Yet here we are twiddling our thumbs.
So annoying
posted on 23/1/22
comment by MaineGunner (U10130)
posted 4 hours, 38 minutes ago
comment by KenAfroGunner (U7570)
posted 2 minutes ago
I think our English players need to be more vocal towards the referee.I have noted with other teams when their players are fouled it’s the English players who surround the referee e.g if it’s Liverpool you’ll find Henderson,Milner etc in Tottenshiet you’ll see Kane and Dier doing it.I don’t want to say the referee are racist but they seem to listen to there fellow countrymen.Also before and English player is red carded they would need to commit and outright foul that even the ref can’t get away without a yellow! I think referees are still hang up to the days Arsenal had few to no English players in our team during Wengers time and the refs still view us with that resentment!
We also need Arteta to come out and call out the refereeing no matter the repercussions!
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I would take the 25k fine and speak about the refs. Call out decisions that would be given as red for us (Westwood both tackles) and compare to when say Gabriel or Xhaka do that. Also call out the time wasting. But don't do a "fact" monologue like Rafa did.
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@Ken The resentment started when Wenger said some things in the media / post match interview about a ref many years ago, talking 10-15 probably and I'm leaning more towards 15, can't remember when exactly - it's gotten worse on pretty much a weekly basis ever since.
@MaineGunner Remember how quickly Ramsdale got booked earlier in the season for 'time wasting', think he rook like 2 slow goal-kicks and the yellow was out. Pope doing it from the first minute for the entire game and never saw yellow as well as on free kicks and all their players took an age for the throw-ins too 🙄
posted on 23/1/22
*took