Last year every player knew his role and most importantly Arteta knew his XI. Before the game started everyone knew who is going to play. This year, Arteta doesn't know his best XI and that is a big problem. I'm not even sure we started 2 games in a row with same XI players. Arteta experimented last year and found a winning formula, this year all what was needed is to perfect that formula, not trying to change it completely. I can't remember a game this season where everything looked right on paper before the game. Yesterday I was happy he finally benched Nketiah and played our strongest 3 up top, and then I see Rice playing out of his position. Why can't he put best XI players in their position and stop this crazy experiment that isn't working.
posted on 22/10/23
I think he knows his preferred XI, but injuries have disrupted this. Don't forget Timber is out, Zinchenko, Martinelli, Partey and Jesus have missed a fair chunk of the season and Saka and Saliba have struggled fitness wise.
posted on 22/10/23
Not sure he doesn't know his best XI, just injuries have disrupted us all season. Obviously the Timber injury has had a big impact, then Jesus, Martinelli, and to a lesser extent Trossard and Saka, have all had spells out injured. Havertz flopping, although not unexpected to us fans, has also made him rethink. With Timber out I am pretty sure Arteta would play Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Martinelli, Saka and Jesus more often than not.
posted on 22/10/23
He clearly doesn't know his best eleven. He probably knew his preferred eleven on paper at the start of the season but it turns out it's probably not his best.
A good start to the season results wise though, we've got results from poor performances. The Chelsea game was by far our worst in a long time, not sure what happened there, the players just looked out of it mentally.
Hopefully we start clicking now. Get Ramsdale back in goal, find a midfield that starts to gel again.