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Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

rajds89

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I wouldn't say we were second best.

But Arsenal played very well. You'd have to be blinkered to not see that.
I said we were apparently second best and yet we've won that game without to much bother.
 

BorisManUtd

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Have to say Arsenal look like a proper team, it's not just those 5 wins out of 5 but today they were very good, especially first 20 minutes of 2nd half, we had like 15-20% of the possession, couldn't get out of our half.

Think Arsenal are finishing top 4, though there are also City, Liverpool, Spurs, United and Chelsea so it's hard to predict that one, but the way they're playing it's possible. I'd take lots of positives out of this game if I was an Arsenal fan, result isn't everything.
 

Kush

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Yeah I'm sure the first place actual humans with lives should come on to after a loss is redcafe.net to prove Kush wrong.
Wasn't stopping these fannies to incessantly post in numerous thread when winning though? And, giving it large. Dry your eyes our mate, your makeup is running into your eyes.

Also, your fans are exactly like your team, bunch of wet-wipes. There was a deluge of Arsenal fans on this forum last season when Top 4 was a lock, and once they bottled it, majority dispersed into their holes. Don't dish it out if you can't it, especially on an opposition forum. This tweet sums everything up.

 

Donaldo

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Wasn't stopping these fannies to incessantly post in numerous thread when winning though? And, giving it large. Dry your eyes our mate, your makeup is running into your eyes.

Also, your fans are exactly like your team, bunch of wet-wipes. There was a deluge of Arsenal fans on this forum last season when Top 4 was a lock, and once they bottled it, majority dispersed into their holes. Don't dish it out if you can't it, especially on an opposition forum. This tweet sums everything up.

You've never read a single post by an Arsenal supporter here, going by your raving nonsense.
 

Flexdegea

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Most impressive thing about arsenal is the whining after games.............no matter what, they arrogance even listening to Merse etc.......always been the same even going back to Wenger days.
 

Sviken

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They deserved feck all. 2 shots on target the entire game. Wtf is Arteta on?
 

I’m loving my life

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Most impressive thing about arsenal is the whining after games.............no matter what, they arrogance even listening to Merse etc.......always been the same even going back to Wenger days.
Lee Dixon was surprisingly measured in commentary although he and the pundits on 606 are choosing to emphasise how good Arsenal have been and were in the match.
 

crossy1686

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Agreed. They had been dominating, there was time. Should have gave it at least another 10 minutes.
Exactly, there was no need, arsenal were probing and another big chance would have fell to someone. He makes those changes like they could just pin us back and we’d have no answer. We just spent £200m on new players, we’re not Bournemouth
 

Vapor trail

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I think Arsenal lack going up in the gears especially against the top teams. It's probably due to personnel they lack world class individuals to raise the teams level.

However, you only play the top four now and then and being a flat track bully against the rest of the league should be enough to secure a high finish in the table.
 

Flexdegea

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Lee Dixon was surprisingly measured in commentary although he and the pundits on 606 are choosing to emphasise how good Arsenal have been and were in the match.

All the ex players are the same. Like a disease thru the club. Martin keown etc be talking like they are doing well finishing 5th where as we get ripped for that shit by our ex players and fans. Gives this mad sense of entitlement and superiority they all feel right thru to AfTV.


Honestly no other club like it in my opinion. Absolutely hyperbole when they not totally shite and are decent enough.
 

Irwin99

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I'm not really sure what to make of him to be honest. This Arsenal team is pretty damn good and he deserves a lot of credit for the rebuild. He's made them good again and I think they'll get top 4.

But such a high line in the second half against Marcus Rashford, playing into his one world class attribute? Really did they need to be so impatient when they were dominating? Questionable game management with the subs, not that i'm complaining :D
 

Pogue Mahone

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Commentator said “it just feels like Ten Haag has managed the last 30 minutes of this match better”. Which was spot on. The better manager won. Arteta’s first real test of this make or break season for him and he failed it. Now we need to see how they get on against some of the other teams in the league that won’t roll over.
 

CannonBalls

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Many positives from the game.

1st goal Gabriel error.
Subs were horrible. Alex and Odegaard were doubtful for the game anyway so were anyway not going to play 90mins but then just sub them for KT and ESR. Bring on Nketieh for Xhaka and keep it 442.

In any case we played better than expected. I never expected to get any points from this fixture.
On a side note in terms of starting XI we need an upgrade on Xhaka and Gabriel Magalhaes in that order. Rest of the XI seems pretty good. Although we need to work a lot in terms of our depth though.
 

Vapor trail

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They deserved feck all. 2 shots on target the entire game. Wtf is Arteta on?
Yes it's also sort of where LVG was criticized during his tenure. Lots of possession but can't break teams down. I think the biggest aspect with prime Liverpool and City separating them from the rest of the league is that they are possession based teams with very clinical forward players. That is the difference Saka and Martenelli are neither and eve though Jesus for me is a world class 9 he's not clinical.

It's hard to get breakthrough midfielders even someone with the quality of De Bryune doesn't have much goals but assist. This period of football is undoubtedly an assist era the Lampards ( former 10's) that previously dropped off into midfield and score double figures has been done away with, due to such advanced number 8s. The best teams have the most clinical inside forwards. This is what will undo Arsenal against the top 6. They are flat track bullys and that is a good reputation considering how competitive the league is nowadays.

I'm very impressed with Arsenal I think Arteta is a good manager. I likened him better than Solskjaer not in league finishes but the establishing a foundation to build from. Arsenal are three seasons in with incremental improvements. It doesn't matter what the narrative is improvements are improvements and Arsenal have made them. The documentary on Amazon also shows great insight into the preparation and having the right characters.

The only element that lets down Arsenal is tha fans get carried away with all these things.
 

CannonBalls

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Yes it's also sort of where LVG was criticized during his tenure. Lots of possession but can't break teams down. I think the biggest aspect with prime Liverpool and City separating them from the rest of the league is that they are possession based teams with very clinical forward players. That is the difference Saka and Martenelli are neither and eve though Jesus for me is a world class 9 he's not clinical.

It's hard to get breakthrough midfielders even someone with the quality of De Bryune doesn't have much goals but assist. This period of football is undoubtedly an assist era the Lampards ( former 10's) that previously dropped off into midfield and score double figures has been done away with, due to such advanced number 8s. The best teams have the most clinical inside forwards. This is what will undo Arsenal against the top 6. They are flat track bullys and that is a good reputation considering how competitive the league is nowadays.

Even Antony at Ajax has not put in big numbers in terms of goals but the expectation is that will happen over time. Same goes for Saka/Martinelli. Untill they develop that we are not challenging for the title. But for top 4 finish they are good enough for now. I expect both to make that jump and in midfield both Viera/Odegaard can make that jump in term of assists.

This team needs few additions + many players (even Arteta) making a step up in next 2 year to even think about challenging for the title.
 

eire-red

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So salty in the post match presser, but that was to be expected. Keane pointed him out on his excuses, and rightly so.. always does that when the results don't go his way.

Arsenal were bang average in each 18 yard box, and that's why they lost. That triple sub was hitting the self destruct button.
 

RetroStu

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It does make me chuckle a bit when this time last year they had their worst start in history, and were glued to the bottom of the table. I remember ArsenalMania were even talking about protesting to get him out of the club.

Still its a bit of a lesson to not give up on managers too quickly.
 

GoonerBear

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Bar the odd outlier, it seems in recent years when Arsenal play Utd it seems home advantage seems to count for a lot.
 

Dominos

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They were really good for 64 minutes today to be fair, when they equalised it was hard to argue it wasn't deserved and it felt inevitable it was coming. Their ball retention was on another level to ours but they're 3 years into the project so it's understandable from our perspective.

I'm certainly sold that they're a good side even though we done them on the counter at the end.

However the top 4 race is going to be brutal for all the contenders given there are 6 good sides and 2 of them are therefore guaranteed to miss out - they have Europa this season which they didn't have last year which could be a deciding factor. At the moment we're looking at them through the lens of form over just 6 games so it's easy to be positive about their chances but there's going to be ups and downs throughout the season where the narrative could change.
 

Daydreamer

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Up until 70 minutes we were playing well and we were just less clinical with our chances, which isn’t really something you can blame Arteta for.

However, that triple substitution was poor in-game management. We were creating chances as it was, I don’t see why he deciding to rip up a game plan that was going ok.

Hopefully he’ll learn from it.
 

TheReligion

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Up until 70 minutes we were playing well and we were just less clinical with our chances, which isn’t really something you can blame Arteta for.

However, that triple substitution was poor in-game management. We were creating chances as it was, I don’t see why he deciding to rip up a game plan that was going ok.

Hopefully he’ll learn from it.
I think you lack some directness at times. You keep possession well but don’t make the most of turnovers and transitions.

Your goal today came from your only real bit of direct play through the middle of our defence following a turnover after Varane’s mistake.

United constantly capitalised on quick turnovers by quickly giving the ball to Bruno or Eriksen and letting them hit a between the lines pass.

Id say you need to try that more often but not sure it’s in the Arteta playbook?

Thought Odegaard was poor.
 

NLunited

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I don’t like Arteta’s arrogant attitude, today he got schooled by Ten Hag. Both Arteta and Klopp are sore losers.

Arsenal played well, but we were more dangerous. The goals were very clinical.

Let’s see how Arsenal does against Liverpool and City.
 

Offside

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Honestly after finishing literally mid table for a couple of seasons he’s turned them into exactly what they were before; a team who plays nice football but chokes in the big moments and gets out done in the big games. Yet the press make him about to be a genius? Even in a loss he gets praise. Arsenal are still a couple of levels below what they were under Wenger in 2015 - 2016 when he was hounded out because of games like today.
 

The Mitcher

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Many positives from the game.

1st goal Gabriel error.
Subs were horrible. Alex and Odegaard were doubtful for the game anyway so were anyway not going to play 90mins but then just sub them for KT and ESR. Bring on Nketieh for Xhaka and keep it 442.

In any case we played better than expected. I never expected to get any points from this fixture.
On a side note in terms of starting XI we need an upgrade on Xhaka and Gabriel Magalhaes in that order. Rest of the XI seems pretty good. Although we need to work a lot in terms of our depth though.
Zinchenko ball watching and totally oblivious to Antony's run was probably the worst mistake.
 

JSArsenal

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Overrated tosser. How much has he spent and we don't have a back up Dm, RB or winger. He never rotates either and can't play football unless he has the perfect XI and conditions.