Nah, Holding was a huge issue. It’s completely biased, but I’m happy to say we would have won the league if Saliva stayed fit.
Arsenal 2023/24 - Need to beat Everton plus City to drop points
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
How was it lucky?
The fact garnacho was not offside, saka not being sent off for a two footed studs up challenge, the penalty not being give for Gabriel hauling Hojlund down, the foul not being given for Gabriel pulling evans just before rice scored?
You didn't even mention Arteta, poor effort...
Really good to see Gabriel back at CB alongside Willy. Please don't mess with this one Arteta... there is nothing to fix. Rice has done very well, better than I expected. Partey should be first cover for Rice or he comes in as a double pivot for very specific games. No more players out of position.
I was worried that Rice wouldn't live up to his price tag and/or wouldn't handle the step up to a bigger club. But he has been excellent so far. Bournemouth were woeful but he ran that midfield by himself at times, seemed to be everywhere. When Partey is back I think he should do Rice-Partey-Odegaard - I'd like to see Rice go a bit further forward. His passing and vision has been better than I thought. IMO Partey is still better at progressing the ball from midfield, problem he just breaks down too often.
Solid win, but Arteta is mismanaging Saka at the moment. He’s started 87 consecutive PL matches, playing the full 90 in virtually all of them. The longest streak for Arsenal since football was invented in ’92, and by far the most of any player in the league currently. For comparison, Wissa is next with “only” 70 - and hasn’t had to play European matches either.
We know he’s been carrying an injury, he was a doubt to even be available yesterday, and frankly, Bournemouth is a game where the rest of the team should be able to cope without him. But playing on until he goes off with the same injury at the 81-minute mark, when you’re 3-0 up, in control of the game, and been 2-0 up since half-time is just silly.
Hopefully, he won’t be out for long now, but if Arteta keeps pushing his luck it will happen sooner or later. The way Postecoglou is managing Son’s time is a smarter way to protect a key player who you want to keep fit all season.
We know he’s been carrying an injury, he was a doubt to even be available yesterday, and frankly, Bournemouth is a game where the rest of the team should be able to cope without him. But playing on until he goes off with the same injury at the 81-minute mark, when you’re 3-0 up, in control of the game, and been 2-0 up since half-time is just silly.
Hopefully, he won’t be out for long now, but if Arteta keeps pushing his luck it will happen sooner or later. The way Postecoglou is managing Son’s time is a smarter way to protect a key player who you want to keep fit all season.
What I take exception to, as witnessed by the responses of the resident Gooners in here, is the scapegoating of Holding in that period, because he is, in general, a pretty shit period - but he really wasn't at the time. That it had a domino effect on the way the team played is obvious, but that's the case when any team loses one of their starters (apart from maybe City), and it's the manager's job to adjust. If Arteta wasn't able over a series of games to realise that Holding doesn't have the same qualities of Saliba, then there's the issue, along with some of the key players losing any semblance of form, which was much more critical. It's just easy to point fingers at Holding rather than saying that their manager wasn't up to the task when the going got tough, or that the players they love and carry on cheering on today went to shit when it mattered.
Does anyone else find it strange that Arsenal fans come on to a United forum to discuss Arsenal? The mind boggles.
Yes but I have always been a strange one
They'll be gone again in two months when they are shite
There's an arsenal thread here so i don't see a problem
Not really.
Im still trying to get used to the fact that people choose to converse with random faceless people they don’t know on a variety of topics on things called message boards.
Post of the day.
I think because of his rules for posters, this forum is generally the best to read some fans with common sense.
Yes
I don't want City to win 4 in a row.
I hate the scousers more than I support Utd.
So it will have to be the Arsenal for me. The nightmare that never ends!
I hate the scousers more than I support Utd.
So it will have to be the Arsenal for me. The nightmare that never ends!
The people I know in real life stopped hanging out with me because I wouldn’t shut up about double pivots, so I moved on to strangers on the internet (and I’m not faceless, I posted a cute clothed pic back in 2016)
Agreed. It might be annoying to natives but they should take it as a compliment so many want to come here and converse (not including the WUM’s though, I’ve never understood that).
Im sorry I missed that Cas…my DM’s are always open though!
Which excludes a lot of people on here, really.
And when you meet them in the real world, they're even weirder!
Reading the post match thread of the United loss to us on here was hilarious, full of some of the most biased takes imaginable. Granted it wasn't everyone, but still, bravo Caf.
Possession:
Arsenal - 55%
United - 45%
% passes in opposition half:
Arsenal - 66%
United - 39%
Touches in opposition box:
Arsenal - 42
United - 19
Shots:
Arsenal - 17
United - 10
Shots on target:
Arsenal - 5
United - 2
Corners:
Arsenal - 12
United - 3
xG:
Arsenal - 2.27 (and lead the entire game)
United - 0.94
Final Third passes:
Arsenal - 209 at 80%
United - 70 at 64%
Oh but Gabriel pulled Evan's shirt! I heard them whinge. Meanwhile in reality:
Possession:
Arsenal - 55%
United - 45%
% passes in opposition half:
Arsenal - 66%
United - 39%
Touches in opposition box:
Arsenal - 42
United - 19
Shots:
Arsenal - 17
United - 10
Shots on target:
Arsenal - 5
United - 2
Corners:
Arsenal - 12
United - 3
xG:
Arsenal - 2.27 (and lead the entire game)
United - 0.94
Final Third passes:
Arsenal - 209 at 80%
United - 70 at 64%
Oh but Gabriel pulled Evan's shirt! I heard them whinge. Meanwhile in reality:
Time to put an end to the Kai Havertz in midfield experiment. Just abysmal and invisible again.
Would love to see Arteta ditch his beloved inverted fullback position, move Zinchenko into midfield and play Kiwior at left back.Seems like a no brained to me but Arteta is stubborn as hell
Oh and that idiot finally got what he deserved by treating Saka like his beloved work mule
Would love to see Arteta ditch his beloved inverted fullback position, move Zinchenko into midfield and play Kiwior at left back.Seems like a no brained to me but Arteta is stubborn as hell
Oh and that idiot finally got what he deserved by treating Saka like his beloved work mule
No doubt Arteta will blame the delayed travelling yesterday.
Why didn't they just take the Eurostar from St Pancras? Lens is right by Lille so would've got there in two hours.
Going all Dale Vince but does wind me up when football teams take flights for short haul trips, was same when Man. United got called up for taking the plane to Leicester and Arsenal also flew up to Norwich a few years back which was ridiculous.
Why didn't they just take the Eurostar from St Pancras? Lens is right by Lille so would've got there in two hours.
Going all Dale Vince but does wind me up when football teams take flights for short haul trips, was same when Man. United got called up for taking the plane to Leicester and Arsenal also flew up to Norwich a few years back which was ridiculous.
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He seems to forget it’s a new season, they’ve sold their 2 best players (Fofana and Openda) and they currently sit on 15/18 of Ligue 1.
They've had issues at the start of the season but since the Sevilla game they've been quickly improving and their recent performances are positive. They were very good tonight.
Yes, they were exciting to watch, strong, quick and physical. We couldn't quite match their intensity though thought we did enough to get a point. Enjoyed the game, glad I woke up for it.
Don't base your opinion on twitter "banter" accounts. Of course we should have beaten them but Saka's injury, an unprovoked mistake from Raya and 2 attempts saved on the line meant we end up with nothing.
They were very good apart from our goal and i can see them finishing second in this group.
He didn't say that?
Was a reasonable performance albeit with some lapses in concentration which is arguably starting to become a worrying trend, Lens whole game plan was to capitalise on mistakes like that, nick something and then bolt the door shut if they ever took the lead, they did that remarkably well. Ref made some silly calls their way but ultimately that wasn't what was decisive. Above all not a top performance but not terrible for that sort of away day, this time last year in that atmosphere against a team that thrives on quick transitions, we'd have withered under the lights more, conceded more goal threat, and probably ultimately goals.
We just need 10% more inventiveness and 10% more focus and we can be a team that goes far in this competition.
We just need 10% more inventiveness and 10% more focus and we can be a team that goes far in this competition.
Lens are a decent team, no more than that.
They have power, pace and athleticism and were well organised on the night.
To get a result against this current Arsenal team, you need to defend well, and you need to take advantage of any mistakes in transition, break quickly and take your chances. They done that, so fair play to them, no real complaints about anything, i thought a draw would be more a fair result but they did well so congrats to them.
Think we are a bit naive at times still, need to sometime accept at times away from home in Europe, that if you are struggling to win the game, then at least don't lose the game and stay compact.
They have power, pace and athleticism and were well organised on the night.
To get a result against this current Arsenal team, you need to defend well, and you need to take advantage of any mistakes in transition, break quickly and take your chances. They done that, so fair play to them, no real complaints about anything, i thought a draw would be more a fair result but they did well so congrats to them.
Think we are a bit naive at times still, need to sometime accept at times away from home in Europe, that if you are struggling to win the game, then at least don't lose the game and stay compact.
Your creativity has dipped from last season, especially the early parts of last season. You were blowing teams away. I think this season you've had more midfield control but less cutting edge up front. PSV and Bournemouth games aside, I've come away from every single of your games this season feeling like it could have gone either way, could easily have been a draw etc. Arteta needs to figure that out. It doesn't help that he's effectively run Saka into the ground, the one player you could always count on to be effective up front and Martinelly is injured, and their replacements are decent but not great (Trossard, Nelson, Vieira etc).
I'm interested to see how you line up vs City this weekend, if Saka is unavailable. I'm sure he'll probably try and fit Jesus and Nketiah in together and then force Vieira in somewhere, whereas what I think he should is throw Havertz up top, and then play Jesus and Trossard on either side of him.
Think that's fair points. I think some of it has been due to the fact early part of last season the team seemed a bit more settled and injury free, whereas this season we've struggled to play the same XI 2 games in a row. Of course the other obvious thing is the Havertz buy, and i think everyone is of a similar opinion there so no need to go into that in great detail. Also spoke last week about the contrast domestically between our home form and our away form, specifically on the defensive side of things.
I've not been enthralled by some of Arteta's team selections & subs as well, it has to be said, and agree with your point about the City game. Seen Partey was on the bench last night so if he is fully fit then you'd surely go with a Partey - Rice - Odegaard midfield. Up front we'll just need to see who's fit and who's noty, but i agree i don't want to see the Nkeitah central & Jesus wide combo.
Could they?
We need an Edu. He has identified and signed so many press resistant players for Arsenal which has given the manager the tools to implement his style and compete at the top.
It was a dead game. Arsenal won it in the most jammiest of ways, but the three points is all that matters.
This was a weak City midfield - no KdB, and the bigger missing piece, no Rodri.
This was a weak City midfield - no KdB, and the bigger missing piece, no Rodri.
Quietly a very good start for them.
Only dropped 4 points and yet to play any of the promoted teams who are basically points sieves at this moment in time.
Have a very solid spine now Arteta has stopped the silly experiments like Partey as inverted RB. Think Ramsdale will be back in before too long aswell.
I had my doubts with them playing CL but they should exceed 80 points again this season so could be in the mix until final 3-4 games once more.
Only dropped 4 points and yet to play any of the promoted teams who are basically points sieves at this moment in time.
Have a very solid spine now Arteta has stopped the silly experiments like Partey as inverted RB. Think Ramsdale will be back in before too long aswell.
I had my doubts with them playing CL but they should exceed 80 points again this season so could be in the mix until final 3-4 games once more.
They're ok - will be up there but I don't see a title winning side.
Think they might finish outside top 4 this year. Liverpool, City are much better and Newcastle look stronger as well and Postecoglou is a better manager than Arteta.
Looked like they have regressed from last year all season so far, and really thought they would look better against us amidst our annual early season slump, especially considering Rodri and Kev is both out and Pep doesn't seem toneb sure how he wants to set us up this year yet but they still don't look the part. Maybe them actually coming out of it with a win could change things though, you never know
Looked like they have regressed from last year all season so far, and really thought they would look better against us amidst our annual early season slump, especially considering Rodri and Kev is both out and Pep doesn't seem toneb sure how he wants to set us up this year yet but they still don't look the part. Maybe them actually coming out of it with a win could change things though, you never know
Unlucky mate.
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