Arsenal (N) Charity Shield - 29/8/20 - 16:30

[Bruce Spanner]

9 minutes ago, aws said:

Williams was poor but Bobby and Mo were worse, Keita made more defensive mistakes in 30 minutes than he did and Fab was well off the pace.  It's a semi-serious pre-season friendly and the intensity which  makes us a great team was only there in patches. So fuck it. 

I don’t think they were poor, for some reason both ourselves and Arsenal prioritised the left flank, us maybe to protect Williams and them to utilise Aubameyang, makes sense tactically, but skewed the game.

 

Shite hame overall, but if you win it it’s a trophy, you lose it it’s friendly, so whatever.

 

 

[Bjornebye]

3 minutes ago, Stickman said:

As Bob Paisley said the important thing about the Charity Shield is qualifying for it.

I'd take losing on pens in it every season

This. 

[dockers_strike]

1 minute ago, The Guest said:

I imagine we are getting low balled by sleeve sponsors as we do on most other sponsorship deals but because it’s smaller one the club is probably trying to make a stand with it.  As Dave regularly says I don’t buy the United are bigger than Liverpool stuff any more.  We’ve got more fans actually bothered about us than any other club around maybe bar the two Spanish clubs.  Yet we regularly get considerably smaller deals than them.  We’ve won the champions league and got to a final and won the league.  We are visible absolutely everywhere and at the one point where people watch us as much to hope we get beat as our own fans.  We regularly get the most watched games on telly yet it doesn’t translate into these commercial deals.

Not sure we are getting low balled on sleeve sponsorship deals. I think lots of companies who would normally be queuing up are the ones around the world being hit by this virus stuff wreaking havoc on their finances.

 

As regards our smaller deals, I guess that's down to relatively little on field success since the PL and CL era's started. Since the PL started, 1 title. 2 CL titles and 4 finals from 2005 is impressive.

[Einch]

In the current climate any business we should be associated with will think twice about committing to sponsorship deals. 
 

As for the game this was no surprise. Teams will set up this way and hope. Even City played for the counter attack against us during the 4-0. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Every young defender learns his trade by getting roasted by top teams. With Williams we've had the luxury of him cutting his teeth in Premier League games that don't matter and the Charity Shield. He'll have better days; many of them.

[Trumo]

That game reminded me of last year's. We started slowly and soon fell behind, only to get much better in the second half, deservedly equalise, and then lose the subsequent shoot-out. If it signals a returns to the sort of league form of last season, then great.

 

We just never seem to play well at the new Wembley. The first halves in particular are just shit as we struggle to play with any tempo or create chances, while often looking ropey at the back. Think about it. Cardiff, Everton and Chelsea in 2012. Villa in 2015. Man City in 2016. Spurs for 2 league games (even though we won the second one, we were far from sparkling). City again last year. Playing weakened line-ups in the domestic cup notwithstanding, it goes some way towards explaining why we have won one domestic cup since the new Wembley was completed.

 

The commentators kept trying to pin the blame on Neco for Aubameyang's opener, but I don't think he did anything wrong. Our midfield had pushed up to press, Arsenal beat that press and they suddenly had an overload on the left. Neco was covering Aubameyang but also had to contend with not giving Tierney all the space and time in the world on the overlap. I'll just say that Arsenal developed their goal well rather than us doing anything wrong.

 

Where we did badly was with the front 3. Sadio was game and tried, but Bobby and Mo just weren't involved enough. They both got a bit better in the second, but neither of them ever managed to get into a real goalscoring position. The best was Bobby curling an effort wide from outside the box. Sadio on the other hand was thwarted twice by the keeper in the second half, and headed a half-chance wide in the first half.

 

Taki's introduction and Naby's drive from midfield were the changes that saw an upturn in performance. Fab dropped into defence, Big Joe took over at right back, and Gini took over Fab's deep-lying role. We looked a lot sharper and brighter. Taki deserved his goal for showing more enterprise than the starters. We were starting to run at them from midfield and had managed to push the full backs high up, penning Arsenal in.

 

There is a 'but' coming. We didn't make our dominance tell by bombarding their goal and testing them, but the team shape went to bits once Curtis came on. Nothing to do with him, but Arsenal were suddenly repeatedly getting down our flanks with ease, and the midfield never seemed to be anywhere near. I'm trying to figure out what the hell happened there because it can't have been tiredness. It was too sudden and involved too many players who were fresh.

 

Also, I don't like bringing on a sub just to take a penalty. There was no time left in normal time for Rhian to do anything, so the pressure was on him in that shoot-out. A shame that he was the one to miss.

 

We recover from this, bounce back and get the league campaign off to a flyer again in 2 weeks.

[Carvalho Diablo]

I disagree with much of what's been said in this thread, I think we've looked really sharp in this preseason, the exceptions being Fabinho and young Williams, both of whom have really struggled imo.

 

But fuck it, although it is always nice to win, it is only preseason and we dominated that game.

 

This time last year didn't we also lose the same charity shield to City in a shootout?

 

Nothing to worry about, much to be optimistic about.

[Trumo]

1 hour ago, ben48 said:

I don’t know about you lads but there looked to be 6 inches of grass on that pitch, it was appalling, 

 

Wembley's pitch is always slow, as if the grass has been cut too long, and the shit camera angle just makes whatever you're watching on the pitch look even shitter. Games at Wembley never seem to have a good tempo about them.

[sir roger]

18 minutes ago, Trumo said:

We just never seem to play well at the new Wembley. The first halves in particular are just shit as we struggle to play with any tempo or create chances, while often looking ropey at the back. Think about it. Cardiff, Everton and Chelsea in 2012. Villa in 2015. Man City in 2016. Spurs for 2 league games (even though we won the second one, we were far from sparkling). City again last year. Playing weakened line-ups in the domestic cup notwithstanding, it goes some way towards explaining why we have won one domestic cup since the new Wembley was completed.

 

I think its a wider point than this recently, Trumo, we seem to have more issues on larger pitches generally. Probably not so surprising considering our game is based around pressing and intensity. 

[sir roger]

Not a great experience with a poor game and Bruce Spanner's stream covered in pop ups.

Brewster's was the only penalty that managed to clear the box offering penis enlargements.

[johnsusername]

6 minutes ago, sir roger said:

I think its a wider point than this recently, Trumo, we seem to have more issues on larger pitches generally. Probably not so surprising considering our game is based around pressing and intensity. 

It's been a long time since we played well at Old Trafford, we always look a bit out to sea on that big pitch. 

[Bjornebye]

We just need that one player to unlock those legions of defenders....

 

Enter.... Thiago 

[Arnaud]

58 minutes ago, Trumo said:

That game reminded me of last year's. We started slowly and soon fell behind, only to get much better in the second half, deservedly equalise, and then lose the subsequent shoot-out. If it signals a returns to the sort of league form of last season, then great.

 

We just never seem to play well at the new Wembley. The first halves in particular are just shit as we struggle to play with any tempo or create chances, while often looking ropey at the back. Think about it. Cardiff, Everton and Chelsea in 2012. Villa in 2015. Man City in 2016. Spurs for 2 league games (even though we won the second one, we were far from sparkling). City again last year. Playing weakened line-ups in the domestic cup notwithstanding, it goes some way towards explaining why we have won one domestic cup since the new Wembley was completed.

 

The commentators kept trying to pin the blame on Neco for Aubameyang's opener, but I don't think he did anything wrong. Our midfield had pushed up to press, Arsenal beat that press and they suddenly had an overload on the left. Neco was covering Aubameyang but also had to contend with not giving Tierney all the space and time in the world on the overlap. I'll just say that Arsenal developed their goal well rather than us doing anything wrong.

 

Where we did badly was with the front 3. Sadio was game and tried, but Bobby and Mo just weren't involved enough. They both got a bit better in the second, but neither of them ever managed to get into a real goalscoring position. The best was Bobby curling an effort wide from outside the box. Sadio on the other hand was thwarted twice by the keeper in the second half, and headed a half-chance wide in the first half.

 

Taki's introduction and Naby's drive from midfield were the changes that saw an upturn in performance. Fab dropped into defence, Big Joe took over at right back, and Gini took over Fab's deep-lying role. We looked a lot sharper and brighter. Taki deserved his goal for showing more enterprise than the starters. We were starting to run at them from midfield and had managed to push the full backs high up, penning Arsenal in.

 

There is a 'but' coming. We didn't make our dominance tell by bombarding their goal and testing them, but the team shape went to bits once Curtis came on. Nothing to do with him, but Arsenal were suddenly repeatedly getting down our flanks with ease, and the midfield never seemed to be anywhere near. I'm trying to figure out what the hell happened there because it can't have been tiredness. It was too sudden and involved too many players who were fresh.

 

Also, I don't like bringing on a sub just to take a penalty. There was no time left in normal time for Rhian to do anything, so the pressure was on him in that shoot-out. A shame that he was the one to miss.

 

We recover from this, bounce back and get the league campaign off to a flyer again in 2 weeks.

Agree with you about all but Neco’s responsabiliy on the goal, he’s way too far from Aub. It’s ok he’s learning his trade , he’s a young lad.

[Captain Turdseye]

Same result, yeah, but we played much better in last season’s charity shield which was also against a much better team. That said, we were obviously a bit further along in our pre-season shizzle at the time. 

[Harry Squatter]

 

 

 

[Grinch]

31 minutes ago, Arnaud said:

Agree with you about all but Neco’s responsabiliy on the goal, he’s way too far from Aub. It’s ok he’s learning his trade , he’s a young lad.

 

Needs to be doing that elsewhere then.  This club expects to win week in week out and they won't be doing that with players learning on the job. 

[Chocoholic]

6 minutes ago, Doctor Troy said:

 

 

 

Hahahaha, when's the parade, whoppers?

[Section_31]

If at least one of the front three and the fullbacks aren't purring we're fucked. The entire midfield including backups, with the exception of Fabinho (who hasn't been on top form since his injury last year IMO), are the definition of 'workmanlike', and the drop-off between the first XI and squad players is absolutely massive, prpbably the biggest of any recent league winning team.

 

We need a class midfield player who's creative and at least one decent attacker who can put pressure on the front three, if not we're gonna have to ride our luck to win more major trophies IMO.

 

 

[Aventus]

We missed trent a fair bit, not just his crosses into the box, but those long diagonal balls between him and Robbo cause havoc for opposition defenders, seemed like we were to easier to manage when the danger was only coming from one side. 

[dockers_strike]

Missed Trent and Hendo. Mo and Bobby on the pitch were absent without leave. Fabino didnt protect the back 4, Gini didnt do much. We all know Milner isnt creative.

 

We looked very rusty and a bit off the pace. That was a bit surprising seeing as arsenal had only played 1 warm up game midweek.

[Trumo]

1 hour ago, Arnaud said:

Agree with you about all but Neco’s responsabiliy on the goal, he’s way too far from Aub. It’s ok he’s learning his trade , he’s a young lad.

 

The entire back 4 had shuffled across to the left as Arsenal had the ball down their right. That's what a defensive unit is supposed to do! It was a very good switch out to Arsenal's left from Saka, and because we'd initially shuffled to our left as a unit, it meant Aubameyang drifted out wide into where the space was, and no midfield cover meant that Tierney could charge on too. If Neco had gambled on either closing Aubameyang or Tierney, he'd have been out of the game and questions would be asked as to why he'd been so rash. Why was Tierney not covered? It's because our midfield pushed up as part of the press when our forwards went to press the Arsenal defence from their own goal kick. It's one to praise Arsenal's efforts to escape the press and construct an attack rather than apportion blame to one of our players. Our players did what they were supposed to, it's just that they were unable to snuff out that attack. It happens.

[Manny]

Fucking weird, boring fanbase Arsenal, and one who're slowly morphing into Everton in their obsession with one-upmanship and their ability to be convinced that there's a power shift a'comin' based off the tiniest whiff of positive news. Bellerin has put on Twitter that he "needs a bigger trophy cabinet" after today's game. Notwithstanding the sheer fucking small-timeness of getting that cocky after winning the Charity Shield, it's made worse by the first 400 replies from Arsenal fans all saying literally exactly the same thing:

 

"I hear Tottenham have got plenty of room in theirs"

 

[TheHowieLama]

Interesting fun fact - Arsenal have won the FA Cup four times in the last 15 years. They have won the Community Shield after all of them.

[Kevin D]

9 hours ago, Stickman said:

As Bob Paisley said the important thing about the Charity Shield is qualifying for it.

I'd take losing on pens in it every season

 

Agreed.

 

During preseason there are always kinks to work out and having seen how we got better as the match went on, I'm confident the match thread will back to it's best for Leeds on the 14th.

[Stickman]

6 hours ago, Manny said: