Arsenal (A) - Sun 4th Feb 2024 (4:30pm)

[coachpotato]

The reaction to the news Klopp is going was brilliant against Chelsea, poor as Chelsea were, and I don’t think today’s clusterfuck has anything to do with it causing a negative reaction today.

Sometimes, things transpire that are almost inexplicable and the defensive shambles for all of Arsenals goals were examples of that.

Arsenal are decent and more honed to be successful than last season, but while their football is pretty enough, it’s hardly as overwhelming as ours or City’s when we’re on it.

The main reason today was annoying is because we were poor in the first half, went in level still, and we’re back in the game with an outside chance of putting them to bed for the season when Ali and Virgil fucked up, it affected us badly and Arsenal were visually buoyed by it.

The sending off and third goal were bitter icing on a particularly distasteful cake.

What is important now is that the reaction is once again good and we pick up an unbeaten run again.

Having players back and match fit will be key, we’re certainly not out of it in the League and City will know that more than anyone, and just as a counter point, the pressure is on them to keep winning too.

 

[Smell The Glove]

9 minutes ago, Josef Svejk said:

 

I'm not denying the result months (or even years) later. That would be Evertonian. 

We lost as I said above I just don't accept it. Happy to be called bitter

[Jordy Brouwer]

15 minutes ago, Colt Seavers said:

Onwards and upwards bad day at the office. Ali has plenty of credit in the bank.

Oh and Anthony Taylor is a cheating manc cunt 

 

This. The League is still there for the taking and you can't realistically win them all. 

[Champ]

2 hours ago, Strontium said:

It's three years this month since Alisson's father died, I just wonder if what happened to Bradley's dad has played on his mind a bit, because that was not a good performance from him.

I wondered if it had affected others; especially after Bradley’s game the other night

[Red Shift]

18 minutes ago, Rick Sanchez C-137 said:

 

A bit quick to be calling Trent done here tbh. Bradley looks excellent but it's been a handful of games.

Personal opinion, but Jurgen has persevered with a system to cover Trent’s weaknesses, but if Bradley keeps it up, the next manager may not be so lenient on Trent.

[Leyton388]

Arsenal celebrating like they've won the league. They'll get nowhere near it by the time May comes around. 

 

Their fans are one of the biggest bunch of dickheads around. Fam blud wankers. 

[VladimirIlyich]

This was mostly down to Alisson. We werent playing well but were comfortable enough at 1-1 until Alisson decided to decided not to kick the ball away for some unknown reason and then let a soft shot go through his legs. No objections to Konate's sending off as he pulls that shit far too often by not reading the game or players movement and ending up flat footed. Arsenal are overrated and them beating us just helps City more than anything.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Well I'm proud of our lads; lost by 1 away from home in what's possibly our toughest remaining fixture.

 

A poor team selection, a couple of untimely injuries too many, and some horric self-inflicted mistakes meant it was one bridge too far.

 

But we're still bang in there.

 

A couple of days RnR and we go again.

 

Would love to see Klopp go with a consistent back 4 of Bradley - Konate - Virg - Robbo for the rest of the season.

 

Regroup, go hard, go again lads.

[Curly]

15 minutes ago, Dave D said:

Yep- apologies. I had no idea. I only tuned in half way into first half 

Sorry mate - I replied and then saw you’d had replies on it and I’ve just caught up to the end of the thread - apologies.

 

Not sure what all the end of the world stuff is - “the title race is over” because of that is madness. Arsenal are one of the best teams in the league, as are we, and we were playing at their place. They battered us there not long ago and we managed to squeak a lucky win after digging in for the second half.

 

The stat about Martinelli speaks volumes - he rinses Trent every time we play them. I’m done with Trent and I know it divides opinion, but his negatives outweigh what he brings these days in my opinion and he seems to have started believing his own hype. I don’t think he will stick about with a new manager as I don’t think they will use him the way Klopp does, but who knows. I’d prefer to move him on and take a decent fee for him.
 

I reckon there’s a good few twists in the title race yet. I can’t believe the hysteria from us having lost our second game of the season, but also with it being away to a title rival. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

8 minutes ago, Red Shift said:

Personal opinion, but Jurgen has persevered with a system to cover Trent’s weaknesses

Another (and more obviously correct) opinion, Jürgen has persevered with a system that gets the most out of Trent's strengths, because he's not a shit manager.

[El Rojo]

Arsenal play City at the end of March. Reasonable to assume they might actually show up if they’re still involved by then.

 

[3 Stacks]

2 minutes ago, Curly said:

 

The stat about Martinelli speaks volumes - he rinses Trent every time we play them. I’m done with Trent and I know it divides opinion, but his negatives outweigh what he brings these days in my opinion and he seems to have started believing his own hype. I don’t think he will stick about with a new manager as I don’t think they will use him the way Klopp does, but who knows. I’d prefer to move him on and take a decent fee for him.

I get the Trent questions, but he patently does not even try to defend Martinelli when we play Arsenal. It has to be a tactical choice.

[an tha]

Writing a player of TAA's quality off is IMHO daft.

 

That said there is deffo a conversation to be had now about where and how we get the best out of him and where and how he best helps us.

 

Maybe the potential emergence of Bradley speeds up that process - but for me TAA still has a hell of a lot to offer us.

[El Rojo]

Trent has some phenomenal attributes. Maybe the emergence of Bradley will allow Klopp to focus more on them. 
 

It was strange seeing Thiago out there again. We should have a serious squad again in a week or two that will allow us to make four or five substitutions that will completely burn most teams off. We did it a lot in the first third of the season.

 

[Red Banjo]

We were shit. Has that been mentioned yet?

 

Arteta is an absolute twat however and why the fuck was Ben Shite allowed to take 3 minutes for every throw in during the first half?, the mahogany coloured cunt!

 

This was just like Bournemouth 0-1 last season after thumping to Mancs 7-0. It happens. Its not ideal. It's meh. Make sure it doesn't happen again.

[Torvald Utne]

16 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

This was mostly down to Alisson. We werent playing well but were comfortable enough at 1-1 until Alisson decided to decided not to kick the ball away for some unknown reason and then let a soft shot go through his legs. No objections to Konate's sending off as he pulls that shit far too often by not reading the game or players movement and ending up flat footed. Arsenal are overrated and them beating us just helps City more than anything.

VVD got in the way of him kicking the ball, not talking about who should have done what or who should have been where but when he tried to kick it van dijk's arse was in the way.

 

Can't blame him for the shot through the legs, got a deflection off van dijk taking it away from where he had set for the save.

[Turkish Delight]

28 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

This was mostly down to Alisson. We werent playing well but were comfortable enough at 1-1 until Alisson decided to decided not to kick the ball away for some unknown reason and then let a soft shot go through his legs. No objections to Konate's sending off as he pulls that shit far too often by not reading the game or players movement and ending up flat footed. Arsenal are overrated and them beating us just helps City more than anything.

 

Alisson didn't kick the ball away because Virgil got between him and the ball so he ended up kicking Virgil. Had Virgil dealt with the ball as he should have done then they don't score. It's why he could be seen saying sorry to Ali afterwards.

 

For the 3rd Virgil is also way too casual in closing the ball down and then deflects the shot when he reacts late.

 

On the first there's a few things wrong but Virgil charging out into midfield and leaving space behind him is one of them.

 

Alisson's had better days but this was on way more than just him.

[VladimirIlyich]

3 minutes ago, Turkish Delight said:

 

Alisson didn't kick the ball away because Virgil got between him and the ball so he ended up kicking Virgil. Had Virgil dealt with the ball as he should have done then they don't score. It's why he could be seen saying sorry to Ali afterwards.

 

For the 3rd Virgil is also way too casual in closing the ball down and then deflects the shot when he reacts late.

 

On the first there's a few things wrong but Virgil charging out into midfield and leaving space behind him is one of them.

 

Alisson's had better days but this was on way more than just him.

As a keeper you welly all and everything in that position and he knows that. There was time to clear his lines and not making contact with the ball there is baffling. Highly unlike him though,fortunately.

[The wanderer]

42 minutes ago, Leyton388 said:

Arsenal celebrating like they've won the league. They'll get nowhere near it by the time May comes around. 

 

Their fans are one of the biggest bunch of dickheads around. Fam blud wankers. 

Just saw the headline on Arsenal TV . The same cunts were slagging them to fuck after they lost to West Ham . 

[The wanderer]

2 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

As a keeper you welly all and everything in that position and he knows that. There was time to clear his lines and not making contact with the ball there is baffling. Highly unlike him though,fortunately.

I think  If Allison had stayed Virgil would have dealt with it .Not a good move by Allison IMO.

[The wanderer]

43 minutes ago, an tha said:

Writing a player of TAA's quality off is IMHO daft.

 

That said there is deffo a conversation to be had now about where and how we get the best out of him and where and how he best helps us.

 

Maybe the potential emergence of Bradley speeds up that process - but for me TAA still has a hell of a lot to offer us.

He does offer us a lot but it’s weird that he  hasn’t improved the defensive side of his game at all . 

[Tenfolder]

52 minutes ago, Leyton388 said:

Arsenal celebrating like they've won the league. They'll get nowhere near it by the time May comes around. 

 

Their fans are one of the biggest bunch of dickheads around. Fam blud wankers. 

 

Would be really nice if they dropped points against West Ham next weekend, Arsenal fans are only second to Spurs fans in my mind as dickheads who go off the rails when they get a good result or have a small decent run, their fans screaming on because Carragher dared to say their celebrations were over the top today as well, same set of fans who have and will bitch on if Klopp dares to do his fist pumps in front of the Kop though.

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

21 minutes ago, Turkish Delight said:

 

Alisson didn't kick the ball away because Virgil got between him and the ball so he ended up kicking Virgil. Had Virgil dealt with the ball as he should have done then they don't score. It's why he could be seen saying sorry to Ali afterwards.

 

For the 3rd Virgil is also way too casual in closing the ball down and then deflects the shot when he reacts late.

 

On the first there's a few things wrong but Virgil charging out into midfield and leaving space behind him is one of them.

 

Alisson's had better days but this was on way more than just him.

Agree, there’s a few things wrong on the first. Main problem is they managed to get past our high pressing. If you look at a still from the moment the ball is played wide to Zinchenko, you’ll see that all our three midfielders are well ahead of the ball, and all three have been drawn very wide right. The intention of course is pretty obvious, the pressing is essential to how we play. But when the opponent manage to play past it in this situation we end up massively exposed.  

[Curly]

47 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

I get the Trent questions, but he patently does not even try to defend Martinelli when we play Arsenal. It has to be a tactical choice.

That last game at their place he got turned inside out when Martinelli came off the bench and then we brought Bradley on to shore things up. As you say, he’s either told today not to bother or he just doesn’t even try, but it definitely doesn’t help Konate and contributed to his sending off today I think.

[Red Shift]

40 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Another (and more obviously correct) opinion, Jürgen has persevered with a system that gets the most out of Trent's strengths, because he's not a shit manager.

Very true. Because he had few options. He now has more. 

 

48 minutes ago, an tha said:

Writing a player of TAA's quality off is IMHO daft.

 

That said there is deffo a conversation to be had now about where and how we get the best out of him and where and how he best helps us.

 

Maybe the potential emergence of Bradley speeds up that process - but for me TAA still has a hell of a lot to offer us.

Jurgen likes the idea of an alternating 4-3-3/3-4-3 with Trent moving up (as we know) but that doesn’t actually make us any sounder defensively, as has been discussed many times over the last couple of seasons or so. Konate has been doing a sterling job of sweeping in a back 3 when TAA moves forward, but the vulnerability is always an issue as teams have learned to counter us quickly on their left. I’m not writing Trent off as a midfielder, but I don’t like the role he has at RB.