my favorite gyok joke from yesterday was when he was in our half surrounded by red shirts and he tried to fuckin dribble past them for some reason. immediately put us under pressure, they even got a corner. have no idea what he thought he was doing.
Gyokeres isn’t our only issue in attack but he is an issue. Those that didn’t like him from day one are in full “I told you so mode”, fair enough if a striker doesn’t strike it’s far criticism.
I think Arteta has no choice but to persist, if Kai were fit he’d be playing and Gabriel Jesus also isn’t a prolific as he should be while also coming back from 12 months of no football.
Also Donnarumma has been outstanding so far for City. Utd would have won 5-0 if not for him.
I really get all the frustration with Gyokeres, Odegaard, Arteta etc. We are easily capable of playing more free flowing football and this felt like a big opportunity we missed out on.
However, I still have to reconcile all this frustration with the fact that we are 7 points up right now on City, 14 points on Liverpool, 15 points on Man United, 16 points on Chelsea and 23 points on Spurs. Sure Villa can cut the lead to 4 points but there's no team I would swap places with right now and that's a nice place to be.
The next round of Premier League matches will be vital. City should pick up 3 points at home to Wolves so we have to perform at our best against an upbeat United team. If we win the league, it won't be pretty but even a grinding, relentless trudge to secure the title will be a thing of beauty.
I've seen Haaland miss similar chances shown on those pictorials. It's the 1st time our player has had such a chance. I've seen Kai miss better chances.
Our tactics are a bit shit at the moment. We can't create chances; even Kai would struggle to score 20 goals.
Utd with all their problems have 2 less goals than us.
Eze has had his balls cut off. I don't see him do the things he used to do at Palace with less quality players around him. Why?
Madueke - 13 games ...0 goals, 0 assists. Why is his output this bad?
Pedro, why does Arteta keep playing Gyokeres yet he's struggling for goals? Does that make you question his coaching?
I get blasted for venting my feelings about Gyokeres by two in particular nasty individuals on here but anyone who has a basic knowledge of football can see his failings but yesterday it was pretty much a dire performance by the majority on the field and again I question the use of subs as it was ineffectual.
The table doesn't lie but I still see there can be at least a 15% improvement overall by being far more clinical rotating and using a few players who appear to be frozen out .
I wrote this as an example last night: How can a player we stole from under Spur’s nose score a hat trick against them, then gets completely frozen out because of a misjudgement at Villa, whilst others perform badly consistently but regain their place .
IMO Arteta has to start tweeking things .Did you see Rice's outburst at the end of the game,it summed it up.
Thought that was a pen , the cupped hand is not a natural position. However we cannot rely on those moments and need to sort out the attack. Gyokeres unfortunately is a disaster.
You’re bang on the money for gyok being bad and slow, it’s sad and frustrating at the same time.
You’re also spot on for martinelli, jesus and øde for not being any better, our captain still have some credit but the first two are getting closer to the end of their tenure here for different reasons.
I thought it was the right call to start madueke as saka have also been out of sorts lately as was his cameo, even though maduke didn’t shower himself with glory with a yet another zerø output performance with almost no huff and puff.
I’m just thrilled Benny white or any other of our back line didn’t break themselves in that torrid game.
I do keep wonder if I’m arteta and I’d like blood Kai at some points and I know martinelli has played midweek and is. Not 100%. Why not put Jesus on either wing and gyok at #9. Jesus for all his SHORTCOMINGS, is still a very good at linkup play, dare I say better than little gabby ,madueke and even starboy at times (definitely recently) those wingers are hogging the ball for too long in recent games and should release earlier. Our best wing player at linkup play at the moment is Leo which also upgraded his physical play since the start of 2025, it’s a shame we have around a year and half of good time with him before he will fade(I hope to be wrong), but as said sometimes you have a bad day at the office, everyone had. It’s a tough place to go, forest back line are extremely physical and prefer in your face approach , we gave them nothing and we live on the fight another day 7 point clear TOP OF THE LEAGUE
Everyone, especially Gyok gets blamed for the draw except the cowardly horseshoe tactics we've seen Arteta use so often. We can be here blaming players all day long but something is seriously off with the tactics Arteta want the team play. It's not working and if he doesn't change it we can kiss the title goodbye and bottling it again.
Fur muddied mind, the easiest option is blame Gyokeres. Give credit where it is due- Nottingham played very well yesterday after rest and freshness. We had draggy legs and you could see that whole team was slow.
Like I said in September, Arsenal will win the league by virtue of our best in class D and set piece goals, but no amount of Goykeres hate can mask the fact Arteta is a safety first manager who coaches his team by committee.
Slow, safety first build up isn’t a bug, it’s the feature.
Sure, there will be an odd end to end, track meet type of a game here and there, but most will follow the familiarly slow horse shoe pattern we saw yesterday.
I saw more quick incisive passing from United players yesterday over 90 minutes under Carrick, than our boys managed under Arteta the last two games.
This isn’t to big up Carrick the manager, but rather to point out that the approach matters.
In the meantime
I’m gonna ignore debating how Vic is shit, Ode needs replacing, Saka is underperforming due to injuries, Martinelli is a head down merchant, and Trossard is arrogant or whatever else his problem might be.
It’s the coaching that makes them play the way they are playing.
We’ll probably win the league and maybe a domestic cup but fuck me, we’re painful to watch a lot of the time.
If the trade off for the mainly dour, stodgy football is a few trophies is a couple of league titles over the next few years then you’ll obviously take it but we’ll be YouTubing the WengerBall years for reminders of the sublime.
Call me entitled armchair fan or whatever, it’s true, but I watch football to be entertained. This football is for the most part duller than the dullest dishwater. I got up and walked out several times during the game yesterday to go off and do some miniature household chores pretty sure safe in the knowledge I wouldn’t miss much, if anything.
Btw re Gyokeres it’s possible to be two things at once. The bloke isn’t uk to premier league standard as he barely made an impact in the championship. But at the same time the tactical system is so defensive that it’s hard for any attacking player to flourish, even some of the players look frustrated at it.
Our whole attacking unit doesn’t fire often enough. Honestly, the amount of times we finish the first half with either no/one shot on target is scandalous.
Typically, we up it in the second half, but why aren’t we coming out with that intensity from the off to bury teams early?
Odegaard - time to have some difficult conversations about this guy. Apart from the odd false dawn, he’s been a passenger for the best part of eighteen months.
Ok Gyokores is bad but the manager must take some blame. In fact a lot of the blame. He sets up the team. It's his tactics. We simply do not create enough. We are too slow. The players are drilled into playing like this by the manager. It's as clear as daylight to see this. You can count the xg's all you want but the eye test has us to be a very conservative team that is drilled in safety first. Why is that ball not going into the box sooner? Why always is Timber in the box with chances and not the likes of our attacking players. We have real flair players like Eze not in positions to pull off shots. Why? This is an instruction from manager. The manager changed something following 23/24 season and we've been boring as fuck since then.
If we bottle this league it'll be down to the manager and not Gyokores solely
He's obsessed with set pieces ffs. And finding margins! Fine do this but ffs, sort out the football and actually scoring goals in open play. We didn't look like scoring yesterday at all. These xg’s that Arteta counted (probably the only manager that does this BTW), how many were through good play from us? Probably majority were set pieces or 2nd phases of them or defensive errors. This isn't sustainable surely. Only reason we are still top is because city have been poor. I wouldn't write off villa yet either. Why? Cause their team attack with intent. They take chances that's why they are exceeding their expected goals. Watch united beat us next week or we draw the game.
‘It demonstrated that he lacked speed against an average Premier League defender..’
Calling Murillo ‘average’ to drive home the Vic is shit point……probably a stretch Pedro lol.
I rate him higher than Guehy and predict he’ll be the next EPL CB moving to a big club for serious money.
Nothing about Ode’s impotence but Gyok, Gyok, Gyok
Nothing about his Arteta has emptied out Eze of all confidence. He had the half chance and fluffed it but Gyok, Gyok, Gyok
Nothing about the other £55 million attacker who puffs and puffs but will never blow down any straw house.
We know Gyok has been utterly absent but what about the bigger attacking issues we have
Pedro
You’re so utterly predictable now to the point where your Gyokeres obsession resembles satire
Is anyone forcing Arteta to start with Gyokeres?
Shame you think our attacking woes starts and ends with the Swede
my favorite gyok joke from yesterday was when he was in our half surrounded by red shirts and he tried to fuckin dribble past them for some reason. immediately put us under pressure, they even got a corner. have no idea what he thought he was doing.
Gyokeres isn’t our only issue in attack but he is an issue. Those that didn’t like him from day one are in full “I told you so mode”, fair enough if a striker doesn’t strike it’s far criticism.
I think Arteta has no choice but to persist, if Kai were fit he’d be playing and Gabriel Jesus also isn’t a prolific as he should be while also coming back from 12 months of no football.
Also Donnarumma has been outstanding so far for City. Utd would have won 5-0 if not for him.
I really get all the frustration with Gyokeres, Odegaard, Arteta etc. We are easily capable of playing more free flowing football and this felt like a big opportunity we missed out on.
However, I still have to reconcile all this frustration with the fact that we are 7 points up right now on City, 14 points on Liverpool, 15 points on Man United, 16 points on Chelsea and 23 points on Spurs. Sure Villa can cut the lead to 4 points but there's no team I would swap places with right now and that's a nice place to be.
The next round of Premier League matches will be vital. City should pick up 3 points at home to Wolves so we have to perform at our best against an upbeat United team. If we win the league, it won't be pretty but even a grinding, relentless trudge to secure the title will be a thing of beauty.
I've seen Haaland miss similar chances shown on those pictorials. It's the 1st time our player has had such a chance. I've seen Kai miss better chances.
Our tactics are a bit shit at the moment. We can't create chances; even Kai would struggle to score 20 goals.
Utd with all their problems have 2 less goals than us.
Eze has had his balls cut off. I don't see him do the things he used to do at Palace with less quality players around him. Why?
Madueke - 13 games ...0 goals, 0 assists. Why is his output this bad?
Pedro, why does Arteta keep playing Gyokeres yet he's struggling for goals? Does that make you question his coaching?
I get blasted for venting my feelings about Gyokeres by two in particular nasty individuals on here but anyone who has a basic knowledge of football can see his failings but yesterday it was pretty much a dire performance by the majority on the field and again I question the use of subs as it was ineffectual.
The table doesn't lie but I still see there can be at least a 15% improvement overall by being far more clinical rotating and using a few players who appear to be frozen out .
I wrote this as an example last night: How can a player we stole from under Spur’s nose score a hat trick against them, then gets completely frozen out because of a misjudgement at Villa, whilst others perform badly consistently but regain their place .
IMO Arteta has to start tweeking things .Did you see Rice's outburst at the end of the game,it summed it up.
The two biggest issues for me
is one slow passing always allowing the enemy to get back and secure two banks of four.
The second is always going through the sides be that cutbacks and crosses.
We lack so much invention it’s like the players have been told it’s impossible to attack through the centre.
Thought that was a pen , the cupped hand is not a natural position. However we cannot rely on those moments and need to sort out the attack. Gyokeres unfortunately is a disaster.
You’re bang on the money for gyok being bad and slow, it’s sad and frustrating at the same time.
You’re also spot on for martinelli, jesus and øde for not being any better, our captain still have some credit but the first two are getting closer to the end of their tenure here for different reasons.
I thought it was the right call to start madueke as saka have also been out of sorts lately as was his cameo, even though maduke didn’t shower himself with glory with a yet another zerø output performance with almost no huff and puff.
I’m just thrilled Benny white or any other of our back line didn’t break themselves in that torrid game.
I do keep wonder if I’m arteta and I’d like blood Kai at some points and I know martinelli has played midweek and is. Not 100%. Why not put Jesus on either wing and gyok at #9. Jesus for all his SHORTCOMINGS, is still a very good at linkup play, dare I say better than little gabby ,madueke and even starboy at times (definitely recently) those wingers are hogging the ball for too long in recent games and should release earlier. Our best wing player at linkup play at the moment is Leo which also upgraded his physical play since the start of 2025, it’s a shame we have around a year and half of good time with him before he will fade(I hope to be wrong), but as said sometimes you have a bad day at the office, everyone had. It’s a tough place to go, forest back line are extremely physical and prefer in your face approach , we gave them nothing and we live on the fight another day 7 point clear TOP OF THE LEAGUE
Everyone, especially Gyok gets blamed for the draw except the cowardly horseshoe tactics we've seen Arteta use so often. We can be here blaming players all day long but something is seriously off with the tactics Arteta want the team play. It's not working and if he doesn't change it we can kiss the title goodbye and bottling it again.
Dint expect anything but a go at Gyokeres.
It's a shocking post.
Whole squad except Kai were on field and were horrific on the box yet you write 4 paragraphs targetting only Gyokeres.
Whatever happened to getting behind the players and team. Whatever happened to getting behind The Arsenal?!?!
Fur muddied mind, the easiest option is blame Gyokeres. Give credit where it is due- Nottingham played very well yesterday after rest and freshness. We had draggy legs and you could see that whole team was slow.
Like I said in September, Arsenal will win the league by virtue of our best in class D and set piece goals, but no amount of Goykeres hate can mask the fact Arteta is a safety first manager who coaches his team by committee.
Slow, safety first build up isn’t a bug, it’s the feature.
Sure, there will be an odd end to end, track meet type of a game here and there, but most will follow the familiarly slow horse shoe pattern we saw yesterday.
I saw more quick incisive passing from United players yesterday over 90 minutes under Carrick, than our boys managed under Arteta the last two games.
This isn’t to big up Carrick the manager, but rather to point out that the approach matters.
In the meantime
I’m gonna ignore debating how Vic is shit, Ode needs replacing, Saka is underperforming due to injuries, Martinelli is a head down merchant, and Trossard is arrogant or whatever else his problem might be.
It’s the coaching that makes them play the way they are playing.
We’ll probably win the league and maybe a domestic cup but fuck me, we’re painful to watch a lot of the time.
If the trade off for the mainly dour, stodgy football is a few trophies is a couple of league titles over the next few years then you’ll obviously take it but we’ll be YouTubing the WengerBall years for reminders of the sublime.
Call me entitled armchair fan or whatever, it’s true, but I watch football to be entertained. This football is for the most part duller than the dullest dishwater. I got up and walked out several times during the game yesterday to go off and do some miniature household chores pretty sure safe in the knowledge I wouldn’t miss much, if anything.
Btw re Gyokeres it’s possible to be two things at once. The bloke isn’t uk to premier league standard as he barely made an impact in the championship. But at the same time the tactical system is so defensive that it’s hard for any attacking player to flourish, even some of the players look frustrated at it.
Arteta already has a set piece coach, a throw in coach , amongst a few others, so why stop there?
Give him an offensive coordinator like the NFL teams have and be done with it.
He can still take credit for the whole thing as far as I’m concerned.
Yes< he needs a coach to manage his attack because he is clearly lacking in that regard.
He can’t coach at attack properly
Our whole attacking unit doesn’t fire often enough. Honestly, the amount of times we finish the first half with either no/one shot on target is scandalous.
Typically, we up it in the second half, but why aren’t we coming out with that intensity from the off to bury teams early?
Odegaard - time to have some difficult conversations about this guy. Apart from the odd false dawn, he’s been a passenger for the best part of eighteen months.
Ok Gyokores is bad but the manager must take some blame. In fact a lot of the blame. He sets up the team. It's his tactics. We simply do not create enough. We are too slow. The players are drilled into playing like this by the manager. It's as clear as daylight to see this. You can count the xg's all you want but the eye test has us to be a very conservative team that is drilled in safety first. Why is that ball not going into the box sooner? Why always is Timber in the box with chances and not the likes of our attacking players. We have real flair players like Eze not in positions to pull off shots. Why? This is an instruction from manager. The manager changed something following 23/24 season and we've been boring as fuck since then.
If we bottle this league it'll be down to the manager and not Gyokores solely
We’ve hired a throw in coach I’m hearing.
Watch our xG explode now.
He's obsessed with set pieces ffs. And finding margins! Fine do this but ffs, sort out the football and actually scoring goals in open play. We didn't look like scoring yesterday at all. These xg’s that Arteta counted (probably the only manager that does this BTW), how many were through good play from us? Probably majority were set pieces or 2nd phases of them or defensive errors. This isn't sustainable surely. Only reason we are still top is because city have been poor. I wouldn't write off villa yet either. Why? Cause their team attack with intent. They take chances that's why they are exceeding their expected goals. Watch united beat us next week or we draw the game.