Surreal tbh. What’s weird is other teams just look mid. You watch other games (PSG, Madrid) and they honestly look like Villa to me.

Arteta really did raise the standards and I couldn’t be more grateful.

I really used to pray for days like these.

I think it’s obvious we are playing a way more structured system this season. We have far fewer overlapping runs, and seem to be more focused on managing our longevity over the season than we are in blowing teams away.

At the moment we look efficient to me. It feels like Arteta trying to approach winning from a more controllable angle (dominate possession, concede fewer chances) than it feels like a lack of inventiveness. I’m just a little worried it might affect some of our players’ confidence (Martinelli is quietly having a bad season for example).

Overall I’m not too worried. I just hope leadership knows what they are doing.

Absolute cannon event.

Defense. Even as one of the leaders in the league, we still are out of possession 40% of the time.

You want better than Trossard then

Ibrahim is who everyone is excited for, right?

What’s the point of quality in the injury room?

You watch other games and you quickly realize we have the best defense in the league. I strongly believe it’d have been better if Partey and Timber weren’t injured.

Downvote me but Martinelli has been wasteful tonight.

The sheer amount of opportunities and he’s struggled to find anyone.

That was his initial position before Pep made him into a fullback. He still plays it for Ukraine.

I think Arteta wanted more options there.

It’s easy to forget Zinny can play that position too if Timber was available. With Tomi’s form maybe that will happen.

Having the option to play Kai, Zinny, Rice or Vieira in that position objectively should give him as much flexibility as possible.

I think the real problem is not having Partey be able to string a run of games together.

I’ve been genuinely impressed with Declan Rice’s contribution since he joined Arsenal. It’s surprising to see the midfield’s overall performance not elevate further, especially when considering the brilliance of Odegaard, Zinchenko, and Partey last season.

Oh I completely agree. I’m just pointing out where we’ve regressed as a result of the personnel changes.

It’s normal there’s a bedding in period. Martinelli needs to be fed more and going from one of the best progressive passes in the game to stylistically one of the worst does have its effect.

I think I prefer Rice in that role with Partey in DM over Rice in DM with Kai in that role. I thought Zinny would take on the duty of feeding Gabi but he really hasn’t switched on this season.

Depending so much on the right flank alone is making us predictable IMO. We really need to fix ball progression on the left.

The left flank really misses Xhaka.

This would feel so much better if everyone else was pulling their weight. So many regressions across the team.

Zinny, Odegaard, Jesus, Partey and Martinelli were better players last season. Rice’s performances should be added gravy, not saving our blushes game after game.

37 innit

Sucks but I feel like it comes with the shift in the club’s profile.

Massive players struggling to get into great teams is just normal. Rammers himself has struggled to get into the England setup.

If Timber didn’t suffer that horrible injury, we’d add Gabi and one of Zinny or Partey would be consistently on the bench.

It’s the goal. The consequence of creating a competitive environment is that players don’t get enough gametime. it’s also that players push themselves to be the best they can be, the team succeeds more, and the player can move into a starting position in a different club if they lose the battle.

It just comes with being a gargantuan club.

We watched Edu push his way into the first team and players like Kanu and Wiltord build legendary status from the bench. It’s nothing new, we are Arsenal…this is the foggin estandards.