It's just so ridiculous that Arsenal finished that match with a back line of Partey, White, Kiwior and MLS.
That's the 3rd or 4th choice RB, probably 3rd choice RCB, 2nd choice LCB and maybe 7th choice LB.
LB is the really ridiculous one. Probably Calafiori is #1, Zinchenko might be #2, unless maybe it's Timber now. Tomiyasu is after that at #4, Kiwior is another option. And, if he were ever fit, there's Tierney. I guess Zinchenko is technically available now, but he hasn't trained much, so with all those injuries it was MLS who got picked. He did pretty well, but it's just kind of ridiculous how few options there are at left back right now.
IMO it was that terrible back line that allowed Liverpool to equalize. It wasn't that the defenders played too badly, but White and Merino had to play really deep to provide cover for them, and Martinelli was helping MLS, which allowed Liverpool to come forward and put on the pressure.
Last season Saliba started every game. Gabriel started 34 matches. White started 32. The only iffy position was on the left.
This season has barely started and already it's a makeshift back line with everyone playing out of position.
Yeah, it's been such a disruptive season. The injuries have been bad enough, then throw in those 3 red cards. It feels like the players haven't been able to settle and build partnerships.
Look at Saka and White. Played together pretty much every game for the past 1-2 seasons. We've had an inconsistent and unconvincing run of games with both players in and out. Both are finally available to play in the same match and that partnership gives us an important lead in an important fixture.
Hard not to look at that as an example of why we look like we've struggled. Amongst some other reasons of course.
If someone looks back at statistics in 5 years and sees that White assisted Saka for a goal in this fixture, they'll probably say "Of course, White assisting Saka was normal" and won't realize that it was White playing as a CB spotting Saka's run from deep and playing a ball for him over the top. It's great that that partnership exists even when White and Saka aren't playing near each-other.
But yeah, Partey was shaky as a right back, especially defensively, and he and Saka seemed to have almost no connection.
But it's that left back issue that IMO shows just how injury ravaged Arsenal has been.
- Calafiori - Injured
- Zinchenko - Just returning from an injury, not available to start
- Timber - Injured
- Tomiyasu - Injured
- Tierney - Injured
- Kiwior - Playing elsewhere
- Miles Lewis-Skelly - Here's your shot!
And it's not even like MLS is a left back who finally got his shot. He's mainly a midfielder, so he's also playing out position. It's great that he's being picked, I love seeing youth players getting their chances, and not just in meaningless league cup games. I just wish it wasn't because more than half the defenders at the club are injured.
Something that was really bothering me at the bar - does anyone listen to how the commentators talk about us? I heard someone straight up call Arsenal "title pretenders" (I assume as a "contenders" joke). I genuinely am lost for words. These people get paid to talk about the match and the teams and that's the drivel that dribbles out of their mouths into the microphone.
Yes. The other thing I picked up this week was that Arteta never once used injuries as a pre-emptive excuse. e.g in the pre-match presser:
on if he feels hard done by to have so many injuries:
This is the game, you know, obviously, we didn't want to be in that situation, but we are really lucky as well to have the squad that we have, to have the players that we have, to have the attitude that we have. When it comes down to reacting against a difficult situation and don't feel sorry for ourselves, face it. We are a team that we know how good we are as well and how difficult we can be for the opponent. And having that ruthless mentality in the team is something that I love.
Yet am I sure I noticed the usual idiots telling us off for complaining about injuries. That's why I don't give 2 tugs what non-Arsenal journos or pundits say. They relentlessly pursue a pre-determined agenda, no matter what.
I don't know if I really understand this anti-Arsenal agenda. From celebrations, to tactics and everything in between. It's obviously for clicks/views, because nothing else makes sense.
Maybe Arsenal supporters are more likely to take the bait? Man United are precious and City are probably "protected" for other reasons.
I don't mind Liverpool, but they seem to be somewhat beloved by most. Spurs are too easy a target. Chelsea is such a mess. I guess that just leaves us and people seem to love to try take us down a peg.
That's the only way to maintain your sanity, honestly. They want to wind you up for clicks, so just ignore them.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pretender
"a person who states they have a right to the high position that someone else has, although other people disagree with this: "
And have Arsenal declared they have a right to the title?
imma be honest, i watched that one that Havertz scored that got called foul before scoring? That's absolutely a goal, what the hell. Never a foul.
Also for your perusal:
- Dias kicks the ball away prior to an Arsenal free kick; no card, hmmmm
- VVD kicks Havertz twice, from behind, completely off the ball. Not even a talking to. On a different day (and were he wearing Arsenal colors) that'd be a red.
This pissed me off and which is why I'm a little more disappointed about the draw. I'll take it, but I felt like we could/should have won it.
Hi friends, as I really can't mess up my sleep patterns to watch a live game at 3:30am, I woke up and caught up on the match over breakfast. I didn't have great hope for this game, so I am very proud of the performance of the team. If we didn't have Bukayo and to a lesser extent Timber, it may have been a different story.
On the other hand, it's really disappointing to go ahead twice and then not go on to win…but again the mitigating factors of more players going down, balances that.
I agree with the sentiment that is going around that we don't seem to be catching any/many breaks that we need.
I don't care what pundits or commentators, or other fans say…they can write us off all they want. I do think that the trash talk, call it bias if you like, permeates through to the PL referee entertainment roadshow organisation though. I would use up a genie wish on firing all of the fucking PL refs into the sun.
Let's hope that we can hold on in the next few matches and then start to have as many players coming back from injury, so that we can progess the rest of the season like a coyote smashing train in a Looney Tunes cartoon.
My last observation is that I might change my middle name to Bukayo.
Looking purely at the football played on the pitch, Liverpool probably deserved to win more than we. That said, we're just getting injured left and right. Unless your oil daddy can buy you 2 starting first 11s, that means you're screwed. I mean look at Liverpool last season - they kind of performed astonishingly well given how many of their key players were out.
I'm praying we can manage Saka back to 100% and when Odegaard comes back we should see a lot more continuity on the right side. That being said, I'm still waiting to see similar chemistry between Martinelli and Merino, but it does take time.
I'll also point out that we are 5 points off 1st and that's with the injuries. If we're getting our bad luck out of the way early, we might be okay.
I agree with your comment, apart from the first sentence. My take is that it was pretty even and if anything we had better quality periods of control. Neither of our goals were flukes or too against the run of play. I’d say that a team that’s goes ahead twice is mostly more deserving of taking all the points. We were pushing to add a third but got caught on the break with a below par defence. In addition, the stats were pretty even.
ratings later, D&D
Have fun
