JoeAfter the Man United away game I stressed the need to drive a lead home. On Monday was did exactly the opposite. Again we surrendered a lead, again we sat off and again we took zero points. That’s four trips to the North West this season and we’ve taken fuck all from them. City and Liverpool okay, but again THAT United team and THAT Everton team. It’s simply not good enough. My good friend said the only positive was that we didn’t have to go back that way this season.
I’m not going to dissect the game of the red cards that should have been, you know what you get from Mike Dean, but the warning signs were there. Richarlison had two ruled out for marginal offsides but nothing changed. We were lucky to take the lead but again we failed to consolidate it. Same old Arsenal. We sat back scared of giving it up, which is of course exactly what we did. Half time was Arteta’s time to send them out fired up to finish this team off but nothing happened. A problem we’ve had for so long is how slowly we move the ball forward watch the top teams their transition from one end to the other is a few passes long and fast. Even Everton were playing like that once they sensed we were there for the taking.
Our attacking issues are becoming a monumental problem and they’re being compounded by a manager who insists on bringing on a player who’s gone on the record to say he’s not staying. Why? Nobody knows. Whats happened with Pepe? Nobody knows. It’s baffling quite frankly. Add to that the fact that Auba can’t finish a dinner at the moment and we’ve got real problems. Lacazette can only do so much and naturally drags the play back to get involved. Signing strikers in January is notoriously hard and usually they flop so I think we’ll have to work with what we have *gulp*. Just to compound everything Nketiah slapped the post from three yards out when he should have given us the lead, then Aubameyang dragged his shot wide to give us a point at the death. Same old Arsenal.Ultimately we got exactly what we deserved – nothing.
The Bottom Line
The “turnaround” that we saw has been well and truly undone by a few shocking results. Monday night’s was the worst of the lot, we lost every battle, every second ball, our passing was dreadful and we lacked any real threat. There are big problems at Arsenal for Mikel Arteta and on Monday I saw a big chunk of the fan base turn. Getting them back onside will require some big and convincing results. Has he got them in him? I’m not sure anymore. Southampton travel to the Emirates on Saturday and anything other than three points will be a disaster. Until then.
COYG
-Joe