JoeFirstly, its been a long time since my last post. A busy Christmas period meant that I couldn’t give this blog the attention it deserves so apologies. A LOT has happened since my last post, we’ve picked up points, lost games we shouldn’t have and as we say last night, lost games we absolutely should have. If Man City was a dazzling display with an unjust result, last night was a dismal display. We made a lot of changes, most of them forced but it just goes to show you how fragile this squad is. We were appalling from start to finish. The game itself wasn’t a great watch but experienced won out in the end.
Falling at Forest again
There is a lot to go over from yesterday but looking at the team you can easily see where we had issues. Patino, is a real talent but he’s not there yet, I’m not being critical of him because nobody covered themselves in glory. Cedric is a diabolically bad footballer, the gulf between him and Tomi is huge and its a real worry that he’s our back up. The decision to let AMN go on loan to Roma now strikes me as very odd considering we have players out with covid, at AFCON and with injuries. I’m not saying he would have made the difference yesterday but when we’re having to play Patino it should tell you everything.
Then we come to Tavares who was yanked off after 30 odd minutes. Arteta has every right to do that if he doesn’t feel he’s getting enough out of a player but I’m not keen on it. Nuno showed his displeasure coming off and I had to feel for him watching worse performers stay on for the full 90. Holding was dismal, it was easily one of his worse performances in an Arsenal shirt and again the difference between him and Gabriel is enormous.
Upfront we has real issues getting anything going. Each team created one chance a piece and ours fell to Nketiah. Just like at Goodison Park he fluffed his lines and that should be the last we see of him in an Arsenal shirt for me. Great against lower league teams in the League Cup when you’re 3-0 up and cruising but when the chips are down he can’t handle it. I know that might sound harsh but we have an issue with strikers as it is, we can’t keep affording him chances to miss.
The bottom line
We don’t have time to lick our wounds as we go into a cup semi final on Thursday (because of course Liverpool run football) and then onto an absolutely massive clash with the scum on Sunday. It really feels like a shootout for the top 4 with them. We need to at minimum avoid defeat.
I’ll be back later this week with some transfer talk and a report on the Liverpool clash. Till then.
COYG!
-Joe