How are your nerves?! Arsenal head into this one on the back of a five-game winning streak to start the season, and I’ll say it again, having played some decent football. What cannot speak cannot lie and despite some occasionally torturous stuff from Conte’s selections, we are third in the table behind Manchester City, by a single point.
After an unbeaten start to the season (W5, D2), Tottenham could go top of the table (until Sunday at least), which would be a fitting way to mark beating one of our fiercest rivals.
Players of particular note will include Gabriel Jesus who has apparently not been on a losing side for 61 games (that’s a factoid that doesn’t stand up too much if any scrutiny). Harry Kane usually features in this one, and he’ll be covering every blade until he does again today.
I don’t believe that Spence isn’t ready or good enough. He was ready enough last season against Premier League opposition. The only way to find out is to play him.
Same here
Agreed. We have to punch above our weight to get top 4, always have done, or take advantage of teams dropping off a cliff like Utd. We are still 6th biggest wage payers and 5th highest in revenue. That is our level whether we like it or not.
One unsaveable worldie from outside the box (typical), one calamitous goalkeeping error (double typical) and a moment of clumsiness from a much-maligned RB leaving the rest of the team in the lurch (this is uncanny!)
None of those incidents are particularly worrying when taken in isolation, mistakes happen and all teams throw the odd one in, but the total lack of control that Spurs had for the majority of that match shows that the game plan of sitting back and taking your rare opportunities to score, only works against the best teams when every player puts in a near-perfect performance.
This tactic is ugly to watch and must be even worse to put into practice by those players who aren’t good enough, but we’re clearly better than we were under Nuno, Jose and Poch’s last season (not that any of that is a good benchmark to use when aiming for silverware). We could’ve nicked a draw on another day, but much like Chelsea away we certainly would not have deserved it.
Not a great way to start the 34 games in 6 weeks or whatever the ridiculous schedule is at the moment, I’d bite your arm off for a draw in our next two games away at Frankfurt and Brighton, followed by two should-win home fixtures against Frank and then Fwank.
Keep spending money on this clown club! Those seats should be empty
Temperament not right plus he’s figuring out the game for himself. We are lacking leaders
Building the environment for smooth Conte exit?
Just sitting back does not work with these players, they are not technical enough and we get overrun and outplayed by the most average teams let alone good ones….when we play high press and move further up the pitch I believe it helps…carry on like this and it will all end in tears, again…..another season with no trophy is on the cards, all this happy clappy crap drives me insane…with no Kulu the bench had nothing to help us win the game (before the sending off)..
Yeah a goal keeping howler & a team who took too long to adjust once Royal was sent off…someone should have stepped up &:taken his place…
I’ll give you a call when we draw Maidenhead in the FA cup….
Think that’s a bit unfair tbh… we keep getting over run in midfield 3v2 & our fullbacks offer us nothing offensively so we have no out ball when pressed high up the park… until we either change our wing backs or play 433 or 451 we’ll always play this counter attacking football which is largely awful to watch…
Wake me up when we start playing football please.
IMO LLoris should n’t be captain. Romero??
As well as four defensive midfielders, all at a similar level. What’s the point?
I feel Arsenal will falter down the line with a run of tougher fixtures and a few enforced selection issues. However, that’s their business, we were sh*t today.
Arteta is an annoying tw*t and his team are due a beating from an opponent that attacks with competence… We were terrible today, individually and as a team…
He’s not playing him because he has more experienced players ahead of him. He watches them in training every day, if he was that good or ready he’d be playing, at least occasionally…
That’s not saying much, to be fair.
Ill say one thing about Bentancur, he was close to signing for Villa before we made our move. That’s his level…
I thought Bentancur was our best player.
We lost that game, Arsenal didn’t have to win it.
I would be surprised if Arsenal finish above 3rd. We will struggle to get top 4
So he didn’t want him, why should he pick him? Your point is backwards
Yup.
1) more bankrupt
2)its paper-thin the difference
3) We’ve got the biggest gulf between starters and subs to any side
4)Yep
Is this REALLY done to child not getting picked?
We never press under Conte, he says that “we invite da pressure”. Well, tell them to press then ffs…
He put the nail in the coffin of that one, but mon capitan started it.
A captain should be a stabilising force, he wasn’t today.
I don’t think Arsenal are as good as their league position suggests, however we were absolutely shocking and I have no words for Royal’s actions.
I have a feeling that the players now know that Conte is an interim, and compared to last season it’s showing…
Aurier was better than Royal, that’s how bad Royal is.
Richarlison has been at Watford and a relegation threatened Everton for a reason, decent but nothing special.
Our ‘great transfer window’ is a media concocted myth, said it from the start. Our bench has just gone from nonexistent to mediocre.
We’ve sat back even more this season, I can’t see that Conte has a plan ‘B’ and
he doesn’t have the players to implement his system to it’s full effectiveness anyway. When did he last have to work with a right wingback as bad as Royal? When he managed Siena?
Endless management changes, different Directors Of Football, same outcomes.
What’s the common denominator?
Agreed comprising an abundance of defensive holding midfielders but yet still no creative midfielders??
I thought it would be a draw and that we’d play sh*t, Emerson turned that outcome into a defeat…
Our midfield has been substandard for about 5 years,,,
The NLD simply passed the Dane and Bentacur by!!
Even when we equalised I adopted a negative psyche!!
[From the latest blog]
Beaten by a better side well that was a painful chastening defeat!!
Having made some astute summer signings (Gunners), rather than berate Spurs generally outplayed and outclassed in all departments let’s praise our N London rivals who look the real deal serious title contenders. Whats worrying for Conte is that having made numerous summer signings I simply can’t see any discernible progress where several Spurs players are simply not good enough.
Be honest. Did anyone seriously think we were going to beat them today?
if you answered yes. I have some magic beans you can buy. PM me for more details.
Knock the Queen over
Can they play better football and win something meaningful though – we shall see
Or is Conte just cutting off his nose to spite his face refusing to play Spence just because he didn’t choose to buy him?
At no point during the entire game did we look like matching the winners, or winning the match. 2nd best in all departments. Still eminently capable of shooting ourselves in the foot.
Go on the Brittle Boys!
Agree with all of that. Levy out.
Not out coached though. Wolves play better football than us, most teams do for that matter.
Right there- Arsenal play better football- says it all.
Agreed
Not sure of this. At 1-0 down we had opportunities because of Arsenal pressing high. Perisic had a good chance, Son messed up a few times (including the move in the penalty). Man Utd showed how to beat Arsenal, and Ten Hag had better players to pick to exploit Arsenal’s weaknesses.
You look at Arsenal’s goals, a worldy by a player who had only scored 2 previously, a total mess up by Lloris and the 3rd because we were a man down. Arsenal play bette football, but this wasn’t a tactical victory.
Indeed, while that bald midget hangs about the club.
Pundits lauding over Arsenal, but we gave them this game, make no mistake about that.
That said, there hasn’t been a game this season that I have been happy with our performance. When you win and play poorly you take it, but when you lose it is hard to take. When you play well and lose you can take a positive or two, but can we?
I truly felt Arsenal were there for the taking, especially at 1-1. We let them off the hook because we don’t look to win, we set up not to lose. The Sporting game showed this and we repeated this today.
Conte plays the numbers game, always saying “we lost this last season, but we win today”, but the performances have been abysmal. The reason? We don’t have that many good footballers. Arsenal do, and they are showing that a better than average team who play football can achieve some decent things.
Arteta, who is not a brilliant manager, has been massively backed and he is improving his team because of good spending, not good coaching. Yet Poch, Mourinho and Conte have been left high and dry, whilst Levy hopes the managers can coach a team to win. It’s nonsense. Pep, Klopp and any Chelsea manager will tell you that money is needed and a recruitment team who know what they are doing.
The Spurs job is the club equivalent of the England job. Impossible…
We never turn up away at Woolwich, that’s true however our approach handed the opponents all the confidence and possession the needed.
We gave them all the momentum and the crucial moments ourselves. At 1-1, we were growing into the game and starting to put the pressure on them. Unfortunately, after HT, Lloris realized he had Jesus as anytime scorer on his acca. Shocking, shocking mistake.
And then Royal…I could forgive Romero doing that, because he’s generally a very solid player and can have the odd brainfart / excess aggression, but Royal is at best “tolerable”, and then he goes and sabotages the game like that. And this guy apparently assigned people to scout Hakimi and to help him learn what a good RWB does.
If this is what he learned, God help us.
How bad is Spence that Doherty and Royal both get the nod over him?
So there are four things that stand out for me after the game.
He’s a crybaby and annoying but Arteta completely outcoached Conte today
Conte has forced me to into hiding😪
They showed that they have good ball players in their team.We just have runners,there is absolutely no creativity in our squad and it’s killing us.
Exactly. They’re not as good as the media will now make them out to be.
Son sent his useless twin again today. Just when we needed him.
Slowly being dragged underwater by Levy.
I really hate this defensive counter attacking football.
We need 5 in midfield & a flat back 4…
Aye, just not performance enhancing ones!
The thing is, we’ll beat them at home later in the season. It’s the same every season.
Yet again, we are a club going nowhere, treading water, doing nothing…
We bought more players. Price per player speaks volumes. It’s a transfer policy that does not win trophies
Let’s be honest, what do we expect ? Same as it ever was.
Right now, with our squad, we have to play with what we have. But for me, Royal is behind Docherty and Spence. It’s not even close.
As proven with that piece of play. The best cross I have seen from him in 2 years!
Their RB Ben White cost 50M, ours cost Barca 7M, which is probably them overpaying slightly. Also, they got the Japanese lad as a backup.
We’ve got approximately seven people who can play RB, but none of them particularly good.
Matt Doherty on drugs
We’ve spent more than Arse
Every keeper makes 2-3 howlers a season… lloris has had one today in a game we were likely to lose anyway
We don’t buy like a big club either.
And Doherty is not very good!
Gone quiet… 🤫
We don’t play like a “big club”
That is a very low bar
Agreed
A chess player would resign..
I’m a better player than Royal and I haven’t kicked a ball for 40 years.
Hard to argue that. Very odd moments
Docherty is a better player than Royal. It’s so obvious it is almost painful
3-1 down and Kane is on the right when we need him in the box
Lloris and Royal probably involved in some suspicious betting activities for today.
How to waste 50 mil and some not including wages , good work baldy.
It was intriguing at 2-1, this Arsenal will prove brittle as ever, they would have sweated last 10 mins if it had stayed 2-1.
Royal threw the match and robbed us of seeing that.
That free kick summed us up today. It’s like they are deliberately playing poorly.
I’ll give you that
“Harry Kane lines up a free-kick for Tottenham. Can he make something happen?
Eric Dier rolls it for him and Kane hits it straight at the wall.”
At least he didn’t slam it straight into Dier’s face, he’s improving.
Good call.
Imagine if Sanchez started as well?!
Ha ha
Levy will read this and miss out ‘of high quality’
Where’s that chump Chirpy that was all over this @@@@king blog pushing propaganda?
Romero deserves a headsup as he was playing two positions before the red card.
From Walker to Trippier to Aurier to Doherty to Royal, our RB downgrades mirroring the decline of the squad overall across the last few years.
Saliba and the 2 Man City lads have well improved them ,,
muslim extremists?!
The Jesus/Zinchenko deals were very good. One thing is for sure, Arsenal’s board have certainly backed Arteta and before that Dracula. Buying top draw once is better than buying ‘ordinary’ three times.
Royal and brainfarts
In January Royal out, Moura out – two replacements of high quality in. We’d be a lot more healthy.
I’ve concluded he’s absolutely brainless.