Was very worried about this game.
Genuinely wasn't sure we would win so delighted we held on for the win.
4 0 after 47 minutes!!! Never!!!!
Bit nervy but held on.
Why the hell is he not playing martinelli??? But happy to give bloody Willian minutes.
Does he not fancy him??
Martinelli is the future.
Willian is not!!

Typical Leeds game. Was important that we took the chances that they give every team.
Switched off at 4-0 but got composure back at 4-2 and we really should have scored more with Aubameyang hitting the post and not making enough of some good counter attacks.

Still uneasy about Arteta man management.
Apart from Saka and Emile Smith Rowe his treatment of Saliba Guendouzi and Balogun is questionable.......would hate to lose this young talent.
Amazed he still positive that Balogun will stay. No chance as he is not even getting on the bench

A) *%^@ apart from saliba

B) we won

C) your close to the “I’m mental” list

We need to work out how to get Aubameyang doing that more. Aubameyang is not striker who has lots of touches of the ball, you have to get it to him in the right areas and he’ll do the rest. Vardy would be a similar striker in that respect.
If you create a group of players around him who are sharp, quick and incisive you could easily create those circumstances for Aubameyang.

TG, stop being a wanker all your life.....have a day off.

Whilst creaming over Arteta's managerial genius I assume you failed to notice we did our best to throw away a 4-0 lead again. Imagine if Arteta had done something really really stupid like bringing on Willian ahead of Martinelli or Pépé.

I’ve watched Arsenal go through worse days than this my friend. I’ve sat through our darkest European finals

You can’t even enjoy a 4 goal win. I’m on the fence about our manager who’s probably on a hiding to nothing because of our mental transfer policy over the last decade.

This doesn’t alleviate the weirdness of our fans violently masturbating every time we lose. Or actually actually it doesn’t even take that any more

Rumours of another year contract extension for Luiz.

I think it all comes down to how much money we have to spend this summer and what our targets in other positions cost. If for example we only have £20m to spend then I’d give Luiz another year and spend that £20m on a central midfielder

I know he scored today but I do think we need a better right back than Bellerin. His final cross, pass, touch, shot often loses us some very good positions, and he can struggle against good movement and pace - notice how he’s got a lot more yellow cards this season.
In modern football a top team needs to have their full backs with as good technique as wingers and midfielders.
I realise Bellerin has come back from a big injury and he has done well to be back at this level and stay injury free, it’s also clear he loves the club and gives his all but if someone came in with £25m for him in the summer I think we could upgrade for that kind of money

Shows how frustrating the losses at Wolves and Villa were because win both of those and we’d be sitting in 4th right now.
I think top 4 is a pipe dream, not because 6 points is insurmountable but because of the number of teams ahead of us.
The way the league is this year if you go on a short burst of form you shoot up the table, or down if you lose a few. Southampton were right up in the top 6, they’ve lost 6 in a row and now sit 13th

It's a forum
It's called having an opinion
Chill.

Bernard does have a point. What exactly would the motive be for this systematic anti-Arsenal bias? Have we offended George Soros or Hillary Clinton, maybe?

The decision gets given every day of the week if its not arsenal.

Watch it again

Saka is shaking his head as the ref walks to the monitor. It’s another diabolical decision

We don’t get anything out the refs.

Next time try saying.

"It is so awful .. too many young kids on the field ... out of form Aubameyang shouldn't be selected ... OMG Willian!!! etc etc etc."

I also struggle to remember games. Can't say the weather comes into it, though.

Perhaps if you moved to Greenland or Antarctica it would help? They never have perfect weather there.

Was it just me or when the tv viewers got the repeats of the first Saka penalty we saw an angle that showed foot on foot contact. Then that angle was not shown as the ref watched the replay on his var pitch side monitor?
Of course the var directive of only over turning or correcting clear and obvious errors went out the window a long time ago as well.

Oh yeah the Kiwi girl mentioned on here a few years ago. She was a cutie apparently.
Sorry.....

That doesn’t make it corruption though. What it does make is your, and others here, personal opinion. A supporters’ chat room is not the place to find unbiased opinion on that club. Not just here or others devoted to Arsenal. But the online forums of every single club big enough to have at least one.

I gave that example recently when the Gooner used to do pieces on the forums of opposition club’s fans when they played Arsenal. I remember to this day how for a game against Manchester City, lomekian (who no longer uses this site) and Rich (who does) were doing their usual routine of moaning about practically every decision the ref was making (or that was the impression I had).

I remember it because shortly after an issue of the Gooner was published which had the piece on views expressed on a City forum. The views of the participants was the polar opposite of Rich and lomekian. According to the City fans, the ref was so biased towards Arsenal he was either paid by Arsenal or he was a lifelong fan.

I bet you will find similar views on every club’s online forums when they play Arsenal. Namely, the polar opposite of what you see here about the same ref in the same game.

It’s a problem I’ve recognised with VAR. There are so many decisions in football that can be influenced by subjectivity. It’s not about whether the ball has fully crossed a line. That’s easy. The problem is deciding things like whether a contact between opposition players is a foul, or whether a hand ball was accidental or a penalty. I must be honest I didn’t think the challenge on Saka was a penalty (the one that was overturned). The challenge on a Bamford was more of a penalty in my view.

So I suspect the views on Leeds’ forums on today’s ref will be very different to those here. One side issue. How bad was the Leeds keeper? Made George Wood look semi-decent by comparison.

https://twitter.com/linkuparsenal/statu ... 05761?s=21

So why wasn’t var shown this view of the penalty where there is clear contact as the Leeds defender’s leg clips Saka’s foot? I saw this replay immediately after but when var looked at it this view was never given to the onfield ref.

I don’t think there is anti arsenal corruption but I do think there is a ridiculously poor level of refereeing in this country, the most frustrating part of which is the awful consistency for identical incidents. The excuse for the inconsistency used to be different refs, full speed, one view, might not have had the best view. Now we have var things can be looked at multiple times from multiple angles and at slow motion. Decisions are still subjective but the consistency should be so much better.

I wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen Bamford given a penalty but when you look at the Saka one on the clip above vs the Bamford one I think the Saka one is far more of a penalty.

There was a farcical situation in the West Brom v Man U game when Maguire was deemed to have been fouled from a free kick and a penalty was given. Var recommended the ref look at it on the screen and the ref over turned his original decision and said it wasn’t a foul so no penalty. The farcical bit was Maguire was clearly in an offside position and that wasn’t checked by var they only checked the foul. Potentially if the ref stuck by his decision to award a foul the offside would have been ignored. I don’t believe they would have them come back to look at the offside because that is the first thing to look at because by determining he’s offside (mostly a fact based decision) they wouldn’t have had to even make the subjective decision on the foul!

Souness gave Arsenal and Arteta a pasting yesterday. Essentially saying we’re treading water and he sees no improvement and no chance of winning trophies. Sadly for Souness he started his tirade by saying “I don’t watch them”. It was meant as a slur because he finds us dull or not challenging, but if Souness had watched Arsenal he’ll see clear improvement. It might be slow progress and occasionally two steps forward and then one back but I think we still have the second best defence in the league and the attack looks like it can actually create chances, and looks quicker and more vibrant than it has at any point since wenger left

Hi Rich,

I thought both were pens in all honesty. Saka was basically bundled over while in full flight and Bamford was sandwiched between two Arsenal players, neither of whom appeared to touch or have control of the ball.

Tony Adams:
“To be honest, there’s an argument that you don’t need Martin Ødegaard. As the sporting director of Arsenal, you wouldn’t be getting Ødegaard in, you’d be getting good, strong defenders into the team instead.”

I know Tony is Arsenal through and through but his opinions tend to be so wide of the mark. Of course we'd all love top class defenders like van dijk or Dias but the defence (or at least the goals against column) hasn't been terrible this season but the attack and lack of creativity in the final third has been the big problem. Emile Smith Rowe emerged but we couldn't expect him to play 90 minutes of every game this season at 20. Ødegaard was a hugely sensible transfer. I would also ask Adams who he would have bought in to help the defensive side of the team in January for £0 or on loan because that was clearly the budget we were working with. There is plenty to knock Arsenal about but that deal is not one of them.

First half was excellent, the football and tempo were good, as was the pressing. Leeds looked a little more subdued than their usual ebullient selves, though.

Second half started well but then Leeds began to impose themselves and could easily have scored 3 or 4.

I thought at 4-0 it was the perfect time to give Martinelli 30 mins in his legs.

We are a work in progress what are people expecting ?

We have a squad that contains 3 players on loan (surely a first I can’t remember that happening before at Arsenal ) because we are not in a position to sign more than 2 major players every summer.

It’s a rebuild and we can’t do it all at once.

Do I expect people to understand this ? Nope, Tierney, Leno, Aubameyang and Arteta will still get tons of grief at the hands of the morons from outer space moaning about the time of day and micro analysing anything that doesn’t go precisely to plan.

I really like Emile Smith Rowe, his one touch passing quickens the tempo as well as often giving the recipient more time and space.

Saka is clearly our most dangerous player despite his tender years.

What really, really annoys me is Xhaka's apparent need to get his body between the ball and opponent and then fall flat on the floor looking for a freekick. He does it multiple times every game. Why?

I could agree with that, but I think the Saka one is more clear with var. On the Bamford one I think it is the other player (not Cédric) who is more at fault. Cédric gets his entire body across Bamford's line without barging him. If that was a ball rolling out for a goal kick and Cédric got his body across and shepherded it out of play the striker would never win a free kick irrespective of whether the ball was within playing distance of Cédric. Whoever the other Arsenal player was looks more like he plays the man.

I thought it was interesting that Bielsa said Arteta prepared his team far better than he prepared his own. I thought I could sense in Arteta's interview that he really had studied Leeds a lot, potentially slightly in admiration as well, and that he was proud his tactical set up worked.
It was interesting that Holding was dropped and our two most accomplished passing centre backs were picked. Both also have a calmness on the ball to beat a high press. It was the right choice.

MOTD did some good analysis on the game where they show Leeds going man for man all across the pitch, Arsesnal beat that by moving the ball quickly, playing one touch and being on the move after you've played the pass.

AUBAMEYANG!

While I thought the one on Bamford was more a penalty than the one on Saka, Cédric did so well by influencing the referee not to give it. He had a go at Bamford for diving, which I’m not convinced he did because I do think it probably was, while debatable, more a penalty than not. The immediate reaction because Cédric did that was to presume Bamford had dived, even if he arguably didn’t.

Maybe Arteta should tell our defenders to do that whenever there’s a debatable claim for a foul in the box against Arsenal?

Tony Adams is undeniably an Arsenal legend, one of those I don’t think there can or should be any debate about. But practically every time he opens his gob, I think he makes a prat of himself. I suspect that’s why he doesn’t seem to get all that much work as a pundit, let alone in coaching.

19 more goals for Aubameyang to join the 100 club. He's 26th in all time scorers for us now. His goals per game matches Henry and Wright

Absolutely. As a team we need to put more pressure on the refs. I don't like it but if everyone else is doing it and getting away with it so should we.
When I watch those feisty Arsenal v Man U games Vieira was always right next to the ref at every opportunity. We need to choose who does it, the captain should be there - but perhaps not Xhaka or Luiz as they have a reputation. Bellerin, Holding, Leno, Partey, Tierney have the right mix of experience, calmness and likability to positively influence the ref.

Yeah they made a point on smith Rowe's touches in the post game and I have to agree. He doesn't just wait for the ball and then think, be already knows what he's going to do when he gets it. And his pass to Aubameyang highlighted for the hat trick just shows how smart a footballer he is at a very young age.

He was past it according to some on here at the start of the season

Maitland-Niles did well in the build up to West Brom's goal whilst playing in central midfield, but possibly switched off to allow Fernandes far too much room in the penalty area for the equaliser. Fernandes is top class at finding that space and many other central mids may have lost him as well but that is the level AMN needs to get to if he wants to be a regular in central midfield

Bielsa also noted Leeds couldn't control Xhaka and Ceballos in the first half. With all the praise the front 4 are receiving it is worth noting both Xhaka and Ceballos had good games yesterday.
Xhaka divides opinion but since he returned from his ban he has been remarkably consistent and the stats show he's the most progressive passer in the team in that period. I no longer see him sat on top of the centre backs. Maybe a tactical tweak to get us further up the pitch and passing forward quicker. It is noticeable, even in the defeats it has been noticeable.

Arteta was getting abuse for not dropping him earlier in the season

Great work geniuses

Interesting read about Xhaka today.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/premier ... d=msedgntp