60 minutes and not a single attempt on target. Bound to be a lot of ups and downs as Arteta sorts this team out. Very much a down performance after the weekend's up.

These water breaks have both come at the wrong time for us. We were on top when both were taken. Lost our way in the first half, lets see what happens after this one.
It has 1-0 written all over it because Villa don't look like gifting us anything and we don't have the quality to break down a bottom 3 defence

Nketiah hits the post from a corner

Cédric off Willock on. Not sure anyone is playing RB - Grealish is going to have a field day down their left as soon as he gets the ball

Kolasinac and Holding are not a CB pairing. The ball up to Villa's lone forward is sticking every time, sometimes without a CB within 5 yards.

Holding feels like he might have a future in a back 3, Kolsinac really doesn't have any future with us

2-5-3 formation it seems.

At least this means we have no dilemma with what team to pick in the final game, give everyone who needs a rest a rest before the cup final. Only fair that we put in a similarly duff performance against Watford as we have vs Villa today

In a lot of games its said a certain team 'wanted it more', I'm never completely convinced by it as it often seems to be just hindsight for a battling defensive effort, but in today's game Villa have definitely wanted it more. We look totally unmotivated and disinterested.
Ceballos has been ok - but everyone else in the team is down at 4-5 out of 10 level.

I remember Lansbury. Saw his only goal for us in a League Cup win at Tottenham.

Deserved.

Well, that was about as bad as it has been all season. Not a single shot on target, first time anyone has failed to do that against Villa for 4.5 years!

Really f###king frustrating.
I know the cup final is another route to qualifying for europe but this is a missed opportunity.
Could have taken it to the last day and strong likelihood that Chelsea would have beaten wolves.
Just haven't been at the races today.
Have those 2 performances against liverpool and city caught up with us????
F###king spurs now qualify along with wolves.

That was an excellent defensive performance by Villa. They didn't go diving into tackles or give away stupid frees. Held their positions and worked their socks off. Our attackers had a serious off-day.

What a shocking performance, an embarrassment.

If ever we wanted a sharp reality check today was the day. Simply not good enough against a bang average side who defended well and were motivated but hardly world beaters. They didn't even have to kick us off the park, they didn't need to, the lack of quality and creativity was there for all to see.

The service wasn't great but I see little evidence for Nketiah starting games, his movement is good and he makes decent runs but to me he's not at the level required, not that Lacazette or Aubameyang were any better tonight.

Cédric must be *%^@ hot in training because we've handed him a 4 year contract for some reason.

Pépé looks more and more like Gervinho part deux, ie dazzling footwork but no real football brain. I think we've probably paid £45m too much for him.

Right, I've got that off my chest.

Villa showed admirable qualities to get that win. As DHD said, they deserved it. I hope we slaughter Watford and Villa stay up.

If Spurs finish 7th and we win the cup Spurs won't qualify for Europe

After all the work Arteta has done with the team he has found an 11 and a system that can be competitive, he's also found that anything other than that system and those players is pretty awful.
The squad we have should have us above Burnley and Sheff Utd, but no one else. We deserve to be where we are.

Bittersweet. Pep regrets what he lost. Within 2 years or so, if Arteta still at club, he and players could be a feared side again, both on/off the pitch.
Depends on the players we keep, go out, come in of course.

Feel the same way. Some how Villa seem to be a team that belong in the top flight.,

I’ve been thinking similar about Nketiah for some while socrates. A decent enough player who will have a good enough career in the game to make millions. But I don’t see him becoming a top player at the highest level.

I was also amazed when Watford sacked Pearson. Weren’t they stranded at the bottom when Pearson came in, so he did improve them? I think Watford deserve to go down.

After you stated last week that it was the best performance of the season it became inevitable that it would be followed up by a poor one

We will be hard pressed to hang on to Aubameyang. He does not have many years left of his professional career. Don't think he wants to stick around in hope of silverware. Unfortunate we are not able to sustain our positive play.

Pretty good assessment of our current situation.
https://www.football365.com/news/opinio ... mesut-ozil

This was a poor performance after a pretty good game against City. I don't think the Liverpool game had any encouraging signs at all. Our lack of creativity is really concerning. Ceballos is not the answer - I don't want us wasting the money. I think Smith -Rowe is more creative than him.

Smith Rowe is less creative than Ceballos in my view. If you’re saying he’s the answer then god help us. Nketiah could be a squad back up level for a team wanting to win things. I’m yet to be convinced Smith Rowe is even that level. He’s done really well at Huddersfield. I’m glad for him as it should increase his transfer value. What it doesn’t do is provide firm proof he’d be anything other than bang average in the Premier League.

If the plane story from last night is accurate, at least someone realises what the main issue is at Arsenal. It isn’t what players stay or go, or who the head coach is. It’s who the owner is.

Last night's defeat highlights our need for some creativity in midfield, or some more guile in the forward positions. Arteta has managed to instill a belief and a structure which has helped us compete against superior attacking teams, but against Tottingham and Villa we looked impotent and ran out of ideas when faced with 10 players behind the ball. The nearest thing we have is an out of favour Özil (the worst value signing in Arsenal's history?), Pépé who despite his skill built his reputation playing on the counter attack, and Cebalos who while much improved doesn;t look creative enough to unlock low blocks. Also, our attackers are a bit small so peppering them with high crosses doesnt seem to be that effective.
Assuming we dont win the FA cup and have little money to spend, i'd suggest we raise funds selling Torreira, Kolasinac, possibly Martinez while his stock is so high, maybe Lacazette, and a central defender but I'm not sure which one.

Which central defender? I'd sell Sokratis, Holding and Mustafi and buy 2 more. Realistically you'd sell the first two, keep Mustafi and buy 1. We'll probably start next season with the same crop having just sold Sokratis.
We've got so many central defenders and so few of them (if any?) that can be trusted in a back 4.
Saliba has a lot of pressure on his shoulders already and I fear for him, because he's 19, he'll make mistakes but I think a lot of Arsenal fans think he's going to be our saviour.
In an ideal world Arsenal central defence should be 2 experienced starting top quality defenders, saliba as the rookie learning from them, Luiz as the older experienced head helping out where required and a 5th guy (Mari). None of what we have fits those first choice starters, most are only reliable in a 3 man defence so they all need to go in my opinion.

Agree on Torreira, he doesn't look like a right fit for the league - I'd snap anyone's hand off for a sale of our money back.

No Smith Rowe would be just as good a fill in as Ceballos. Ceballos is not creative enough and is a journeyman in the position. We should not sign him and only keep him if the cost to us is really low.

Bernard, no matter what we think there has been some reasonable investment in the squad but we have failed to spend it well. Last year is a classic example. We spent a large (silly)amount on Pépé when the coach wanted a left side player. Instead of investing in the last few years in CB's we have tried to stitch temps in the role all the way from Sokratis, Mavrap..,Luiz and all of them have cost a lot of money in wages. The owner would be reluctant to keep putting money in for players that actually just eat up wages and were never good enough.

I am not happy with the ownership but we have been given money. We probably need more but it needs to be spent well.

I think yesterdays game is just a reminder we need to change up personnel. Ceballos is having to do a lot of work in the middle of the park and only has so much energy.

It was no coincidence the game we rested Tierney we lost.

Torreira only works in a midfield 3 sitting in front of the back 4. In a midfield 2 it will never work.

Need to get rid of Torreira and Guendozy and bring in 2 new midfielders who are fast and can move the ball quickly and accurately.

Like Bernard I really don't see enough of Nketiah to suggest he's anywhere good enough for this level. His effort and attitude is top class and I think thats why he's getting picked but if Lacazette was turning in his performances people would be absolutely slaughtering him.

Soares should have blocked that shot I thought and didn't have a good game.

Anyone who thinks more creativity will turn us into world beaters is in my view living in cloud cuckoo land. Forget giving a yet to be invented age reducing drug to the likes of a Fabregas, or a Cazorla, or an age reducing and motivation enhancing therapy to Özil. Let’s move up a level and give it to a Brady, a Hudson, a Pires or a Bergkamp. Or even a bring ‘em back to life course of pills to the skeleton or ashes of Alex James. I honestly think the difference it would make is a big fat zero. Or a massively overweight nothing. Or a grossly obese nil.

Know why I think that? Because Stan would want any player with their current transfer values sold to get some financial profits into the club. Kroenke selling up is the thing that would excite me most, way more than selling any existing player or buying a creative one or a top central defender.

We should all make the most of it if we do beat Chelsea. Because while we’re part of KSE’s investment portfolio I don’t see these sort of days happening very often.

What the hell are you basing that Smith Rowe comment on? Because I think it has all the accuracy of saying 1.0 + 1.0 = 73.4. I’m certain if we had Emile Smith Rowe in Saturday’s team instead of Ceballos, it would be City playing Chelsea in the cup final.

We have a richer owner than other clubs considered financially doped. Stan has not put a single penny (or cent) of his own money into the club. He is worth ten billion own his own and his wife is worth seven billion on her own. So as a couple they’re worth seventeen billion. Sure, some fans have no problem with that on a moral basis. So my advice to them is enjoy Arsenal’s mediocrity. Because that’s what I expect to happen.

Then you consider Ceballos our future creative player. I think he is nothing more than a squad player, as is SR.

I would add to that. IMO Xhaka is too limited and we end up with other players having to cover for his deficiencies. Would get rid of him and start remodelling the midfield in totality. Don't actually think any of this will happen.

I would not be holding out much hope of getting big funds from Guendouzi sale particularly if he is wanted by other medium to big clubs. They know he is not wanted at Arsenal and will likely offer very little funds on the basis we want to get rid of him.

I didn’t think that was what I said. I said I consider Ceballos more creative than Emile Smith Rowe. That isn’t the same thing at all. I think with young players there’s often a tendency to overreact to their potential. Emile Smith Rowe has only played one single game for Arsenal when I didn’t end up feeling underwhelmed.

I have overreacted myself. After three brief sub appearances last season I was hoping Medley could become another Sol Campbell. He hasn’t played one first team game this campaign, not even in the League Cup. So I was probably overreacting. But at least I saw more in Medley to overreact about than I have in Emile Smith Rowe.

Seen some comparisons of points after the first 19 games
Arteta 30
Emery 38
Wenger 33
Rioch 33
Graham 38
People trying to make a point that Arteta has been worse than all 3. But by showing all the managers it just shows how you can't take anything from the first 19 games, and that is before you look at the state of the teams each manager inherited.

Almost irrespective of results, if Arteta had used his half a season to get the confidence and morale back in to the squad, root out the bad eggs, made clear decisions on who isn't good enough and what he needs, and get everyone pulling in the same direction that would have been a tough ask in itself.

This is a monumental re-build we have to do. Maybe Arteta can make some easy wins just as Wenger did. Wenger took on the drinking, the diet the fitness and we improved players without signings. Arteta can improve, off the ball, positioning, discipline, desire and motivation - all things that we have lacked and can be coached in to existing players.
We cant go and sign world class players, we cant go and sign half a new squad. We need to pick our battles, invest in the long term future, take the painful sales where required if the longer term goal is upwards. Invest smartly, bring the wage bill down, realise we are battling to even be in the top 6 next season and go from there. Season on season with the same long term goal. It might mean we have players in the squad who are not up to quality but we can't shift them and don't have the money for replacements, and those players stay around for the next 3 seasons or so. It will be frustrating but there must be a sensible plan. Nothing since Wenger (or the last few years of Wenger) has been a sensible plan

Klopp fully deserves manager of the year if he gets it. But a shout has to go out to Rodgers and Santo, both have done a phenomenal job.

Does anyone else feel our group of young academy players are a bit lightweight? They obviously have ability but in terms of athleticism and physicality they seem a big step behind similar players at other clubs academies.

Everyone loves an academy player in the first team, but it can cloud judgement to their true ability. Really every single one of them should be considered a sell-able asset apart from Saka. They can all do a job as squad players but at the moment I don't think they're good enough to take us where we want to be. I'd actually go for AMN as the next best after Saka. His problems seem more fixable on the training pitch as he already has pace and a more physical build than the others.

If we were offered £20-25m for any of Nelson, Willock, Nketiah then we should cash in I think

There is still lots of talk about us signing Willian. This season he's been far better than any attacking midfielder we have but I don't think this is the sort of signing we should be making. Will he improve us next season? probably. But he's looking for a 3 year deal at I would estimate up around £200k per week. Of that £30m commitment (plus bonuses) how much of that Time will Willian be performing at the level he's been this season? Pretty much as soon as you give Willian that deal his value is £0 and you have no chance of moving him on at any time of that 3 year contract no matter how he's playing.

Can we play this Chelsea in the FA Cup final please!?

Couldn’t agree more Rich. Your post corresponds closely with what I was saying earlier. The ones you list are all good squad players, as you imply. But I can’t believe some of the overreaction to some of them, as I implied earlier. With your listing, however, I would add Smith Rowe to the sellable items, and add Martinelli to Saka as the not for sale items.