For the rest of the campaign as we have been the last few weeks, we'll need goals out of the midfield. Ødegaard will have to take more chances when the opportunity presents himself. I love that he's commited to passing and finding the right player, but he also doesn't take the 1 or 2 gilded chances that come up as well. I think we have to start looking at Nketiah a bit more. He has a bit of the fox in the box about him and Lacazette used to have that but its not working. We really, really need Martinelli back. That will add a lot more punch to the attack.

Had be been available, I would suggest that the game might not have been as difficult as it was. No doubt we need a top, top striker in the summer.

No matter what European football is almost a gurantee and we may even have the unforseen fortune of CL football. "Who'd a thunk it?"

The Rams parade was not well attended.

I note there is a story that Xhaka refused to assume the captaincy when offered it during the game. Arteta should have sorted this out before the game. Personally I understand Xhakas position, given the fans previous reactions to his captaincy and his behaviour.

Arteta said it was because Tierney was next in line to have it and others have suggested Nketiah was trying to pass it on but the team and Xhaka wanted to wait until a more suitable pause in the game and not get out of position. Non story

Whose squad out of City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man U did you think our squad was better than at the start of the season?
The majority of people, including virtually everyone who is paid to write about football never had us anywhere near top 4. I saw a poll at the start of the season asked of all The Athletic’s journalist asking which of the 20 teams had the worst transfer window and Arsenal got 45% of all the journalists votes

Agreed. I posted a while back about rather having a resolute defence capable of keeping clean sheets than a strong attack but weak defence.

I know where I’d rather be long term as well. Spurs could still lose the most important piece of their jigsaw in the summer and Arsenal will certainly add the missing piece to ours.

Conte has them in a low block and counter with 3 players. It kind of suits playing City, but what about when they have to take the game to the opposition who sit deep.

lol...since I can see who someone quotes, you provided me a good laugh Rich. No one, including Arsenal fans, ever considered us serious top 4 challengers. We were worried about not being Europa league. Have at it though, its an inane debate to have for me personally.
Have a couple Tylenol's at the ready.

PS: I think it has more to do with me than anything else. People would remember something that bold of a prediction.

Anyway, upward and onward goes The Arsenal.

'Anyhoo' regarding more sane things, the Leeds v Man Utd game will be interesting. Not the knock down, drag out affair it was years ago, but this has top 4 implications. Leeds are a lively side. Man Utd have been luckier than husband with a negative blood test after a trip to Thailand.

Dropped points.....please football gods, dropped points.

https://twitter.com/pooreplreferees/sta ... 93509?s=21
Clear hand ball. Spurs had an almost identical one given against them 2 hours later
https://twitter.com/pooreplreferees/sta ... 03552?s=21
Ben white is clearly kicked in the leg and the defender was nowhere near the ball. Clear penalty
https://twitter.com/pooreplreferees/sta ... 59392?s=21
Less clear one this but looking at where the ball goes it seems more likely Lacazette got the touch ahead of the defender, and if he did then he’s fouled. Under the var rules of only over turning clear and obvious errors I could accept this not being given, but I’m not sure anyone on var is actually working to those rules
https://twitter.com/pooreplreferees/sta ... 32576?s=21
Again this one is debatable, I’ve seen them given for many of our rivals. I think there is a touch on Pépé, the thing that goes against him is usually if you’re tripped forcefully enough on the foot you’re about to take your next step with it makes you naturally fall. Pépé doesn’t fall naturally because the force of the trip/kick isn’t enough to make him do so. So the ref doesn’t give it and then var won’t overturn it.

I’ve seen teams get all 4 of those

I think Leeds are just too flakey to get anything from the game despite how poor Man U have been.
Man I’d real test is a 3 game sequence at the start of march when they go back to back with games v City(a), spurs(h), Liverpool(a) and even after that they have to come to the emirates and host Chelsea on the penultimate day. Final day trip to Vieira’s palace could be interesting as well

Well that’s a proper explanation.

Maybe Ian doesn't know the meaning of the word ""sumptuous" .

I'd be reserving that sort of description for say Bergkamp v Everton Henry v Liverpool van Persie v Chelsea

Against a very poor Brentford side I didn't think Martin tore up any trees .

Are you really saying you don’t recall my posts listing our squad? I may well have been the only one. But I did think we had a more realistic chance of fourth than you because you made it obvious you rated our squad players less highly than you did. You made that point, if I recall, more than once.

We weakened ourselves over January. That’s undeniable with Maitland-Niles and others. But I listed our squad a couple of times. I felt our back up players were stronger than you did. Are you really saying you don’t remember that?

I’m sure he must do. Either we won’t praise anyone for playing well against a semi-decent side like Brentford or we can admit Ødegaard had an exceptional game. I thought he did. With Smith Rowe in particular.

Just read that Lukaku had two touches of the ball in the entire first half vs Palace yesterday, and one of those was the kick off. Got to be right up there as worst signing of the season along with £100m Grealish. Neither have added anywhere near what their price tag and reputation hinted at

I remember you listing the squad a few times and me certainly responding to it as you say not thinking it was as good as you. What I’m questioning was whether you thought our squad at the start of the season was better than any of the squads who were the clear bookies favourites for the top 4?
I thought Man U signing Ronaldo was a mistake for their long term planning but he was still going add something this year, Sancho and Varane were excellent signings but Man U haven’t delivered and we’ve been better than most thought. We’re right in there for 4th place but at the start of the season most writers had us 6/7th at best. Myself, I expected top 6 as a minimum but thought the big 4 clubs at the top would sail off in to the distance

Presumably it was mainly clickbait.

Ødegaard was very good yesterday. I thought Partey was good as well. Cédric has also put in two decent performances in a row when we’d have probably all been a bit worried about missing Tomiyasu

You thought that Rich. But I felt we had a realistic chance of fourth. A realistic chance. No more, no less. That doesn’t mean I felt we were miles better than Manchester United. But I certainly didn’t think they’d sail off into the distance. I still think we have a realistic chance, even though I consider us weaker after the January window than I did then.

I felt Xhaka played well too, as did Cédric as you say. In my view one player whose level has dropped a bit recently is Ramsdale. Socrates said words to the effect a few games that he’d looked a bit dodgy in that match. Currently I just don’t see him quite at the level he attained earlier in the season. That isn’t me saying he should be dropped. I don’t think he should be. But there were a few times yesterday when he fell short of inspiring confidence in me.

Hi Rich,

Ødegaard has been very good in recent weeks. He has that same softness of touch that Özil has but with ten times the workrate.

What is really exciting is that I think he can do much more. More shots and goals for a start.

So, does Martinelli get his place back for the next game? Probably not unless there is an injury or Arteta decides to try him in the no 9 role.

Emile Smith Rowe was excellent and scored a great goal. He deserves to keep his place.

You old fogies wouldn't know this song unless you have kids under 25. Can't get this song out of my head...found an Arsenal related one.

https://www.tiktok.com/@robbeckettcomic/video/7043848287828364550

I still contend we'd likely have scored earlier had Martinelli played. We have even seen clubs double team him. Martinelli would have had their right side occupied. Does he start? Why not? But if he doesn't, at the first hint we aren't getting things done in the opposition end he should be subbed on.

Lukaku is a great signing for anyone EXCEPT Chelsea. He does anywhere from decent to well at pretty much any other club.
First spell with Chelsea, 10 games no goals, current spell with Chelsea 17 games, 5 goals.
Between Chelsea spells, loaned to West Brom, 35 games, 17 goals; Loaned to Everton, 31 games, 15 goals;
Bought by Everton, 110 games, 53 goals; Man Utd, his worse non Chelsea spell, 66 games, 28 goals, still 42% scoring rate if I used my calculator correctly. Inter Milan, 72 games, 47 goals.

If we can get that scoring rate out of him, lets take him (joking, he has a worse first touch than me on my first date).

Who is the bigger top 4 threat, Man Utd or Spurs? Or am I disrespecting West Ham?

We win our games in hand (near impossible with them being Liverpool and Spurs but...) and we are 'only' 2 points from 3rd.

Well, City have scored TWICE as many goals as Spurs in the league, and conceded considerably less, so the probability seems very much to favour them scoring (and not conceding) at any particular moment. So, any team is unlucky to concede during injury time, or lucky to score, but there are degrees of luck!

If it was character you would expect to see a bit more consistency from them. Big match temperament maybe, but sadly spurs don't get too many big matches because they lose too many small ones.

Despite all that possession they managed fewer shots on target than Spurs.

I think Smith-Rowe has earned the right to start and certainly not be subbed off "at the first hint we aren't getting things done in the opposition end". His confidence seems fairly robust but even so ...

Lukaku has always been overrated in my opinion. Physical beast, good goalscorer, but a very limited player whose mediocre technical skills and poor first touch will always keep him from being counted among the elite strikers of his generation. In 7 full PL seasons he has scored 20 goals only once. Not counting this season (which is to his benefit) he averages 16 goals per season in the PL, which is more Giroud than Henry level. Scoring in the Serie A isn't the same thing.

He did fill a need with Chelsea though, so I can sort of see the logic behind them signing him. Grealish and Ronaldo are more baffling to me, because they weren't even the type of players their teams were missing. Grealish competes for a spot with Sterling, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Foden, and it was always hard to see him producing at a level where 100m would be worth it. Ronaldo to Man Utd looked similiar - with a glaring hole through their entire central line it was very weird to see them spend big on him and Sancho instead of getting another central defender or a couple of central midfielders in.

That’s fair enough, but you would be in the minority who even gave us a sniff of 4th at the start of the season. Also when we talk about the quality of the ‘squad’ at the start of the season it is the depth that has been the thing that has let us down. First 3 games of the season we used a lot of squad players before the first 11 was established. One thing we’ve done well or been fortunate with is the amount of minutes our best 11 has been able to play. It’s that that has kept us on the hunt for top 4 not any squad depth because I don’t think that depth was ever there, particularly when compared to the big 4.

I tend to be a bit pessimist when it comes to Arsenal predictions, and right now I dont think we will finish in the top 4.

I think squad depth is often overrated when compared to having a great starting elven. Arsenal never had a better squad than Man Utd, but during the early Wenger years we had a starting eleven that was comparable to theirs, which is what allowed us to challenge them. It's the same reason Liverpool have been able to compete with Man City. Squad depth wins in the long run if we change the perspective to cover multiple seasons, which is why Man Utd won more than we did, and Man City wins more often than Liverpool, but in terms of a top 4 challenge in a single season I'd rather have the better starting eleven than a worse starting eleven with more squad depth.

All that being said though, this current Man Utd squad was - and still is - hugely overrated. I was baffled to see so many pundits put Man Utd in the top three (some of them even placed Utd ahead of Liverpool) going into the season. They have great cover in certain positions, and weak cover in others (most notably central defense and central midfield, where they barely have a single player I'd want to see at Arsenal). I said before the season that I saw us being a lot closer to Man Utd than they were to Chelsea, let alone Liverpool or Man City, and they've proven to be even worse than I thought.

I’m certainly not denying I was in the minority. Here it could feasibly have been minority of one. But unless I’m a figment of everyone’s imagination and don’t really exist, that doesn’t make it justifiable for American to say in post 542897 that “pretty much no matter what we have European football next season and we all thought it would be Europa Cup. No one envisioned CL football.” It was that single claim that made me do one of my very few replies to him.

Interestingly in post 542912 he repeated his mistake by saying “No one, including Arsenal fans, ever considered us serious top 4 challengers.” I most definitely did, and he’d have known that because we discussed the issue Rich and he would have read my thoughts on the matter. It is simply wrong to say nobody amongst the Arsenal fan base thought we had any chance whatsoever of finishing fourth.

Okay, Kane had a good game. Some of these back pages are talking about him as if he walked on water on the way to the goal and turned the water bottle water to wine. Jeesh!

Hoping its the milder variant that's out but even so, at 95, any flu is possibly life threatening.

Lacazette tweeted ‘nice kick about with the boys’ after yesterday’s game. I hadn’t realised but that’s exactly what Ivan Toney tweeted after Brentford beat a covid riddled Arsenal on the first day. If you’re going to give it out you need to expect it back in spades

One of the greatest ever premier league performances is one I read….!

At the start of the season everything I read and the opinions I listened to, very few thought Arsenal would be serious challengers for a top four place this season. I would say there was an overwhelming consensus that top would be Man City, Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea.