Man City showing us how to close out a game. 76% possession in the second half, 15-2 in shots, 6-0 in shots on goal.

Hi Rog/Warrior,
Interesting as no problem with small print in posts on my phone vertically.

Yeah just ignore everything I say

Your best post ever and great advice.

I thought Ødegaard was out of this world today. The touch, the awareness, the weight of pass, it was just beautiful to watch. A worldclass performance.

Saka was amazing too.

Our goals and the quality of finishing were stunning.

I thought White and Gabriel were shaky, as was Ramsdale. Watford created far too many problems than was necessary, especially 2nd half.

I think Ramsdale was partly at fault for the Watford 2nd goal, they way he dived he made it easy for the ball to be slotted under him from such a narrow angle. In that position I think GK should stand up, there would be none of the goal to aim at.

Seeing the slight positional adjustment of Xhaka, playing much higher in a 4-3-3 shows how I think Arteta wants to evolve the team. Ødegaard plays the right side role with Partey deep. If we can bring in a left sided Ødegaard who links with Emile Smith Rowe/Martinelli that’s what Arteta wants.

On that as well I think Tierney’s drop in form is also slightly because of the players near him and their positions and favoured actions. Tierney used to have Xhaka deeper and Emile Smith Rowe as a left wing who drifts inside, this suits Tierney brilliantly as he can stay high and wide and overlap. With Xhaka pushed on and Martinelli preferring to stay wider on the touchline Tierney is forced to stay a bit deeper exposing what I see as a minor weakness of his in 1v1 defending and he’s forced to come inside or ‘underlap’ more which he’s far less comfortable with as it means more on his right foot and more in tighter central spaces.

Tierney remains a good player for us but I’m not sure the current formation or teammates are helping his game right now

but I think the left side does need to be addressed to give us greater attacking balance.

It’s called a joke. Well at least there’s a bit of humility there

I think Watford were made to look good by us. I'd say at least 80% of their attacking chances were created by Arsenal mistakes and poor passes while under almost no pressure. Play like that against Liverpool or Man City and the result will be very different.

I think the math checks out in my previous post. I started doing the calculations quite early in the morning though, so I can't guarantee anything.

Your best post ever and great advice.

I did like that post of yours, TG, self-deprecating as it was. However, the complicated question of whether attributing humility to yourself - as you've done - is actually a bit arrogant is a philosophical conundrum. It's worthy of Socrates himself, if only he was still with us.

Yeah - It only affects certain browsers like Firefox. I believe Chromium based browsers are ok.

Hope Everton step up tomorrow

Hello Bernard....not sure I fully agree with your Xhaka ranking....I'm not a regular Xhaka basher despite some of his occasional brain farts. But yesterday I was concerned about our left side.
I'm not sure if he was at fault for their first but there seems some confusion. Martinelli is marking the Watford player with the ball and then when the guy releases it he chases after the overlapper but cannot stop the cross and bang they're level...shouldn't Xhaka have been marking the guy with the ball and Martinelli the runner....like I say it may not have been his fault but there was a breakdown just like in the second half when they missed a sitter that started on our left with a ball inside our defender and a right wing cross that Dennis(I think) should've scored comfortably.

Their second goal was a result of him giving the ball away.....I cannot see why he thought a long diagonal ball was a good idea at that moment.....gave us a very nervous last 5....not saying Xhaka played bad but I would dock him a point or two
There's a good player in their somewhere and he has played some good games for us but (top 4 permitting) his position is one I would upgrade for next season.
I

It wasn’t my ranking but I think he was well worth the 7 whoever’s ranking it was gave him. He had a good game. Rich is right and he seems to be playing further forward now. So I can only assume that’s Arteta’s direction. It would be ideal to improve any player who isn’t the best in the world in his position. But a new striker or two is a way bigger priority than a replacement for Xhaka this summer.

I think the math checks out in my previous post. I started doing the calculations quite early in the morning though, so I can't guarantee anything.

Looking at the table, I'm wondering if 70 points won't be enough to get fourth place.

If we draw against Man Utd, they lose against Chelsea and Liverpool and win the other 7 games they have left they end up with 69 points. I don't think that's a far fetched prediction, in fact it possibly flatters them a bit considering their patchy form (their last 10 league games are 4 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses).

I think Tottenham will need 9 wins out of their last 13 games to get 70 points. They could do it with 8 wins and 4 draws, but that means they can only afford to lose one more game and they have both Man Utd and Liverpool away remaining, plus the home game against us. Either way would be quite a tall order for a team that has lost 6 of their last 10.

West Ham, like Man Utd have ten games left, but are only at 45 points. To get 70 they need 8 wins and one draw. Included in those ten games are Arsenal and Man City at home, and Tottenham and Chelsea away. They can only afford to drop points in two of those to get 70 points. In their last 10 they have 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses.

Wolves are out of it. 11 games to go and thirty points to get to 70, and they still have to play Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool. Not happening.

So, if we set 70 points as a benchmark, Arsenal need to find 7 wins and 1 draw in our remaining 13 games. That means we can actually afford another five losses and can still reach it. Say we lose against all the other big teams, Man Utd, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool. That still leaves us another loss, and a draw, and we could still do it. In our last 10 games we have 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.

All of this is very speculative of course - teams can find and lose form, important players could get injured etc etc. But from a pure points perspective, you'd have to be extremely pessimistic about Arsenal to not consider us the front runners for 4th place right now.