In normal view, that looks off.

Thank you VAR.

West Ham using quick counters. Arteta should sort that out. Xhaka was slow and too unsure for their equaliser.

We look off today.

Phew

Credit to Xhaka. Our man of the match by a country mile. Passed the ball beautifully from long distance and got stuck in.

Odd that our midfield was so ineffective if Xhaka was MOM by a country mile.

Well I couldn’t see anyone who played better than Xhaka today. In our team anyway.

It also showed the need for another central midfielder and how in these games we miss a bit of control in central midfield. Hopefully we can get someone in.

I thought Lacazette had a good game especially in the first half. He worked tirelessly, his link up play and touch was good and it was great to see him rewarded with a goal. I think he’s a really under appreciated player and he’s affected by our lack of midfield the most as he drops deeper to connect play.

Xhaka did have a good game but our midfield wasn’t at the races in the 2nd half frankly and all the credit for the 2nd goal needs to go to Saka who split their defence with a great pass.

Thought we missed Tierney and Maitland Niles to be honest

Yes I thought the whole game highlighted the midfield dilemma. We need a powerful midfield player who is fast and can bring energy to the midfield and transition our attacks very quickly. I don’t really see ceballos as the answer, he seems to have very good touches on the ball and sometimes has good games but we rarely win the midfield battle.

So many people are saying we lack creativity in midfield but when we’ve signed Ceballos for another year and Willian new, why is that? They’re both creative players. Has the modern game changed?

Well I couldn’t see anyone who played better than Xhaka today. In our team anyway.

With my earlier post I mention Ceballos and Willian. But I didn’t mention Saka. All three played yesterday. I still question this belief that’s doing the rounds here that we’re lacking creativity in midfield. With Willian, Ceballos and Saka in the team how on earth can we lack creativity?

In my view the best midfields need balance with a mix of different types of player, rather than jam pack them with creative midfielders. It wouldn’t surprise me if a midfield four of Brady, Hudson, Hoddle and Gascoigne (a mix of arguably Arsenal and Tottenham’s most creative midfielders since I’ve been following football) would get overrun by more balanced midfields. Especially if you have an ultra-creative front two of Charlie George and Ginola in front of them.

I’ll be in a minority on this, but I still question why Willian, Ceballos and Saka won’t give us sufficient creativity for the modern game.

Because in 24 games last season Ceballos scored no goals and got 2 assists in the premier league. Kevin De Bruyne got 13 goals and 20 assists. We aren’t asking Ceballos to mirror that but if you have aspirations of getting into the top 4 you can’t have such little output coming from the middle of the park. Everyone can see this and is aware our midfield is an issue.

Also because of a lack of decent penetrative midfielders we have to play 3 central defenders which sometimes like yesterday really give the opposition too much respect when an extra pair of hands in the middle would help.