:26encouragement: Parteeeyyyyyy time

Overall a disappointing and underwhelming performance.

Disappointing in the end, very little goal threat second half.

Playing out from the back is great when you break the press but you have to then do something with it.

We need some creativity and imagination in the final third and to find a way to play Aubameyang centrally.

Leno very good apart from his passing which is still a little too slow for my liking, Gabriel and Saka both very good, Tierney good, everyone else pretty average really.

Positives

We didn’t get thrashed and the signs of Arteta making us competitive again we’re evident by city wasting time.

Saka again looking the part

Negatives

We could have played all night and wouldn’t have scored

Willian absent

Ceballos, whilst he’s workmanlike and keeps himself busy as the 2nd midfielder he should offer a more creative outlet beyond the halfway line. I like him but can’t help think this is why the club haven’t pulled the trigger on a permanent transfer.

2 hardest games of the season out of the way, sadly both with our regulatory defeats

Nice to at least see a set of match stats that showed a pretty even contest. Ederson made two top class saves to deny Saka and Aubameyang. Hopefully the days of us conceding 25+ shots on our goal with us being able to count our attempts on 1 hand are behind us.

With the squad we have it feels that most of our games this season are going to be tight affairs. We aren’t going to hammer many teams by 3 clear goals, but equally we aren’t getting steamrollered. I think will even be the case in the easy on paper home games, as already proven by West Ham and sheff Utd. Those sorts of tight games are where Arteta is going to need to get us to take a few more risks, push up a bit higher and start getting the ball forward more quickly and getting bodies in and around the box because we won’t be able to rely on the counter attack all the time.

It's all that faffing about in our half that has done for us. Luiz today had 2/3 players north of him and he passes it back ffs get it forward.

To be fair I thought Luiz had a decent game. He always looks a mega good professional and apparently is greatly respected by other players. I must admit, I think overall he’s been a good signing.

But I’m not convinced by playing out from the back. I know there have been examples when it’s lead to a great goal. But a lot more often than not it seems to result in Leno passing it to various defenders, one of whom (hopefully Luiz as he’s the best passer in defence) ends up punting the ball towards a distant team mate up the pitch. Leno could have done that without all the messing about.

I’m not blaming Leno by the way. It happened with Martinez as well.

Not sure that Leicester, Man U, Villa are an easy run.

Then Leeds, Tottenham.

It was clear from city that after their 5-2 runaround and an unconvincing start to the season they were just going to try to be very solid today. They clearly wanted the 1-0 to restore some confidence. We were better in the first half than second.
2 hardest games of the season out of the way, sadly both with our regulatory defeats

Not sure that Leicester, Man U, Villa are an easy run.

Then Leeds, Tottenham.

On Le Grove he states that Leno was partly at fault for the goal because he palmed the ball into danger. I have to say I thought it was a ball he should have saved and locked up.

But what i found very disturbing was that Aguero then touched her around the upper arm or neck. It was not in a threatening manner but I am afraid that is a real no no in my view. Would he have done it to a male and if so it is still wrong. He should face disciplinary proceedings for this. What has also surprised me is the lack of reaction in the UK media.

Pépé is hugely frustrating and I am tempted to say he is Gervinho all over again. Sensational dribbling skills but lacking the footballing brain to go with it.

Come on, that's really unfair. He has about 50 tools in his locker that Gervinho's never had - a great left foot being one of them. He definitely needs to show his quality on a more consistent basis, but comparing him to a player who can't strike the ball and who has never had a killer pass in him is way over the top. Let's not forget Pépé came on to win the game for us against Sheffield United not long ago, and Im not really sure why he seems to be singled out so much after games like these. We could start with Aubameyang instead, who has been almost invisible since signing his huge contract. Scored 29 goals as a left forward last season, so his position is hardly an excuse.

Come on, that's really unfair. He has about 50 tools in his locker that Gervinho's never had - a great left foot being one of them. He definitely needs to show his quality on a more consistent basis, but comparing him to a player who can't strike the ball and who has never had a killer pass in him is way over the top. Let's not forget Pépé came on to win the game for us against Sheffield United not long ago, and Im not really sure why he seems to be singled out so much after games like these. We could start with Aubameyang instead, who has been almost invisible since signing his huge contract. Scored 29 goals as a left forward last season, so his position is hardly an excuse.

Yes your right Haz Pépé is an easy target and people are searching for reasons to dig Leno out too.

Its odd the way they dig those guys out but ignore that we barely created a chance. Ceballos and Xhaka whilst working hard turned in a performance that Ray Wilkins would have been proud of....

Back, sideways, Back, sideways, Back, sideways, Back, sideways, Back, sideways, .......... either get a nosebleed when they run into the opposing penalty area.

If Saka wasn’t on the pitch yesterday we wouldn’t have had a shot on goal.

Not really, Haz, we bought Gervinho from Lille if I recall as a kind of cheaper version of Hazard but he turned out to be a sensational dribbler with not enough end product (or, to put it more bluntly, no real footballing brain). I just had a look at his stats, he scored 28 in 67 appearances for Lille and 9 in 46 for us.

Pépé scored 35 in 74 for Lille and has so far scored 6 in 36 for us. The parallels are obvious.

Yes, the PL is a tougher prospect than the French league but you must admit he's looking more Gervinho than Hazard. Sadly.

Well last year, in a debut season that couldn't have come under more difficult circumstances, Pépé had 8 goals and 10 assists in 42 appearances. That's already better than anything Gervinho produced for Arsenal. But going beyond stats, at no point in his Arsenal career did Gervinho look as threatening as Pépé has done at his best for us. The consistency is not there, and the big question is if he'll ever find it with Arsenal, but talent wise he's in a completely different league to someone like Gervinho.

I don't think its unreasonable to expect more from Pépé than he is currently delivering. He's not really a player reliant on service like Aubameyang or Nketiah, he has the individual dribbling skills to make an impact on his own, in the way that Hazard, Bale or Giggs did for their respective clubs, but he's currently nowhere near that level despite us paying £70m for him. To be a top player you need that footballing brain and mentality that special players have and based on what I've seen thus far he is not at that level.

It's sad and I am as disappointed as anyone that he is not yet proving to be the matchwinner we all anticipated but that's the gamble you take in the transfer market.

I genuinely hope he proves me wrong.