Really nice finish from Willock

Don't forget Pépé..............

Pépé really should have played Willock in, he chose to shoot and the block fell to Willock exactly where he would have been if Pépé has passed it.

Willock and Nelson have been the most impressive simply because they’ve been willing to drive at them and make their defence commit to actually doing some proper defending rather than just shuffling side to side marking space

I haven’t seen much of AMN in defence.

Nketiah’s 9 goals for Arsenal have been from a total of 50 yards, averaging just over 5 yards out per goal

That brings me back to my schooldays and a game we as teenage kids organised against the neighbouring school. No ref or managers just us. At half time at 0-0 a bizarre group think took hold and we changed formation to have two left wingers!!! Which was shite for me as the right back!

Well no. But it still looks like the classic Arteta formation which is a 5-2-3 without the ball and 2-3-5 when attacking. I don’t see it as a back 4 in any way because the positions of AMN and Nelson don’t make sense for it to be a back 4. I’m not criticising players being too defensive I was questioning the need for the formation which puts 7 players on the pitch who would probably total 5 goals and 5 assists together over a season.

A beauty from Pépé

What did I say 3-0

From the kick off in the second half, AMN was firmly in midfield. It was a back four with Cédric, Mustafi, Xhaka and Kolasinac.

Nice Pépé. That should seal the game. Would be good to see some
Minutes for Balogun

Anybody watch the Spurs game

With his right foot too.

A lot quicker and brighter with our attacking second half.

Balogun and Tierney coming on.

That’s a clear foul on Nelson. Think the ref has been swayed by the David and Goliath nature of the match and has been hugely sympathetic to Dundalk. Any physicality from us is a free kick to them immediately

Lost count of the number of times Kolasinac has given the ball away when under no pressure

The ref is ridiculous. Like a fella in an Under 10s game trying to help the weaker team.

Case in point. Willock has his shirt held for ages as he’s dragged back. Ref gives nothing. Not that it’s mattered for the result or any big decisions but the ref has been ridiculously one sided to Dundalk tonight

He and Willock have been very good. Gives Arteta food for thought. Both need a run of games.

Nice to see us shooting more but we seriously need to work on the accuracy. Absolutely awful from range tonight

This ref has given 20 fouls against Arsenal players. He’s not given a single free kick against Dundalk. In 90 minutes of football he’s not given one free kick against a team who has barely touched the ball and has defended all game. Needs to be taken off the European ref list that’s shockingly one sided refereeing

Agree, I've been really wanting to see Nelson integrated or at least given a chance, he has real pace, eye for goal and the potential to beat a man.

Obviously you have to bear in mind the standard of the opposition but I thought Willock was brilliant tonight.

He was great. He was operating in the final 3rd like any decent midfielder should, also he was prepared to take risks and lose the ball trying to penetrate their penalty area.

We have several midfielders just happy to recycle the ball in midfield so might be worth trying him there a bit more.

Willock has lovely technique. I could be totally wrong, but I think his biggest difficulty is self-confidence. I'm not sure he has figured out how good he can be.

A stark reminder that central midfielders can dribble, can make surging runs forwards and can get in the opposition box....it is allowed. I'm so tired of the sideways passing and the second half was a breath of fresh air in that repect.

Nelson too, dribbling at pace which is what I have been wanting Pépé to do.

Willock and Nelson both did really well. Credit to Cédric too; felt he had a good game. The keeper had very little to do. But what he did do, he did well.

Disappointing that Balogun showed nothing at all. Youngsters, when they get any sort of chance, have to show at least something might be there. I don’t think Balogun did that.

Could tonight be the game where he finally feels he belongs. Sometimes a performance like that is like someone switching on a light.

Hleb was one of the best dribblers I've ever seen. It's a shame he couldn't shoot or finish or he could have been a worldbeater.

I was very impressed with Nelson, Willock & Elneny.

Good to see Nelson & Willock making quick moves forward with the ball. Would like to see much more of such plays by Arsenal. Both were very confident striding forward. Hope Arteta will let them have more EPL game time.

Elneny is now my preferred choice to Xhaka. His mobility is much needed.

Interesting. Thoughts?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/freddie-ljungberg-arsenal-striker-warning-22907874?fbclid=IwAR1ozeNTt9GitiTpAkUxL2IV8wiWA7eXqfDOomPFvYDiFckhDWfK0a98ZJk
Freddie Ljungberg's comments should have warned Mikel Arteta on Alexandre Lacazette decision

I'm grateful they respected my wish for anonymity.

They left off the amount of dosh Mustafi and Özil are making.

I think this is gorgeous. A bit too much for my subdued dressing style and not really "age appropriate" for me, but lovely nonetheless.

Of course last night was against relatively limited opposition but irrespective of that it clearly showed methods to create chances against stubborn packed defences. In these situations you can't always rely on scoring the goal as a team sometimes you need to create the chaos, panic and mistakes in their box to get a lucky break or the ball fall to you. Neither of our first two goals had genuine assists, they were the result of a mistake and a deflection falling the right way. They come about because players were willing to dribble, make a run or shoot in the box. It forces defences to do something other than the shuffling over, closing down and shutting down space drills that teams train day in and day out for to maintain good defensive shape. You need to disturb that shape by making runs, dribbles and forcing them to do something.

Willock and Nelson were the main duo doing this and were the best two players on the park last night. I still wish we could improve the accuracy of our shooting, so many efforts are wild and nowhere near the target.

Can somebody who isn’t blocked by AG ask where he found this ?

I’ve looked on the club store and can’t find this and I have a son who’s properly into all this type of clobber

Did an image search and found it here. https://kybershop.com/wp-content/upload ... odie-4.jpg

It's not Arsenal only though, you can get Liverpool, Chelsea etc with same style

There's other sites also that sell the same thing.

Its more like he wouldn't shoot ...

Pépé seems like he doesn't have a footballing brain most times. Hoping Arteta can teach him teamwork, decision making and acceptance of his system. Hopefully not end up like an expensive version of Quincy Jamie Owusu-Abeyie, pace, dribbling but really couldn't work within the team concept and bad decision making.

The videos of Pépé before were a lot of individual goals. Perhaps Willian can be an influence in that regards.