It is, I thought ceballos was having a good game and unlucky to get removed

We’re missing a player with a bit of vision unfortunately. Just haven’t got that player that can slide someone in

He had had a good game, I just thought he’d faded slightly though.

I like listening to the shouts from the bench. What a bunch of moaning old women complaining about everything

It’s constant

A night of frustration.

The entire Steve Gleiber Forum shift uncomfortably in their seats...

I felt Ceballos played well. But in my view it’s obvious that Arteta pretty much loves Xhaka.

We may have to write Pépé off as a bust in a year maybe.

At least we weren’t dominated, although pretty turgid stuff, not insipid like when we looked like relegation candidates. Looks like that’s well and truly behind us thank God. Got to get clicking better than this though.

Saka's had an off game as we well.

We really missed Tierney.

Well that was boring.

We tried and tried and tried ..............

Ceballos was my personal MOTM.

He’s good enough that I don’t feel terrible about that though. I think.

Offer Tierney ozils contract quick !!!!!

Your post was the highlight of the match

Xhaka showed tonight just why he is rated by Arteta and previously by Emery and Wenger. He is excellent defensively when asked to fill in and he is always looking for the forward pass. Holding deserves his contract and AMN is not up to it.

Not a good thing if the attack falters because the left back is missing.

Pretty average performance. At least we didn’t lose it because Palace had the better chances.

Xhaka is always looking for the forward pass???? The man is programmed to turn to his right and play a sideways ball with his left foot.

I wouldn’t argue with that.

Lol

Also the classic pass where he’s close to the box and another player in possession tries to play a give and go but Xhaka instantly returns the ball to him before he can start his run.

It’s not so much a lack of effort he’s just limited

We had four shots on target and their keeper didn't have a difficult save to make. "Average" is being kind.

Oh for the days when were enjoyable to watch, exciting even.

We are just so dull, so lacking in collective cohesion and individual inspiration.

What does it tell you when our left back is rested and 80% of our attacking threat disappears.

Indeed, one of the few players looking to play an incisive pass.

Do you not think that a lot of the tackles, albeit excellent tackles he put in were as a result of his own mistake anyway. There were still quite a few miss placed passes and meddles free kicks.
He is the second best CM we have and will stay in the team until we sign someone better

Fair. Not a lot came off for Smith Rowe or Saka apart from some great dead balls into the box that no one got on the end of. Green shoots? So long as we’re solid and on a marginally upward trajectory when Özil et al saunter off we’ve got a chance of improving this squad.

Can see you having quite a long wait Rich. Xhaka’s contract expires in June 2023 when he’ll still be 30. My guess is Arteta will want his contract extended rather than for him to be sold.

I mean this is it in a nutshell. Half the team that were on the pitch at the final whistle had come from our youngsters at Hale end. One game they will do well the next it might not come off. They aren’t experienced and are doing their best.

Let’s see the season out with these guys and get to a point we can properly restructure because we need new blood

Xhaka is, and always will be, a mixed bag. In any given game you will see some good and some very good but offset by those momentary lapses where he plays a ball straight to an opponent or those moments where his man gets wrong side and he is forced to pull his shirt or trip him because he just doesn't have the pace to get back the right side of him.

Players just didn't bother. A waste of a game.

Who?

I heard a Republican party member say "That's not who we are" when asked about his party's members invading the Capital building.

But isn't the fact his members did it makes them exactly that?

To be fair to Palace, they were well organized in defense. They came for a point and got that point. With our current form, I can't blame the tactic.

That said, we should have done better. Even if our form was good all season, we are going to have matches like last night. We are simply not going to win every game we should. The trick is to limit those types of matches. I'm still encouraged because we were positive for the most part and the players wanted to get that win. Not with as much urgency as I'd have liked or seen recently but we didn't phone it in either. Somewhere in between.

We are so risk averse. I lost track of the number of times that a developing situation was killed stone dead by a reverse pass. It must be so frustrating to be a front runner with that happening repeatedly. It’s certainly frustrating watching it.

Hi ltg,

Spot-on, its just painful viewing.

The players should be fitted with one of those gadgets so that every time they make a backwards pass they get an electric shock

I still cannot put my finger on why we are so awful.

We don't have the greatest set of players we've ever had but at the same time most of them do possess some quality, they just cannot seem to put it together in a cohesive team performance.

People say Pépé was useless last night and he was, but at the same time Palace seemed to double up on him every time he had the ball so he had nowhere to go and didn't that open up space elsewhere for us to capitalise on?

Aubameyang out wide is a waste of time because teams know that if they stop him cutting inside to bend one in at the far post his threat is pretty much nullified.

Sad times when the absence of a left back makes such a massive dent in our attacking threat.

In my view there are problems in each part of the pitch which stem from tempo of play and pace and mobility of players.
Far too often I see us have to defend in 4v3 or 2v2 situations, it never feels as though we have enough defenders back - Palace last night was a good example. Conversely a lot of time we attack we face 10 man defences, and not necessarily because the opposition is set up to just sit in their box, its because we don't progress the ball forward quickly enough so we allow them to all filter back with ease. Even when we're horseshoe passing around the box too many of our players are too comfortable in that zone 15 yards outside the penalty area, often we funnel it wide and put in the cross to find only 1 Arsenal player in the box.

In defence too often the opposition strikers are able to hold the ball up too easily or run in to the channels and space and move their team 60 yards up the pitch. In brining the ball out of defence the passes aren't quick or incisive enough.
The worst area is midfield where typically the two central midfielders are sitting far too deep, almost collecting the ball off the CB toes, again too many touches and too slow in moving the ball forward, and really not enough mobility to get around the pitch and cover space in bursts of short sprints. I dare say Xhaka and someone like Kante or Hojberg cover very similar toal distances on the pitch but Xhaka's lack of mobility and poor positional play defensively mean he's often in trouble in games and resorts to the foul or pull back.
Attacking midfield positions have been a massive problem all season, this is simply a player who is able to find those pockets of space between the lines and accept the ball on the half turn to then be running at the back 4 before the midfield can regroup. Those pockets of space are always there because there is always a gap between midfield and defensive lines. Against packed defences - because we're too slow progressing the ball - that space condenses and your attacking mid needs to be unbelievably good to create from those very tight spaces.
Strikers - all season there has been a lack of movement. This could be a chicken + egg thing, ie: strikers don't run because they know the midfield won't/can't get it to them and midfielders don't try the passes because strikers aren't running. There is a reluctance to flip balls in to the channels which is a percentage ball that immediately turns a defence back towards their own goal. As a defender running towards your own goal it is a lot more difficult to mark your man than just standing on the edge of the box and keeping your man in front of you within touching distance. Our forward players are also not willing to try to run at a defender and beat him with skill or pace. Again it is making a defender make a decision that is something other than 'just stay in my shape'. You are committing him, you may lose it a lot of the time, but on the occasions you beat him or at least move him out of position you've taken a brick out of the defensive wall and space opens up for others.

I would caveat all of the above by saying I don't think we have the quality in the squad to correct all those problems so they will be with us until there is a large scale change in players.

Slightly unfair. The effort and industry were there just that we don’t have enough inspiration, Vision and intelligence.

We are missing players and in dire need of new blood. Emile Smith Rowe, Tierney and Saka have performed miracles this season.