Agree that Ødegaard was poor, but I thought White had a fine performance. He's not a natural right back and was up against one of the most dangerous 1v1 players in the league, did very well under those circumstances in my opinion.

I think we need to bring in that extra CM so we can have more options to wrestle back control of games when we lose it, like for the last hour tonight.

There must be a strong, imposing CM out there who can add something extra to our game in tough away matches.

I also think we could have been better tactically. Anderson was hitting raking passes to set up Palace attacks and was the cause of so many problems so why not push a forward up on him to stop him getting on the ball, or at least having time to hit those passes. Stop the supply at source.

With the players we currently have available, maybe we should try Zinchenko in midfield with Tierney at left back? Tierney is better defensively and much better 1v1, but Zinchenko offers more on the ball. We struggled a bit with possession today, Zinchenko could be very useful in that regard.

Love a bit of 3 points to start the season. Gritty win. Saliba looks like a really good player, with an uncanny physical likeness to Anelka but about 10% bigger all over.

But my takes from the game were:

Ben White is a good lad, but no right back.

Manu Petit and Pat (obvs) were both at the game last night. Our midfield is approximately 1 light year away from what those 2 gave us. We need to sort that area out.

I sometimes think that whilst Tets and his phalanx of assistants are great at the attention to detail stuff (that bloke with the specs was never out of his ear all night, constant chatter, shut up mate!) and the style of play they want us to do, wasn't it just flaming obvious that we just needed to have Jesus or Gabby hassle Andersen really tightly to stop him hitting those long passes over the top of our full backs ALL NIGHT LONG?

Hi Haz,

I think that could work. We could have maybe brought Tierney on and pushed Zinny into midfield alongside Partey and Xhaka.

Gidday Soc .... I too thought White was a bit flaky but then in his defence ; Zaha when he decides to turn up can cause anyone a lot of problems .

Palace I thought epitomised Vieira's own playing style , very combative which isn't Ødegaard's strong suit .

Mystifying why Martinelli attempted that arse backwards left foot scuff in the first couple of minutes when it was screaming for one of his trademark right foot .
curlers .
What [ if anything ] goes on in Xhaka's head ; make the most obvious dive .... get booked then go on and on vehemently protesting his innocence ... strange character

That salmon coloured jersey is bloody awful .

By the way, Jesus is a sensational player. Give him enough of the ball and he will trouble any defence anywhere.

Hello kiwi,

You're right (for once) Zaha is a handful and White is not a natural RB so maybe I was a bit harsh.

Saliba’s composure was reminiscent of Sol at the club.

Saliba's performance makes the decision to send him out on loan even more perplexing. Either he went on loan and gained the requisite skills to be good enough or it was already there and some non footbaling reason sent him off.

Don't bash yourself around too much , doesn't hurt to have someone on the forum like yourself a bit more of a pessimist / realist / pragmatist however you want to call it ;
rather than joining the crowd ordering the Brass Bands and ticker tape thinking because of the addition of Jesus and Zinchenko we are going to be champions .

The way Palace dominated us for in the twenty five minutes before half time was a bit of a reality check . If they had scored [ and they should have ]
from that header we could have had a very nervy second half ..

Vital we got the win but it shows the grind of real McCoy Premier League games are a whole lot different from the pre season romps in the sun

What we need at the moment is the French Vieira not the Portuguese version

Missed the game because I’m on me hols but that is a brilliant result. Any win will do first game. Literally any 3 points.

I did see the post match interview with Mikel though . I have to say it’s just brilliant how intense he is, almost to a point he puts Neville and carragher at an unease.

https://youtu.be/HDpHpO6uuWA

Interesting that he says there’s a few things we want to do in the transfer market. More than 1 maybe ?

I’ve said before Jesus and Nketiah will not be enough forwards for all the games we’ll have this season. It just isn’t. The idea that having two players to cover at least one position (I bet Jesus and Nketiah will both be on the pitch together if we’re ever chasing a goal) up to 65 games is in my view verging on ludicrous.

Ben is a great passing CB, why not try a Saliba/Gabriel central defense and Ben at defensive center mid?

I must admit I’m never a fan of pushing ball playing defenders in to defensive midfield. I can’t think of many players who make that a successful transition. The position is totally different, the time you get on the ball is massively reduced compared to in defence.

Meant to say before: really liked the pink jersey.

I think it’s more the former, he really hadn’t played that much top level football before going to Marseille, and certainly not any football at a big club where the pressure of different. Marseille was perfect for him, they expect to win every game they want to domintae the ball. But it’s still ‘only’ the French league.

A few more starts and performances like that will hopefully help him sign a new contract

White made the most tackles and won the most duels of everyone on the pitch yesterday. It was probably inevitable that Zaha would beat him a few times as he will every full back in the league but I think White dealt with him pretty well all things considered. Zaha has been a thorn in our side too many times before.

It seemed that Nketiah did that when he came on, he got to Anderson a lot quicker. Pressing defenders is interesting, some may press the weaker ball playing defender because you’ll make him make a mistake but the better tactic is let the weaker guy have the ball and just cut off all his options with your press….and he’ll make a mistake that way.

The prem has introduced multi-ball this season. There are 10 balls in total around the pitch which should speed up restarts. Utterly baffling why this hasn’t been in effect before.

Forest bid £35m for Wolves’ Morgan Gibbs-White. Wolves rejected it. That’s crazy all round. We got 4 time prem winner Jesus for only £10m more. Liverpool got Diaz for that price.

Is it too simplistic to say Zinchenko is the attacking left back and Tierney is the defensive left back?

Outside of the other top 6 clubs I think Palace away could be the toughest away game. West Ham are a good side but Palace generate a different atmosphere - heightened by the night game and being on the focus of tv. I hate these sorts of games for Arsenal so hugely pleased with that win.

Leicester home
Bournemouth away
Fulham home
Villa home

Not getting ahead of ourselves but we should be clear favourites to win all those games. 5 wins out of 5 please Arsenal

Must admit I’ve been to Palace countless times over the years and I think their supporters are one of the fan bases who don’t deserve the reputation they have for creating hostile atmospheres. All these commentators and pundits who make out they’re so noisy are talking out their backside in my view.

Came across these player ratings for last night’s game. Apart from Saliba and Ramsdale who got 8, Ødegaard who got 6 and White who got 5, everyone got a 7. Some of White’s passing out from the back was a bit sloppy, but overall I see 5 as a bit harsh and thought he deserved the same as Ødegaard.

http://stevegleiber.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=10&t=6&sid=31b5e23d7c1c495388d0e65e03448597

Hodd! It's been a minute. How are things?

Saliba was that bad when we bought him? He seemed vetted and seemed to be bought for the first team, possible starter not for the future, but maybe he wasn't close to the finished article.

Anyway, what's new?

Agreed. Waiting for the ball to be returned from the stands at times seemed..well...let's just say it didn't seem like it should be part of modern football. American football and basketball have many balls at the waiting.

Rich. You and I both know if we win 5 games on the trot, Arsenal fans will get way ahead of themselves and start talking title challenging. Then the first misstep start showing banners saying Arteta out.

I assume its like that with all football fans but there never seems to be any even keel, its over optimistic or over pessimistic.

C'mon Fulham, hang on so its one down, 1 to go (City) on getting a loss. My annual paranoia is in full effect.

I’m quite happy if some Arsenal fans get way ahead of themselves because it means we’re winning games

In short, the opposite of perplexing, let alone 'even more perplexing'.

With Leicester up at the weekend, the middle of this week would be a good time to put in a cheeky bid for Tielemans, a bit underhand maybe.

But they had multiple balls for use in the same game before. Maybe not ten, but it was common for a different ball to be thrown back that wasn’t the same one that had gone out.

I think the link is from 2017.

https://answer-to-all.com/popular/how-m ... gue-match/

Fulham causing Liverpool all sorts of problems so far

And they equalise.

Fulham go 2-1 up.

2-2 now. If it stays like this, we’ve got a bit more of American’s double obsession about City and Liverpool not losing to come.

EDIT: A 2-2 draw. Pleased for Fulham. Good point and even though my Fulham supporting cousin passed away recently, I hope they stay up.