Sadly, yes. And pretty poor all round. This doesn't bode well for Sunday.

Dreadful from Partey. What was he thinking?

Partey

Raya

We need to change things. We are really not in this.

This is really really poor.

Bloody hell Martinelli needs to be dropped. Awful performances recently and that miss is just the latest example.

Atalanta very well setup and man marking is excellent. So far Arteta doesn’t seem to have an answer to getting the ball up the pitch.

Slightly better since the subs but still very poor

A point is not bad but uncomfortable questions need to be asked about Martinelli and Jesus. Even Sterling when he came on looked dire.

Our defence is world class the midfield is ok but the forward options on current form are not great.

That’s about right, Soc.

Agreed on both. Jesus couldnt hold onto the ball at all. He was often swarmed but that should have left space elsewhere and he kept trying to jink his way out of it and just couldnt get the ball away to others without losing it.

I’m worried about Havertz’s stamina for the City game. Worked his socks off and was clearly flagging from around the 75 min mark.

Rice also in agreement in taking too many touches against a side with very strong man marking and pressure.

Edit: On forward options I think there's enough there but the combinations aren't working well at the moment and certainly missing the tempo and quality of Ødegaard to make the right decisions.

The midfield is not ok. There are no ball carriers. It’s dire

We are relying on a Saka Hail Mary to win games at this point.

My god an abysmal load of rubbish

Didn’t think we were great but you’re not really giving Atalanta much credit as they were exceptional in shutting us down.

But we certainly missed Ødegaard and looks like he’s going to be gone for a while so something will need to be adjusted quickly to get some more mobility into the midfield.

Arteta's only plan for the midfield is to drop Havertz, who we need to be fresh for City, into it for yet another full 90 minutes? We need Jesus (and Trossard and Sterling) so we can rotate Havertz, not to free him up to fill other gaps. I just don't get it.

When he let Emile Smith Rowe and Vieira go Arteta surely had to have some idea of what he would do if something happened to Ødegaard? Where is that creativity going to come from?

Areteta not being prepared to trust the squad in games like this, and flogging the players he does trust to death, is a big Achilles heel.

Atalanta have taken Prem scalps in the past few years including outplaying Liverpool at Anfield. They are a very good side. We perhaps gave them too much repect and played cagey at times. A draw is not a bad result.

This season they were beaten 4-0 by Inter and 2-1 by Torino. They beat Fiorentina 3-2 last game out. Defensively pretty ordinary this season but gave us nothing.

Agree with that, GF. They were no mugs - could've been much worse.

Having said that, it was a worry that neither Jesus nor Sterling seemed to offer much attacking threat. It’s no particular surprise that Jesus looks so poor – he’s been on the slide for a while now. Remember what he was like for the first few games after joining us barely 2 years ago? Not sure where that player has gone but there’s no sign he’s coming back. It’s more difficult to assess Sterling since he’s only had 2 late-ish sub appearances, but he hasn’t looked great. I still have high hopes that he’s a credible alternative to Saka and Martinelli, but he didn’t impress last Sunday and he didn’t improve last night. I still don’t see Havertz as a main alpha striker but when he plays deeper, we have no threat at all up front. Martinelli is so obviously off the boil and Trossard isn’t exactly buzzing, so it’s left to Star Boy. He’s a real handful but coming from the wide right, he needs support – which is pretty thin on the ground at the moment.

This squad seems set up to park the bus and rely on set-pieces and breaks. There’s nothing wrong in that strategy if you do it well and it works, but it’s not what we’re used to, is it?

I don't think it can win the league, even if City wasn't in it.

Looking at our fixtures in the CL they seem quite tough.
PSG and Inter from pot 1 could have been worse, Atalanta as Europa champions would be one of the strongest in pot 2, sporting are surely the best pot 3 team and girona from pot 4 who finished 3rd in La Liga last year. Apart from PSG we play all those 4 away. We’ll need to make our home games count.
A point at Atalanta is ok but it’s a slight concern that we might become a bit stodgy in Ødegaard’s absence. Have we tipped the squad too far away from technical creative players in favour of duel winning athletes?

The fixtures haven’t fallen kindly, spurs, Atalanta, Man City all away from home in a week…..and later in the year we’re going to have Chelsea, inter Milan, Newcastle all away in a week.

I always find it strange that people say we ‘played for a draw’ last year at Man City. We wanted to win and sometimes the game doesn’t go exactly as you planned. City pinned us back but rarely threatened.

I do expect more of the same tomorrow. Our back 4 and Raya in superb form can keep them out. I want some attacking threat going the other way on the counter. There will be gaps. Havertz as a target man to hold the ball up has proven a decent tactic. Whilst he’s woefully out of form I think Martinelli should start because just the threat of his pace keeps City more honest. I’d like to see more longer balls over their defence in to those channels as well as going direct to Havertz. It will be interesting whether Pep goes with Walker at RB to combat Martinelli’s Pace or goes with Lewis to invert and dominate midfield. If he goes with Walker than. Gvardiol tends to push on from LB so Saka could get some joy.

In many ways I think Pep has more questions than Arteta because Arteta’s options are so limited.
I predict the same back 5 as the last 2 games. Partey/Rice/Trossard midfield and Martinelli/Havertz/Saka front 3

I wonder if Arteta struggles to find creative players to sign because he valued the off the ball tactical stuff so much which isn’t often a natural trait of a creative flair player. It does feel like we need something extra in the squad.

We get something out of these fixtures like we did at Spurs and then second half of the year a lot of home games against tough opponents.

I'd prefer Jorginho for Partey and Sterling for Martinelli.

The games are tough and we seem have clumps of fixtures against the better teams (on paper). October is not too bad. November is a stinker and we have a relatively promising fixture list for December.

https://x.com/mktirb/status/18374670231 ... -j6VVZXEoA

PGMOL advise the decision to not give this as a penalty was correct as the holding (or the clear foul) wasn’t sustained for long enough….?

Any holding like this when the player is running through on to the ball is a foul

Emile Smith Rowe scoring again for Fulham rubs that in a bit.

Sterling in for Martinelli against City would be a massive risk. Martinelli's defensive work has been so good and City will be getting overloads on that side.

Who do you start in midfield? Partey surely can't be dropped no matter how poor he has been. So the third midfielder has to be either Jorgihno or Trossard.

And now Nelson

https://x.com/footbalihub/status/183751 ... -j6VVZXEoA

It’s getting ridiculous now. Spurs gk Clearly hand balls it outside the box, with a Brentford player close by. That should be a red card. What is var doing let alone the 4 officials on the pitch who can’t spot this?

Two spurs between him and the goal so it is not a red card, surely.

Potential free shot at goal with no gk in the net…..got to be as good a chance of a goal as going through 1v1 against a gk.

https://x.com/goonertaik/status/1837552 ... -j6VVZXEoA

Disgraceful two footed by Martinez who is exactly ‘that sort of player’ only given a yellow card.

The PGMOL have prioritised punishing technical infringements rather than serious dangerous foul play and violent conduct.

Some of the rubbish written in the media about the City game is strange. Numerous sites suggesting we must win. A draw is sufficient at this time of the season. A loss would however be very damaging. Lets see how we take to this challenge. I haven't seen anything to suggest we are playing well this season. Solid defense and everything else needs a lot of work. I would love to see some midfield and attackers take some risks but I think Arteta has ingrained in them that they must take the safe option.

Former Arsenal striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is refused bail after he was charged with importing drugs over £600,000 of cannabis seized at Stansted Airport

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/f ... r-AA1qPIKe

A wasted talent.

Shea; Eastmond, Cruise, Bartley, Ayling, Frimpong, Lansbury, Coquelin, Wilshere, JET, Watt.
FA youth cup winners 2008-9.
Loved watching that team.

I saw Gary Neville say this game will show him how much Arsenal want to take the title off City. Complete nonsense. Trying to make it some mental shortcoming if we draw or lose to the greatest prem team of all time who we took 4 points off last year and have passed virtually every ‘mental’ challenge put in front of us - the away record is testament to that.

Think we are going to lose. Even just a point would be a monumental result.

Recently it feels like we are watching a George team. Incredible defence but not much going on elsewhere if I’m brutally honest.

Spending 43 million on another defender whilst selling 2 attacking midfielders looks a monumental mistake right now. Very indulgent, seems taking the ideology over logicality to an extreme

Hopefully my misery is unwarranted

A draw would be a brilliant result, albeit probably excruciating to watch.

That's the spirit !

Ray, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Trossard, Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.

I think Timber's superior 1v1 ability has pushed him ahead of White for this game. City are playing with Doku and Savinho on the wings - both incredible in 1 v 1's

As expected Pep goes with Walker to combat the pace of Martinelli, Rico Lewis drops to the bench.

No De Bruyne or Foden. Midfield of Rodri, Gundogan, Bernardo.

Doku and Savinho on the wings is where the game is won or lost for us. These are high risk players, they lose the ball a lot but make things happen. Very different to City playing a Grealish or Foden on the wing who keep the ball and keep the pressure on. Doku and Savinho offer a much bigger threat in transition, but probably work back less defensively