I thought we played really well today, dominated a decent Fulham side from start to finish at Craven Cottage which not many teams do.

However, if you look at our xG stats from open play its abysmal. Apparently, only one xG from open play in the last 8 PL matches and only 3 in 15 games since the beginning of the season. That ranks us 13th in the PL for open play xG.

A title challenge is just not sustainable based on those kind of stats.

Why couldn't we play Tierney left back and keep Partey in midfield?

I thought we played really well today, dominated a decent Fulham side from start to finish at Craven Cottage which not many teams do.

However, if you look at our xG stats from open play its abysmal. Apparently, only one xG from open play in the last 8 PL matches and only 3 in 15 games since the beginning of the season. That ranks us 13th in the PL for open play xG.

A title challenge is just not sustainable based on those kind of stats.

Indeed.

Is Jesus being deliberately rubbish? That chance today….

When was the last time Tierney played a competitive game? He’s not the profile Arteta wants at all, MLS if fit could have played at LB

The defensive injuries are such an exceptional set of circumstances right now, 5 senior defenders out injured. Every team would suffer, I posted earlier what the Liverpool and City defence would look like with the same injuries

Sometimes I wonder about that too

It just doesn't make sense to me. If Arteta knows he is not the profile at all, why keep him and if he is not match-ready, why keep having him on the bench week after week?

Moving Partey to right back should be absolutely a last resort, given that

a) we absolutely need Partey at the base of midfleld.
b) we aboslutely need Timber at right back.

Saka and Ødegaard seem far more effective when we do that. It seems mad to mess with that.

At what point should we give Sterling a start wide left, I think it’s his best position but he’s generally been used wide right as Saka cover

I think Tierney was there as experienced LB and CB cover in an emergency. Our only other defenders n the bench were MLS and Heaven we literally have no one else which is the only reason he’s on the bench

When was the last time Tierney played a competitive game? He’s not the profile Arteta wants at all, MLS if fit could have played at LB

The defensive injuries are such an exceptional set of circumstances right now, 5 senior defenders out injured. Every team would suffer, I posted earlier what the Liverpool and City defence would look like with the same injuries

Two of those 5 defenders are hopelessly injury prone. The defence wasn't the problem yesterday in any case. The attacking was slow and predictable and this in a game where both Saka and Rice played very well. Havertz is back to being ineffective (notwithstanding his physical effort) and we are terribly short of players who just stuck it in the net. The summer transfer business isn't looking too hot right now.

I think he’s been criminally under used. He’s a far better player than the minutes he’s getting.

If slot and the new Chelsea manager finish above us this season people will start questioning the manager for the first time in a while.

When he has played he hasn't exactly set the world alight.

If slot and the new Chelsea manager finish above us this season people will start questioning the manager for the first time in a while.

Indeed.

Is Jesus being deliberately rubbish? That chance today….

Have to say I agree with a lot Charlie watts says on this here.

https://youtu.be/TphpK09n2Ls?si=S_vQiTegt80WJsAl

Can’t disagree.

My concern though is that Jesus is a ‘sulker’ because he isn’t getting picked, and performing poorly is, in his head, a way of paying back that slight on his ‘ability’.

It will be very interesting what we do in January. Winter window is difficult but we’ve bought well before.
Last summer we all but broke even on transfers and it was well known we bid for Sesko and had Nico Williams as a top target. With their release clauses that would have been £100m in signings. We ended up with a £27m Raya which would have been budgeted for from last year, then £70m on Calafiori and Merino. I just can’t see a situation where we had about £100m to spend decided it was a striker and a winger and when we couldn’t get them changed to sign a defender and a central mid. The target will have been for all 4 positions. Remember on deadline day we were bidding decent money for a back up gk from Spain (£20m ish) the money has to be there for a January outlay in the attacking positions. It felt like we had a handful of targets who we wanted and wouldn’t settle, so ended up getting Sterling on loan and hoping Havertz continued improving and others would contribute. It’s not worked out so we have to fix it in January.

Arsenal’s win % this season WITH:

Timber AND Calafiori: 83.3%

Timber at RB (+ any LB): 87.5%

Calafiori at LB (+ any RB): 80%

NONE of the above: 30%

Partey at RB: 25%

Calafiori was available for 38 games out of 38 for Bologna last season. He was a big signing to fix a genuine problem position last season. He’s only played 500 minutes in the league this season out of a possible 1350.

Missing our full backs and Ødegaard have killed us this season but we must find a way to cope when we miss players, Arteta has to do better to not move too many pieces around and players need to step up when others are missing.

Those stats are meaningless because of the really small sample size. Calafiori has only played 8 league games and he was missing for the games against Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd. Furthermore, the "any other right back" includes Ben White, our £50m defender. We can't seriously consider Ben White's inclusion in the team as a weakness.