He was able to out-muscle both of our CBs on numerous occasions, particularly from high clearances (the contrast between his strength and how easily Martinelli could be bundled off the ball in similar situations, was rather painful yesterday.) The ball seems to stick to him, he's quick to spot runners, and he's pretty dangerous at the business-end of course.

It would be lovely to have different types for forward players, rather than just the fast, technical winger/striker type we have. Imagine him on the receiving end of some of Tierney's crosses.

Brentford we’re not playing long ball yesterday, when there was a turnover in possession they intelligently played a very quick out ball for Toney to try and break on. We did his a few times but it doesn’t really work effectively with Nketiah who isn’t great in the air.

Only Haaland and Kane have scored more than Toney this season. I really don’t think there’s any question he benches all our current strikers. If the teams swapped strikers yesterday I think we would have comfortably won.

Was this in yesterday's game? I missed the first few minutes.

Just seen the Lemina red card. I mean Ffs honestly.

To be honest if all the refs I think Taylor is one of the best, not immune from mistakes but doesn’t tend to make howlers. It’s not ideal that he’s from greater Manchester and I do always find it strange how when refs are asked to declare which club they support none of this mass of refs from Manchester and Merseyside declare they support Man U, Man City or Liverpool. I’m sure one of them says he supports Altringham Town!

Yes in the first half at some point.

I like him for sure but you think we’d have had 50 points at half way with Toney instead of Jesus? Considering how much of our good play early in the season was through Jesus dribbling, close skill and lightning acceleration? Jesus has a game that suits how Arteta we buy a to play more than Toney, that’s not to say Toney couldn’t be a success as a lone striker in our system he’s just different to how Arteta sees his lone 9.

Toney works very well with Mbuemo as his partner and runner off him for those flick ons and hold up play. Arsenal don’t play two up, don’t play nearly as many teams who play as high a line as teams do v Brentford. Toney would be forced to operate in our team with half the space he gets at Brentford

He was an utter pain in the Arse. Edu should offer 50 million plus Eddie for him.

I don’t think it really matters with plays like Haaland, Kane or Toney. They adapt to the system. I think he would score an absolute shedload for us. I don’t think Jesus would have scored anywhere near the amount of goals he has and you can debate systems as much as you want.

Spending half his life in the casino probably wouldn’t be attractive to Mikel though.

Danny Murphy made a good point on MOTD last night, if var think there are multiple things to check on a goal then you surely work back from the goal to each in order. I think Shearer was also probably right in that Mason panicked that he had taken too long over a more subjective offside - whether Pinnock had blocked Gabriel - that he forgot the most basic part of his job. Backing up Murphy’s point, do the factual easy bit first and then go and do the subjective bit. A mess all round

https://twitter.com/fa_pgmol/status/162 ... jIWoyEpgVw


PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday.

Especially as United seem to be coming back into it.

I agree with your first point. Apart from his other attributes, Jesus also gives us that physical presence, despite his size.

However, what your analysis doesn't take into account is the need to sometime mix up how we play, and how our bench doesn't offer anything in that regard. How likely was it yesterday that Vieira would be the matchwinner?

Even when we are playing our normal game, we mix it up and often go long (not least, Ramsdale is particularly good in this regard).

Would a player like Toney be willing to leave a mediocre outfit and come and play second fiddle for Arsenal? Probably!

Blimey, when you see the penalty City have just been given against the catalogue of pens not given for us this season you can see what we’re up against in this title.

There is no chance in a million years we are given that penalty that Grealish won just then.

Ah but if you go back to the very original post I made about Toney it was how brilliant he’d be for us as a plan b. Ie: to mix it up or off the bench exactly as you say!

Perhaps the FA needs to clarify how many players are allowed to crowd the ref before a charge is bought.

As it stands the var ref, John Brooks who failed to draw the offside lines on the last defender in the palace v Brighton game - cancelling out a probable good Brighton goal is on he var for the biggest match of the season Arsenal v City.

So you can fundamentally mess up the only thing you’re there to do in your job and your reward is a potential title decider!

So the narrative now is great way for City bounce back and if they beat us they go top. Whereas if they’d been stuck with the incompetent var ref we’d be the ones deservedly bouncing back from a defeat and Coty would drop 2 valuable points at home and find themselves 7 behind us having played a game more

Henry Winter describes City as being ‘really on a charge now’
Points in the last 7 games:
Arsenal 14
City 13

Right now it seems Trossard is in a bit better form than Martinelli, and is maybe more useful against a deep block and whilst Martinelli doesn’t have Jesus to link up with.
Trossard is more technically secure, but Martinelli has more pace and directness allowing a greater threat on the counter or where there is more space.

Really interesting choice for Arteta on who starts v City

That madman Pep played Bernardo Silva like an inverted left back today. I can’t see any way Pep does one of his crazy team selection things against us. I think Ake will come in as an orthodox LB and it will be matching us up in the 4-3-3 shape

City are now rightfully slight favourites. Eddie has done better than expected, but our overreliance on him has caught up with us. He's not playing badly, but 'not bad' isn't enough and it feels like he may be drifting out of form, like Martinelli, but at least we have someone we can rotate Martinelli with. Can Eddie put in a statement performance against City to stop the rot? He's surprised before.

Yep, It is ridiculous that a defender literally diving to palm away a shot wasn't even in the top 3 worst ref errors this weekend

Not confident at all about the City game.

If feels like we've lost a bit of form just at the wrong time, we are lacking the creativity and cutting edge to deal with the low block and because we are playing with Zinchenko as basically a central midfielder it leaves us wide open to counter attacks, especially down the left side.

Teams playing a low block and doubling up on our two widemen whilst having a decent counter-attacking threat are stifling us.

Too many of our starters are not at the top of their game.

Martinelli has been poor, not helped by playing in front of a LB who is basically playing in central midfield, White has been average, Eddie has been starved of chances and has snatched at those he has had, Xhaka has not been at his best and Saliba has looked shaky defensively.

The only good thing about the City game is that we won't be facing a low block.

Reminded me of the string of great saves Liverpool CB Stephane Henchoz made against us in the FA Cup final that time.

In 1991 they stole 2 points from us....Graham's famous training ground speech.

I think Arteta needs to strike the right tone with the squad that yes it was an injustice but no-one said this would be easy, use it to fire yourself but we don't dwell on it (unlike the fans who can!). The next game is probably the most important game nearly all of this squad has ever played

ergh what a horrible memory. I look back on so many Arsenal big moments and feel we haven't quite got the ref decisions at crucial moments. Sure we've been 'lucky' in finals, Parma were far better than us, Man U bossed us in the 05 FA Cup final, but that was all 11 v 11 stuff, the only decision I can recall off the top of my head in a huge game was the cup final v Chelsea when Sanchez handballed a clearance to block it then ran through and scored to put us 1-0 up (with Ramsey offside but deemed not interfering) - I would have been fuming if that went against us.

And they have one less day of rest...

I'd take a draw.

I think we are now suffering a bit from starting virtually the same starting 11 in every PL game. It's a double-edged sword, on the one hand you get a consistent pattern and level of play but on the other hand when players start to get fatigued, injured or lose a bit of form the back-ups are simply not at the level required and this is partly due to the fact that they haven't been give enough minutes and they are neither match sharp or especially confident.

There seems to be an element of fatigue and loss of form at the moment, compounded by opponents low block tactics that require a high degree of sharpness, both of mind and body, to overcome and it simply isn't there.

We've tried to address the back-ups situation in Jan but in all honesty Jorginho isn't Partey and so it is very difficult to drop Partey. Trossard looks a good alternative to Martinelli and we don't yet know if Kiwior is ready at this level so we cant just chuck him in when points are priceless.

It's a really tricky situation.

After the game I read we’ve started the same side for the last 6 games. Can’t help but think it needs or needed freshening up a bit. I honestly think you can bring Tomiyasu and Tierney in and out of the side without much drop off and it keeps players on their toes. Also despite the fact he’s very hot and cold you’ve paid 30 odd million for vieira so you have to play him.

An issue at the moment is we can’t even give Eddie a breather. I do think we might be a couple of games away from a false 9 experiment with Trossard or Gabby up top.

I’ve got really mixed thoughts about zinchenko.

He was absolutely superb againest united and spurs but I do wonder if we gain something in one area and lose something in another.

You have this left back literally wandering anywhere he chooses I mean even on the other side of the pitch. Does it affect the structure of the team?

It kind of reminds me a bit of when England experimented and played Beckham in the defensive midfield Pirlo position to exploit his range of passing. He had a great game spreading the play and it looked amazing but was largely ineffective as the team structure was better served by having him far up the pitch.

Saturday I certainly felt he was also guilty of not releasing the ball quick enough.

Lots of teams doubling up on our wingers right now, City won't necessarily do that but as a thought for the teams that do why not switch Martinelli and Saka? Doubling up is effective on players who drift inside to the favoured foot because the second player takes that sole responsibility while the natural full-back just holds position and guards the line. If your wide player now naturally attacks the by-line you can take it back to being more of a 1v1 vs the full back.

We managed to find a way around it v Brentford eventually by using the space the inside man has (Ødegaard) which should naturally come his way if Saka has 2 men on him. If Ødegaard has time he can pick the right pass, Saka played what was a very simple 1-2 in the end and we got in.

The other ball I'd love to see us play more is the ball Chelsea scored their goal with, a clipped ball on the diagonal from a mid-space placed between the gk and defence towards the back post. It sounds complicated - but look at Chelsea's goal to see it.

John Brooks (head of var) who was on var duties for the brighton c*ck up at the weekend was due to be on the Arsenal v City match, he's now been replaced by Andrew Mariner and David Coote. - Not sure I knew there were 2 dedicated var officials - which begs the question what was the other guy doing when Lee Mason just went 'nah, won't bother drawing the lines'

Spurs midfielder Bentancur ruled out for the season with an ACL, I think Bissouma has also been ruled out for the season. Bentancur has been their best CM by a long way this season. Big blow for Spurs CL hopes. In all honestly I wouldn't be hugely surprised if Chelsea caught Spurs, with the players at their disposal I can see Chelsea having lots of individual moments of excellence to win them games even if the team is nowhere near gelling properly yet. If Newcastle keep picking up more draws than wins there could be an almighty fight for the final CL spot. Even if Liverpool actually get their act together and win their games in hand they're only a point behind spurs

I mentioned that after the Everton game. Everton started with inverted wingers and then switched back, to great effect, whereas Martinelli was neutralised on left touchline. The downside is do you want to take away Martinelli's direct threat cutting in, and do you want to move Saka? Saka so good on the right because he is a huge threat cutting in, but is good enough on his right foot to go outside. Double marking Saka is less effective because he generally has Ode and White clos by. White has been making good runs inside and on the overlap.

i noticed in the Brentford game that Martinelli seemed to have a freer role, and popped up on the right a couple of times. I think that is better than dogmatically trying to keep to the touchline.

At least we’ve got one striker fit and on form. I see that Balogun has scored yet again.

Is it that the opposition are “doubling up” or that Martinelli has to beat 2 players instead of one because Nketiah just wants to exist in the penalty area unlike Jesus , zinchenko is on the other side of the pitch and xhaka is static.

Noticing more criticism of Xhaka than normal. Is it that he's suffering for the same reasons as Martinelli or has he lost his pace and enthusiasm at the wrong time?

Maybe Jorginio replacing him in the upcoming asier games would be worth trying?

I think if we're looking to replace Xhaka in our 'easier' games then I think it should be more of a nimble, sharp creative type. Jorginho is a tempo man, a reliable cog, recycling possession and keeping the attack progressing - what we need is more creativity, dribbling and combinations - so Emile Smith Rowe, Trossard, Vieira