Crystal Palace (a) - Instant Reaction

This is infuriating. Ever single game he does it.

CB

I enjoyed the discussion as ever and wanted to mentioned about the slow passing I feel it starts with Leno, he stands on the ball for to long to make a pass you could of made several seconds before

Great discussion , loved Clive’s polo mint anology , made tactics sound so simple but equally about need to manage the contest part of the game .

Good discussions guys. I respectfully have different opinion about couple of points discussed. First one is about Artetas coaching (regimented, over). It seems that either the players have been told that they shouldn't try vertical passes through the middle or overcoached on overloads and triangles on the wing. The serious implication if this is the poor service to center forwards. Be either Auba or Martenelli in the one match he played there. The crosses from flanks needs a Giroud kind of striker or they have to be along the ground for most part. Coupled euth this there aren't enough bodies in the box when the cross comes in. It's almost like players have been told to do a safe back pass rather go for a through ball or vertical passes. Arteta is not coaching robots they are highly paid professional who needs space to ply thier trade. Dare I say he would have coached a Henry into a Chamakh no disrespect. Second point is I don't want Arteta to be a Pep 2.0. I cannot have that for my Arsenal. He has to learn this fast and create his own identity. By the way Pep always had great players and have always coached top sides in his career. Unfortunately Arteta is coaching a mid table team with not enough resources. So he needs to get the best or infact get them perform beyond the capabilities. Team will always have to be greater than sum of parts. He has to learn fast or let him go to a lower placed club and learn his way up. He can't be at Arsenal and waste someone like Willock and loan Dani instead of him. Can anyone say that Willock would have been worse than a Dani. He needs to get the team playing at a higher level next season and should target 35 points by end of Dec. Anything less time to go.

I actually thought Pepes all round game was quite good today. Thought it was very harsh to say he did nothing else. But I think it goes to show the view of a performance will come down to the end product ultimately

Surprised no one said “it’s the mint with the hole” when Elliott said he doesn’t know what a polo is

Something to look at for tomorrow. We start to pick it up around the 85th ish minute. Xhaka slides back into midfield and we play without a LB. I don’t think the goals happen if that switch wasn’t made. That’s also kinda how Zaha got away on the breakaway.