Manchester City (h) - Instant Reaction

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Yeah and it was meant to be a dumb throw away comment borne out of momentary annoyance

I can see people giving you a lot of stick for the Mari comment. Even though I don't think he was that bad I can admit Instant reaction pods are effing hard. Emotions are high after a game like that. We tend to slate players more than deserved.

I’m a big fan of Holding, he was excellent today albeit the first two minutes aside. There lies the concern though . This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this example of not been switched on from kick off from him . It’s cost us before & unless it’s coached out of him will cost us again. I wonder how Clive, as a proper coach would approach this issue and look to rectify it going forward.

Yeah with Auba the concern is a bit different. It’s been pretty well proven that one of the big impacts of athletes aging is longer recovery times. So for him, I’d just worry that you get worse performances when he has to play twice a week

Tbf Elliot I get your rest point for Saka but remember Auba had the issue with his mum so he had a few games off, Leeds was his first prem 90 in over a month, reckon he’ll be fine for Thursday

Yeah agreed. Well said

Mari was never it for me from the beginning. I went back and watched Flamingo v. Liverpool and just didn't see a player with speed, quick decisions, or power. What I saw was pure chance that Liverpool didn't run his side ragged and score more. Look, I mean look at the Arsenal squad. What you see are some spectacular Championship level players, a few high level Premier League players, 2 Champions League players, and some very legit potential star players. The coming summer will be the kicker and next season, with fans, will be the tell all.

Honestly the Mari thing was a throw away comment. Paul pulled me up on it. I didn’t mean to really get into it. He annoys me for reasons not worth the digital ink. But it wasn’t meant to be a big thing

I don't agree that Mari is terrible, but he certainly doesn't improve our squad

Glad to know I was making friends out there today 😂

This isn't a new issue either, mental fragility and attitude has been a huge issue at the club for years

We have players who you can see are limited and wont take us further (Bellerin and Xhaka) and players who are just not good enough who we've been removing. One thing that needs to change is attitude, none of the players out there today are over 50s walking football players, so why were so many of the overpaid arseholes walking and jogging around the pitch? Effort is 90%+ of any sport

Which part? The random Mari slander?

This one falls into the Elliott unbearable column for me, again. Not as terrible as he’s ever been, but completely absurd nonetheless. Another example of why I don’t join the Discord.

100%. Yeah he's been crap but no one ever just says that- they have to say "oh if only he stopped doing fashion or talking about social injustice and was focused on his football instead...", or even something vaguely homophobic- People act as if he is the only player with interests other than football. It just so happens his hobbies are more visible and public and I'd personally prefer him be spending his own free time advocating for really good causes than playing fortnite- none of which should be relevant in discussing his performances anyway.

Cai

I gotta say, while I see the problems with hector’s game right now, i’d be a lot more inclined to criticize him if there wasn’t so much anger towards him out there right now. I just don’t get it. He’s as close to a “arsenal man“ as we have at the club these days. He has been nothing but great as a person and a member of the squad and we played him into the ground as a young man. People are willing to cut Xhaka endless slack despite throwing the armband on the ground and calling the fans c*nts. People are desperate to praise Partey and odegaard who just got here. Hector meanwhile is a kid who has devoted his entire career to us and he’s struggling for form and he’s taking dog’s abuse. So yeah... he’s been bad recently. But I can’t pile on with this one. It feels wrong.

Personally still encouraged by what Arteta has done post Chelsea. Results haven’t matched performances recently. Today was a bit of a write off anyway. But Thursday is an inflection point

I know I've been told we are out of the honeymoon phase of Artetas tenure, but I still have the feeling we can run with the rest of them on our good days. I'm not sure Pep with his big $$ teams could achieve that at Arsenal. Give an injection of cash that Barcelona, Munich or City had and Arteta could duplicate his master.

I

Totally agree

Mari is a nobody who bombed out of the Spanish second division. Bellerin is a kid who had more than 9000 Arsenal minutes by 21 years old. Bellerin was knocking teams out of the CL while Mari was failing to every appear for city. Hector suffered an 18 month injury. Came back and has struggled. Yes he’s been poor recently. I gave him stock down last pod. But he’s struggling to recover form I’ve seen him have for this very club. Mari is a purchase from Brazil tied to a shady deal who I have huge skepticism over. He can prove me wrong. Fine by me. But don’t compare a guy with a big arsenal career already to a guy with limited career anywhere. And if you want me to go in stronger on hector you can forget it. He’s been bad. No argument. He’s also a kid who has been at the club his whole career and signed a 5 year deal when he was a hot commodity. So yeah, he’s earned kindness from me for the man he is, even when he’s struggling. Probably the most loyal arsenal player we have. Do we need better? At the moment we do. I hope he recovers his pre injury form but right now he’s a liability. That’s all I’m gonna say

So Mari is a donkey who is completely unusable but Bellerin is just "struggling" and "I don't know what to say about that"? Elliot literally hates getting close to criticising his favourites but goes overboard on guys he despises. Absolute nonsense. Bellerin was dogshit, at one point he just kicked the ball out of play because he had no ides what to do with the ball. I would unsubscribe if I didn't love Clive and Tim so much.

Really struggling to see how it's losing to the best team in the country that's the straw that broke the camel's back for so many fans. Maybe i just have lower expectations for this squad i dunno- alot of the reactions just seem very OTT.

Cai