Humbled, Not Humiliated, By The Champions
Aug 13th, 2018 by 'holic
The problem with 4pm kick-offs on a Sunday is that, as a rule, I can’t write a review in the ‘normal’ sense. The vast majority will now have watched what happened and read the blogs that have already commented.
From what I have seen my peers have all pointed out we ran into a very good City side who were able to utilise some of their hungry squad players ahead of their less rested players and yet still win at a canter. For all those, including yours truly, who thought we might take advantage of their supposed early rustiness we received instead the wake-up call. Our pre-season may have shown promise but clearly it will take more than a few weeks to fine tune our new tactical approach.
The fears beforehand mainly concerned the defence. The expected four started in front of Petr Cech, but Kyle Walker’s unpunished assault on Ainsley Maitland-Niles meant an early call-up for Stephan Lichsteiner on the opposite side to his usual role. Hector Bellerin still appears to have lost that extra yard of pace he had before his injury a couple of years back and he was exposed by Sterling for the first goal. Perhaps Matteo Guendouzi could have spared his blushes but allowed the England international into the centre of the pitch to drive the ball past Cech who may have only caught sight of the shot late.
That aside the new partnership in the centre was not unduly worried and coped competently with what was thrown at them other than another two second-half moments. Aguero’s break behind the absent back-line might have finished the match but for a very good save by Cech. It was put beyond doubt when the otherwise excellent Lichsteiner let Bernardo Silva escape him in the box to blast home the second.
Perhaps there are further worries in more advanced areas. As expected Alexandre Lacazette was sacrificed to allow Granit Xhaka to team up with Guendouzi in front of the back four. Xhaka looked a little rusty, not surprisingly given he has seen little action since the World Cup. Far more noticeable was Guendouzi who clearly has an eye for a pass and who impressed for the most part. However he did tire in the second-half and often laboured to get back from his forays deep into City territory. He really is quite a prospect.
Ahead of them Mesut Ozil and Henrykh Mkhitaryan seemed to have been afforded responsibilities at inside and outside right and left. They joined the high press less than enthusiastically it appeared from row seven. Ahead and between them Aaron Ramsey seemed to have been given free reign to join and even pass Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Against a less organised defence than City’s this may be a potent set-up once we have mastered the new movements it requires to work.
We weren’t totally punchless going forward. Ozil and Aubameyang both put the ball in the net but sadly from rather obvious offside positions. We looked far more threatening once Lacazette and Lucas Torreira were introduced for Xhaka and Ramsey.
So what conclusions did we draw from that? You have started sharing them in the preview drinks, for which thanks. For me this was flexible but essentially as a rework of the 4-2-2-2 seen against Lazio. I would tweak it at the weekend switching Torreira and Rambo for Xhaka and Guendouzi, and starting Lacazette with Aubamayang. But that’s an opinion of a supporter who doesn’t see what the head coach does every day. I’m impressed with the way he has conducted himself so far, and I’m sure he will oversee improvements as the season progresses.
Good luck Unai. It was in short supply yesterday.
56 Responses to “Humbled, Not Humiliated, By The Champions”
Nutshell Guvna.
Excellent stuff H.
It’s not going to be an overnight fix, that’s for sure. Several positives though and perhaps best to dwell on those rather than the negatives.
Hope to make a game at some stage in the near future.
Overwhelming feeling yesterday was that of a criminal neglect of building a quality team. Just 2 new faces started the game. We still played nervously and without composure.
A 19 year old played in midfield and perhaps not surprisingly played better than his senior teammates.
A big overhauling will be required if the players don’t adapt quickly and improve.
Signs are there but perhaps confidence is needed in large doses. A lack of warriors is plain for all to see.
Right on about luck being in short supply. We also didn’t get a stone walled penalty. Having said that, City were the better team by a big margin and deserved to win.
We will know how far we have progressed under Unai after our match at the Bridge this weekend. The thing that concerned me was that we did not look fluent with our passing game, the organization was not there and the players looked lost at times. Work in progress but we have to give the new manager and players time to get their game together and make things happen.
Very sound summing-up Guvna. I agree with almost everything but I think Guendouzi is a force of nature and will learn very quickly. He showed this in Dublin against Chelsea recently .
I was more depressed than I thought I’d be after the game. It wasn’t the result – that was always on the cards. It was the chasm between the clubs and particularly the disjointedness of our game.
At a daughter’s wedding many years ago ( actually on the day of our first game in the new stadium!) Mrs TTG decided we should take some tuition to enable us to waltz respectably under scrutiny. We did very well under the gaze of a friend who is an instructor but after the first dance when ushered onto the floor my brain and feet went to mush and I completely forgot my steps. That was what I think we saw yesterday and though I detest him normally I thought Allardyce made a worthwhile point about trying those tactics against Citeh. It’s a point which I’ve not illustrated elegantly but I think its valid. Citeh were almost profligate themselves and overdoing the build up from the goalkeeper to death will occasionally end in tears if you don’t vary it. I don’t care who it is but you don’t pass to a 19 year-old with a top international player right up his arse on the edge of your area without expecting it to end in disaster.I think it’s a fashion that will come under scrutiny this season and may be a costly fashion. I’m swimming against the tide but it is unnecessarily dangerous.Rant over!
Playing Ozil, Mkhi and Xhaka together is a luxury we cannot afford. I would prefer two of Ramsey/Ozil/Xhaka and Torreira, Guendouzi, Laca and Auba at the heart of our attack.
A good piece ‘Guvna.
I must admit not to having seen anything of the match, although I have read the drinks posted in this bar (not elsewhere).
The above achieves an excellent balance between the realism required in the aftermath of a comfortable defeat and the optimism appropriate at this stage of the season and a manager’s tenure.
I trust I may look forward to more of the same in happier circumstances as the season progresses.
COYG
One swallow does not make a summer.
But several swallows will make mine – see you, I hope, at Brolly Central for West Ham when I’m anticipating a better outcome than yesterday.
😎
Lots of great comments.
The most notable positive I thought was that the majority of the team seemed to have enthusiastically bought into an entirely new football philosophy. There were lots of errors in execution — including communication gaps especially in the opposition penalty box —but at no point the team looked like they were playing without a clear idea of how to, with or without the ball.
I am looking forward eagerly to this season to see evolution of a new Arsenal (the football team, the rest is important and relevant and all that but nothing to look forward to). It will be intriguing to see if the squad we have today have the right mixture of abilities, awareness and attitude to play in the way Emery wants them to, or if we will start seeing significant tweaks in the next couple of windows, or if even Emery will brainstorm and invent maybe changes to his game plans that is best suited to what we have. Result wise I will be very pleasantly surprised if we win any silverware, but getting back in the CL is doable (…irony etc.).
We will have many a performances this season like the one we had yesterday, especially against top sides. Hopefully the fan base will not become discontent when that happens.
A year from now, with Torreira and Guendouzi at the base of the midfield, and Lacazette and Aubameyang combining and complementing each other, I think we will see a type of high-energy quick-in-transition football with efficient “vertical” usage of space that can become the basis for the next set of changes. I also have hope of Lichtsteiner shaking Bellerin off whatever funk he is in and become the world class player he has no excuse of not to be.
Bit heavy handed of the club to send a cease and desist to what used to be known as Arsenal Fan TV over copyright (use of the word Arsenal) but I can see why they finally got around to it.
According to Auntie BBC we will have to wait a little longer for Premier League football in Middlesex.
Hey ho. Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of fans.
FOYS
Nothing to disagree with, ‘Holic. Humbled but not humiliated about sums it up. There is little argument in this establishment that we were outclassed and outplayed. It will take time and patience to get to a better place, two qualities in limited supply these days.
Pangloss@11: Might the ‘issues with critical safety systems’ be that they still allow home fans to get in?
BTM from previous drinks,
Totally agree.
Delia from previous drinks,
I know Mr Emery was not your preferred choice for our new manager,but i can assure you he does not do ‘ playing not to lose ‘.
Shame you are so despondent after only 1 game,let’s not forget he is trying to undo years of neglect on the proper teaching of players,
educating them in the ebbs and flows and rhythms of navigating their way in a structured formation,through the 90 odd minutes as a team on the pitch,something which is clearly foreign to most of them.
I can only point you to to Pep at City.
Yes he has had a shed load of the folding stuff to spend on players since he has been there,but his team last season and this,is unrecognizable from the team he inherited when he arrived,but he certainly endured some pain and disappointment before he reached a stunning peak in the league last season.
We are in the embryonic stages of a major rebuilding job on the pitch,and yes there will be a lot more disappointments along the way,before we see the butterfly emerge from the chrysalis,and i do believe that what does emerge will be a vastly different beast to the one we currently have,in the way we play,as well as the personnel.
I for one am really looking forward to seeing how this season unfolds,the highs and the inevitable lows,as Mr Emery gradually puts his stamp on the Club.
Same old Tottenham, always cheating.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45177215
Seriously, it is time to start docking them points for each home fixture missed at the announced venue.
Clive@14: Good point about how Guardiola has evolved his team. I dug out the team sheet for his first game in August 2016 to compare with the one he fielded on Sunday. He gave just two players, Stones and Nolito, debuts in his first game.
August 2016 v Sunderland
Caballero
Kolarov
Sagna
Stones
Clichy (sub Iheanacho)
David Silva (sub Delph)
Fernandinho
De Bruyne
Sterling
Aguero
Nolito (sub Navas)
August 2018 v Arsenal
Ederson
Laporte
Mendy
Stones
Walker
Bernado Silva
Fernandinho
Gundogan
Marhrez (sub De Bruyne)
Sterling (sub Sane)
Aguero (sub Jesus)
Well found Ned
Entire revamp of defence except persevered with Stones.
De Bruyne and Fernandinho retained in midfield,and Aguerro and a then very immature Sterling in attack.
So 5 out of 11 from 2016.
I would expect something not disimilar at the Arse over time.
David Silva is still there to be
pedantic and still important for them.
Over 2 years I think you’ll see the
same sort of turnover in most teams
these days.
As many have said it’s just one game,
and they whacked us twice last season.
I hope Emery will start to better
understand some of the problems
we’ve been seeing for several years.
It’s not simply a matter of working harder,
some of the current squad are just not
good enough.
Personally, I didn’t want Emery either
but now he’s here I’d like to give him
at least a couple of seasons. And my 2p
worth for 5 or 6 to still have in 2 years
would be Torreira, Ozil, Laca, Auba and
Guendouzi if he develops. Maybe Hector
if he can rediscover some form this season.
I saw the match on tv but not in the way described here. When I saw City’s team sheet, I felt some optimism and thought we could get a win, without the presence of David Silva, de Bruyne and Sane. By the end of the game, I thought we had been humbled and could have been humiliated by an only average to good City side, were it not for a lot of good goalkeeping by Cech and unusually poor finishing from Aguero. I felt the defence generally defended pretty well considering the fairly constant pressure they were under. Otherwise, I thought we were really poor and entertainment value was zilch. Gone was any silky smoothness and slick passing and instead we had a disjointed lack of cohesion.
Team selection and tactics were strange also, in my opinion, given the opposition. Why try to play the pressing game against the best exponents in the league in the first game of the season? Why pick both Ozil and Mkitharyan in the same team, given the options we had available. Play them both against Cardiff at home, but not City. Why insist that Cech has to always pass the ball with his feet, which he has never been comfortable with? If Cech is going to play, and I think he should be starting, then allow him to play his natural game, and if that means changing the way the team plays, so be it. Surely, for this particularly game, it would have been better to adopt a style of play familiar to the personnel, ie possession based with maybe some more aggressive pressing up front, and then the same with Chelsea on Saturday.
I do wish Emery well, but at the same time I’m not going to delude myself either. When it’s crap, I will say so.
I’m encouraged by winning the ball back in their half a number of times, and good young players, and attacking potential. I hope AMN is OK.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Its_alfieee/status/1027500689709314048/video/1
This is brilliant.FOYS!!!
@19, maybe it was a bit crap but it was a different type of crap from the same old crap. In that, there is relief, curiosity, energy and hope. Or am I talking crap. Don’t care, it’s my crap. There’s something happening, there’s a plan, it’s good enough for me.
Everything is new and as expected will take time, what should not have taken much time is for the players to know that this is the real deal and they need to be ready for it. Half the team it felt were lumbering around, so many times city( mendy of all people) were allowed to run with none of our players in sight. This backing off way of defending is of no use and I do not understand this lack of putting your body on the line to prevent a shot towards goal as well. Sterling is good and he does seem to reserve his best games for us, we really are so unsure of what to do when players run at us, tackle them for starters??
Emery will have the backing of almost all but he needs to sort his selections right. If he is unsure of who his best 11 is, be safe than sorry. A team of Xhaka, Ozil, Mhki and Ramsey definitely will mean players being out of position. At the bridge, please play Torreira and Ramsey as a pivot or include Guendouzi as well as a trio. We need to drop both Xhaka and Mhki for this game( they will get their time) and include Lacazette, even with all this, if we manage a draw, it is still a good result.
lastly, Sam Allardyce is a so and so but our very own TA5 also needs to shut up than question Emery in public, ok they can actually question this playing out from the back thing, ludicrous I must say knowing Cech does not have the legs to do it.
Adams makes good points, but it all comes across harshly and it’s easy to say he should have used pre-season to get a settled back five, with two in front of them, but Torreira for one wasn’t available for a lot of pre-season.
If Monreal is going to be left back, as he should be, he’s been injured.
Playing Ramsey where he did was a bit strange and I do think he needs to pick one of Ozil and Mkhi, not both*, with Lacazette and PEA in the side.
*Although if they carry on playing like they did on Sunday, both can knob off.
It is not to compare Emery to Pep, but Pep’s first season was full of such performances where the team tried but was nowhere near executing the plan. If I remember correctly, there was the typical ridicule from the various experts about playing out from the back. Given that we were trying out that for the very first time in a competitive match against one of the best pressing teams, we didn’t do too bad as the first timer. We ourselves forced a good amount of mistakes and turnovers on them by our pressing, just the final bit of communication/understanding was lacking.
The Man City game was a first in which will be a long set of learning exercises. Lessons for the players, as well as lessons for Emery to figure out who all can play the way he want them to play. Some players may even surprise us by how much they change by the end of the season.
Arsenal will have no harder home game all season. Every other team will. Arsenal will not play a better organised , higher quality team all season , everyone else will. It’s not as if they peppered our goal. Nor is it that we didn’t have chances. And with VAR we should have had a pen. You have to ignore idiots like the walrus and Merson, I suspect they have been media primed to take the focus away from the fact that the Marsh Dwellers ought to be docked points for not being able to start the season at home.
Well said Dr F.
I have come round to the view that there was no point in deferring the introduction of the new system simply because we were facing the biggest challenge of the season. Cross the damn Rubicon and get used to it. Any deferment after beginning it in pre-season would have added to the confusion amongst the defenders.
In truth it looked pretty good in pre-season as we played our way slickly out of the back against teams less effective than Pep’s Shitteh at the press. On Sunday we had a few shaky moments passing the ball around our box but as observed we didn’t lose our goals from that, though without doubt at some point this season we will lose a goal/goals as a result as we get used to it – Shitteh did in Pep’s first season as they were on the learning curve.
I expect some of our opposition to respond to the Walrus’s public criticism by pressing us hard but I also expect them to be less effective than Shitteh and that our guys will pass through them and build attacks. As blogs observes this morning, Unai now has the evidence from the Shitteh game videotapes to provide lesson 101.
i was pleased to read blogs this morning, after having read holic and the comments above. and having thought about what i saw on sunday.
i’m not displeased. one can argue we shouldn’t have been in such a position with the players we have (i.e., bought differently, chosen differently for the game), but given what we have i thought going straight out the way we intend to carry on against the best team in the game was perfect.
if you want to see where your cracks are, if you want to see where you have to work, and where you have success, running a tester against newcastle would give you very little information. doing it against al-shiteh gives us more information than we really wanted, but if anyone can process that back to get the players in the pitch to buy in and play the way we want to carry on it’s mr. emery. on that evidence.
so, agreed with most of the posters here that, while it could have been better (ozil and xhaka, i’m looking in your general direction), it also could have been worse. and they worked hard right to the end, which is all so many of us were asking for at a minimum the last few years, and often weren’t getting.
i like where this team could be going. it’ll be different than the flowy footy of the early-mid wenger era, but that’s ok. i’m more than willing to let mr. emery have his time and efforts to build a success, cheering all the while.
Bergkamptoes@21,
Brilliant!
Let’s hope he has a chance to take a shit in the Chairman’s office, and bury an Arsenal shirt under the pitch before he is sacked!
Cynic@24: I would guess that Ramsey played where he did because Emery thought he would have the legs to lead he press and No 10 is where he plays for Wales and which he believes is his best position.
So we had three number tens in the same lineup against Man City. It’s no wonder we were number twos 🙂
Cynic@31: 🙂
I know it’s the press but if we’re having to sell to get players off the wage bill, there’s one very glaringly obvious candidate who should never have been handed his new contract, who should be first for the chop, if any club shows a glimmer of interest.
I think we’re going to be stuck with Jenkinson and Welbeck, possibly Ospina as well. Getting rid of Elneny and Campbell won’t shave much off it.
Welbeck and Elneny could both be useful this
season. Elneny to me depends a bit on the
injury news on AMN, if he’s out for a while
then keep Elneny at least to January. With
Perez gone and Campbell likely to go we
should keep Welbeck.
Selling Ozil would just prove we’ve lost the
plot completely.
Ospina apparently off to Napoli on loan.
Cynic’s post re Ospina apparent move has been confirmed.
Napoli it is,and they have an option to make the move permanent at a later stage if they are so inclined,finger crossed.
Campbell off overseas as well it seems,so that just would appear to leave Jenks to leave the comfort of the Ems.
There is talk of offloading Elneny as well,even though like Chambers he has recently signed a new long term deal.
Although like Chambers,that was done before the new manager arrived.
So it would appear after the 6 wk pre season period,certain players are already deemed not up to scratch.
I think there will be a few others that will be looking over their shoulder a bit nervously over the next few weeks as well.
After what seemed like 10,000
stories over the years linking Osp
to Turkey he finally went to Napoli.
Best of luck to him
Good luck to Ospina, who to my mind is a better keeper than many in this bar hold. However, he is going to have competition to be No 1 at Napoli from Alex Meret, the 21-year-old rising star, and the 32-year-old Greek national and former Watford keeper Orestis Karnezis, both signed by Napoli from Udinese this summer to replace the departing Pepe Reina. Meret has a broken arm at the moment so that may let Ospina go straight into the team and explains why it is initially a loan, not a permanent deal.
On to Chelsea and bad news to start off with as AMN is supposedly broken a fibula. No Kolasinac, Monreal not even sure what has happened to him, all this means Lichsteiner again at LB. WHo plays right wing for chelsea i wonder now.
I would take the gamble in a game not many expect us to get anything from, by playing Guendouzi and Torreira and drop Xhaka. Ramsey can play right wing and we need to play Mesut at 10 behind lacazette and Auba will be happy to play wide left. Cech will continue to play GK for sometime till Leno settles down( wonder), CB pairing will remain the same. As ever in a chelsea game, we keep tracking back hazard and allow him to run which usually results in him scoring or assisting, cue to Torreira- dude hack him if need be, please. We are tired seeing the same script, let us have something new, something like this, Torreira takes the legs off Eden, no foul, play continues, Arsenal on the counter, Ozil, lacazette, goal. The gunners counter at the blink of an eye and score at the bridge. The good old days are back.
Sorry to hear about AMN broken fibula news. But from everything I hear broken bones are not the most serious injuries in the grand scheme of things. Crossing fingers.
6-8 weeks it seems for AMN.
As bt8 said it could have been worse.
Nacho has been training all
week and hopefully is ready to go.
We’ve done ok against the Chavs for
the last year or two and it will be a
good test again.
broken bones are not the most serious injuries in the grand scheme of things
Just one step up from a paper cut really.
one *awkward* step up, naturally, eh cynic?
Cynic. I’d rather have a broken head than a bashed-in head. The latter would take 6-8 weeks to heal.
I’d rather have a broken leg …
You should hear me talk. Much more coherent than I write.
Ospina dropped his Napoli scarf ( no really ) on arriving in Italy. We’ve clinched a one year loan deal ( for a bloke with one year left on his contract) with an option for Napoli to buy at the end. Let me guess what will happen.They send him back and he leaves on a free.
I wonder how much of his salary we are paying to Napoli? For such a good goalkeeper he has been bloody hard to get rid of.
Stephy Mavididi is being bought by Juventus ( for £2 million) and I hear Elneny will leave and Campbell has gone to Frosinone
And Bielik is going on loan to Charlton.
“Ospina dropped his scarf”
But did he throw himself to the ground
and roll around in agony TTG? 🙂
Osp’s contract expires in 2020 and so
it’s possible we could get a fee for him
at the end of the season. Anyway, it
won’t be much either way.
Only Jenks, Kos and Osp have contracts
expiring in 2020 so we might be spared
a summer of will he / won’t he sign next
summer 🙂
In the grand scheme of things, and judging by the sound of the two injuries, I would rather be in AMN’s shoes than in Kevin de Bruyne’s, whose injury is described by the BBC:
“Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne will be out for three months because of a knee injury.
The Belgium international, a second-half substitute in Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Arsenal, suffered the injury in training on Wednesday.
City say De Bruyne, 27, has a lateral collateral ligament lesion in his right knee, but does not need surgery.”
What do you think, Trev or one of the other medically inclined drinkers?
bt8 @49, without question AMN’s injury is far preferable.
A fibula fracture in a young fit man will heal swiftly without any sequelae provided he splints the lower leg for a relatively short period to ensure fracture union. It is unlikely that reassessment in a month will indicate the need for surgical intervention.
In contrast a ligament tear or stretch may lead to a degree of future vulnerability or instability of the joint. The lateral collateral ligament is a thick band of tissue on the outer aspect of the hinge that is the knee joint and is mirrored by a similar band on the inner aspect (the medial collateral ligament) These two ligaments effectively ensure the stability of the joint. Here there is a risk that failure to progress adequately, e.g. with pain or swelling on mobilisation, that surgery may in the end be necessary to restore the player to full fitness.
Medically inclined drinkers, you say?
No time wasters, please.
Glad to hear from medinally inclined drinkers too. 🙂
Sequelae being a foreign sounding word I am taking it to mean afters based on my limited Latin. Thanks for clearing that one up. 🙂
medinally = medicinally
OM
If it fell on his foot I’m sure it did.
I bet he comes back to leave on a free.
Meanwhile it’s great to see project management is alive and well at the Totts- they really are the gift that keeps on giving .?
How about them loaning the Grove at £5m per match? By the end of the season we’d have a big down payment on Harry Kane!
I should of course say borrowing. We do the loaning!
Oops, forgot >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>