Win PL: Crystal Palace 0 - 1 Arsenal | Monday 21st August | KO: 20:00 BST | Sky Sports

Predicted Lineup





Prediction

Crystal 0-2 Arsenal

 

[lomekian]

Rewatched some bits of the game.

For now I’ll just say my impressions of Eddie’s performance on the night were more favourable than most on here before I rewatched. Now idk. That second chance - I just cannot understand why he went for a very difficult chip when there was a very easy ball to Havertz…

First chance he made himself anyway and was under pressure from 2 defenders and hit the post it’s fine. He won the penalty as well obviously and generally his movement was decent. But not passing it to Havertz idk. If you pass down that option then you simply have to bury it Martinelli vs Brighton style. Otherwise questions have to be asked.

Tbh he just should have shot near post high with power a la Saka. Not going to criticise Eddie too much for not passing because it was a very hard pass to see and not that easy to execute, because Havertz movement was so late and Eddie was shifting. Its the kind of pass you only make if you expect someone to be there, and frankly Eddie is our primary shoot first player.

As you say first chance he made himself and he won the pen. Its the Eddie trade off - he gets chances and scores goals that no-one else in our squad does, but he is our least adept forward player at finding team-mates in the box.

A lot of people criticising him, but had his first chance been 6 inches to the right, he would have scored a great goal with his wrong foot from a self generated chance and won the penalty and would have been getting the MOTM award.

My view is you have to judge players performances according to their skillset and play style, and on that basis Eddie was good last night, probably better than against Forest. Of course he's not and will never be peak Gabby Jesus or Thierry or RVP in terms of being an all round striker, but within his playstyle and limitations he's started the season well.

 

[LookingForEric]

I mean everyone shows a lot of desire their first few months into a new club no?

Proof of the pudding is a few months later.

Yes let’s see if his quality comes through.

 

[lomekian]

So much for the Rice can't operate in tight spaces narrative.

I thought the Premier League tried to use last night as another night to implement their new directive. Ayew dragged down Saka on a yellow. I don't want a player sent off for that as it was more of Saka retaining the ball and turning than on transition.

The Time wasting one is really simple. Just have a word with Ødegaard and wait for the actual time wasting. The warning should be booking the keeper. Its unlikely you will send him off, so booking him basically says look, I'm watching you. However to randomly book a player because others have been time wasting is just stupid. It's like when the ref pointed to Xhaka making 3 fouls and then booked him when he had only made 1. He took the card for others fouling. Those aren't aren't rules.

Coote genuinely loses control of every hame he refs. The league only has two competent refs. It's a joke.

This is the crux of the issue, as is the phantom foul for the 2nd yellow.

That's the problem with the officiating mindset, as demonstrated by the ref on here - its seen as fair game to punish the individual for a team offence, even though it is others that have drawn your ire. The worst thing was that were several incidents for both teams where throw ins took longer. Coote basically booked Tomi because he had decided that Partey was trying to waste time at the goal kick 40 seconds earlier - which wasn't the case - because the home fans were howling. Which they were doing when we took our time at 0-0 with us having 75% possession and being camped in their half.

The worst thing is that we now have a situation where taking 20 seconds over a throw in is cardable despite you being the ball dominant and attacking team (even though they are adding it all on anyway), but rotational fouling (or if you are Man City, the rotation is who Rodri fouls next) is endlessly ignored.

I don't mind the refs clamping down on dissent and abuse - that's a benefit down the levels, but otherwise its another example of the PGMOL going after low hanging fruit that makes bugger all difference (especially if its Arsenal on the telly), rather than dealing with dangerous tackles, rotational fouling or simulation. Its all well and good saying 'its the new directive', but as Uncle Roy alluded to very politely, why do the PGMOL and FIFA never actually have dialogue with the clubs re priorities in directives and enforcement.

I dread to think how many cards Ben White will get at this rate, given he's frequently far worse than what we saw. I also wonder how much of Arsenal's terrible Monday night record prior to yesterday is down to refs playing to the cameras knowing they are on MNF being the big news story, because we seem to get a lot of rough decisions in these matches.

And yes, Coote is one of those really annoying refs who is actually not too bad in most of his decision making (unlike Robert Jones and others who seem to toss a coin every decision), right up until the home crowd gets rowdy - then he soils himself and becomes a massive home-town-ref - and this isn't my Arsenal bias because I've seen him do it in plenty of matches we aren't involved in.

Its amazing how we can have Michael Oliver (who makes the odd mistake, and certainly seems to give Arsenal no love, including the obligatory experimental sending off of martinelli ) being so on top of things in most games, excellent at exercising control, good at communicating, generally knowing when to give himself time to think and largely immune to crowd pressure, and yet most of the other top flight refs are so poor by comparison.

10-15 years ago, the level was much more consistent. Not many were as good as Oliver, but few were as bad many of the current cohort.

 

[lomekian]

It's just having a feel for the game.

If you give Tomyasu a very soft timewasting yellow (for timewasting that was done mostly by his teammates) then you need to be aware of that and make sure that if you give him a 2nd yellow it's for a legitimate no-doubt foul. What you don't want to be doing as a ref is injecting yourself into the result by turning the game based on two very marginal yellow cards.

Especially when you let Ayew get away with a harsher 2nd offense than what you send Tomiyasu off for.

That 2nd yellow was just nonsense - he barely touched him and Ayew went for the flop. No different than the first penalty shout on Nketiah in the first half which was correctly not given.

As I said, the second yellow was a produce of the irritation behind the first and a chance to highlight the new directives on tv. We so often see refs give a player 2 bookings in quick succession where either both or the second is soft - particularly when the ref is annoyed about something the punished team has done. Of course we also see it plenty when a player has lost their head, but refs shouldn't lose theirs.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Thought Zinchenko and especially Jorginho were immense when they came on. Two great players to have in the squad.

Looking forward to seeing Zinny back in at left back against Fulham.

 

[Abhishek Arora]

Great subs with zinchenko and Kiwior. That was a good bit of possession after those subs.

It was because Havertz was moved out of the midfield
The guy offered absolutely nothing
His passing looked like elneny passing the ball

 

[teamsoutheast]

Gabriel need to f**king stay he was great when he came on.

Mikel need to wake up stop this partey RB Havertz LCM and Gabriel CB we winning but make it really hard for ourselves

This doesn't make sense what you are saying as we have won both games playing this way, 3 if you want to include the Wolves win last season.. Nothing has changed with the way we played yesterday from last season. Alll we have done is invert from the right rather than the left. When Zinchenko is fully fit again we wil invert from the left again. It is a 3-2-5 formation in posession.

 

[lomekian]

Yeah, it was interesting that towards the end, Havertz was our only attacker left on the pitch. Shows how much Arteta trusts him in these tough situations and his versatility is also important. IMO he looked a bit better than he did v Forrest, so he's slowly improving. I guess he's learning the defensive/off the ball parts of his role still. Do want to see more going forward though, seems a bit too passive at the moment.

He also gets left on in these situations because he's very useful in the air at defensive setpieces and can hold the ball up.

 

[teamsoutheast]

It was because Havertz was moved out of the midfield
The guy offered absolutely nothing
His passing looked like elneny passing the ball

What's wrong with keeping the ball and not loosing posession? If he looses posession you will still moan and you moan if he keeps it????

 

[Riou]

Have a lot of quality players, Saka and Martinelli not far off...

View attachment 17843


...but these two, these two just feel that little bit extra special!

 

[ThePortugueseGunner]

Hard fought game, yesterday, but we accomplished what was more important. 2 games, 2 wins - next is Fulham at home. Let's make it three out of three.

 

[Beany]

He made the single dumbest signing i have ever seen in 30 plus years of following European football. Followed by choking away the title. What glass? The one Mik took a whizz in?

Willian (I assume it is he to whom you refer…) was a truly terrible signing though at the time, he’d just had a great season. But tbf it motivated Arteta to take an entirely new and radical approach, which has been universally acclaimed and in terms of the club and its outlook, has been a game changer. I see this every home game in the players, fans and vibe.

As for the title last season the truth is we didn’t have the squad. That is what Arteta began to address this summer and you already saw it last night - various credible options.

 

[Abhishek Arora]

What's wrong with keeping the ball and not loosing posession? If he looses posession you will still moan and you moan if he keeps it????

I am not talking abt the just last minutes but the whole game
Pls google player ratings of all the players
You will get your answer
Arteta is toying with the whole team and tactics to fit this controversial signing

 

[coleio]

He wasn't. Ayew beat him three times in the first half hour. He is much better on the right.

He's a better RB I agree but he was solid. Whipping a cross in from that position isn't beating someone. He never got inside to face up the CB's.

 

[Wagwaan]

He wasn't. Ayew beat him three times in the first half hour. He is much better on the right.

Tbf Ayew levels up whenever he plays us.

 

[IrishGooner93]

Looking forward to having Zinchenko back for the level of control and technical ability he gives us in midfield. But at the same time by far our weakest defender in that position. At least with Timber we got what guys like Tomi and kiwi give us there defensively with so much skill and passing ability on top. The perfect blend

 

[Sniper Mik]

Are we going to appeal Tomi's second yellow?

 

[Wagwaan]

Are we going to appeal Tomi's second yellow?

It was softer than my ****s after downing a carton of orange juice.

But I don't think there's really an argument for the outcome of either.

 

[TheGreatWright8]

The ball retention the team showed around the late stages was brilliant almost Barca esque.

 

[Sniper Mik]

It was softer than my ****s after downing a carton of orange juice.

But I don't think there's really an argument for the outcome of either.

That bald Dermot Gallagher also thought ref got it wrong. But the arrogant PGMOL would probably double down on wrongness. Worth a try IMO.