PL: Crystal Palace vs Arsenal | Saturday 11th January | KO: 12:30pm | BT Sport

[blaze_of_glory]

We were robbed

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Stand by my regular assessment that there is not a single good ref in this league. All incredibly bad.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Awful refs and some no-name keeper making the save of his career. Robbery.

Oh and a joke of a goal for them as well. Should have been VAR'd for being too **** to count.

 

[darkgunner]

Great. Except you still haven't told me what's your alternative and ignored the points I made.

Great discussion!

The alternative is we keep playing him, we keep drawing or winning games by only slim margins and he keeps disappointing us with a lack of contribution.

With players like Xhaka and a semi retired Özil being part of a 3 man midfield, is ita ny wonder why we are so reliant on our forwards to create and score goals?

They don't create, they don't score. The only thing they do is run and press and even that isn't consistent.

 

[14Henry]

But they were tired. You might say “they shouldn’t be”, doesn’t change the fact that they were physically drained. Against Chelsea and Utd players were pulling up for cramps left right and centre. You’re making it sound as if you’re not seeing improvement in the performances compared to Emery’s term as manager. That’s what we’re all positive about. It’s better to be very good for 30 minutes than be terrible the whole game, surely.

Maybe you haven't read anything I have posted. I have said I see improvement. What I'm saying is I haven't seen much improvement. That is both in terms of performance and results. United utterly dominated norwich today. Could have been 10. Are we better than them? Yes. Will we do that to Norwich at home? Or similar outfit? No.

I disagree that we cant play better for longer. This whole fitness issue. How can these players be different from others in terms of fitness? How can it be so different that we can only keep up for 20 mins. You dont need to press and be super aggressive to win football matches. What you do is have more of the ball and control the match. We dont do that.

When are we going to do it for 90 minutes? Why are other teams able to dominate games for 90 minutes but we only have the fitness for 20?

I just dont see where are wins come from which we so badly need. It's incredible that as bad as Man united are they are miles ahead of us in the league. Chelsea haven't been convincing and they are so far ahead we cant even get close.

Where is our next win coming from? Newcastle at home?

 

[moha05]

A misconduct foul by P. Aubameyang and an injury on in-form L. Torreira cost us the match.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

That first 30 min might have been the best we played all season tbh. Needed Pepe in particular to be more assertive around their box though. Could have had 3 goals if some right decisions has been made in the final third.

 

[Manberg]

Maybe you haven't read anything I have posted. I have said I see improvement. What I'm saying is I haven't seen much improvement. That is both in terms of performance and results. United utterly dominated norwich today. Could have been 10. Are we better than them? Yes. Will we do that to Norwich at home? Or similar outfit? No.

I disagree that we cant play better for longer. This whole fitness issue. How can these players be different from others in terms of fitness? How can it be so different that we can only keep up for 20 mins. You dont need to press and be super aggressive to win football matches. What you do is have more of the ball and control the match. We dont do that.

When are we going to do it for 90 minutes? Why are other teams able to dominate games for 90 minutes but we only have the fitness for 20?

I just dont see where are wins come from which we so badly need. It's incredible that as bad as Man united are they are miles ahead of us in the league. Chelsea haven't been convincing and they are so far ahead we cant even get close.

Where is our next win coming from? Newcastle at home?

We have a new manager who is showing promise but has had no pre-season, trying a system that takes a lot of re-coaching and patience in order to get right. We have players who aren't the strongest mentally due to a mentality of being contempt with failure over the past several years. We need good signings and that will require investment from the owners. This adjustment period to new tactics coupled with many games in quick succession is probably the reason for the fitness issues. I thought we were very good against Utd for the whole game. We dropped off in the second half but we had complete control that game.

 

[14Henry]

We have a new manager who is showing promise but has had no pre-season, trying a system that takes a lot of re-coaching and patience in order to get right. We have players who aren't the strongest mentally due to a mentality of being contempt with failure over the past several years. We need good signings and that will require investment from the owners. This adjustment period to new tactics coupled with many games in quick succession is probably the reason for the fitness issues. I thought we were very good against Utd for the whole game. We dropped off in the second half but we had complete control that game.

I get all that. Hence why I am modestly appreciating our improvement. Other fans are hailing this huge improvement like we have strung 4 wins on the bounce playing well. We haven't.

We are running out of games to rescue this season and while I know next season is a year we may see the benefit of what Arteta does between now and then maybe by then we have lost numerous players who Arteta has coached his ideas too and that has to be done over again.

We really needed a quick boost just to get something going a couple or wins on the trot to move us upwards in the league and boost morale. That hasnt happened.

Every year we are out of the champions league the harder it becomes the following year. We cant attract the players we need to improve the team and we lose out on the money needed to improve the squad. In the meantime the other teams who do qualify get richer, stronger and more appealing.

 

[Manberg]

I get all that. Hence why I am modestly appreciating our improvement. Other fans are hailing this huge improvement like we have strung 4 wins on the bounce playing well. We haven't.

We are running out of games to rescue this season and while I know next season is a year we may see the benefit of what Arteta does between now and then maybe by then we have lost numerous players who Arteta has coached his ideas too and that has to be done over again.

We really needed a quick boost just to get something going a couple or wins on the trot to move us upwards in the league and boost morale. That hasnt happened.

Every year we are out of the champions league the harder it becomes the following year. We cant attract the players we need to improve the team and we lose out on the money needed to improve the squad. In the meantime the other teams who do qualify get richer, stronger and more appealing.

We’re not getting top 4 I accepted that in November. Too much ground was lost before Arteta got here. Chelsea will hold that fourth spot. I’m more interested in performances than results at the moment. Emery sometimes had good results in his first season but performances were poor, I wasn’t entirely happy then but I’m more happy now considering what I’m seeing from Arteta. I’m more interested in putting pressure on the board, because although Arteta is improving the team with his tactics and a gradual mentality change, we need (good) signings to compete for top four next season

 

[Makingtrax]

Awful refs and some no-name keeper making the save of his career. Robbery.

Oh and a joke of a goal for them as well. Should have been VAR'd for being too **** to count.

Crazy deflection, ridiculous save, Torreira's injury, Auba's red.

Somebody's sticking pins in an Arteta doll, and it's on the same shelf as Emery's and Wenger's.

 

[14Henry]

We’re not getting top 4 I accepted that in November. Too much ground was lost before Arteta got here. Chelsea will hold that fourth spot. I’m more interested in performances than results at the moment. Emery sometimes had good results in his first season but performances were poor, I wasn’t entirely happy then but I’m more happy now considering what I’m seeing from Arteta. I’m more interested in putting pressure on the board, because although Arteta is improving the team with his tactics and a gradual mentality change, we need (good) signings to compete for top four next season

The thing is the board backed us in the summer.

Saliba 20 odd m
Tierney 25m
Pepe 72m
Luiz 8m.

That's a lot of money but again it was spent in an inefficient way. While we needed a winger we needed other areas more.

And looking at the squad now we need a top centre half and a top centre midfielder one who can do everything. Tackle pass defend attack. Arguably we need a RB too. I personally think Bellerin isnt good enough. That should be the 3 major areas. What are we talking 120-150m.

With sales of players that's easily achievable.

 

[nicky47]

Gutted. Close again to getting a win, but its just not happening for us. And with Aubameyang out now, whos gonna be getting us the goals? If only Lacazette had a bit of form, he could've been making all the difference.

 

[al-Ustaadh]

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

The club need to have word the officials been seriously rubbish against us

 

[rich 1990]

Refs are corrupt. We could play ISIS and they wouldn't get a yellow.

 

[James Bond]

That first 30 min might have been the best we played all season tbh. Needed Pepe in particular to be more assertive around their box though. Could have had 3 goals if some right decisions has been made in the final third.

This. For as good as we played we only had one shot out of it and thankfully we scored it. Baby steps I guess as they were dominating a team away from home vs being the ones dominated, but the lack of end product is extra disappointing. (Has been all season tbf) Also agreed that it is so frustrating how passive Pepe is a lot of the time.

 

[James Bond]

I lost it when the ref gave Lacazette a yellow and you could read his lips telling laca “that’s your 5th or 6ths foul” and then shrug his shoulders like he was left with no choice like Ayew didn’t spend all ****ing first half fouling people.

 

[TromsoGooner]

I lost it when the ref gave Lacazette a yellow and you could read his lips telling laca “that’s your 5th or 6ths foul” and then shrug his shoulders like he was left with no choice like Ayew didn’t spend all ****ing first half fouling people.

Incredible isn`t t. Pepe and Maitland were both booked for their first fouls, just regular free kicks. I have no problems that refs get the occasional decision wrong but things like these either pur eincompetane or being biased in favour of one team.

 

[Sapient Hawk]

How that insufferable gnat Ayew remained on the pitch to score the goal is astounding.

The FA needs to be disbanded & replaced with AI immediately, impartial officials & referees are the only way we'll ever get through a match unscathed. It's about time we removed human error as an excuse in hurting football further.