Loss FA Cup 3rd Round: Nottingham Forest 1 - 0 Arsenal | Sunday 9th, January | KO: 17:10 GMT | ITV 1

Play the reserves. We should be beating these lot even while resting our starting XI.
Shouldn't be complacent but the fringe should be able to see them off.

Likes of Cedric, Holding, Pepe and all the other forgotten souls will all feature in this.

 

[Blankety Blank]

Up and down? They got outplayed by a championship team lol

They didnt get outplayed, however it it was a poor display & reality check for fans & players.

The championship is a tough league, Forest away was always gonna be a potential banana skin. .

Just because they are young & play for Arsenal certainly doesnt mean they will simply role over non prem teams.


For context I think an An under 23s side with Patino & Azeez got stuffed 4-0 by a Lg2 side pre season?

 

[drippin]

I'm really not bothered about the result during this season, when we might miss players to covid at any time. We have the most trophies in this cup anyway. Let's focus on getting top 4 and hopefully League Cup for the first time.

Wouldn't it be 5 more games to win FA Cup? That's much. For example Tottenham have Brighton next. Nottingham got Leicester next, which is what we would have got. I really prefer not to play them next to get a little further in this competion.

Btw. Not very important, but why on earth was a Nottingham player allowed to pass with his knee to the goalkeeper, who took it with his hands at 87 minutes? What am I missing?

 

[bergholt]

This sort of youth use to beat championship teams for fun. Can't blame this on age. They just didn't want it

Yeah they're not mentally strong, but this seems to be the case with this age range in multiple different sports that I follow - young players these days tend to need a bunch of time and old heads around them to keep them motivated (with significant exceptions of course)

 

[bergholt]

It’s not the right strategy because it’s shown over and over it doesn’t work. Young players need experienced players next to them and Arteta is hardly the first Arsenal manager who filled the team with young players and had Arsenal fans saying in 2-3 years they will be so much better and it never happened

Spot on about experienced players. The main thing this group is missing is good experienced players with strong mentality. It's pretty hard to lead from the bench. Look at them:

- Auba (32) - out of form and whinging, not a good leader
- Laca (30) - playing ok and seems a decent leader
- Cedric (30) - not first choice
- Leno (29) - not first choice
- Elneny (29) - not first choice
- Xhaka (29) - playing ok and seems a decent leader
- Partey (28) - playing ok, not sure about leadership
- Kola (28) - not first choice
- Mari (28) - not first choice
- Chambers (26) - not first choice
- Pepe (26) - not first choice
- Holding (26) - not first choice

It's really just Laca and Xhaka leading the side, maybe Partey as well, and imo that's why we play ok when they're all out there together. It's not about their skills so much as their mentality.

Liverpool have a lot of good leaders (Hendo, VVD, Alisson, Milner), so do Man City (Fernandinho, Gundogan, Dias, KDB). Other big clubs are ok: Man U have Maguire, a few others, Ronaldo for mentality; Chelsea have Azpilicueta and Jorginho, that's about all.

But we're miles behind all of them. Need to find some leaders - I think that's partly what they're hoping for from Ben White.

 

[Lakersgooner24]

I'm rarely confident in these away cup ties against lower league opposition, especially in recent years, but what a shambles of a performance. We couldn't string a couple of passes together all game, failed to register a single shot on target, and it felt like Forest were able to counter at will.

I would be fuming, if not for the fact that I believe we should firmly set our sights on top 4, and to a lesser extent, the LC, since we're already in the semi-finals. If we're able to get a result against Sp**s, and maintain our position in the top 4 at the end of the month, a 3rd Round exit wouldn't have been the end of the world.

 

[drippin]

If we would have went through, it would have been Leicester at home somewhere around 5.2.2022.

We have Wolves away 10.2. and Chelsea away 12.2.

It's pretty obvious that this wasn't a big deal.

 

[Leicester_Loyal]

I just want to say a huge thank you to Arsenal Football Club, we've waited almost 8 years for this tie.

 

[boonthegoon]

I just want to say a huge thank you to Arsenal Football Club, we've waited almost 8 years for this tie.

Anything special?

 

[A_G]

Anything special?

East Midlands Derby.

 

[ThePortugueseGunner]

Pathetic to be eliminated in the first game by a Championship team. Terrible F.A. Cup campaign. Now the Carabao Cup is our only chance of getting any silverware this season.

If we don't win the Carabao Cup and fail to make top-4, it will be a poor, poor season.

 

[DUFFMAN]

Pathetic to be eliminated in the first game by a Championship team. Terrible F.A. Cup campaign. Now the Carabao Cup is our only chance of getting any silverware this season.

If we don't win the Carabao Cup and fail to make top-4, it will be a poor, poor season.

Only 1 or 2 teams can win the fa Cup and carabao.

I'd relax there on the disappointment of not winning silverware.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Pathetic to be eliminated in the first game by a Championship team. Terrible F.A. Cup campaign. Now the Carabao Cup is our only chance of getting any silverware this season.

If we don't win the Carabao Cup and fail to make top-4, it will be a poor, poor season.

Couldn't care less about Carabao tbh. Top 4 contention is the goal imo

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Man U have Maguire, a few others, Ronaldo for mentality;

Isn’t Maguire ridiculed by their fanbase and Ronaldo destroying the dressing room vibe?

 

[bergholt]

Isn’t Maguire ridiculed by their fanbase and Ronaldo destroying the dressing room vibe?

Maybe, don't think anyone would know from the outside what their impact is tbh

 

[Kav]

Only 1 or 2 teams can win the fa Cup and carabao.

I'd relax there on the disappointment of not winning silverware.

Where was this rationality when Wenger or Emery was in charge. I wish i saw more of this back then. Man Mikel sure knows how to get people to defend his failures with such tenacity. I am actually impressed by this.