Draw Premier League: Arsenal 1 - 1 Brentford | Saturday 11th February | KO: 15:00 GMT |

That was our most dreadful performance in the league since that collapse at Newcastle at the backend of last season.

It is imperative we win this or doubts will start to creep and there can be no doubt in a title race especially against City, a declining one, nonetheless, otherwise when doubt creep in, especially in a young side like ours, you have yourself another title bottle job. But we should see off Brentford at home fairly easily.

White and Martinelli shouldn't see to he pitch, abeg.


Prediction
Arsenal 3-0 Brentford

 

[freeglennhelder2]

We seem to be choking a bit, losing fluidity in the final third and less confident at the back. God knows what we'll be like in the run in. A re-run of last year would be a disaster.

On the plus side, the other top 6 sides are all embroiled in problems of their own. And we've got a good lead. Be more worried if City and Liverpool were playing like they have in recent seasons. Liverpool have turned to sh!t.

Normal to go through these periods. No way we could sustain that win rate. Let’s hope it’s short lived. We are currently matching the best points total at this point for the entire history of Arsenal FC.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

We seem to be choking a bit, losing fluidity in the final third and less confident at the back. God knows what we'll be like in the run in. A re-run of last year would be a disaster.

On the plus side, the other top 6 sides are all embroiled in problems of their own. And we've got a good lead. Be more worried if City and Liverpool were playing like they have in recent seasons. Liverpool have turned to sh!t.

I really admire them how they were so consistent for 38 games because no matter how good you are its extremely difficult.

 

[Makingtrax]

Normal to go through these periods. No way we could sustain that win rate. Let’s hope it’s short lived. We are currently matching the best points total at this point for the entire history of Arsenal FC.

Now we can all see how hard it is to go through a whole season unbeaten. We're not matching that.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Not surprised these event happened yesterday when gambling addict who already accused is on pitch

 

[DanDare]

If Toney wasn't getting banned I'd want him here. Think he's great

 

[amigo]

Todays result isn't a disaster. We have the game in hand & opposite to take points from City. Itll be nip & tuck for the remainder of the season & I reckon itll go to the wire. We just have to put in a massive performance against City to get us back in the groove.

We don't whether it is disaster or not yet. It will be if we lose the league by two points or less. Every point counts.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

If Toney wasn't getting banned I'd want him here. Think he's great

He is quality and would offer us another dimension!

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

Me too the Var referee (if he was from New York Citeeh)

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

If Toney wasn't getting banned I'd want him here. Think he's great

Yes guy is such good player he also improved from last season his hold up play and passing yesterday was top class every Brentford attack came from him. But as long he still accused by gambling clubs won't buy him until he all cleared.

 

[amigo]

Ok, feels like we're in the midst of a blip. We need to limit the damage at best & avoid defeat against City.

A win would probably put us on track again. Try to scrape a 1 nil win..

Any win will do. One thing that still heartens me is that we are not conceding that many goals. A couple of 1 nil losses and 1 all and nil-nil draws are what we are viewing as a 'crisis'. If we get our scoring boots back on and get to scoring two goals a game - which you really need for a title charge we will be ok. A not so cutting attack is easier to fix than a leaky defence in my view. Almost any team will have the odd game they are unable to score. In that case you cannot concede either. Let's hope its a blip that ends on Wednesday.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Now we can all see how hard it is to go through a whole season unbeaten. We're not matching that.

This side is 2 points ahead of the invincibles after 21 games with what I think every Gooner in the world would agree is a vastly inferior squad man for man. Some would cite this as evidence that Arteta is a phenomenal manager

 

[Gooner Zig]

Toney was incredible yesterday, virtuoso #9 play. He won every aerial duel vs Saliba. Yet we still were ****ed by VAR and should have scrapped a 1-0 win.

 

[Makingtrax]

This side is 2 points ahead of the invincibles after 21 games with what I think every Gooner in the world would agree is a vastly inferior squad man for man. Some would cite this as evidence that Arteta is a phenomenal manager

I showed the graphs on points scores for league winning teams in the last decade in another thread, and it's been much higher than in decade from when Wenger took over in 96. This is clearly due to the larger revenues that the top teams are raking in compared to the bottom teams. That's why they've smashed points records.

Comparing points in different eras is not relevant as the league is made up differently today. But what isn't in dispute is how difficult it is to go all season without a loss. Even City and Liverpool in their pomp couldn't manage it, dispite City spending over a billion on their squad. That's how good Wenger was.

 

[Let's play Aubamawang]

Once Smith Rowe is fully fit it would be nice to see if Mikel really can use him as a false 9 off the bench. The extra movement would help stretch teams doing a low block. I'm curious to see if Nelson could also perform that role as he has great technical ability and likes to drift across the pitch.

My hope is that the lads don't let their heads drop. It's all too familiar from past history where we let one bad decision ruin everything and cause a downward spiral. We may not get an opportunity like this for years. Everyone in the stadium against City needs to bring the noise, intimidate the opposition and roar our boys on. Even if we concede an early goal, the crowd makes such a difference. Even at ****e Fart Lane the fans had an impact.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Embarrassing from our fans.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Embarrassing from our fans.

There are Arsenal fans that are racist? Never would've guessed tbh.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

There are Arsenal fans that are racist? Never would've guessed tbh.

They are racists everywhere sadly most of them teenagers its disgraceful first you do after the game go and racist abuse against opposition player.

 

[Uncle Good-Advice]

My few takes.

Result - not good but certainly not bad. It wasn't the best time to face Brentford so we have to be happy with a point. 4 points against them is a good haul. It is completely unreasonable to expect us to tally another 50 points from second half of the season, we overachieved massively therefore we have now room for some worse performances. But not only us, other teams have this problem as well.

Zinchenko - don't get me wrong, I love the man but I think it's a good time to raise questions whether we will be better off with more traditional left-back (at least in certain matchups). We're mostly abandoning our left side which makes us less unpredictable and easier to stop. Opponents overload central defence and focus on Saka. It was good while it was working, now we need to change something. By the way we generally agreed here that it's Jesus absence that is reducing Martinelli's impact but maybe it's also Zinchenko's extended run, remember he's been injured a lot before WC when Gabi shined.

Arteta - all above lead me to another question if Arteta is able to change his approach to maximise team strengths? His mentor Pep is very stubborn manager who will stick to his principles no matter what, Arteta looks also this way. Of course it's too early to think about bad scenarios but it would be very sad if our manager becomes a victim of his own success. I don't want him to tweak and tinker with something that is clearly not working at the moment.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Once Smith Rowe is fully fit it would be nice to see if Mikel really can use him as a false 9 off the bench. The extra movement would help stretch teams doing a low block. I'm curious to see if Nelson could also perform that role as he has great technical ability and likes to drift across the pitch.

My hope is that the lads don't let their heads drop. It's all too familiar from past history where we let one bad decision ruin everything and cause a downward spiral. We may not get an opportunity like this for years. Everyone in the stadium against City needs to bring the noise, intimidate the opposition and roar our boys on. Even if we concede an early goal, the crowd makes such a difference. Even at ****e Fart Lane the fans had an impact.

When it comes down to it. There is a lot of clamour for Jesus to break down a deep block.

Personally I feel we lack ball carrying , dribbling and goal threat from that left half space.

ESR is all of that. When you look at the game state where we are penned in their half. Gabriel and Saliba with a midfield 3 of Partey Zinchenko and White, it practically makes Xhaka redundant.

Doubling up on Martinelli leaves space on the left half space. If Martinelli draws two and then flicks it to Xhaka, nothing can happen. We lack rotations. Even bringing on Trossard for Xhaka would have made more sense.

 

[A_G]