Loss Premier League: Manchester City 4 - 1 Arsenal | Wednesday 26th, April | KO: 20:00 BST | BT Sport

Last night was not good enough and we must not repeat the mistakes we made if we must get a result here. Even a draw will be good enough.

We just need to abandon our principle but you know Mikel will never do that. He's so obsessed with winning his own philosophy rather trying to be pragmatic.

Even Pep sacrificed possession when they came to the Emirates earlier in the year. We have to pragmatic. We have to protect Holding like a group of wildebeest would protect their youngest calf.

Prediction

Man city 0-1 Arsenal

COYG!

 

[Macho]

Every time we play them it’s almost always an embarrassing non contest.

How many times have Sp*rs punked them again and again even under Pep?

Feel like every other big 6 team does them in but with us you might as well bet on a 3 goal loss as standard.

I agree, but a big part of it is because we stick to our principles. It feels like a test for Arteta and some of the boys to overcome.

We did the low block counter attack thing against them in the FA Cup and won so they can do it, they chose not to.

For the sake of the title we could have briefly abandoned the progress made and revert to those tactics, but that has its dangers as well.

 

[Riou]

Spoiler: This match summed up...

 

[Big Poppa]

For a laugh I looked at the last five meetings in the league against City.

The aggregate 5 leg score is.....

15-3


LOL

Absolutely disgraceful.

Our run against them is the longest one sided losing streak between two teams in the history of the premier league. Teams like Brentford and Palace give them far bigger problems every season than us.

It's reached the point where choosing to do anything other than park the bus and nick one on the counter is wilful ignorance.

 

[MA08]

Most annoying part of it is that we actually have the players to sit back and counter with speed. The only home defeat for City was against Brentford and their back 5 with fast runners for counters. The recipe to have a chance to beat them was very obvious for everyone except Mikel.

A back 3 with White Gabriel Tierney with Partey+Jorginho to protect them was too obvious i guess. Could have had Nelson/Saka and ZInchenko on the wings, sit deep and counter them.

I mean even if he loves Rob Holding that much, at least play him in a back 3 where he is protected by white and Gabriel + Saka/Nelson and Tierney on the wings.

So many options to give us a puncher's chance but he chose an option with 100% failure rate. We had 0 chance with that line up that couldn't even handle Southampton at home.

5 mins in, you already see 4 or 5 players pressing super high like idiots, one long ball and it's game over already. I applaud Mikel for the season but after Saliba's injury and Jesus return, he completely lost it tactically, trusting Holding and not trusting Tierney, Trossard and Jorginho. And refusing to revert to a back 3 when we are conceding goals left, right and center.

Two things about changing it up
1.
You have a system, trust the system and keep playing. Playing Holding allows Arteta to understand the weakness in this team. Defending with 3 is no guarantee of success. Most teams which change how they play against Guardiola's teams tend to struggle. Go back and watch how Mourinho regularly struggled against his Barcelona and then see how it improved when he started picking his regular starting 11 against them. Changing up for one off games rarely works. It used to work with managers like Mourinho, Fergie etc, because attacking teams were not that diligent in defending back then. Today, very rarely do you see a team win when they defend for 90 mins.

2. This Arsenal team is in the making for close to 2 years now. From the beginning of the last season. Guardiola's team were car crash in many CL matches early on in his City reign. A coach with such pedigree and top level experience could not get it right for so many years. But he is slowly working it out, is it not. The same will happen with Arsenal too. With the right additions, the team will evolve and handle it better. Before this season started, the team would have struggled to beat any top team away from home. Now they no longer need to be worried in at least 19 of the clubs. And that is progress. A few years ago, Arsenal might have won the league, with no City around. But in today's world, even Fergies best teams would not beat this Guardiola's teams. Even with Mike Riley and Howard Webb by his side.

 

[MartiSaka]

The closest we have got to City at the Etihad in the last few years was a meeting where we went negative and lost 1-0. During the time everybody castigated Arteta and the team but I said it was progress and was roundly criticized. When will we learn that there is no need to go toe to toe with big teams away? Fergie and Mourinho knew when to park the bus. Keep it tight, a point always keeps you in the picture and if there is a chance then you can pounce to win it from a set piece or a swift counter attack. Or keeping it at 1-0 down till late helps. We made the same mistake at Sp**s last year. Arteta really needs to learn to switch it up tactically or he will need more billions for players to have any chance of winning the league.

We don’t need to play like a relegation style side and just park the bus, but we need another way to play. City doesn’t mind essentially deciding to play long balls over our press to haaland who enables them to win the 2nd ball, so KDB and co are In space with our midfielders chasing from behind. Sure one of the reasons they bought haaland was it enables them to play direct effectively against pressing sides. To be honest we are probably not going to be successful in Europe unless we develop other ways to play.

 

[Gooner Zig]

City have no problem changing the way they play depending on the situation - they have done it twice against us by ceding possession and hitting us with long balls. This tactic has been wildly successful against us. We had to change things up and we didn't, we just went same old, same old. We need to be able to be tactically flexible enough to change things up when coming up against the likes of City.

 

[MartiSaka]

City have no problem changing the way they play depending on the situation - they have done it twice against us by ceding possession and hitting us with long balls. This tactic has been wildly successful against us. We had to change things up and we didn't, we just went same old, same old. We need to be able to be tactically flexible enough to change things up when coming up against the likes of City.

I think if you look at a lot of the other sides who have had success against us this yr, they have been very direct and used long balls effectively. And it seems to be easier to be direct and effective when holding is there as opposed to saliba.

 

[MartiSaka]

City have no problem changing the way they play depending on the situation - they have done it twice against us by ceding possession and hitting us with long balls. This tactic has been wildly successful against us. We had to change things up and we didn't, we just went same old, same old. We need to be able to be tactically flexible enough to change things up when coming up against the likes of City.

I’m hoping that Arteta saw the goal of this season as solidifying our playing template and we will add variety over the next season. The alternative is very worrying if he thinks we can always play exactly them same way.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Arteta show some flexibility, please

Martinelli-Trossard-Saka
Ødegaard
Jorginho-Partey
Zinckenko-Gabriel-White-Walters
Ramsdale.

 

[Gooner Zig]

I think if you look at a lot of the other sides who have had success against us this yr, they have been very direct and used long balls effectively. And it seems to be easier to be direct and effective when holding is there as opposed to saliba.

Teams have figured out that you let Rob Holding have as much as the ball as possible, press our other players and go very direct - this has been the template to destabilise us over the last month. We *tried* to respond with tucking Partey closer to Holding to aid in the build up but that hasn't worked. We need to stablise the team, and for me, that means playing Jorginho alongside Partey in a double pivot.

Arteta show some flexibility, please

Martinelli-Trossard-Saka
Ødegaard
Jorginho-Partey
Zinckenko-Gabriel-White-Walters
Ramsdale.

This is the team I would pick for Chelsea with the one exception that we play Holding instead. Walters has no business being in the team.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Teams have figured out that you let Rob Holding have as much as the ball as possible, press our other players and go very direct - this has been the template to destabilise us over the last month. We *tried* to respond with tucking Partey closer to Holding to aid in the build up but that hasn't worked. We need to stablise the team, and for me, that means playing Jorginho alongside Partey in a double pivot.



This is the team I would pick for Chelsea with the one exception that we play Holding instead. Walters has no business being in the team.

Neither does Holding. Top 4 is done and the league is lost. We might as well experiment for the last five games of the season.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

I suppose when the coach and a particular philosophy has taken you from 8th to the top of the league in under two years, there is a reluctance to deviate on pitch.

Also, more broadly, most teams don't get to effective switching things up in a way that works without a long period of consistency, confidence and everyone knowing the base system backwards. Next season will be interesting. With more dynamic and multi-functional options in midfield and with this season under our belts, I hope to see more flexibility in game and more confidence from individuals to make decisions.

I agree with you but I thought last season would have allowed us to do this now

 

[Tnegs]

I agree with you but I thought last season would have allowed us to do this now

We did go from 5th to 2nd (most likely) and our football is a hell of a lot better than it was last season. If we improve by the same factor again next season it will be very interesting indeed.