My life is an utter joke supporting this god-damn team. Back in the friendly confines of the Emirates, everyone is back and fully healthy, and then leave it to Arteta and Arsenal to absolutely stink up the joint with a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham. Not sure how I will make it the rest of the season, we are only 3 games in folks.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- This Kai Havertz experiment needs to end yesterday: Never made sense when we bought him, didn’t make sense when we played with him through the pre-season, and it still doesn’t make fucking sense why we bought this brother 3 games in. If you are Arteta, why the fuck, would you completely change our style of play to a guy who doesn’t create value in possession, doesn’t have elite goal-scoring prowess, and doesn’t combine well with the rest of the team. We have absoltely shoe-horned him into a side to the detriment of Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Zinchenko and Gabriel etc and many others. It isn’t a fucking accident that we almost immediately were more threatening and dangerous when Havertz left the pitch. Martinelli looks a completely different player when Havertz is on the pitch vs. somebody he can combine with such as Fabio Vieira. If you wanted someone to dilly-dally and float through a game, Havertz is your guy, but when you are trying to chase City for a Premier league title chase, don’t get me started on what Arteta and company were thinking of bringing this guy to the club. Pep must have been choking himself to death from laughing when he saw Arsenal go in and splash that mich money over this guy. United next week, stop playing around and put Partey-Rice-Ø in the midfield.
- Saka and Martinelli also stinking up the joint: What Saka must have been thinking when he just gave Fulham a goal out of absolutely nothing.
No one was even close to the ball. You’d like to think Saka rebounded after this but that would make too much sense for one of your best players to step up after a dreadful mistake. Him and Martinelli made Tete and Robinson look like perennial defenders the way they let them defend them. Martinelli, I’ll give more defense too cause he had absolutely nobody to play off of, Saka had no excuses for the horror show that ensued afterwards.
3. Partey-Rice-Ø midfield is the way forward: This experiment with Partey at RB to be our inverted fullback also needs to be stopped especially with Zinchenko back and fully healthy. I could see what Arteta was trying to do by putting Partey at RB to help get Havertz into the team but its not great, it is way different putting a midfielder into a defensive role than it is the other way around with Zinchenko being a midfielder turned into a LB. Arteta needs to put his pride aside and just admit he completely fucked up the Havertz deal and go back to what made us unstoppable last season, White-Saliba-Gabriel-Zinny at the back, Partey-Rice-Ø in the midfield with Saka-Martinelli-Jesus leading the line. Havertz and Fabio can give us a different look if needed but no way should we be toiling with Havertz in our starting XI. Think about it, This Arsenal team took were on pace for 100 points halfway through last season with a stellar squad and this season, to shoehorn Havertz into the squad, he has benched one of the best CBs in the league in Gabriel, moved Partey to RB which means Zinchenko can’t play. Just absolute madness
4. At the end of the day we probably deserved a draw and nothing more: Fabio did well to combine with Martinelli to create a penalty and the cross was sublime to take the lead but the build-up in that second goal had Saka absolutely fouling Bassey with one of the dirtiest plays every, very similar to what Ramos did to Salah in the CL final in 2018, and we played on and scored. We got away with one against VAR but Fulham then went on and equalized with 10-men afterwards. At the end of the day, our performance didn’t deserve a win but we definitely didn’t deserve to score that 2nd goal the way we did.
PLAYER RATINGS:
Ramsdale – 5/10 – made a great save to keep us tied at the end but my goodness, the way he positioned himself on that first goal, wasn’t his fault if they scored, but the way Pereira took that attempt, it wasn’t the best and probably should have been saved. Raya is lurking…
Partey – 6/10 – He was fine today, still very much awkward with him at RB, not the same as Zinny. Need him in the center of the park. Anybody blaming Partey on that first goal needs to get their brains and eyes checked, sure Partey could have stayed in that space, but I could also be retired with Elon’s net worth living in the Maldives, nobody asked Saka to play a pass to absolutely nobody, he’s a bloody professional.
Ben White – 6/10 – He was also fine, was more useful at RB than at CB for us going forward but Arteta is too stubborn to see that.
Saliba – 6/10 – Almost gave a pen at the end and made a few careless passes
Kiwior – 5/10 – Had to go back and add his name in which is how forgettable he was today. Didn’t do anything wrong, I just don’t get why he started today and not Gabriel or Zinchenko.
Rice – 6/10 – Not at his best but neither was the team. Asking him to do what Partey does isn’t fair on him. Need him to be a bit more aggressive going forward and also lost Paulinha on their goal
Ødegaard – 6/10 – Had some nice moments, is the only player it seems like that shows and makes runs for the ball. Need that one assist/goal to get his season going, pens don’t count
Havertz – 3/10 – Useless, absolutely fucking useless. He is definitely the scapegoat right now, rightly or wrongly, but he is the biggest change or variance to our team from last year, which has messed everything up.Not his fault as Arteta is the one making decisions, but need to blame someone on the pitch and he doesn’t do anything so it has to be him who gets the blame.
Saka – 5/10 – don’t care he scored the pen, he gave a goal away so it equals out. Robinson had him tightly accounted for all game long, always expect more from your starboy, also it was 100% his fault on the first goal.
Martinelli – 5/10 – might be a bit harsh on me but was so indecisive in the big moments. Had some great opportunities but never felt confident that he was going to take it. Need him to get his head out of his ass, he is lucky that he is considered a starter
Trossard – 6/10 – Hugely unlucky to not get subbed off at halftime with Saka, Havertz and Martinelli absolutely stinking up the joint. Didn’t do too much wrong but also admittedly wasn’t at his best either.
Fabio Vieira – 9/10 – Man of the match, does everything that Havertz doesn’t. Which isn’t that hard to do since Havertz does nothing. He combined well with Martinelli to create the pen, his cross was sublime into Eddie. Would have gotten a 10/10 if his shot at the very end went in. At least one person today did their job.
Zinchenko – 6/10 – we are a different player in possession when he comes on. He opens up so many different angles for us, makes decisive forward passes, isn’t scared to dribble out of pressure but you also get the bad with him which is his carelessness which cost us a goal.
Eddie Nketiah – 7/10 – He was dangerous everytime he got on the ball, got the game winning goal at the time. Always looked to make runs, worked hard to retain possession for us. Never made sense why he got benched after this first two performances, which is another reason why Havertz shouldn’t play if it was a meritocracy.
Jorginho – 5/10 – just cause Im not the biggest fan of him
Forest – 0/10 – had a chance to make this day bearable but had to blow a 2 goal lead at OT.
Jover – 0/10 – The arsenal set-piece coach, not his fault the players went brain dead but not sure why our set-pieces were all so fucking shit
Arteta – 0/10 – ready everything I typed above.
Traore – 10/10 – thank the lord he is too big and strong to be fouled, cause he easily could have gotten a pen and/or put the ball past Ramsdale to win the game for Fulham.