Arsenal post match 4-3

[HoustonFox]

Almost made it through the 19 pages of post match talk, so apologies if I repeat stuff.

 

Fist of all, gutted.  We put in a really good performance and should have take something home with us.  It really was defensive lapses that cost us.  There were some terror times where I though we would let in more, but we also made some really good chances too.  Great advert for the Premier League, a lot of the neutrals at the bar we were at were excited.  They also hated Arsenal, which was nice! 

 

Positives

• Maguire was fantastic.  Yeah, he was weak / fouled for the Giroud goal but overall, great debut. Kasper was good too.  Some wonder saves.  
• Jamo had a great comeback, Drinky should be worried. Wilf, destroyer as always
• Vardy and Shinji were a real menace going forward, Shinji especially compared to what we normally see.  Vards, obviously letha
• Albrighton played well too, some really good stuff going forward. 

Room for Improvement

• Sloppy at the back, some really scary moments due to lack of concentration.  Defending 101 on the marking the man and play to the whistle.  Fuchs especially
• Riyad, we know you want to leave son but don't bottle every tackle to not get injured.  Some ok stuff but too much keep ball and way too wimpy, even for you
• game mananagement - get rid if in doubt - they were on us but keep your heads

 

Not going to criticize Shakey.  Amartey was right sub for cover.  Kelechi was interesting, love that some on here calling for Kingy! I think that Gray should have come on earlier or Chilly for LM cover.  

 

Overall more positive than preseason, Wes does worry me a little, but not a lot.  Upper mid table if we keep playing to that standard.  

 

 

[HoustonFox]

16 minutes ago, UPinCarolina said:

Okay, so I'm hammered drunk, BUT...

 

Today was Shinji's best ever LCFC match. 

 

Bold prediction: He starts all season somehow and scores 10 goals. 

 

HE ONLY GETS BETTER

Was gonna ask how many you had had!! 

[Houdini Logic]

Well done boys, onwards and upwards

[UPinCarolina]

31 minutes ago, HoustonFox said:

Was gonna ask how many you had had!! 

Well the bottle is empty, so - 5/6 shots worth?

[Usafox1]

 

Masterful game Plan by Shakespeare ,unfortunately the team got tired towards the end. 

Maguire and vardy were massive

ndidi was huge harassing Arsenal 

 

very nlucky not to get get at least a draw.

 

[biggs]

Amartey in the midfield had us hanging on to the thinnest of shoestrings....the substitution absolutely disrupted what James and Ndidi had going and all attacking options were dead.

 

IMO we were done at this point. Amartey hasn't shown he can play midfield for us....Nacho for Okazaki should have been the call and me screaming at the tv didn't change Shakey's mind 

 

Other than the last 20 minutes the game was entertaining as hell 

[WigstonWanderer]

Aw cmon peeps! Too much negativity here. Shame we couldn't hold on but a humdinger of a match, and much better performance than I expected.

 

A bit suspect defensively but much rather this than hanging on for 0 0 only to concede in the last min and lose 1 0.

 

Vardy looks on fire. Really up for it.

[Fugue St8]

44 minutes ago, Usafox1 said:

 

Masterful game Plan by Shakespeare ,unfortunately the team got tired towards the end. 

Maguire and vardy were massive

ndidi was huge harassing Arsenal 

 

very nlucky not to get get at least a draw.

 

Masterful game plan ??? Sod the dvds, I'll just read this crap for a laugh.. 

[Dan]

7 hours ago, AKCJ said:

The sub had **** all to do with the result.

 

Striker on for a midfielder so that gives the left hand side of the defence a free pass? Fuchs, Maguire and Albrighton all went to sleep and they punished us.

Do agree with this. Thought it was a ridiculous sub but it's hardly Iheanacho's fault for that defending. It was a show of pretty awful defending all-round but that third from us was just beyond bad. Non-league level defending.

[EnglishOxide]

Interesting how many negative twats there are compared to our other results to Arsenal (the 5-2 and 2-1 spring to mind) where we were outplayed there aswell.

 

It's the first ****ing game. It's Arsenal away. Arguably our toughest fixture of the season.

 

We had a right good go and almost got a result. So what if Shakespeare tried to reverse the momentum with an attacking sub? Even though Amartey was holding fort we were still under big pressure.

 

If he brought King on and we still conceded due to zero attacking threat you would have slated him for being negative and playing King because he's too matey or loyal.

 

You are damned if you do and damned if you don't with some of you lot on here.

 

I thought it was a cracking performance, we scored some ****ing goals, looked clinical and purposeful.

 

Yes, we do need to sort ourselves out defensively, but we aren't playing a team with the attacking quality of Arsenal every week. They've won something silly like 12 out of 13.

 

So everyone chill the **** out you ****ing hysterical ******.

[Foxxed]

Before the match I said I didn't mind as long as the performance was decent. And for the most part it was. Fair play to Shakey: we are playing the kind of football we love.

 

Maguire was revelationary. And who knew Shinji simply needed a giant to finally start scoring. Shinji and the giant sounds like some fantastic Japanese manga. Morgan was decent but the comparison is stark.

 

James was the only disappointing player. He managed to go missing for most of the second half. Mahrez was again our second choice winger but he did assist our third, and he still seems to edge Gray but only just currently.

 

Amartey was a decent sub. The only criticism is bringing on Iheanacho I guess. I was clamerimg to see him but with a goal up, shouldn't we have tried to close the game down? Even Slim would have been better.

 

I can't really complain about the reffing too much. Ndidi did leap into a challenge with his arms raised in the first and we got away with it. And we were fire fighting in the second rather than robbed of the result.

 

Compared to the preseason gloom this was a very, very good match. I hope we can bring this momentum forwards.

[Vacamion]

 

Whilst I'm disappointed, I can cling to the fact that our 2nd goal was a thing of beauty.

 

Harass them, steal the ball, delicious cross, deadly finish by our striker.

 

I want more of that.

 

[Hammo]

I just woke up. So it wasn't my inner demons torturing me in my sleep. That really did happen. Nooooooooo....

 

 

 

[jamesmilner]

Really painful at the end to watch . 3 goals scored away and still lose !! What can you say ? Our defending was awful , our goals were superb . How this bodes i don't know ? I always wait for 5 games before thinking about how the rest of the season might pan out . Brighton next !!

[cityfanlee23]

Completely pissed off by the manner of defeat. 

 

We seriously need to replace Wes, fuchs vision is sometimes that of a league 1 defender for all he brings to the table he's constantly making stupid mistakes, 

Danny Simpson strolls into the team and has no competition, he gets left alone by Mahrez to the point bellerin gets switched to that side as because wenger can see Mahrez is a lazy bastard, there's no way in hell arsenal will come back in for him.. 

 

Sign a CB 

Sign a RB

Get rid of Mahrez sick of the sight of the lazy ****.

Sign a winger. 

[CosbehFox]

Wouldn't blame the subs. It was more the preset let's go behind the ball when clearly Arsenal's defence was awful. Add to that someone to get the ball down and play it, keep possession for a bit. 

 

We also should have done what every other bleeding team would do around 80 minutes. Fake an injury, slow the momentum down and get a stoppage in play.

[Callabinho]

Another thing that hurts is the fact we're former champions for gods sake, basically bent the knee for Sir Giroud to head the perennial bottlers in front.....

 

I've said recently I want to try and see us keep the ball a bit better...especially against Arsenal....we've beaten every side since our return to the prem bar Arsenal....it's clear that our tactic or soaking up the pressure against them doesn't work! 

 

Feeling more disappointed than angry now, but we really shouldn't have lost that match, you can't take the lead twice in a game and then lose.....

[Guest Danny Clender]

I just hope that game kickstarts the recruitment department into finishing the job.

Maguire was great, exactly what we lacked last season, so we do need another defender of his calibre. 

We really did miss Drinkwater last night, ok, the really good Drinkwater, not the lame one.

Although James did play well, he did not have enough experience to control that game when needed and that's where Drinky would have made the difference.

Ndidi also, looked out of his depth. This was a worry as he's never shown such fear before. He gave the ball away far too often and did not seem to playing his normal tactics. Hopefully that was just a blip. 

 

We had that game won and I do agree, the substitutions lost it for us and for those decisions Shakespeare has to take the blame. 

From the options, Amartey coming on did make sense, I just felt it came too late and wasn't administered well enough i.e the shape we took from that moment on brought Arsenal back onto us. 

Iborra was really missed at this point. That moment ,at 3-2 up, was the exact reason why we signed him, he needs to fit for the next game. 

 

I'm not worried though, because we really did play well and there were so many encouraging signs for next week. 

[roblcfc84]

Honestly some of the absolute madness on here is frightening. We played well and we were effective for the majority of the game. Arsenal are a very good side and we really gave them a tough time. The second goal was mahrez and no one else - lost it in a bad area instead of getting rid or looking for an out ball, in fact he was weak all night. The only goal I would say was really poor was their third but similarly they could say the same of our second. Questioning Shakespeare already is astonishing - Matty James was knackered and Shakespeare tried to get a bit more energy further forward to stop us getting pinned in. What was his other option - imagine if he had bought King on and we'd lost 4-3. I get fans are dissappointed, I am - but I'm also realistic and we were unlucky last night. Miles better than vs Hull. 

[Callabinho]

You can pick the positives all you like....at the end of the day we couldn't beat a side with two left backs and an attacking midfielder at the back......we threw it away, against any side, that is criminal.

[EnglishOxide]

6 minutes ago, Callabinho said:

You can pick the positives all you like....at the end of the day we couldn't beat a side with two left backs and an attacking midfielder at the back......we threw it away, against any side, that is criminal.

 

To throw it away you have to be in control of the match.

 

We weren't in control, Arsenal pressured us and pressured us until we caved, hence Shakespeare's decision to bring on Iheanacho and get us on the front foot.

 

And I don't know why you are highlighting their bad defence. We put 3 past them. Are you suggesting we should have scored 5, 6, 7? Against Arsenal?

[breadandcheese]

No-one is disputing we didn't put in a good performance but the game management was wrong on the night, including the substitutions. Shakespeare got them wrong. That's not to call for his head but is just frustrating. Could you ever imagine Mourinho making the subs that Shakespeare made? No. He would have taken Mahrez off to offer protection to the defence. He would not have brought on Iheanacho for a midfielder.  I appreciate that Iborra and Drinkwater were injured and might have swayed decisions but still.

 

It's just a very frustrating night because you should win when you score three goals away from home. 

[Always Next Year]

Same old Arsenal fall over every time your touched but push and shove as much as you like, helped by a ref that was blind. But having said that we did not help ourselves by yet again dropping back and trying to see out the last 15 mins  happend at the end of the first half and again at the end.

Subs should have been made sooner.

 

 

[Guest]

If we'd held on we'd be talking about Europe. We didn't and we're bottom of the league.

 

Good:

 

Vardy was wonderful.

Albrighton was great.

Maguire looked exceptional.

James looked the part.

Okazaki (and I'm his biggest knocker) played his best game for City.

 

Okay:

 

Kasper looked good but still 4 goals

Ndidi did well in a 2 man CM, shouldn't have been moved at the end.

 

Not so good:

Simpson out of position too often, reckless occasionaly, lousy going forward.

Wes, great heart but he's just not got the level anymore. Love you Wes but need you to be replaced.

Fuchs, wonderful going forward but has given up on defence, move to midfield, swap Albrighton to the other side and sell Mahrez or simply drop for Chilwell.

 

Rubbish:

 

Mahrez, 2 passes in a game, a lot of lost balls and porous defence which cost goals. You can go now.

[Callabinho]

23 minutes ago, EnglishOxide said:

 

To throw it away you have to be in control of the match.

 

We weren't in control, Arsenal pressured us and pressured us until we caved, hence Shakespeare's decision to bring on Iheanacho and get us on the front foot.

 

And I don't know why you are highlighting their bad defence. We put 3 past them. Are you suggesting we should have scored 5, 6, 7? Against Arsenal?

 

No, but to at least see it out....we had them at arms length when Amartey came on...the decision to bring iheanacho on was terrible, if anything you bring king on to keep the numbers in midfield....Arsenal were the beneficiaries of some piss poor defending from us, three players were waiting, unmarked when Ramsay scored....arguably could have been avoided if we had an extra body in the midfield area the track the runner.....he didn't bring Kalechi on to put us on the front foot, he sent him on because he was desperate to get him out there.

 

A mixture of bad management and non-league standard defending ultimately gift wrapped three points to Arsenal.

 

We're former champions for Fuchs sake, we should not be throwing away leads....regardless of the opposition....