An absolute Arteta disaster.

[John Bunnell]

Kepa instead of Raya = retarded
The consistent starting of Trossard over Martinelli
Hincapi should have been replaced by Calafiori at half time
Saka is just sh*t our most useless player by far but he is on 300k a week so HAS to start, right?

[Peter]

Kepa instead of Raya = retarded
The consistent starting of Trossard over Martinelli
Hincapi should have been replaced by Calafiori at half time
Saka is just sh*t our most useless player by far but he is on 300k a week so HAS to start, right?

Really disappointing that he didnt change anything at 0-0. We were really struggling.

[7sisters]

Really disappointing that he didnt change anything at 0-0. We were really struggling.

I can?t believe he just sat there and watched us get overrun like that. It was obviously a matter of time before City scored. They have individuals upfront who are all capable of unpicking locks. Our frontline has been weak all season. Too reliant on set pieces, meanwhile Saka is continually over played.

[redgunamo]

Kepa instead of Raya = retarded
The consistent starting of Trossard over Martinelli
Hincapi should have been replaced by Calafiori at half time
Saka is just sh*t our most useless player by far but he is on 300k a week so HAS to start, right?

Don't mind about the "cup keeper"-thing.

Except to say, why not change two or three or four other players as well.

[Peter]

Don't mind about the "cup keeper"-thing.

Except to say, why not change two or three or four other players as well.

Hincapie shpuld have been replaced at half time. That was a no brainer. Cannot believe he left him on.

And he was so, so slow to react to their different press in the second half. Even at 1-0 he dithered for so long that it was too late.

We are ao rigid tactically, and the better sides know how to counter it. City did what Liverpool did. They picked their areas and avoided our trigger points. We have no idea how to react in game and Arteta HAS to step in to change it. He didnt.

Dreadful day for Arteta. The keeper issue will get the attention but it is not the real issue.

[PSRB]

Hincapie shpuld have been replaced at half time. That was a no brainer. Cannot believe he left him on.

And he was so, so slow to react to their different press in the second half. Even at 1-0 he dithered for so long that it was too late.

We are ao rigid tactically, and the better sides know how to counter it. City did what Liverpool did. They picked their areas and avoided our trigger points. We have no idea how to react in game and Arteta HAS to step in to change it. He didnt.

Dreadful day for Arteta. The keeper issue will get the attention but it is not the real issue.

Agree on all of this. I don't have a coaching license but it was so obvious!!

[Rich]

Agree on all of this. I don't have a coaching license but it was so obvious!!

Think the issue was more that we didn't really have a way to change it on the bench.

Jesus I guess was the best option - and indeed hit the bar once he came on.

[PSRB]

Think the issue was more that we didn't really have a way to change it on the bench.

Jesus I guess was the best option - and indeed hit the bar once he came on.

Hincapie should have been hooked at HT, Martinelli for Trossard but yes, having both our 10's unfit was not helpful.

[Peter]

Think the issue was more that we didn't really have a way to change it on the bench.

Jesus I guess was the best option - and indeed hit the bar once he came on.

Plenty of ways to change it from the bench, two of them bloody obvious.

It is far harder to change the tactical focus. It is our biggest weakness. Our play is so heavily scripted that if it gets countered, we dont know what to do. He has robbed the players of freedom and autonomy. You cant just ask them to rediscover it in a game.

It has got us this far but we've stumbled a lot and made a lot of enemies. We've seen what these players can do when you give them some freedom, confidence and responsibility. It is such a shame that we dont get to see it now, with the same players and a bigger and stronger squad.

If we do blow the league, I think there have to be serious conversations in the summer. And even if we win it, those conversations have to be about moving things forward a bit. We can't keep playing this football.

[Rich]

Plenty of ways to change it from the bench, two of them bloody obvious.

It is far harder to change the tactical focus. It is our biggest weakness. Our play is so heavily scripted that if it gets countered, we dont know what to do. He has robbed the players of freedom and autonomy. You cant just ask them to rediscover it in a game.

It has got us this far but we've stumbled a lot and made a lot of enemies. We've seen what these players can do when you give them some freedom, confidence and responsibility. It is such a shame that we dont get to see it now, with the same players and a bigger and stronger squad.

If we do blow the league, I think there have to be serious conversations in the summer. And even if we win it, those conversations have to be about moving things forward a bit. We can't keep playing this football.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Arteta will feel that we have to play like that if we want to win trophies with that group of forward players. We have to play to our strenghts which is defensive stability and physicality.

We simply do not presently have the talent to play free flowing football and blow teams away - I suspect this will be addressed as priority in the summer.

[Peter]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Arteta will feel that we have to play like that if we want to win trophies with that group of forward players. We have to play to our strenghts which is defensive stability and physicality.

We simply do not presently have the talent to play free flowing football and blow teams away - I suspect this will be addressed as priority in the summer.

And as I have said previously, that is *******s. Because we watched these same players do it. And they performed better than they do now. And won more games, scored more goals, and earned more points. And those players are still here, albeit we have added another 200 million quid's worth of forward talent.

We've taken a side that blew teams away and pushed City all the way 2 and 3 years ago, spent 400 million quid on it and turned it into a side that is scared of Fulham and Brentford. That is scared of a city side that is a shadow of the one we faced up against two years ago.

If our forward line is not good enough to threaten the bottom half of the league then whoever signed those players needs to be sacked. And whoever is coaching them needs to explain why we have slowly ruined players. Martinelli, Odegaard, and now Saka. Barely shadows of the players they were 2 years ago.

We spent all that money in the summer on transformative players like Gyokeres, Eze and Madueke. They were supposed to make us more adventurous and less predictable. We talked about it all summer.

It has made us less adventurous and more predictable. We should have saved the money.