Partey is wildly underrated and there are questionmarks on if Rice has the ability to play at the 6. This was predictable and makes me wonder if Timber was intended to help support Rice or if the plan was always Partey #6 and Rice #8.
I think Rice is showing enough attacking IQ to get similar value as Xhaka let season. Build up is a little iffy on that left side but the Xhaka, Zini, Jesus, relationship was brilliant and Jesus has been in and out.
I think Arteta has learnt the hard way that only the final 30% of the season really matters. We need to get used to being really hard to beat so when we want to kill a game like we did go Man City, we can. Hopefully it will put us in good stead for the CL.
I think the second best #6 in the world is more than good enough to play as our #6
I don’t think so, we are playing a bit different but we are better than last year. The biggest metric is that we beat Man City.
really solid analysis. highlights how starved we are of quality analyses and other arsenal content in general. may be true of most teams though, idk. billy’s grill stands alone atop an ocean of awful pods and vids.
i appreciate the final thoughts here - would gladly grind out a nice cup if a true title tilt is, as it at least presently feels, more likely on the horizon for the following season
Main issue is our injuries… We can’t get a settled side playing one week to the next. Especially our front 3.
But we’re still good enough to get results and stay pace with City. If we can get Jesus, Martinelli and Saka fit for consistent weeks, we’ll be very very good
Tifo content is like 1000 times better than the self righteous assholes on The Canon podcast.
Not sure what his name is but the American guy on the canon has more football knowledge than the whole Tifo cast put together.
I’d also be curious to see the strength of schedules this season to last. United, city, The Sh*t, Chelsea, Everton away in 10 games. With UCL opponents in between
Like SAF famously said - Attack wins you games, Defence wins you titles.
Justice for odegaard
Tl;dw This season’s xGD is similar to last season’s, but with lower offensive numbers and higher defensive numbers. This can be a detriment in the league, but an advantage in competitions where a draw is important result, such as cups or knockout matches.
So we’re winning the champions league
Got it.
I see they replaced the Zidane jersey on the wall smh
One thing that we’re 100% worse at is creating chances, no idea what happened there
The only pay off for starting slow and sluggish while grinding results in the start is to finish strong in the latter. Lets see how this chess game turns out.
Expect our domestic undefeated record to be tested from now till Christmas.
Short answer. No. Struggling with having a first 11 like we did last year. We were incredibly lucky with injuries at the start of last season.
People forget that the end of last season was pretty disastrous and we have failed to continue the form of the first half of last ssn already. Imo after the world cup we feel pretty shakey defensively and have occasional game where the attack feels dull. That time I felt like we have to change smth up and played different from last ssn
The more conservative nature of our team structure this year is pretty clearly an adjustment to the fact we were getting run through far too easily at times last season
TLDW: No.