Draw PL: West Ham United 2 - 2 Arsenal | Sunday, April 16 | KO: 14:00 BST | Sky Sports

@A_G

Spoiler: And look who we play next, ffs...

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Did we get better after subbing Partey?

Not really but likely needed something different to dominate Jorginho done fine but not enough. All our players lost thier motivation after the penalty miss

 

[Big Poppa]

Yeah that Partey change was too predictable...

Could have kept him on, drop Ødegaard lower and let Trossard play number 10 with Jesus still on.

Don't really see what was the point in bringing Vieira on. Just like Kiwior against Liverpool. Seems like a change for the sake of it. I think you need your big players on the pitch in the money time.

Jesus needs to play 90 mins even at 70%. He almost scored on that Martinelli cross not long before going out.

Spot on.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Yep competing against man city makes you feel like a loser irrespective of how many you wins you gain; ask pool

Liverpool finished tow season with 90+ points and lost the league I'd simply give up

 

[Rasmi]

Not really but likely needed something different to dominate Jorginho done fine but not enough. All our players lost thier motivation after the penalty miss

Again what did xhaka do? Jesus had to come down deep to help us, same with trossard. When you losing midfield battle xhaka offers nothing to help you

 

[MartiSaka]

Liverpool finished tow season with 90+ points and lost the league I'd simply give up

They came second with 97 points ffs

 

[Synical]

Was Ben White playing today? I didn't see him nor have I heard his name mentioned

 

[Gooner Zig]

Yeah that Partey change was too predictable...

Could have kept him on, drop Ødegaard lower and let Trossard play number 10 with Jesus still on.

Don't really see what was the point in bringing Vieira on. Just like Kiwior against Liverpool. Seems like a change for the sake of it. I think you need your big players on the pitch in the money time.

Jesus needs to play 90 mins even at 70%. He almost scored on that Martinelli cross not long before going out.

He should have scored that tbh, for some reason he checked his run, had he kept going it was a tap in.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Was Ben White playing today? I didn't see him nor have I heard his name mentioned

He was good got assist lot better than Liverpool performance

 

[Mohamed7]

Let the haters (specially from Man United fans) have their premature trollings. We will have the long, lasting laugh. They did the same last year and dismissed us the following season.

 

[BergMan]

Again what did xhaka do? Jesus had to come down deep to help us, same with trossard. When you losing midfield battle xhaka offers nothing to help you

Xhaka was winning duels and did help give us control of midfield in the second half. Then he became a left back and Vieira was losing us that midfield stability again.

 

[Dokaka]

Xhaka was winning duels and did help give us control of midfield in the second half. Then he became a left back and Vieira was losing us that midfield stability again.

"Winning duels" is a bit much when he literally had one tackle the entire game.

 

[BergMan]

"Winning duels" is a bit much when he literally had one tackle the entire game.

A tackle’s not a duel. Someone said in his thread he won 8 out of 9 duels, which is incredible especially when up against a physical midfield.

 

[Dokaka]

A tackle’s not a duel. Someone said in his thread he won 8 out of 9 duels, which is incredible especially when up against a physical midfield.

I cannot find any stats that back this up.

 

[BergMan]

I cannot find any stats that back this up.

Maybe try sofascore

 

[ArsenesCoatMaker]

So, tomorrow is going to be St Totteringhams Day eh

This was a jinx. As was me asking mates 'How many do we need to score to equal City's goal difference' after going 2-0 up

 

[ArsenesCoatMaker]

A tackle’s not a duel. Someone said in his thread he won 8 out of 9 duels, which is incredible especially when up against a physical midfield.

Xhaka lost his midfield battles overall. He won 4 headers, 1 tackle and 1 interception. In comparison Rice won 4 tackles and 4 interceptions. It's not all on Xhaka because Partey and Ødegaard were worse. Absolutely zero bite in the midfield. Switch Rice for Xhaka or Partey and we win the game.

 

[BergMan]

Xhaka lost his midfield battles overall. He won 4 headers, 1 tackle and 1 interception. In comparison Rice won 4 tackles and 4 interceptions. It's not all on Xhaka because Partey and Ødegaard were worse. Absolutely zero bite in the midfield. Switch Rice for Xhaka or Partey and we win the game.

How did he lose his midfield battles if he won 8 out of 9 duels? More like he was the only player who won his battles in the game.
Since when do we judge on tackles made? Usually you want to stay on your feet not make tackles. And it was a successful tackle, he never gave away any fouls in the game.

 

[ArsenesCoatMaker]

How did he lose his midfield battles if he won 8 out of 9 duels? More like he was the only player who won his battles in the game.
Since when do we judge on tackles made? Usually you want to stay on your feet not make tackles. And it was a successful tackle, he never gave away any fouls in the game.

The duels he won were 4 headers, 1 tackle and 1 interception. That's very poor. What else do you think he dualed with, a medieval muskeeter perhaps?

That aside the pressing issue is he didn't tackle or intercept the ball anywhere near enough and hasn't for years and years. In the past when he tried to tackle and intercept the ball like a competant midfielder he'd often find himself losing the dual, out of position and too slow to run back. So now Arteta covers for this flaw by asking him to retreat and cover space instead of tackling like a competant midfielder

Xhaka is essentially a football cone, someone who can be passed around rather conveniently. Like I say, Partey was equally as bad, Ødegaard was worse. We need to replace Partey and Xhaka with players that can dominate the midfield space like Rice

 

[HighburyHigh]

That was a bad performance after a cracking opening first 10 minutes. Seems we get scared when scoring early as if we shouldn't be doing it!

We're letting in too many goals to be champions. We have to score 3 goals a game to have any hope of winning a game due to the defence shipping in a couple each match.

Grinding out a 1-0 is needed in run-ins like this, but we ship too many goals.

I don't think we had a shot on target in the 2nd half. Terrible 80min performance. All that hard work the boys have done over the course of this season is being unravelled by no belief they can win it at the final hurdle.

But don't get me wrong, getting 2nd is an amazing achievement for the team, but it's so frustrating knowing they've got the ability to go that one step further but they seemed to have clammed up.

 

[BergMan]

The duels he won were 4 headers, 1 tackle and 1 interception. That's very poor. What else do you think he dualed with, a medieval muskeeter perhaps?

That aside the pressing issue is he didn't tackle or intercept the ball anywhere near enough and hasn't for years and years. In the past when he tried to tackle and intercept the ball like a competant midfielder he'd often find himself losing the dual, out of position and too slow to run back. So now Arteta covers for this flaw by asking him to retreat and cover space instead of tackling like a competant midfielder

Xhaka is essentially a football cone, someone who can be passed around rather conveniently. Like I say, Partey was equally as bad, Ødegaard was worse. We need to replace Partey and Xhaka with players that can dominate the midfield space like Rice

A tackle or an interception is not a duel. A duel is when you contest an opponent on the ground or in the air. That is where you win or lose individual battles, and Xhaka won his. He‘s not judged on interceptions. He’s avoiding tackles, which is a good thing but for some odd reason you’re treating it like a negative.

If a player has to make a tackle then it likely means they’ve made a mistake regarding their positioning.