Carabao Cup 3rd Round: Arsenal v Brentford | September 26, 2018 19:45 BST

[Toby]

Nketiah should have come on rather than Laca. Not because the latter didn't do well but because he should have bigger battles to fight.

Another few minutes, another goal in a short time - that's exactly fighting the bigger battle by keeping up the momentum of your striker and his confidence to score whenever he's on the pitch, even if only a few minutes.

Would have been nice for Nketiah to get a stroll out, but down the line having Lacazette firing and up on confidence is much more important than handing out a few minutes to a youngster. Especially in the situation we're in - fighting to get back into the top 4. Nketiah won't make any difference in this, but Laca's form will.

 

[Mo Britain]

Another few minutes, another goal in a short time - that's exactly fighting the bigger battle by keeping up the momentum of your striker and his confidence to score whenever he's on the pitch, even if only a few minutes.

I meant bigger battles for the club. You shouldn't need your top striker to finish off a game you are leading at home against opposition from a lower division. Of course he can do it, but we shouldn't need him to do it.

 

[Toby]

I meant bigger battles for the club. You shouldn't need your top striker to finish off a game you are leading at home against opposition from a lower division. Of course he can do it, but we shouldn't need him to do it.

I get what you're at. But I don't think this is the club needing it's best striker to put a game to rest; from that POV it wouldn't and shouldn't have been needed, I agree with you so far and I actually think it wasn't needed. We would have seen out the game without Lacazette. I just think this wasn't the point of bringing Lacazette on at all. It was about the manager keeping his best striker up and running in a low risk situation. The chance of getting injured in the last 10 to 15 minutes of a done game is rather low, and if he wouldn't have scored you could argue with the few minutes he got.

Lacazette been in great form and shape and tonight will only add to this. He's going home thinking "How f*cking great am I? Scored in the last few games, now came on for what? 10 minutes? And I instantly scored again. I'm on a bender. Bring on anyone!" And this is more important than giving any youngster whose part in getting us top 4 will be basically zero minutes just for the sake of it. It wasn't about finishing the game, it was about Lacazette.

 

[Big Poppa]

We were in total control before Brentford make it 2-1 we started to panic a bit but defended well

I actually don't think we were in total control at any stage of the match. We scored our goals at the perfect times and the 2nd was a beautiful counter attack that came after our sloppiest period of the game.

It's true that Brentford posed little to no threat until they pulled a goal back, but we were our own worst enemies for much of the game. Similar to the match against Everton, we struggled badly with our build up from the back and the player on the ball did not have enough passing options due to us being outnumbered in midfield.

There was one period in the game, after Torreira came on for Mkhitaryan, that I thought we were finally going to play 3 in the middle and seize control of the game. It was perplexing to then see Guendouzi and Torreira holding with Elneny playing almost as a second striker!

It was clear he was being instructed to do so and it made zero sense, as Brentford were advancing through our midfield with ease. We don't have centre backs who are technically good enough to be an extra passer and compensate for us having just two midfielders.

It's killing any rhythm in our play and making our backline extremely easy to attack.

 

[#254]

I get what you're at. But I don't think this is the club needing it's best striker to put a game to rest; from that POV it wouldn't and shouldn't have been needed, I agree with you so far and I actually think it wasn't needed. We would have seen out the game without Lacazette. I just think this wasn't the point of bringing Lacazette on at all. It was about the manager keeping his best striker up and running in a low risk situation. The chance of getting injured in the last 10 to 15 minutes of a done game is rather low, and if he wouldn't have scored you could argue with the few minutes he got.

Lacazette been in great form and shape and tonight will only add to this. He's going home thinking "How f*cking great am I? Scored in the last few games, now came on for what? 10 minutes? And I instantly scored again. I'm on a bender. Bring on anyone!" And this is more important than giving any youngster whose part in getting us top 4 will be basically zero minutes just for the sake of it. It wasn't about finishing the game, it was about Lacazette.

You'd make a good lawyer bruh! Solid points

 

[razörist]

Ffs

 

[samshere]

I'm not sure how much good this passing from the back business has done for us, but its certainly created several moments of panic for the supporters. None of these has resulted in a goal yet, but its just a matter of time.

 

[zhaggy]

I'm not sure how much good this passing from the back business has done for us, but its certainly created several moments of panic for the supporters. None of these has resulted in a goal yet, but its just a matter of time.

Seems like everyone is doing it nowadays.. we should be inovators and come up with the next big thing instead. play without a goalie... play the mighty ducks formation

 

[Beksl]

I'm not sure how much good this passing from the back business has done for us, but its certainly created several moments of panic for the supporters. None of these has resulted in a goal yet, but its just a matter of time.

6 wins on the trot means Emery's system is at least functionally working and producing results. Passing from the back is cornerstone for his system so I'd say it has done some good for us. We've scored some beautiful goals building from the back already and it's a refreshing change from the dull years of ''Wengerball''.

 

[samshere]

6 wins on the trot means Emery's system is at least functionally working and producing results. Passing from the back is cornerstone for his system so I'd say it has done some good for us. We've scored some beautiful goals building from the back already and it's a refreshing change from the dull years of ''Wengerball''.

I'm not convinced yet, we've got the results over a short time frame. But the style of play exposes all our weaknesses. We'll need better personnel in defence if this is to work long term. For me our run of results is more down to our clinical finishing than style of play.

 

[pikey2000]

I'm not convinced yet, we've got the results over a short time frame. But the style of play exposes all our weaknesses. We'll need better personnel in defence if this is to work long term. For me our run of results is more down to our clinical finishing than style of play.

Can see us being put to the sword by top opposition but we look consistent enough to pick up points against the rest of the league which may be enough for us to get top 4 and push on next season with a higher calibre of defender.

 

[tap-in]

This game was tougher than expected, Brentford played well in the 2nd half. Emery was proven right to play the team he did, step back one year and we would probably be out. I think his familiarity concept is the way to go, the more they play together under his guidance, the better they will become. 6 wins in a row, cant argue with that.

 

[ThlRama]

We don't have centre backs who are technically good enough to be an extra passer and compensate for us having just two midfielders.

I'm not convinced yet, we've got the results over a short time frame. But the style of play exposes all our weaknesses. We'll need better personnel in defence if this is to work long term. For me our run of results is more down to our clinical finishing than style of play.

I understand the worries, but passing from the back is actually amplifying our main strength too: The oppositions try to be opportunistic with their dominance in midfield and their pressing of our defenders, and then when they miss something and they are countered they have 4 or 5 pacey players with amazing final third skills running at them, a couple of which by the way happen to be among the best finishers in world football. This is what has won us game after game so far, bar maybe Cardiff because that one was a whole different story.

Our backline isn't actually bad at passing the ball around, they are not Rudiger level, let alone Ramos, but they can circulate the ball in between them with relative safety and it's just Xhaka who usually busts the party.

It doesn't look amazing because not controlling the midfield means us looking scrappy and unable to play, but it clicks in moments and produces unbelievable intensity and incisiveness. Be prepared for a lot more of this against weaker opposition at least, Emery's isn't dropping it anytime soon.

 

[samshere]

I understand the worries, but passing from the back is actually amplifying our main strength too: The oppositions try to be opportunistic with their dominance in midfield and their pressing of our defenders, and then when they miss something and they are countered they have 4 or 5 pacey players with amazing final third skills running at them, a couple of which by the way happen to be among the best finishers in world football. This is what has won us game after game so far, bar maybe Cardiff because that one was a whole different story.

Our backline isn't actually bad at passing the ball around, they are not Rudiger level, let alone Ramos, but they can circulate the ball in between them with relative safety and it's just Xhaka who usually busts the party.

It doesn't look amazing because not controlling the midfield means us looking scrappy and unable to play, but it clicks in moments and produces unbelievable intensity and incisiveness. Be prepared for a lot more of this against weaker opposition at least, Emery's isn't dropping it anytime soon.

I'm more worried by the heart attacks that the goalies are giving us. When it works it results in a goal, but we have seen both Cech and Leno be whiskers away from kicking it into our goal. It isn't a long stretch to think that we could've dropped points in both those matches. When Allison made that mistake the liverpool forwards just went and scored some more goals, I'm not sure that our attackers will be able to bail us out, they're hard pressed to win us matches as it is.
But then again maybe I'm just used to seeing our team (try to)dominate the midfield, maybe i'll get used to this style in time. A few more wins on the trot will help make my mind up.

 

[ThlRama]

But then again maybe I'm just used to seeing our team (try to)dominate the midfield, maybe i'll get used to this style in time. A few more wins on the trot will help make my mind up.

It's too much after 22 years man. We used to lose to Fergie and Mourinho while having 65% possession and with their teams scoring from the only chances they got. To understand who controls the game you need to keep in mind how each team plays, Liverpool vs. Chelsea yesterday was a great example and I bet a lot of people who have little knowledge of football would be thinking that Liverpool were dominant. But no, their pressing didn't work at its best, the players they rotated couldn't replace the starters in their overall contribution in terms of functional qualities (not quantity of output,) Chelsea's possession play was magnificent. At the end Liverpool burned out and they were buried by dynamic plays by forwards, Moses and Hazard tortured them. That's what it's all about.

 

[Rex Stone]

Last night was hairs on the back of neck stuff. Mike Dean in the flesh, the overly dramatic gestures, the petulance, making sure everyone knew the game was all about him. Perfection.

 

[redanddread]

Anybody locate that cheeky sniper that took down clown boy Mustafi last night? Persistent mutha eh.

 

[redanddread]

I actually don't think we were in total control at any stage of the match. We scored our goals at the perfect times and the 2nd was a beautiful counter attack that came after our sloppiest period of the game.

Not sure if we've been in total control of any match this season bar maybe the Europa League tie. At least that's how it feels.

 

[gunner4lyfe]

I'm not sure how much good this passing from the back business has done for us, but its certainly created several moments of panic for the supporters. None of these has resulted in a goal yet, but its just a matter of time.

Our second goal came from playing out from the back though.

 

[celestis]

Not sure if we've been in total control of any match this season bar maybe the Europa League tie. At least that's how it feels.

We haven't been , except Newcastle 2nd half .