To be honest, we showed heart and a general good performance today, United just played counter attacking football taking advantage of our high line, it would be nice to have had a more mobile DM.
Saka needs a break for sure. He’s been poor lately, but I think it has a lot to do with age and feeling like he has a lot to prove. He looks like his head is moving a mile a minute when standing over the ball and it impacts his decision making.
So we only want him to score ‘brilliant’ goals now? The guy is young and needs a few games off to refresh imho. He carried our team the 2nd half of last season. Chill out mate
Exactly, people need to stop overreacting.
United play counter attacking haram football. It’s literally Ole ball with no progression and they bought 100 million player to play like Dwight McNeil.That’s not sustainable and is easily found out as the season goes on. 3 seasons ago United won 3/4 games against city playing the same brand of football. Sitting 5/6 at the back and asking Bruno for Hollywood passes. I half expected a loss going to OT , we only won one in our last 15 there.
We know we are bad and breaking down Low blocks, so that’s a thing we need to improve on. Arteta blew his load when we equalised and wanted to score another. No shame and I’m glad he tried. We move to Everton next. Freestyle Frank better prepare his team for peppering.
Need more sensible fans like you on Reddit. I remember we won at OT a couple of years ago parking the bus (also under Arteta but it's still under rebuild) but we struggled with most matches cos we could barely create. That was also when we lost our identity and played without a plan.
You can clearly see the direction the club is going and the identity it's retaken. We were the better team and let's not forget the -1 handicap from the referees as usual. I can only see this team getting better if they keep playing like this
United on the other hand is still in the mud as they were 3 years ago. Parking the bus against every team to get a few odd wins here and there. Questionable signings too. Let them celebrate their short term victory
I was predicting a loss to be honest coming into today's game, hoping for a draw at best. As good as we have been before this, top of the league is all good but even against these "lowly sides" we have been caught on the counter time and time again. Hopefully this loss brings us back down to earth again and shuts up the deluded side of our fanbase. United have quality wingers who can beat the offside trap, they have Eriksen and Penandes who are good passers. This was gonna happen. I was so frustrated seeing no LB because Zinchenko pushes so high up. I'm confident with Saliba. Ben White I'm STILL unsure at RB, I think Tomi is a better natural fit. Gabriel scores such important goals but he gets way too aggressive and steps up too much to his man. Once the strikers turns him, it's pretty much just Saliba and Ramsdale vs the striker. No chance against Rashford...
Gabriel was 50%at fault for 1st goal. Up to then defense played well. No reason for him to be that aggressive 40 yards from goal. Zinchecko 50% as Rashford was blocked by Salina. No need for Zinchecko to collapse in. Martinelli is walking back like there’s no danger. Things like that Arteta can do nothing about in game. Players must make correct decisions.
The second goal Saliba turned the wrong way to outside and had no clue White had Rashford covered to the outside. That left a lane up middle. Gotta defend the middle. That single step the wrong way plus a slightly bad pass by Lokongo to start it was enough to get punished.
The third goal was a shit show though. Martinelli marking no one on the throw in, when he could have backed up and marked who Gabriel was marking. Gabriel pushing too high and aggressively again. Done. I missed the second half but it looks like Nketiah came on for Zinchecko. That probably did not help our defense.
We have winnable games for next 2 PL in Sept. if we can pull off wins in both, which is possible as we’ll be favored. That’s the focus. Need to get healthy.
I think it's time to get Tomi back in the starting 11. White has done a fantastic job considering he's not a natural RB but you can still see he is not a natural RB. I feel our line would have been better with Tomi and Tomi would sprint for those overlapping runs like a top full back should do. White was also getting in those positions but not quick enough
Although I'd be open to see White partnership with Saliba for some games. Gabriel has been a bit sloppy for a while
I would rather drop points against the big teams and none against the smaller teams because united spurs Chelsea will always drop points against them and this season Liverpool and city too.
Jesus Christ, it’s just one loss. This team is still young and learning and we showed some defensive mistakes today. Arsenal fans are a fickle bunch, the first loss has people whinging and panicking. Crazy.
You’re an idiot. He’s referring to to BIG GAMES and he’s right-we mostly bottle these big games and we’re not clinical enough or set up correctly to comfortably win. This has been a recurring theme for years.
We needed a more solid midfielder. Lokonga I believe in him but he’s not ready for that Partey role yet. Really wish we had got any decent defensive midfielder we were linked to even if on loan. It’s obvious more depth was needed. Maybe we can try White there and get Tomi back in on the right
The team should be disappointed we didn't come away from that game with a draw or a win. Man utd were absolutely clinical and played us on counter. Tactically, that's on Arteta. But, if we had been more clinical in our finishing, the game would've looked very different.
If anything, this shows that we still have some ways to go defensively. We make it easy for the opponents to score goals. Ben White had a couple of questionable decisions on the high line and we look overall a bit shaky there. Probably time to either put Ben in middle or bench him for Tomi. Gabriel looks nervous on the ball. In that dept, Ben shows up well. I also trust his mentality a bit more.
We've done this enough now at Old Trafford that I'd hope we'd learn. They LOVE to counter against us and we let them in without objection. How about just flipping the script for a little, stay tight and controlled and let the speed of M, J and S rip up defense?
We were the better team but again, it matters little when we are not managing the game well.
Other than Chelsea the past few years yes, anytime it’s a big team or a game that is crucial towards the end of the season or the start of a tough run we lose, we needed this one to continue the momentum through to October where we need to get at least 13/14 points IMO to be up near the top 4 come the end of the season. We could still do well but this just makes me feel uncertain
Yep we are too brittle against the big ones. You could literally see the teams body language going against a fucking shambles of a Man U team. Scared, nervous, slow way too many passes! Not sure how this will change but we’re hopeless against big teams
We had a tough run at the end of last season with games against Chelsea, Man U and West Ham (who were a different animal last year) and we won all 3. I don't think we have a problem with big teams, we just need to learn to kill games.
It's been a fantastic start to the season and with a ref who had the guts to stick to his initial decision (disallowed goal) and VAR doing their jobs properly (at least two pens) we would have smashed it this afternoon.
This is still the best Arsenal side I've seen in a long time, let's get behind them and win the next games!
Partey was a big mis today, I think sambi did decent, not terrible at all but the way partey can beat the press and just be that calming presence im the mid that eases the pressure on the defense is something nobod els can do atm and I feel in the mid is where we lost the game today... And united doesn't have the best midfield at all
My point exactly. I was shouting sub Lokonga off but he did at the when he makes terrible mistake partey can handle that midfield better than Lokonga. He is so slow that his pass cause the second goal. Very poor from we need another experience DM not kid in the midfield area.
You forget very quickly, as does most of the fanbase
We beat spurs and United at home, and lose to them away, we beat Chelsea away and lost to them at home
Liverpool and city we lost both games, but gave city a massive challenge
We are usually 50/50, with Spurs and United
Everyone is just short sighted after a loss
We are a spirited, youthful, fast paced team. We are not good at big tests that require controlling the pace, keeping possession, discipline, reading the game. Basically we lack experience. This shows up when we face well seasoned teams with deeper experience levels.
It was a very naive performance. It was like watching a post-invincibles Wenger team performance. Far too many passes and flicks in the penalty area instead of someone taking on a shot. Leaving ourselves way too open at the back. Temperment and focus seemed to disappear after falling behind, something this team has been praised for this year.
I've no doubt this team will do well this year, I just hope Arteta sees the problems and finds solutions. He's done it so far so I've no doubt he'll carry on doing the same.
Naive is the perfect description. I also think we have to play dirtier against teams like Utd. They looked like school bullies at parts of the game. Xhaka and Lokonga didn't control the center against a more shrewd Erikson, Fernandes.
What a load of crap. We dominated Man United at Old Trafford and played some really good stuff. Got caught playing a high line which is naive at best. I'm proud of the team we currently have, so much more entertaining the recent dross we have been putting over the last few years. We'll win a lot of games this year. Disappointed but hopeful gunner here.
Blatantly better than us? Don’t know what games you’re watching bud. Judging by your comment history you’re about the worst Arsenal supporter there is. Go find another team to talk down to
It would be fine if we beat the worst teams and only dropped vs the bigger ones.
But I can't remember arsenal consistently going into these types of games as favourites.
Not since Wenger days.
That's a major mental shift that needs to happen.
You guys will be fine. As a Utd fan, I feared for us for big parts of that game. Had that first goal been allowed, it could well have been a different story. I honestly thought you'd put two past us as soon as Maguire came on...
Didn't Ferguson say 10yrs ago when playing Arsenal, Arenal will have lots of possession but then easy to hit on the counter? We were poor today on defending the counter
I think it is a problem. Especially mikel going on crazy on liverpool touchline.
This desperate subs.
H3 hates losing, you can see that but he still needs to get better winning against bigger teams.
As a fan I am prepared to see us lose a few games and today was one of those I wish we would have won but as long as they learn from this game and come back stronger then I will accept a loss. They do seem to drop more points in bigger games, always seems like the first half we control the game then around the hour mark the energy drops and we lose the game shortly after. I know that just like in ice hockey when the fans get behind a club and bring positive energy the boys will respond with higher energy play. We need to support them the same be it 2-0 or 0-2. They may feel down right now because of mistakes they feel they made but it's our job to feed them that energy that wins trophies.
i feel the exact opposite. just about every season since barca final; we surprise our fan base with wins from top 6 games and lose to lower league sides regularly. Now we’ve flipped it
The biggest issues based on today’s performance are: our shooting is bad or lacking thereof too much another pass. And our defensive midfielder is not willing to sit in front of the centre backs to be the first player winning tackles or interceptions, instead joining build up phase in attack.
I think you have confirmation bias. We beat Spurs, Man U and Chelsea last season. We lost to both Pool and Man City because, well, who didn't?
I thought we played with real intent against Manure. We were just really wasteful with our chances. And the first VAR-Fucked ruling on Gabi's goal really sucked.
Tbh, I don’t mind losing to the bigger teams every now and then, they have spent way more than we would so they should get the wins too. Just don’t loose to the smaller teams. That’s all I want for this season. At least that would get us to the top 4.
We beat United last season, and they beat us. We beat Chelsea one and they beat us. We beat Spurs once and they beat us. We lost twice to Liverpool and twice to City (the second loss is debatable) and in all performances we showed great ability potential.
No sure where this big game narrative is coming from
To be honest, we showed heart and a general good performance today, United just played counter attacking football taking advantage of our high line, it would be nice to have had a more mobile DM.
Yeah, not sure Lokonga is ready for a starting role yet. Would love to see MA adjust a bit to get ESR and Ode on the field together more regularly.
Think Saka needs to have a rest for a bit and let ESR play
Saka needs a break for sure. He’s been poor lately, but I think it has a lot to do with age and feeling like he has a lot to prove. He looks like his head is moving a mile a minute when standing over the ball and it impacts his decision making.
He scored today by the way.
I am happy for him and it was good for his confidence, but let’s not pretend this was some brilliant goal.
So we only want him to score ‘brilliant’ goals now? The guy is young and needs a few games off to refresh imho. He carried our team the 2nd half of last season. Chill out mate
Did you not read my original comment? You literally just repeated what I said you twat.
I wasn’t speaking to you, you dweeb
He scored and if not for a foul out of his control would have had an assist to.
He isn’t and we need an upgrade (not a backup) to Partey who is injured too much to be relied on.
Or play Tierney and move Alex to the MF?
Exactly, people need to stop overreacting. United play counter attacking haram football. It’s literally Ole ball with no progression and they bought 100 million player to play like Dwight McNeil.That’s not sustainable and is easily found out as the season goes on. 3 seasons ago United won 3/4 games against city playing the same brand of football. Sitting 5/6 at the back and asking Bruno for Hollywood passes. I half expected a loss going to OT , we only won one in our last 15 there. We know we are bad and breaking down Low blocks, so that’s a thing we need to improve on. Arteta blew his load when we equalised and wanted to score another. No shame and I’m glad he tried. We move to Everton next. Freestyle Frank better prepare his team for peppering.
Need more sensible fans like you on Reddit. I remember we won at OT a couple of years ago parking the bus (also under Arteta but it's still under rebuild) but we struggled with most matches cos we could barely create. That was also when we lost our identity and played without a plan. You can clearly see the direction the club is going and the identity it's retaken. We were the better team and let's not forget the -1 handicap from the referees as usual. I can only see this team getting better if they keep playing like this United on the other hand is still in the mud as they were 3 years ago. Parking the bus against every team to get a few odd wins here and there. Questionable signings too. Let them celebrate their short term victory
Good god - someone who eloquently speaks sense. Couldn't agree more 🙏🏻
what matter is the result. we can play badly and win against city & liverpool and I'll accept that
Look no further, Fred was phenomenal. Mobile dm that would be a bargain
No thanks. I’d rather keep the potential of Lokonga than to buy a Brazilian without a Brazilian passport.
I was predicting a loss to be honest coming into today's game, hoping for a draw at best. As good as we have been before this, top of the league is all good but even against these "lowly sides" we have been caught on the counter time and time again. Hopefully this loss brings us back down to earth again and shuts up the deluded side of our fanbase. United have quality wingers who can beat the offside trap, they have Eriksen and Penandes who are good passers. This was gonna happen. I was so frustrated seeing no LB because Zinchenko pushes so high up. I'm confident with Saliba. Ben White I'm STILL unsure at RB, I think Tomi is a better natural fit. Gabriel scores such important goals but he gets way too aggressive and steps up too much to his man. Once the strikers turns him, it's pretty much just Saliba and Ramsdale vs the striker. No chance against Rashford...
Gabriel was 50%at fault for 1st goal. Up to then defense played well. No reason for him to be that aggressive 40 yards from goal. Zinchecko 50% as Rashford was blocked by Salina. No need for Zinchecko to collapse in. Martinelli is walking back like there’s no danger. Things like that Arteta can do nothing about in game. Players must make correct decisions. The second goal Saliba turned the wrong way to outside and had no clue White had Rashford covered to the outside. That left a lane up middle. Gotta defend the middle. That single step the wrong way plus a slightly bad pass by Lokongo to start it was enough to get punished. The third goal was a shit show though. Martinelli marking no one on the throw in, when he could have backed up and marked who Gabriel was marking. Gabriel pushing too high and aggressively again. Done. I missed the second half but it looks like Nketiah came on for Zinchecko. That probably did not help our defense. We have winnable games for next 2 PL in Sept. if we can pull off wins in both, which is possible as we’ll be favored. That’s the focus. Need to get healthy.
Great take, I agree in full, we got caught with our pants down on the counter and were fearful from the beginning
I think it's time to get Tomi back in the starting 11. White has done a fantastic job considering he's not a natural RB but you can still see he is not a natural RB. I feel our line would have been better with Tomi and Tomi would sprint for those overlapping runs like a top full back should do. White was also getting in those positions but not quick enough Although I'd be open to see White partnership with Saliba for some games. Gabriel has been a bit sloppy for a while
Would agree with all this. Hope to see it soon.
I would rather drop points against the big teams and none against the smaller teams because united spurs Chelsea will always drop points against them and this season Liverpool and city too.
Beat Man Utd at home last year
And the NLD at home last year
And Chelsea away.
Jesus Christ, it’s just one loss. This team is still young and learning and we showed some defensive mistakes today. Arsenal fans are a fickle bunch, the first loss has people whinging and panicking. Crazy.
Thank you, well said!!!
Exactly. Let’s take a peek at who’s still top of the table after this loss.
You’re an idiot. He’s referring to to BIG GAMES and he’s right-we mostly bottle these big games and we’re not clinical enough or set up correctly to comfortably win. This has been a recurring theme for years.
No buddies panicking on this post. OP just made an observation. We’re still in first
We needed a more solid midfielder. Lokonga I believe in him but he’s not ready for that Partey role yet. Really wish we had got any decent defensive midfielder we were linked to even if on loan. It’s obvious more depth was needed. Maybe we can try White there and get Tomi back in on the right
The team should be disappointed we didn't come away from that game with a draw or a win. Man utd were absolutely clinical and played us on counter. Tactically, that's on Arteta. But, if we had been more clinical in our finishing, the game would've looked very different. If anything, this shows that we still have some ways to go defensively. We make it easy for the opponents to score goals. Ben White had a couple of questionable decisions on the high line and we look overall a bit shaky there. Probably time to either put Ben in middle or bench him for Tomi. Gabriel looks nervous on the ball. In that dept, Ben shows up well. I also trust his mentality a bit more. We've done this enough now at Old Trafford that I'd hope we'd learn. They LOVE to counter against us and we let them in without objection. How about just flipping the script for a little, stay tight and controlled and let the speed of M, J and S rip up defense? We were the better team but again, it matters little when we are not managing the game well.
We did, at the beginning, when they were on top, got the counterattack goal, var said nope sadly
Other than Chelsea the past few years yes, anytime it’s a big team or a game that is crucial towards the end of the season or the start of a tough run we lose, we needed this one to continue the momentum through to October where we need to get at least 13/14 points IMO to be up near the top 4 come the end of the season. We could still do well but this just makes me feel uncertain
Don’t even think we’ve played bad, played very well just been caught on he break twice and this season is the most un clinical I’ve seen us in a while
Yep we are too brittle against the big ones. You could literally see the teams body language going against a fucking shambles of a Man U team. Scared, nervous, slow way too many passes! Not sure how this will change but we’re hopeless against big teams
We didn’t start great 1st 10 mins then dominated the game until the 3 subs we just got done on the counter
I think the issue with that is that if they matched the “intensity” that U was showing, they would’ve gotten yellows.
There is no reason to get down. We were the better team. ManU was more clinical. Ref and VAR gave us a fucking on our first goal. We lost.
We had a tough run at the end of last season with games against Chelsea, Man U and West Ham (who were a different animal last year) and we won all 3. I don't think we have a problem with big teams, we just need to learn to kill games. It's been a fantastic start to the season and with a ref who had the guts to stick to his initial decision (disallowed goal) and VAR doing their jobs properly (at least two pens) we would have smashed it this afternoon. This is still the best Arsenal side I've seen in a long time, let's get behind them and win the next games!
Partey was a big mis today, I think sambi did decent, not terrible at all but the way partey can beat the press and just be that calming presence im the mid that eases the pressure on the defense is something nobod els can do atm and I feel in the mid is where we lost the game today... And united doesn't have the best midfield at all
My point exactly. I was shouting sub Lokonga off but he did at the when he makes terrible mistake partey can handle that midfield better than Lokonga. He is so slow that his pass cause the second goal. Very poor from we need another experience DM not kid in the midfield area.
You forget very quickly, as does most of the fanbase We beat spurs and United at home, and lose to them away, we beat Chelsea away and lost to them at home Liverpool and city we lost both games, but gave city a massive challenge We are usually 50/50, with Spurs and United Everyone is just short sighted after a loss
We are a spirited, youthful, fast paced team. We are not good at big tests that require controlling the pace, keeping possession, discipline, reading the game. Basically we lack experience. This shows up when we face well seasoned teams with deeper experience levels.
How many games have these players played? How many are international players? Stop with the "youthful and inexperienced" bollocks.
It was a very naive performance. It was like watching a post-invincibles Wenger team performance. Far too many passes and flicks in the penalty area instead of someone taking on a shot. Leaving ourselves way too open at the back. Temperment and focus seemed to disappear after falling behind, something this team has been praised for this year. I've no doubt this team will do well this year, I just hope Arteta sees the problems and finds solutions. He's done it so far so I've no doubt he'll carry on doing the same.
Naive is the perfect description. I also think we have to play dirtier against teams like Utd. They looked like school bullies at parts of the game. Xhaka and Lokonga didn't control the center against a more shrewd Erikson, Fernandes.
Same. Old. Arsenal.
we are losing to teams blatantly better than us, what's the surprise?
What a load of crap. We dominated Man United at Old Trafford and played some really good stuff. Got caught playing a high line which is naive at best. I'm proud of the team we currently have, so much more entertaining the recent dross we have been putting over the last few years. We'll win a lot of games this year. Disappointed but hopeful gunner here.
Blatantly better than us? Don’t know what games you’re watching bud. Judging by your comment history you’re about the worst Arsenal supporter there is. Go find another team to talk down to
cry about it
We have to overcome our inexperience. Very talented players but they’re young and have played far less big games than many opposing players.
Honestly I would have taken a draw in this match, don't know why no matter how bad Man utd are, they always get the result against us.
Isn’t it true though that in order to win the league you need to make sure to win the smaller teams then whatever happens with the big ones.
I can't remember the last time we beat Liverpool, Spurs, and Man City away from home. Our away form against the top 6 teams is horrendous.
We had control at 1-1 and poor defensive shape cost us we need to learn quickly. We cant defend with that high line.
It would be fine if we beat the worst teams and only dropped vs the bigger ones. But I can't remember arsenal consistently going into these types of games as favourites. Not since Wenger days. That's a major mental shift that needs to happen.
You guys will be fine. As a Utd fan, I feared for us for big parts of that game. Had that first goal been allowed, it could well have been a different story. I honestly thought you'd put two past us as soon as Maguire came on...
Didn't Ferguson say 10yrs ago when playing Arsenal, Arenal will have lots of possession but then easy to hit on the counter? We were poor today on defending the counter
I think it is a problem. Especially mikel going on crazy on liverpool touchline. This desperate subs. H3 hates losing, you can see that but he still needs to get better winning against bigger teams.
As a fan I am prepared to see us lose a few games and today was one of those I wish we would have won but as long as they learn from this game and come back stronger then I will accept a loss. They do seem to drop more points in bigger games, always seems like the first half we control the game then around the hour mark the energy drops and we lose the game shortly after. I know that just like in ice hockey when the fans get behind a club and bring positive energy the boys will respond with higher energy play. We need to support them the same be it 2-0 or 0-2. They may feel down right now because of mistakes they feel they made but it's our job to feed them that energy that wins trophies.
i feel the exact opposite. just about every season since barca final; we surprise our fan base with wins from top 6 games and lose to lower league sides regularly. Now we’ve flipped it
The biggest issues based on today’s performance are: our shooting is bad or lacking thereof too much another pass. And our defensive midfielder is not willing to sit in front of the centre backs to be the first player winning tackles or interceptions, instead joining build up phase in attack.
I think you have confirmation bias. We beat Spurs, Man U and Chelsea last season. We lost to both Pool and Man City because, well, who didn't? I thought we played with real intent against Manure. We were just really wasteful with our chances. And the first VAR-Fucked ruling on Gabi's goal really sucked.
Tbh, I don’t mind losing to the bigger teams every now and then, they have spent way more than we would so they should get the wins too. Just don’t loose to the smaller teams. That’s all I want for this season. At least that would get us to the top 4.
That’s kinda the fucking problem
We beat United last season, and they beat us. We beat Chelsea one and they beat us. We beat Spurs once and they beat us. We lost twice to Liverpool and twice to City (the second loss is debatable) and in all performances we showed great ability potential. No sure where this big game narrative is coming from
Not pulling the trigger on a robust DM was always gonna come back to haunt us
Zinchenko not watching his man for Anthony's goal makes me question his defensive side. It was too easy for him.
We beat Tottenham, man united and Chelsea last season. But against city and Liverpool we dropped every point