Yawn. Wake me up in August. That was poor. Not in the sense of being without money but in the sense of being without point, without energy, without structure, without ideas. This was about as pointless as I can remember. Even against Brighton we created more, tried harder and had more structure. And that’s two games in a row where we’ve not scored.
We knew we were not about to win the league today but we at least expected a performance consistent with how we had played this season. Instead, we reverted back to old Arsenal. This was thoroughly pointless. Slow, directionless and without purpose. We could have played for another week and I doubt we’d have scored.
So, why you might ask, were we a witness to such unfiltered drivel. It’s essentially the same players as we’ve used this season. Sure, they might be deflated because they couldn’t win the league. I think we all know the answer. This one was on Arteta. Everything he touched turned to stone. Or a rock. Or a pile of pooh.
If I was Tierney I’d be handing in my transfer request now. Sure, we’ve not been at our best lately. But since we introduced Kiwior we’ve found some defensive stability. So, what did we do today? Arteta moved Kiwior to left-back. Then moved White to center-half and plonked the Pathetic Partey at right back. A classic disaster right from the start. To accommodate one problem – no Zinny – we moved three players out of position. Though to be fair White looked very comfortable back in his original position. And all in order not to play Tierney.
Everything about this change reeked of a disaster. We lose any capability down our left-hand side. Kiwior is a great addition to this team but he is no left -back. Aside from being out run by some random Forest forward he had nothing to do. But he was incapable of supporting Xhaka and Trossard. Consequently, everything was down our right-hand side.
Except that meant it would start with Partey trying to feed Saka. So, this simple change unhinged the entire defense, midfield and attack. At least we left Ramsdale in place. But Saka would not receive the ball how he normally would from White. Partey and White were passing to themselves. Everyone – in particular Jorghino – was pointing at Partey for him to move into different positions. Poor Partey had no clue how to play right back.
I figured though that Arteta would correct his mistake after thirty minutes. And the convinved that at half-time we’d see us settle back to our normal shape. It was that blindly obvious. But no, we had to suffer through this drivel for 63 minutes before he brought on Tierney. And then finally we had a little movement on our left. But Tierney must understand by now that Arteta won’t use him. I mean, with Zinny out Arteta would select Tomy ahead of him. And now with both out he prefers to rearrange the defense in order not to play him.
And in-between we had to watch – yet again – Odegaard make another sloppy infield pass on the half way line that opened up our defense for their fortunate goal. This was the game. One mistake and one goal. I know we love Odegaard but really, this is not the first time he’s done this. At some point you have to learn from your mistakes. And today Odegaard clearly has not and it does not look Arteta has either. This pass by Odegaard was so sloppy and careless. Identical to the West Ham game. And I think, there was one other game where he did this but, in my deep sadness, I think I’ve blocked out that painful memory.
This is the point where I try and bring some balance of this article. We have to recognize the improvements we’ve seen this season, the quality football and the progression. It’s just a shame none of it was on display today. This was drivel. This was as turgid as it gets. We were without energy, spirit or creativity. The entire balance of the team was wrong. And that’s on Arteta. Ok, so much for balance.
This was one of his worst games for us. And, unfortunately, highlights a blind spot Arteta has shown in the past. His failing with in-game management. How did it take until the 63rd minute to make a change. He should had changed things up after 30 minutes. We wasted so much time doing absolutely nothing. And that’s on Arteta. And even then, we persisted with Partey at right back.
I had assumed Tierney would come in at left back and everyone would slide over with Partey being subbed or moving to midfield. Yet somehow he remained on the pitch. I don’t get what Arteta was trying to do. And yet he removed Xhaka just as a real leftback came on. And then we had to see the vacuous Vieira as well.
What a waste of an afternoon this was. What a waste of momentum. This was a disaster from beginning to the end. This team had no idea how to play together. It was so slow and pointless. Arteta change completely unhinged this team. I kept waiting for us to gel and resume playing how we have all season long. Even when we’ve lost recently, we had some semblance of rhythm and style. Today we looked clueless. Areta confused his own team today. Arteta 1 Arsenal 0.
I don’t mind making changes. That is the only way to learn. And the result was immaterial. But you also have to react when those changes clearly don’t work. Yet Arteta persisted with a clearly failing strategy. At this point of the season, you’re playing for one reason only – next season. You’re setting yourself up for the new season.
But here we are against a bog standard Forest team playing sideways and backwards. Draining all our confidence and momentum. So rather than creating momentum into next season we’re going out with a damp squid. And we’re undermining all the good work we’ve done this season. And this is all on Arteta.
What I did like today was seeing White at center-half. He played confidently and I prefer (with the absence of Saliba) to see him on the ball. Of course, there was no-one ahead of him to receive the ball and Partey had no idea where to be on the right. Which is why we needed White at right -back. Jorginho was solid. But there was minimal movement ahead of him. There was nothing on the left. Trossard was too far away from the action. Jesus darted around but we had no idea how to pick Forest apart.
I’m not sure that Xhaka touched the ball in the first half. This team was so out of balance. But I was convinced Arteta would recognize his mistake and make a change at half-time. Yet we started the second half in the exact same way with the exact same outcome. How could Arteta not see the issue. What does this say about Arteta? Is he this stubborn and rigid? I don’t think so. But is Partey destabilizing at right-back. Der, is the Pope Catholic?
So, in case, I’ve not made my viewpoint clear. Arteta’s team selection was completely flawed. His in-game adjustment were non existent. His opportunity to make changes was wasted and then his substitutions were the wrong players at the wrong time. Apart from that, Arteta was great.
So now the question is whether Arteta persists with this approach or resets and reverts back to what we know works. Does Arteta undermine and derail the progress with this flawed position changed or learn his lesson and put us back to the place where we were progressing. This is really quite worrying at this time of the year to suddenly be confronted by doubts about what Arteta is trying to do. How the fuck do you lose to Forest when they are this shit? But putting your players in a structure that brings out the absolutely worst in them and then not adjusting.
That was a dreary a game as I’ve watched in such a long time. It reminded me of end of era Wenger performances or accountant Emery games. How depressing is that. We had no game today. I don’t understand what he was trying to achieve today. And worst of all, he seemed clueless as to what was happening. How could he not see Poor Partey struggling in this new position?
I could have managed a better Arsenal performance today than Arteta. I’m available if needed for the Wolves game. Because if he insists on leaving Partey at right back he will rapidly lose the crowd being on his side. He will dissipate all the good-will built up this season and contaminate next season. This is the stupidity of it all. We have been slowly going backwards over the last month or so. I thought after the Newcastle game that we’ve figured it out. Bring Kiwior in for Holding. That saves us. So why move Kiwior?
I realize I’m just repeating myself at this stage. But I’m looking for some silver lining. And it’s eluding me. We basically had a week to prepare for this game (or six days) but we had no way to pick apart their wall of nine defenders. We didn’t even blood any of the youngsters on the bench. We did not see SRP. But we did see Vieira. Who managed, at the end, to get in the way of Odegaard in the box. Right after Jesus slipped over when he sighted goal. Nothing worked for us today. This was more than a bad day in the office. This was more like a day spent stuck in a locked car in the parking lot for ninety (or one hundred) minutes.
Sure, Sp*rs lost again. But, there is little satisfaction in that after such an abject, emotionless performance such as this. Because today was as utterly boring and tedious as you could hope for. Maybe we should just forfeit the next game and go right to our summer holidays. Yet, I want to see what Arteta does in the next irrelevant game. If he still plays Partey at right back then I know we’re really fucked. Because that means Arteta is really fucked.
-LB7