Will it be win number two in the Europa League on Thursday?
After that shocker against Leicester on the weekend our focus now turns to the Europa League again in midweek where we face Irish side Dundalk at the Emirates.
Dundalk I must admit is a team I don’t know much about but in their first Europa League game, they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Norwegian side Molde and they also sit third in the League of Ireland Premier Division -which is the top level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system that was formed in 1985 following a reorganisation of the League of Ireland- after seven wins four draws and five losses, behind Bohemians in second and Shamrock Rovers in first.
On paper our group should be an easy maximum point group with wins in each game for our boys, but as we know from previous, on paper means nothing if we cannot do the deed on the pitch on the day and one momentary lack of concentration and one bit of weakness exposed and it could really be anyone’s game on the day. As we saw against Leicester!
If I am honest, when the draw was made I said to myself it was a fairly easy Europa League group, I know Rapid would always be a tough test but there is no reason why we can’t get maximum wins against all of these sides in our group because we know we have the talent and ability to do so right?
Can we continue a successful start in the Europa League and get two wins out of two for max points? Why not!
This season should finally be our season in the Europa League, we should walk away with the title before we go back into the Champions League next season.
Here’s hoping hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
One big problem Arsenal has, and why even the likes of Leeds, Aston Villa and Everton players seem to perform better, is the fact that Arsenal players have a very bad 1st touch on the ball,. Average at best.
Only Saka, Partey and Ceballos are technically gifted to an extent, have a good first touch and can move with the ball.
In football, your 1st touch determines how you flow with the ball.. Once you have a poor first touch, there’s nothing positive you can do with the ball other than giving it away cheaply almost all the time.
Auba, Laca, Xhaka, Nketiah have very poor first touches, and being that they play mostly in congested areas, they tend to lose the ball easily and affect our play.
Compare them with our opponent players and you’ll see how far behind.
That’s the reason why even when we manage to get the ball from pressing, we can’t seem to string 3 to 5 passes together before losing in. In other to avoid this, the defenders keep playing sideways and backwards for fear of losing the ball.
Another problem is our attackers these days are too flatfooted or always ball watching.
They don’t seem to make runs in behind the defenders. Like the type of runs that gave Leicester their goal on Sunday.
Defenders hate those type of runs and we fail to capitalize.
Auba, Laca, Willian and Pepe need to step up. Cos Luiz, Gabriel and Ceballos keep looking for those runs in behind but it doesn’t happen, and then the best outlet is the full backs. Yet even at that Laca can’t be found at the end of a decent cross.
These are things to be worked on in training, but they keep laughing and playing on the training ground.
Wou, nothing to add actually!!! Everything is said absolutely everything!!!! Congratulations for that lucid analysis!! I think arteta would time to time look at what fans write and learn from
You hit the nail on the head khadii. I would add one more thing, the transition from defence to attack is too slow and predictable to worry the opposition. Anyway I think we should win on Thursday and this would be my line up(opinion ofcourse):
Runarrson
Soares Mustafi Chambers Kola
Willock Xhaka ESR
Nelson Nketiah Willian
This will give our main players a well deserved rest and recovery time for the big game on the weekend against the Manks and also see how the back ups perform to see if they can be included on Sunday.
I want to see at least 8 changes, Nelson should play.
Can’t wait for martinelli to play again hope he comes back stronger.
BUT WTF injured him in training (URUSANAI)
Confidence booster? Beating
Dundalk?