Half time report:
We are defending well, and in numbers. Arsenal are on the front foot, taking the game to us, but they haven’t really opened us up. The closest we got to a goal was Bradley’s lovely chip, which unfortunately came back off the bar.
It’s not where we want to be, as ideally we want to go toe to toe with Arsenal, even away from home, and beat them well. But we are not playing well, and we are bereft of attackers, so this is probably about as good as we can expect given the circumstances.
In an ideal world we will find a bit more going forwards in the second half. I don’t expect us to become an attacking unit and dominate it, again given the circumstances, but ideally we nick a goal and continue to defend well.
The greater likelihood is an Arsenal breakthrough, as they are making most of the play going forward, but you never know.
There have been plenty of games to have a go at Slot for this season, but this game isn’t one of them.
They are showing highlights of Saka including one sequence of him “spinning Kirkez around”. No, actually what happened was he pulled 5 tricks in a row and Kirkez never once bit, hence him having to do another trick to try to beat him. Again and again. And then just laid the ball off with the crowd cheering.
Sometimes narratives are so strong they drive what people see. Kirkez should have come out of that with big praise but instead were using it as an example of him struggling
Not bad, We’ve silenced them, need 10-15 minutes at the start of the second half. Then some agression and physicality, which we really have been lacking.
We’re just letting them control the pace and direction too much and not getting the defence out fast or far enough.
By some measures, that may be the best half we have played all season. There is a clear idea from Slot, there is commitment to it from the team, and by and large individual execution by the players gas been sound
I saw the Cody follow up from Bradley hitting the bar again. To be fair the ball was bouncing and it was mid-air for a left footed shot. Had he taken it on in all likelihood he would have skied it over the bar as it was awkward. Instead he cut back on his right and it got smothered and defended easily.
I initially thought it was more of a chance than it was, on review.
Exactly. He has defended him really well, and that sequence was great defending. The one black mark was when he leapt in and took himself out of the game.
Pretty happy with our solidity there. We kept the ball pretty well too. Lacking on the counter, but id rather we score later in the game than end up under the kosh trying to defend the lead (ofcourse, you want a goal at any time) cos conceding one will really put us under even more pressure.