We’ve been able to rotate our injuries to a point as well as the likes of Kelleher and Gomez stepping up at key times.
Problem with Arsenal is they’ve become their reserve tactic even their fans have been criticising the focus on shithousery at corners.
They went to that tactic when Odegaard was injured but haven’t reversed back. They still have a midfield that should be producing chances even for amateur clod hoppers but they aren’t even doing that.
And teams seem to have wised up to their corner tactics, its not working as much anymore. I noticed against Forest they tried some short corners to change angles but it didn’t really lead to anything.
Yes, two of their first 5 games were drawn.
Between October 19 and 10 November, they drew two games of four games (us and Chelsea) and lost the other two (Newcastle and Bournemouth).
They lost another two in December (Everton and Fulham)
On Bradley, if Trent goes I was absolutely fine with Bradley taking over at right back. He looked like he was taking to it like a duck to water. Up and down the flank. Strong in the tackle. An eye for goal too. Ok he doesn’t have Trent’s range of passing (who does?) but Bradley ticks a lot of boxes and I was fine for him to take over if Trent leaves.
Note the past tense, because now I’m not so sure.
It’s the injuries, innit? So now I’m thinking we need to buy a right back of a sufficient level to step in, be relied upon, and perhaps even be the first choice ahead of Bradley, assuming Trent leaves.
It’s a shame, as it feels like we will have a few other needs to fill this summer, but right back looks like it will need to be addressed too.
They didn’t win the league because they suck at creating chances and scoring goals. Injuries aside, Arteta following his first defeat to City in a title race over indexed on shoring up the defensive fragilities of his team and he’s never been able to find the right balance. Following that season their weird obsession with CB/FB hybrids began resulting in minimal depth and improvement to their attacking play. I’ve never really rated Jesus ( I think he’s a streaky forward who best contribution is his defensive work ethic) and I think martinelli has began to get found out a bit.
It seems Arteta forgot that if you can’t score at least 1 goal per match the most points you can get is 1.
The pundit excitement over their burst of scoring from corners led them to ignore that cheating on corners is not actually a stable foundation for attacking play.
The team in 13th place has scored more goals than Arsenal. Their PPM were lower when Saka was still in the team. They just don’t create open play goals.
It’s almost as if without Haavertz and Martinelli leading the charge at corners they’ve become less adept at cheating. That was one of the sweetest things about the Forest game , watching their corners and free kicks come to precisely fuck all.
One of the pundits somewhere was saying they were celebrating corners like a goal.
If your an opposition especially one like Forest who have a lot of players used to this style of play it’s very easy to defend.
In fact if your preparing for a game against Arsenal you know where you can get a point.
I think Leicester were unlucky not to get one and then you watched them completely collapse against Brighton and you wonder.
That was always going to be a concern for me as he is still quite young and not physically big yet.
Dude fucking walked on water, healed the sick, and fed 5k people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. What the fuck more do you want?!
There are things to like about Jesus’ game, but if you are playing him you had better have a team set up that is going to reliably get goals from outside or midfield (see him doing the donkey work for Brazil to let Neymar and Phil run riot). Bobby worked because Mo and Mane together might get you 40 league goals, but not only that Bobby facilitated them being so prolific. Saka and Martinelli have never had that level of productivity but that mismatch was masked last season a bit by an unusual (and probably unsustainable) contribution from the defenders and players like Rice. This year those issues have been magnified, but they shouldnt be a big surprise.
Allegedly.
Did he win the fucking quad Peaches? Did he?!
That asteroid has been creeping up too 
Meanwhile…
Luckily it’s 7 years away and would if a direct hit take only a city out. Issue is if it hits water.
