Zoob

Apparently we've scored 3 first half goals in 15 (league) away games this season.

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Yeah, but it worked out well, because to facilitate that, he moved Jones to right back, Gomez to CB, Chiesa to RW, Dom to 8, Salah to center forward, Ekitike to #10 and prob a couple other bits too. Really clever stuff. Must keep up the tactic of having at least 3 different players play RB in each game.

Yeah, this is totally nail on head. Everyone can see it. And it's the same game after game after game most of this is happening, even if we win. I'd rather go down 4-3 and enjoy some attacking football than watch whatever awful iteration of football we are trying to achieve.

Or, as he has admitted many times, he just tweaked the tactics we had under Klopp, and then Salah had one of the greatest ever seasons. As time has gone on, and as we've got further from Klopp, we've just become worse and worse. Once you hit that kind of decline, it's rare (maybe even never?) that a manager can reverse it and make the team good again. I don't think players are taking too long to adapt to how he wants us to play - I think they don't understand it, don't like it, and won't run through a wall for him, as they did for Klopp. I don't see how there's any coming back from this, and if Edwards/Hughes are worth anything they're getting paid, they will know it too.

Oh, I'm in same boat. He never has anything good or interesting to say. I don't even read what he's said, let alone listen. It's all a shame because he seems like a decent bloke, but then his lack of understanding of how any of this is down to him is tainting the fact that however he did it, he did actually win us the league.

Yeah. When you hold your opponents to zero shots in the entire game up to that point, really it shows that we should have been easily leading, so that if they score from their first shot, it doesn't really matter. But we didn't play any sort of football that would justify us easily leading, and we used all our lucky deflections / OGs in the West Ham game.

Our running stats would look even worse if he wasn't around. He's dropped off (I think since the City game), but (low bar though it is) he's still been one of our better players. When Wirtz isn't around, he's the only one consistently looking to pick a forward pass or run with the ball.

I don't know what this means, and choose not to find out. At least we can agree he's been absolutely terrible this season without me having to dig any deeper into this disturbing phrase.

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The sad thing is that we're so s***, that Joe's long throws are as threatening as anything we create in open play.

Yeah. He became a father, and that definitely could impact something. Missed part of pre-season too, but he looks like someone has replaced him with a sunday league body double

I would love to hear him explain what his footballing philosophy is. Because at the moment, it seems to be to have everyone run as little as possible, not risk forward passes that may result in loss of possession, pass it around a lot and then give it back to Ali so he can give the ball back to them. And then just have a free for all in the last few minutes if we're chasing a game, which helps our opponents get last minute winners. We've had injuries and stuff, but so have other teams. We are so mediocre it hurts.

I don't feel his drop has been as bad as Salah and Gakpo, but given he was on the up (and for a time looked like one of the top midfielders in the league), it's still a great drop off, and makes our midfield seem extra light and open

We've had it so good for so long. It's hard not to get greedy, and want more. After 2013-14, I didn't think we'd win the league again. We just seemed so adrift of City and Chelsea financially as much as anything else. And then we hit the absolute jackpot with Klopp, who did more than most of us could have dreamed about. I'm trying to balance this with the utter pile of feces we are now faced with. Joyless, pointless football, the likes of which we haven't seen in over a decade. Even with Rodgers at the end, we were still s***, but I felt we had more attacking intent and identity. This football is far more like it was under he who was never actually our manager, and it's shocking to watch.

BBC XG for this one: 0.44 for Wolves, 1.8 for us. I think Gapko clearing it off the line for them was probably as much of a non XG as you'll see. Our 4 on 3 break at 1-1 should give us nightmares. Fact that we so regularly concede from such few chances given is indicative of weak mentality imo. And no huge surprise to see yet again that Wolves out ran us.

It's like eating dog poo vs cat poo options. Yeah, sure we're kinda f***ed financially if we're not in CL, so we need to get there. And then we'd likely sack him 10 games in next season, because none of us expect anything to change. There's a curve with managers - like steady, or sudden improvements. We have gotten worse and worse over time with Slot. In fact I think you can credit Klopp for most of our good performances in the first half of last season, where Slot himself said he wasn't changing much. But we've been s*** for a year now. s*** games, s*** tactics, s*** performances. just s***.

It's worse than peak Ali, but better than current Ali. He's not likely to make any assists, but can give it a whack, which is what was needed at that point in the game. Not saying I want him playing instead of Ali, but I think Jones, Ali, Gomez all culpable for their stupid winning goal. Last couple of games we've been lucky to win. This one we were unlucky to lose, but it's all been consistent with the fact that we play s***, clueless, mid-table football. Edit: unlucky to lose this game.

I couldn't even tell who was on the field and who was playing where at the end. For all the boring rigidity of prem football, just throwing a load of players on like that and hoping it works out (when it's led to numerous last minute goals conceded) is terrible management. Just amateur and unforgivable stuff. So much bad stuff in that game. The lack of intensity, poor passing, poor movement, Salah and Gakpo awful again, Ali can't kick the ball for fear his hamstrings will pop, our set pieces terrible aside from the one Gakpo cleared off the line. Grrrrr. So crap to feel bad almost every time I watch us.

The thing about it was it was so predictable. Was anyone surprised when Wolves scored from their first shot in the game? Or when they got a last minute winner? Mo scored, and at least unlike Gakpo, he didn't prevent one of our goals with a fantastic goal line clearance, but we won't do anything while those two play as badly and pointlessly as they're playing.

Set-pieces mean Premier League no longer a joy - Slot Would be nice if we were a joy to watch, but I can't disagree with his view on the set piece bore-fest that this season has become.

These stats from the BBC just show how utterly dull Arsenal are. I hope some coaches find a way to stop this, because nobody wants to see game after game settled by set pieces. This was the ninth time in the Premier League this season that Arsenal have scored a match-winning goal from a corner, now the outright most by a team in a single campaign (overtaking Manchester United's eight in 2012-13). They have gone 1-0 up from a corner on nine occasions in the Premier League this season, the joint-most by a team in a single campaign, along with Southampton in 1994-95 (9). Arsenal's 16 goals from corners is the joint-most by any side in a single Premier League campaign, alongside Oldham in 1992-93, West Brom in 2016-17, and the Gunners themselves in 2023-24.

Yeah, it's a real shame. The tactical rigidity, and set piece dominated s*** football is making the prem far less fun to watch.

Just saw the Palace Manc highlights. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it's remarkable how simular their pen/red card was to the Guehi/Salah incident. Aside from the outcome of course.

A draw would be an ok result imo.