Maybe, I know this is your view from previous discussion, but I feel that there is an element of mentality/approach that has also contributed. Perhaps that is the plan B due to injury as you said but I’m not sure how effective plan B has been vs going at teams a bit more even without all 1st choice
Reflecting on yesterday puts me in mind of the rest of the season. You can lose big games of football; it’s a game of moments, chances and bounces of the ball. It hurts, sure, but it’s ok if Arsenal play like that
What I question is the games that preceded it, where was that 🔥 for most of 2026?
Qu too long for character limit, see note below! #arsecastextra @gunnerblog.bsky.social
Astonishing effort, really proud of Arsenal on the whole, deserved at least a draw. Frustrated Eze came off. Glaring weakness that Arteta/Berta have to be ruthless about it - our attackers are not good enough; we cannot come away from those chances with no goals
5 game shootout, let’s go #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️
Taking Eze off was an absolutely dreadful decision by Arteta I’m afraid
Breathless 1st half, both teams hammer and tongs. Arsenal need a bit more composure in midfield, some very heavy touches. Dare I say Dowman somewhere in the middle to provide that same level of close control and trickery as Cherki? Noni doesn’t look fit either, maybe Gabi RW #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️
Timber & Saka aside think that’s our best XI, excited to see it and hope we play with the passion, pace and dedication that the occasion demands. No wilting and bafflement like the Carabao, this is our time. Immortality beckons Arsenal, take it. Also fuck City tbh, for 115 reasons and more #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️
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How I feel about Arsenal today
Time to stand up and dismember Man City #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️
Doing bedtime and saw the score was 2-1, that Athletic notification of ‘Spurs stunned by Brighton’ hit like crack and gave me the strength to carry on 😂
Thank god there’s no other football to worry about this weekend
Oh, never mind, Mitoma got the memo
Listen, I don’t think a single Arsenal fan liked Hürzeler before this weekend but seriously, stop ruining football for everyone. One last miracle please Danny Welbeck 🙏🏻
Arsenal much better 2nd half, Havertz & Jesus really added some ‘stickiness’
Brain fart moments from Hincapie & Trossard in the final stages but we did our job; Sporting refused to open up so we just controlled. CL semis and last PL team in the comp again is no mean feat
Onto Sunday 💪🏻 #COYG 🔴⚪️
Araujo booked, surely a sign the momentum is with us now 😂
Ooh think that’s a little glass half full, we’ve showed more intent that Bournemouth and looked zippier to start the half. Agree with the front 3, just doesn’t seem to combine well. Like Eze being back, pass to Zubi 🔥 and Gyok should have swung his foot at it. Think a goal for us opens floodgates
Think that was generally alright, just need some slightly sharper touches in build up and from our wingers. Sporting played through a little easily towards the end of the half, good time for the break.
Eze looks to be cooking up something special though, got my eyes on him 👀 #COYG 🔥 💪🏻🔴⚪️
Wow this Sporting RW is a twat
No words, let’s just do it.
#COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️
Our ‘Plan B’ replacements are mostly £50M+ players. I can’t agree that they are so innately deficient that they render us incapable of playing progressively. If that is the case then that raises serious questions about recruitment for me
But we’re not being more solid in defence by winning the ball in central midfield, passing it back to Raya, getting pressed and then losing it to concede a goal are we? It’s a preference/choice in terms of what has been instructed and I/many others feel it’s currently to our detriment
If you take RHS - Saka hasn’t actually been out for a lot of the season, I’m just saying he’s played below his best. Timber has been available mostly. I think there’s a problem with our team if we simply can’t play progressively without Odegaard and he was pretty poor earlier in the season anyway.
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This segment of the Arsecast sums it up perfectly for me. We lack boldness in build-up, which is ironically increasing our risk because we aren’t taking the, often, simple pass forward when available. That’s not an injury thing for me, it’s mindset/instruction.
Not sure that’s true this season; Odegaard yes but we signed Eze, Kai partly but we signed Victor. Jesus hasn’t been a factor for a long time. Saka is the big miss in terms of injury/form (and we signed Noni). I accept they’re a factor but am reticent to call the whole season ‘plan B’ as a result
Sorry but I don’t agree that’s a fair reason this season. I completely accepted it last year when our squad was thin and we were scraping together teams but that’s simply not the case now. We have prem proven talent in every position x2. Jesus and Havertz have been back for months now.
Wouldn’t say the style is unique to 2026 just more pronounced. Do we believe that the players available are incapable of playing with more tempo and fluidity? If no then it’s instruction, if yes, that’s a recruitment issue from the Summer; is Eze perhaps the only technically gifted player we bought?
My view is that his search for control, coupled to a desperation to win, has stifled what we do. Our attacking structure is designed to stop transition threat but it is so telegraphed and risk averse that teams have become wise to it which ironically generates more threat. ‘Handbrake off’ needed 😂
I’m not at all advocating for Arteta to be sacked. I just think his footballing ethos needs to shift back in some way to 2022-2024 in the knowledge that we simply have better defensive players now and to back them to stop more goals than those iterations did
Think the issue with the team is stylistic. @gunnerblog.bsky.social said it really well on Arsecast; envy of the way Bournemouth played with incision and pace. Maybe this is from the shackles of trying to get this title, but *how* we’ve played in 2026 has few redeeming features if we don’t win
Still stunned by how poor we were-ly evening gents
Saturday was a familiar experience of knowing early on it wasn’t gonna be a good game. Do you believe in Arteta’s ability to make meaningful tactical change in and/or between games when things aren’t working? #arsecastextra @gunnerblog.bsky.social
Before the Carabao cup final City hadn’t beaten Arsenal since April 2023
It feels like a lot right now and our performances recently have been deeply concerning but we can do this. The team need to believe and so do we, next week defines our season, let’s just fucking do it #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️
Just watched Arteta’s post game; concerned by his answer re: not doing basic things which then stretched the pitch/made the game difficult to control
If anything our inhibition in build up seeking safe passes and control was the problem; it invited unbearable pressure til we booted it or lost it