Tactical Breakdown – Why Arteta can’t keep using restrictive 3-4-3 formation and add creativity.
One step forward and two back seems to be the story of Arsenal’s season so far, as they failed to build on any momentum gained from their accomplished display at Old Trafford, by losing 3-0 at home to Aston Villa. Arteta chose to stick with the same personnel and formation that worked so effectively against […]
Four key matches of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal Reign so far
Just before Christmas, Mikel Arteta will have occupied the Arsenal hot seat for a year. As his first 12 months in management draw to a close, there have been highs and lows for the rookie boss who previously served as an assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. In celebration of this upcoming anniversary, we take […]
Many lessons for Arteta to learn from Villa defeat – but the biggest is his need for a Grealish
What a difference a week can make, from feeling euphoric to embarrassed. One step forward, two steps backwards. My previous article warned Arsenal supporters against getting too carried away after our impressive victory at Old Trafford and unfortunately, that proved to be some shrewd advice. I’ve also been saying for a while that Mikel […]
Is Arteta’s desire to control out of control? Nine things we learned from the Villa debacle (and how to fix them)
FOOTBALL as RUGBY / LOSING to the SOLUTION POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Let’s start with ‘Football as Rugby.’ I have a general understanding of Rugby. I certainly get that to make progress the rules force you to pass backwards. I’d imagine that if they let you pass forward that the players would. Football isn’t necessarily […]
Arteta to retain 343/433 Hybrid vs Aston Villa: A Tactical Preview
The Gunners come into Sunday’s fixture full of confidence, after their impressive performance at Old Trafford was followed up with a convincing 4-1 win over Molde in the Europa League on Thursday night. Arteta will be hoping his players can execute his game-plan as effectively as they did against United, as their organised and versatile […]
Folarin Balogun: locked and loaded to replace Arsenal’s misfiring strikers
Since signing for Arsenal as a 10-year-old back in 2011, 19-year-old Folarin Balogun (known also as ‘Flo’), has netted 53 times and has 15 assists at the U18 and U23 levels for Arsenal. His future, however, is a major uncertainty as Balogun has entered the final season in 20/21 of his contract as a Gunner […]
What Willock adds is Unique so why are we not seeing him in Premier League Team?
Things looked ominous for Arsenal as they went 1-0 down to Molde in the Europa League on Thursday night. 20 or so minutes in and it looked like the game was following a familiar pattern to our recent encounters against lesser oppositions. The Norwegian champions sat deep and were happy to cede possession to the […]
Arteta praises MOTM Willock as Fresh Arsenal breeze past Molde Nowegians
Match Report Arsenal continued their perfect record in the Europa League and moved three points clear at the summit of group B, as they came from a goal behind to beat Molde 4-1 at the Emirates. Nicolas Pepe and Joe Willock starred for Arsenal as they both got on the score-sheet late on, after two […]
Super Zak – His name is Swanson, he plays like Sansom and had Sane in his Pocket!
Having spent the last few weeks discussing players of 17 and 18 John and I thought we should perhaps return to a player that might be closer to a first team break through. We have two right backs out on loan this season in Zak Swanson and Jordi Osei-Tutu and I was recently impressed watching […]
Last night demonstrated the Need for a Necessary Willock Style Chaos
A Necessary Chaos POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Watching Aaron Ramsey at Arsenal was a frustrating experience for me. I know I wasn’t the only one that felt that Arsenal wasted his best years. A potentially world class player who was never played consistently as a box to box midfielder in a midfield three. What happened […]