Match Threads Arsenal Vs Spurs

[rossdapep]

Can’t see us finishing above them this season. If we continue to play like this we will lose quite a few more games. Still too many square or back passes for my liking. Hugo, Royal and Hojberg the worst of a poor bunch today. Conte’s reputation will buy him more time but not sure how much if he doesn’t soon recognise that this system is not working.

People said that last season too.

Still very very early in the season

 

[guiltyparty]

Was Perisic playing today?

I don’t dare get started on what a disappointment he’s been today…

 

[DenverSpur]

Disappointing.
I was pleased in the first half that for once we turned up to play at the Emirates. We pretty much contained them conceding only a worldie, got back into it and ended the first half probably the more dangerous side.

Unfortunately we started the second half sloppily and gifted them a goal after 2 minutes. I still had confidence we would get something out of the game but then Taylor had his moment-easily the worst referee in the league, and that’s saying something. It was a lazy ”tackle” by Royal but a red card!!!

We lost it a bit after that. The third goal was very poor defending. From there Conte decided the game was over and made 5 substitutions and the game was over.
Without the sending off we’re still in it although how sloppily we started the second half was a worry. Although the media and their lot will be crowing how much better they were I still don’t see much between us other than a difference in playing style. There’s still 30 games to go and we will get better but not sure they have the resilience to keep their form going.
Game to forget and move on.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

People always say this about Lloris.
yes he does make saves but in big games his kicking always puts us under so much pressure. And he has a howler in him more than every other top keeper
I don’t think these things cancel themselves out.

I’m not saying Lloris wasn’t to blame for their second goal but he was not the reason we lost. I blame Conte first and foremost for blindly sticking with 3-4-3 against a team who dominant possession after we looked excellent in a 3-5-2 vs Leicester. Then Emerson for stupidly leaving a stud in Martinelli.

 

[Timberwolf]

I thought we were actually still in it before Lloris decided to chuck it into his own net, but I can't lie the problems this season are happening over and over again and it's worrying.

Lack of control in games means we're always going to be more vulnerable to conceding from fuck-ups, deflections, set pieces etc. Lack of general technical ability on show means we can't create from static situations, making it hard to come from behind or consistently beat teams who sit back. Lack of plan B when the system isn't working.

Any takes from today are over the top as it was two individuals which cost us, but there are questions for Conte to answer about ongoing, consistent issues now. Arsenal were tactically and technically miles ahead of us today.

Yeah in big games, it all comes down to fine margins under Conte and we really cannot afford to give anything away.

Because we allow opposition teams so much of the ball and to have lots of bad/half chances, we absolutely can not afford to make silly mistakes on top of that. If we were an attacking team like City or Liverpool we might get away with it, by creating lots of chances, but under Conte we're only going to get a handful of chances, albeit usually high quality ones.

A goal like Arsenal's second is the absolutely death-knell of a system like ours. The margins are already very fine - we can't give the opposition any freebies.

 

[rossdapep]

Was Perisic playing today?

I was certainly expecting more from him, had some moments he could do something but did it poorly.

But maybe the injury was an issue

 

[bsinghd]

Arsenal knew we would look to counter attack but didn’t care, their plan was to keep the ball and make us chase it for as long as possible safe in the knowledge that our midfield wouldn’t get near them and that we’d sit deep. We looked like a team too worried about the opponent to play our own game effectively, so Conte must think we don’t have players good enough to play on the front foot or he’s shit scared of any team that finished above 12th place last season.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

I don’t dare get started on what a disappointment he’s been today…

All season. He’s piss poor. Excellent at crossing a ball, shit at everything else. I’d rather we gave Sessegnon the game time.

 

[guiltyparty]

Completely agree. I’ve said before I don’t enjoy watching it but Conte’s system is effective and you can’t argue with the number of points he’s picked up for us. When you concede that much possession and drop so deep you are going to struggle if someone gives a goal away or an opposition player bangs one in from 25 yards. Both happened today, compounded by a stupid red card.

Royal is an easy target for abuse but he’s got to come out of the team because he is where attacks go to die and when he’s not on it defensively, he’s a complete waste of a shirt. On a completely separate note, I have to say I’m massively disappointed with Perisic too - maybe I was expecting too much from him

Conte’s system requires immaculate performances from all players AND to get the rub of the green. It’s your call whether you reckon that is a sustainable plan

 

[coy-spurs1882]

Don't know who to blame first for that.
Conte's decision not to play Bissouma and give up the midfield again was a huge mistake. We can not sit off against good opposition, and hope they don't do something special. First goal prime example.
Hugo, captain of the team. You at least hope the captain is one of your most reassuring players on the pitch. Yet he's one of the least reassuring.
And Royal. Not only a stupid needless challenge. But a perfect example of why playing this sit off, hope they don't score, and catch em on the break style ain't gonna win us any trophies. Because we still have too many individual ill-disciplined, error ridden players to play 90 minutes against good sides without fucking up.

Just hope they learn from this.

you know they won't...

 

[Tonio]

Well tbf you challenged without any kind of backing, so onus should be on you. But anyway…,

Picked a 343 when the game cried out for 352, the formation that turned a loss into a win against Leicester and was even more suitable given Kulu’s injury given the bench options.

Persists with a centre two that get overrun every single game, on the off chance that the pot shots we limit teams to won’t go in - but when they do they give enormous

Continues to play this “sit back for first 45” mandated tactic that I don’t believe for a second the players making up themselves every game. Puts us on back foot and reduces very talented footballers to human shields.

Clearly failed to get us worked up enough - we looked meek and not that arsed for a big game. Put us on the back foot, gave the home crowd a huge boost.

Left us with one up top and a stacked midfield chasing a 3-1 because of his mismanagement of his squad.

I dunno what went on with Spence and our inability to sign a RWB that Conte will actually play….

Anyway. Squad showed its deficiencies today. The limitations of Conte tactics were bared.

Wouldn’t you rather watch how Arsenal play every week? As I would

These are the same tactics and set up that helped beat Arsenal 3-0 at home last season. It suits everyone then doesnt it?
This Setup was fine today until Lloris threw one into his own net. That changed the game and swung the momentum Arsenals way. Then the red card completely changed the game and we were never coming back from it.
Conte protected our goal difference at 3-1 with 10 men. Had we chased the game like you wanted it would have ended up 4, 5 or 6.
This same set up and tactic by the way has served us well prior to today. How many games had we gone unbeaten in the league? We lost this due to 2 stupid flash points in the game. Thats it.
If you'd rather watch how Arsenal play than us then thats your outlook. No i'd rather watch Conte's way of playing. He's the superior coach here and ultimately i think that will serve us better in the long run.

 

[guiltyparty]

All season. He’s piss poor. Excellent at crossing a ball, shit at everything else. I’d rather we gave Sessegnon the game time.

I mean, we’d be laughing if another club had signed him and he played like this right?

He looks about 104

 

[Snarfalicious]

It’s obviously a disappointing result but I’m not going full doom and gloom. We haven’t played well this season on the whole, and we are still finishing this weekend in 3rd. I think some perspective is needed and I expect we will see improvements.

As for today, it’s not a red for me. I’m obviously biased, but it was a yellow. That’s it. It was lazy/dumb, not sinister, and for two refs to see that and not think otherwise is truly confounding for me.

I thought we missed an opportunity for the 3-5-2 here. We had no control in midfield and around the box and allowed Partey/Xhaka to get way too far forward and just overwhelm the area outside the box, pulling defenders to them and then opening space for the attack. Not really groundbreaking stuff, and it’s weird Conte didn’t have the foresight for this. Also, not having any attacking subs on the bench to make an impact is a problem, and we absolutely need an addition there in January. Sell Gil if you need to, but we’ve got to get more trusted depth there.

 

[mr ashley]

Disappointing.
I was pleased in the first half that for once we turned up to play at the Emirates. We pretty much contained them conceding only a worldie, got back into it and ended the first half probably the more dangerous side.

Unfortunately we started the second half sloppily and gifted them a goal after 2 minutes. I still had confidence we would get something out of the game but then Taylor had his moment-easily the worst referee in the league, and that’s saying something. It was a lazy ”tackle” by Royal but a red card!!!

We lost it a bit after that. The third goal was very poor defending. From there Conte decided the game was over and made 5 substitutions and the game was over.
Without the sending off we’re still in it although how sloppily we started the second half was a worry. Although the media and their lot will be crowing how much better they were I still don’t see much between us other than a difference in playing style. There’s still 30 games to go and we will get better but not sure they have the resilience to keep their form going.
Game to forget and move on.

Cannot fault this assessment

 

[guiltyparty]

These are the same tactics and set up that helped beat Arsenal 3-0 at home last season. It suits everyone then doesnt it?
This Setup was fine today until Lloris threw one into his own net. That changed the game and swung the momentum Arsenals way. Then the red card completely changed the game and we were never coming back from it.
Conte protected our goal difference at 3-1 with 10 men. Had we chased the game like you wanted it would have ended up 4, 5 or 6.
This same set up and tactic by the way has served us well prior to today. How many games had we gone unbeaten in the league? We lost this due to 2 stupid flash points in the game. Thats it.
If you'd rather watch how Arsenal play than us then thats your outlook. No i'd rather watch Conte's way of playing. He's the superior coach here and ultimately i think that will serve us better in the long run.

Arsenal were an entirely different side last season. They’ve moved on, we haven’t. You play games as they come, not in the past. If we had Gazza we’d have probably won

Yes today was fine apart from the constant pressure making our goalie make a mistake, the constant pot shot allowance seeing one go in, and the constant poor performances of a RWB everyone knows isn’t good enough coming a cropper. Truly unforeseeable circumstances

 

[Teddy Klinsmann]

2 away wins at arsenal in 32 PL seasons. What did we expect. Still bottle jobs when it comes to 90% of the big games.

 

[DarwinSpur]

whilst i can accept defeat and shocking moments from 2 of the back 6 what i cant accept is why our so called strong front 3 are struggling so much.... the passing and final balls in first half was woeful.... kane himself looks completely out of sorts.... can't help but think some of these players are not entirely happy with the system we play where we are starving ourselves from having the ball and not allowing these players play to their strengths and create much more

Look I don't particularly like 343 but fact is it was working fine until Hugo makes the error. We had multiple chances to send players through having worked the formation to make the space - but we kept playing awful passes when they should have been simple.

Like I said - up until Hugo chucks it in his net this was our best performance at that ground for years.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

These are the same tactics and set up that helped beat Arsenal 3-0 at home last season. It suits everyone then doesnt it?
This Setup was fine today until Lloris threw one into his own net. That changed the game and swung the momentum Arsenals way. Then the red card completely changed the game and we were never coming back from it.
Conte protected our goal difference at 3-1 with 10 men. Had we chased the game like you wanted it would have ended up 4, 5 or 6.
This same set up and tactic by the way has served us well prior to today. How many games had we gone unbeaten in the league? We lost this due to 2 stupid flash points in the game. Thats it.
If you'd rather watch how Arsenal play than us then thats your outlook. No i'd rather watch Conte's way of playing. He's the superior coach here and ultimately i think that will serve us better in the long run.

last season we won mainly due to Holding's stupidity

 

[nailsy]

We are playing a particular system that involves wing backs, but we don't really have wing backs who excel in that system - at least when it comes to the attacking third. A lot of people on SC (myself included) have been concerned by our performances, others have said the points tally is what matters, but when you see your team performing poorly / indifferently too often that should tell you that something is not right.

If you don't have the players to excel in the system you either change the players, which you can only do twice a year, or change the system (at least until you have the players you need to excel in your chosen system).

I don't really enjoy watching our games any more. I enjoy moments in games, but we're not an exciting watch any more. Contes a great manager and I'm sure we'll improve when he can add to the squad, but I very much see this as a transition period for us.

 

[spurs mental]

Oh well..they might lose at Norwich