Looks like 4-2-3-1 for us. Xhaka-Partey double pivot, ESR on the left.

Not as risky a starting eleven but expected for a big game.

Yea ESR LW has worked well for us. I like the team. Good bench options too.

Should be beating this spurs team but Kane n co always turn up against us

1-0. ESR. Set-up by Saka.

Hale End

ESRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Fantastic start

Auba 2-0.

Brilliant move playing through Spurs' press. Comes from Ramsdale's ballsy pass through the midfield and Xhaka doing well holding off Hjobjerg. Could have easily resulted in disaster but when it comes off it's spectacular.

AUBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

What a run by ESR. Everything about that run is perfection

Tears in my eyes. what a half. One of the best performance under Arteta

Arteta is really a pussy manager. Get someone like Martinelli to inject some pace and urgency. But no, he will play like a coward and let Spuds swarm us

AnJl wrote:Arteta is really a pussy manager. Get someone like Martinelli to inject some pace and urgency. But no, he will play like a coward and let Spuds swarm us

We're winning the game. Chill.

What a win. 2nd half could have been a bit better but no complaints.

This 11 is our best 11 for sure but probably can Xhaka for Pepe for smaller teams.

How good is Tomiyasu? Great signing.

so happy for Emile... had a good feeling about the game the whole week, overslept the start a bit, and when i went to turn on the TV, Emile was celebrating his goal

only negative is Xhaka went straight back into the team

Xhaka was great.

Get in
Good selection to brimg Xhaka back and playing Saka from the right
What a performance in the 1st half just after 15 minutes after strong start it looked like we are losing control but the risks in build up proved worthy as every time we played through the press there was a lot of space was helped by having better technecians in the build up compared to last season

Auba in that 4-2 under Emery had proper all round performance, here he did very well too

Finally a strong showing from Saka too which is great to see,hopefully it kick starts his season from now

RealGunner wrote:Xhaka was great.

you never learn, do you

This is our strongest line up for big games
ESR and øde as #8s with one holder behind vs Smaller teams

sure, until BrainFart Xhaka takes off someone's head like he nearly did today and gets a red, or leaves a backpass short to the goalie and concedes a goal... can't believe the juju this guy has over some of the fanbase.

Lokonga >>>>>

Spurs are a bad pressing team at the moment and we've got the technicians at the back to exploit that now. The big test will be when we play teams who press well, like Brighton away in a couple of weeks time.

It's the third game in a row where we've lost control of the game after a momentum swing and its resulted in uncomfortable 2nd halves. I was less worried today because we had a three goal lead and would have to play really badly to throw that away, but if we're defending a narrow lead away to a Villa or West Ham for example, we'll be punished if we can't keep a lid on the game.

Hopefully it's something fixed by experience and confidence. We're coming out of a bad period (again), players are understandably anxious defending a lead since every win right now is vital and any defeat is a crisis. Mistakes will be made.

I'm feeling more optimistic now. The nature of the early defeats really stung because it looked like we had no idea what we wanted to do, but now it seems Arteta has settled on the formations he likes, has got the players he wants to carry out his ideas and knows who he can trust. He can play 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot behind the ball for more security or he can play the 4-1-4-1 with a more adventurous midfield + an extra forward. The structure of the team doesn't change that much.

The danger is when we lose Ramsdale/White/Gabriel/Tomiyasu/Partey/Odegaard to injury or suspension because the back-ups simply don't have the same qualities and it'll alter how the team plays.

Xhaka out for 3 months

What we do?

play Lokonga more in that spot and hopefully he plays so good Xhaka never comes back into the team

RealGunner wrote:Xhaka out for 3 months

What we do?

Rejoice?

Partey Lokonga double pivot for big teams. Partey alone for smaller teams. 4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1/4-1-3-2 depening upon the scenario at hand.

Arsenal XI vs Brighton:

Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Lokonga, Smith Rowe, Odegaard, Saka, Aubameyang (c).

We are not playing very well.

Feels like we are away to old trafford during prime SAF years

We've been so bad in every phase of play.

Playing out: Can't beat Brighton's four man press, Ramsdale's kicking has been poor, players starting to be caught in possession.

Pressing: Brighton out-numbering our "press" every time, so we're just going back into a mid block. Then for some reason Sambi and Partey are really far apart? Sambi keeps getting dragged out to the left and leaving a massive gap in the middle.

Brighton are completely controlling this game and should be ahead.

Also losing every individual dual. Cucurella has Tomiyasu on toast, Burn keeps getting in front of Saka and I've yet to see Partey/Sambi win a tackle in the middle.

Pretty much. We can't even link the team together properly. Defence fails to pass to midfield. Midfield is non-existent so it can't link to attack. Attack easily gets stopped because of how aggressive Brighton's pressing is. We have no structure.

Our left side is getting destroyed. There is no one to cover Tierney's runs so as a result Tierney just stopped making runs forward. Sambi has a long long way to go because the game is passing by him. Odegaard, ESR, Auba all invisible but not their fault in all honesty.

Ben white surprisingly has been our most solid player.