₦airaland Forum

Sportsweb:
Davido management no good like that. He always promote the wrong songs or viral ones. Oh Kante, sweet song, better than the unavailable

True that.

He has a way of promoting the wrong songs and his manager need to up their game.

semid4lyfe:
I concede the point on song selection, my brother.

For someone who had severally that his dream was to win a Grammy, I'm surprised he made such a gaffe in song selection.

Tomorrow is pregnant so make hin go again next year.

Good luck to him in his quest sha.

Plenty Naija artist dey wey no send this grammy, them just want make songs and cash out.

semid4lyfe:
Lol Brother, I no dey fan any artiste. I like good melody and sounds, and OBO and Machala have them plenty in their repertoire.

I think Kante with Fave was the better song and Davido should have promoted that song as the lead track and submitted it for the Grammys instead.

Actually, he should have promoted 'RnB' with Shansea that was the song that had Global appeal and standards but e be like say him team no advise well.

He was assuming that everyone can relate to Naija standards, it was a bad strategy.

Roland17:
Tomorrow now una begin ask wetin my girl Renee has done. She has achieved things that choke artist and failure could never!

You no dey forgive and forget?..Lol!!

If Arteta bottle the league like this ehn, here no go contain all of us...

You go drag him papa!

Godforbid sha, we go win this league insha Allah!

Shout out to Arteta for making the big call of dropping Odegaard.

Even Odegaard too was a bit better when he came.

The good thing about being benched is that it gives you time to reflect on your game.

I hope Saka injury isn’t too serious. Naso Calafiori start before you know, he was out for weeks.

mostob:
If Madueke can improve his decision making, he would be up there with the best wingers of the game. Athletic, a good dribbler, can go inside and outside of a defender. His problem is his decision making.

His matter be like when person fart inside your mouth con pour salt. Fart, you no fit lick. Salt, you no fit spit out.

Lol..This your description self

mostob:
There was a ball he sent to Obalende yesterday. A properly worked corner kick. He arrived inside the box and decided na one innocent bird je wan kpai. Weird guy.

I just tire for the guy. Imagine if his final ball were on point, he would have easily won man of the match because the baba cook those defenders.

iamoyindamola:
Abi gyokeres
That's what they said

Well, Gyokeres missed chances too but not compared the mentioned.

germaphobe:
Eze to me plays more like a street footballer, he enjoys spaces and try to penetrate, but when it is man to man marking, he loses it a lot.
I didn't get the opportunity to watch the first half, but the second half wasn't it for me. Lots of wasted chances, this is a game where we should be putting up the goals to create more fears and respect, but......
Odegaard is still all about passing around to gain possession, though he made some real passes forward that created chances, but he should be doing more. Eze playing the lw and Calafiori on the lb should open up more chances, Arteta should look into that.
Norgaard was solid.
Kai, I won't say anything about him yet untill I rewatch the first half. But I think the first half was more about attacking than the second half.

Our First half was fast and Direct. The moment Odegaard came in, penetrative passes through the middle reduced and we kept hanging on the ball and slowed down very well.

It’s very obvious who the cause of it was, the coach must surely see this.

Anyway, as predicted, Kai won MOTM.

I would like to see more of Norgaard, especially in the premier league. He can come good unexpectedly you know.

Madueke is one hell of a funny guy, quick footed but slow in thinking and execution. Such a wierd combo. Him, Martinelli and Jesus were the major culprit of chances wasted yesterday.

germaphobe:
we always forget that epl has changed so much. No team allows you that space to play that kind of 2023 ball. Especially against us. You will watch other matches and see how teams are willing to risk and play ball, but once they meet us, they are comfortable sitting back and frustrating our free flow. But like you said, it is left for the manager to change that. But one thing is certain, we can never be as free as 3 seasons ago when the league wasn't more physical

Fair enough.

What are your thoughts on today’s game? Especially between the first half and second half.

I think, there are some games that would suit Ezes style of play, the manager just needs to figure out how and when to use him.

He fancies that simple one two in between spaces. I think he would have thrived under Wenger than Arteta.

But let’s see how it goes going forward.

Kai was my man of the match sha. So good to have him back.

mostob:
Now that we have Hincapie and Calafiori back, guess who and who got injured. Saliba and Timber.

Although it's a niggle and hoping they're fit for weekend.

Timber own is understandable. He has played so much games this season.

Same with Rice and Zubi.

germaphobe:
Arsenal and City have more goals scored than the two clubs you mentioned. While city have more open play goals, Arsenal is just 3 goals and 4 goals apart from both teams in terms of open play. Chances creation have never been an issue more than the subject of clinicality is or ever was, even in the last 3 years, which was why the shout for a striker became so loud till we hot one. Now the striker here, but both him and other attackers still lack that great finishing touches.

In as much as we can say Odegaard is performing below expectation, but there are moments when he created excellent chances and we watched it being wasted by our attackers. We signed a creative midfielder who we expected to compete with Odegaard, but he has shown countless times that his play is different to what Odegaard can offer and what we expect from him as the creative mind of a possession dominating team.

Nope. It is not entirely because of our finishing. It only seemed like that because of the wastefulness of kai and the unseriousness of GJ.

Infact. there was a period where, Saka, Martinelli, Trosaard and even Odegard had over 10G/A.

Our decline started when teams figured out how to counter our set up especially with the inverted full back thingy where we get to overload the final third.

We were so obsessed with inverted full backs that we stuck to it even when teams where playing low block against us.

We were supposed to react quickly and adjust our game plan, these adjustments would have helped the players to adapt and improve their game.

Arsenal needs to be more direct and quick in transition just like how we used to be.

Tell me, is this how we use to play compared to previous seasons.

Was Odegaard dropping so deep to collect the ball from Saliba or Zubi?

Watch our previous 2022/2023 games against Brighton, Man U, Tottenham or With Fulham and tell the difference between how we played then and now.

germaphobe:
we have scored twice the number of set piece goals through open play. But somehow they media wants to create the narrative that we depend on set piece. The fact that we mastered the act of scoring through set piece doesn't mean we utterly depend on it. The problem is our attackers not burying our open play chances, and that has made the agenda sell well. The team sees set piece as a weapon and knows that when it happens there's a chance.

That being said, we really need more creativity through the middle and not always the wings, that will make life more easier for everyone. If we can be shooting more often in such congested low blocks, there will always be a possibility of an own goal, reflection and rebounds.

And who is/are responsible for creation through the middle? and why are they not working on it? We are facing similar issues just like city.

The common denominator here is lack of a proper attacking mildfielder.

Only Man U and Chelsea(prior to palmers absense) currently enjoys the presence of attacking midfielder.

Mind you, this issue has been persistent for 3 seasons now but our coach just believes so much in his captain and is afraid to make bold decisions despite his claims of beign an evolved manager, earlier in the season.

Roland17:
Can we forfeit the Kairat game?

Well I believe the B team should be able to handle that, else, they should get rid of all of them.

Elland road would be tough, but the second leg of Carabao cup is more important in my opinion.

It will encourage them to push through & go over the finish line.

iamoyindamola:
We need to win caraboa cup as starter to break this mental block affecting manager and players
That spirit of bottling have overwhelm them
All of them even the name Arsenal needs cleansing

We really need to. At this point na prayers we need for Arsenal.

My cousin who is Man U fan was asking me if we were cursed??

That was harsh of him. person wey dey collect back to back L's for more than 3 seasons get mind tell me that thing.

Lets see how the team reacts vs Chelsea.

me I no dey count the Leeds game.

We have failed to impress against the top 6 this season and something has to change.

All through this season, this is the defeat I felt the most.

Arteta needs to find a solution to our creativity problem and it starts with him not suffocating our most creative players with defensive mindset.

His desire to always keep things controlled and safe is now affecting the team.

Most of our players are no longer free and expressive as they used to be because we have a coach that is so defensive minded.

This has made us too risk averse and clueless most of the times. Na why e Dey be like say we Dey depend only on set pieces.

Kudos to Saliba, he is the only one noticing our faults in the team and maybe Rice.

We are not ruthless enough and he has mentioned it in sometime ago.

We aren’t serious about winning titles until we stop respecting the so called top 6.

The bulk of it lies with the manager. If he can’t see it and is not willing to change, then he should Fvck off and let someone with more balls take over.

As regards my Odegaard agenda, I used to admire him a lot but now is the right time to collect the arm band and give it to Rice or Gabriel. Baba is washed up, and has not spine. Someone should tell me one game apart from that Olympiakos game where Odegaard stood up and grab the game by the neck.

Again, it still boils down to the manager. Baba doesn’t know how to manage players that are technically independent and expressive. It’s one of the reasons I no like as Ethan go loan.

Omo! Ethan na baller, he just needs a proper mentor and manager.

BlueRayDick:
The Odegaard matter is very simple, Eze that is supposed to step up has not done that at all. Eze has not convinced anyone he can step into Odegaard's role while Odegaard is not in form or out injured.

Now there's the bias of Odegaard being a captain which I believe is the reason why he's starting at a time when both Himself and Eze are not playing so well. That captaincy gives him the edge.

And I have been saying that we can tweak formation, roles or line up to ensure everyone playing are at their best.

Take for example, Saka is brought to play the attacking midfied role while Madueke plays the right wing.

I recall we tried Trosaard in that role at some point but didn't work out.

Another option is Hervertz.

Or we play 442 formation.

My point is, we should be dynamic and not let injury be the only thing that forces us to tweak things.

I understand the need for predictability and stability, but it shouldn't be at the expense of optimal performance.

I believe doing this will give us strategic leverage in the long run.

BlueRayDick:
The thing is; as fans we have what we wish for and how we assume things should work out concerning certain players. But at the end of the day, it is the manager who sees these players in training that knows why he's starting some players ahead of the others.

I don't want to believe Arteta just doesn't like Nwaneri or he's "afraid" to start him ahead of the senior players in his position. I have a feeling that Nwaneri has not shown enough in all aspects of his game for Arteta to risk giving him a push ahead of Eze and Odegaard. Maybe it is the defensive aspect of his game or any other thing we are missing, I just know the manager will have his reasons which he must have discussed with the player himself.

Ever since Arteta made Saliba undergo 2 different loan spells before finally making him a first team regular, I have come to realize that when a coach decides to send a player on loan it doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't like the player. Sometimes it is for the good of the concerned player, the good of the manager and good of the club in the long run.

All those times when Saliba was playing on loan at Nice and Marseille one could argue we needed a decent CB and some of the fans would've wished Saliba was recalled to be co-opted into the team. But the coach allowed him enjoy enough playing time on loan to develop further before bringing him back home. I want to believe the same can work out for Nwaneri if everything goes well.

I hope it works out for him that way too.

Although, the manager is still human and maybe bias in his Judgement (case in point, Odegaard).

Now, I am fan of Odegaard, but still yet Arteta is yet to make that tough call of benching him. He can't tell me Odegaard is offering anything at the moment to warant beign in the starting line up all the time.

Kudos to the team for their immense hardwork.

4 away games in 10 days is no joke.

Now, lets sustain the momentum by winning our next home games starting with united and their new manager bounce.

Odegaard was benched yesterday, I hope it is for pragmatic reasons and not to keep him ahead of the United game.

He has not offered anything tangible in the last few games and Eze is not stepping up to Arsenals' level.

Now, thats where I would have liked Arteta to take more risk and worked with Nwaneri but it's unfortunate the boy is going on loan.

He (Ethan) has his limitations, but at this point, we are suffering with playing through the middle and I am of the opinion that Nwanneri can excel in the role especially when been covered by Rice and Zubi.

I am forced to assume that Arteta does't like risking young players because the stakes are high, but I believe that if her can risk Myles in some game, he should do the same for Ethan, but then, it is what it is.

By the way, Timber is due for a rest else, we risk him beign injured at a critical point in time.

Roland17:
Only God knows where we would have been without Saliba and Gabu this season! And Raya I should add.

I’m just grateful they’ve been fit at this crucial stage of the season especially with hincapie and Mosquera out injured. Those ones haven’t played the amount of games Gabu and Saliba plays them just Dey get injured up and down 😂

We were shit yesterday especially at the middle of the park including Declan Rice. I think it’s the Fatigue of traveling maybe or we were just off.

P.S At this point, I won’t mind Ethan to start competing with Odegaard.

Yesterday was disappointing no doubt, but we move. Everything is still under control.

mostob:
He should go and find that morale on the bench please. We don't have time for this nonsense wey he dey do.

That tolotolo guy with armband dey vex me. Make dem dey bully captain off the ball. Baba go carry ball unchallenged from Ikorodu to Island con still carry am back to Ikorodu just to give a 2cm pass. He'll now adjust his hair and armband and jog on.

Dear Berta, I no go mind Musiala biko. Make my eyes no peel off

You seem so pissed and annoyed. It’s justified.

I watched Bruno vs Man City today and just remembered Odegaard I just weak 🤣😂

At that First Half, Odegaard was dispossessed twice in the middle, you know why? He held onto the ball and he kept caressing till he became lost in his thoughts.

We need an upgrade and Odegaard, I hate to say it but it is what it is.

Gyokeres kept playing as if his body was heavy for him. We did not attack centrally because no one was trying to break the low block, I guess Arteta read the game hence why he brought Merino to play those defense splitting passes. (Which was what I enjoyed in Bruno’s game today)

The moment I saw the line up, I lost confidence despite my earlier prediction. Madueke and Martinelli play for themselves not the team, they aren’t the type of players that want to win something for Arsenal, yes they might say it, but when they enter the field they olay it because they just want to play without the Objective in their mind. That’s why you’ll see them keep playing anyhow as if nothing is at stake, especially that Madueke.

We don’t need to win that match vs Inter Milan, we’ve qualified but no, Arteta had to rest Saka and Trosaard.

Like it doesn’t make sense to me, and Jesus should have started while Hervertz comes as a Sub but knowing Arteta he wants to make sure Gyokeres gets his rythym, even at the expense of the team.

Forest has always been a tough away ground for us and kudos to them for holding onto the game.

Saliba and Big Gabi had a good game. Kudos to them too and special shout out to Raya for his decision making at critical moments.

Congratulations to us, we are going 9 points clear today. E sure me die.

My prediction, 3-0.

COYG!!

I watched the Manchester derby, it was a beautiful game, United played so well. Congratulations and Thank you to them.

We go sha knack them next week.

mostob:
That's not even my perspective. Your rival making signings like Guehi and Semenyo in January is just scary. Even without these two signings, they're already strong. Fingers crossed.

They will still drop points irrespective of signings made.

We have better Momentum than them right now.

We just have to keep winning our games.

Come I don’t get why some Arsenal Fans are having a meltdown because of Man City’s transfer? I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how it will stop us from competing for the league? As long as we keep winning our games, if them like make them buy Mbappe join.

Roland17:
Great observations. I believe 2 truths can mutually exist.

Does Gykores have a lot to learn or do better?
Yes. I believe the summer preseason will help in addressing a lot these issues because we are still playing like we don't have a CF.

Did Saka nearly screw that chance?
A big yes! Saka needed to cross the ball immediately he got the angle after beating his man the first time. There was no need to keep dancing and messing up Gyokores run. You could see his frustration after he scored when he kicked the ball a second time into the net. I not only thank White but Sanchez as well for flopping the catch, otherwise, that chance would have been gone.

We also need to improve our attacks inside the box. Everything seems to be hanging around the edge of the box.

Thank you!

My point exactly.

This isn’t about any agenda, just real observations.

BlueRayDick:
Saka was not indecisive, he simply didn't take the uncertainty route and chose certainty instead. What I mean by that is this: the ball clearly on his right foot , if he attempts to cross with his right foot the ball may get to Gyokeres, the ball find it's way to Fofona or the other CB running back to track Gyokeres or the ball may get to Gyokeres and he will end up losing it while trying to control.

Instead Saka passed to the oncoming Ben White who eventually crossed with his strong right foot. There's no how Saka would've crossed with his left leg with Cucurella breathing down his neck in that position. I suggest you try to watch the replay again and not base your analysis on still pictures of the incident.

By the way , there was a particular ball that was released to Gyokeres (I think in the first half) which I had thought he would waltz his way through defenders and hit a nice strike. On the contrary he fumbled the ball and ended being surrounded by Chelsea defenders forcing him to play a weak harmless ball at Sanchez. You see, nothing is cast in stone.

I think the desperation of fans to see Gyokeres shine has forced a lot of fans to pick on players like Saka, Odegaard and other members of the attack. It has led to people carrying still photos to analysis situation that happen within seconds which the players don't have any agenda or reason to beef their fellow player.

Again, Agenda aside.

I was among those who were disappointed in Gyokeres but like I said, focus on this context.

Secondly, I did watch the match and have seen several replays of it. Are you telling me that same Saka that has scored several goals with his right foot and in a much tighter space and with several players around him could not be so sure his pass will get to Gyokeres and decided to take the safest route?

Bro, this thread is littered with my praises on Saka especially as regards his level of intelligence.

All I’m am saying is that, in this situation, he should have assisted Gyokeres who is under immense pressure so as to make it easy for him.

Again, I asked what if it was someone else that made the run, what if it was Timber, what do you think would have happened? You and I know that white is better at pull out than him.

BlueRayDick:
But it was same Saka that set ben White up for the run that ended in Gyokeres converting White's cross.

If Saka had passed with his weaker right foot, there is no assurance the ball will get to Gyokeres.Let's not forget there were two CB's around Gyokeres as at that time.

This agenda that Saka delibrately doesn't pass to Gyokeres in good position, I don't really buy into it. Sometimes what looks like a clear chance to you may not appear that same way to the player on the pitch.

Let Gyokeres continue to make himself available in good position and passes will seek him out . To the best of my knowledge, I don't believe there's anyone in the team who doesn't want him to succeed as a prolific goalscorer. He should continue to play for the team and things will fall into place.

I personally do not buy the Agenda too.

Infact, I am of the opinion that no one should be blamed for his poor performance since we did not do the same for Hervertz when he just joined us.

Was Saka indecisive in this context? Absolutely.

I have criticised Gyokeres on several occasion for his ball playing technique, but in this particular context, Saka should have made it easier for him.

As long as I criticize him, I would also point out situation where we could have helped him, seeing that he is under alot of pressure and that is where Saka comes in.

Odegaards' indecisiveness is glaring even not just to Gyokeres but the team as a whole. Gyokeres is just getting the brunt of it because of our high expections.

As per Ben white, what if it was Timber that was in that position? would do you think would have happened?

Its little indecisions like this that affects the outcome of games.

I love Saka, but that Gyokeres goal would have not happened if not for Ben White.

I saw the expression of frustration when Saka did not square the ball to him the first time. (Whether it would have been an Off or not is irrelevant here).

Overall, it was an Okay game only if we hadn’t allowed them to come back into the game.

We will sha finish them off at the Emirates last last.

Also, Kepa had a good game with some good saves but he needs to improve on his aerial dominance.

I hope we can further consolidate our position tomorrow. We need a win badly tomorrow.

Scenes where we are guaranteed the league by March Ending so that we can focus more on the champions league.

Men! That would be a dream come true.

But first of all, Liverpool and Chelsea on my mind.

Kudos to big Gabi. He has strong mentality.

I think this is the 2nd or 3rd time he has redeemed himself after a blunder. Good for him.

Big shout out to Declan Rice. Baba is so massive for us, but Abeg make him take an easy with the knee sliding. 😂

Seriously, if we win league, na to push agenda for Balon D’or.

Liverpool next.

This is revenge season.