Arsenal Drop Points as Attack Struggles at Brentford

29:17Elliot:It's tight, it's controlled. Our on-ball play is really, really defined. Our patterns are much better. It doesn't mean Mosquera's a bad player because he's not, but we are not as solid when those two players are broken up. And I've seen this before when Cleaver doesn't play. It feels very similar. Other people who have better memories than me will remind me of the games where we've defended like that. And we defended really well, but I didn't feel comfortable. can any of you say in your heart that we were heading towards a clean sheet in that game did you feel it you didn't did you you know if you're really honest and you can go where you want to go with it you can see you you can say well you do it and we need to get stronger it there we do this he didn't press you're all right you're all right it depends what you want to do with that information you know and i think it's really really important that we don't beat ourselves and that because i I think when City were 2-0 up against Tottenham, against the worst Tottenham scene you've ever seen in your life, with the crowd basically not even bothered, they dropped two points in that game.

30:23Elliot:They don't fall apart. They just take the point and say, that's what happens sometimes. And they go again. So the next thing you do is the most important thing. You know, when they drew Brighton, did they at home something stupid? Yeah, 1-0. 1-0 against Brighton. They're not having a terrible season. They want the manager out there, fans do. And they still drew in that game. Brentford is a much better draw than Forrest away, who are 17th at the time. That's the stuff you've got to look at. So if I've got regret, it's Forrest. It's not Brentford. They're a good side in a good moment with a good coach who really wants to lay on us aggressively with energy, with power, with runners down the side to run into the corners to buy a throw.

31:07Elliot:They have a pattern to what they're doing, particularly at home in a night game. and you've got to tip your hat to them. Now, my issue is with us, I've said already at 1-0, that's my issue with us. I want to see a much more assured pattern of play that allows us to play in the areas we want to play and not bring on trauma, which we did. We brought on trauma after that. So you get what you deserve. So I wonder what the manager will say. I'm sure people have read it already. That's where my head's at. There was a few soundbites in there, Clive. You need to give me a headline. Is it Forrest is my regret?

31:42Is it the issues with 1-0? Is it, you know, tell me your headline.

31:48Elliot:You can't fill it in. I was going to say 1-0 up and we fucked it up. I'm not sure you can type that in. F'd it up. We can do F'd it up. Can we go with F'd it up? And we messed it up. 1-Up, we messed it up. That's my headline. That's a trend, isn't it? That's a trend. and I think we, you know, we can, you know, I was at the game at the weekend watching Zubimendi play against Suns and it was just like a masterclass and I watched him tonight and I think he may get your legs up, get rested. Do you know what I mean? So, you can go anywhere. He's playing every game, 90 minutes every game. This was in the post.

32:25I'm sorry, he was going to have heavy legs at some point and I think Timber is suffering from the same thing as well. We had opportunities to bring on Ben White in the recent past and even today there were moments where Timber wasn't quite working going forward. We were chasing the game a little bit. Bring Ben White on.

32:40Elliot:You need to trust people. I'm with you, Phil. I find myself wondering about Ben White and Norgaard a lot because I think they're perfect players for these scenarios. It would have been hard to sub-sub the skipper once he got that knee injury. I just know what happens. I know. I've seen it so many times. He won't come off. You know? But that's the moment you need to say, you know what, I might need to sub-sub him. I need to control this area. I need to make sure I do, you know. But it's what it is. Let's see what happens. I mean, I said on the main pod I would have gone with Incapier and Ben White today just to mix things up.

33:19But also it was the game on offer. You know, I really felt that the Brentford danger was mostly on the right-hand side with Wittara. I know Keane Lewis Potter ended up scoring, but he wasn't much of a threat at all all game. He was chasing Madueke back. So just little things like that. and I know we had an issue with Havertz being out, Saliba's out. Ezzer, yeah, we can get onto him later, but I still feel like we had enough on the pitch today to be able to get a result. And technically, we did get a result, but I was just so disappointed in the performance. And that is why, Segway introduced, my headline is, we have to eat it.

33:56People are waiting for Arsenal to fail. The narrative is ready to go. People have their image of us. They don't like the manager. They don't like our style of play. You know, everything about us at the moment, we are the enemies of English football and people cannot wait for Arsenal to slip up. So even if you can convince yourself that this was an okay point against the team in good form, we have to eat this narrative now because all of a sudden nine points in the 75th minute at Anfield last week has suddenly turned to four on Thursday, right? And no matter how confident we are in this group no matter how confident we are in this manager the depth the quality whatever you you feel about this team we need to show ourselves now how much do you want this how much are you ready to fight for this because people are going to be coming in in all angles everywhere already started yeah it's of course it's already started it started two weeks ago you know or even on sunday night um it's just i i really think this is our year i really believe in what we're doing and how we're doing things.

35:02I think we're a super mature, efficient team who manage games well, but today was not managed well. I'm sorry. And you can say, did we have people that were tiring? Did we find the balance today? I think Brentford wanted a certain game and we gave it to them. Like after they equalized, was the ball even in their half for more than two minutes? It was just stop, start, foul here, set piece there, long throw there. Arsenal couldn't string three passes together. Saka didn't touch the ball when he came on. You know, it was just, we were firefighting the whole time. And I think, look, you give yourselves a chance to have performances like this.

35:43You give yourselves a chance to drop points. But I just felt like from the first whistle today, this result was in the post. And to be honest, we were lucky to escape with a point. So that's just my feeling now, straight after the game, that could change tomorrow. It could change based on what Arteta says. It could change based on, you know, some injury news after the game. But my feeling now is that I'm really disappointed and we need to eat this because people have their ideas of Arsenal. We know that they're wrong, but we have to prove them and ourselves wrong as well. And results like tonight don't do that.

36:18So, ugh, annoying. Really, really frustrating. I mean, we're still in a good position. We're four points clear in February. I would have taken that any day of the week. But as you mentioned, Clive, the Nottingham Forest game, even the Liverpool game before that, there have been a couple of results along the way where we didn't take our chances.

36:36Elliot:We haven't quite grabbed it. Yeah, and there have been opportunities to really create a separation and we haven't done it and now we're paying the price for that a little bit. Yeah, we haven't quite grabbed it. I do think, if you looked at the start in XI, I think I might have said it online or said it to myself in my head. I think of the summer signings we have Maduweke, Yokarez, Eze Hincapi, Mosquera so all our summer signings so this was the moment for and Zubimendi sorry, that's quite a lot of players that were brought in in the summer and I know we're saying that we've got the Man City looming over us but they've got a lot of new players as well these are two fairly fresh teams, we've got eight players in we're using a lot of them and they're playing decent amount of minutes and they've brought players in they're strengthened with some you know proper 26 year olds are ready to go in the premier league and uh yeah we're gonna have to fight we're gonna have to fight um i do think it's a test and some passed that test today and i think maybe one or two didn't which i'm sure we'll get on to when we get to the stock folding yeah well let's look let's start with the stock rising to try and level out some of this narrative and paul i'll swing back to you who were you looking at today or did you leave the game you know impressed with did someone make an impact tell me tell me where your heads are so i'm gonna just start rising i'm gonna try and craft this on the hoof which is for the the players within our team who are continue to step up game after game like there are on the pitch today i think there were four i'm not saying they had perfect games in fact a couple of them made significant mistakes are you gonna take them all are you i am yeah and you guys can pick from who's left but i'm gonna pick like four guys who i think game after game you say is it a stock rising no these guys are stepping up game after game and for me it's rice trossard now i'm saying that made mistakes raya and gabby oh you gotta pick one you gotta pick one no i'm not there there are leaders who are stepping up game after game i'm picking those guys as a great so shall i say the leaders yeah who are right the lead stepping up when everybody else looks confused and and whatever but like there are players who are showing the kind of metal in the middle in the midst of this confusion and lackluster and can we pass to each other in the first 30 minutes of the game i think there are players who step up and will have stepped up in previous games and will step up in the next game and you see it more you know who's wearing their shorts when the water sinks right and there's four guys still wearing their shorts in that first half and pushed us forward and in the second half and i don't put it down to those guys even though they made mistakes so so you've said two players rice trossard i said four rice trossard raya and gabby and i know they made mistakes in there but they're big personalities all right yeah okay i'll see big gabby and rice unbelievably so and trossard's really showing up but the goalkeeper looked a bit scaredy cat to me in some of those occasions.

40:04Elliot:I didn't feel he gave me a level of calm, but he's still really, really good. But he had to make a save because he'd done what he did in Madrid, running out of his box again, a million miles an hour, and that annoys me. But I've got a personal... I fully recognize Raya made a bunch of mistakes this game. I still think in the pushing us forward, there are players that make me feel... Oh, yeah. They know the importance of this game and they push you on. So I'm not saying those guys all played flawlessly today and they didn't, but they're the references on the pitch to push you forward. I agree with that.

40:42Maybe because they made mistakes, it's how they recover from it, how they have their heads on about pushing us forward. Making mistakes and pushing us forward, I think, is a mark of strength in a player. You're not always going to play great, but can you push the team forward for 90 minutes?

41:00Elliot:Yeah, I think when you think about Gabi, for example, without his partner, when you think Rice really didn't have his partner today, and when you think Trossard is, without Saka being a reference point and Noni being really good in moments, but also a bit dumb in other moments. So he was our offensive reference point up to a point. I thought they really showed up. I'm picking on Rara, but I wouldn't change him for a second, by the way. Right, go on, Clive. You need to give me your six stock risings now. Well, look, you've got, with the subs, you've got like 13 guys still to pick from, Clive. Yeah, well, obviously Rice is the obvious for me.

41:41Elliot:Yeah. And there's one defender I'll leave on the table for Phil if he wants to take it. But a player I'm going to pick because I thought he was good from the first minute and holding the ball up on the stuff that we didn't do. I think from a stock rising, how we categorize stock rising, I thought Jokic did really well in this game. Entirely fair, yeah. I don't know his dual numbers. I haven't looked. But every time the ball went up, I thought, he's won that one as well. He's won that one as well. And I'm thinking, okay, because I've just spent a few months watching him lose eight out of ten. And as I felt today, he won maybe six out of ten.

42:17Elliot:And I thought we needed him because he didn't really have anything around him. And I've spoken a lot about, well, we've all seen what's happened when he's had a second striker or somebody near him. He's always been better. But he didn't really have that today. He didn't really have anybody around and supporting. Things were coming from a long way away, you know, so they could be read. And he was still getting there first, winning it, holding it, laying it off accurately. And the sort of things that we've all critiqued and wondered if he's actually a footballer, some people have wondered on occasion.

42:50Elliot:So I thought he really gave the team direction when we lacked it. You know, when we lacked it in other areas. So I thought he was a stock rising. Because you can't pick Rice every single week, although we just have. So you can't pick Rice every single week. So for me, I was really impressed with him. He looks like a play. You know, we talk about players in good moments. And we've got other players who came back from injury, not quite there, maybe overplayed. He's in a good moment. You know, and given what's happened with Havertz and Marino, and Jesus, he's still a one and two for me. I think he'll start against Wigan, obviously, and we'll go from there.

43:28Elliot:Joaquin is critical to our season. Absolutely critical that he stays fit and stays healthy and that we can roll him out when it really, really matters. Tottenham and Chelsea coming up. Critical player for us. So I give him a boost of the stock rising. I mean, look, we're short on options today, but I agree with you, Clive. I thought he was good today. He was up against Christopher Ayer and Van der Berg, who like to get tight. I mean, statistically, the duels are terrible. He won one out of five ground duels and won his single aerial duel. But I think if you actually watch the game, you could see that he was doing a really good job of protecting it.

44:06He was looking good with his back-to-there goal. I thought his first touches on more than one occasion were really good and solid. He was bringing others into play. And I think that's been a big issue with him. You know, the ball just bounces off him like a trampoline. it's not been good enough all season but when we needed someone to hold the ball today he did it you know 50 of the time which is more than everybody else so i think i'm interested to

44:30Elliot:see how jewels get categorized because the game i watched he seemed to hold the ball up a lot so maybe just touch i don't know a little bit little bit strange but i i think it's justified i think it's a fair one because you know we're back into a position now in a situation where we need him up front again without his mate Kai Havertz coming to help him to take some defenders away. Obviously, Jesus, we're not sure which one will turn up and what his knees are like. So, you know, I thought he had a decent impact on the game considering we were so well below the level in the final third. He could have scored when Rice cut it across if it wasn't for that incredible last-ditch interception from Coyote.

45:10I thought he did really well to play the ball over the top to Timber in the lead up to the Marcinelli chance. So I don't think I could have asked for much more from him today considering how poor we were in terms of that connection and also just getting the ball to him in general. So you want a quick word on Jokeres? Not much except because like I see in the chat, you know, people going both ways on it. But yeah, I'm in the same camp. I think he was a net relative positive in this. I liked what he gave us more than previously, right? It wasn't a fantastic performance, but I think he was a positive.

45:46I think he pushed us on. I think he created a bit of chaos, et cetera. I think he did well in his duels. I mean, you can look at duels and say who got the ball and where did it break and stuff, but I thought he was doing well in his battles. Yeah, I thought it was one of his more hopeful performances, so he's a thumbs up for me in this one. Right, I know you guys are stuck rising, and there were two defenders I was looking at, um, between in Capier and Mosquera, but I'm going to go for Mosquera. Um, actually, because I know Clive sort of spoke about us not feeling the same without Saliba and that we're a bit, bit last ditch, a bit held to scale to back there.

46:26But I, I'm, I've been so impressed with him this year. I think he's a premier league defender. And when you consider how much we bought him for his age, I know he's played a lot of football for Valencia, but you know, this is a big step up for him in a new language new league new culture and when I look at him I don't get scared which is you know pretty good feeling for a defender he can hold his own running back towards goal I know he had a shocking moment when when Igor Thiago nipped in ahead of him but that recovery was just unbelievable I mean I was expecting that ball to nestle into the far corner and then throw my laptop at the screen maybe managed to combine his worst and best moment in the one place so yeah well you know that's that's fine as long as you recover i can live with it but even even in possession i know he's not super adventurous but there were times where he did try to do the saliba thing by bringing it out a little bit um you know so uh obviously madueke was there timber was there i don't think they were very strong technically to to try and to try and reserve the ball in any way um but either way i i just found him a you know considering considering how difficult it is to replace someone like William Saliba when he comes into the team I'm happy with him there so that's that's a kind of compliment I can give him on a night that was on short on quality I didn't like I didn't like the Arsenal performance I'm gonna be honest I didn't like the Arsenal performance but if I did think of a positive and see a positive I thought Mosquera was good again if I look at him statistically I don't think he he stands out super super high I mean three tackles three out of six ground jewels three out of five aerial jewels he's against Igor Thiago who's one of the form players in the league he's a real handful he can hold up the ball he can get his elbows into you he can pull your shirt so he gave Gabriel a tough time so if I'm judging it on that I thought I thought Muscara was good and obviously he made up for the big mistake where I nearly passed out from a heart attack so um I love that moment rising yeah I think it's Thiago's threw on goal right and and mascara recovers from and i love there's a a replay in slow mode i showed of tiago lining up the shot and the goal's at his mercy and he's just pulling the trigger and mascara comes from nowhere and steals it off him he's like what the hell was that i left you for dead mascara's recovery is fantastic yeah clive you want to say a quick one yeah i'll see

48:55Elliot:this is a 13 million pound player in his first season in the league that's a steal of the century yeah let's be honest with you right he's learning right in front of us there are i see a few things i'm not gonna he's not he's not earth shattering but he just he doesn't cover rounds as quickly as he should you know the gap between him and gabriel's a little bit too big and but he'll learn that in time when you're that quick and that physical you probably think i'll get there and he generally does get there. But when you get a bit older and a bit wise, you think, I'm not sprinting 50 yards but I can just stand in the spot.

49:31Elliot:And he'll get that in time and he'll make it a lot much more comfortable. But obviously, he gets trusted a lot. Obviously, teams are going to try to put pressure onto Gabriel to let the kid bring the ball out and he has lots of touches in every single game. And what he's doing in his first season, he can't be argued against. Honestly, it can't be. but I just want to see us play a little bit more tighter as a unit but Saliba's special when Saliba's there I don't even look at the back line I just like Saliba and Gabriel let me look somewhere else let's have a moan up about our midfielder our attackers I don't even look there because they're just so good together and he can't be as good but there were times last season we played Kivio as right centre back you know so we've moved on a lot as a team and as a squad So I think it's a good show.

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51:31Okay, right guys, buckle up. The chat's already waiting for this section and it's unfortunately the stock falling section. Yeah, a few candidates. A few candidates, I would say. Paul, I'm not going to ask you for your group stock falling. I need one stock falling. You're still on my punchline. I was going with the group. They'll all be gone by the time you get to Clive. So stock falling. Paul, I'm coming to you first. Hit me with your – should we do two each or just stick with one? Yes, just one. Just one. I can't believe you. Let's do one each. There's three of us. There's three of us. We'll do one each.

52:14Come on, blow down the street. All right. There's the most obvious one, but I got to go for the second most obvious one to me, and that's Zubimendi. I know he is. We've overplayed him. But the number of times in these more physical games where I'm like, isn't he supposed to be the guy who establishes our rhythm and our control on the ball? Why is Rice having to do it all if anybody's going to do it? I want more from him. He's had brilliant moments for us, popping into great spots. And look, I get it. I'm one of the guys who talks about the subtlety of his play. And I love good Zubimendi and even decent Zubimendi.

52:59But in these physical games, you put him up against Rodri. I don't think Rodri is invisible in this game, right? Good Rodri. Whatever about Rodri a couple of weeks ago. but you put him up against the better Rodri he's not invisible in this game and for me Zubame and I know this is putting a lot on him and I know I'm going to get a lot of head shaking Clive I'm ready for you

53:27Elliot:yeah yeah but I want a bigger player on the ball like Arteta when he played this role was not a more physical player but I think he was He put his stamp on the game as a tempo recycle, knowing what phase of the game you're in, taking over the ball a bit, taking the heat out of the game until we can find a fecking pass. There was 30 minutes here at the start of this game where we couldn't find passes. And it's not all on Zupamendi by any means, except that I'm looking for him and Rice, not just Rice, to get control of the game. Because what happens on 30 minutes, we start playing it around the back, we actually get some possession, we get some rhythm, and then we turn that into attack.

54:16I want more of that from Zubimendi. I want that super smart, deeper midfielder who knows how to get hold of the ball, take the heat out of the game, build a little tempo, and gets on the bloody ball more and starts to dictate the heat of the game. I'm not talking about getting us into the attacking third and vision passes. I'm just saying, take the ball away from them. Make sure we start getting three, four, five, six passes together and then start to turn the player around. Or when they're coming at us because we scored a goal, help us get control of possession in the game. And I want to see more of that.

54:56There you go. Go on, Clive. Come in. I know you're – I can hear you begging to come in there. Two-foot me, Clive. I'm ready for you.

55:03Elliot:No, no, no. He had a quiet-ish game, but he still had a brilliant game. If you want to look at our season as a whole, the Zubimendi-Rice partnership has been transformational. And I can take a 6.5 out of 10 game. But I will be, you know, so I have a, I like the player. We all have our biases. I do too. I like the player. I do too. I think he's been fantastic. And he was a bit fat today, but he wasn't shocking. But you could see he wasn't getting to the pitch of the ball on occasions. So that was physical. So that for me is fatigue, and he's had the most outfield minutes. So there you go, done.

55:38But I will say, leading into the stock rising, which is the third midfielder,

55:45Elliot:I just had a quick check, and Zubimendi to Eze was one pass in the game. And so when you're looking for passes forward, Paul, you need to pass forward to somebody that's available. I think Eze is my stock falling, purely because this isn't a Mosquera first time into the league, 21-year-old coming to the league trying to establish himself with everybody new around him, a new language. Every ground he goes to is brand new. You know, a lot of time he's coming very late for Saliba. You know, did it at Anfield, did it again today. He lost Saliba at some critical moments in the season. This is a 27-year-old England international that's actually scored the winning goal in the cup final that understands all these grounds, has been there, and should have the ability to get on the ball.

56:34Elliot:And I was very disappointed that he didn't want to get on the ball more, and I don't care where. Just make sure that a game doesn't pass you by. And I do recognise on some occasions you need to hold that central point for central access, but you also need to work hard to be available. And you leave yourself open to criticism if people watching on the telly can't find you. so it doesn't matter about your talent you have to be found and if you've got to find a way to work yourself into the game so you've allowed yourself to be hooked twice for Arsenal at halftime so now we have a problem we have a problem we're coming to the time of the season where he normally flourishes and we're not finding him we're losing him and this is a worry because we've got a lot of games coming up you know a lot of games and so as I don't want to I don't you you know, I don't like criticizing players too heavily without being constructive.

57:30Elliot:When I had a go at Odegaard this year, I told you why. And there were some games that suited him. There were some games where he went back to what we used to do, which is wide triangles. And I wasn't up for that. So this game, we need to hide the ball from them, put the ball in his pocket and just rat a tail around. So they would fall away. And Odegaard was perfect for that until he got injured. So Eze just needed to think, what does this game need? It needs me to be available for my centre mids. It needs me to be available off the sides, both sides, play on the arc, and just be a bounce board for these players because I've got the quality.

58:03Elliot:And so I can't say if it's instruction or not, but it's been one too many games for me to say this is instruction. This is down to him and his personality and wanting to do more. I've had messages from very wise people around the club asking me, Clive, is there something wrong with Eze? Because people are that surprised. and they're not even arsehole people, you know, and some of them. And so that tells me that I'm not too far off the mark with this one, you know, and it's a player that I like. But I thought, come the moment, this morning when we all knew that potentially Havertz was out, we weren't sure about Odegaard and Saka, how many of you thought, this is SA's night?

58:44Elliot:And sometimes expectation drives a summary, an assessment, a conclusion on a player. And at nil, when we drop points, I'm afraid Eze's going to wear a lot of that, I'm afraid. But some of that is on him and it's time to turn it around. Go on, Paul, come back in. No, I fully agree with Clive. That's the right answer. And that's the one I step past because I get one shot at this. And like this, to Clive's point, this was Eze's night to show what he could do. You know, Gunnar Blog was talking about it. this was the time to give Eze the chance. For Eze to get close to Jok Resch and to form the two, look, that's the right answer.

59:30And Zubimendi is being overplayed. But I didn't want to step past Zubimendi because I still want more, quite a bit more than I'm getting from Zubimendi in this kind of game, even if it's a little unfair because, like, at some point your battery is running low and it's probably unfair this game for Zubimendi, but I want more in this kind of game. I don't think I've really seen it. Certainly not as much as I expected to, but everything Clive says is right. Eza's the right choice. You do need somebody to show. I thought Eza tried a bit. This wasn't a game to try a bit. This was a game to try a lot.

1:00:13And the manager took him off at halftime, and I don't think he does that lightly. So, you know, in the game that Eze was looking for, he got the game, he got yanked at halftime. That's not a great look. That really isn't.

1:00:31Elliot:I will say, sorry Phil, I will say,

1:00:37Elliot:Mourinho is going to be a big miss for this club. You know, he solves so many problems, right? He's played six, he's played eight, he's played ten, and he's played nine. There is no other player in our squad that can do that. And this was a definite, definite Marino game in the ten. Long balls into him, receive, turn around, buy a foul, penalty box defending for set pieces and throws, penalty box attacking. This was a Marino game all day long. And I worry about that injury. I really do. The others are just minor muscular injuries. Osaka did not look ready to play, by the way. No chance. But I worry about that one because he just gets the English game.

1:01:23Elliot:He gets the rhythm of it. He knows what to do. He knows how to control the tempo. I think it's a huge, huge, huge momentum changer for our season. I'm so sad about the Eza move and how it's panning out at the moment because even though he was a slightly awkward tactical fit, I thought we were in a moment as a team and as a group in our development where we could accommodate a maverick. You know, someone who's happy to be a bit more improvisational, to go off the rhythm slightly, to trot into areas that aren't the exact areas that Arteta wants to play him in. And I just haven't seen it yet. But I don't get why I'm not seeing it.

1:02:06I really don't understand what's happened to him. Because like you said, Clyde, this is a Premier League proven player. we know he can bang shots from the edge of the box we've seen the quick feet the silkiness to get past people this is someone with elite dribbling numbers someone who can play in the left half space this sounded like a perfect fit for this group you know I wasn't overly concerned about his lack of true position because I thought he's just a good player and good players come into the team and play but the way he's hiding the way he's not showing the for the ball you know 17 touches today in 45 minutes that's not good enough he was nine for nine out of 11 passes 82 percent pass accuracy not good enough he's a passenger and regardless of whether you think he's a true 10 a left eight a left winger we've tried him in all the positions so far and it's not working it's not working apart from that one game against spurs where everything he touched turn to goals it hasn't worked and i'm starting to be or i'm starting to worry about it because if we can't find a place to fit him in what happens now you know what happens now because we've had issues with erdegaard but if erdegaard can come in one week and then you know or one game and just have more influence than him in five minutes than he had in 45 it's an issue it's a problem and I love the player and it's making me sad

1:03:34Elliot:I think I've got I can almost guess how the guys are going to be out for the weekend so I want Eze to play again but I wonder if he's got a little bit of do I feel as though I can dominate this team we all want to see him dominate get on the ball and do more but I wonder if he feels if he's able to bit of imposter syndrome that's the worst took the words right out of my mouth. I wonder if he feels he's able to. We need to force the ball into him a lot more. I'm not trying to make excuses because that wasn't good enough. I don't need to do a rewatch to understand that. But we need to force the ball into him and see what happens and get him going.

1:04:17Elliot:And he needs to get himself going. He needs to realise, I don't care what position he plays. What I need him to do is take the difficult, dirty ball into his feet, control it, kill it dead, turn out, and next pass works. And then we're off and running. That's all I need you to do. Do that 10 times a game and have three shots. And let's be honest, he was doing that in the early part of the season. Five shots a game. It felt like for a while. And then he had his glory moment. And he had a couple of moments. The Coolscape Palace. And he's probably thinking, I've arrived. And then he's been sat, put down, made a mistake and sat.

1:04:54Elliot:I just wonder if that affected his mentality. I'm trying to find an excuse. I'm not saying, sorry, I'm trying to find an explanation, because this is quite dramatic, isn't it? We can just sit there and say, yeah, he was rubbish. Let's think this through a little bit. He reached a promised land, right? It was on every one of our lips, and then suddenly, Maynard was taken and he was put down for a while. So have we lost him psychologically? It's not a talent issue, right? We've all seen it. He's 27, he's not 37. So it's not a talent issue. He hasn't lost it. But we've lost him, and we have to find him again.

1:05:25Elliot:So I hope he does play against Wigan at the weekend, and I hope he has 50 touches. That's what you've got to do for step one to get yourself back into the game and hopefully the patrons and people listening to this, it's not just about slaughtering people, about trying to find solutions to get them back because we need this guy. You know, Odegaard did really well today for a period of time, but we lost him again with fragility, with an injury and we've lost Kai Havertz, been out for a year. He's going to have issues. We've lost Marino and Jesus has also been out for a year. so people tell me who we need to focus on it's Eze and it's Jokeres we need them we need them you know so that's the manager's job in the next few days I don't doubt that I mean I never expected him to come in and dominate a game like Martin Odegaard he's not going to have 80-90 touches a game he is a 35 touch player who bangs 5 shots per 90 gets 3 of them on target and will come away with 1 or 2 goals he's not a 17 touch player though Phil he's not a 17 touch player no and that's that's too much that's too much yeah and unfortunately it's happened too often this year there was a brief moment where actually he was playing with marino where he looked very confident in that role just behind the striker he was sort of bouncing off him playing off him we were getting out to the wide areas quickly as well one touch two touch stuff but beyond that it's been really disappointing and i don't i don't know what happens now because when it feels like arteta loses trust in a player, they're usually gone.

1:06:56You know, we don't see them. It's happened before to countless players in the last few years. It's happened to Eddie, happened to Zinchenko. You know, when a player is out, happened to Emma Smith-Rowe, when a player is out, they're out. And I'm not saying that's going to happen to Eza because I think Arteta does like and believe in his talent, but can he do it for Arsenal? That's the question I'm asking.

1:07:18Elliot:Can I just say one last thing on this? One of the pages, I wish I could find his message again, but he spoke to me about how we judge players on touches a lot. And sometimes, I do it, we look on our apps and we look at the touches and we look at where they are, etc. But I actually think in this game, whereas they really failed, was potentially in the pressing movements, off the ball, I thought we looked really, and I'm not one for this, I actually said this out loud, there are people way better than me on diamond press and what we do this and all the rest of it, that's not how I look at football but even I could see that we look clueless in the first half and Eze wears a lot of that and I actually think that might be the primary reason why he got taken off we all want him to get on the ball because we want to score we're fans right get on the ball have a shot that's what we want to see we want to dictate the game a little bit more Odegaard came on and the energy off the ball was better you know I still felt once he got the knock I still felt he ran around a couple of times didn't want to get physical that knock affected him but he got us he got us structured off the ball much better and once we got on off the ball what happens we won the ball back and we had waves of attack for 20 minutes and that's who we are we pin people we have waves of attack but i felt we couldn't if anything i felt as they let us down potentially not just him it was your quiz as well in the first half on occasions just jumping out of holes on their own and getting popped around and I think the manager, the way I know the manager, hey, you're coming off of that shit.

1:08:55Elliot:You are, you're coming off of that and that was organised again. You know, someone just said in the comments, as a 35-touch game player, well, he had half of them in the first half. Yes, I mean, right? So he was on course. They ran these shots, mind. But he's on course. But I do think off the ball is where we looked a little bit strange I'm sure there'll be lots of analysis videos about it tomorrow, but that's where I am with it. Right, I'm going to come... Go on, Paul. We need to kind of move on soon, but if you want to have a last word on Eze, yeah. Yeah. The thing that frustrates me with Eze on top of that is the number of times, especially in recent games, I've seen players around him telling him to look for the ball or to make the run.

1:09:40Bryce did it a couple of times today. Yeah. Yeah, and he did it in the previous game. And it's like, the one thing you should do when you're in the tough spot he's in is make it look like you're willing. Make the runs. Ask for the ball. Like, maybe you like to be a little low touch. But at this particular phase of where you're at with Arsenal, ask for the ball. To Clive's point, he shouldn't have to be on the pitch this weekend to have another run at it. And for us to kind of make the point by drilling the ball to him. He should have done it in this game. If it's not going for you, ask for the ball more till it starts to go for you.

1:10:20This was a game crying out for somebody to do something as a this was your game. Demand the ball. Like, why not? Why not fucking demand the ball instead of the opposite, which is what we're seeing at the moment.

1:10:34Elliot:It took your career a while to start moving to demand it. That's changed, isn't it, a little bit? He's like demanding the ball. the players are trusting him a lot more. SA's different. It's one I'm perplexed about. I'm perplexed about. We can all see he's slightly less energetic and it's what he transmits to us all. We can all see it. But that's part of his skill, to be knocked off and switch on and hold it, switch up the pace. It's not there. It's not there. And he's got to have a real sit down and think. It's an important period in our season and there's a window opening up. And when you're not playing, I'm sure you're moaning amongst your mates in the squad.

1:11:15Elliot:I'm not playing. You get a chance to play. You can't jog it out, son. You've got to play. You've got to play. So, hey, let's see how we feel when we have a night's sleep. Right, third and final stock falling. I'm coming in. Slightly controversial one, or maybe not to some people, and that's Jurian Timber. again to hop on or piggyback from what Paul said about Zubimendi I think Timber is knackered I think he's been overplayed I think he is being hung out to dry a little bit by Mikel Arteta and I know why because he's a fantastic defender he brings power and drive one-on-one ability to our game I feel secure with him on that right-hand side but stuff's been happening with him recently that I don't understand.

1:12:08I don't understand a lot of his positioning in the home games although that's been changed and tweaked slightly but today I saw a player that's just gassed. He needed to come off and honestly I wouldn't have even started him in this game. This was a game for Ben White to come on and give us something extra down that right hand side. Timber had a few occasions when he had just the final pass to go. One was over hit towards the corner flag. Another one went straight to a Brentford defender in injury time. You know, little things like that are important in games like this where the margins are small and I just think his brain's not working anymore.

1:12:43He needs a rest. And I think this applies to Zubamendi as well. Sit them down. And I'm really happy that we're playing Wigan this weekend because we can sit both of them down. I don't even want either of them in the squad. I want them at home in those little protective boot thingies on their sofa posting, you know, well done to Eze for scoring on Instagram. And that's it. You know, we need to sit him down because we know that he's a titanium robot, you know, who can run through walls and do anything for you, strung in the challenge, but we're going to lose him. We're going to lose him if we keep playing 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes, because the intensity of these games is ridiculous.

1:13:20So we need to be able to trust people like Ben White more we need to be able to trust people like Norgaard a little bit more to save these two positions it's been on the wall for a long time and it's not really a stock falling in a performance sense I think fatigue and just him being broken is having an impact on his performance so it's a stock falling technically but it should be one for for Mikel yeah exactly say yes I'm just going to say it for for timber for you know I think um

1:13:50Elliot:the Timber Califiori evolution has been a big part of the early part of our season but right now Califiori's been a bit rusty since he's been injured and Timber I thought was fine in this game he has these little moments of the ball bounces he has to tug a player bring him down that's your brain a little bit slow that tells me that's fatigue I have to be honest with you I loved his run in the last second to put it up for Martin Eddy I'm thinking mate that's big time leader stuff that to make that run, you do have to make that run. He made that run from a long way away and he's pushed himself into areas.

1:14:25Elliot:And we need more of that. We need people to step up and step out and say, I'm not prepared to accept this and try to make something happen. As he's running through quicksand, someone got next to him, Martinelli, obviously, and she took it first time. As soon as he had to touch, he closes it up. To be fair, the goalkeeper's gone past Martinelli. It's a big save as well, actually. He's actually gone past him. And he had to reach back of his arm and Mark nearly hits it. Any above or below it, that's in. That's a goal. That miss is not as bad as the Forest one, mate. We missed the target. The goalkeeper's made a good save.

1:15:01Elliot:But the goalkeeper messed up the save. And Mark nearly needs to find a way to get it past him. You know, really punch it past him. I thought he took a bit of a nook on that shot. You know, let me get on target and see what happens. Nah, you've got to nail it, son. You've got to nail it. But I was impressed with Timbertsman. But I felt, I honestly felt that Timber should have played this game. I thought it was the right game for him. But he shouldn't have played the last game. You know, Ben White should have played the Sunderland game. When we're at home, we need to have fullbacks that can attack.

1:15:32Elliot:Ben White should have played that game. So Timber's fresher for the muscle man game, which is Brentford. It's a physical game in wide areas. And you've got to make your tackle. But what do we do? We rang him out in both the games. and I've been playing against Wigan, but just wait and watch your phones tomorrow and see if Tim has got a car strain. You wouldn't be surprised, would you? You wouldn't be surprised, and that's where we're doing this to ourselves a little bit. Go on, Paulie. Final word on Timba? No, I think that's right. I'm not sure. The selections right this moment, I agree with you on that.

1:16:10The subs in this, I don't know. He was going to bring on Saka for Maduaki. I kind of got that because we needed the goal. But then we got the goal. Don't bring on Saka. Bring on Martinelli for Matuaki. Keep Trossard on the pitch if you think he's up to it. I don't. Saka's two, three moments in this. He puts it out for the throw-in. He's sloppy on it, which you totally understand because the guy hasn't played. He's got hot water bottles on his hamstring. Put him back on the bench. We have our goal. put in Martinelli to defend on the right-hand side. I've had my second pick. That's my second pick.

1:16:48I think we got the subs wrong after we got our goal because everything changed. Get Fech and Odegaard off. People slagging off Odegaard in this game, like, okay, the defending off the throw-in, he's not a defender. He's a smaller guy. He gets done on a guy doing a run-in behind. Yes, he should have done better, but it's not a shocker from Odegaard. It's just a shocking situation. before he gets injured he's good after he gets injured he's bad get him off yeah but we all knew

1:17:19Elliot:he was going to stay on didn't we get the amount of times i've watched this with my own eyes watch him take a knock and then to hero it out but we lose you i'm getting deja vu when he was warming up on the sidelines to get back in and you could feel it see him feeling when he's jogging around I'm like, we've been here before, and he was out for fecking weeks and months after that. Yeah, yeah. Like I say, we didn't perform well, so we can go. I'm sure we're going to go where we're going to go. But we had a good patch until we scored, didn't we? Can we just remember that fondly? Seven minutes before we scored, yeah.

1:17:59Elliot:It was really, really good. And then we got a bit scaredy-cat. Some finish as well, by the way, from Madueke. That's an unbelievable header. Sorry, Phil. I was going to say, Manoweke had to come off because he's a one-hour player. That's it. You can literally see the tank emptying. He must be electric. It's like when you get that little slice of lemon on the side of your glass, and you know you've pushed the stuff back into it, and you know you've got every bloody drop of juice out of it. You don't. Stop squeezing that bit of lemon. Bring on another bit of lemon. Yeah, exactly. So he plays 60-65 minutes.

1:18:35Elliot:That's when I really like him. but I'm thinking mate you're starting to lose your brain you've got chances of spinning behind you're standing there waiting for the ball you don't want to run in behind because you're knackered then you come inside and you stop and go back to the fullback when you had a chance of clipping the box and I'm looking at every decision looks wrong he's still doing fine but every decision looks wrong get him out get him out get him out but then he scored so I deleted my draft and I thought what a great goal right in the centre of the headband bang straight into the far corner I'm thinking well that headband's beautiful never said a word against it and then we um and then i'm thinking right i hope you still come off because i wanted saka's brains i thought there were so many opportunities for good quality decision making that's with saka's peerless but then he came on and he had no knee lift at all could barely move hopping around the piece like it was hot you could have been on that right hand side clive i'm thinking so that tells you know that tells you lads that tells you that we felt the city heat and we wanted him on the beach we felt it you know and so Paul's right Martin Elliott should have come on trust I stayed on because he was doing fine and then we go that way right and say you know what we're thinking about our season you know and Saka's important to our season because what we've got to do in the Champions League and the later league games we ain't doing anything about him that's for sure so hey tear up everybody I mean look I think that'll do it for today there's lots that will come out in the wash from this game I mean I don't like how we start games I don't like how we manage this game I think we have a general issue with our attacking identity and how we progress the ball we're still we're still four points clear right and I think even though there was the promise of nine it's been reduced to four we didn't play well today we didn't win today coming away from that with a point considering that second half is is is passable it's it's really passable in my book this could have been a lot worse but I think we're just going to have to eat a lot of the narrative people are waiting they're desperate for Arsenal to fail and slip we cannot give them this fuel we cannot give them the ammunition but unfortunately after this game we're going to have to take it and eat some of that but either way there'll be a chance to maybe address this game with a slightly cooler head or heads plural and don't worry guys elliot will be back soon i see the comments on the patreon and in the chats and online he will be back soon he'll be tanned and fit and and ben whited and ready to go so don't worry about that um but yeah just just keep going stay calm people stay calm stay calm keep going Brentford are a good side they are a good team and I think they deserve credit today because they didn't give us a single minute you know we couldn't relax for a single second and I think that's how you play against this Arsenal team so yeah either way I think I'm going to call it there my god it's 20 past midnight where I am so I'm going to bed yeah Clive always a pleasure chatting mate thank you for helping me helping me through that one thank you very much you've done a great job son keep it going cheers Paul you're still in the on the naughty step for your four man stock rising but i'll let it slide it was a classic a classic of the genre thanks guys right my name is for costa thanks for putting up with me for this episode and another live instant reaction guys we're four points clear right i'm going to say it again we're four points clear it's all getting a bit nervy it's all getting a bit tight but we are still in a very good position so let's keep our heads we've got wigan to look forward to on saturday or sunday um a nice palate cleanser hopefully we can find some people Ben White, Norgard Ezer, I'm looking at you but thanks as always for listening we love you and we will talk to you after Arsenal 10 Wigan Nill

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