I rewatched this game, because it was one of those that was fucking miserable to watch live. I actually found it quite absorbing.
Watching it again, I actually thought the game was less dominant by Arsenal than I felt at the time. They were the most threatening from like 30-45, where they were very dominant, without us fully cracking. I also thought we were really weak in midfield, but rewatching thought that in general the midfields mostly made for a stalemate, with no team doing much. They passed better than us, especially when on top. Most of this game hinged on wing play and finding accurate outlet balls. Arsenal did this more than we did, and we allowed them to do it a little more. The fault was both quality of our passing (Trent) from the back and the individual duels involved. Diaz lost his, Salah lost his, Martinelli lost his, Saka won his.
A lot is being made of Robertson, who didn't have a great game, but this team was just lopsided from about 0-30 minutes, with our midfield being willing to overwhelm the right flank, and Saka is a very dangerous forward who the team and the crowd fully expect to do something every time he has the ball. This is what Salah was like years ago, and we'd think any team stupid for leaving him alone against a fullback, rather than thinking that fullback was shit for being beaten. We started protecting Robertson after that which made it much harder to get out or press.
Nunez was our most consistent performing forward over the whole game, because of what he did while we were out of sorts. He is at right back, he's at left back, he clatters Saka, he cripples Gabriel, he plays Salah in twice. He was really useful all over the fucking pitch. That was the dark arts on Gabriel by the way, make no mistake. That's some refined evil shit, not this stupid puppy dog jumping on people and picking up yellows. Almost every touch he had helped in some way.
Nunez wasn't an outlet ball, but that was left to Diaz and Salah, who mostly failed when we needed it. Diaz is the more galling, because that's sort of his job. He's at worst good for getting the ball, dribbling somewhere near the corner and then making a shit pass. Both of them were horrendous in the first half. Salah should have at least threatened the goal on 14. It's true that they didn't end up seeing the ball that much, but if we were more threatening, Arsenal would have been more conservative with their positioning, instead their backline all grew in confidence. If you can't help us establish a foothold, don't be surprised if we aren't camped in their half.
Trent's passing has been pretty bad at times for this season, but this one took the cake. The logic is he just keeps trying until he finally plays that one ball, and I guess that's how you could look at it, because it's what happened. He could also find his passing by not trying the hollywood ball every single time. I think this is his worst passing performance of all time.
Arsenals approach after half time was poor. Sure, it was exacerbated by their injuries, but the time wasting and stuff, clearly signalled to everyone their intent. It took their own crowd out of it and gave us a spell of possession that allowed all our subs to find their feet easily. Arsenal have not been a defensive juggernaut this year. They are conceding goals. Playing like this is really erosive to the spirit when it doesn't work.
