re: Arsenal 2025/2026 Season Thread: CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND

End of 3 away games still unbeaten!

End the month with 3 straight wins!

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Bunch of lurkers popping up.

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Always!

They love to come in here and follow along

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Always!

They love to come in here and follow along

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Wonder if anyone is going to complain how Leverkusen scored a corner then did frick all.

Timber constantly in the half spaces is just a net loss man.

Return fixture needs to be Eze on the LW, Kai in midfield

Or Odegaard in midfield and Kai up top. Just too many players being in places they don't excel out.

The ref was terrible today. The yellows on Zubi and Kai were horrific.

City getting worked right now

So much of our attacking threat in 2022-24 came from the White/Saka/Odoegaard combo on the right flank. Then it peaked with Havertz as a false 9 in the second part of 24.

Three of that foursome have barely played this year.

Early this year we replaced a lot of that on the left with Califiori and Trossard developing a rapport and good movement…they’ve both been in and out of the lineup the last two months.

I don’t really see a way to fix the issues in the next two months. Hopefully Kai can start playing 60-70 min a game and that helps. Odoegaard too, even not at his best we miss his positioning so much.

Was also definitely a penalty. Tillman slid from behind with Maduke at full sprint and clearly got the top of his foot on his initial slide and then got that same leg again with his body on the follow through. May not have been much contact but you can’t make that tackle in the box and not get the ball.

Also looking like the only away teams getting a result in this round of the CL are Arsenal and Barcelona, both on late pens.

Trossard unavailable on the left. Odoegaard not available at all central and Kai not available to start. Merino out.

What are the options at LW and CF? Start Madueke at LW? Jesus at CF?

Dowman? Move Eze out to LW and play Saka central with Madueke at RW?

Just not a lot of good options without Havertz/trossard/odoegaard/Merino really available.

If you're going to play Martinelli on the left, you need Jesus up top. He can hold it up well

The injuries haven't helped. Really could use Merino rt now too.

I think Noni should start over saka but we got to figure something out for the left wing. Even if Noni puts a few in the stands one will go upper 90 or he will win some free kicks and pens. Not bad at corners either.

I have a real problem with the mentality that if you can't win, don't lose. Rice has said it before, and Noni said it today.

We only made 3 subs today, and they were all attacker for attacker.

The backline & Dec are plenty good enough to defend with 5 attackers on the pitch, and we never even try it. An added bonus is I wouldn't have to watch Timber & Hincapie receiving balls in dangerous areas and do nothing with it

We also had some possessions where we had the ball on the edge of the box and instead of slinging one at the net, we try to make a cute pass and get nothing out of 5 min of passing it around the horseshoe.

This run of form we are on is entirely unsustainable. You can't keep producing nothing from open play game after game. In our last 3 games against Chels/Brighton/Leverkusen we have generated a total open xG of 1.6

They are going to have to play their way out of this funk somehow, and I don't know if it's easy fix. Just a combo of fatigue, execution, and lackadaisical overall play.

The results have been good, but you shouldn't be going from game to game thinking man I wish that ONE chance goes in. We should be producing a half dozen good chances in most games, and that just hasn't been the case with this bunch for weeks on end now

I'm done ranting. See you Saturday