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

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The real problem with him is that he cannot generate chances for himself. Completely reliant on service, and he is often not in the right place when he needs to be.

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When was the last time we had a forward who did this? Wolcott?

Quote from Arteta after the game yesterday:

After the wolves game, regarding Gyokeres needing to contribute more whilst also requiring service, Arteta said: "It's a collaboration between the two. He was in a lot of really good positions and the ball didn't get into the area quick enough, sharp enough or just with the precision that is required for a No.9 to score the goal. But his work rate and intentions were there and we need to keep insisting."

Jesus. Havertz at times.

Folks like to say the service sucks, but Vik sucks at ball retention and doing anything but shoot.

And if you want to argue, watch a few clips of Ekitike. You'll come away thinking that we should have spent the extra $25M

The defender injuries are getting retarded

That was a mistake.

We could have gone back to 3/4 of last seasons back line but decided to change it completely and go with one we’ve never used.

It would have been Timber, Saliba, Hincapie, mls.

Pretty much end of last year but swap Hincapie for kiwior.

I really hope to be proven wrong on Gyokeres and would gladly eat crow. I really like him personally, he is passionate and works his arse off. But definitely has a lot of deficiencies in his game.

His supposed strengths were making runs into channels, ball striking, and his overall strength as a player. Facing a low block (probably half our PL games) negates the first strength and he has average speed. I’ve yet to see him run by any defender this year and usually gets outrun. He’s also not very quick or agile which is why he has trouble getting onto crosses and he’s been tossed around by many of the PL CBs he has faced this season.

Then the attributes we knew going into this season that weren’t his strengths; playing with his back to the goal, headers, ball retention (passing), pressing, or creating his own shot. Havertz does everyone of these things better than Gyokeres and there is no signs for significant improvement other than his touch and passing has slightly improved since the beginning of the season.

Like I said I hope to be proven wrong and if so that means we are lifting trophies at the end of the season.

It took Haaland a long time to adjust to City. We are in same boat with him.

People wanting to sell Odegaard too.


Im just kind of like, guys. Can we wait until the end of the season. We shouldn't be moving anyone on in January. We need all hands-on deck.


But our fans want to get rid of players and the manager during the season. Glad they don't run the club.

I'm not an Arteta out, but player selection against certain teams seems questionable. The guys that started up front for the Villa & Wolves games should have been flip flopped based on the anticipated defenses.

Hopefully the team starts playing up the their level after this week off. We haven't looked the same since the 2H of the Bayern game.

I've been critical of him in the past for sure, don't get me wrong.

His tactics have changed for the better, but we still have a ways to go on the attacking front.

I don't think there is a better team out of possession in the world, but at times it certainly feels like that same attribute costs us on the attacking front. Definitely some give and take there, and because we are so good defensively, just a small uptick in attacking goes a long way.

We need to get healthy (wishful thinking, I know) and play like we are capable on the attacking front

We have been incredibly unlucky 3 years running that is for sure