Previous names: Dial Square, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Arsenal
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Thursday, June 18, 2020

Are Arsenal a mid table team?

By 1970's Gooner

There were two main problems that contributed to the defeat against Man City. 

The first was that Arteta decided to play a very young and inexperienced side which was not able to contain the City players especially De Bruine. 

This was very evident in the middle of the park where Guendouzi, Willock and Ceballos were simply not good enough. Xhaka may have made a difference but not a significant one in my opinion. 

In attack Nketiah and Saka were unable to make inroads but you could say they were not supported by the midfield who were running around chasing the much more agile and mobile City players.

The second was that the team were carrying two players who were not even trying and looked disinterested throughout. And they were experienced players who were supposed to show the way and support the youngsters. 

Luiz was as awful as he was in the Brentford game (no wonder Arteta started without him). Aubameyang was really somewhere else. Can you imagine how awful our midfield would have been if Ozil was also playing?

No wonder we got the customary 3 0 thrashing that a mid table team would customarily get from City. Unless there is a significant amount of money invested in the team esp in defence we will remain a mid table team. Just like most of Kroenke's franchises in the USA.

There were two bright spots however. Leno is really growing in stature and was immense. We are likely to loose him albeit for a lot more money than we paid for him. The other is Tierney who will, I think, be a huge success at Arsenal.