Arsenal man ‘anonymous’ as trio ‘just so boring’ in ‘tough watch’

Editor F365 17 Sep 2025 9:06 AM

Declan Rice and Mikel Merino

Arsenal won away in the Champions League but are ‘completely predictable’, with that midfield trio inducing sleep.

The Gunners kick off a Mailbox that also includes Tottenham, Champions League handball and loads of Man Utd again.

Send your views to theeditor@football365.com

Arsenal are a tough watch

I really don’t know what to make of Arsenal. We used to be so mentally weak and so easy to play through. Now we seem to be the opposite. But it’s so tough watching us play at times. It’s completely predictable. We are so dependent on using the right-hand side. Timber is absolutely unreal and Madueke has impressed despite the lack of end product. It makes absolutely no sense to play both Eze and Calafiori, there is zero width when they play.

Rice is anonymous in so many games it’s mental. He was irrelevant til March last season and awful in the Euros, but he got so many plaudits. He has so many great attributes so I hope he can become more consistent. Using him, Merino and Zubimendi is just so boring. Merino doesn’t really get involved and isn’t a creator either. He’s a good player though and I am happy to have him, but it’s rough to watch. I liked Gyokeres today. Missed two good chances but looked more dangerous. Had way more space than he usually does in the PL.

The way we played in 22/23 is completely different to now. We are unreal defensively but we genuinely struggle to create big chances, it’s a problem. I know Odegaard is out but we can’t keep depending on Madueke/Saka to do something out wide. I don’t think Arteta will change it though. It’s very structured and I suppose that’s what he wants and he knows more than I do.
Dion

READ: Arsenal second XI would finish in top six as Premier League back-ups ranked

…Just a quick question which is based once again on Arsenal’s squad size but in particular on Arteta’s substitutions. Will Arteta get the same praise as Slot would get in a similar situation? Who knows? We’ll see.
Chris, Croydon

Mediocre Spurs…but I’ll take it

So….we were pretty poor, but I don’t really care that much as we got 3 points! And actually, I’m almost more pleased we were a bit pants, but still got a fairly routine Champs League win.

The early goal was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing as we didn’t look remotely like scoring for the rest of the game, but was that because the curse of the early, incredibly soft, goal that was conceded, which took the edge off the whole affair?

We’ll never know, and I’m happy about that – not just for the 3 points, but more for the fact that the result outshone the performance, and that has been an all too infrequent occurrence in these parts recently (Europe B league cup 2025 notwithstanding).

If we can produce that sort of result when we’re that off key, then I think that bodes well for campaigning on multiple fronts this year.

COYS
Spurs Steve

READ: Spurs stumble through ‘miracle’ Champions League return as Frank’s side powered by Arsenal boos

Amputation needed in Champions League

The standard of refereeing in the Champions League is generally quite high, but their interpretation of a hand ball is obscene. This was demonstrated in the Real Madrid – Marseille game in this game week, but has been on show for many years now.

I’m not sure if this is a fault of the referring rule book, but my recommendation for all Champions League squads moving forward would be to temporarily amputate all body parts beyond each shoulder to avoid such occurrences. Otherwise, there will be at least one handball per game.
Kenny (USA)

…FFS, seriously.

Real Madrid v Marseille.

Yes red card for idiot Captain Dani Carvajal.

Despite the minor contact surely a Yellow for feigning injury etc…(they should also should retrospectively ban GK Geronimo Rulli for being a soft sap.)

Followed by One of the worst peno decisions.

The rule is broken. The ref is stuck in a shit sambo.

Your arms are part of your body
They can’t disappear in the tackle.
Natural position is where his arms were based on the tackle, at full stretch leading with the leg.
Appalling decision.
Terrible rule.
Ball when bounced backwards behind the defender.
How can those arms disappear in that instance?
Surely anywhere else is unnatural.

Games just gone.
So bored of it.

The beautiful game is wilting and going stale.

Sláinte.
Peadar

Why back three will not work in Premier League

It’s a fallacy that three at the back can deliver sustained success in the Premier League.

While Antonio Conte’s Chelsea won the league with a back three, this remains the exception—not the rule. Conte himself only made the switch to address defensive weaknesses, leveraged recent signings (Kante, Luiz,Alonso) who fit specialized roles, and was flexible in using alternatives when required. It wasn’t a rigid 3 at the back. He had Kante who could cover an awful lot of ground in the middle, Luiz as a sweeper/playmaker at the back and Alonso, who could also cover a lot of ground and cover for the lack of defensive contributions of Hazard – who was given the freedom to roam. Chelsea had the perfect players to fit their roles.

But even that Chelsea failed to make the CL spots the following season coming 5th. Partly because of injuries to key players and partly because other teams worked them out, they conceded a ton of goals. Conte’s Tottenham also failed, showing you cannot maintain top-level performance with a rigid three-center-back approach. Certainly not over multiple seasons and particularly without the right players. It seems much harder to backfill for injuries as well.

Which is why Man Utd’s reliance on Ruben Amorim’s inflexible three-at-the-back formula was doomed for failure before Amorim was even selected. Amorim’s only experience was in Portugal, where he routinely failed against his major rivals Porto and Benfica (winning 5 in 19, I believe.)

Where teams have used 3 at the back, perhaps not successfully in terms of winning their league but at least getting into CL places, it still came with a lot of flexibility – constantly morphing between 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 5-3-2 much more flexibility than the rigidity employed by Amorim.

Sustained success in the EPL rarely comes from such tactical rigidity. Three at the back demands exceptionally well-fitted players, immense athleticism from wing-backs, and constant adaptation. The evidence shows that, without these ingredients and tactical flexibility, the system more often leads to defensive confusion and attacking impotence than glory.

If anything, it is precisely the managers who have shown tactical flexibility, not just week to week but within a game, who have succeeded in the EPL. They may all have had their core idea, it have been willing to modify and adapt. Guardiola, Klopp, Slot.

Yet here we are and Utd continue to display confusion, using players out of position or players just not capable of playing in the given role. No Utd current midfielder can do what Kante did, no current Utd player can emulate Alonso’s athleticism and tactical flexibility, and so on. Fernandes should probably be given the same license to roam as Conte’s Hazard was given but they are still very different players.

Utd spent big this summer, yet again, but none of the players were brought in to fill the key positions needed to play a 3-5-2. Exchanging decent forward being badly used with other decent forwards was not the issue. A Kante like midfielder, a Luiz like sweeper, an Alonso like wing back were what was required.

So United will continue to muddle around this year. Sure, limited midweek games will give Amorim yet more time to get his idea (not ideas) across, so they should become more cohesive, but it will still end in failure.
Paul McDevitt

READ: Is this the team that takes Man Utd back into Europe? With or without Amorim…

That Man Utd XI won’t work either

Lovely stuff from F365 picking a United team and formation that looks good on paper but is virtually no different to the Ten Hag Donut Midfield formation which featured Ugarte, Mainoo and Fernandes.

I agree that a back four is better as my attacking football brain can’t countenance anything other than having as many people up the right end of the pitch as possible.

I do however think that Amorim has a way out if he chooses to accept it. Instead of playing three at the back play two. But instead of having a defender who steps out of defence to help with attack in your back three have one of your three midfielders adopt exactly the same space. He’s not part of the defence so he’s not getting in the way of all the players who are used to four at the back but he is an extra body which is apparently the point of three at the back.

This keeps people off his back about the system and will highlight further just how bad the choice of midfielder is at Old Trafford which, for me Clive, is just as culpable for bad results as the system. We didn’t lose to Grimsby because we played three at the back mate…

And as an aside, Yoro and Martinez at the back? You know Licha is very injured right now? And I do rate Yoro very highly as a young talented defender but his current list of Premier League scalps in games in which he has started is Burnley, Ipswich and Southampton. That probably wouldn’t be the immediate improvement you think it is.
Ashmundo

This ain’t no Man Utd medicine

I understand that one needs to take the nasty, foul-tasting medicine before being able to recover and get back on track.

But just because what we’re having tastes like sh*t, doesn’t mean it is medicine. It can literally be sh*t. And this is what Amorim is serving up.
There is no light at the end of this tunnel, no gain coming from this pain.
Gaurav MUFC Amsterdam (Amorim is making Ten Hag’s time look like the golden age)

Man Utd and the Batsmen analogy

Reading Mr Vance’s mail in the afternoon slot put me in mind of an analogy that I think really fits a couple of teams right now. One which I use quite regularly in conversation because, while we definitely do make our own luck (yes, Kevin Lowden, I see you and Slot is definitely reaping the rewards right now of making the right calls), also so much of sport is down to Lady Luck. Football? Arguably one of the most tied to Miss Fortune.

United are the football team equivalent right now of the “Poor Form Batsman”, through a combination of poor execution and ability deficiency they’ve had a couple of ducks (that’s a nil score for the philistines reading) in a row in the first test of the summer, and now every good stroke, there’s a fielder in the way, the spinner is hitting the crack in just the right place against them every time, and the umpire is raising their finger when the ball is 3 inches higher than the stumps and even when it’s not their fault, the pressure, such that it is, becomes so great that it’s almost a different playing field to…

…The “charmed life” batsman. You know the type, every stray edge beats the fielder or drops short by a yard, every skied wallop hits the middle of three fielders, the bowler can’t release anything but beach balls at them, and the umpire is seeing the stumps as about 3 inches shorter because of the form they’re in and before you know it, they’re on 123 runs after being dropped three times. You know, like Liverpool this season.

Yes, I know, calm down at the back – Liverpool are of course, very deserving of four wins from four. They literally have all 12 points and there is no more clear evidence they deserved 4 wins, than that. However against Newcastle, Arsenal and Burnley, they required a 16 year old to bury their first chance in football in an absolute caldron in the 10th minute of 2nd half injury time, a free kick with an xg of 0.04 (zero, point ZERO, four – a 4% chance), and a brain fade from an opposite defender.

In isolation or over the course of a season you’d say that’s football but that is the sort of run of luck in 3 games that could be argued as some of the most incredible and while Kevin is absolutely right that Slot’s subs, and the teams play, ultimately led to those moments of luck and ability… you could say the same for the guy who “chooses” to put 10k on red, black, then black and ends up 60k up.

The problem for United, the real doom and gloom, is that the “Poor Form Batsman” is often very hard to shift in football. You can’t streak to 50 and suddenly feel better by a good performance, just look at some of the good individual moments since Mourinho… they need a whole season of sustained ability AND luck before anyone, even themselves, will start to believe the world has turned and bought them with it – or, “Arsenal in 2022/23”, as you might call it.
Harold Edek Hooler

The new Man Utd cry

Very much enjoying how ‘but we outplayed Arsenal’ (0 big chances created) has become the new ‘Garnacho was not offside’ rallying cry of Man Utd.
Simon, London

It’s a long way back for Man Utd

Not an Amorim post, this, more a rumination on Manchester United as a whole.

They have done what Liverpool did in the early 90s. They got complacent. They got a little bit arrogant. They assumed they’d be “back” after a few years out.

The big difference however, is the wider context. Back in the early 90s, the game was transforming itself. Money was flying in the likes of which had never been seen before. Stadia all over the country were being revamped. The back pass rule was revolutionary, changing the face of the game forever. The Premier League came into being. The drinking cultures of the 80s were being phased out. Sports science was coming into it, players were getting fitter. The domestic transfer market was still strong. United + Fergie + circumstances = right place, right time. They found an edge, several in fact. Liverpool got caught on their heels, they didn’t respond quick enough and got left behind. Quite quickly.

Back in 2025 though, where are those edges? All the top clubs have a state of the art training facility. All make obscene amounts of revenue. The game is global, the transfer market the same. All of them have top medical departments. Top boardroom staff. Etc. There are hardly any marginal gains to be found anywhere.

What does it all mean?

That getting a leg up on your rivals is much harder, especially if those rivals are much better run than you in the first place. Manchester United are in a far more difficult position now than Liverpool were back then. City are still incredibly strong. As are Arsenal. Newcastle are nobody’s fools. The competition is fierce.

The road seems a much longer way back for the men at Old Trafford.
Andy H, Swansea