Stoke-like Arsenal ‘pussy-footing around’ exposed as Mikel Arteta ‘outcoached’

Mikel Arteta and Arenal were exposed by Luis Enrique and PSG at the Emirates, where the crowd, players and manager came up short.

Send your views on Arsenal or anything else to theeditor@football365.com

Ba-dum-tish
It seems that PSG can do it on a mild, dry, Tuesday night against Stoke…
Lewis, Busby Way

Arteta: Outcoached
It’s the 80th minute but I doubt there will be a drastic change. Before all the emails come in saying “what excuse this time Arsenal fans?”

Arteta has been completely outcoached here. No excuses, these two teams are very evenly balanced but Arteta has been comprehensively outplayed here. Hope he learns for the Paris leg.
Rob A (Neves and Ruiz are unreal, what machines) AFC

READ: Arsenal struggle for answers to Paris St-Germain’s quick, quick, slow energy

No need to over-complicate this
As no doubt all the headbangers will be out to decry this latest ‘travesty’, it really is as simple as ‘It’s bad when a team your equal if not likely your superior gets an early goal on you’.

Arsenal weren’t great, PSG were really quite good and resilient, it wasn’t a great game of football.

Very disappointed with the Arsenal crowd, it’s impossible to get tickets right now and some people really just looked like they’d rather be anywhere else. After a great job against Madrid, it seemed like the early goal and some griping at the ref really deflated the whole thing. You should be a bit embarrassed when your team attempts multiple times to get you going and you can’t be asked.

1-0 is doable though – if we can get the early goal next week then it’s game on.
Tom, Leyton

READ: ‘Wrong decision’: Rooney says Declan Rice ‘cost’ Arsenal in Champions League defeat to PSG

Horseshoes and trains
I’m on the train home, it’s midnight and I’m thankful I didn’t pre-order the mallet and chisel to help with Arteta’s statue.

PSG were very agile, tremendous movement, and were targeting our now traditional pussy-footing around when we try to find a way through the high press.

They must have licked their lips at seeing Trossard as a not very physical striker and our weak bench with only a new found revelation Nwaneri as an option to change gear. That’s not good enough for a squad at Champions League knock out stages, even if there were a couple of key injuries and suspensions.

Although the ref was on another planet using a different set of rules we didn’t do enough, so it wasn’t all about him.

PSG knew the game was won when Raya started punting it from the back due to the defenders not wanting the short balls when being hassled so closely. Our midfield was simply outplayed. The eternal horseshoe of passing was used again with no end product (quick throw anyone, just for variety?).

Shout out to Merino though who looked composed and always seems to think of turning in any direction when he’s got the ball, unlike everyone else whose body shape as default is set to be able to pass backwards.

It’s possible to win the second leg (15% chance I reckon), especially if we do the same by quietening them with an early goal. After all the Ladies turned over Lyon in their second leg. But I’m worried what it will all mean if we don’t, as (most of us) have been patiently ‘trusting the process’ up to now.

Fingers and everything else crossed yet again for the second leg next week.
TyA, Essex

Football: Brilliant
Sure it will get missed in the reams of Arteta out emails from people weirdly invested in the manager of a team they don’t support.

Anyway, at the start of the game I’ve never seen a bunch of kids more excited to be waving that weird champions league ball plastic thing over the centre circle – football is brilliant.

Great game too.
Simon, London

Have people never seen cup football before?
One of the outcomes from last night should be Arsenal fans taking a bit of medicine, and realising just how unpopular they are for the utter certifiable nonsense from their own social media vacuum they’ve tried to mindlessly paste into the mailbox, to much laughter. Not many, if any, are hoping they do well.

More to the point, that they aren’t seemingly coping very well with these fabled Mourinho-esque mind games they themselves were delighted about instigating, and all the crowing at the start of the year that they are happy their team ‘will physically nut you’ now crumbling to mails wailing at how we’re all being mean and too negative about them, and it’s Arteta’s first job after all. I thought they wanted the adversity? Thought they were delighted that Arteta was spouting this drivel and being confrontational and playing the media? Maybe leave the Mourinho-esque mind games to the coked-up racist train-clearers at Chelsea as they actually don’t mind the negativity.

But, I can’t help but think a lot of the people crowing about Arsenal losing haven’t watched any cup football in their lives. A 1:0 first leg defeat absolutely does not mean the tie is even remotely over. Can this Arsenal side win 2 nil from Saka alone? Absolutely; he is incredible. could this Arsenal side systematically foul the keeper and bundle one in from a set piece, and go through on pens? Absolutely. Could this PSG side absolutely batter Arsenal but never score – well they literally did that against Liverpool in Paris. Could PSG just entirely implode and lose 17 nil? Always a possibility.

If I were an Arsenal fan I’d still be very, very confident, because I’m a Liverpool fan and still feel PSG were eminently beatable in that second leg at Anfield, and it was Liverpool’s own shortcomings rather than PSG’s successes that led to the result. you can’t be too scared of a team that could only score one goal in 200+ minutes of football, and that was a result of a stupid keeper/centre half error.

That being said, the abiding memory from the game at the Emirates should be Lego-head objecting to time wasting when his side are not just perceived to be the worst, but proved to be amongst the worst overall with regards Opta stats and just the sheer volume of yellow cards. Absolutely hilarious.

Hoping for an Arsenal loss, but by no means confident of one next week. Game State! PGMOL! Postcodes! these situations were IDENTICAL! change the laws on yellow cards! Disgrazia! Calendar Year! “Technically Correct!” bias because Wenger’s team was on TV! Worst it’s ever been! Refs are rubbish and never know anything about football and are definitely corrupt and are always hated, but you’ll need to explain to me why no-one in my area wants to be one! yadda yadda yadda
Tom G

READ: Arsenal struggle for answers to Paris St-Germain’s quick, quick, slow energy

New lows for Man Utd
There once was a club that had ambitions to return to former golden days. After trying various managers of varied levels of experience and humility, with greater and lesser degrees of success – for the greedy tyrants at the top were never satisfied – they finally alighted their gaze upon a new target after recieving a truth they couldn’t countenance.

This manager joined the club – dysfunctional from top to bottom and filled with rot as ripe was pilled on ripe. And behold, as he sought to clean out the mess, he became the first manager in 100 years to lose his first two games. But then, within 25 more games, he became the fastest to reach 20 wins, while picking up a trophy (first in 5 years), reaching the final of another and returning the club to the golden rays of the Champions League.

But lo, the evil eye settled upon him, and his plans were ripped assunder by a plague and a pestilence that ran through his squad and left him bereft of key players for nearly a whole season.

Yet, even in this dark time – while the hyenas chittered and circled, and a new Emperor took over the club – he still won a trophy.

And so it was, the new Emperor – arrogant and ignorant in equal measure – looked upon him, and wanted more but eventually said play on. Until, with the clouds still lingering (albeit thin), the new Emperor had the old manager shot behind the bike sheds, replacing him with a shiny new inexperienced toy to break records.

And so, in accordance with the vision from on high, records began to roll in. But alas, alack, they were records of terror and dismay: 4 defeats within a record low of 7 games; lowest points tally in 30 years; first time in 35 years to be in bottom half at Christmas; lowest goals scored (11 short so far, with 4 games left) in 35 years.

So yeah, good times. Thanks Sir Jim. Great job. I cannot wait to see what you can achieve next year.
Badwolf (Even I have to wonder if Southgate would have been less bad)

Drama for drama’s sake
Some thoughts on two, what might be considered taboo areas – sex and religion.

First, I read that Eni Aluko’s mother was complaining/whining/explaining to the media how the ‘blowback’ from her comments regarding Ian Wright had impacted her. Forgive me, but if you are going to throw out controversial statements nowadays, it strikes me as incredibly naïve not to expect blowback. But it’s probably not because it’s from the usual trolls you could ignore, but the football mainstream.

The surprise to everyone was why pick on Ian Wright. There must be other male pundits she could have chosen? Someone who has done much to drive racism at every level out of the game and a huge supporter of the women’s game. In fact, being a pundit of the women’s game has brought the game more exposure. But to claim you are ‘traumatized’ by the whole, self-inflicted drama is a bit much – make yourself the victim as a way to avoid the consequences. Perhaps there are men taking roles commentating/punditry on ‘the Women’s game’, just as there are now women involved in ‘the men’s game.’

In my opinion, most women ex-players are no better or worse than their male counterparts. Nearly all ex-players provide very little insight, rely on trite phrases and reactions, but can occasionally tell an interesting ‘behind-the-scenes’ story from their playing time. So they deserve to comment or provide punditry as much as any male ex-player. If anything, all ex-players are taking up spots that better, more informed and more insightful non-ex-players provide.

Second, Gakpo’s shirt raising should receive punishment. As an atheist, I find many religious people to be hypocritical when it comes to the idea that they should be allowed to proselytize their beliefs, but the opposite should never be allowed. It’s ironic that Gary B, Pennsylvania, even cites the issues in the USA around ‘free speech’ as a reason this episode should have been allowed – ignoring how much of the current speech trauma is being incited by religion – specifically evangelism. We see many players making some sign of fealty to their god before, during or after games – a prayer, a sign, touching the ground after, etc. We know they believe. We get that it’s their thing. We don’t need it thrust in our face with a t-shirt message.

In reality, the FA rule is intended to stop any message that may cause some controversy, most likely political, but where does one draw the line? Balotelli famously got banned for his quite funny and poignant ‘why always me’ message. And yes, you can say it is hypocritical that the Premier League will allow a betting company to sponsor images all over the team shirts. But in the end, without such a rule, you could easily see how things could devolve.

I support Liverpool, and I love Gakpo as a player. But that shirt was unnecessary.
Paul McDevitt