Arsenal obviously play with an ode to the Guardiola school of thought via Arteta and they have some real ‘star players’ especially when you consider both teams acquired central midfielders this summer, ours coming on a free having left Bournemouth but theirs costing £100mil. The difference today was possibly affected by them looking a lot sharper than us however more so was our respective forward lines with theirs being leagues above ours.

Seems like a bit of a small mentality to say but I thought we matched them all over the pitch today outside the forwards which is at least somewhat encouraging. They passed it around a lot but not too often with any real menace and we also managed to get near their goal a couple of times. A loss to nothing isn’t anything to smile about however it was somewhat reassuring that we were in the game all night. I’ve seen many games over this past decade or so where you knew it would take a miracle (and sometimes did!).

Schlupp, Edouard and Ayew doesn’t exactly ‘scream goals’ and hence it did not but would we look much more threatening ourselves with possibly a new player, Franca and Olise? I’d wager a large sum to say yes even whilst still having massive doubts about Franca.

We looked very much a predictable team today however that can be a positive thing in terms of us beating teams we should beat, losing to teams we’d equally expect to lose to and probably ending with a number of draws this season. A very different forward line soon may also improve us dramatically. If for whatever reason it doesn’t, I fear we may start looking as out of ideas as we did in this one.

We really do have a good team there, unfortunately it’s incomplete and possibly in the most critical areas. We won’t get far not scoring goals.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Overral a decent performance against an expensive elite side. Jordan put in a good shift as usual and we looked solid at the back. Once again it's evident that we desperately need a strong centre forward who can head the ball on target and unsettle opposition players in their penalty area.

My comments.

1. Yes it was a pen Guehi made a meal of the block.
2. I thought Eze was a pen but Roy say not so I trust his judgement.
3. Rak Sakyi did well in his cameo what I particularly liked was his positional play a number of times the ball went in and if the Arse had not intercepted would have gone to him.

C'mon Roy give the guy more game time.

4. Ayew played a blinder the rest of the team did well considering.

5. We never get any luck against Arsenal.

One more point

Good summing up, i think with Olise, Franca and the hopefully new striker, the team will get what it was missing last night, Schlupp has been the only player who has had two poor games, JRS should start against Brentford, when the deadline is over and the international break, we should see what we have.

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

Pretty balance view from everyone!

Reasonably good performance against a top team. They had a couple of chances and had to really dig in.

Stick Wilf and Olise in that team and I think we would have scored.

Nice to see JRS and Ahmada get some minutes. Couldn't deliver but definitely upped hte attacking intent.

Also encouraged to see some of Roys subs, e.g. taking off Ward. Cant remember him doing things like that before.

Yes, spot on, we should consider converting Ozoh into a right back, give him six months playing the role in the U21s then introduce him in the second half of the season. and Adaramola needs to be loaned to help his development or benched

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn