In the game of football, you win some as well as lose some . However some losses can be so painful especially when you know it can be avoided. Arsenal's match against RC Lens away yesterday was indeed a painful loss . The loss makes it Arsenal first loss across all competitions this season.
I honestly do not understand how we tend to score first and almost immediately always concede and thereafter lose control of the game . If things aren't done to avert this , it might be Arsenal's greatest undoing this season .
To make matters worse , our best player in the three seasons, Bukayo Saka gets injured early in the first half which of course dealt a major blow to our gameplay yesterday .
His absence made it very obvious that we need another pacey winger who can always debutize for him when he is not available. Immediately he was taken off , we hardly had options of pressing offensively from the wing.
I honestly do not understand why a fit Emile Smith Rowe will be left on the bench in place of Kai Havertz on the field of play . It's high time Arteta stopped this ridiculous experiment.
The handwriting is clearly written on the wall , Havertz doesn't add anything to our gameplay. ESR should be starting games ahead of him at that left midfield position. Arteta needs to be ruthless in his team selection.
If we are losing to a team who is 15th in it's league table at the champions league just shows that we are really not ready for the heat and energy the champions league brings. With the dismal performance yesterday at France , I just doubt if the team is really capable of making a lasting headway in Europe's most elite club competition.
I really do not understand Arteta's substitutions sometimes. For real I don't get why he would replace Saka with Viera when a natural winger like Reiss Nelson is available. Arteta needs to pipe down and take a chill pill with this experimentation of a thing instead of putting a square peg in a round hole.
Arsenal are not the same team without Saka and Martinelli. I don't think that should come as a surprise, although the level of control exerted has been really good as a whole.
We play treble winners Manchester City on Sunday. Team selection will be key on Sunday. Arteta just can’t get it wrong early in the season, because the outcome of that game could have important effects on the rest of our season .