Arteta picked the team and refused to make changes until his usual 65th minute
In theory? Yes it's easier to win, in practice? No.
Of course not. But we're not gonna win the Champions League
Trosaard has been shite for weeks. So many moves break down because of him. He offers goals, but we lose so much more. With Nwaneri, it's a kid that came on and didn't even receive the ball for the first few minutes he came on. Comparing the two seems harsh to me.
Where to start? I'm so annoyed.
Zinchenko and Nwaneri coming on
Well that was a dog shit performance from us for the entirety of that first half. Absolutely and utterly not good enough. Our second half and the three points all depend on how brave Arteta can be. Otherwise our title hopes are looking like they're gonna slip away.
We just need him to pull a Cazorla
We need sweeping changes
That longball for Timber shows the problems with this team. Two centre forwards on the pitch and neither playing centrally. Swap Trosaard for Nwaneri and push Havertz up
What an interesting law. Wonder how that will end up in the long run.
We could've had prime Messi out there today and it wouldn't have made a difference. Arteta had us set up incredibly brokenly. Havertz was playing in the Ødegaard spaces and Trosaard was floating around doing a whole lot of nothing. There was no urgency or impetus in our play and so there was no way to drag Newcastle around or break the lines. If Nwaneri had even half the minutes that Trosaard has wasted over the past few weeks, by all means write him off and say we rushed him in. But he essentially came into a terrible, unorganised and unbalanced team and failed to carry it in the half hour he got. Hardly a damning indictment on him or his advocates like me. It's also important to note, I was advocating for him based on his profile. If Arteta had bought cover for Ødegaard, it would be a moot point.