6 hours ago, bluedave said:

I think Gusto does a decent job as a bombing-up-and-down the touchline sort of fullback. James is the better footballer and has a sweet right foot and cross, but I'm not sure if he's physically able to play that role regularly anymore/yet. None of us know that. It's good that we have two very different fullbacks with different profiles, which gives us options on how to set up and the ability to rotate without burdening one player (specifically James) with excess minutes in what will be a very long football season.

He does a very good job as a normal RB, what he can't do is play as this inverted nonsense, hes struggled every single time. James absolutely can play as any kind of full back, inverted daftness, Wing back. Yet Maresca chooses to not play him there. Its totally idiotic to not use the best RB in European football in his best position.

JT on the gaffer.

Today's draw was on him. I have zero idea why you disrespect Brentford like that making too many changes.

Our SDs need some salary deductions as well for not finding the team starting caliber CBs.

What on earth was he thinking with that line up ? Omg it was awful. Fair play for correcting it and we should have won it.

These are the type of games you need to steal.

He set us up to play so slowly it was painful to watch

We can't compete at the very top of the league with Maresca, it's just that simple. He makes way too many mistakes. This will be another scrap for 4th at best, but unlike last season, he can't fall on that good start he had. We've started a lot worse than we did last season.

Edited September 13, 2025Sep 13 by Scott Harris

I’m fuming with that line up, no full backs, our worst winger starts and a player who hasn’t even played regularly for Brighton or Leicester and is on loan starts as an attacking midfielder.

I think he disrespected Brentford and us fans by doing that.

He turned that into a 45 minute football match with the opposition having a 1 goal head start.

Edited September 13, 2025Sep 13 by 2211

Considering our very poor record v Brentford I’m a bit surprised he didn’t pick a stronger team even with Bayern around the corner.

Even with the dodgy lineup though I still felt we could have won it had his in game management been better. Bringing George on and taking Pedro off were baffling decisions.

3 minutes ago, Remodez said:

Considering our very poor record v Brentford I’m a bit surprised he didn’t pick a stronger team even with Bayern around the corner.

Even with the dodgy lineup though I still felt we could have won it had his in game management been better. Bringing George on and taking Pedro off were baffling decisions.

There are so many things we can pick apart today, and upfront is another one. If George is an option to come on upfront, then why wasn't Guiu in the squad at all today? Surely he's a better option seeing as he is actually a striker and George isn't.

On 11/09/2025 at 01:18, SydneyChelsea said:

Problem is that his one unique selling point also happens to be inconsistent. It is difficult to get a clear picture because he was most often required to beat 2 players thanks to Maresca's preferred system, but there were also far more open games where he was a liability on the counter-attack and that's just unacceptable.

One factor there is that he's not super quick; when Neto actually beats a player there is no catching him, but Madueke doesn't have the outright speed to race away clear. To borrow a term from basketball he's really good at creating separation, but then rarely makes good use of that with a cross/pass/shot. Compare this to Palmer who almost always makes a key play after beating a man, despite being considerably slower than any of our wingers.

All these things limit Madueke as a player. They could be coached out of him with the right manager, but I don't think that's going to be Arteta either.

BBC Sport

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Gunners show £250m squad i...

Arsenal came into this season on the back of a busy summer transfer window where they spent around £250m and brought in eight players, and against Nottingham Forest the Gunners showed the reason behin

And Lee Dixon loves Madueke already.

Whatever the ifs, buts and maybes, there is no doubt Noni has made an excellent start to his Arsenal career. Certainly moreso than Gittens has to his Chelsea career. IF Madueke can add consistency to his game he could be a helluva of a player.

Still early days though Syd.

On 12/09/2025 at 09:59, evissy said:

JT on the gaffer.

beware the ides of October...

For as long as the follicley challenged fool is in charge we aren’t winning sh*t.

Has it given an interview yet ?

On 12/09/2025 at 07:59, evissy said:

JT on the gaffer.

Terry praises everybody, he's become a proper softy. He even said he hopes Liverpool win the league because of Jota 😐

I simply cannot agree with anyone who believes replacing Marcesca with another manager will magically make this roster contend for silverware.

It is contradictory to at one moment state that Sanchez "is a clown" he's not, but is indeed far from being a top goalie, to another moment conveniently forgetting that Sanchez is still our goalie -- for the absolute lack of better options. Without Colwill (maybe even with him), our CB pairing would be at most nice subs at both Arsenal and Liverpool.

Marcesca may become a problem to be solved in the future if his decisions, or tactics become a detriment for a roster capable of dominating football in the PL and/or abroad. This roster is not that, at least not yet with players either too young or not good enough in key positions. As good as Estevao one day may become, he's not going to get us silverware at 18yo... or win Brazil the WC next year at 19.

Edited September 13, 2025Sep 13 by acaeus

Useless manager, tried to be a clever f**ker and failed miserable. Picking a brand new defence, again, was doomed from the start. Just get some consistency for god's sake, stop picking about and pick the best players in their best positions. Get the game won then rest them.

We have 8 points from facing 2 mid table teams and 2 sideslikely happy to end up where Spurs and United did last season, surviving.

That is really poor.

Just now, acaeus said:

I simply cannot agree with anyone who believes replacing Marcesca with another manager will magically make this roster contend for silverware.

It is contradictory to at one moment state that Sanchez "is a clown" he's not, but is indeed far from being a top goalie, to another moment conveniently forget that Sanchez is still our goalie -- for the absolute lack of better options. Without Colwill (maybe even with him), our CB pairing would be at most nice subs at both Arsenal and Liverpool.

Marcesca become a problem to be solved in the future if his decisions, or tactics become a detriment for a roster capable of dominating football in the PL and/or abroad. This roster is not that, at least not yet with players either too young or not good enough in key positions. As good as Estevao one day may become, he's not going to get us silverware at 18yo... or win Brazil the WC next year at 19.

If somebody like Iraola was our manager today, we wouldn't have had to wait until Palmer's goal to register a meaningful shot on goal. Even with our best 11, we've been struggling to break down teams since last December. This isn't an age problem, this is a Maresca problem.

Everything is too slow. Every top team goes through a game where they create a flurry of good chances. We don't. We didn't register a single good chance in the entire first half. When we do create a good chance, you can almost be certain that we won't create another one for another 10+ minutes. We just don't put teams under enough pressure consistently enough. Teams are far too comfortable playing against us.

Hahaha so glad I didn't make time to what that sh*te!!!

5 minutes ago, just said:

BBC Sport

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Gunners show £250m squad i...

Arsenal came into this season on the back of a busy summer transfer window where they spent around £250m and brought in eight players, and against Nottingham Forest the Gunners showed the reason behin

And Lee Dixon loves Madueke already.

Whatever the ifs, buts and maybes, there is no doubt Noni has made an excellent start to his Arsenal career. Certainly moreso than Gittens has to his Chelsea career. IF Madueke can add consistency to his game he could be a helluva of a player.

Still early days though Syd.

12 minutes ago, just said:

BBC Sport

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Gunners show £250m squad i...

Arsenal came into this season on the back of a busy summer transfer window where they spent around £250m and brought in eight players, and against Nottingham Forest the Gunners showed the reason behin

And Lee Dixon loves Madueke already.

Whatever the ifs, buts and maybes, there is no doubt Noni has made an excellent start to his Arsenal career. Certainly moreso than Gittens has to his Chelsea career. IF Madueke can add consistency to his game he could be a helluva of a player.

Still early days though Syd.

I think we both agree that consistency is the one thing missing. That's why I found it unacceptable, qm

1 hour ago, just said:

BBC Sport

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Gunners show £250m squad i...

Arsenal came into this season on the back of a busy summer transfer window where they spent around £250m and brought in eight players, and against Nottingham Forest the Gunners showed the reason behin

And Lee Dixon loves Madueke already.

Whatever the ifs, buts and maybes, there is no doubt Noni has made an excellent start to his Arsenal career. Certainly moreso than Gittens has to his Chelsea career. IF Madueke can add consistency to his game he could be a helluva of a player.

Still early days though Syd.

I agree. We absolutely could have used him today, but as last year we can'tsure that his performance vs Forest is the exception or the rule.

I argued for rotation before the game. I only fault him for picking Fofana ahead of Acheampong.

We needed Josh's height Here. Palmer was only ready for 30 minutes, james for one half.

The core of the team, minus Cole, was there. First choice keeper, center backs, center midfield and forward. Also Neto as a key player.

Should have been good enough.

Just sack him already ffs, the football alone is unbearable to watch. I don't even care anymore, this is sh*t.

One can just barely excuse poor football when it gets results.

The results are now at risk. We were told that this football was "necessary" to bolster our defence but we just conceded twice after barely a sight on goal for 50 mins.

1 hour ago, Victor90 said:

Just sack him already ffs, the football alone is unbearable to watch. I don't even care anymore, this is sh*t.

It's so sh*t that if you watched a 3 minute highlights video on Youtube, you would see everything worth seeing from the match.

Anyone else getting Deja Vu vibes? Seems like a trip back in time to the Sarri season.

Feel like I’ve seen this game a few times from Maresca now. I do think we’re a better, more solid side these days, but my goodness does he overthink things. Would like to see him settle the side down asap - too many changes for me.