You can also read the text in English here: www.bundesliga.com/en/bundeslig... - maybe the best thing about this is exactly how specfic he gets about both the nature of and the solution to the problem.

Started looking into when the game turned on Wednesday and it’s pretty clearly when Eze and Jesus came on. Just very stark how much we struggled to keep the ball and perhaps more importantly stop them on the ball

Think so much of this season can be seen through the prism of an attack which is missing its three best players in Saka, Odegaard and Havertz. They’ve not been fit or at their best at all this season. The summer should have lessened the reliance upon them, it didn’t.

I would not pick four direct players in attack against a deep block

It would be good if we passed it a bit more rather than just whipping it in for the worst aerial threat in the league

very much a game where an early set piece goal would be welcome

That attack is mental, in a bad way

Just think it’s been obvious for a while this project has a clear ceiling. Their membership is nuts and far removed from the public on issues where there is unified opinion. Their policy agenda is paper thin and confused (even by Westminster standards) and on the economy they have nothing to say.

Odegaard discourse is just really odd, people desperate to replace him for fundamentally invented reasons

Two parts to this insanity 1) they don’t really work anywhere, so just setting fire to money 2) they want to bring back the two child benefit cap

It shouldn’t surprise me, but seeing genuine takes on players from a game against a team likely to be relegated to league two is wild. We could have played Raya in midfield and won ffs

I have two major thoughts about Arsenal currently: 1) we are currently playing poorly but that is recoverable if Saka and Odegaard come back well 2) our summer business in attack has aged like milk (ironic given the age profiles) and we will need to do major work there again in the summer

Think our best line up is fairly obvious the rest of the way: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Rice, Zubi; Saka, Odegaard, Trossard; Havertz How often we can play that will determine a lot of our season

Seahawks by six I reckon

Right that the prime minister has resigned. His successor, Keir Starmer, has a very difficult inheritance.

Sounds like playing a front four that doesn’t want to link play particularly isn’t working? Who’d have seen that coming

Listening to the game on the radio as if it’s 2008

So believably confused

The game is just passing Eze by, he’s completed seven passes so far. Whilst not a metronome, he does need to actually get involved

Mosquera did really well there

The problem with this midfield is that it neither can control the ball nor the space. Eze and Merino just materially weaken our ability to dominate midfield.

Personally quite like it when we don’t let the opposition pass the ball beyond their own box

I am really intrigued as to how the club sees the attack entering next summer, as it needs surgery from a numbers perspective and everyone other than Saka could clearly be moved on given performances/availability

City are still formidable at home but have 17 from a possible 33 points away. Tottenham and Liverpool their next two away games, still also have to go to Chelsea Arsenal can make it 23/33 away at Forest today. Already have Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa, United all ticked off.

I’ll be honest I’m not ready for how this title race is going

Expect City win this from Here

Don’t really understand Pep’s choices here, just failed to control the game

I cannot believe they didn’t score there

This mostly makes me feel good about Arsenal

That’s offside

My main feeling watching us right now is without Havertz being fit we don’t have a playable striker

Set pieces are great

Can we fire Gyokeres to the sun?

Some wildly unnecessary thoughts on last night: - Odegaard is a ridiculous footballer - Gyokeres just is miles off it and isn’t worth investing in - Hincapie looked better - without Rice our midfield is too slow - Eze is in the dog house

What I come back to a lot with this team is when things aren’t going that well who is the dominant attacking player who will deliver? The reality is we don’t have that player, and we use other margins to try and get there in the aggregate but without that player we won’t be great

I feel physically ill thinking about that OBR cock up, ultimate work nightmare

The OBR removing the leaked budget is just very funny

This is why pushback matters. When forced to actually defend racism they get into a muddle. (See also Tory ILR plans).

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

I, for one, couldn’t have foreseen that Peter Mandelson would be caught up in a political scandal

Can’t imagine loving football as much as Ashley Young does, the discipline and desire to still be going at 40 is wild

Local journalism update: this Reach title is trying to cause a run on the banks.

What this really says is that the parties only favour reform when it’s in their interests. Firmly not in Labour’s interests right now!

Opinion on Labour governments always follows this pattern: The current one is always terrible. The last one was flawed but still Did Some Good Things. The last but one was a True Labour Government.

Find this statement remarkable in its commitment to saying absolutely nothing about what’s happened.

Just don’t see a world where Arsenal sign him. Loses the ball too much for CM, doesn’t score enough for LW (whilst being the wrong profile). Given age there would be minimal resale value.

Whole thing is entirely fucked

There’s very much a fine line between ensuring the public know you take immigration seriously and fighting an election on Farage’s territory. Then of course there’s the broader strategic incoherence of trying to grow the economy whilst leaving it with labour shortages

I think most fanbases are fundamentally quite similar, plenty of decent people, some loons and some dickheads. The one thing about Arsenal fans I notice is a complete lack of fortitude, just mentally weak fanbase who can’t take anything going a bit wrong.

I think there’s plenty of reasons to think we can overturn that result in the second leg. We will need to be very good and a bit lucky but we have what it takes