Amazing the difference when put 4 defender in front of Leno

This is the most defensively solid we've been in a hell of long time. Arteta deserves a lot of credit considering the comedy defending we've seen for many years.

What an astonishing stat. One big positive Arteta has got on his side is the overall improvement on defensive side. Partey is going to be a big player. However for Arteta he still has a lot of ground to make up for the horrific start to the season.

Not sure why luiz gets so much stick. He has actually been a very good for a while now

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 26 minutes ago
Not sure why luiz gets so much stick. He has actually been a very good for a while now
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From me at least, because he's part of the problem in how we were playing. Also because we know there's howlers to come somewhere this season since we've not seen many yet. It's as nailed on to happen as it used to be with Kos. Only Luiz does it about 3 times much as Kos did. Later we get, the more important the games his howlers will rock up at. I wanted him gone before I'd really seen Mari play. So now I want it even more.

He's the past, time for the future of Mari, Gabriel, Holding and with a bit of luck Chambers eventually. Just maybe followed by a miracle of a returning, set to play PL footy Saliba

Brighton (A)
WBA (A)
Newcastle (H)
Palace (H)
Newcastle (H)

Would expect to keep clean sheets in these fixtures tbh. What’s more astonishing is that we haven’t done this since 2009 (I remember back then we had a lot of 0-0 draws on the trot before Arshavin came into the team)

comment by 8bit (U2653)
posted 42 minutes ago
This is the most defensively solid we've been in a hell of long time. Arteta deserves a lot of credit considering the comedy defending we've seen for many years.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I dunno, could be argued that it was as simple as buying two good defenders

I think the recent defensive form is mostly about Mari settling well and looking quality and Holding's confidence returning. First time today I saw him looked not one bit concerned about his knee. When he crunched into that tackle in the first half I was like "Oop, 'es back" Because you don't put tackles in like that when you got niggling worries about ya knees

Apart from the standard luiz brain farts he’s had, he’s not been as bad as I was expecting defensively overall. But he’s often much too slow to release the ball, feel he just waits in hope he can play his Hollywood pass, occasionally that is a good tactic but his reluctance to move ball on seems to slow our build up too much

Luiz has generally been good under Arteta, dunno why people hate on him.

A mild criticism is that we defend a bit deeper with him as he's slow

I was quite worried at the prospect of Luiz playing in a 2 CB system, but he's been fairly solid. Not sure why he's starting ahead of Gabriel, but as long as we're keeping clean sheets and winning I can't really question it.

As previously mentioned, though, the fixtures we've played we should be getting clean sheets anyway if we expect to be taken seriously as a team. The next 10 fixtures are pretty tough, so that will be the acid test. Not just for the defence, but for our forwards too.

Luiz is a pub player