The defeat was extremely harsh on us today, I thought we played quite well overall. We looked relatively quick & sharp going forward, dynamic as well which was good to see creating confusion for Arsenal's defenders/midfield as to who exactly they should be picking up. Ultimately though in the end they were well organised & dug in, but for that & a few good saves from Raya we'd have had at least a point but in reality we played well enough to win.
Arsenal barely threatened us to be honest, de Ligt had a monstrous game. Did fantastic on Gyokeres who we know is a handful on his day, he hardly gave him any chance to get into the game. Was quick to close him down on the few chances he received the ball to feet & I don't think he beat him once in the air. Arsenal's biggest threat was the set pieces they put right on top of the goalkeeper & our own stupidity, largely from Bayinder playing absolutely mind numbing passes into players that have Arsenal players breathing down their neck at the edge of our own penalty box, he did it 2 or 3 times, into Casemiro & de Ligt.
Mbeumo & Cunha both looked good & like they'll be a handful for any teams defenders. Cunha grew into the game & definitely looked better when he was picking up the ball from deeper & driving as opposed to leading the line. Mbeumo looked good throughout, took up on the right & central a few times looking comfortable with either. Sesko played the last 25 & didn't really have much impact, few promising pieces of hold up play & touches but struggled to really get involved.
The midfield was worrying, Mount played well just as he did towards the end of last season, hopefully he can stay injury free, if he can I'd have no qualms about him having a future within the squad as his versatility can be useful in a pinch.
Casemiro was worrying, he had a few nice touches & some lovely on the eye passes in the first half, but it was painful trying to watch him try to run. When Ugarte came on despite him having the intelligence & decision making of a goldfish, he provided a lot more energy & I basically felt a lot more comfortable that attacks would be stopped with him than I did Casemiro.. admittedly some were stopped with unnecessary fouls, but still.
Fernandes was mostly alright, in possession he was fine, a lot more safe & tidy than he ordinarily is when playing more advanced. Out of possession though, he's a liability. Was beat a few times so effortlessly it looked like he was a cone from a dribbling drill on the training pitch. I'm not convinced on him playing that deep at all, not without compromises being made elsewhere. In pre-season a few times we did set up with various midfield & attacking shapes/combinations, I don't think Amorim intends us to have a static formation makeup outside of 3 CB's & 2 WB's. Everything else seems dependant on who he has available.
Bayinder was poor & I've seen enough of him to know Onana likely won't feel threatened by him in terms of losing his place despite he to being terrible. The goal was so poor I didn't even know what to say when it went in, he's 6'4 or 6'5, he's a big lad & he can use his hands. I'd have rather seen him try to forcibly punch or catch the ball & make a balls up of it than doing what he did, which was feeble. Also a few crosses he claimed from open play, he was unchallenged & palmed them onto the ground which is a massive red flag for a goalkeeper if you do that more than once. Felt totally uncomfortable with him having the ball at his feet when we're trying to play short passes out from the back, mainly because of a few of the decisions he made to play suicide passes into players at the edge of our box.
/RANT
Despite the negatives I was encouraged overall in spite of the result, I'd really love us to sign a midfielder & goalkeeper before the end of the window though.
