12 Jan 2025 23:25:30
Lots of great things from today's game. Here are some of my takeaways.

1. Great team spirit, work rate and fighting attitude. That's the second game in a row we've shown this attitude, we need to show it every week.

2. We are starting to look defensively secure. Maguire and MdL had phenomenal performances today. Martinez, Mazraoui and Yoro when he came on were near faultless as well.

3. Ugarte and Mainoo are really starting to click as a pairing. I was also really pleased to see Collyer be the midfielder we relied upon when a changed needed to be made. I also thought he gave an excellent account of himself.

4. Garnacho against both Liverpool and today against Arsenal looks like he has been taking on board the managers instructions. He is playing with his head up and has got two assists in two games, both from positions he was shooting from previously. He wasn't perfect, but you can see he's trying to develop his game.

5. Bayindir deserves a shout-out, with the ball his performance was a little iffy, especially in the first half. But he grew into the game and pulled off a few great saves including the Odegaard penalty to keep it at 1-1.

6. Finally Joshua Zirkzee showed signs of him starting to find his feet in the EPL. I don't think under Amorim he'll play much as a striker, but maybe he can adapt to playing one of the inside forward roles. He works hard, is strong, and has an eye for a pass, able to link play well.

Lots of positives to take from the game. Onwards and upwards.

1.) 13 Jan 2025
13 Jan 2025 01:48:12
Yes Utd looked better
Yes they worked harder
Yes there is definitely a better attitude and spirit
Yes the keeper had a good game but he doesn't convince me at being good with crosses

But

If Arsenal had a proper striker they would have won easily

We still rely too much on breakaway goals

We don't dominate especially in midfield and without Bruno have little creativity and goals

We need a top striker too.

2.) 13 Jan 2025
13 Jan 2025 06:15:17
Won easily? I don't think so Salford. Although I agree, arsenal should have bought a striker, it's a good stick to beat them with. They weren't too bad the last 2 seasons without one, how many goals did they score, and how many points did they get.

Striker or no striker, this year they just are not as good and have a bit of a soft centre IMO. We put battles them tonight, simple as that for me.

3.) 13 Jan 2025
13 Jan 2025 13:36:23
Arsenal would improve with a top striker sure - as would literally every team. You can only play what's in front of you. And considering we played the ref there a little too, I thought it was a tremendous result.

Fair play to Amorim as he has stuck to his principles, called out some obvious unprofessional behaviour seen in certain quarters, and got us playing as a team.

I still think this season is one we likely write-off. Only chance of Europe realistically is winning Europa and, while possible, will need a bit of luck in that, as in any cup football.

But there are players in that team now who many of us have long since written off who all of a sudden look like great squad members. Give Amorim a few windows to add the technical quality we need, ship out the high earners who aren't performing, and slowly but surely I believe Amorim can transform us.

He needs time. Lots of it. And despite two great 'draws' against two top teams away, we will still have some very iffy results I feel.

We were clearly heading in the wrong direction in lots of ways but last 2 results could prove to be the springboard for future success.

4.) 13 Jan 2025
13 Jan 2025 13:36:51
Saka is a massive loss for them. Maybe on a different day they would have scored one of those. But three significantly improved results against the big three, Liverpool, City and Arsenal in close succession. Difficult to argue that we're not going in the right direction. Biggest challenge is to do it consistently against the 'smaller' teams too.