Just passing along my raw, unedited notes after an initial watch of the game: The opening phase showed intent from both sides: there was immediate, aggressive high-pressing from Arsenal, with Saka sprinting forward. Arsenal looked fluid and pretty. Newcastle also sought to play their game early, with high, coordinated pressing. It got busted quick: Saliba to Nketiah to Saka. Saka sprinted out on a break, and
I think Vieira non-sub will be and is over-indexed by many. It felt like we had a solid enough grasp on the game and everyone were performing well especially defensively so changing something there could’ve disrupted that flow and he’s not a game changer type player (a pacy dribbly winger who can run at tired legs and cause chaos that way).
Given Odegaard’s yellow I think we could’ve seen him come on if it wasn’t for the Oxford game where a potential suspension would be served, but I don’t think Vieira has the defensive work rate and awareness yet to come on for Odegaard in this type of game.
Hear you (and this is why I like doing long-reads instead ... I always have more thoughts to share!). I think there are matchups where Vieira already makes sense on the wing (was good against PSV and in the friendlies), but this was definitely not one of them — Joelinton playing back with Burn/Botman is like a worst-case scenario for him. I *personally* wouldn’t have minded seeing him come on for Xhaka; he may lose the ball a little bit on the dribble, but Xhaka was losing it while passing, and some more technical flair and creativity would have been welcome in breaking them down. He's been surprisingly advanced on the counter-press which was where all the action was at that point in the game, so I wouldn't have expected a big practical dropoff there.
But probably wouldn't have mattered, as you said — team looked good anyway. More than anything, I'm just anxious for him to clear the bar with Arteta to play in this kind of game, and that hasn't quite happened yet. I get it.
I think Vieira non-sub will be and is over-indexed by many. It felt like we had a solid enough grasp on the game and everyone were performing well especially defensively so changing something there could’ve disrupted that flow and he’s not a game changer type player (a pacy dribbly winger who can run at tired legs and cause chaos that way).
Given Odegaard’s yellow I think we could’ve seen him come on if it wasn’t for the Oxford game where a potential suspension would be served, but I don’t think Vieira has the defensive work rate and awareness yet to come on for Odegaard in this type of game.
Hear you (and this is why I like doing long-reads instead ... I always have more thoughts to share!). I think there are matchups where Vieira already makes sense on the wing (was good against PSV and in the friendlies), but this was definitely not one of them — Joelinton playing back with Burn/Botman is like a worst-case scenario for him. I *personally* wouldn’t have minded seeing him come on for Xhaka; he may lose the ball a little bit on the dribble, but Xhaka was losing it while passing, and some more technical flair and creativity would have been welcome in breaking them down. He's been surprisingly advanced on the counter-press which was where all the action was at that point in the game, so I wouldn't have expected a big practical dropoff there.
But probably wouldn't have mattered, as you said — team looked good anyway. More than anything, I'm just anxious for him to clear the bar with Arteta to play in this kind of game, and that hasn't quite happened yet. I get it.