Arsene can’t get no satisfaction by Konstantin Mitov
Aren’t the Rolling Stones a nice way to start an article right? So whats up? After soaking up the Swansea defeat by which I was devastated, it’s time to take a look as to what lies ahead? First up it’s a tricky game vs Man United at Old Trafford. Had we beaten Swansea a direct place in the CL would’ve been assured but now there’s drama ahead…
If United beat us, we’re still hanging the faith of not playing a qualification game in our own hands, but I have a bad feeling about it. We filled the same squad for the 5th game in a row. This is a tired squad, and if you follow Arsenal long enough you’ll know Arsene doesn’t like change. He doesn’t like changing his philosophy which has cost us quite a lot along the years, nor does he like rotating his squad.
Ramsey on the wing may work for a game or two, but you know his position is in the middle. On the other hand we have a Theo Walcott, a REAL winger, who barely gets 20 minutes a game and cannot score against an open goal. It’s a psychological thing that gets into a players head when whatever he does he cannot get into the side.
We have a few players who are future ‘might-be’s. First there is the aforementioned Walcott, who has only one dimension to his game and when his finishing is not good he’s essentially wasted on the pitch. Ramsey is another player who swings from a world class midfielder to his old average self, and Wilshere you feel is on the ropes if he makes another smoking mess. You feel that not too many people would back him for a regular starting X1 place. And then there’s Welbeck – who has all the ingredients to be a top quality striker – there is the pace and the physique but you wonder about the end product?
If you have one chance in a CL semi final and it has to be buried do you trust our strike force? Look at how Neymar handled a tricky ball from Suarez and buried it past Neuer (the best keeper around) at his near post. We need to shoot for the moon and if we miss, we’ll still land among the stars. Quality players will be available, because sometimes they fall out of favor at their club, or they don’t like the manager…
Get them, Arsene!
Konstantin Mitov
Hope Welbeck fit – should play on wing.
Ramsey on wing doesn’t work and Theo, doesn’t help out defensively especially since MU are strong at wings.
Whatever problems Man U present they don’t have the ability or inclination to park any bus. There is always space behind their back-line – need TW or DW back on the right. HB has been amazing but wouldn’t mind MD to kick Young around on this occasion. The atmosphere will be properly charged – expecting our away lot to be creating more noise than the 60K at the Emirates v Swansea. I listened to the Bayern crowd on Tuesday, staring elimination and on a 4 game losing streak and the atmosphere was cracking – wish we had the same, gotta be worth a few points a season.
Don’t even bother to be worried, we will at least get away with a point, let’s park the bus for once and hit them on counter with welbeck and Sanchez….
i dont think we can generalize from swansea to MU.
swansea sat back : MU will be different. difficulty of a different kind: one we can beat.
plus i generally got the sense the players were mentally tired and taking a break. its hard to play for 2nd spot. but beating MU is something they should be up for. its important that the big team hoodoo remain buried.
“It’s hard to play for 2nd spot” – Would love you to clarify what you’re saying here. If you’re suggesting 2nd is irrelevant to a team that hasn’t finished there in a decade you’ve got to be joking.
We are used to scrapping till
the last day of the season.
But this season Arsenal was
assured of ECL and FA cup final 3 weeks ago.
2nd and 3rd are the same so we have
been in winding down mode for three weeks.
Lets clear the dead wood, sign Kondogbia
and Schneiderlin then have a summer holiday.
Its all good 🙂
No they’re not the same I don’t agree at all with that. The crux of the issue is we had 2nd place in our hands and we blew it – last time we finished 2nd was 2005 so that just showed a real soft mentality in closing out a season.
I thought almostawinner was trying to say that it’s now hard to get back to second spot. But anyway I do agree that we need to fight for second! #COYG
That was my argument on several articles relating to the Swansea loss, its a fact that finishing second above United City and Liverpool is a statement and crowd pleaser both of wich are needed both to progress and also to look good and show improvement its as simple as that!!
De Gea utd is a very strong team……
if we dont have any special tactics and strategy…we can forget about beating them…..
We don’t even have to beat them. A draw will suffice.
we want revenge !
For what? We will still finish above them and we took them out of FA. Play a Mourinho against them and settle for a draw. We have to smell these games where the safe bet is a draw and just wait for a counter. Swansea was such a game. Mourinho’s Chelsea would have settled for a draw. A point is a point, there’s no way around it. This is how you win league titles.
If we dont win this match, lets say goodbye to title for the next season as well. As it will be the proof that we cant do it when the stakes are high!! If we win, then it will give me hope.
V Man United.
Ospina,
Bellerin Per Kos Monreal
Coq Cazorla
Welbeck Ozil Sanchez
Giroud
I would rather give up the ball and play for the counter “not parking the bus off course but more direct play”, so I would go for speed:
Ospina,
Bellerin Gab Kos Monreal
Coq Cazorla
Walcott Ozil Sanchez
Welbeck
Walcott only for his good runs, and please use mozrat, it has been a while since we saw him playing …
Seems like the high of being on a swanky unbeaten run has started to dissipate and we’re left with a more sober state to analyze this season in terms of “progress”..
Premier League: We finished with 79 points last term and that is the MAX we can achieve this year with 3 games left.
Champions League: Last 16 and got booted out by probably the ‘worst’ remaining team
FA Cup: TBD…in the final with a good chance to retain the trophy, but undoubtedly face our toughest game at Wembley where we’ve not put in a convincing performance (albeit getting the result) in the last 3 visits.
Very happy we seem to have changed tact vs the big teams, thrilled we finally saw a DM take the field – but our ability to switch off and lose games we should never lose, and our apparent ability to implode when we get close to ‘success’ (CL vs Monaco, blowing 2nd place with 4 games to go) leave a lot to be desired. All in all it’s hard to genuinely preach this season as progress. A very crucial summer awaits, still plenty of progress to be made to reach the heights we all long for.