If Arsene Wenger was looking for a strong response from the Arsenal, players to the question of their commitment to the cause and to prove the metal toughness that our manager loves to speak about, then he must have been dismayed by the way Arsenal started this game.
From the first whistle we looked tentative and were second best all over the pitch to Man City, who made the most of our poor start with a goal from Sane after one pass left him through on goal. And for a while it looked as though City would put us to the sword and the game to bed but fortunately for Arsenal they did not and them seemed happy to sit back.
There were not too many signs that our creative and attacking players were much threat though, apart from Alexis Sanchez giving Navas a hard time down our left flank, but five minutes before the break we got a chance and Theo Walcott showed good strength and desire in the box to beat the defenders and fire us level.
That should have given the team the lift they so badly needed but instead we played like puddings and let City score an easy second just minutes later, leaving Arsene Wenger’s halftime talk harder than ever. THe Gunners did come out fighting, though, and 10 minutes after the restart Mustafi headed an Ozil corner in to equalise again.
Arsenal had to bring Ganriel on for Koscielny at the break and that did not help but chances for both teams came and went as the game wore on and anyone could have won it but when I saw no Gunners in the box trying to get on Ozil’s 90th minute free kick it seemed clear it would not be us.
No signs of improvement there and the point does little good.
Bob.
Excellent result for Arsenal.
Wenger must sign the contract
For 3 more years
I have massive respect for Wenger but you know what’s worse than an AKB? It’s a troll who could care less for the progression of Arsenal Football Club. Life goes on…
Finally players at bare minimum put in effort. Still so many problems. Zero wins against top teams still… were clearly not a club moving forward
Oh wait, Chelsea win from what seems like a life time ago
Will this be enough for Wenger to announce his contract extension?
We are pathetic. 6 points in 9 matches against top 6 clubs.
Hard fought point! But there is still alot of work to be done, no time to rejoice!
Need to take positives from this one.
Xhaka might be a wild tackler but the guy is always giving forward passes and never goes back to the defence. He needs one more season and perhaps a new manager to bring out the good in him.
Ospina did okay. Monreal did well.
It was amazing how easily City were slicing through our defence but didn’t score.
Welbeck has good energy. Coq is just average. Alexis put in a shift again.
Ozil needs to go. He really does. He is an absolute liability. He never closes down players around him. We need to cash in on him till he has some value. So is Walcott.
Ozil was totally at fault for the second city goal and the missed an absolutely golden opportunity near the end of the game, so much press has blamed sanchez for disruption in the team but Ozil is a total waste of time all the Talent and zero desire, lazy, unmotivated and defiantly looking towards his next move
Sell him and get rid
I totally feel that if Chambo would have been fit today and in the central midfield role instead of Ozil we might have actually had a chance to win with his energy and speed and dribbling. Ozil has none.
I can’t believe i am saying this but i prefer Chambo more to Ozil now.
On the other hand, I did think that Ozil played better today than the previous few times I’ve seen him – he made some comment mid-week to the effect that he’s there to provide the artistic side of the game and not to do battle, so maybe that’s all we can expect from him. I think he did try to bulk up in the gym at the start of the season, but it looks like that’s not happening any more. I felt it a major dent to our hopes that Ox wasn’t announced in the starting line up, although a major boost that Ramsey wasn’t. I watched the Wales game, and he seemed to play ok – not great, but not as abysmally as he does for us.
Diabolical defending at times, especially in the first half, and we didn’t offer much in attack. Yet another draw in a big game where we were very lucky to avoid defeat.
Since February 11th, Arsenal have only won two games, and kept two clean sheets, both against Lincoln, and Sutton respectively. How embarrassing is that?!
One more or those and Wenger will sign and announce. I so wish we had some ball playing midfielders like de bruyne and silva.
How we miss the likes of rosicky and the injured cazorla.
True. It surprising that this Arsenal team is weaker now without Rosicky and Cazorla. Whenever de bruyne and silva got the ball i was like damn now just one piercing pass and it will end up in our net. I can’t say that for any of our players and apparently we have the “best” playmaker in the world in Ozil who passes back more than front.
I think ospina could have made a greater effort to prevent man city’s second goal!
He saved our a** to be honest. That Fernandinho shot was destined was goal.
We really need to rebuild from the manager down. Really wish AW had walked away with dignity, but times more than up.
Xhaka few mistake but this is his best game, arsenal needs a winger no offence to Theo, good game Monreal but he shouldn’t be first choice, I fill like we need a Spanish touch in midfield isco!, with a striker Good game welbek
Monreal shouldn’t start for us???? Are you watching the game at all? Tell me who is the better defender today above Montreal…metchewwww. I wonder how some arsenal fans think. Monreal is our best defender today.
Xhaka needs a new manager to work with. He is not a bad player. He never passes the ball back unlike most of our players. He is always looking to play it to the attacking line.
And he deserves one season atleast.
Goin forward Monreal is good defending I’m not confident in him at all who do u wana compare him to one V one his gone, physical his bullied you need to watch the match
Arsenal did put in a fight when we were a goal down but let’s be honest this is no champion stuff. Defence-wise the lads gotta get back to basics, clear the ball asap when it’s in our dangerous area, don’t do anything fancy. Midfield-wise we just miss Cazorla. We didn’t have ANYONE who can dribble until Iwobi came on. Xhaka, worth £20 max (hope he proves me wrong in the future tho). The lad gotta keep his cool. Avoid these stupid yellow cards. Attack-wise.. what can i say. I knew Welbeck can’t finish or dribble but i didn’t expect him not outrunning Clichy. Really really poor. Hardly Arsenal quality. He wouldn’t even start at Everton / Crystal Palace.
Overall, fair result. Decent refereeing.
We have just reduced Chelsea’s lead by a point. Now we are back in title contention.
That’s how deluded I am.
2-2 is a decent result to be fair
We all thought we would be spanked out there and lose
both Arsenal and City had poor defenses and some missed oportunities
But 2-2 is a fair result
If we were at the Top of the group or in Top 2-3, Id be satisfied with this result
But we desperately needed a win to get towards the Top 4
We are still in 6th place
11 points behind Spuds
18 points behind Chelsea
And 7 points behind 4th Place Man City
As of now it looks that we have atleast cemented the 6th spot because Everton have already played 30 games and are at 50 points ( one below us). We have 2 games in hand.
So i guess we can be certain we won’t slide down .
Man what times have Wenger brought us to. I am more worried about further sliding down than actually looking at the teams above us. What’s the point? Each of those 5 teams are better than us ( barring Manu perhaps).
we don’t even have a central midfielder that’s willing to receive the ball.
Gabriel cannot make a forward pass to save his life. Always passing backwards. Brazilian?
I thought he played well, and I’m not his biggest fan
Charlie…He was always shaky…Even his clearances…my my…I don’t expect much…but my gosh..when a player can’t slide a decent forward pass or move with the ball just a step forward. Even his sideways passes are always just short. How can we play then when we have up to 2 3 people in defence and midfield that cannot pass the ball well
Arsenal was very lucky to have a draw, thanks to Ospina’s reflexes and agility. Sanchez and Ozil played badly today. Arsenal players were often easily dispossesed and intercepted, I wonder what kind of ball passing training they have been training in this season. City players could rob the ball easily because the distances between Arsenal players are too far and Arsenal players’ positionings are not good. Unlike Chelsea, if you see their last game against Crystal Place, they lost but their positionings are really good. The players are always available to help the others and this made their football flowing.
I was hoping for a change in the system, but Wenger didn’t change anything at all. A change in his system is needed as the foundation for the next season, win or lose doesn’t matter. I really hope he finally can see what is wrong with his system or finally give up and leave. We really need a major change.
ozil the clear man of the match for me . he must have touched the ball at least once during the game . his leadership skills are legendary, and his finishing touch is the stuff of legend !.this is relegation stuff. what a pity we are not closer to the drop zone , would love to see how le prof-it would fare with a bit of pressure on him .
to take a point at home is not good at all, we are still 6th. again how can monreal always caught out off position. i lost count. were ozil, walcot, welbeck, monreal, gabriel playing? blame the manager ok, but has he other choices? gooner = forever
Gaizidis really is a piece of ****. He is trying to desensitise us with bull**** pr.
There is no overhaul. What he really means is people wont re-sign with us so we will pretend those players were surplus to requirements and that is your “re-evaluating”
This is just the status quo. Wenger gets around contract and they pretend they gave change another go even though their “change” was just selling players at the 12 months at out of contract.
The first thing he can do to appease everyone, is make sure he re-signs AS7. We spent almost 100 million last summer, yet didn’t get anyone approaching his skill and commitment. I don’t think he is replaceable, and I find it hard to think of any club nowadays who would agree to selling him, especially a club which is looking to move up and has ambitions. 50m for him is a joke, when Manure paid almost 90m for Pogba – I know who I’d prefer.
the way in which we arsenal fans have downgrade ourselves is something else. we seems not to find fault on alexis even wen he has a bad game, u guys rili tink witout AS7 we cnt make it… Rvp was far btr e grantee goals no matter the opposition he left and we ar stil the arsenal… players come players go but Arsenal remain
We can’t take any positive. I expected a beating but a point today considering the way we played was not that bad but it was like a loss to us.
Monreal hasn’t been in his best form lately, I would give kieran Gibbs a start in front of him!
This is arsenal Gibbs isn’t good enough Monreal should deputised sombody really good, azplikueta like
It seems you don’t knw football mate. Most if you ate gullible to see the wrong doings of koscielny and mustafi most of the time. Take a look the second goal, Monreal was left exposed by the two centre back and he had to cover and also follow Aguero which was difficult. Koscielny has the habit of giving up in big games, he hardly endures a small knock like the way David Luiz can. He did this against Bayern and also today he went out at half time. I have not seen where Monreal was at fault today. Gibbs can’t match his standard and believe me only a few left backs in PL can surpass Monreal. Why can’t you talk about Bellerin who has been caught and passed several times today? Why can’t you talk about Alexis losing the ball too often when dribbling? This is probably bcs you like them. Most of you think if you can run pass others or you can be everywhere the pitch that’s the best player. I’m disappointed in you slating Monreal on this game.
I thought Monreal was very poor in the 1st half. Couldn’t watch the 2nd
What a bunch of muppets some of you are. You just can’t seem to pass your hate for Wenger and/or certain players, and no matter how they do, they will always be criticized for their performances. Give the manager, and the guys on the pitch today some credit. I was expecting an absolute mauling, but we came back twice from behind to get a very hard earned point. I’ll be honest, I don’t like Ospina. I think he’s a below average keeper, and has no place at Arsenal. I think he could have done better for City’s second goal, however, I think he did a good job today overall, and if it wasn’t for a couple of key saves, we’d find ourselves on the losing end. Same goes for Gabriel. For me, he’s one of the worst defenders in the league, and should be sold ASAP. But again, when called upon today, he performed respectably, and made quite a few important clearances and tackles. Ozil, who most of you slate all the time, provided an assist. Mustafi, who was at fault for the first goal, redeemed himself by scoring the equalizer in the second half, and by providing an assist to Walcott for our first. Monreal was outstanding on the day. Bellerin, Xhaka, and even Coq did more than a decent job. You know who was the worst player on the pitch this afternoon? Our hero Alexis. 7 times he was dispossessed quite easily (one time we were lucky not to concede thanks to Ospina’s wonder save against Kun’s header), and 3 times he misplaced an easy pass. So stop giving props to those who don’t deserve it, and start recognizing performances of those who actually do something. I feel like nothing is good anymore for Arsenal supporters. I’ve even heard some saying that wanted us to lose the game just to put more pressure on Wenger. Now that’s just lame. No matter how frustrated I am with my club, I never wish any harm on them. Win, Lose, or Draw – always a Gooner.
I thought we played quite well, and showed some grit to come back twice. We also didn’t let City have the all of the ball, and showed some will to at least play decent football.
There is a problem though, but considering all the off field speculation we gave a good account of ourselves, and didn’t just roll over.
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