Was every Arsenal fan as surprised as I was to see the name of Nacho Monreal on the Arsenal team sheet ahead of the humiliating defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. The Spaniard has been having a nightmare of late and so even though the return of Laurent Koscielny from his suspension meant that Monreal would no longer be the central defender in the back three, his confidence must be at rock bottom.
It certainly showed as wave after wave of Liverpool attacks turned him inside out and their high pressing game made him completely lose any composure and control. We could have predicted that, to be honest, especially as Monreal’s lack of pace was always likely to be a problem against the pacy Liverpool forwards. Surely the fasdt and aggressive Sead Kolasinac would have been the better option.
Then we have the midfield and the decision to stick with the struggling Granit Xhaka despite the Swiss international costing us the game at Stoke and almost doing the same at home to Leicester. Having faith in your players is one thing but stubbornly playing someone in such poor form is another. To compound the mistake Wenger paired him with Ramsey so we had no really defensive minded player in front of the defence.
And once again the boss played our specialist right back Hector Bellerin on the left for some reason known only to the Frenchman. If it was to help Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain thrive on the right and perhaps persuade him to sign a new contract I could understand, but that ship has sailed after he rejected a huge pay rise last week.
Then we get to the front three and he decides to drop Lacazette in favour of Welbeck and Ozil, neither of whom are as likely to win you a game, so I think Wenger got a few things wrong in his team selection and I feel he got the subs wrong as well.
bringing Coquelin on to shore up the defensive side of things was right but in taking off Ramsey we lost too much going forward. It should have been Xhaka and it should have been Ozil to make way when Giroud and Lacazette came on. Do you agree Gooners? Did Wenger get it all wrong in Liverpool or did the players simply let him down?
Bob.
Another manager could have done better with that same lineup.
Meanwhile Liverpool are signing more players. How I wish Klopp was our manager.
REVEALED:18 months ago when Wenger met Kylian Mbappe and his family Wenger was asked €8-€7 as commission for Mbappe to make the move.At that time Mbappe was 17 years old but Wenger said no.You’ll doubt this news today but when it’s exposed years later then you’ll say “it was true” just like how Lemar and Kante was agreed before we pulled out.
JUST IN:Alex Oxlade Chamberlain has now accepted the Chelsea transfer offer.We’ll be selling him for £40.
As I brought to you two days ago that the Mustafi deal was off as Wenger didn’t want to sell.I did say also that Wenger would sell if only he was 100% sure of his replacements e.g VVD,Johnny Evans etc.will be coming.The deal for Mustafi is almost done which means another defender is on the way.The Sancho deal is imminent .The process is being slowed down by City’s refusal to release him but by this week everything should go through.
Just so you know Ox chose Chelsea over Liverpool who also bidded £35+£5 add ons totalling £40.
Mustafi’s loan deal is done and like I said Wenger wasn’t selling and didn’t want to unless he was 100% sure his replacements like VVD,Johnny Evans etc. were coming.They have the option to buy for £35 next season.
Which news?!….We heard that story long time ago stop embarassing urself!
I’m not embarassing myself.I revealed the Ox bid a long time ago not today.He chose Chelsea over Liverpool today that’s why the fee has now been agreed.The bid was in days ago not today.Stop whining.If you think I watch Sky or news for that matter I don’t.
Arsenal would’ve RUINED Mbappe. He dodged a bullet and he knows it
Naby Keita has agreed the Liverpool move and will be a Liverpool player on 1st July 2018.The same as Kolasinac’s move.Ox did reject Liverpool for Chelsea however.They’re also currently under bidding(£55) for Lemar.
Bob, with respect 4 0 says yes we did. right royal screw up. I need a new wall to hit my head against mine has crumbled
Arsenal agree fee with Chelsea 4 Ox
Sky just reported Arsenal and Chelsea have agreed a fee for Ox.
So Ox is indeed gone. Good.
Now someone should also agree a fee for Ozil, Walcott, Ramsey and Wenger!
And dont forget gibbs perez debuchey welbeck chambers campball and wiltshire but most importantly ivan and silent stan
And Wenger…please don’t forget Wenger. If his hands were truly tied by the board, if he didn’t agree with what’s been going on, he would have left years ago. He IS as guilty as the board.
I agree with the article, unfortunately we have been saying that before the first match. Well the way it seems we will be saying good buy to “the Ox”, base on reports he is off to Chelsea, so I guess .we will see Niles and Bellerin competing for RWB.
I will have no doubt that Wenger will try to appease the fans by getting at least 2 signings before the window closes, so let us see
Who? Nobody of any merit would join Arsenal now.
YES
I don’t know why Wenger is selling the players like that.
It’s time for arsenal to start preparing for the future and that begins with ivan admitting that offering wenger a 2 year contract was a mistake and terminating it with immediate effect.
Start by getting some1 in who hasn’t been as successful and is DESPERATE to prove himself…maybe tuchel.
Player recruitment should follow the same plan… get players who would bite at the opportunity to play for a “big” club as arsenal and not privileged a**holes like ozil or cech who are here just for a relaxing job. I would be pi**ed if we are after the likes of draxler who is in the same mould as the unmotivated spineless bunch that we have currently.
Throw out all the contract rebels including sanchez… No one is bigger than the club. His unwillingness to play for arsenal was clear after yesterday. It shouldn’t matter if we have to sell sanchez to city or ox (snake) to chelsea/liverpool, because honestly we are not competing with these clubs at the moment and we probably won’t be for a few seasons. This way we atleast get some money for potentially 150 mil worth of talent who will most likely walk away for nothing next summer… all these players have been performing like 2mil players anyways…so what’s the point of keeping them?
Start holding players accountable for their form!!! Players like ozil, bellerin, kosc, ramsey have been underperforming for a while now and are still named in every starting lineup! Xhaka has been making mistake after mistake and is showing no sign of changing. Drop him to the bench for f*** sake! AND START selecting players who want to play for the club! Play u23 players if u have to… but we have to show some pride and tell the players that their disgusting attitude and lack of effort would not be tolerated!
Love what u say but apart from Riess Nelson and maybe Eddie N’ketiah and Beilik None of the U-23’s are good enough
This is how slow Wenger is. We could of had Matic plus cash for the Ox if Wenger had acted earlier.
He wanted to play for Moanihoe again though, so I don’t think it was possible.
Bellerin told Wenger that his dream is to become a LWB and to compete with Monreal for a place in Spain’s national team.
Monreal said that he wants to become a CB, to not compete with Bellerin.
Welbeck is not scoring because he does not want to break his 3 goals a season record. He already has 1 goal scored in 3 matches, it’s too much for him.
This season, Xhaka planned to make wrong passes and to miss tackles instead of receiving red cards and shooting from distance like last season.
Ozil wants to become a magician and to make himself disappear.
Kolasinac came to Arsenal to show that it was a mistake that he was declared best LB in Bundesliga.
Holding wants to be the next Jenkinson, his idol.
Nobody knows what’s on Wenger’s mind.
Sadly as an ancient Gunner I have seen it all before i.e.; AFC from really good position and only needing a clear out and four star players, we have done our usual. We have tried to turn a couple of cart horses into CB22 an played 3/4 players out of position. Then to cap all blondes AW starts Ehe game without the two top signings on the bench alongside Gironde and Walcott who scored half our goals last year. As an AW fan I have to admit he has lost all credibility with non tactics, bad selections and bad sales.
Maybe Ox to Chelsea will finally expose Wenger for the fraud he is. Most of our players are not as bad as we think, they just lack proper coaching and motivation, plus they are being played out of position and some being benched for no logical explanation. Kolasinac might soon find himself in the Lucas Perez situation, Xhaka was actually good in Germany but now looks like an amateur footballer.Gabriel and Mustafi were decent when they joined but it seems their ability to defend was coached out of them. Wenger is turning good players into deadwood
Arsenal is quick at selling its players but signing its a different story….how things change with time,who knew Ox will end up at chelsea last season a time like this?!
Imagine if Wenger’s team was as good as Liverpool’s, and you then suggested more transfer to Wenger, Le Prof would spit right into your face!
Yet Liverpool is doing more serious transfer, Monaco even for considering them about Lemar because they are showing enough ambition by putting £55.5m on the table, while the most Wenger offered was £30m as reliably reported!
Ambition vs Delusion should rightly result in 4-0 in favour of ambition, anyway.
Sky sports
Arsenal had a 35m and a 40 m bid rejected by Monaco
Liverpool have offered 55.5m and Monaco are considering it
Oh and wenger missed out on mbappe due to a 5 m payment the family wanted last year
I’m physically sick after yesterday’s performance. However, Wenger MUST show that he can now change as Conte did last season after being trashed first by Liverpool and then only days later by us. I suggested prior to the game a line up:
Cech
Mustafi, Mertesacker, Koscielny
Ox, Xhaka, Ramsey, Kosalinac
Özil, Lacazette, Sanchez
Because: Holding was poor and cost us. Welbeck has also been poor. I’d keep Xhaka as he, with a strong back three could venture forward. Kolasinac is NOT a CB as he tends to venture forward. If we buy a forward for around £50m – then he should play. Ox had played well the last 10-12 games. I’ll be very disappointed if we do let him go. We need a strong core of homegrown players and he is one of the best we have. Gibbs can leave as he is getting on but Ox is still fairly young. Getting VVD will be a good fit IF we get him. The two best things after three games are we’ve at least one and Spurs are only one point ahead of us.
If you look up the suggestions from several pundits prior to the game, they chose six and seven Arsenal players in a combined line up: Chech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Özil, Sanchez were usually picked. Also Monreal and/or Kosalinac were picked.
Everyone knows that. Keeping Mustafi , Lacazette and playing Xhaka and Ramsie in the midfield as non o them is a holding of defensive midfielder has weakened more the already weak defense > people were so eager to see Sanchez and Lucazette playeing together and instead Wenger played welbeck as the main striker> Wenger always trying to do strangr things and Arsenal pay the price.
I really dont know why Wenger insosted on playing players who want to leave. Do you really think that Alexis, AOC would risky getting injured playing for Arsenal when they want to leave? Ozil, iis he even interested? The wingbacks were not tracking back and we missed Kolasinac big time
I am no tactics expert at all but here is how I would have picked the team on Sunday:-
Petr Cech
Mustafi,Mertesacker,Koscielny
Xhaka, Coqeulin
Walcott,Sanchez,Iwobi
Lacazette, Wellbeck
Subs :- Ozil, Chamberlain, Kolasinac, Monreal, Holding, Ospina, Nelson, Ramsey.
Wenger played so many players out of position that they were clueless as to what to do.
I would prefer not to play Sanchez, Ozil and Chamberlain at all until they either sign new contacts or leave the club because at the moment they don’t deserve to wear the shirt.
The sooner the contracts are sorted one way or another the better because they club is being held to ransom by the players which can’t go on any longer.
Sunday’s match was the biggest embarrassment for gunners fans and showed up Wenger’s stupid tactics for what they were. Things have to change and FAST!!