It was inevitable and understandable that the Arsenal fans would continue to clamour for the completion of the one of the biggest Arsenal transfer rumours of the summer after yesterday. Because as well as the poor defending that gifted West Ham their two goals, Arsenal failed to score and many of us think that Karim Benzema is the answer.
Whether the Real Madrid and France international striker is even available is another matter but there are other strikers out there. Arsene Wenger, however, does not seem as desperate as the fans are to sign one of them. As reported by Sky Sports, the Arsenal boss responded to the suggestions of his former star striker Thierry Henry and suggested that signing Benzema would not necessarily make Arsenal into title winners.
Wenger said, “I respect Thierry Henry a lot for his football knowledge but it is not as mathematical as that.
“We have to develop our collective game and depend less on one guy who comes in and scores all the goals.
“It is important but maybe we can share that,” Wenger added. “I think Olivier Giroud would not have been far from 20 if he played the whole of last season and Theo Walcott as well.
“I don’t see why a guy like Chamberlain should not have an ambition to score 10 goals, Sanchez can score goals too.
“Ozil has to fix himself a target of at least 10. For a guy who plays behind the striker you want more from him on the goalscoring so we can a little bit share that.”
Okay I see his point but would Benzema have made a difference against West Ham yesterday? He might but I do not think Giroud was to blame for that defeat. He hardly got a sniff and as good as Benzema is, he is not the Lionel Messi type of player who will create and score goals on his own. He needs the players around him to provide him with chances to finish and that was not happening against the Hammers.
So while I do want Arsenal to get Benzema, we should not assume that he is the answer to all of Arsenal´s problems.
We need Benz, DM, LW and a CB to complete the spine….
We struggle when Sanchez is not playing and Sanchez cant play in every game….
we need to sign someone to rotate with Sanchez
The defeat to Westham hurts big time. We had to call on unfit Sanchez to help us. How pathetic!….When our opponent is not playing so well, we gift them goals carelessly. Benzema or no Benzema, We need to fix our mentality. The major problem we have is ‘consistency and tactics’. Some games you think we’ll lose, we end up winning. The ones you think we’ll win (like yesterday), we end up losing. Time to pick ourselves up and tidy this repeated mess year in year out. We all wanted a good start. Let’s see where we’ll be on the table after 10 games…
Forget about Benzema..
The only Benz that arrived on Sunday was Wenger’s chauffeur driven mercedes-benz!
Taxiiiiii ?
Benzema alone is not the solutioon!! tell wenger to stop playing his son on the wing. Yes Wilshere holds on to the ball too much,but if he’s free from injury ya’ll gon know he’s better than Ramsey in every way except in scoring goals. it was clear yesterday we do need a WC striker. but what diff will it make if wenger keeps playing our players out of position. And i couldnt even believe i would wish it Ospina in front of the goal line, plus someone tell wenger not to play BFG in matches that requires strength please… I ran away away from rehersals just to go watch our opening game and i was f*ked, next week?? hell no am staying put until they show they really want the title.
We need Giroud, Mert out of the starting 11 … we need no midfielder out wide, only real wingers should play out wide … If theses are too much for Wenger to do, then we need a new manager, a ruthless one …
If Wenger does not see Gab as a good replacement for Mert, then he should be questioned by the board … If Wenger, or any fan here, see Giroud is a good striker, then he is deluded, big time …
Regardless of WestHam game, this is my opinion long ago …
Totaly agree. Again i see madman sensitive wenger convincing pepole we can challange this or that. But truth is if we dont spend at least 40milion on striker plus lw we are nowhere. Wenger is outdated. We are playing predictible football which becomes booring.
Every season is the same shit…poor tactics…
playing Ramsay on the wings or Oxie as gk…etc
time for a change
Who the fcuk is Oxie, Hafiza? Everytime u say Oxie, I get a mental image of a man wearing a two piece with long silky hair. Please don’t.
Benz is nt our main problm..ys he’s miles betr thn girdsht..bt for our sake we ned a team player strike rathr “who feeds me”. Suarez typ is wht we rily mis..why cnt turn alexis there, nd get in marco reus, dnt say alexis is nt a striker as he play thre many times, nd if he cn score 25 gols frm a lw then why nt thruog d centr..besides he’s youngr thn benzema!
When I said sometime last week on a post that read something like “How much Arsenal has improved blablabla” that this team at the moment is FA cup winners material I got a lot of thumbs down. This team is only as good as we performed last season and with only the addition of Cech I cant see us improving that much.
Yesterday fails of the game for me:
1. Coq is good at defending but men his passing is something else, especially long range passes. This is something other quality DM’s have in there locker.
2. Debuchy is not ready to take over Bellarine at the moment. At this stage you cannot combine both Debuchy and Monereal, there game is too similar and offer less going forward. We should play Bellarine with Monereal and Debuchy with Gibbs to offer us variety.
3. Our striking force is still blunt. OG didn’t get much service plus he didn’t come looking for the ball too much either. Ox’s end product still needs to improve big time and once again he lost the ball near our box which led to the goal. Wenger played all his so called “strikers” bar one and we all know who “that guy” is and we couldn’t score. We still need a WC number 9 to win major trophies.
4. Nervous Cech, you would think it was his first competitive game. Our WC recruit should do much better next time or Ospina to start the Lpool game. No lenience if we are really hoping to win the league.
Bottom line is at the moment this team is not ready to lift the EPL / UCL, others might argue it was our first game, but we didn’t play Bayern, RM or Barca it was West ham in our own backyard.
Agreed, said it over the summer Coquelin is good at breaking up play but that’s it, his passing range is poor compared to for example Matic. Moreover he didn’t win a single tackle yesterday, vs West Ham that’s absolutely unacceptable.
The second goal was some of the worst defense I’ve seen in some time, absolutely no one even moved to close down Zarate. It’s as if we were daring him to shoot
Wenger didn’t improve the squad, we finished 12 points behind Chelsea, Chelsea is still has the same team as last season and they still are stronger than us.
Wenger needs to do something, 3 games and we could be on 1 or 2 points, with Alan Pardew in charge away at Crystal Palace I’m not sure whether we can get a win and after that it’s Liverpool, we will be playing catch up again.
I cannot understand Arsene Wenger, he has the chance to do something special but he wants to do it his own way.
1 million people tells him to sign a DM and a Striker but according to him those 1 million people are wrong, one person is right and that is Wenger.
Frustrated..
What Wenger says is good to hear, read and talk about, but you have seen the reality yesterday, if you can’t score against West Ham then how you will manage against better defenses in the league. And if Ozil sorts him, Giroud starts scoring and Chambo comes to form, you must understand there is a big ‘”if”. And this is not going to happen in one go like Wenger has a magic wand, the more time we waste the more points we will loose like last season. So we need a goal scorer and currently only Benzema looks like a solution. It will be also difficult to say how much time Benzema will take to gel in…thats why fans were crying for a striker (not necessarily Benzema) before the start of the season…… but I seriously hope Wenger knows better than us…or else it will be another season….
This defeat was caused by a lack of tactical flexibility, a lack of concentration from the whole defensive unit and nothing going forward except the usual side-to-side tippy-tappy nonsense that even Benzema wouldn’t have profited from. Even when Giroud got the ball out wide Ozil was the only arriver in the box — and he was late getting there.
Cech’s decision making already seems to have taken a hit somehow and it’s enough to make me think that something is going on at Arsenal that is damaging our goalkeepers. He seemed confident in other areas such as distribution, but under pressure or when caught early he seemed to lack focus or have something on his mind. However, perhaps he just had a very rare bad day, seeing as most of his team mates did.
If AW hasn’t learned anything from prior recent experiences of playing teams that are well organised and hit us on the counter attack with early strikes and set piece deliveries onto the penalty spot then we can expect at least 2-3 more of these disappointments this season.
It seems what AW is calling for is leadership and responsibility. But he knew the qualities of the players he signed. If he wants leaders, he needs to either mould them behind closed doors or sign them.
Benzema if we were even after a new striker could be the solution to one of many of our problems (lack of potent CF).
But the major one for me remains the manager and his tactical or is ideological nativity. Stop the ‘lets play everyone in midfield’ debacle and use/buy some proper wingers (TW!) Getting another DM is another necessity to bench le coq or play alongside him. but these ‘decisions’ and necessary ‘actions’ are often not identified or is it acknowledged..I just don’t get it and truly think that ironically the man who did so much to bring the club forward is the major thing that is now holding it back.
JustMy2Cents
crystal palace,,,,,,,,,,,,they are even better than west ham.
Not even Messi could’ve saved us from yesterday’s farce.
No more f’n selfies, no more f’n talking to the media about titles and ‘team cohesion’. This squad needs a shakedown, yesterday was a pathetic, gutless performance and our players even seemed arrogant, like they thought it’s a certain win.
Now they have been shamed and it’s time to take it on the chin and start our season next Sunday. Including Wenger.
Yes the whole team sucked after the 30th minute.
But damn it Giroud is the only striker i know who glues with defenders till he is given pass then either miss control or gets the ball, turn and turn till he looses it. COMMON stretch defenders, get them running for 90mins, get behind them and slot the ball in the net.
Wenger simply has lost it, how on earth can you have Ozil and Santi in milfield then put Giroud upfront, it hugely contradicts. Has anyone ever notice when the team counters in high speed and gives the ball to Giroud, the rest tends to slow down a bit coz that pornstar would never turn and continue the attack…with Giroud on the pitch, every play ends with a cross.
You can think as hell that i’m harsh on him, but who cares, he’s clearly the team’s one BIG flaw.
if we don’t buy a dm before de window closes,,,,hmmmm. preapare for top ten.
“if we don’t buy a dm before de window closes,,,,hmmmm. preapare for top ten.”
Exaggerate much?
Even when Arsenal have a bad season they still finish in the top 4 and have done so for numerous years without a world class striker or a defensive midfielder for that matter.
To say we will be a mid table club if we fail to sign a DM this season is going a tad too far. The worst case scenario would be a fourth position finish which personally, I don’t think is good enough. We need to be finishing in the top 2.
One game is not enough to say we can’t achieve a top 2 finish. If we have back to back losses from now to our 5th game then we can call for Wenger’s head.
Benzema is an excellent striker and his finishing is superior to Giroud, so yes he is an answer to our CF problem.
We need a DM to push Coquelin. One is not good enough
We need another specialist LW : Draxler could be an option according to papers. I like Reus or Greizmann. Either can playbon both wings or up front.
A TOP CB would be nice but not required
That’s it really
Krychowiak and Benzema. Draxler is promising but his career has gone backwards for 18 months now (injuries).
Regarding Krychowiak, I read he has a buy out clause of £21 millions, which could be very true since he moved to Sevilla for £4 millions. That’s a £17 million profit in one season. Plus they bought N’Zonzi from Stoke and still have Banega and Iborra in midfield.
absolutely agree on all these points..been saying it for months but met with usual resistance from the 4th place junkies who troll this site …. am hoping that this result is the shock we needed for reality to kick in
It is like everything else in this club… I would be more onfident knowing that Benzema is in the squad instead of a Welbeck (f*cking rubbish player who could not score even to save his life).
Wenger should stop talking about fitness. Only him will give that kind of excuses on the first game of the season, JUST UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
His excuses have run out and he is an embarrassment and a burden with his ineffectiveness and poor managerial skills!!
analysis from yesterday game
1.when i saw the line up i knew we would not win that game but i didnt think either we woukd loose..wenger got the tactics all wrong. play carzola with coquelin not with ramsey. ramsey for some reason is too inconsistence .difference between him and wilshere he would sulk when played out of position but wilshere will do anything for the team. so my point is no need for ramsey to be in the lineup..
2.wenger should have gone with walcot rw and not put either ozil or ramsey..and again chamho for all he did yesterday he cost us the second goal and that now is the 3rd time it is happening..he needs to cut it out.
3.coquelin carzola had an average game but ramsey and ozil should be so ashamed of that perfomance..sanchez had more short on target than any other player on the pitch and he came on when?that is to show you we need a better striker jot giroud or walcot.and please walcot should stop thinking he is messi he was on the pitch for 35mins yet noting to show for it. the only player who played ok monreal and koscielny the rest was shambolic. but yes atleast wenger will know we need a striker and a dm .and one more thing gabriel should play with koscielny .
i still believe in us coyg
Do you think Karim Benzema can put the fear of God in defenders like Thierry Henry?
Nope, me meither.
Waste of money just like Cech.
Szczesny could have saved both those goals yesterday. Really hate Wenger for his moment of madness. What was he thinking buying Cech. Szczesny won the golden gloves in a season when we lost 6-3, 5-1, 6-0 FFs.
Anyways fcuk it. Whats done cant be undone. Onwards!!!!!
“Waste of money just like Cech.
Szczesny could have saved both those goals yesterday.”
Don’t take this wrong, but do you do meth? Are using right now?
I’m sure you wasn’t slating Szczesny when he conceded twice at Southhampton then got caught smoking in the shower.
If Wenger didn’t sign Cech and Spurs signed him to replace Lloris you probably would of slated Wenger for not signing Cech. Cech had a bad game it happens. Are you telling me that Lehmann or Seaman never had a bad game?
In games to come when Cech is putting in man of the match performances and saving penalties you’ll be praising his name like a boy band groupie.
Just Chill! It’s one loss. The whole team played piss poor, so what do we do support another team? Definitely not you get behind your team and look to the next game.
Benzema would have scored with one of the 3 chances Giroud missed yesterday. I like Giroud but WC he is not and we needed yesterday for someone to get a goal when the chances arose but much like the rest of the team when the quality was needed, he didn’t provide. A quality CF would add alot.
That said – I don’t think a top quality striker is going to move. No team is selling. I’m pretty sure everyone is gripping tight to their strikers cos no new great ones are available. When Harry Kane is the “best new thing” you know the quality of the well is dry.
Still, yesterday had alot more to do with other positions than CF as to why we lost. Mostly GK error but also lack of width due to having no natural LW in the entire team. I don’t care if you think Ox or Theo could play there – I think it’s a moot point. We have NO left footed wingers who want to hug the left wing. It’s unnatural for a right footer to go down the wing on the left. These are simple facts and have been true for about 8 seasons. I still believe this is a position we really need to improve BUT we’ll end up overloading our RW with quality when we do.
Still 1 game does not reflect a season and while we know there are problems, every team has problems. Get over it, move onto the next game, try to make signings.
“We have NO left footed wingers who want to hug the left wing. It’s unnatural for a right footer to go down the wing on the left”. Ribery, Neymar, Ronaldo and Hazard are pre-dominantly right-footed LWs. Neymar and Hazard are close to being “2-footed” but neither hugs the wings. These types of wingers died in the top PL teams when SAF retired.
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I can see the writers are all trying to
come up with an excuse bout what
happened yesterday. ..but dere is no
excuse. . u just cant give what u dont
have..it simple.. Wenger should sign a
and a striker… it doesn’t solve
the problem but it an upgrade…
that westham game was a reality check for the players and wenger, they should realize that they are not there yet until they start to take every single game as serious as cup finals. the defeat should serve as wake up call to wenger to do the needful and add the needed players to the team, but am afraid he is not seeing it that way.
We were so bad that maybe Benzema wouldn’t have made that much of a difference but create more than Giroud he would certainly have. If you watch La Liga you would see that he’s not the typical 9. He’s more a 9,5; you could even say a 10 that can score like a striker. Sure he’s not Lionel Messi but again who is? Apart from Ronaldo who can really compete no one!! But look the numbers his putting and he’s not really there 1st option. Surely he could have made something happen and buried one. But again other signings or lack there of there’s no excuse with the talent that was on the field & it’s not only Giroud (lack of services) or Cech (defensive lapses).