I must admit that I am very surprised at the Arsenal starting line-up for the Premier League clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. It smacks of extreme caution to me, when I expected the Frenchman to try to build on the midweek win and take advantage of the low confidence that the Black Cats must surely have after shipping eight goals at the home of the Saints last week.
But the boss has still not given Lukas Podolski a start and has gone for the under performing Oxlade-Chamberlain instead. He has also kept Mathieu Flamini in the starting XI while playing our club captain Mikel Arteta alongside him. The strangest decision, for me, is that Wenger has stuck with the Spanish left back Nacho Monreal in the centre of defence and kept the better defender that is Calum Chambers at right back.
Witho no Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil, Joel Campbell or Podolski on the pitch, our line up seems to be a bit negative and I think we will struggle to break down a side that Gus Poyet will have been drilling on their defensive duties all week.
There is some good news in the name of Theo Walcott being on the list of subs, along with Rambo and the rest.
Szczesny
Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs
Arteta, Flamini, Cazorla
Alexis, Welbeck, Chamberlain
subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Ramsey, Rosicky, Campbell, Podolski, Walcott
Obviously I hope that I am proved wrong and Wenger has got it bang on, but I am a bit worried that our sluggish start to the season will continue.
10 seasons ago best counter attacking team in the league.
this season worst counter attacking team in the league.
Alexis – pretty much the lone bright spot on our season so far.
The guy’s work rate is tireless, how can you not love him in your team?
How can any tosspot thumb down this, name yourself you spurs fan and feck off this site
Wenger is becoming a specialist in destroying good quality players.
Look at the many players who decline under Wenger – Wilshere, Arshavin, Gervinho, Cazorla, Ozil etc.
Give Wenger enough time and Sanchez’ value will drop below 5 mil.
It’s official arsenal are not offering and now luck is not the word arsenal should use but after the Gibbs injury we can see clearly the big picture! But after that match goodbye to league and champions league
Wenger gonna be like:
“We showed great character and determination”
“We defended as a unit”
While he won’t realise that Sunderland were just shit and we should have easily won with at least a 5 goal margin.
At least 5.
Ok I give up!
Sanchez is pursuing a personal record.
And the other players couldn’t give a f**k.
FT: Sanchez 2-0 Sunderland.
Today again you saw Why I keep saying Chamberlain is finished, too lazy.
Cazorla always blames pitch after shooting.
They were the two worst players today.
Welbeck needs to shoot.
The main difference between Giroud and Welbeck is pace. Welbeck MUST find a way to use his pace in exploiting the defense or he will fail at Arsenal.
Its okay guys, an ugly win is still a win, most importantly we got 3 points, so lets just hope arsenal improves for the next match i guess, if not i cant bear to think of the outcome
COYG
Good win boyz but poor performance #sanchez thank u very much & oh #FACK AW! !
2 sides fighting to determine which team is worse. This looked like a bad relegation playoff.
We dint win the match..Sunderland won it for us.
No. Sanchez did.
Assist from Brown and Manone
Just read that was Chamberlains 100th game for Arsenal, tell me how much a better player has he become ? Maximimum he only had 10 good games out of those 100.
Heshould have been substituted by Cambell/Poldi/Rosicky/Walcott
Another injury…! Wenger’s karma is biting him and also us.
Many fans see a lack of effort in the players – maybe you are right. But I have never seen such poor quality from a group of gunners. Poor touches, poor passes and instead of finding open spaces some players are just following Sunderland players around on the pitch.
Why Cazorla was still on the pitch at the end is beyond my comprehension. It would have been better to just go with 10 players at the end.
The lady luck is with us but not pool. Hope it continue cos we really need now since we don’t have the quality.
I thought Sanchez was visibly frustrated with the attitude of the other players after his second goal.
Two positives – clean sheet and Alexis. These ugly wins count the same as the champagne charlie wins that will start to come at some point (fingers crossed)
This is a very competitive league. Look at the topsy turvy nature of of the table. Teams are all over the place that would normally be nearer the top or the bottom..
It’s a tough league, we are playing some good football, but lack a bit of confidence. Hopefully this win will restore some of that and we can kick on a bit.
I really don’t think we are that bad, just other teams are better this season, and hard to beat. We are going to have to grind out a few wins until the natural order of the league restores itself in the next few months. We have some key players out, which will affect moral a bit, but Walcott will give us a lift when he starts, and other players are to come back over the coming weeks / months.
I still think we are easily good enough for 3rd in this league, but we could do with a defender or two in January + a decent midfield maestro to dictate our play a bit more decisively in that key role (that Wenger seems to think doesn’t exist..)
Look at City…best team of individual players in league (arguably) but they are erratic as anything.
2-0 away from home against a team that just got hammered and were up for a result is not a bad result, especially given our key injuries..
It is a competitive league. But Arsenal’s performances do not even hint that they can compete.
Arsenal are currently failing the absolute basics of football. Constant poor touches, poor passes and an utter failure to find open spaces. And I have not even mentioned the lack of energy and commitment.
Please don’t insult our intelligence with this “competitive league” nonsense when we just witnessed 2 teams fighting to find out which team is worse. We know terrible football when we see it.
The good news: Arsenal played a team in even worse form that was willing to gift us 2 ridiculous goals. That is NOT “competitive football.”
The board needs to really put wenger underpressure and buy players in jan because we are in deep sh*t
Wenger needs to bench every player he can. Put Rosicky, Poldi, and Campbell on the pitch as starters. They cannot possibly do any worse than this game. Even less-than-fit players like Walcott and Gnabry would do much better.
#puma sponsorship curse. Sonflad sanxhez, (sorrynwey), won today. Most of our players bar one should be ashamed of themselves.
Poor performances like this can only result from a failure at all levels. Management, coaching and player performance and attitude.
Thankfully Sanchez is new to the team and Wenger has not had the chance to coach the quality out of him yet. But given enough time………….
I have enjoyed many Arsenal performances when they played well but did not win. In this case, I was embarrassed by their performance.
Thankfully Sunderland always looked even less capable than Arsenal. A good fight to the bottom.
What a koad of sh*te! Og gow the mighty have fallen. Wenger go home tonight and get yourself a set of golf clubs and start enjoyibg toyr retirement. We desperately need a new vision/direction. How can I feel like this after an away win? It not the result but the manner of the performance and effort on pitch. So many good players gone bad. It’s like buying a wc player like sanchez has made others realise how poor they are instead of making then buzz and up their game. Behind closed dooors there is ‘trouble at mill’