The Arsenal “A Team” – Can these XI men do the Job?‏

The 11 fire fighters. By Galen Sona

Are Arsenal ruthless enough in the transfer market? Is it difficult to find players that can make Arsenal better? Do we need another Striker? Do we need a defensive midfielder? Do Arsenal really want to win the league? Is Cech the only signing? What is going on at Arsenal?

In the last 2 weeks we have asked ourselves loads of questions. Every football manager has got what I call an “A Team”. This are 11 trusted firemen that the manager trust to do the job. When ever there is a crisis, the manager will turn to these 11 men to do the job. Mr Wenger, like most managers, clearly has an ‘A team’. Is our ‘A team’ good enough to win the league? Can our A team be improved? Who are these XI fire fighters?

———— Cech——————

Bellerin—-Per—–Boss—-Nacho

——–Cazorla—-Coquelin—–

Ramsey—–Ozil———Sanchez

————Giroud—————-

I believe we shall see a lot of this combination than any other combination this season. The players have a great understanding on the pitch. There are loads of questions to be answered regarding our A team. I personally believe that this team cannot win the league. I think we are short of 2 or 3 players.

1) Ramsey vs Ox? Ox is a natural wide player, and I think he is the most inform player at the moment. But the manager has clearly reverted to his A team. Which mean Ox misses out?

2) Per vs Paulista? May be I am not just a fan of Per. Paulista any day any time?

3) Is Cazorla, Ozil and Coquelin balanced enough? Can we beat the big teams with such a combination? I mean the big teams in the Champions league. Not Sunderland or Spurs.

4) Is there no striker in the Market better than Giroud?

5) What about the DM?

Mr Wenger clearly got his A team. Can this team win the league? its very hard to improve Barcelona. Pedro had to run away. Is hard to improve teams like Real Madrid and Bayern. Look at City Chelsea and United assaulting the market.

Is it hard to improve Arsenal? Not really.

By Galen.

Tags Gabriel Per Ramsey

40 Comments

    1. Truth be told, “defending” is not Benz’ stuff, that’s one thing Giroud does better. But I would rather we get Car_vani

      1. Giroud defending?
        When has he ever headed out an opposition corner kick or intercept a ball?
        Giroud fans and their mythical hold up play.
        How about getting a striker who can do the

        1 mythical counter attack
        2 mythical take ons
        3 Mythical outrunning most defenders
        4 mythical scoring goals from outside the box
        5 mythical dribble
        6 or allows for a tactical change in formation .

        Giroud only ever scores inconsequential tap – ins when we are 2 goals up .

        1. Maybe. U are new hEre and u probably don’t watch arsenal often. I’m no fan of Giroud’s and, yes, Giroud tracks back to defend, particularly when he loses the ball. Benz is better, but sometimes he acts like the spoilt kid of a rich man.

    2. How is Ramsey playing out of position considered “A” team. Need to put OX on the RW – he can actually play there.

  1. i would also swoop Per for Paulista…..Yeah Per is experienced, (so is John Terry), but Paulista is much quicker than him.

    1. quicker – yes
      organizing defense – ?
      communication – ?
      command of area – ?

      just asking if those qualities are better as well? If not, then I wouldn’t risk throwing him in big games just because he’s physically superior. Per is more than his speed, he’s a leader and the best we’ve got for now. Just saying…

      1. Organizing of defense – Per was there for West Ham 1st goal.
        Communication – OK he beats the Brazilian in English here but Paulista does his talking with actions.
        Command of Area – Per looks good cause Kos covers his a$$…

  2. We still need a proper cb, rw, dm and striker

    Take out per, giroud, ramsay and coq and replace them with

    Hummels, Benz, Isco and Bender and we will be good…

    We need that spine

    1. @hafiz…nice one man…these b*tc*es over here are in love with the players and are afraid that their lovers will be replaced by better players…i like sanchez alot but if ronaldo decided to join us , i wouldn’t mind him being benched or played in the right wing….these loosers wouldn’t know that

      1. Lauren Mayer ( invicibles) : ” there is a lack of intelligence in the team ”
        In others words , players who cannot interprete the Wenger’s instructions and deploy it on the pitch .

        Manifestation on the pitch :
        Same mistakes all the time
        Players who give the same passes all the time
        Wrong passes
        Bad passes
        No variety to corner kicks
        Cannot control a game
        Lack of tactical awareness
        Striker who always move towards the ball

  3. Any player thats slow should not be in the team….

    Back in the days Captain Tony was out of the fastest centreback in the league

  4. Liverpool are pretty quick in the final third and play the ball quicker so it would be good to have a quicker defender partner Kos.

    Players like Countinho, Henderson and Milner have been given licence to shot on sight near there opponents penalty boxes, Cech has been beaten like 3 times already including pre-season from long range shots, is that cause for concern? I say yes, our blocking has to be a little more effective and players should not be afraid to put there bodies on the line. No playing around with ball near our box either especially if you are not Santi who is good in tight spaces.

    Going forward no major issues on whether its Ramsey, Ox or Theo. They are all good players and offer different attributes to the team when there on the pitch. Knowing Wenger he might pick Ramsey in order to match Lpool midfield. He will be doing a lot of cutting in especially if he will be making Countinho as he also loves to cut in when attacking. For wide play Bellarine, Ozil and Monereal have to do a lot as both Sanchez and Ramsey will most likely play more central when attacking in order to have more bodies in the box apart from OG.

    On Coq and Santi, solid as we can get in the middle at the moment so no concerns there. Coq just needs to play his game and not try to impress so much, we already love him for the mare fact that he wears the red and white.

    Here’s to hoping for 3 points!!!

    1. Countinho in particular, he bloody shoots!!! What has happened to Santi? He’s lost his boots, just can’t shoot or shoot on target anymore. Our players need to start shooting, so far only sanchez seems to do that, and maybe Ramsey too.

  5. As we all know, Wenger won’t change his formation. We won against crystal palace so he thinks we’re unbeatable. The only change he would possibly think of is putting ox on the wing. Coz Liverpool will attack and that leaves more space for counter.

    1. “As we all know, Wenger won’t change his formation. We won against crystal palace so he thinks we’re unbeatable.” – right! Wenger is better than you give him credit. You’ll see when we beat them in Monday. If they attack, they will fail big time.

  6. Bare Cech, all are the same, did they do it last year?
    Here you have Giroud and Mert and Wenger on the bench and you still believe they can do the job!
    No way 200% sure
    Unless reinforcement, real reinforcment, never get ur hope high

    1. Wenger is still thinking its still 2014/15 season….

      Hes probably forgotten other clubs have spend.big and strengthen as well

  7. if AW is serious about winning the PL *this* year: imagine the mental/emotional impact getting a benzema/cavani would have on the squad and the supporters? that would be a serious statement of intent. it would lift everyone’s game and make us damn scary.

    OTOH: NOT getting anyone else : what would that signal? That AW is a nearly-man, a stingy milquetoast that is beaten by the prices, inability to do pay enough and just a bit short of david dein.

  8. I really do not understand a few of my fellow Arsenal fans. So much trust in other clubs but no trust for your own club? Why?
    Chelsea seems to be the prime candidate of most people to take the PL title again. Why? What have they done to be better than last year? They have sold Cech and Luis and bought in Begovic and Baba Rahman as replacements and now signed Pedro with Caudardo leaving. They already were in need of defenders with only 6 defenders and are still at the same place. All the frailties that we saw at the end of last season have not been addressed but still they are being considered favorites.
    Man United have not bought a striker at all and relying on Rooney as their first choice striker, who infact has not played as a lone striker mostly. They bought in Schneiderlin and Schwiensy but sold Di Maria. They still have to address the CB issue which doesn’t seem likely. Smalling and Blind as the CB pairing is really not considered title winning. I don’t know why their transfer activity has been boosted so much when they have not solved the CB issue and infact created another issue at Striker.
    Man City at the moment is the only team which I consider is better than Arsenal. They have bought amazing and filled in more than the needs. They bought Otamendi which is a statement. Sterling obviously is hyped and not worth the money they paid for him but he has replaced Jovetic who hardly played last season.
    Infact if Wenger gets Benzema and a DM, I think Arsenal are up there with Man City as the title contenders, even if we get only Benzema we can give a good fight. Keep up the faith gooners, Benzema is coming. I have had this feeling for a month now, I may be wrong but there is nothing wrong in keeping the faith as a fan. Request all of you to do it. We really have a very strong squad, we can challenge.

  9. like i said before, Ramsey is a team B player, he’s not good enough for the wing, and now that Carzola is playing the central midfield, he’s doing perfectly well. and like i said before, the player who brings the best out of coq is santi. Coq revealed he loves playing with santi the most.that sums it up. Ozil, Carzola and coq are they good enough to play against barca,madrid etc? its a big YES, BUT we’ll need another DM to partner coq and make the midfield more tight to break. I believe we need a WC striker, Giroud is good, but not the type we need in the first eleven.
    per and Gab…man its Gab. we all know the answers to your questions, but your question should be is can Wenger give you the right answer to your questions? will he ever stop favouritism? will he ever stop being soft all the time?

    opinions divided, what do you think?

  10. Wenger has turned Ramsey to a jack of all trades, and master on none.
    Ramsey at the DM, CM,LW,RW,CAM… and he has turned out to be an average player in all. Now he can’t even displace Cazorla (who is naturally a CAM) in his position.

    İ am not claiming to know more about football or even about Arsenal more than Wenger, but i surely know Ox is a better player on the wing than Ramsey. He is powerful and direct,he commits defenders and makes solid, well manned defences more malleable.

    Anyway, lets get prepared to seeing more of the Wenger’s A list this season.

    1. You are not mistaken, everyone knows Ox is a better “winger” than Ramsey. But the fact remains, whether we like it or not, Wenger is not looking to play a “winger” in his system at the moment. If he has a game plan for someone to be tearing up and down the touchline, to stretch the opposition out wide, beat opposition FBs in 1v1s and start pinging balls in from the bye-line then Ox will surely get the nod. But if he is being more conservative and is looking for a defensive contribution then Ox is not the man. But it would be foolish to imagine that a Ramsey selection is overly conservative – if someone is going to nick a goal or slide a pass through then I reckon 90% of fans would back AR15 as being the more likely one to do it.

      I remember the season before last when everyone was calling for Wenger’s head because of his gung-ho one dimensional approach to every game, trying too hard for the 3rd goal when we were winning 2-1 and ending up with a 2-2, not being satisfied with a draw and going all out for the win. I doubt if he seriously listened to anyone on the matter but there is no doubt he has tightened up our approach. Ox is my favourite Arsenal player so I have nothing against the lad – but him being in the vicinity of turnover ball leading to goals if starting to be a theme. Problem is, he puts so much in to it going forward that we can’t help but love him and tend to be kinder in our appraisal of him that perhaps we should be. Ox + keeping ball and/or finding the pass = world class.

  11. 10 days left…GET THE MUST NEEDED DM ( carvalho/coutinho/Biglia/Melo ) anyone with pedigree..all expert pundits repeat and repeat time after time WE NEED THAT POSITION BADLY and proven WC ST..so get ( Benzema/Cavani/higuain ) whoever but GET THEM FFS.

    even smaller teams have spend at least 30 millions of the huge tv pot shared and we are the monkey pookies of the EPL title challengers.

    If it goes like this,we will be fighting not 4th but even europa league with the likes of leicester-west ham-southampton and spuds..COM ON AND STOP BEING STTUBORN ..and putting fans into this conundrum.EVERY YEAR THE SAME EXCUSES..THE EMIRATES SPENT..THE TEAM JUST LACK CONFIDENCE..WE WERE BIT NERVOUS..WE FINISHED STRONG BUT POOR START BLA.BLA..ENOUGH SAID.

    TIME TO SHOW YOU ARE WORTH TO GO ON .

  12. Two ben’s coming?:

    hTeeTeeP://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11815691/Odds-slashed-on-48.2-million-Benzema-move.html

    #bender
    #benzema

    1. Anyone think the quoted + £40 million bid is waaay too much? I mean we spent £42 on Mesut Özil who is still finding his feet with Arsenal, and yet when we got him he was 3 years younger what Benzema now is.

      Let’s say we have bought him for £45m, IMO it’s desperation..

  13. Not believing these benzema rumours all people are doing is reading quotes from so called sources on twitter and repeating them on here. I still believe wenger will sign at least 2 players but no clue who will just wait and see what happens knowing wenger he will leave it till last day of the window!!

  14. We are in danger of having a demanding season, simply because everyone in the league (pretty much) has strengthened, so the old cliche ‘there are no easy games in football’ will become truer than ever.

    For that reason, I believe we must at the very least STRENGTHEN our team by adding backup for key players DM etc, and ideally we must IMPROVE our team to compete in a way that we all expect and demand.

    So that means for me, we MUST buy some players this window, otherwise I fear we will struggle to achieve our last seasons position of 3rd let alone improve on it. City are looking fearless, Chelsea will improve and Liverpool / Man U could be up there too long with one or two other possibly…

    At least AW hasn’t categorically ruled out signings as yet, but he hasn’t exactly given any strong hints yet either…so I am tending to agree that the transfer window should be closed before the season starts. It’s a distraction for everyone. Make it a shorter window so that all this will they, won’t they sign is reduced to a few weeks…!

  15. Same questions, same problems, same answers week in ,week out, month in, month out, year in year out. .We`re getting better but we still don`t have the ammunition. Carzola, Ozil, Sanchez (WC). Ox Chaberlain, Bellerin, Walcott (VG) Coquelin (potential). The rest average. That doesn`t
    win championships.

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