After the slow and somewhat disappointing way that Arsenal have started the season and straight off the back of that confidence sapping Champions League home draw with Anderlecht on Tuesday, you might well wonder why I am fairly confident of the Gunners bouncing straight back with a valuable win at the Liberty stadium on Sunday.
And our opponents Swansea City have often given Arsenal a really hard game since being promoted to the Premier League three years ago and have beaten us a couple of times. But the Gunners have won the last two EPL games against them on their own turf.
They have also started very well this season under the new manager Garry Monk, who has taken the Swans back to their possession based game, especially the way they like to play out from the back. But that is why I think that Arsenal will find it easier against them this weekend. In Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez, we have two of the best forwards for harrying and pressing the opposing defenders so their tactics actually play into our hands.
They will either be pressured into giving the ball away or will have to revert to the unfamiliar tactic of kicking it long from the back. That is Arsenal going forwards, of course, and we will need to defend much better but after the nightmare of Anderlecht, I think everyone will be much more switched on throughout the team in that respect. What do you think Gooners?
Really? Glad your confident, I’m not! I am relaxed and happy aboutnrhe attacking threat we have now but still terrified about the fragility and unpredictability of our defense. For this game we must set up to counter the pace of routledge and dyer and the strength of bony. He probably won’t do it but I’d like to see as a minimum bellerin at rb and chambers cb, I’d even go as far as to drop Per, (its time) and play monreal, (hayden if he was fit) and chambers. We then need to disrupt ans own the mf area in front of the back four and we should select the fittest and most physical players to do this. If theo is ready to start I’d consider having ox and Jack/aaron in front of the back four. Sanchez, Welbeck and the other guys will have to work hard to win back psossesion quickly when we lose the ball. Swansea must not be allowed to play and get into their rythym. If wenger gets the selection right and the players lift their game we win 2-1 or 2-0, if wenger has not learnt anything and our players come out slow and without belief we’ll lose 3-1, sanchez ours with bony, routledge and dyer all getting one each. I hope my first predication is correct but as always with arsenal and the pl who knows what to expext come Sunday. Finger nails at the ready!
Im not taking this game with swansea for granted, as much as i do want the 3 priceless points we must be focus and defend at our very best! Lets not be complacent this game wont be a cake walk!
I’m not taking this game for granted either.
It took us pretty late in the game to take care of Burnley. Wenger said patience paid off. Well I hope we are not going to have to be that patient against Swansea. Lets take them out early.
I’m longing for 1 PL match where we score goals in the first half. Surely any eventual PL champions have a handful of games where they dominate early, score early and win big.
Anyway, I hope all of us will be happy during and after the game. We need a break from complaining
COYG 4-0 please
Would like theo to start this game! His pace would be a welcomed factor! Coyg!
I honestly would like the gunners to give a 100% team effort towards trying to get 3points away at swansea on sunday! After that shambolic display against anderlecht during the week, they need to redeem theirselves and respond positive in the way we know our arsenal to be. After all they owe the travelling fans a better performance after that “nightmare” which occur on tuesday!
BREAKING: Koscielny out for further 3-4 weeks.
It seems the solution to our injury woes in the short term is to recall Jenkinson from his loan and push Chambers to central defence permanently. Can’t see any other way. What do you think?
Don’t think we have the option to recall Jenko. We might be able to recall in Hanuary but that’s a bit too late.
bring berahino
I’m getting sick of these defensive troubles. Most people at the Emirates just take the attitude of ‘we don’t really have a choice, it’s the best we can do until January’. That’s not good enough. Yes its the best we can do right now, but that’s not the point.
The point is we shouldn’t have been in this position in the first place. We should have started the season with another centre back. That wasn’t done. Someone failed to do their job. That’s the point.
At the point where the Transfer Window closed we had Chambers, who showed signs he could play at centre back, but had only played two or three games there for Arsenal and was an inexperienced 19 year old. Is that someone good enough to count on for such a long time to be a backup? No. We’re very lucky that he has turned out to be good enough, otherwise we’d be in an even worse situation. We also had Monreal. Injury prone, too small and not enough strength to be a real centre back, prone to mistakes and was untested as a centre back too. Nothing against Monreal, but he’s a left back, he shouldn’t have even been considered as a centre back. It’s completely unacceptable to go into a season with two centrebacks and two unproven players as backups.
I don’t accept this nonsense of ‘we couldn’t find anyone we wanted’ that Wenger comes out with. There are plenty of good experienced defenders out there that we could have easily brought in. It’s a backup centre back, so what if they weren’t who we ‘wanted’. They’re who we ‘needed’ and that’s more important.
As for the clowns who constantly say this isn’t FIFA 15, you can’t just buy whoever you want. You’re right, it’s not. But this is Arsenal FC. Consistent champions league football, high wages, reputation and should have been title contenders. Is that enough to bring in a world class defender? Possible, but a world class defender isn’t who we needed. We just needed a backup, someone to do a job and add depth. That’s certainly enough to bring in decent backup.
As far as I’m concerned, there is no excuse for not having another centre back and ‘we’ll sort in out in January’ isn’t an adequate response either.
I respect Wenger with all that he has done to my beloved team but we should all see and admit that,no excuse in all accounts he was completely wrong for not replacing Vermaelen and letting Jenko leave.
Bob, did you say we lost to Swansea at the Emirates Stadium last season? I doubt if we had. I think the match ended in a 1-1 draw. It is the season before the last we lost 2-3 at home to the Swans. I will make my comment tomorrow on our away game to Swansea.