Arsenal move up to fourth place in title chase

Despite the criticism dished out to Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal squad, the Gunners have quietly gone about their business and remain unbeaten in the Premier League this season.

Mesut Ozil finally came good in yesterday’s game against Aston Villa and I hate to say it, but it would not be wrong to say that Wenger has finally played him in his preferred position and we were rewarded with him scoring his first goal this season and also assisting for another.

Three goals in the space of just three minutes and twelve seconds is an amazing stat in any League anywhere in the world, but that is what Arsenal managed yesterday, not to mention the fact that the team completed 741 passes in the 90 minutes, more than ANY team this season or last!

Another promising stat is that the German defender Per Mertesacker, who is often criticized as being too slow, completed 99% of his passes, with 109 successful in finding a team-mate. Maybe the fans can give him a break for a few weeks?

The Villa manager made a big deal of his team going down with a virus in the run up to the game, which may have left them weakened (who would have said that after the first 15 minutes?) but the fact is that Arsenal took the game by the scruff of the neck and destroyed the home team’s chances in double-quick time, and have at last showed that perhaps they have now got their tactics right.

So Arsenal move up to fourth in the table, just three points behind the leaders Chelsea, who could easily drop points away at Man City today. Not bad for a team that has been way below form in the early stages of the season. We have Tottenham and Chelsea coming up shortly and if we are still unbeaten after those two games perhaps we can dare to dream….

Tags Mertesacker Ozil

46 Comments

  1. Does any1 else think that Ramsey did not have a terrible game like everyone is saying he did? I actually thought the opposite I thought he played good his all around game seemed back to me today and the only thing he couldn’t do was finish.
    he was involved in all the goals and his movement with the front 4 was very precise and fluid. And he was making those darting runs again.

    1. I don’t get Arsenal fans one bit. Ramsey is a central midfielder not a striker. He doesn’t have to score goals to have a good game. He brings a lot more to the table than just goals. Goals for central midfielders are bonuses. Their main job is to dictate play and shield the defence. Ramsey had a good game. Not outstanding but good. Way better than 2seasons ago when we all called for his head.

      1. You’re right @ Mistamonn Ramsey is not a striker and he does not need to score goals. What he does need to do is stop giving the ball away so cheaply in dangerous positions, stop trying so hard to be fancy with flicks etc and go back to basics. He was our top tackler last season which helped our defence, it now seems he’s more interested in getting forward.

        I’m not dissing him but he needs to simplify his game again, it’s what made him so great last season.

        1. I think he’s been getting forward more because he’s been playing further forward in the 4-1-4-1 formation rather than the usual 4-2-3-1. Now that we’ve returned to 4-2-3-1 he should be a little deeper.

          As for simplifying his game, I wouldn’t go that far quite yet, maybe just replace him with Wilshere for a game or two until he earns his starting place back. Ramsey hasn’t been ‘bad’, but Wilshere has been in better form this season, and it seems Özil is getting there too.

        2. Dadrew you hit the nail on the head with Ramsey last season every thing he did was simple and excellent This season he seems to think he is some kind of Ronaldo and when he gets it wrong he looks bad Ya right keep it simple and direct and he will be so good not a would B if I could B. CB

    2. Aaron set a mark last season. We weren’t convinced he could be that good but he proved most of us wrong with his performance. Sadly fans would settle for nothing less from him knowing what he is capable of now. He had a good but not so great game yesterday.

    3. The midfield partnership and chemistry of ramsey and ozil got us 79 points and an FA cup last season. Why destroy this for jack?

  2. I will be happy if Arsenal manage to trail the leaders by around 6 points by Jan window. then some possible defensive reinforcemnts and push for the title. I think we can do it. but have to play well till then.

    OT: massive improvement required in set pieces defending

      1. Every team in the league uses Zonal marking, it’s much more efficient than Man to Man. The problem lies with our players and how quickly they react though, and we’re quite poor at that. Don’t fault the system.

  3. Mertesacker is a defender. He is supposed to make tackles, to win the ball in the air and to anticipate attacks and provide cover for his colleagues.He is unable to do any of this because he is uncoordinated and lacks basic mobility. Oh, he is a nice guy and is a master of the three yard pass. Yesterday he got away with it again, but he is going to get us into trouble. Lets talk again after Chelsea and Spurs ,because the better teams undoubtedly target him and Arteta. To accomodate Mertesacker, Koscielny and Chambers have to work twice as hard. Is this what we want?

    1. So you think mertesacker is a poor defender and can’t do any of the things that makes up a good defender?
      Well his world cup winners medal and 104 caps for Germany along with his 415 career appearances and 31 goals mostly from headers.seem to suggest that some of the games best managers in the world believe mertesacker is a world class defender.

      What are your credentials for stating mertesacker is not good enough?

      1. I have to agree with proffetic. Villa had no inclination whatsoever to put pressure on our back four. They were extremely passive most of the game and gave Mertesacker and Kossie way too much room to push the ball around with ease. We saw last season how Mertesacker struggled against teams with pace and I remember analyzing all those goals we conceded against Chelsea, Liverpool and City. Mertesacker was responsible for a few of them because of his lack of pace.

        Also, remember Merts was dropped at the end of the world cup. His lack of pace was exposed in the quarter final. In the semi final he only played 45 mins and in the final he didn’t play at all. I’m not saying he is rubbish, in fact if he was a bit quicker, he would probably be one of the best defenders in the world but his lack of pace makes us far too vulnerable at the back.

  4. Fabregas: “Changing clubs is part of the game & people must remember it was Arsenal who didn’t take up the buy-back option for me .They can say to me whatever they want, they can dislike me, they can hate me…but nothing will change my feelings for the club .Arsenal are still very close to me. I used to watch all the games even after I left. I always supported them.Arsenal had the first option, but they decided not to. They told me now Özil was there, there was no need for me. That’s life”

  5. Fabregas on Wenger: “He hasn’t spoken to me since I came back. But I’m sure once everything dies down a bit in the future we will talk .I’ll always be grateful to him whatever happens, but I dont expect anything from anyone in life, positive or negative”
    Fabregas: “I felt that joining Chelsea was the best option for me, but I’m sure there would have been a reaction wherever I had gone”

    & xabi Alonso on the other hand turned down moves to city/chelski & arsenal to show his respect to liverlool

    1. Fact is fabregas spent 6 of his 7 years at arsenal pleading for a move to another club, who twice didn’t want him. Then arsenal didn’t want him.

      It’s quite strange really but arsenal Barcelona and chelsea aside, can anyone remember any other club wanting cesc fabregas?

      1. He is a whore. Neither of his two ‘heros’ wanted him. Pep and Wenger didn’t care and then he switched his story to how amazing Jose is. Good player but deluded fool.

        1. Agree. Everyone forgets how just before he left us, he faked an injury and refused to train with the first team. Then he magically was fit to play as soon as he joined Barca. I would play Flamini against them just to crunch that little tw@t. To me, he is no better than all the other backstabbers who kissed the badge and left when things got a bit bleek at Arsenal.

        2. @RvP completely agree.

          Did people forget he was worth 50mil at that point of time. He ripped us by dying to play for Barca. We got 20mil less. After everything the club And Manager had done for him.

          Does everyone forget Dani Alves comment?
          Barcelona is Business class And Arsenal is economic class?

          If you don’t remember just google:
          Cesc Fabregas saga Dani Alves comments on Arsenal

          1. He alone humiliated the club more than RvP and Nasri combined.

            How Barcelona was always tapping up Cesc and how he let his Barca teammates humiliate our Manager and Club.

            He never took a stand and said Shut the fcuk up to them. Always smiling when ever asked about Barcelona.

            Yes he carried us at time and a great player.

            But Greedy, dishonest, cheating, lying, and an proper ar&ehole.

            P.S.- Wenger loved Cesc. Allowed him to keep fast and excused him from training when he had his religious month.
            Lets see if his 2nd ambitious father Mourinho does the same.

        3. absolutely can’t believe some fans still call him a legend he went on a striker to force his way he made up those hamstrikng injuries so that we would sell him there was a quote from wenger if u google it where he said that fabregas’s injuries are in his head

  6. I will remain sceptical even though we seem close to the log leaders. Let’s see how we do against Chelsea in a few weeks. I hope they draw today against shitty.

  7. Very good game for the team but I don’t think Villa is the kind of team to measure our progress, they are the worst team in possession out of all the teams, their average possession for this season together with last season is about 28%. The worst team possession wise.

    This was the perfect game to gain us some confidence, against the SPUDS and other pressing teams should show where we are.

    And out defending at set pieces was nerve wrecking, omg. We just seemed clueless. Sort it out.

    Apart from that let’s keep going.

    1. Beat Spuds at home. Yes.
      Win at Chelsea? Mmm?
      Chelsea under Mourinho have
      only lost a couple of home league games.
      Might as well make it 3 I suppose 🙂

  8. No I wont give Per a break he was wondering around yesterday and offered little, Kos covered his ar*e as usual. We have 1.25 cb’s on the pitch.
    I hope that we can get Bellerin up to speed so we can bring him in and start Chambers at CB instead of Per.
    Villa looked tired and off it yesterday, (maybe due to team illness mentioned). The 3 points is great for confidence but against better teams with one deep lying midfielder, (Arteta or Flamini) in front of Per we’ll get found out.
    Also what was going on with Schez yesterday, he’s lost the plot. We need to bring Ospina into the team for a while.
    Great to see Ozil on the score sheet and playing better and also great for Danny to get his goal.
    Would love to see us get a free agent or two for the CB and DM positions until Jan. Maybe Diarra and Lugano?

  9. Now let’s go and crush the scum next Saturday! Made my day that we won yesterday and Liverpool lost, it will make it the perfect weekend if City win or draw against Chelski, United drop points at Leicester and Tottenham draw or loose the West Brom. Fingers crossed!

  10. @sumo and few others, Dont burn with jealousy leave it be. H8 Cesc all u like he is WORLD CLASS everyone in the football world knows that and when he singe handedly lifts the title for chelsea and poss champs league il be sure to come bk on here and message u.
    Screw us supporters , Family comes first for any player they can choose to go any where they like its thier life NOT OURS to decide.

    Cesc #legend# end of

    1. “H8 Cesc all you like he is WORLD CLASS”

      Agree. WORLD CLASS Cnut

      “single handedly lifts the title for chelsea and poss champs league”

      Don’t know what you mean by that. Last i checked Football was a team game.

      “come bk on here and mesaage you”

      Good luck.

      ‘Cesc #legend# end off”

      How right. Legendary Cucksocker.

    2. I don’t hate Fabregas I just regard him as being the same as Nasri and RVP. They are players that left us when we needed them. He is probably the most treacherous and disingenuous of the 3 because he still talks about loving Arsenal or supporting Arsenal but he plays for one of our biggest rivals in the premier league. I don’t see how people can boo Nasri, Cole, Sagna, RVP et.al and not boo Fabregas. Even Lampard has the decency to request not to be in the City squad when City play Chelsea. Fabregas will assist Costa all day long.

    3. Mo1 – don’t be dumb. Arsenal legends don’t play for Chelsea.

      Get over your crush and all will become clear.

  11. we love 4th place, so we have returned back home

    4th place = home sweet home for Arsenal

    Ozil should not be in the middle, he should be way out left.

  12. It was a much needed win given our run of results so far but, unlike the author of this post we shouldn’t be overly enthusiastic just yet until Arsenal as a team can recreate this feat consistently and more hopefully, consecutively. For me the jury is still out until we can convincingly perform in the majority of our campaign, not just against under par teams such as Villa were yesterday.

    Mezut Ozil had a much better game yesterday but again, you’ve got to put that into context…it was against an under par Aston Villa team. Would he have had as much success against the Villa team that have already beaten Liverpool and had a run of good results so far. We also have note context when it comes to Ozil’s Arsenal history. Yesterday, he was allowed to play in his preferred position but, let’s see if he can perform in the same manner when he comes up against teams that more physical and resilient.

    In most of his games since his arrival he’s been poor at best and that has been duly noted by every Arsenal fan and pundit alike, so one half decent game against an unusually poor side on the day does not mark a significant turning point.

    741 passes………………….great. Again, putting that into context, then why wasn’t that the case against Dortmund or other teams this season ? Also, even when we do have an incredible rate of passing, often is the case it’s fruitless and you can hear the disappointment quite openly. Again…………….context !

    Per Mertesacker completing 99% of his passing. How many times do we normally see him not being able to pass 7 yards and often electing to turn around 270 degrees just to pass the ball back to the goalie ?

    As for being fourth in the table. Chelsea, City, Everton, Spurs have still to play. So no reason to jubilant yet.

    In short, it was just one game of many and whilst they say you can only beat what’s in front of you, that’s all it was. Individually and collectively it has to be put in context. It was a game that due to certain conditions seemed to favour us on the day but, there’s many more days in the rest of this season and let’s do a proper round up of the figures and stats then, especially the most vital stat which will be…………..what have we won !

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