Arsenal thoughts – Consistency, balance, respect and defence!

Consistency and squad balance by KM

Hello guys. So after a month of going through interview hell in the job market, I’m finally back with some spare time to share a thought on how our beloved Arsenal is doing in this insane roller coaster season.

The idea here is that all top teams are as bad as I’ve ever seen them. No really, try to remember the last time Chelsea were so poor, they fought relegation at round 15? Man United, a side full of attacking players over the years, have 0:0 draws more often than not and Man City, who added another good bunch of quality players got wrecked by Stoke.

Astonishing really. Add that to the fact that Liverpool, who looked the real deal at City and Chelsea, fail to beat Palace at home and Newcastle fighting relegation away. All in all, we end up at Arsenal where the situation is similar but not unfamiliar at the same time.

Seasons after seasons we have a good spell where we look like contenders and then we slump. Or the other way around where we make a surprise comeback for the top 4. What worries me is the form that we are in. We scored first in our last three games and we always managed to concede an equalizer. Two of the three times it was an own goal…

The amount of own goals is just criminal. Against Sunderland we were again not good enough, yet again we did what the big clubs do. Punish you when you make a mistake – and we opened the scoring through Campbell. Just before half time we didn’t deal with a set piece and it cost us.

Truth to be told I missed the Norwich game, but what I have seen since the start of the season is that we are really nervous when we concede. We have an absurd amount of injuries and what is really hitting us now is the fact we miss Coquelen and Cazorla.

We are experimenting in midfield with Flamini, who’s doing a much better job with his multi-million business rather than what he does on the pitch, and Ramsey, who’s just back from injury and straight into the fire. Hector Bellerin has been really poor since coming back from his own injury.

I felt he was too offensive and sometimes seemed to forget he had to defend. That goes for Ramsey sometimes too when he plays as a CM. Truth to be told it’s the mentality of the entire team. We need to balance it out. We defended really well against Bayern, because we expect them to attack us and be sharp.

Truth is, there is no team that will come out and just lose. If we give a little more respect to teams we would’ve been in a much better league and CL position. Which brings us to an enormous game against Olympiacos. You know the biggest game is always the next one.

We have to go gung-ho on them, but with the performance of Saturday, we don’t stand much of a chance. Still two games of football are never the same and we can do it. This time we only need to win away by two.

They will no doubt try to sit back and hit us on the break like they did at the Emirates. And with our dodgy defense it might work, but with a bit of luck we can do it. Olympiacos didn’t deserve to beat Zagreb in either of the games they played, but we are at our own fault for where we are now.

English football needs to stand for it’s name in Europe and so does Arsenal. It’s not good for our stature among the elite not to pass a group like this. If we do it, it’ll be the great escape! A true lift for the whole team. I’m counting on Ozil. He’s been the best for us in recent times. We need everyone to step up. We’ll have Walcott too, although his fitness is not good enough yet. No excuses for me. We have the squad to do it.

Have a great week!

Konstantin

Tags Bellerin Flamini Ramsey

14 Comments

  1. Leicester is legit in my opinion. They deserve to be top. Consistent in scoring, beating the best as they probably will at home against Chelsea on the weekend. Mahrez and Vardy are excellent players
    They have both consistently given me loads of points in fantasy football lol.

    We are very inconsistent but at 2nd place largely due to lackluster performances by City, United

          1. Of course ?
            and don’t forget the Stability in our injuries too ?
            The balance of. … two in .. two out!
            That’s something to focus on ?

            cohesion has left the building!

    1. Correct but don’t forget they didn’t beat any top 5 teams so far. I am not saying they are to be dismissed, quite the opposite. This is the consistency you look for when you need to finish on top. You can lose to all top 4 but if you win everything then you can definitely win the challenge. This is mathematically possible.

  2. OT for a sec…….

    Ya’ll see the impact walcot had when he came on…its like he irritates defences….

    I think lets throw all our bullets start giroud walcot Campbell(who I think is a better goal threat than chamberlain) when we face olympiacos….

    I still have tremendous faith in Ox, but I think he needs to sit down with T.Henry and learn to have abit more composure and become more productive……

    Ramsey really plays well in the middle, il admit he irritates me with tryna do to much with flicks,tricks and bombing forward, but his one of the only players who take initiative and shoots when the chance presents itself……

    I have nothing against flamini, his doig well, but if we go through to R16, face barca or Madrid, the thought of suarez,inesta,isco,bale running at flamini gives me nightmares…..wenger bloody do something…

    Gabriel…..when can he start games? he is better than Per, kos workload aint that much no more and we can defend against pacy players….oh well….

    arsenal will be crowned PL champions….

    lessss do this!!!!!

    COYG!!!

    1. When Walcott plays our opponents refuse to attack which in turn makes it easier for our midfielders to play. This is why he’s so important to us, he also delivers crosses with top class precision which makes it easier for Giroud to play.

  3. lets just hope players are without any more long term injuries this season, and that campbell makes the most of the opportunities given to him. I think we shall be seeing more of him in the pitch for a month or two.I hope he turns out to be like kane and deliver.I also hope sanchez and wilshere return stronger than ever to push us in our quest for the title

  4. As long as the players that we have,
    arrive in Athens in a fit and healthy state then we will qualify for the last 16.

    1. I wish I had your confidence

      It’s not just winning but winning by two goals or winning by scoring more goals

      We need to show up healthy and fit but also with the correct mentality. Having belief and giving it everything we have

      That’s why I miss Alexis. Even when he isn’t scoring, he is still so important just by his energy and giving everything he has.

      Also, our defense needs to be top form. I’m not too worried about Cech or our full backs but rather our CBs and DM. If Koscielny doesn’t play then Gabriel and Mertsacker need to have a special performance. Flamini will need to be top form too.

      On Attack, Ozil will provide the great passes but Giroud, Theo and Aaron need to finish well

      I honestly believe we can qualify but Olympiakos will too. It’s important that our players believe too.

  5. Totally agree that we should expect a result against olympiacos but it won’t be easy and finding the right balance between controlling the game and getting the required result we need will be the key. No mean feat given olymipacos form…although certainly if the real AFC turn up even with a depleted squad on our day…we can do it.

    As for the rest of the article…

    Utd got booed off on Saturday. LVG is struggling, the team are lacking a cutting edge despite spending bucket loads again and barely create any meaningful chances. Pellegrini who spent 130m on city’s squad in the summer are also inconsistent and struggling with an injury hit squad. It’s clear that they rely on 3/4 key players to really tick. Mourhinho is hardly worth a mention, the special one is clearly only special when he can blow 200m on transfer each season..not so special really. Liverpool had the pick me up of a new manager arriving but not sure that they have looked the real deal at all and Sunday showed they are far from sorted.

    About time Wenger got some credit not constant flack. Spending does not necessarily bring success, changing mangers ditto that and being able to man manage a squad who want to play for you is something that Mourhinho can only dream of.

    Own goals – how do you mitigate against that – surely it’s clearly just bad luck. Girouds out stretched boot deflecting a cross into the goal, Arteta standing blocking a cross has the ball richochet off him…and as for the dodgy defence….mert may be slow…but we’ve conceded less than all the teams in the league bar two……worried about Bellerin – you’re having a laugh. Flamini doing a better job in his £MM. business…really…..for me he’s been outstanding in the last two games and shown that he still has a valuable role to play in a dm role…..

    Good luck to the lads on Wednesday. Hopefully if we win there will be some full some and not half hearted praise for the team.

  6. What’s the point of going through? We don’t have any fit players we will only go out in the next round or win that round and end up playing crap Chelsea who’s anyone can beat at the mo but we will lose. Plz don’t say it’s the revenue generated because he won’t spend the cash. Fed up with make do all the time. I want a team that can go out a win the big games and win the games that we should by rights win. I’m sorry I have loved my team since 1977 and have given all the respect to AW but we need change now. Not just players we need change back room staff we need new blood on the board and most of all we can get pep and must get him to take over now and give him freedom like AW has had

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