Injuries really hit us, but Arsenal couldn’t afford to lose this one by KM
Hello guys. The international break is finally here and we desperately needed it. We put out a squad featuring players you’d hardly see if it wasn’t for so many injuries and I thought that we were both physically and mentally tired.
We played 10 good minutes in the first half and in the second we had some chances, but overall we were sloppy in defense and we missed a few really good chances and in all fairness the draw was a deserved result.
Spurs showed more desire and ran more than us. We had periods where we really looked dangerous through set pieces. Who’d expect? But I am loving it. We are no longer one dimensional and that’s the biggest win so far this season.
Onto the game, the best player on the pitch by a mile was Mesut Ozil. The guy was sensational in his delivery and it’s such a shame Giroud didn’t score. I cannot say the Frenchman didn’t try his best, but he really should’ve scored. We could’ve snatched the game through Kieran Gibbs of all people, who almost scored 2 goals in 2 minutes.
Had that happened Gibbo would’ve been a true legend. Sadly we missed a great chance to go top after City fluffed 2 points against a battling Villa side. Petr Cech had a good game too, preventing everything, except an easily slipped through Harry Kane shot.
I thought Gabriel made a mistake in the Bayern game, when they opened the scoring, but Koscielny played Kane on and we again failed to win a game in which we concede first. We need to take an advice from Leicester on how to turn around games, because we’ve lost all but two games in which we’ve conceded first.
I thought our subs, even though them being players you’d not see too regularly, came good. Gibbs brought some pace and Flamini and Arteta brought fresh legs and some energy to our game.
Overall we just could not have afforded to lose this one. I am hoping that after the break we’ll have Bellerin and the Ox back. Hopefully Theo will follow soon. We just lack options and Alexis and Cazorla are so overplayed, one got subbed and the other is but a shadow of his dynamite self.
We have a bunch of away games coming up against oppositions we should be beating on paper, but it’s never that easy. We must give the Champions League one last chance. It’s not nice for a team of our magnitude to just sack Europe.
Truth is our squad is not big enough for all the competitions but if we focus only on the League we might nick it if our injury problems decrease. Regardless – it is what it is. I’m worried that Alexis will travel to South America and those dumb internationals have a history of ruining players.
Hopefully we’ll start to see players coming back and we’ll hit our form again when the season resumes in two weeks time.
Till then, cheers!
Konstantin
While a win would have been awesome, people should know that no team has a right to beat other willy nilly. The goal conceded was down to an error by Koscielny. In the Munich game Gabriel was kind of guilty for the first goal. In the Swansea game Koscielny nearly cost us an opening goal. This should tell all those fans who abuse Per how important he is to the team, as he remains focused for 90 minutes. For a while it will be either Kos-Per or Gab-Per, and no Gab-Kos, because combining their momentary loss of concentration could easily take a game away from us.
After the international break we play West Brom (A), Norwich (A), Sunderland (H), Aston Villa (A), before playing Man City at home. If we maintain the same level of concentration and commitment, we would be 38 points to the good by the time we play Man City. Over the same period Manchester City are at home to Liverpool, Southampton, Swansea, and away to Stoke City before facing us. It is thus imperative that we maintain a firm grip on the top spot by collecting maximum points in those four matches. Manchester City can easily drop at least four points before we meet them. Should that happen it will be advantage to the Arsenal but first we need to win the four mentioned games.
Insert “other teams” before “willy nilly” in the first sentence.
@The Analyzer
Really appreciate your analytical assessment of matches Gooner.
Both Kos and Gabe like to get in front of forwards. Cut them off before they can become a real threat. As Per, aware of his lack of pace, prefers to try and stop the play as it comes his way, by reading it. His biggest weakness is not just his lack of play, but his inability to understand the term”play the whistle”. Many a time he has been caught with his hand in the air, thinking thats what gets the ref to blow offside, while a forward was in on goal. Bellerins last ditch save and post collision should have showed him.
Kos and Gabe play in anticipation of Pers weaknesses, which leaves them with a job and a half to do, and usually pulling them out of position. I feel they compliment each other because of their similar aggressive defensive styles. Per is a decent enough defender. But only as back up.
Per has basically no recovery prowess, but this is why he is not in charge of the offside trap so is not responsible for half the accusations people throw at him. The only thing that bugs me about Per is when a player is around our box and pulls the trigger Per keeps his legs and his body tight then stands still instead of taking one or two steps forward closing down the space down taking the venom off the shot like a man ..or at the least do a J Terry by making your body bigger and if it hits your arms it’s ball to hand.
Mert was also at fault for the 1st goal.
Mert has a habit of getting caught out of position on the halfway line even though he has absolutely no pace to recover…
All Kos had to do was to look across, that’s what Per done and Per is the one who done his job correct. When playing a high line teams generally play the offside trap esp against a striker like Kane or Giroud. Face it, it was Kos who switched off not Per. It’s not Pers job to chase back or control the offside line.
Oh yeah what do they call it again ..something bias. Reaffirmation or something, when you don’t or cant admit to being wrong so you just keep on saying the same old things even if they don’t apply.
Well at least we know the best place for Gibby play him there on left with Sanches on righti I’m sure Gibbs would take the ball by the horn and give it his best shot, who knows could be a Peires in the making. What have we got to lose he can cross a ball and likes to go forward, don’t know how his beating of players is like but he has pace so,with Monreal both left footed could be the calm before the storm. CB
Ozil’s whipped balls were a joy to watch. He and Giroud can combine to get so many goals for us this season. It’s a shame about Cazorla. I feel we’ll have had a better chance of winning if he was fit and in form. We totally lost out in the midfield battle. Am I the only one worried about Sanchez’s form???
That said, I believe one must be totally anti-football not to just love Neymar. Best player in the world at the moment methinks.
yet another week
yet another PATHETIC performance by sanchez
Shhhh. It’s illegal to describe Sanchez performance as pathetic 🙂
Are you kidding me with Pathetic sanchez? YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME? that guy stamina wokrs for 3 in the pitch and you think he has DURACELL batteries? wenger subs everyone else apart from the KNACKERED BOY.no forward in the league chase more balls or defenders than him even when he lose it so SHOW MORE RESPECT IN DA BOY. I wish some of the other fellow players put some socks like him ( Ox-Theo-Giroud to name few ).Now he’s going away with CHILE and god forbid he doesn’t get injured.the guy need a rest or play for 60 mins for the next 3 games otherwise he will burnt out before Xmas so DO NOT TAKE IT WITH THE BOY PERFORMANCE.
There’s more to defending than chasing every ball… And it seems to me that all he does in the name of defending is run after the ball AFTER the damage has already been done… Also u’ll need a calculator to count the number of time sanchez loses a ball
No team should be underrated in the BPL. But still, I wonder if the Boss will agree to rest the touted to come back, Ramsey, Bellerin and the Ox for our must win Ucl home game against Zagreb. And play those Gunners including Debuchy that play and finished the Spurs game at the Emirates Stadium, away to WBA. It was interesting to see how Gibbs turned out to be a success at left wing when the Boss brought him on and moved Sanchez to the right wing. To start against WBA: Cech; DebuchyRhino’KoscielnyMonreal; FlaminiCoquelin; SanchezOzilGibbs; Giroud. Cazorla also to rest for the Zagreb game.
Definitely we need a couple of reinforces in January PERIOD..no more excuses about injuries and lack of depth. those injured are always the same and we will not want to have same old story like Diaby years and years in the waiting and nothing came out of it.those coming back from long injuries should play with the reserves or loan them out to smaller teams in the EPL until they re-discover their mental-physical strength and then get them back but we need 2 platyers ( Carvalho as DM and Huntelaar ST ) to be able to challenge for the last 4 months the EPL title.If fellow gooners have some names bring them out but we do not have more excuses..this has to be the year.