Arsenal may have drawn a blank for the second home game in a row, leaving us languishing at around the halfway point of the league table, but there are some positives to be taken. I may be over optimistic or simply naive here, but I do think that the Gunners are close to clicking into the sort of form we saw in the second half of last season and in pre-season.
One major positive is that our makeshift central defensive pairing of Chambers and Gabriel survived that horrible first half against Liverpool. It could have been so much worse for us and a real blow to their confidence if Coutinho had found the net with one of those shots off the woodwork.
Another major positive is the form of Petr Cech, who has quickly put his nightmare debut to one side and started to prove why he will be so important to Arsenal, while at the same time reminding the gobby Chelsea fans that they have done us a big favour.
For me though, the most important part of our game is the creative and goal scoring side, and while we are still not quite clicking into top gear, there are real signs that we are close. That sublime through ball and finish from Cazorla and Ramsey should have won us the game but we should be encouraged by it.
Alexis is getting closer to 100 percent and Ramsey and Ozil are starting to find their passing range. I don’t think we need to worry too much about Giroud as when the players around him start to create then he will come into his own.
I know that it has been frustrating so far and that we have not got much time to get going, but I would not be surprised to see the Gunners start to fire more than blanks this weekend.
Just on that Offside problems,
I suggest FIFA to give 3 video review calls to both sides. If any side feels that the decision is given wrongly, the side should take the review. Similar to what we used to have in Cricket.
In this way, the extra time can be added accordingly and the teams also wouldn’t feel aggrieved.
What do you think guys?
Fairly simple logic really…
Send a survey to a 100 teams across Europe…
I’m sure 100% will agree that disallowed goals can change the course of a game!
I’m also sure that 100% will agree that loss of one game to a ref’s mistake can impact a club’s season & finances.
If stakes are this high, and technology has been available for a while to make things better, and that technology has been successfully implemented in other sports, why not AT THE VERY LEAST try it out? It does not make one bit of sense that in 2015, we should be talking about this!
i’d be happy even with a limit of 1 review per game. lets get them to agree to that. we can up it to 3 later. boil the frog one step at a time.
we were a bit unlucky this game. obviously the ramsey goal. i’d say 7 times out of 10 we’d beat pool. BUT: lets play ox from the start! giroud needs to move around – he cant just stay off the shoulder of CB 100% of the time. sanchez hasnt hit top gear yet. BUT, will be very mad if AW does not execute on transfer window for ST. yes, its hard. but other teams have done it (even benteke would be something; and i love cavani) and we have the money now, so AW just needs to get a good negotiating team and get it done. otherwise, if we fail this season , it’ll be on AW.
i’ll be v.interested to see if he goes w sanchez or walcott at CF versus newcastle. or at the very least to see if OG roves around more. he’s really plugging up that space and making our attack too predictable if it all funnels through that space at CF. also, all our players need to get some more width for god’s sake.
Jeez thx man.
It feels good tpnread some optimism
The only positive to come out of that match was Cech’s form. The rest havent progressed at all.
Our midfield has worried me the most passing too slowly and giving the ball away in dangerous position and creatively very poor in final third. Also the injury to Koscielny could be a major blow. We desperately need new signings ST and DM to motivate the current players.
You are very true regarding motivating current players. See how the players played when we bought Cech. We won every pre-season game including one against Chelsea. (Anybody saying the match against Chelsea was a pre-season match and had no relevance is an idiot. Both had best teams on board and were fully committed to win it). Now after looking at Chelsea and City strengthen, our players also are in much need of that refresher. A player like Cavani/Benzema/Rues would lift the team big time.
and stop with the sideways passing. how about this giroud-less setup:
LW: sanchez/ox RW: ox/walcott
false-9: ramsey/walcott
CAM: ozil
b2b: cazorla
DM: COQ
monreal, koz, gabriel, bellerin.
cech.
Ramsey as false 9 is an amazing idea but that would shift Ozil outwide. Wenger can also try a 4-4-2 diamond with Ramsey as false 9. Ozil and Cazorla as CM’s. Coquelin as DM and Sanchez and Walcott as the two wide CF’s.
….Sanchez……………………..Walcott…..
…………………..Ramsey…………………..
………….Ozil……………….Cazorla……….
………………….Coquelin………………….
What are you smoking Bob?
anti – depressant skunk? ?
We are not due to click until after Christmas!
Remember?
Yes we perform when 4th place trophy is on line lol.
If Bob was the author, it would have the name “Walcott” in every sentence, particularly with other words like “Up Front”, “Striker”, “Through the middle.”
If we sold Walcott to Chelsea, Bob would possibly ditch Arsenal for Chelsea.
Bob is obsessed with Walcott.
I personally hope Walcott is is sold every time a transfer window opens. He is blocking a space in the team where we could have a player who contributes to our season.
Its the same old story every season. Stubborn and greedyness has cost us league again.
Transfer window opens
One Good Signing
Our Squad is very stong
Injury problems start
Start Season poorly
Everyone calls for new signings
Panic Deadline Day signing.
The only greediness is clubs not wanting to sell their prized strikers. I do believe though that if roles reversed and it was che or city chasing a striker they would get one allot easier than we would. Not only because they would offer 200+ in wages but I think there is many palms to be greased when nabbing these players and allot of under the table amounts offered ..and that we just don’t work like that.
i’d bet we’re naive in the TW compared to the other big clubs. get dein back.
Touch of the glass is half full with this article, others might say the glass is half full BUT most are just screaming “where’s the ffing glass – I can’t see it !!!!”.
Nice to see Cech going from zero to hero – which emphasises the over reaction of so many fans to a performance.
Sorry but I’m getting a little tired of the excuses, if we are serious about competing on the field then we have to compete on it by going after the best players and not waiting to see what other teams do so we can bid on the leftovers and cast offs.
Players like Stones, Coleman, Bender, Cavani , Ibrahamovic , the polish guy whose name I can’t spell, Draxler , De Bruin, Reus, Podgba and many more ARE available if we BID enough , PAY enough and DEMONSTRATE our ambition.
We’re a big club, that’s widely respected, with the finance ,with a great stadium ,with great support and in a City that players want to live in (a lot more attractive than Manchester or Liverpool!). ALL we have to do is go for it.
Ibrahimovic???
at 34yo????
19 league goals in 24 games last year.
The man is quality , slightly mad but inspirational !
You will have to give him a salary of 250 000! which is ridiculous. And once you have done that all our top players will use that as a benchmark for their negotiations!
I agree, and if we finish the window as we are now i’ll be very disappointed.
But Wenger has a large kitty still at his disposal. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the last few days of the window he walks around with a raging hard-on constantly…
With him I’ve learnt you simply cannot evaluate the window until it’s over. A little under a week. Hope he has something
Thankyou! A positive article.
It will only take one or two cogs to start clicking a bit more and we’ll see a different side.
Cech – Showed his worth
Coquelin – Responded to criticism
Gabriel – Showed definitely worthy of challenging for our best XI
Ozil – Has had a strong influence on the games so far and never went missing. His impact is unquestionable when on the ball, his criticisms of these moments being too brief was founded. Seems to be hungrier.
Cazorla – needs to be more influential, if he’s going to be our technician in the middle his efficiency hasn’t been to the standard he’s set previously.
Ramsey – Has done a lot of the dirty work and had flashes of brilliance. Had a lot of close moments in attack. Missed Giroud with the ‘megged pass by inches, scored but wrongfully not counted, and if a few of these moments had resulted in goals… I think there’d be a lot less question marks about why he’s in the XI.
We’ve seen flashes of what this set-up is supposed to do. Ramsey, Cazorla and Ozil have combined well in our more promising passages of play. But our control of games has been lacking. We haven’t had those periods of extreme pressure on the opposition, high-tempo flowing attacks and not letting them breathe. It just hasn’t been there yet.
Giroud and Sanchez both proved they could be the go-to guys in attack at different stages of last season. If we’re going to continue to employ a tactic around a controlling midfield we need a higher collective productivity. Our interchanging midfield has the potential to be devastating. But it needs to be more penetrative or else the direct threat of Chamberlain or indirect goal-threat of Theo needs to be added at the expense of a midfielder.
Your boy Giroud always goes missing,the clear facts are in the last 6 games at Home in 5 of them we haven’t scored,keep the excuses coming Josh while the fans are being short changed
I was referring to the larger period after his return in which he was scoring near on every game. Remember when we were sitting pretty at 6th or 7th before the G-train hit stride?? When our main man Sanchez had a rough period in front of goal?
O.K. though… I’ll bite. Please name me a striker you’d realistically like to see at Arsenal which didn’t have a 5-6 game period without scoring last season? Higuain dried up for 8 games when they had a Champions league spot in their grasp. No-one questions his quality for some reason.
14 goals, 3 assists in 21 league starts. Crazy good numbers.
You fail to mention that in the last 7 League games last season Giroud failed to score,if you include the first 3 of this season that means your boy has scored 1 goal in 10 league games and you think we can win the title with him?
I agree every striker has a rough patch in a long 38 game season it’s to be expected but they still reach the required 20 league goals which turns a contender into a league winner
I’m not neglecting anything!! It’s a fact, I’m evaluating his season as a whole. 21 starts, 14 goals, 3 assists.
Yes, he dropped off massively end of last season, boom, acknowledged your point and agree with you. But don’t act as though that was the benchmark when he performed at a very high level for a longer period of time before that! And that was when we were outside the four and desperately needed a run. Not fighting between 2nd place and 3rd… There was a lot more on the line.
You just constantly neglect the fact that he was injured for 3 1/2 months and throw goal targets around as though it’s realistic to expect him to score while on the injury table!!
IF, and i repeat IF he can replicate the form he showed for a large period of time last season and establish more consistency which I personally think is his biggest weakness, I have a lot of faith that he can chip in with a lot of goals this season.
You using stats only in a way to make Giroud look good. You say 21 starts but overall he played in 26 league games meaning he was put on as a sub in 5 of them so he could have contributed a goal or 2 more when he came on as a sub. On the injury part Costa was also out for about the same amount of time but he got 20 goals
I’m using stats that are there over the entire season! As opposed to you who are using only the last few games…
I’m using stats to make him look good because last season he was good!! Surely if he’s as useless as you suggest that would be impossible yeah?
Ok 1861 minutes. 14 goals, 3 assists. A goal contribution every 109 minutes.
another excuse from a deluded fan…
City, Utd, Chelsea and Liverfool have got winning results because they click?
We cant even score and we do not even have the basics right…..
Hafiz… Don’t know if you’ve watched united at all. But they’ve scored 1 goal. Credit to them, the points they have is flattering based on their performances, but they’re not at all playing like a title contending side at the moment. Chelsea have the same amount of points as we do.
Yes, we play a system heavily based around ‘clicking,’ it’s not about individual brilliance we play as a collective. Three games is a blip in a 38 game season. The season has barely begun.
u win titles by winning games….
it doesnt matter how many goals u score or concede….just have to win the game after 90mins…..
A club can score 1 goal in every 38 games and concede 0
thats still 38 wins and title won
Definitely… Over the course of a season winning games while playing badly is important and imperative to a title winning side as Chelsea showed last season.
But my point, we’re level with Chelsea on pts but yet you somehow cite them as ‘winning.’ but we’re not? that makes no sense. I’m saying despite United’s point tally they have not yet shown form worthy of title contention. If we had them this week at Old Trafford I’d be extremely confident we’d secure a point minimum.
We haven’t clicked because we’re inconsistent , we’re inconsistent because although we have quality we don’t have enough of it.
Even average players sometimes play like world beaters but over time they play to their level AND that’s what we do – we play to a 3rd or 4th place level – the league table doesn’t lie.
If we want to break the mould the team has to improve by younger players getting better or by adding in better players via the transfer market.
You’re right.. As a whole last season we were a 3rd/4th choice team. Dithering in the market left us way too short at key positions in midfield and centre back. Paid the price first half of the season.
I will be as horribly disappointed as everyone if Wenger starts the season with the squad we have now. It’s not that I have no faith in it. But there’s obviously money to spend and areas that can so obviously be improved.
But please, I’d like to just for one moment forget it’s transfer season and evaluate last years squad vs this years. I must re-iterate, none of this is intended as an excuse not to strengthen. Aside from defence, which personally, I’m happy with.
Defence – Debuchy (returning), Cech (significant upgrade), Gabriel, Bellerin (emerged).
Much, much deeper.
Midfield – Coquelin, had a serious impact, put in a brilliant performance and at times has been the first name on the team-sheet for us.
Ozil missed a lot of the first half of season, his impact second half was huge.
Wilshere’s a big if. But later in the season he could be a massive, direct weapon for us. Lifts tempo, runs at players and bypasses midfield’s with ease. Obviously injuries are an issue. But i’m putting him down as a definite potential asset.
Attack – Theo, Ox both returning. We’ve seen flashes that Ox is seriously up for it this season. Looks fearless on the ball and playing with the confidence that makes him deadly. Before Theo’s unfortunate injury. He was in our top-3 players.
Personally I think we’re a lot stronger than last season, and the second half was a better reflection of our capabilities. No doubt we have to perform at a higher level, maybe even to our best level, but the capabilities are there for success. Hopefully with a fresh face or two still to be added.
Haha how can people dispute that?
Coquelin, Gabriel, Debuchy, Cech, Theo, Ox fit after the majority of last season injured or new inclusions and Bellerin with a season under his belt.
How is that not deeper? Somebody please explain.
Wenger Out!
200m in the bank
and yet we cant spend 50m on a striker and 30m on a DM
My only moment of true holy s*** panic was seeing let Coq limping off the field. If that doesn’t give Wenger motivation to buy another trueDM I don’t know what will do it.
He’s already said he won’t buy another DM after yesterday’s game
He didn’t say that, the media did after he defended his players. Per usual the media gave him a very loaded question on what Neville said, but the media didn’t tell the whole story they just picked out what was bad. Neville said how he thinks Arsene has done a terrific job with obvious limitations but he cant figure out why he changed from having power in midfield to small technical players ..then he went on to say what it looks like from the outside.
Wenger is the one who first built that kind of midfield, powerhouses in the centre who can run box to box while one sits. then four quick and skillful players ahead. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what Mourinho was looking at before he joined Chelsea. I say this because it’s strange how Mourinho worked in the Barca set up but didn’t pick up any of their traits. Instead he gets to England and starts targeting powerful players that would interest the Arsenal. Arsene influenced this league to what it is today. What Neville and the others couldn’t figure out is why he would abandon his own winning formula. However, it’s a bit condescending or ironic that Neville should tell the man who first used these type of players how he should go out and target them.
It just seems our tactics are wrong. Everything goes through the middle. There are too many players to get through in the middle so we then pass it out wide. Then there’s no one making a run to pass to, so the ball gets played back into the middle.
Özil plays in the middle with Cazorla and Coquelin. They don’t really make forward runs unless we’re counter attacking, so the ball stays in the middle. Giroud is stood still most of the time… In the middle. Ramsey is positioned on the right but plays…. In the middle. Alexis Sanchez doesn’t have a left foot, all he does is cut inside from the left… Guess where to? The middle.
Bellerin is left isolated because Ramsey is never there to help him on the right, so he can’t get forward too much as there’s no one to cover. Monreal gets forward quite a bit. In fact, I’d say he’s probably our only wide-player. He’s the only one that actually gets down the side of the box and crosses it in.
Now there’s one other in our squad that’s really good at bombing down the wing, staying wide and putting the ball in the box – Oxlade-Chamberlain. He was our best attacker when he came on against Liverpool. Injected a lot of pace, and more importantly, width.
But it still didn’t quite make sense. Why bring Oxlade-Chamberlain on to get the ball into the box more, but take Giroud off so there’s no one to recieve it and put it in the goal? Walcott isn’t going to beat Skrtel in the air, is he? Spent most of the game trying to pass the ball straight through Liverpool, which you need a striker with good movement ie not a target man like Giroud to do. Then took Giroud off and started crossing it in when we don’t have our 6’4 target man there to head it in. Seems backwards.
It looks so obvious doesn’t it? Wenger though will tell you you haven’t managed any teams. Sad ?
at home, others are parking against us: + having a immobile CF that only hangs off shoulder of CB means the center gets very plugged up. OG needs to rove around so we free up space . and so he (and we all) becomes a bit less predictable. + versus pool we had NO width and nobody on the right side of the pitch: too predictable and congested. primarily, that was ramsey’s fault .
The issue here is our CAM Ozil should bomb forward here and there and tuck in those loose balls and rebounds. But it looks like he told himself that scoring is not his business!
we need to sign a new centreback sooon
Kos and BFG out….
Both Gabriel and Chambers are not ready….
and if either of them gets injured we do not have a backup CB..
Chambers is young, he only needs games. The problem was that he had Gab beside him who can barely speak a lick of English so had no one to tell him to relax and just kick it long for a spell, among other things.
You may be right about bringing another in, not necessarily to first team but an experienced player coming off the bench is less likely to make silly errors than a youngster learning what is a very disciplined position.
Koss and BFG are a top notch duo, one of the best pairings in the league, that’s all Ill say on that.
This is why both Gabriel and Chambers should go out on a loan to build up their experience,learn and adapt…..
Gabriel is our best defender at the moment!
gabriel was fantastic. he is ready. chambers not so much.
versus dortmund etc when mert was found out, we shouild use a gabriel/koz pairing.
Cech is one hell of a plus, like seriously how many other keepers are out there who could pull off saves like that and the pundits say business as usual, not only talking about pl gks but how many overall. All this team needed was that legit goal to stand and we would have clicked into gear. I too think we are not far off, goals give forwards confidence and we have the midfielders who can create them so a top performance in our next game and I think the chinks will get worked out.
Hard to be optimistic when we’re already sitting 5 points behind the front runners. We spent weeks talking up our chances, saying we’re ready now, how we can finally have a genuine title challenge. Celebrating our pre season form, hinting at how something special is happening behind the scenes at AFC.
3 weeks in we’ve dropped 5 points at home, haven’t scored a goal at the Emirates and are 5 points off the pace. And now fans are back tracking. When Charlie and myself were saying the squad needed additions we were accused of being negative. When it was ver apparent losses to Stoke, Swansea and Spurs were not down to injuries alone, they were tactically lost.
And now we wait for the window to close hoping we get someone when we had the ENTIRE window. I’m so tired of the fiasco
we need to find a solution to the parking that teams are doing versus us. thats true. but i think AW will figure it out. and then we’ll be in a better position. others will drop 5 points. we were unlucky to not get this one because of ramsey. i didnt like that they had 2 shots on the crossbar though: chambers has been found out at RW, and now CB. so he needs to go on loan.
Wenger OUT!!!!
Here`s a bit of madness for you. Play Ox-Chamberlain as main striker.. Put Ozil and Sanchez on the wings. Play Ramsey in midfield alongside Carzola and make Ramsey captain. I told you I am mad!
i dont mind ox at CF. but i *DO* mind ozil at wing.
The Boos should not be forced to panic buy after missing out on his reported target. While open to construtive criticisms,the Boss must remain calm in the face of this temporary setback he has encountered on the field of play, as the Gunners are yet to find their winning goals scoring formular form of late last season and the last pre-season. The Boss should not make apeasement buy in this last few days of the window. Ozil was bought in 2013 to pacify the Gooners who were almost strangling the Boss to suffocation. And what performance can one says Ozil is making for Arsenal? sublimes? The Boss must identify what is missing in his team and get it, to fix his team to recover their high goals scoring form. In my own observations, Arsenal need a natural top quality right winger and another top quality left back. Those are the missing ingredients that is causing the Gunners to have stuttered on the field of play. One of the 2 problems could be solved if d Boss signs Victor Moses on the cheap for a high results.
This is one of d most sensible thread recently, let’s look at what we have. Now, going by d way we ended last season n pre season, many we agree that our team is now strong. Am somehow surprised on what am seeing presently, our team just drop form or maybe overconfidence, I believe we ll soon pick. Few of our players r playing well right now. As per market, every fan want to see a new good player added but getting a player that ll improve a team may not b easy, I hope we get one or two.
Ramsey best season in arsenal came as a CM (not RW for goodness sake) almost winning us the if not for injury. Theo as always proven himself on the RW not ST. Cazorla is good that he can adjust but he’s never better than Ramsey as a CM he is a better AM. U can’t have a Giroud (aerial king) as a ST and u playing Ramsey on the wing u r killing both players. Maybe it’s old age, rtd is an option. Giroud needs crosses not short passes in front of the box, he always return them to the MFD, better if ozil can shot but that’s not the case. A better option is to buy a better striker
If Ozil can shoot it ll be better, This is one reason Ramsey has my vote. Carzolar suddenly lost his shooting boot don’t kno y. Ox n Theo lack of defensive skill is anoda problem, wit ox we ll score goal but cleen sheet not sure.