I know that some of us are naturally `glass half empty` people and others are `glass half full` types. And I also know that unless Arsenal win a football match, it is hard to look on the bright side, but I am still fairly surprised to see so many Gooners knocking the team, the manager and individual players after the draw with Man City.
Yes there were negatives, like the defending at the corner which left Demichelis the freedom of our penalty area to head the equaliser, the continued struggles of Mesut Ozil and the fact that a really in form and sharp striker would have scored Danny Welbeck’s early chance.
But let’s look at the positives shall we? After all, Arsenal are still unbeaten this season and have faced an away trip to Everton, the visit of the Premier League champions and two very tough games against Besiktas with 10 men. The attitude and spirit to keep coming back or holding on has been brilliant, first of all.
And while it is true that Ozil and Ramsey have not really got going yet, Jack Wilshere is making Rambo’s struggles not matter too much. And I thought Welbeck had a pretty good debut and he was unlucky not to score. It is clear that he gives the team a hell of a lot, as does the amazing Alexis Sanchez who is also still a new boy don’t forget. And I reckon that Calum Chambers is set to have a very long and very distinguished career as a Gunner.
Okay, Arsenal do need to start winning games, but if we are still unbeaten on the way home from Germany, it will have been a pretty strong start to the season in difficult circumstances. So come on Arsenal fans, doesn’t that glass look half full to you?
Ozil makes me angery sad pissedoff and not interested
Ozil must be benched so he can see his place is not guaranteed,he lacks work ethic it’s annoying,every player has bad games but we atleast expect 100% effort from all our players!
My god..!! What did u just say.. The amount of delusion on here is a complete disgrace..
Don’t you guys just can’t take the positives out of the game, after all that is what the article is about..
First of all we were awesome yesterday and Jacky boy delivered one hell of a performance I have been longing for like years.. This is a turn around guys.. In the past we would bow down when we play big guns, but its diff now.. We showed desire and we showed the champions how to play like one.. Hard luck with the Manc 2nd goal..
But all in all it was a great football match, and I am really proud that my team deserved to win but let it down.. Gooner for life..!!
Awesome??we drew the game against a Man City side we dominated who had no Yaya Toure no Fernando no Stefan Jovetic,if a draw is awesome that explains why Arsenal are far away from winning the title the fans accept a draw in a game we should have won!
@ dee ease
Fernandinho is twice the player fernando is I’m pissed that he got injured right before cause he’s slow and we would’ve ran circles around him. Also no jovetic really? Im a huge fan of jojo but id rather play him than aguero any day.
Fernando and Jovetic are 2 of Man City’s form players if you saw the Liverpool game you’ll understand why I said this,Aguero is not match fit as yet of course he’s world class everyone knows that
Yes I did watch the game and jovetic was excellent but fernando to me is nothing special I think Fernandinho is way better.
@Dee@ease
See mate.. That’s what I am trying to explain above and u still hanging on to ur theory..
“THE POSITIVES”.. I agree that result matters the most.. But how come you can say Manc not playing Yaya and Jovetic made it easy for us to earn a point.. So how about we had bought Khedira and played him yesterday..? could he had earned us those extra 2 points.. What matters most is how those 11 players on field perform on a certain day.. I am glad that our boys did extra ordinarily well to come back from 1-0 down to 2-1 up.. I bet not many team would do that.. If you still say, blah blah Toure blah blah Jovetic blah blah, then I am not replying anymore.. No hard feelings man..
It’s games like these I wish we had someone like Khedira, Carvalho, Matuidi or Pogba. Need the extra grit and strength. Also maybe a better back-up left back.
It’s great to see the team really turn it up against Man City. WILSHERE!!! ALEXIS!!! Yet, we were so so lucky not to concede again right at the very end. My issue is that if we can’t beat the top 4 teams at home, can we beat them away? Surely this is the area that needs the most attention and hopefully we will try something different. We had one of the best away forms last season, except against the top 5. The only top 5 team we beat at home was Liverpool, drew the rest. Lost away against, Liverpool, Chelsea, City, Man U, Everton. That isn’t a great record.
Özil’s form dropped off last season when Ramsey and to a lesser extent Wilshere and then Walcott got injured. That doesn’t explain it out right of course, and he is also used to a January break back in Spain. Mertesacker has also not been his best either. A tiem on the bench might do Özil some good, I don’t like him becoming a scapegoat, when we all know how good he can be.
A draw is what we got last season so right now we’re no better off. The question will be how we do away against the big teams
Are people not worried by how far Chelsea are getting ahead of us on the table?believe me if they have a lead they will keep it they don’t have a soft underbelly we should start winning games and not celebrating draws,we’ve drawn our last 3games in a row I don’t know how we should find satisfaction in that!
i’d put today’s loss of 2 points primarily down to the crappy zonal marking. drop it please wenger. dont be stubborn!
draw against manc is not that unforgiveable: draw against leicester is the worse result.
some positives: welbeck still has to bed in.
worries:
* wenger will continue playing ozil/ramsey/wilshire in same game whereas only either ozil or wilshire can be in CAM,
* when ozil is at cam, wilshire or ramsey can be behind, but PLS STOP PLAYING OZIL at wing: rest him for CL!
* wenger will persist w zonal,
* wenger will persist in refusing to bring in fresh players at min 60 or 65
I think we need to go half zonal marking and half man to man. I think that is the most effective
Why we are like this? Always find some players to mian and criticise!! First it was ramsey,wilshere,giroud,monreal !! Now ozil! So you so called fans please dont praise when he plays well and when we are winning! I dont want to hear like this from true gooners..we are still unbeaten after some really really tough fixtures! Im satisfied if not happy. If we can get win/draw away at bvb this is an excellent start for us( it is really possible)
I think Ozil would come back from this slump of form, as he is workd class player. Once he finds back his touch, Arsenal would be the invincibles. Can’t wait to see the quartet – Ozil, Wilshire, Sanchez, Ramaey firing all guns. I feel that we are going to make a serious challenge to the title this season.
One thing we can take from the man city game is to work hard on our zonal marking! Coyg!
We play zonal cause mert is too slow to play man to man marking which make our defenders lay deep
We need to play a mix of both as in 3 defenders man marking 3 of the other teams best headers at set pieces and the other players marking zones,Bould and Wenger are lost at doing defensive work,Bould was part of the famous back 4 of Dixon,Bould,Adams and Winterburn he should do all the things George Graham taught them when it was the 1-0 to the Arsenal days
Nonsense. Many clubs mark man-to-man with slower CBs. That is just an excuse. And what good does it do to use the zone when they just give up a goal every time. At least the players would have a chance.
The zone system kills responsibility. Man marking assigns responsibility and makes each player account for his responsibility. Even more, whether we like it or not. It is not working and has never worked.
The definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Wenger should just put Mertesacker and Giroud (when fit) on the front post to stop crosses and everybody else should be zonal marking. We’ve never been good at set pieces, but today vs. city was a woeful corner to concede.
Only conciliation this seasons is that it looks like every top 6th side has major holes in the defense so we’re not the only ones. chelski let in 2 today vs. swansea, united let in 4 against mk dons, pool lost to city 3-0.
do u mean everyone else should be doing man to man ?
yeah man to man, thanks for the correction
The whole defence is shambolic on the 1st goal we were counter attacked with our full backs high up the pitch nowhere to be seen,Koscielny fails to block Navas’s cross,Flamini loses sight of Aguero letting him score and Fernandinho’s performance showed us why a hardworking no nonsense CDM is needed in our team!
It all comes back to the wing problem. Wenger likes to play CAMs on the wing and they often just go central and the only wing play comes from the FBs. And because the FBs are needed to go forward to provide wing play, they are not defending.
It all comes back to the lack of true wing play from the midfielders.
couldnt agree more.
had he had a real left winger today in campbell/ox (or even pod),
monreal could have stayed further back.
NOW we have take Kolumbian 38-years old CD Mario Yepes for free and asap, `cause seen lots of injuries of like Debuchy had, and he is going to be out at least the same time than Walcott, (about 9 monts) unfortunately. Thanks stubborn Wenger that you did not replaced TV5 FFS. Young Pellegrini is very promising but unexperienced and he can be used as a emergency for righy back place if Kos or Mert is injured/had to be rested sometimes. Hope Walcott comes back soon, ´cause then we have the fastest trio upfront Sanchez-Wellbeck-Willshere and FFS sake Wenger put Özil to play in the middle as number 10, he has been lost in every came this season playing on either side of wing. We have already 6 points less than chelski after only 4 games and they have a killer squad, or even 2 squads, ´cause of our injuries (surprise anyone???!!!) we have to throw youngsters into the bench at least in defence.
Sorry, fastest trio upfront Sanchez-Wellbeck-Walcott not Willshere ,who by the way had a one of his best cames for Arsenal for ever or even the best!! Excellent job, ´cause Rambo hasn`t been on his best this season and Özil is in wrong place. Move back to formation 4-2-3-1 asap.
‘I have to pass a medical exam on Monday. No fracture. Hope to be back asap!’
quoted from his facebook i think MD will be back soon
He needs to improve quick.I think mentally faituge is the problem..only if he could read this I’ll give him this website the socceressentials.com also on YouTube he has helped million of players like myself
I’m not the type that goes against players but when it comes to outsiders talking shit about aresenal players then we have a big problem first Diego costa..he made fun of arteta cause he was on the quite match option crying in FIFA 15 and then falcoa made fun of ozil s eyes
I Wanna wish mathieu debuchy a speedy recovery, and hope he returns to the “gunners” lineup sooner than expected! All the best mate! Coyg!
mathieu tweeted ” I have to pass a medical exam on Monday, No fracture to be back asap!”
mathieu tweeted ” I have to pass a medical exam on Monday, No fracture. hope to be back asap!”
Aww, let’s all feel sorry for prince Ozil. He is being played on the wing, him playing there absolutely drains him, he does nothing offensively, does nothing defensively, just walks around mopping each game feeling sorry for himself. And didn’t he play out wide for the whole of the World Cup for Germany? Some deluded Gooners were going on about Wenger should build the team around him. Are you mad/crazy? When was the last time any successful team built a team around a player who is lazy, mentally and physically weak? You will be asking for trouble. A player who has never performed in any big game.
I will assure all the “Ozil is never in the wrong brigade”, those days of an attacking midfielder who is one dimensional are long gone, just assisting and contributing nothing else to the team is in the past, all players now have to do more than just waiting for others to fight for them, that’s why Mata struggled at Chelsea under Moanrinho and he is struggling at Man United too. You need to be flexible as a player now days. Just standing in the #10 position each game while leaving all the hard work to your team mates is in the past. You have to fight with grit. This is the EPL, not La Liga where you will get so much pace and time on the ball to pick through passes.
The likes of Yaya, Fernandinho, Fernando, Barry, MaCarthy, Matic, Ramires, Mikel, Sneiderlin, Wanyama and the list goes on, those players play hard, rough and fast. So if you can’t adapt your game the you are in serious trouble.
That’s the simple truth.
Can’t agree more! He is going to create team morale problems if they aren’t already starting to bubble up.
Lazy, listless, disinterested and he disrupts the tempo of our game. Instead of the quick pass, he daddles, loses possession and then looks around…as if to say, “Ok guys go get it back for me please” WTF! No wonder Alexis looked exasperated with him.
Wenger has to put a stop to this. I would be very disappointed if he starts against BvB… prefer Santi or TR7 in that game.
IMHO…Ozil screams out as a guy who has had a change of heart and now doesn’t want to be at Arsenal…I think he would prefer to be back in Germany where he is idolized…watch for a move at the end of this season I reckon.
I can’t even recall a world class performance from him in the past 10-15 games for Arsenal…have there been any? Against any of the big teams?
Talk about missing the boat. It does not matter one bit whether you think Ozil should be more flexible or more this or more that. The only thing that matters is getting him back on track.
And the way you get Ozil back on track is to play him in the middle where he excels. That SOLVES the problem. Is that not the goal here? Or would you just rather throw every player who is out of form onto the permanent dead wood pile? That might satisfy your sensibilities but it would kill the club.
Wenger needs to play Ozil in the middle and get him back on track. Everything is just background noise and whining.
People said putting Ozil on the wing put pressure on the FB. But how about him on the middle and our midfield got overrun? Until we sign a top top class physical DM who can dominate midfield, playing Ozil there in EPL is so risky especially against big team. Flamini, Ramsey, Wilshere provide the physical and intensity pressing that helped us dominate City expensive midfield at times. And we all know Flamini can play LB so he can drift to the left side and make cover for Monreal. Football formation nowadays is fluid and not solid, Ozil starts on the left but always drift to center as our attacking focus is on the right or center.
If Ozil wants to be back to his favourite CAM role, he need to earn it by at least impressing Wenger in training. He is on the wing for Germany because Leow think Kroos is better in midfield, he is on the wing for Arsenal because for now Wilshere is better.
There’s discussion from coach and manager about how difficult for traditional number 10 to thrive at EPL due to its fast pace and physical. Ozil is absolutely talented but needs to work harder to adapt, surely we don’t want another Veron case.
Can you shut up about ozil already you are so annoying
If Wenger was deeply religious I could imagine his house cluttered with holy statues, all mid fielders. When it comes to defense, they`re the poor relations who will pay the piper. Yes! we needed a striker and we got one, we think, we hope.
It would be nice to think we could have a solid reliable British defence, after all history tells me we`re pretty good at that. By British I include Scotland (which means Rangers), at this stage, although we`d better be quick or he`ll need a work visa. Arsenal was in her prime when we included Scottish and Irish, remember? Our German contingent don`t seem to be helping us very much and the French run hot and cold, as the French often do, so let`s think British with the exception of a world class striker from South America (or somewhere).
So Arsenal can take positives from the game? That may be. But if we keep having games with all these positives, and no points, Arsenal will be relegated.
You don’t get points for feeling positive about your performance. You get points for performing with enough quality in ALL aspects of the game that you win. I’ll bet W. Brom and Norwich had some games where they could see many “positives” last season.
You just contradicted yourself please think before you type you say arsenal can take positives but you get points for performing with quality? Results give you points not performances and we had a great performance going forward but we didn’t get the result we wanted. Last year we had plenty of shittty performances but got the results learn the difference
Can’t believe there’s actually people out there who are so quick to turn on players that they want Wenger to ‘sell’ Ozil…Sell OZIL??? Are you f*cking kidding? Might as well go support chelsea if you have that little patience. There was a run of games last season when he first got to AFC and he was picking ridiculous passes and scoring goals. All of the sudden, he hits a wall in late 2013 and then gets injured. Hasn’t really played well for the first 4 games of this season and you want to SELL him??
F*ck that. We’ve seen almost every single player on our squad have really bad performances over a large frame of time. Koscielny had a bad season a few years back. shez got benched for a while 2 seasons ago. wilshere–last season. theo-2/3 seasons ago. poldi–on and off all the time. giroud-coudlnt score a goal if his life depended on it for a couple months last seasons. Biggest one of all is RAMSEY, who played an entire season 2 years ago and everyone, including myself, wanted Wenger to sell him-and we wouldn’t’ve gotten 4th last season without him.
I have full faith we’ll see the best of Mesut11 this season. Just about the players and squad getting behind him.
dont sell him.
just play him where he’s supposed to be played.
Well said @dilla I’m thinking these fans are 15 year old fickle girls or just play to much fifa. I’m getting sick of this site it’s not what it used to be
If Wilshere keeps playing that good then Ozil must be bench regardless of how much we paid for him. The most in-form players should play!
Could it be that Wenger wants to get rid of Ozil and hence he is playing him out of position to frustrate him? He did the same to Arshavin until he left. One thing Arshavin and Ozil have in common is that they are both lazy in defending.
Obviously no one knows what Arsene is thinking but I will not be surprised, neither will I be too worried if Ozil leaves Arsenal next summer.
yeah, ozil was playing bad, he had a bad game for last few occasions, but its not his natural position, what more do you expect? I say, we don’t have a holding mid, therefore lets just revert back to 4-2-3-1 with wilshere and ramsey in the double pivot, sanchez and santi on the flanks and ozil in the middle, and lastly, welbeck on the front, we also need to give bellerin some chances now to let him develop, chambers is more like a CB
I think it made it feel worse because we had the lead and lost it with 10 minutes to go. Bizarrely we seemed to lose our momentum because of Debuchy’s injury, although CC didn’t play badly. I think if we hadn’t got the second goal and it finished 1-1, it wouldn’t have felt so bad, although I guess Lady Luck was on our side when we fell apart in the last 10 minutes.
What is Wenger’s problem with Campbell? He or TR7 should’ve been brought on for Özil in the last half an hour, they would’ve injected some energy into the side
2 biggest risks to arsenal this season:
1. wenger playing players out of position,
2. wenger not rotating (between games or within games by subbing)
We’ve played 6 games with about 50 more to go there will be plenty of time for rotation
We should have sign a proper RB or Centreback
now Debuchy is out……we have no back up
i really like bellerin.
+ MD is not out for sure.
He is out for sure. We just don’t know the severity
I agree huge positives-
For 1 second just realise how unhappy we are to have only drawn against the Champions – For me thats a huge sign of how far we have grown. Last season I’d have been scared of ManC – no I say bring it on-
No team in the world would disappointed to get a draw with ManC-
And we achieved this after gong behind, and lets be honest with 2 of our key players having a shocker in Ozil and Ramsey, and with a debut striker-
So there is more to come, but our shape was good, Jack played superb all game, and scored a beauty of a goal, and Sanchez was built for the Premiership and gives pace, energy and strength all over the pitch-
I for one an excited. COYG!
Well said simon
Balotelli would have fire us to victory…
he and Wilshere can go to the club after and have a smoke and drink or two
It was Welbeck’s first game and he did well. He was just unlucky with the chip. Otherwise we all would have been all over the moon for that goal.
yeah, Balo…lke he did with Liverpool, yeah, he fired them up and the….no, wait, did he?
Wilshere, Ozil, Ramsay and Carzola …they play their best at the ACM role…..
This game felt different.
Just the fact that it was more Pellegrini than Wenger complaining about the ref.
yeah, thats a huge sign for me – having the opposing coach doing all the complaining.
shows we’re improving.
but still worried because wenger is partially insane/deluded.
But wenger didn’t go full retard that’s a positive too
Wilshere was fantastic.
Flamini was disappointing I prefer Arteta.
Sanchez was also fantastic.
Ozil was disappointing, our midfield and wings are packed with better players.
Hopefully Wenger knows who to pick for the next big game.
It is time now to stop comparing ozil to wilshere in this new formation, wenger is using 2 B2B (WILSHERE AND RAMSEY) to ease preasure off the DM. And there is no room for a typical 10 in this formation. But my question is if wilshere is replace by ozil. Can ozil stands up to the defensive responsibility both are doing?
the problem all arises because of a dislocation in the team caused by not
having a quality DM.
actually we’re missing 2 quality DMs (neither arteta nor flam count any more unfortunately)
How many times have Arsenal signed a player who scores a hat trick or even a single goal on first or second appearance? Diego Costa has. Remy has. Why do we make excuses for ridiculously paid players who live in a world most will never know and perform as if they have some form of disability.
When did Arsenal last sign a player who hit the ground running?
After sixty six years of supporting the Gunners you bet I`m pissed off.
Sanchez and Chambers have pretty much proved themselves already. .. I have no complaints with our buys this session. Welbeck? That was his first game but the goals will come. No one performs well every game so if a player does it on his debut it’s also a bit lucky.
when all is said & done, this HAS been wenger’s best transfer season (sanchez, chambers, debuchy, ospina, welbeck).
however because he’s cheap & indecisive , we’re still short at the crucial DM position (flam/arteta : best days behind) : we need a world-class DM and a good backup.
because wenger will always opt for the best bargain , not the best player period.
so a costa or falcao will not come here while wenger is in charge.
shaa! cry my fellow /beloved Asernal fans Why this sentimental attacks to individual players. We need to be constructive rather than distractive. The way we are shouting-like-writing can kill the morale in the entire team. The million question which should be asked is : Are we really Asernals or mercenaries? uuuh! Iam beginning to doubt.
Hate to say this but chelski will win premier league by a country mile. There remaining fixtures are set up nicely for them they have a couple of tough games on the trot but followed by 3-4 easier games its spaced out so well for them just cant see them not winning it!
the left flank problem is one that persisted SINCE Vieira and Gilberto left. it is our DMs that protected that left flank, when cole is all the way up playing as a LW.
That’s why fans and even pundits have been screaming for a DM for us, and Wenger, while acknowledging the problem, shown with the desire to sign Carvalho, wasn’t quick enough to sign the proper player needed.
the game is a sign of improvement, and there still better to come for sure.
what i’m worried however is Wenger would persist with Arteta and Flamini DM and we’ll be doomed.
Good to see Wilshere wake up. Hopefully he will put his head down and keep those feet going forward. The Wilshere who played yesterday is the Arsenal Captain I want and the England Captain I want.
Good lad.