Like most Arsenal fans, former Gunner, Nigel Winterburn enjoyed Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Tottenham in the North London derby earlier in the season.
The Gunners stunned their rivals in a game that showed they truly mean business this season.
However, they have struggled in their last two matches with both ending in consecutive draws against Brighton and Crystal Palace.
Although Mikel Arteta’s team is still not at the level he wants yet, after beating Spurs, they should be able to get wins against teams like Palace.
The Eagles were the better of both clubs when they faced Arsenal in the Premier League on Monday and nearly won the match 2-1.
A late goal from Alexandre Lacazette salvaged a point for the Gunners and Winterburn says Arsenal have to return to the aggressiveness and precise passing they played with against Tottenham.
Ahead of Arsenal’s next match against Aston Villa, he maintains that he wants to see the pace and aggression they showed against Spurs more often.
‘I’d like to see us play better,’ Winterburn told Metro.co.uk.
‘I think we look lightweight at times, and I keep going back to Tottenham, but we were very aggressive in that first half.
‘The passing was sharp, it was smooth, and the movement was outstanding, everything that Arsenal did in the first half of that game was the type of performances we want to see from our team.
‘Unfortunately, we’re not seeing enough of that at the moment, and I sometimes feel we keep the ball for the sake of keeping the ball at the back at times.
‘I’m just waiting for us to lose the ball, so I like to think we can be more explosive in our attacking play.
‘The pace and the aggression we saw against Tottenham is what we need to see and unfortunately, we haven’t seen that in some of the other games.’
Lightweight describes Arsenal. Good on fast dry grounds but on soft grounds easily bullied.
We maybe should only play in the summer 🙂
Against spurts the Tempo was dictated by xhaka and its no coincidence the following games didnt have the same bite and drive in the midfield however much people love to get on his back.
I pose the question, WHY do you think, as you admit does happen, “people love to get on his back”?
I suggest they have good reason for so doing and he is only in the team because Kroenke will not allow funds to replace him with a clear improvement from outside the club.
The £150mill spent this summer was only a sticking plaster towards the many times greater still amount we need to REALLY improve the team.
A sticking plaster with eyes on the future yes. Success is not going to be gained short term, there is too much money and talent in the league now. It has to be nurtured and developed long term and this is the idea of buying young expensive players with huge potential. ITs gonna take 2/3 years minimum and the first 1/2 years is unlikely to put us in Europe but then there is a core group that will hopefully kick on and play together for years and years to come that will on on the top of their games.
In regards Xhaka, hes by no means perfect but he suits the system very well when the right players are around him, hes not a DM but hes had to do that job and theerefore mistakes happen….especially when hes linked up with players like elneny. You can speculate all you like about the summer and the past but all managers have used him because he does possess lots of talent.
Equally there are numerous players in the league that get more reds/yellows/fouls/mistakes but its not highlighted because its not as trendy as finding an arsenal scapegoat.