The most important thing for Arsenal today was to get the win and the three points we needed to get our Premier League title challenge back on track and keep pace with the pace setters Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea who all won yesterday.
All of our rivals were pushed hard and that proved to be the case today, although I reckon a big factor in that was the poor penalty decision the ref gave against Nacho Monreal. We were ahead at that point after Alexis Sanchez pounced on a poor back pass but we were easily the better team as well.
After that dodgy pen though, Bournemouth were buoyant and for a long time the Gunners struggled, even after Theo Walcott headed us back in front from a great cross by Monreal. For large parts of the game it was Bournemouth on the front foot and we were hanging on a bit at the end until a late goal from Alexis thanks to great work by Giroud sealed the points.
THis was not a classic by any means but it was a game we had to win and did, no thanks to a rubbish ref. Now hopefully we will start to see the free flowing Arsenal again.
Bob.
Hansie’s cut back for Alexis..Wow !!! Didnt play our best but glad we turned up in the second half. Much needed 3 points.
Alexis what a player he is coyg!
Alexis Sanchez Fantastic game Arsenal should make sure we keep him give him what he wants no penny pinching Mr Wenger.
We’ve forgotten what Giroiud did.
Can’t Sanchez and Giroud play until Giroud disappoint again?
He’s on fire now.
Crucial 3 points to keep pace thanks to a double from the gunners “gem” Alexis coyg!
We weren’t at our best today, but we grinder out a crucial win and 3 precious points!
Olivier, I don’t know what you have to do to get more minutes. Creating 2 great chances winning aerials from Cech and supplying a great assist to Sanchez. All in 20 minutes. Everything Alexis is doing is great but could be done from the wing as well. Theo Alexis and Olivier should be our front 3.
But past suggests that he can’t do that consistently when he starts. What’s wrong with coming on as a sub? He clearly contributes the best as a substitute.
Every time we have a corner or a free kick Ozil is usually the one taking them. He looks for Olivier as he knows not only is Olivier a target but with his jump radius he has a good chance to be the only one close to get his head on one. When we have a cornet or free kick and Olivier is not out there our chance scoring from it goes down a great deal.
As far as last year I believe that Alexis also struggled during a dry patch where our attack was stagnant. With Olivier if you have crosses like Montreal this week and Chamberlain last week against MU he is the best option for our attack.
No he isn’t the only one. But he is certainly one of the best headers of the ball. You’re falling for confirmation bias as you’re clearly ignoring the number of chances screwed up by Giroud.
Our game is not built around set pieces anymore, and it wasn’t really our forte even with giroud in the lineup. It doesn’t make sense to change the whole dynamics of our team to adjust one type of player. Clearly we can make use of his unique talents which are proven to be more effective when he comes off the bench so I’ll stick to that an keep the emotional crap that someone needs “minutes” over what’s best for the team.
Elnens MOTM for me… Took on more responsibility than he usually does, was busy at both ends. Could definitely see the frustration in the players. 3 pts will do a lot to ease that.
A mixed game from Xhaks.. Did some good things but went missing for periods. Was hoping he’d take his chance with a start more assertively.
Sick of hearing the plan B nonsense. If plan B is scoring more goals then is should be plan A!!
G-train is a confidence player, get the most out of him while he’s looking good.
I think that the best duo we could play is santi+coqulin, but without santi, elneny and xhaka are almost as fine. Its a good match. Where the last thing i want to see is the coquelin+ramsey partnership.
I dont have much to complain today. Sanchez was running the show. We are very lucky to have him.
Expected a better game from Chamberlain. The man must understandts that time is running our, and he needs to deliver when called into action. up the arsenal.
xhaka ma i miri, wuhuuu. lol-
3 Shots on target 3 goals how many matches is that now
Still on to the next one and keep the run going.
Nice one from the lads. I though combo of Eleny and Xhaka in midfield was a wrong option, but they proved me wrong. Alexis becoming a mix of playmaker and finisher. Giroud’s pass was sublime. Who so those passes from Xhaka? That guy is a hell of a guy. That’s what we’ve been missing. Referee’s decision to allow the penalty was a wrong call. Can’t wait for midweek action to see my Perez. I rate him high and I believe he’ll come good for us, he’s a fighter. Chambo also did a great job in the left wing. Bournemouth re really a pretty side to watch. They play d ball on d ground as well. Too poor, Debuchy is out again. He was beginning to play good football in d game.
All in all, the lads did a decent job to kill the momentum of November curse.
Thank goodness for Alexis Sanchez
Interesting that Ozil went out to the wing when Ramsey came on. I thought Ramsey did well at number 10 and see him as the natural choice to give Ozil a breather once in awhile. Also thought Xhaka did enough to show he can fill in for Carzola.
Very true, him and iwobi i think.
Amazing how some you have just erased 5yrs of memories of Giroud as starting striker. Yes he’s playing briliantly, great! and he’s playing brilliantly coming of the bench, lets not change it. you know what will happen if you do!! give him the odd starter here and there, fine! but sanchez is the striker now, and thats that.
It’s smart business to have a game changer coming from the bench. Starting your two senior CFs at the same time, it’ll limit your options in trying something different. Giroud is playing well, but it’s from the bench, so why would anyone want to change that. Also when he’s in reserve, it means we have a fresh player in case something bad happens. No point tiring your two best options out unless necessary. And then there’s the style of play to consider, if it’s a pressing game needed well then we need speed, if it’s power or height in the area, well then ….you see were I’m going.
absolutely the style of play is crucial. We are so much more fluid, and dangerous on the break with a speedy CF, the defence to attack motion tends to that extra move, that extra pass with Giroud, which is enough time to slow down our play, allow the other team to get bodies back.
Gabriel did a great job filling in at RB. Surprised me with better attacking skills than I expected.
I thought Elneny played well, Xhaka played alright in the second half, both of them looked better as the game went on.
Alexis almost gave Ozil two assists that were out of this world, if only Ozil had got any sort of contact with the first one. Alexis and Ozil looking like the class that they are, that’s more like it.
And what about that assist from Monreal, at first I thought he miss hit it, but looking at the replay, you can see he meant to cut it back, excellent assist.
Walcott and Ox, you’d have to say that both were very poor in general play, but Theo got a really important goal, so I wouldn’t dwell. They need to improve though because against better teams you don’t get many chances.
I’ll be gutted if we don’t tie Alexis down, his all round game is something special altogether.
No don’t get ahead of yourself. 3 shots on target isn’t good enough either. That’s 5 shots on target in 270 minutes of football.
We have less possesion these days, create less as well. It’s like the club is losing identity on the pitch.
On top of that you saw how simple passes go awry from Ox and Walcott. Like literally the simplest of passes. With Walcott you also saw why people call him headless chicken ( I don’t call him that), sending in random crosses, it’s just wasteful. We don’t have a consistent winger in the team.
We move on, but Next weekend I don’t think we will escape West ham if we have 3 shots on target only.
In an article, Sanchez said he models his game nowadays to be like Messi’s, since he became a central forward now. I wish we have more players like Sanchez and Cazorla, naturally gifted on the ball control.
Even if Sanchez is aging and becomes too slow to be a striker in the future, we can still use him as a central midfielder, like Cazorla. He has similar close control, vision and passing abilities.
Gritty? ?… More like ?-ty Arsenal grind out (my precious) 3pts!
Boy was that hard work. For a moment there I thought that Wenger put out the local pub team with a few added comedians too.?
Thank God that a few players turned up to nick the points… What a relief ?
I thought Debuchy was doing well till he came off injured. Shame for the lad
@FBG
You’re gettin jaded in your old age Fatboy…
Hahaha … You got that right mate ??
Its all doom and gloom from here lol
Arsene wenger listened to my prayer folks! what have i been saying for a week? Paulista RB/ OX on the wing and the old geezer even out did himself with the el neny/xhaka pivot 😀 i was so happy!! Did you see how the game just looked so fresh? and ramsay/giroud operate way better off the bench when they don’t have to defend all game long.
Someone take back Wenger’s etch-a-sketch.
Dude obviously doesn’t enjoying drawing as much as we thought he did.
Wow,its been a while I saw so many comments on an Article. I believe Giroud would be fine for next game,hope he doesn’t have a hamstring