If there is one thing for sure when it comes to Arsenal and the crucial Champions League game at home to the French champions at PSG on Wednesday it6 is that Olivier Giroud will be expecting his name to be in the starting line up. If it is not then the France international star will have every reason to be asking his manager why.
To be fair to Arsene Wenger I can understand his reasoning in not starting Giroud against Manchester United today, even though I thought he should have done. It is not so much about the failings of the big Frenchman as the impact and influence that Alexis Sanchez has had in the central striking role.
But if you go by the same factors of impact and influence then no Arsenal player has been better than Giroud of late. His equalising goal today was not only important in that it stopped us from falling to a first defeat since the opening day and allowing Man United to close the gap between us to three points, it was a classic striker’s goal.
He showed all the desire, determination, physical po0wer and ability that you could ask for, just as he did when he came on to score with his first two touches to secure the win at Sunderland. Can Wenger really keep ignoring him?
Bob.
We all should be ashamed of that performance. I though Jose was the one who we called defensive but what arsenal did today was a joke.What are we celebrating here, and where are the articles which would call us lucky because trust me we have been the luckiest team this season and if we don’t win the league with these luck’s then we can just shut the hell up.
Yes. When you get the ball out wide who in this league would you rather have trying to get his head on the ball?
Giroud is better utilized like he was today, as a ‘Super Sub’. l am starting to believe he plays better when coming from the bench because he has a point to prove. He had his fair chance of time to make the striker role his and he didn’t so he should now be content with coming from the bench.
l was really hoping we would get all three points today but watching the game made me pray for a point. Even though the boys did not play well l am glad Mourinho did not win. Hopefully we will beat them when they come to the Emirates.
Vardy had a unbelievable season last year. 24 goals and 6 assists from 37 starts. OG had the same number from 38 starts. I don’t see how he didn’t make the striker role his last year.
Plus he won so many aerials throughout each game last year and this.
Giroud scored 16 league goals,he’s been the main striker for 4 seasons but didn’t score the goals required to win the title so he’s better off as a sub to come change the game as Plan B!
Giroud is a sub not a starter.
Sanchez must be rested 4PSG game.
walcot and Ramsey should only come as a sub from now on.
Alexis Giroud Perez
shoud become our front 3 if all are feet to play..
COQ. Xhaka (Santi)
OZil
in mid fild
at the RB jenko is not good enf 4Arsenal.!
till Bellerin comes back Mustafi should play there and Gab or Holding should partner Kos.
Gibo and monreal i dont see much of a different.
Iwobi should not have been benched. He deserves to play over ramsey and Perez.
Debuchy should play instead of jenkinson.
Xhaka should play over Eleney.
Cech
Debuchy koscielny mustafi gibbs
Coquelin Xhaka
Walcott….. Ozil…… Iwobi
Alexis
Spuds losing ha ha
For me today was two points dropped as opposed to 1 gained. It makes little sense referencing the previous league statistics vs United and our record there because United haven’t been that way since 2013. We might say well we were missing two key players but United had Shaw, Zlatan, Bailly and Smalling out and quite frankly our playerange didn’t perform.
Ad i said in a previous thread regardless of what condition Sanchez is in he will run his socks off and that is what makes him our most important player In my opinion because he will put the team on his back if he can. Ozil will not and didn’t show up today or vs Spurs which is frustrating because he has the ability as it’s unquestionable.
I think if we just want to stay in the mix today was an okay point but if I think if we have genuine title ambitions and believe we can actually win the league today was points dropped as we will visit tougher away grounds this season vs better opposition. Disappointing result for me today
@truegunner
Thats quite harsh , considering that MU came at us pretty damn well. It’s a tough pace to get points and I doubt we will face any side much tougher at home. They had a point to prove and stuck to their plan. I’ll take a point over a loss any day…
I don’t think it is, first of all Man United coming at us hard isn’t a reason for us to perform poorly. If we adopted counter attacking as a tactic and set up the team to exploit that then great but then line up showed we were simply setting up not to lose. Ramsey isn’t a winger Xhaka didn’t play etc. Our line up simply said limit the opposition.
Old Trafford is a tough place to get points correct but that is zero excuse to go their with the intention of sitting back just because it’s a tough place to get points. United have played 6 home games and have a total of 9 points. Of those 6 against 4 were against teams as of now 10th placed or lower. Burnley and Stoke also came away with draws. By comparison Chelsea have 15 from 18 points at home, Liverpool have 13 of 15 from home. Tottenham have not lost at home either have picked up 14 from 18 points.
This is without counting notoriously difficult away grounds like the Etihad or St. Mary’s. Moreover this was a United team that is devoid of confidence and there for the taking. As I said before if all we want is to be in the mix for top 4 then today was a good point but if it’d the title we are genuinely after then today was two points dropped.
It’s ok for Burnley or Stoke to say it’s a tough place to get points so setting up for a draw and getting one is a goos result. Not Arsenal if it’s the title we really are after.
Thing that hurts me a lot is we all laugh at man united but we are still not able to dominate them like they used to do us. When united were at the top they dominated English football but whereas we are just stuck in the same place. One or two lucky wins and draw is fine but we have been doing just that this season. When will we annihilate our rivals and dominate the league . The mediocrity stems from the fans, we celebrate too much mediocrity and just laugh at our rivals .
Wenger always ‘tinkers’ with the formula. What did Iwobi do to deserve being dropped? Walcott has to take players on, that’s what wingers do, if you’re not doing that you don’t belong in the wings. Look at Valencia today, every chance he had he took us on, same with rashford later on but Walcott/Ramsay are scared of the physicality aspect of the game.
Giroud comes off the bench for me, that’s the way i see him making an impact when the defenders are tired.
When Ozil and Sanchez both don’t play good no one else does in teh attacking department.
Walcott, Ramsey, Iwobi, Ox (when starting) all require the aforementioned two to be playing well. Cazorla is one who will pull the strings and is an exception. No doubt he is a big miss.
Xhaka needs run of games in middle. Elneny seems to be slightly more defensive, he should go up further in games. I don’t know if that is him or Wenger telling him that.
Petty we conceded that mata goal why the hell he wasn’t picked up we conceded a few like that I thought the game plan worked I knew we would score we could have won it only for that mistake but yes i enjoyed 12 goal the stream went down as we conceded so didnt see it neither did i see us score i was going mad when I eventually regained the stream we were in addition time at 1 1 so relieved with the result but The first half was good we controlled the game and we could have been one up We went away to united and got a point it is not to bad under the circumstances
blame elneny an jenkinson just us i expect i have been saying this for along time wolcott Ramsey ozil is overrated put sanchez in the number ten position he is the one pulling the string pay 250 thousands a week sell ozil we never win anything with him can you believe theses fan thinking ozil is world class do you people watch theses games.this was going to happen sooner are later lack of proper winger is going to cost us very close game.
Ramsey is bench quality
Elneney is div 1 quality
I think this game should stand out as our worst midfield performance this season thanks to Wenger.
pls can someOne, anyone give me the reasons wenger all of a sudden decided to Bench Xhaka n Iwobi?
we had a team already, our only worry prior to the game was the RB position n Wenger himself said he won’t change what’s working for the team so why did u bench Xhaka n Iwobi.
even if u wanted to “try” Elneny who we all know doesn’t have the ability to dictate play in midfield much more give penetrating passes n a Ramsey who was still in bad form, ddnt have the best games last time out against Ludogorets n also struggled on the wing.
why not make subs early, why wait till it’s close to 80mins to makes subs after conceding?
I mean, I don’t understand…
I’m starting to really doubt our genuine title potential cos of Wenger decisions at times.
DeGea was on holiday, non of our attackers got one chance.
Truth be told this is our worst performance in this year 2016. I will not criticise the team just yet until if we fail to beat PSG,then We will know that wenger didn’t have any game plan when fielding a more defensive players today.