Only 37 to go for another Invincible Season from Arsenal by Peter
Was it ever in doubt? From the second minute, with what Sky (and more of them later) called the joint fastest opening day goal in Premier League history – not quite sure how they define that? Hundredths of seconds, tenths? Whole Seconds? Minutes? – the result was in the bag.
And, without leading players – Sanchez, Koscielny, Sanogo.
OK, the Foxes had a couple of lucky breaks – the first goal, miles offside. The second only came about because Xhaka’s inch perfect pass was just a fraction of a yard or thirty out. I can’t remember much of their third, but as I seem to recall our defence absolutely made sure that no header was going to go in from where they were standing No, Bouldy had told them exactly where to put their boots and they weren’t going to move. Not for anything. It was darned unfair of Leicester to knock it into the box when our Super Swiss was having his go at playing ‘Grandma’s Footsteps’. Or perhaps, it was charades, and he was acting out his name? (Granit(e) – geddit?)
But what a hatful from our boys! Danny gets a goal, and Ramsey HAS remembered where the net is. As for the two headers. Mr Wenger, if you do read this blog, take my advice, just get the back four to bung it into the box and let our French forwards bang it home with their heads. None of this fancy stuff on the ground. Launch the old Liverpool ‘alehouse’ – there’s nothing wrong with route one football, ask Wimbledon (oh, sorry, forgot, they no longer exist).
Good to see Petr practising his centre half skills, the only Red to dispossess Vardy all night. So, my second suggestion, Mr Wenger, is put him in the back five, ‘cause Ozil is clearly working on his handling skills (as illustrated by the lead up to our third goal) to become our new number one between the sticks (although, he will always be my number one – hope the wife doesn’t read this!)
Seriously though, what a great start to the season. Tight interplay, great movement, four goals against one of the best organised defences in the country and the Ox seems to have found his position. Excitement or what! I did suggest earlier this week that this season was one about which to be optimistic – there were a few Doubting Micky Thomases judging from the posts that followed such thoughts, but after a display of stunning attack, biting midfield (well, kind of, at least the two stayed out of Mike Dean’s book) and innovative defending, surely we are now favourites for the title?
Just a final word, though. What has happened at Sky? Is it always like this on Friday Night Football (haven’t watched it before) or have they been banned from the stands? Why else are they broadcasting from the pitch when it’s clear all anyone wants is to turn off the lights and go home? Have they spent so much on the TV rights that there is no money left to rent an inside room? And why is Gary Neville’s interactive bundle of televisual tricks attached to a miniature ice cream van? Where does the driver sit? Is he flogging 99s to the ballboys on the other side of the screen? Will Gazza, Cazza and co still be out there, wrapped up in scarves and gloves on a wet and windy night in Stoke come February?
Now the season’s over and the title won, those are the questions that should be on the pundit’s lips.
Peter Bird
(PS… And, why oh why are they ending the broadcast behind a tiny, empty, oval table in front of the abandoned stands? Jamie Carragher is hard enough to interpret at the best of times, without the distraction of ground staff clearing up behind him.)
The result was in the bag – really you couldn’t have been watching the same game, did you not notice our beloved Arsenal behind not once but twice through out.
I am sorry but i was not convinced with that game.
whats wrong with our defending?
is it the zonal marking thing or what.
To win the league you need an air tight defence and from what i saw yesterday i am not convinced and it is not the players same thing happens when koscienly and mustafi are on..switching off.
i just hope someone somewhere saw something and can rectify it.
lehman?bould?
anyone.
not pessimistic just being realistic.
Agree, it was a nervy game and how easily we gave away possession and let our opponents score is a cause for concern. Truthfully if Sanchez is staying I am not too worried about getting a winger and since we are now playing with wing backs even more so. I am not happy with our midfield because there was no creativity and penetration, everything seemed to come from the wings or through long balls. We really need that ball playing player in the middle and Elneny and Xhaka does not have that in their locker. I also think a world class centre back should be in the pipeline because Mert. is retiring, Kosc. is getting old and Gabriel and Holding are not consistent enough yet. I feel if we play our players in their right positions instead of using make shift options, then we can go far in the league. But right now our performance and our build up play does not convince me we will be challengers for the league, especially if we don’t sort out the middle of the park.
Big G, you couldn’t have been reading the same post. He was obviously aiming to be humorous. Not sure myself what part at all to take serious, if any, so in the end I just think the dudes spirits are up. Also ..I think I might know who Peter Bird is on this website. Actually he did bring something up, the heading ability did look very tidy.
Was anyone else surprised at how well the game got officiated. Thought if any ref was gonna give Ozil hand-ball, it would be him. But he got it spot on, and that was a huge moment, if Ozil doesn’t come away with that ball it could have been so different. And he let the game flow too, usually he stops and starts before calling people over to talk the ears off them. So AFC fans should try to let him know – how that is all we wanted, fair and impartial treatment.
after one game we are already invicible?!
Invisibles? Title contenders? Maybe, maybe not.
One game at a time? Yes, let’s approach the game one game at a time and treat each game seriously. Then we see where we are as we progress.. .
Analyzed the goals we conceded.
Cech was completely at fault for the first one, becausw he played himself out of position. Had he stayed his ground, he would’ve caught the assist with ease.
Second was Xhakas carelessness but Monreal should’ve done better with intercepting the cross. I am certain that Kos/Mustafi would’ve catch it.
Third goal was because we play the idiotic zonal marking. Look at the position of the players: no one is marking the opposition players. They just stood there and 175cm tall Vardy caught the corner first. I would blame Wenger for still playing zonal marking.
Looks like we have fire power, like last season. But we conceded way too easy. CM is URGENT.
I concur. We definitely need a CM and we should really look into scrapping zonal marking because it does not make any sense, at all! I have also noticed in a couple of games now that Xhaka is actually not that good winning aerial duels, although his passing and through balls are excellent.
We have a dilemma in our hands, right now we have two class LWB in Monreal and Kolasinac. The problem I see is you have two quality players who are too much of a waste to bench either of them, so you end up playing both and accommodate one of them in CB. This is the wrong strategy because neither are suited to play the CB role. Rather make the hard decision and bench the one player, preferably Monreal and I am a huge fan of his, and play the other. You can’t accommodate a player who is not suited for the job because sooner or later they will be caught out. Although I am not going to make much of this game because we were short of CBs due to various reasons, but I hope what we saw today is not an indication what Wenger is planning to do the same in the future if we find ourselves in the same situation again.
I have to admit, Sky’s coverage was poor, and that female presenter’s questions were so bad at times. Fantastic start to the season though, and one can see why the English Premiership is the most watched league in the world. 10 out of 10 for entertainment, but not sure how much more of that kind of stress I can handle! Why can’t it just be a comfortable 2-0 win, and no drama? Haha
Boys I think this article was to pull our legs a lil. Of course it was a shakey first game but we pulled it back. For me I don’t think this 3 at the back rubbish works too well and we should revert back and save it for teams we cannot dominate. Chelsea city barca those kind of teams. Whoops whobsaod barca we sure won’t be seeing them anytime soon
It more was more the personnel than the formation. Two LB’s, and a very inexperienced CB, playing at RCB, was asking for trouble. We’ll look better once our proper CB’s are back.
We must never go back to the old formation, because it never worked. Everyone knows exactly how to set up against it, and it did us know favours against the top teams. With three at the back, that’s now 11 wins from 12 games, 4 wins out of 5 against top teams, and 2 trophies out of a possible 2. The new formation has been a huge success, no need to change it.
I am happy with the three at the back system and I think with the right players and correct strategy we will do well. The problem with a three at the back system with wing backs is that there is space behind the wing backs when the wing backs bomb up the line and the CBs cannot cover for them otherwise they will leave the middle exposed to someone quick or physical like Vardy or Lukaku respectively. This space behind the wing back is a huge risk where opposition teams can easily capitalise as well where ball playing wingers with trickery can easily navigate towards the by-line. With these problems in mind you really need a versatile DM that can anticipate the counter attack and when wing backs cannot track back in time. So far we only have one player that can do that in the team which is Coquelin, Xhaka and Ramsey cannot play this role. Even with Coquelin we lack the physicality, pace and height required to be efficient. Therefore I believe we have to invest in a quality one at some stage.
Furthermore we lose the ball too easily, especially in the middle when the opposition is pressing. Ozil, Ramsey, Xhaka and Elneny are all not good players to navigate in tight spaces and get themselves out of trouble. Sometimes you need a player with a cool head and be able to soak up pressure in order to keep possession. We have that player in Cazorla but it now seems more and more unlikely we can expect him to play apart, hence we desperately need a CM to add to that calibre of the game. Otherwise we’ll be loosing the ball too often and find ourselves hit with the counter attack, which happened many times last season. Ozil losing the ball yesterday which resulted in Leicester scoring is another example.
I think if LACAZETTE can keep this up, he’s going to claim a place in the french world cup squad next year, his goal scoring instinct is sharp,he knows he won’t get too much chances and makes use of the few ones he gets and he was unluncky not to have scored against chelsea and his header wasn’t a fluke, he knew where the post were and he directed the ball,he will be handful for defender when our complete squad starts and luckily for us he’s not an injury prone player, having him, Sanchez (if he stays ), Giroud and Ozil fit will be vital for us this season and i see plenty of goals..
As regards our defense i won’t blame the players too much for last night result, the manager is to be blamed for not fully prepared and playing players out of position, i think if the manager had called the players in a week earlier than he did, Mustafi at least would have been fit to play, but the result wasn’t that bad as most fans make it seems.. If United or City were the ones in our position last night i know some of the fans here would be praising them for there MENTALITY and ABILITY to come back from behind without most of our first team defenders.. i think teams will now be wary of Arsenal that if it’s not over we won’t give up because we have the ability to come back from behind and score goals… We just need one more signing and we are contenders for the title cause at the moment we still look like pretenders…YES ONE MORE !! and that is midfielders like Viera/Kante type .. COYG
Liverpool having it tough at Watford what a season it’s going to be
I’m so happy we won our first match especially our first home match. Drawing or losing at home is the worst.
There were positives offensively
Its cool our 3 strikers scored Lacazette, Giroud and Welbeck
Also this match showed that Giroud has a huge role this season. He is brilliant coming off the bench. Also his goals will be very important this season.
Lacazette and Giroud will push each other for two reasons 1. Because of natural competition 2. To be recognized by the French Football coach for World Cup
This rivalry will only help us.
Ramsey will need to be more consistent this season. He helped save us last night when we were 2-3 down. He can be brilliant at times
I’m much more concerned with our defense
Monreal should not be CB. Kolsanic is excellent. I know when everyone is healthy Koscielny, Mustafi and Kolsanic will be our back 3, but how often are everyone healthy? I think we should consider selling Debuchy, Jenkinson, Gibbs and maybe Gabriel and sign another top class defender
Also we need a quality central midfielder who can defend well. I don’t think Seri is the answer. I’d prefer Goretzka, Carvalho or Gueye.
I hope Wenger takes heed of our defensive frailties as well as our lack of leadership on the pitch . If we can iron out the kinks in our armour quickly we can truly challenge for the title .
Holding did well in my opinion considering that Bellerin who was so poor consistently left him isolated. Alex Oxelaide Chamberlain needs to play as the right wing back and Sead Kolasinac as the left wing back. Everyone i think would agree that Sead was our standout player , he is my new favourite player . If our team can adopt his warrior mentality we definitely will be a force to reckon with .
Is this post supposed to be a joke or something? First of all, it’s the first game of the season that we barely won. Granted, we were short in the back, and didn’t look sharp in the midfield. But Invincibles? Come on. Also, when you say that we were without our leading players like Sanchez, Koscielny, and Sanogo (?!) it’s hard to take this article seriously.
SIR NO GOAL (sanogo) ??.
Sell debuchy gobbs chambers gabriel & sign VAN DIJK
Sign Lamar or Goretzka (for Santi)
Sign Van Dijk (or koulibaly or manolas) & Lamar (or goretska) and we are title contenders