Arsenal have plenty of injury problems of our own to worry about at the moment and they are important players that Arsene Wenger is having to cope without as well. The likes of Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky may not always be guaranteed starters but they do have a significant impact for Arsenal, while Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin would walk straight back into the first team if they were match fit.
But none of those Gunners seem to have the same importance to our team that the Man City captain and defender Vincent Kompany has to our Premier League rivals. With the Belgian in the team Man City, before tonight’s games, have played eight EPL games and conceded just a single goal but without him they had let in 21 in 11 games, a massive difference.
No wonder their Spanish international star David Silva is worried about their defending, as reported by ESPN. The attacking midfielder has called on his team mates to step up and defend better without Kompany but you get the impression his is not too confident of it happening.
Silva said, “Vinnie is a key player for us and our captain. With or without him in the side we have to work hard to concede less.
“But it’s not just the defence that defends, but the whole team. It’s the same when we’re attacking — you need to have everyone helping out going forward so it’s down to us all to perform our defensive duties and it’s something we’ll be trying to do to help the cause.
“Any team will miss their captain when they’re out and we’re no exception.”
That makes the news reported by The Guardian on Kompany’s return from injury potentially key to which club will be Premier League champions at the end of the season, because Manuel Pellegrini fears that the Belgian will be out for some time.
The City boss said, “Its difficult to know. We are still trying to find out the reasons for so many injuries. Myself I’m not so sure, maybe the last part of the season.”
That would certainly make life easier for Arsenal and might well allow us to stop the penultimate game of the season, away to Man City, being a title decider. What do you think?
I still think that Gabriel would have been the better sub than arteta!
mate jimi hendrix would have been a better sub than arteta- an he’s been dead for a longtime.
wenger made choices that lost us two points
such is life- no ones perfect
Wait wait wait your blaming wenger for the draw? Did I seriously read that correctly?
Aaaahhhh I see a fan of good music here
I hold nothing against Arteta. I just love the guy, just like every Arsenal player. But it is time to call a spade for what it is. Arteta was chocking in the dying minutes. He sees the game but he can’t command it as before. I am 100% positive that injuries have this effect as well. Plus the age. Don’t forget that for years he had to hold our midfield by himself. Remember the game 4 seasons ago at Palace where he was basically the only one staying back. If I am not mistaking he even got a red in that game.
These being said, I am not sure how is Chambers worse than Arteta, I fail to see. OK, I am not with the guys during the day like Wenger but I guide myself about on field performance and Chambers is at least as good as Arteta. Lets be honest, what could have happened if Chambers was playing for Arteta’s position? No experience? Get a straight red? So what? Teams tend to defend fiercely when in 10.
A bit dissapointed with Chambo though. Something is wrong with the kid. I don’t know what but he must collect himself, I know he’s very young but I hate to hear people telling how bad he is. He’s just a kid ffs, his prime will come in about 4 years now, he’s only 22. I think he really needs some breakthrough of some sort, I thought last game he started to collect a bit but he is very slow to start. Not sure what’s in it. Don’t give up Chambo !
We are not just fighting City for the title but Leicester as well
They have been impressive all season and won away at spuds tonight
I think its going to be tight till the end but we can win it
Yesterday i said i was hoping for 9 points from the 3 matches before FA Cup
away @ liverpool -1 point
away @ stoke
Home with Chelsea
with the draw @ pool the maximum we can get is 7 points
Lets try our best to have 49 points by the time of our FA Cup match
So you were hoping Arsenal won all their games….yeah, no sh@t Sherlock
5 points out of these 3 games and trust me, we will laugh.
I pray that Gabriel paulista plays a part in the stoke game on Saturday! Coyg!
When you are parking the bus and playing on the counter it was an easy solution by putting in chambers for exhausted hard-working campbell put bellerine infront of him and replace man of the match by gibbs and deploy theo as a striker
So the team will be
….cech…..
Chamb..mert..kos..monreal
Bell..flaminin..ramsey..gibbs
………..ozil…….
………walcott….
Very powerfull defense
Very fast thretining counter attacking
What do you think of this simple strategie
And by the way chambers will not be a problem at RB when we are defending as his problem is about lack of speed which won’t be exposed
Strange as it seems, Giroud is the man for our counter attacks. Yes he’s slow, but he’s a target man. He’s more likely to win a hoofed ball out of defence, then he can hold it up and allow the pacey players like Walcott and Alexis to sprint forward – they can run a lot faster when they don’t have to take the ball with them up the pitch. He can also play it back to Özil to pick out a pass for the runs made by Theo/Alexis.
Giroud is the man for both Counter attacks and long balls. He is really the one who’ll win us the title this season. There have been so many games where he got us back in the game when we were either drawing or losing. He as of now should not be replaced.
Wait did you just leave out Giroud and Campbell who have been our best players recently? Against Stoke we should have the same team, only change i would make is Chambers for Walcott, Ramsey moves out wide with Chambers and Flamini as the Pivot.
And what are we? Stoke? 6 defenders in 10?
I’m not too worried. We’re 3 points clear of Man C and with all our big boys still to come back. Sanchez for Walcott, Campbell rightfully keeps his place on the right hand side.
So long as the Ramsey/Flamini pairing is selected, Arsenal will often struggle to keep out goals.
Ramsey just does not stay back to defend and distribute the ball from the rear like Cazorla did. Ramsey prefers to get waaaaaay forward as often as possible whereas Cazorla was more disciplined in that regard. This is not a criticism of Ramsey, he is just a more forward-minded player and he is very good at that of course.
But this situation needs to be changed or Arsenal will often struggle in defense.
it *IS* a criticism of ramsey, and its warranted.
funny that wenger thinks arteta can still play: shouldve brought in gabriel or chambers.
shame that ox has given up.
Ah that late pool goal…
Didn’t see it. Apparently they deserved it. But aaah would I Ve loved for that not to hapoen
am really begining to doubt our title challenge, for how long shall we continue to stumble instead of taking advantage of our rivals’ slip? Hope alexis will play at stoke otherwise i don’t see us coming with anything from brittania as usual.