How many times do we see Arsene Wenger criticized on here for his team selection, tactics and the timing of his substitutions, but you can hardly fault him today.
In my opinion he definitely played the best team available to him today, and the readers that were calling for Le Prof to drop Ozil and Sanchez for the derby were left eating their words by the end of the game. Ozil got 2 assists and Alexis scored his second goal of the season. And Ramsey, who is much-maligned on here, also gave a masterful performance in midfield.
When Arsenal were 2-0 up, Wenger got his players to sit back and absorb the pressure and aim for a counter-attack now and then, which they did perfectly. Le Prof waited until the hour mark to take Lacazette as usual, but this time he replaced him with Coquelin to shore up the midfield and make it even harder for Tottenham to break through.
This is how Ramsey described the tactics after the game, he said: “It’s brilliant – we needed that,”
“We wanted to capitalise on being at home and we had a good first half.
“We had the game wrapped up at half-time really, we just needed to be clever and smart in the second half and we managed to keep a clean sheet as well.
“I think everyone was ready to give everything out there today. We covered a lot of miles out there, so we really wanted to get that win and we gave everything we could to get that.
“We defended well, went forward well and attacked well. We created a few opportunities and played at a good pace. It was an Arsenal performance.”
That sounds like the players were told exactly the right thing to do at half-time, and surely we can only give credit to one man for the game plan? Credit when it’s due eh?
Sam P
We defended well, went forward well and attacked well. We created a few opportunities and played at a good pace. It was an Arsenal performance.”
EH?! EXCUSEZ MOI MR RAMSEY
the reason we are all so happy is because that is not an arsenal performance, that was what we want to see from an arsenal performance
thats the standard .
we dont expect total football- we expect effort- leave everything on the pitch- which u guys only do 10 times a year
emirates was rocking are fans are buzzing north london is probably filled with drunk gooners wobbling home
wenger did get it spot on- he really did – just wish it wasnt so rarely
Make Ozil Play every game he played against spurs & we are Champions..
Any doubt ?
Coach does job and names best starting 11 from the players he has under contract that he signed… now only 12 points behind league leaders after 12 games…. give him an extension!!!
I had already thumbed u down before i realize u are just being sarcastic
Unfortunately he did not get everything right.Great effort and fantastic win which i finally enjoyed.
Fact is he put the best players on the field and it showed. The players had a lot of pride to play for and the delivered . A stroke of luck was also with us today . Remember the week before vs City.
We complained for the same exact calls not going our way. Today they did. But those usually go with you when you put the effort in.
Wenger rode his luck today and it paid off but it could have been costly keeping Xhaka on with a yellow ( since he is a liability) and if he was sent off the match could have turned .
Let’s enjoy this but Wenger was not the factor today. Desire and ability was.
would have still preferred Wilshere started in place of Ramsey who was lackadaisical sometimes in d game…
and Lacazette to complete 90mins
great performance, and fantastic result proud of the team and the fans who where simply brilliant loud all game…more of the same please solid at the back ans creative upfront. COYG
I may have been left eating my words for this ONE OFF performance from Ozil in a big game, but maybe we wouldn’t be as far off from the top as 12pts, if the likes of Ozil were dropped for all the other big games for which he has not been performing in. As I’ve said numerous times, one result/performance changes nothing! So any criticisms of Ozil, and Wenger, are spot on, and still are, based on factual information.
I haven’t yet commented on the game, but I must say Ozil was stunning, and Wenger got his tactics spot on. What’s frustrating, is that we rarely see such a team performance from Ozil, and we rarely perform as whole like that, so the question is…why?
Because we do not have an experience, strict and aggressive motivator on the pitch…
We used to have the warrior Viera
So much in football success , as in life generally, depends on how much WILLPOWER you have to make things happen. Warriors in football and in life, achieve success; shirkers, like Walcott and usually Ozil , (though not today) fail to achieve their potential. . Since Viera left , we have had practically no warriors, hence the relative failure compared to Wengers first decade when we had a team packed through with warriors and therefore had great success. Thousands of fans are completely unable to see this totally clear truth, sadly. This total lack of regular fight and will to win and over my dead body types, like Adams, Bould, Viera, Keown, Dixon, Winterburn, Parlour, Gilberto etc , etc, -who were all REAL MEN WITH BALLS – is the overriding reason we are now soft as rancid butter and easily bullied. Yesterday was a rare exception that in fact proves my point, since they ALL gave 100% and we were as tough as teak. Heart is far more important than mere muscles.
Spot on comments and appalling refusal to recognise the reality by all those fools who have disliked your totally correct comments. The wilful blindness of so many fans never ceases to dismay and appall me.
I am an ozil hater, but he looked the part of the top player we hope he can be in every match.Defensively we made less errors
This who criticise Ozil that much probably started watching him in Arsenal or have forgotten how he plays. Mesut Ozil has never been d strongest in d field, but give him the right Protection at the back, fast & experience goal poacher in his front, play him in his CAM, then, watch your team destroy defenses.
You can’t be playing him out of positions and expect him to perform magic for U, Who does that?
Today’s win wasn’t really Wenger, yet I give him credit cos he’s d Boss but, The Players fought then I think d wrong calls at City gave us psychological advantage. There could have been a Penalty for Kane going by Mike Dean’s standards, & that would have changed the game and put pressure on us.
The Lacazatte sub was wrong.. Cos U gave Spurs defence a rest, U need him to replace running them down with his speed and strength. Wilshire could have come in for Ramsey.
I’m happy for the Win, but not yet Uhuru!!!!
That’s what happens when you play trio Sanchez ozil and laca but unfortunately trio are rarely on pitch.
It only happens if the trio Sanchez Ozil and Laca gel, work hard and play together as a team
if Ozil slack or if Sanchez over dribble and became selfish….we would have conceded
Davinson Sanchez is indeed a good signing… tall, big, strong and pacey…
he manage to catch up with alot of the counters
I’ll get criticised for saying this but yesterday’s performance is exactly the reason why people l, myself included, are critical of Arsene and Arsenal.
When we know the team can do that and this is the first time it happens this season then it is a great feeling on the day but ultimately frustrating.
Xhaka had a good game because he wasn’t under constant pressure from the front 3 losing the ball as well as having an outlet for the ball when he did receive it. Mustafi had a great game because he could boss the back knowing the front 3 and middle 2 were doing their job.
Xhaka still has the same weakness…he does not know how to tackle..
It will take time for him to master the art of tackle
But when Coquelin comes in to provide cover for defence
Xhaka begins to attack more with confidence
This feeling is beautiful, waking up after beating the spuds!
I think I was one of the only few arsenal fans that went to the game confident of a win. but I would also love to see us go on and destroy a team when we get a chance to.
why not replace laca with welbeck? what would that have done? make spurds defense more preoccupied and a fresh leggy welbeck would’ve ran the already tired defence to a devastating effect, instead if worrying spurs could catch up with us, we would’ve ensured their complete burial by adding more goals, I wonder why he doesn’t learn that from when we get battered by teams 4:0 6:0 n more. its because when they smell blood they go on and finish it.
yes put in le coq, but to replace xhaka and we would’ve been stronger in DM making our counters very often and prolific.
but removing our best finisher only told spurs, “come on and attack us”
my opinion.
it best to rest our key players when there is opportunity….
an 89min bad tackle may see Laca out for 4 weeks, 8 weeks or the rest of the season
This is laca first season and there is no winter break
That didn’t stop us from creating chances.we could have scored 4 or 5.Wenger got it right.
I was one of those who felt confident of winning this game that I even expressed it in the Mirror of Friday where Stuart Woodrow, a Spurs fan and James Kenner, an Arsenal fan, were giving their assessments on how the game would go. I unequivocally stated that I tip Arsenal to win this game. Anyone who wishes can check out my comment. Interestingly mine was the only comment by kickoff time. I wish to repeat what I stated in that short comment. I said that the problem with many Arsenal fans today is that they have no faith in the team which is unfortunate. This season our team has not really been bad save for the Liverpool game. The others where we lost were well contested.
Saddest point is your prediction was entirely the most likely outcome! Arsenal were undefeated in 7 home games against Spurs going into this fixture. Arsenal had literally won ALL of their last 10 home games! Spurs had won 1 in their last 16 away games against big 6. Arsenal had performed better than Spurs over the last 4 seasons go as far back as you want really! The fact Spurs happened to finish above Arsenal once last year was hardly reason to tear up the rest of the form book! Really is amazing what perception does to people opinions. Their is no objective reason to believe there has been any power shift in any of the recent stats but popular opinion suggests the team that have been performing worse are doing better for some completely unknown reason.
I can’t agree more. What is more annoying is the fact that it is those who claim to be Arsenal fans that lead this kind of Arsenal bashing. It would be okay for a fan of another Club to peddle such lies but it is very baffling when it is done by a self proclaimed gooner such as James Kennor. It is interesting how people develop some ideas without any empirical evidence and propagate them as the truth.
Jon Fox, I wish you could tone down on your uncivil language. It is uncalled for. Besides it doesn’t add any quality onto your arguments. If we all behaved like you do this site would be a battlefield!
the lineup was nice, the tactic too and even Wenger was encouraging players. can we replicate this up to may, we will be second…..next to city