Arsene Wenger has been talking a lot about the age of the current Arsenal squad recently, but more importantly the experience that he has at his disposal, as even the young Gunners like Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin have another season under their belts and have learned a lot from the games they have played.
And the boss pointed to that quality once again today in his post match comments reported by Sky Sports after the Gunners made it three Premier League wins on the spin by despatching Hull City away from home. Although the 4-1 scoreline looks good for Arsenal it might not have been that emphatic and we might even have dropped points after the Tigers scored a 79th minute penalty.
Instead of going into panic mode though, or just sitting deep and hanging on for the win, Arsenal took control of the game back and scored two more goals and perhaps this backs up the manager’s ide4as about maturity. He also spoke about how happy he was that we got the job done so well after a tough couple of games already this week, although he did admit that we had taken the foot off the gas and were coasting a bit when Hull scored.
In other years though, we may have paid for it so I am not going to be too harsh on the players and am finally starting to have some optimism about the season. How about you?
Bob.
Alex Iwobi is going to be a star. At the moment, I think he lacks a little bit self belief (I sounded like Wenger there, Lol), he also needs to work on his strength. I see lots of goals in the lad. I reckon he could also play as a striker in the future.
I thought he is quite strong to protect the ball..? He looks lanky but he’s not that easily shaken off.
Just needs to work on his finishing and tracking back!
I’m quite liking the look of Sanchez, Walcott and Iwobi. Wenger mentioned Sanchez as liking to come deeper for the ball and Walcott liking to run in behind. I reckon he’s onto something. We look far more dangerous like this than with Giroud leading the line. Giroud will lead the line in certain games but for others then Sanchez Walcott and Iwobi offer us plenty of attacking options. I reckon Perez was bought with this style in mind and has the speed and finishing (going on his videos) once he gets used to the Arsenal style to do some damage. Iwobi can become a great winger or could also be played more centrally in time. Just need Ozil to find his form and start feeding through those passes he’s so good at that unlock defences.
It’s already embedded in Alex Iwobi
You can’t be JayJay Okocha’s nephew and not be a great player
Crazy he is only 18. And Nigeria can build a great national team around Iheanacho and Iwobi. Iheanacho another underrated youngster, but his positioning is that of an experienced striker, and he scores every time he’s given a chance.
Iwobi is actually 20.. but young nevertheless!
I think it’s quite the opposite. Iwobi has xceptional strength and is full of confidence.. he plays with so much confidence sometimes it’s like the peak YayaToure in Arsenal shirt strolling through physical midfield-opponents.
I thought we had a very positive display. I too thought we looked to use our experience very well. I remember not that long ago if we lost a goal like that, all of a sudden we would look like a very young side. We’d be shaky and causing allot of the problems ourselves. Here however we still looked in complete control, no nerves setting in, we just shook it off and got the job done. Away from home late in a game like that it doesn’t matter they were a man down, not if you have a nervous bunch you can be your own worst enemy. When you realise that we still have many gears to go it makes it all the more positive. I really like it when I see a solid performance along with some nice attacking displays.
where are all the naysayers now??
The naysayers are necessary for progress to be made only problem is those who dont know when to stop and actually enjoy it when things are looking up.
Very true, would Wenger change his ways and tactics if he wasn’t criticized? He wants his ways and his ways only, challenging him makes him do the right things and not his own non working tactics
@bran99
AW is stubborn. But most of all, only he knows exactly what it is he’s trying to do. Don’t think for one minute that what you or anyone else says, is the reason for his decisions…
Real Talk……..
I went through the match review as usual on this site. We win this one and some fans moan, when we lost, some fans moaned and we luckily drew in a match we would have lost in the past and some fans moaned.
I wonder whether some fans are just critics.
Give me the points anyhow always, I’ll take them and be happy because points win titles.
When Man u and others win dirty, our fans will say tactics but when it is our boys, then we are lucky.
There are many fine young Gunners . Alex Iwobe, The Jeff, Chris Willock and Rob Holding who play Maturely for their age. Exiting stuff.
Im liking Wenger’s “Project Sanchez”, initially he looked lost and alone on his own upfront but seem to be growing into it quite nicely, far from the finished article though but at 27, this is the perfect time to switch his game from one based on a high work rate to one based on movement and intelligence, in the last two games, he has scored off rebounds which means he is really working on being at the right place at the right time rather than running endlessly in the hope pf getting lucky.
minute we lose a game with sanchez as striker people will be calling for AW’s head for playing him through middle. His best position is out wide, it’s not really hard to see that. It’s where he should be playing, but it’s good to know he can put in a decent performance in middle too.
The goals he scored today were not as a result of him playing centrally. He could as well have scored them if he had started on the wings. I will rather have Walcott lead the line than Sanchez. Sanchez loses most 50-50 challenges when played centrally.
same thing happened when he played striker against Watford. He naturally goes wide, because he’s never going to win against the CB’s, and he usually has nobody in a more advanced position to pass to when he’s in the middle either.
Off topic but Alexis Sanchez has now appeared for Arsenal in 99 matches and scored 46 goals.
At Barca he appeared 141 times and scored 47 times. One more and he he has equaled that in just 100 games!
And players are supposed to score double in Spain compared to tough English league.
I’ve been waiting for the day Sanchez through the middle and I couldn’t be happier. If only we could play a fast, counter attacking football utilizing his full skills instead of this walk it up the pitch style football which isn’t only boring but won’t work against city/Chelsea/utd
Alexis could actually be our very own Aguero/Suarez; improved massively in the 2nd half.
I think he is adapting to the position gradually.
If he becomes as good a striker as he is on the left, maybe we ll start looking more like “potential-title-winners”.
expecting a strong side against Nottingham Forest which should include Ospina; Gibbs,Gabriel,Holding,Debuchy ;Elneny,Xhaka,Ramsey, Ox ;Lucas, Giroud/Akpom
I am a bit worried about Mesut
He’s been quite quiet so far
But Im sure he will pick things up
Saw a photo of him on the bus after the
game sitting with Mustafi and Xhaka
He looked really happy 🙂
Iwobi, top performance from the youngster, linked up well with Wallcott for his goal, lets hope he doesn’t burn out through over use. The team looked good, played well, some fans not happy with team selection but weather right or wrong Wenger will pick who he wants and we don’t get a say in it full stop.