Arsenal Thread

gerd said:
I don't agree with your assessment of the defense rentboy.
Sagna used to be the best RB in the EPL, but this season he is a big liability, at the moment he is not good enough.
The other SB Gibbs is also a weak link. Lately success teams have good attacking (and defensive) side backs, Gibbs simply isn't good enough. He may well be talented (personally i highly doubt it, but i'm often wrong) but at the moment he is not good enough.
Strangely IMO Koscielny and Vermaelen are better than Mertesacker, although they did made some individual errors. Mertesacker is too slow to be a top CB. Vermaelen isn't the fastest player either, but against Chelsea imo he was very good.
To me Arteta is a fine DMF and not a weak link at all.
The problem in midfield is at the sides: both Oxlade Chamberlain (very overrated player) and Walcott are not good enough defensively. It is strange that they get away with it whereas Arshavin constantly got stick. To me both are considerably inferior to Arshavin.

Cazorla is a class player, who might be tired at the moment. He has everything to become one of the best EPL players.

That leaves Wilshere. This will be very controversially, but IMO this is another massively overhyped player. It's true that in each match he has some touches of genius, but he is very inconsistent and he has a nasty side. If he would be a foreigner, he would have lots of red cards. I'm gonna give two recent examples to prove both my point.

In the match against Chelsea Wilshere made a couple of genius passes, but mostly he was invisible. In the first half he showed that he is no leader and drowned with the rest of the team. In the second half he played better but a player with his status should make the difference. He didn't and he rarely does.

In the match against City there was Kompany's red card. If anybody of both players went agressively in, it was Wilshere. I'm not saying that Wilshere should have been sent off, but i would have given him a yellow card. He has this nasty uncontrolled side that Rooney also has. To be completely honest, i don't like him at all (and might thus be biased, i tend to be with players i don't like), he comes across as a very arrogant player and this for somebody who hasn't proved much apart from a good match against Barcelona... He certainly is a very talented and promising player but like all remotely talented English players (Sterling, Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain, Southampton's lef back, Andy Carroll and 272 others) he is overhyped (and at the moment everybody who has a Belgium passport is also overhyped, to be fair).

I hope you guys don't feel offended by this post. As you might know, i like Arsenal very much and i still think this is a good team, but there is an abyss between this team and the real big teams. I would say that in Europe Arsenal is a third rate team. The first rate are teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munchen. Teams like Juventus, Borrussia Dortmund, (maybe) PSG and Manchester United are second rate teams. And then there are teams like Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Spurs (although Arsenal are considerably weaker than both City and Chelsea and Spurs is weaker than Arsenal because they don't have any squad depth).

Sometimes i have the feeling that you guys tend to overrate the current crop of players. IMO Wenger overachieved last season with in 4th place. I also think that finishing outside the top 4 would be the best thing that can happen to Arsenal (but they will end up fourth and nothing will change).
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It's good to have different opinions
:))

Sagna's head has gone in my opinion, he looks like a player that wants to move on imo. His mind is somewhere else.

Gibbs I think is a really good LB and can defend and Attack well, maybe he is better attacking, which isn't so great, but I think he will become a really good left back.

I disagree about Mertesacker as I also think he is really good, him being slow is always a problem though, but most of the time his positioning is pretty spot on, so doesn't need to race around.

Koscielny was really good last season, but he got the Arsenal disease where he plays great and then it disappears :LOL: but I think he can get back to last seasons standards and beyond.

Vermaelen the Jury is still out with me, he has some great games, but he also makes many mistakes and stupid decisions. I also question him as our Captain now, before I thought he was good, but now not so sure.

But I do think our defence could be very good, but it is rare that they all perform well together and that is a problem. Many times we have heard, Koscielny had a good game etc but never the defence played very well, or the two centre backs played very well together and had a great game. One or two defenders have good games the others not so much and that is a big problem.

Wilshere is still young, but I don't think the hype is too much, he has the ability to become a great player for us, but he is not the finished article by any means.

Arteta has been great for us, but we do need some steel in our midfield, him along with another def minded midfielder would be good together especially for tough away games and also as an alternative.

I have seen our team play against big teams and do very well, so I don't think the gap is too huge between us and better teams, but there is definitely a gap and it can be filled with a few more players and a different mindset from the players.

Also we came 3rd last season ;))

I don't think we overate the players we have (if anything most of the time it is very negative), we can see how well they can perform in glimpses this season....they just need to find a way of keeping the performances at that level. A way to doing that is to buy a couple of new players that can take the burden off of others so our team can be fresher throughout the season.

but I am still not blind to other frailties we have, but I don't think it would take too much to sort them out.
 
Oops, i can't remember who was fourh last season...oh yes...Spurs were fourth but they didn't play CL because Chelsea won it. Jesus, i forgot my own favourite team...shows what a fantastic fan i am...

That was also a very nice way to disagree with me bobby.

There is one thing i don't agree with all of you (and not necessarily with you in particular): the fact that people are very negative proves IMO that they overrate the players. Expectations aren't realistic. Finishing third last saeson was a hell of a performance by such a team (but i guess it was RVP who made a huge difference just like he's doing now with a very mediocre Man Utd, when i said last year that he was not world class, i was seriously wrong).

I do agree that you lack steel and determination, that is what Man Utd has in abundance even if they are very average in football terms.
 
It's not offensive, it's just a different opinion and there was nothing wrong with how it was put across.
Some of it is true too.

I too think Wilshere has a nasty side, like he is a ticking bomb ready to go off. Nowhere near Joey Barton of course, more like Rooney.
But that Kompany tackle I really don't know what people expected. Even the media was talking as if Wilshere had to jump over, get out of the way and extend a red carpet for Mr. Kompany.
We know Kompany is not a bad guy and his legs were not outstretched in that tackle. We can tell he didn't want to hurt nobody. But that was a two-footed tackle nonetheless and the ref had a split second to decide. We only see it wasn't too bad because of the benefit of the replay.
But as for Wilshere, he overrun the ball a bit and he was going for a standing 50-50 challenge. But Kompany dived in and he had barely time to react. I think he even slips up there.
He is a player who won't run away from 50-50s and in all fairness, why should he jump and let Kompany win that ball?

As for football abilities, I agree many English players are overhyped, but Wilshere looks really really interesting indeed. Like a proper number 10 for England, the type of player they didn't have for years. What I can see from him is that he can do almost everything: he can dribble, he is fast and agile, has a really good shot on his left foot and very good passing too. And on top of that, he is a fighter. He just needs to manage his temper, true.
But if all goes well and he keeps his feet on the ground, he is captain material for the future.

Of course he has to get some consistency. Sometimes he does disappear in some big matches.

Going back to our defence: I still think we have good players individually. But they can't translate this into good team performances because Wenger's system burdens those guys and leaves them too exposed.

Arteta is a good DM when he has someone working alongside him I guess. If you leave him alone doing the job of protecting our defence, he is not going to be enough.
Right now Arsene tries to emulate a Barcelona-type of system, only without a Busquets or Song (specialists in that role of playing in front of defence) and, of course, without Messi, Iniesta and Xavi. Their false 9 is Messi. When we don't play Giroud as CF, ours is Gervinho or Walcott :COAT:

I'm sick and tired of seeing this poor man's Barcelona. If you haven't got the quality needed, and you won't spend money to reinforce your team either, the least you could do is change things around to cover your weaknesses.

But Wenger runs all kinds of experiments in order to keep his beloved 4-3-3 system. Even if that means playing Gervinho as a CF, Ramsey as a winger, Arteta as his "hatchet man", and so on.
In our successful seasons we always had a hard man in that DM position, be it Petit, Vieira, Gilberto Silva... Even after that we still had the likes of Flamini and Song providing some steel ahead of defence.

Now, for tonight's match, both Arteta and Coquelin are injured. What will he do? Play Diaby as DM? Ramsey?? And ahead of them, Wilshere and Cazorla?

Personally I would use Vermaelen as a DM. It's not ideal, but would make more sense with what we've got. We cannot be so light on midfield with such an offensive set up.
 
I agree with Arseblog with a midfield of Ramsey and Wilshere further back with Cazorla as the more attacking minded would be fine tonight....if they all play well.

Then we have Pod back and also it might be good to give Jenkinson a run out with the form of Sagna.

If we play well and at home it should be enough to beat West Ham, but we need to go at it from the off otherwise we will lose. It is going to be hard to find space and they will have a lot of men behind the ball, so it is going to be very tough.
 
There's nothing exciting about Arsenal that's for sure. Hot & Cold comes to mind and usually 2nd half. So much for living next to a banker :LOL:
 
I'm expecting a big reaction from the team tonight and a good result, otherwise I will be pissed off :DD

All the talk of Wenger etc the players need to pull their fingers out as well and just give their all. They are capable of playing much much better than recent displays.
 
See what we can do when we put our minds to it. Still don't know why we have to let in goals or play shit before we realise how to play? but 5-1 is a 5-1 and it was a great way to go into the next few games, long may it continue.

Podolski and Giroud looked good tonight, not only scoring but being involved in the build up play and assisting. They may not be Van Persie, but together they can fill the void.
 
beachryan said:
Bloody hell. Podolski.
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1 cracker of a goal and 3 assist gets the nod :BOP:

Well, see what you get when a winger does a winger`s job :P I think Oli is something we never had in a striker, Big !Strong! and astute :)

I can only imagine Wenger at HT saying...those fans want players to replace you! Show them why we don`t need to replace you.Plus, the cold/hot 2nd ht theory :LOL:
 
That 2nd half was outstanding! What a massacre.

Poldi had one of his best matches for Arsenal tonight. And that goal of his was a real screamer!

Cazorla and Wilshere were immense. Even Ramsey did alright improvised as DM.
I'm happy for Giroud too, grabbing a brace.

I hope now Wenger won't think he doesn't need to spend just because of this result :P
 
Thats the problem, he will think he doesn't need to spend, but the options from the bench aren't great that is the big problem and having a big enough squad of players that he is willing to use and can play well.

Our first eleven as I said a few days ago can play very well and beat most teams on their day, but the backup needs to be stronger.

Hopefully we can carry on the performance through the next few games, especially against Liverpool.....and Brighton (after what happened with Bradford).

Seeing as our players have the memories of fish, I can see them bein too cocky for the Brighton game losin and then all of the players saying how they underestimated them etc.... If that happens I will mutilate whoever says it. :))
 
Watched the highlights of Arsenal last night...reminded me of Arsenal of old the way you attacked West Ham!!

3 points above Liverpool now and you've got a good chance to go 6 points clear next week when you play them.
 
Liverpool will be a whole other kettle of fish.

They look like they are getting better and better, whereas West Ham were not in great form going into the match.

But being at home and if we can get near that performance then hopefully we can beat them.
 
Apparently Wenger is in Germany now. Either watching Bayern for next month, or finalising some deals (hopefully).

I thought it was hilarious during the substitution yesterday - Vaz Te got booed as he went off, only for Diame to get cheers from the Arsenal fans :D

I'm glad the heads didn't drop after the Collison goal. I believe that was one of those we didn't attribute to - similar to the Perisic goal last year against Dortmund. Saying that, i did think "here we go again".

The next goal is consistency in the performance - with a first half display v Liverpool.

Is it just me, or does Podolski's voice surprise you when he talks... :D
 
BobbyBox said:
Liverpool will be a whole other kettle of fish.

They look like they are getting better and better, whereas West Ham were not in great form going into the match.

But being at home and if we can get near that performance then hopefully we can beat them.
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agree with that.

Liverpool really struggle against the better teams though and leave loads of space behind them to counter attack.

And Arsenal despite their problems are still one of best counter attacking teams in England.

I reckon Arsenal will win but it will be close game.
 
Liverpool was quite good in the second half against Man Utd, they surprised me.
Arsenal have more technical skill, but Liverpool has more steel (and Luis Suarez and he might be the difference in a positive or a negative way).
 
Forget Liverpool we have Brighton at the weekend! These small fishes are deadly and can rip you apart. I like cheese :)
 
gerd said:
Liverpool was quite good in the second half against Man Utd, they surprised me.
Arsenal have more technical skill, but Liverpool has more steel (and Luis Suarez and he might be the difference in a positive or a negative way).
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very true
 
Don`t think Wenger is going to bring anyone. I think that 5-1 mauling , buried the hatchet.

AW said:
"We have two players in every position, that should be enough, plus the young players in behind.
"But if we find the top-class players in any position, we never refuse to strengthen our squad."
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:COAT:
 
you're right, bebo.

what's more telling and infuriating of his mentality is:
"It is unfair for the league that some teams who have played for example now twice Newcastle already have an advantage on teams who play Newcastle now they have bought six or seven players.

"You do not face exactly the same team so I believe the number of players you could buy should be limited."

He expects everyone to follow his perspective. what if you have lots of injuries, like we have had? do you play U18 players?!

we're exactly like Theo described himself: consistent in patches.
 
Ah Wenger is one of the most intelligent people in football (and that is something that holds Arsenal and Arsène back at times).
I totally agree with what he says about the january transfer window. IMO there should only be one thrasfer window: in the summer. Perhaps all clubs should have the possibility to use one wildcard to do another transfer throughout the season.
Look at Newcastle now. I used to admire their transfer policy, but what they are doing now is madness. Last year they had a successfull season with some French key players. Now they have a nightmare season because of injury and what they do is going back to what they think is a success formula. So they are raiding the French market in a blind hunt for players who might do it for them. This is a wild gamble. It could well be that NEwcastle will be the team of the last part of the season, but then it will be a lucky hit...

Football desperately needs more Wengers, but perhaps not as manager/coach. UEFA should form a task force with people like Wenger (and me, and this is only partly a joke) who could work out a future perspective for football...
 
Great game for the neutral!
As far as the match I think Santos is such a liability I think he has personal issues imo. When I heard Wenger say " We have 2 players for every position" He`s avit a laugh! I know playing time is the only cure for sharpness and playing 4 regulars was a big ASK. I`m happy we`re not doing a replay :APPLAUD: .

Theo is greedy no doubt to deny Oli a hat-trick :LOL: Congrats to Podolski for completing his 1st 90minute match :BOP: . Diaby gave a great pass to Oli which is refreshing song-rvp esque.
Rosicky needs a walking-stick I still love the bloke. Jack/Theo/Gibbs was badly needed to edge the win.:))
 
Yeah the second goal was really like watching RvP and Song from last season. First goal was class from Giroud.
 
If you look at the table from around this time last year, then it is pretty similar...we are actually doing a bit better.

39 goals scored last year and 46 scored this year
33 goals let in last year and 27 this year

and the points are 36 to 37

So we have scored more goals and let in fewer, but we obviously need to win more games and get more points on the board as teams are getting stronger around us.

But the talk of missing Van Persie is not holding up too much as the goals are coming from a lot of other sources and we are scoring more....at the moment.

Of course we miss him, but I like the fact the goals are getting spread around and leaves us not relying on one player to get us most of our goals. But we need to keep the goals coming for the second half of the season, which Van Persie did for us last year.

Liverpool and Stoke next, we need to get 6points from both of those and it is going to be super tricky.
 
Well good stats there ,BUT we are paying more then last season RVP was 70k vs. Oli55k, Pod100k & Santi 70k :P
BlackBurn that would be interesting ...
 
bebo said:
Well good stats there ,BUT we are paying more then last season RVP was 70k vs. Oli55k, Pod100k & Santi 70k :P
BlackBurn that would be interesting ...
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Not adding assists into that either and if we would have kept van Persie he would have been on at least 120k a week etc

My point was that we aren't missing Van Persie as much as people would think :PP
 
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