Arsenal post match thread

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Hart: kept us in the game, but some appalling distribution. Story of his season.

Sagna: always one touch too many when going forward, and seems incapable of blocking shots and crosses.

Kolarov: same strengths and deficiencies, which bizarrely makes him one of our more consistent players.

Mangala: one big mistake every game. Wouldn’t have lasted five minutes under Mancini.

Otamendi:looking more and more nervous with every game.

Delph: I understand why we bought him, but not where we play him.

Fernandinho: outnumbered in midfield, which inevitably led to mistakes.

Yaya: strolling when the opposition had the ball. Watch him when Hart saves from Giroud in the second half.

Silva: strangely immune from criticism, but once more ineffective.

De Bruyne: flittered in and out, but still can’t see where he fits into the overall picture

Aguero: nowhere near match fit. Needs to have a major impact or we won’t finish in the Top Four.


Navas: should have done better, but too easy to scapegoat.

Sterling: seemed to spend the last twenty minutes trying to win a penalty.

Bony: didn’t do too badly, but only when you compare him with his team mates.

 

[Blue Feather]

For me it was definitely a case of fine lines (KDB scores or sets up Merlin, Walcott nets with a shot that would be saved/missed other times, Mangala clears, Bony, KDB or Ya Ya equalise, Navas shoots.......nah that's going too far!!) Sometimes wonder whether we miss a trick with Ya Ya though. He was 'running' in treacle first hour or so but I think in games like this he should be second striker behind Aguero. I know it may be sacrilege to leave Silva out but sometimes it doesn't work in away games against strong opponents. Toure still looks dangerous in the last third so I think he should play in a freer role up top and leave Dino and Delph holding. One of our big weaknesses is not having a quick left-sided player and this should have been addressed for the last 2-3 seasons. Doesn't have to be ultra skilful, just quick, combative and with a good left foot. We've also NEVER tried playing Clichy in front of Kolarov to balance the left hand side and I'm absolutely convinced that in some games this set-up might actually work. We have 3 first-teamers who are essentially right-sided players + Roberts and the injured Nasri yet no natural balance on the left. It is pretty basic stuff really and some of the substitutions we witness is keystone cop stuff when much of this would be eliminated if we could add something different to the left hand side. I'll get my coat......

 

[Father Paul]

Fuck me, but there's some over the top posts this morning. Knew there would be, but it makes for depressing reading. And I'm not a happy clapper, so don't bother to say it.



Down, but not despondent. Arsenal are four points ahead of us at the halfway point of the season. What's four points, at this stage, in the general scheme of things? Not a lot. And they have to come to our place. We'll see. There's work to do, and things are serious. Nothing is decided.

Some people on here — more than a few, in fact — expected us to be spanked. We were not spanked. Not at all. Let's just be big enough to concede that we were beaten by the better team, on the night.

But the weird thing is that Swansea battered our defence more than Arsenal did, and Joe had to pull out a number of world class stops against them, which, by and large, he didn't have to do except in the second half, just the once. We were defending really well for nearly all of the first half, doing something that we haven't seen for weeks. Not that Otamendi and Mangala were playing particularly well for that first half. They didn't have to. They had almost nothing to do, because they were being given terrific protection by the men in front of them — Ferny, Silva, Delph (by God, the work he put in! Silva as well, he ran his socks off). Even Yaya was putting in a shift, until his legs started to go in the second half. The stats say that Arsenal had two shots in the first half. Two. Ok, both of them goals, and that's obviously unacceptable. But the plain fact is that, apart from those two shots — one a world-class strike by Walcott, I've always rated that man, and a well worked move that Giroud finished well — Arsenal were hardly threatening. The two goals came out of a clear blue sky. That's the first half that I saw, anyway.

And if KDB puts that ball over for Merlin early in the match, as he should, rather than taking a shot from a difficult angle, that could be a different prospect altogether.

Yaya's goal. Stupendous. That's what the man does. Although, alas, he does it all too rarely for us now. He was the only man on the pitch, on either side, who can score a goal like that. And after that goal, Arsenal were clearly bricking it.

But — and it is a big but — of our fourteen attemps, none of them seriously troubled Cech. Even the goal didn't 'trouble' him, in a sense. It was in, he knew it, he didn't even move.

That's the worrying stat. For all our possession — superior numerically, as were the corners, as were the attempts — we produced almost no clear-cut chances. That's got to change, and soon.

This may sound as though it flies in the face of the evidence, and the scoreline, but the signs I saw were that we're on our way back. Merlin's gradually getting up to speed, Sergio of course always takes two or three matches to get up to it. KDB was looking a bit more like his normal frisky self, up for it, taking chances, after the rest which he so badly needed.

Leicester are starting to worry me, though. We've now put ourselves in a position where we have to get a result there. If they were to go nine points ahead, that would be a pretty frightening gap. A mate of mine who's an Everton fan, but whose judgement I trust, told me that there were periods when Everton were battering them on Saturday. I didn't see any of that match, so I can't judge.

Sunderland first, then, and on to them. This is the turning point. One way or the other.

You sound like someone trying to convince themselves of something they don't really believe in. I will tell you the f**** stat that maters we lost for the fifth time before Christmas and are in real danger of being cut adrift by January

 

[AwayDay]

I was also there yesterday and although can't agree 100% about the you deserved to win bit, a sensible post. I also believe we are looking at a two horse race, with your boys slight favourites. According to one poster on here, Hart was at fault for Walcotts goal!

Maybe if he was standing by his post, but it would be ridiculous to leave the rest of the goal open.
Even the second goal, you can't give oppositions one on one chances and blame the keeper for not saving them, the problems lie elsewhere, mainly you had a free kick with seconds left and decided to pass it around instead of getting in the area for one last chance before half time, then passed it all the way back to mangala who gave us the ball, it was a strange set of decisions, you did that a few times yesterday, in between flashes of excellence.

 

[Father Paul]

Watched the game last night, read a few comments on here, mostly negative. Probably gonna get moaned at for this cos there is nothing as grumpy as a city fan at the moment!!! City outplayed Arsenal over the whole game, our stats were better, we finished probably aat least the last half hour totally on top.

We were strong, we though to the end, again, they had like two chances and two goals (Seeing this time and again), our finishing wasnt good. This was at their ground and tbh Arsenal were lucky to win it.

I know which team I would rather be going into the last stretch

It isnt alll doom aand gloom, in fact there isnt reallly any doom and gloom, except over the heads of some city fans

Maybe its not doom and gloom but reality dawning next 2 away games will tell us if the glass is half full or not

 

[Father Paul]

Are you you just choosing to ignore the two point blank saves that Hart made to keep us in it?

At the moment it is poor because our results are shite and the inept one leading the troops doesn't seem to have a clue about how to stop this.

We had 5/5 wins at the start of the season. We have 5 wins in the last 12. If that isn't cause for concern I don't know what is. We have taken 2 points in our last 5 away games and scored 2 goals.

We played well in patches but from De bruyne missing to Yaya scoring, a passage of play lasting 50 mins, we created hardly anything from open play.

It wasn't all doom and gloom last night but the end result was still a loss and down once again to crap defending by the same culprits.

The bigger picture points to a difficult period for us because however well we attack, which is rare at the moment, the defence just can't be trusted.

sensible balanced post here here!!!

 

[blue ranger]

If we are blaming hart for the goals yesterday I give up.

 

[Father Paul]

So they played us off the park? Passed it around us like Pro's? Stopped us shooting, stopped us playing good football? None of that? They scored their chances... Other than number of goals they were not the better side.

Goals is the most important stat, but Arsenal finished that game holding on for dear life, City played well enough, on another day it would have went our way.

I think they looked more dangerous when they got forward despite playing a very conservative game. It is true though that we could have got a point or nicked it on another night.

 

[Vincents Tackle]

Went to the game yesterday and thought city were excellent between both boxes, but poor in the box both attacking and defending.
Excellent team packed with attacking talent, will be a 2 horse race with lots of twists and turns.
I think Arsenal deserved the win as we could have scored a few more when city seemed to lose their heads for about half an hour. Great goals by Walcott and Toure and in the end we were desperately hanging on.

I thought we deserved at least a point myself and it still feels to me like we 'lost' that game last night rather than you won it. We certainly weren't outplayed. You could be right in suggesting it will be a two horse race but for that to happen I think both of us need to improve.

 

[C-E-L-FBlue]

We seem to have one major flaw at the moment, our transition of the ball. Yes our possession stats are great, but look at that possession. Its quite often upto and around the centre circle, in either half where we are then met with a well drilled, compact defensive unit. This is because we seem to allow the opposition to regroup each time we have the ball. At the start of the season we broke and attacked quickly, with one and two touches and plenty of movement through midfield and up front. Now we have reverted to type, passing to Yaya, who inevitable passes straight back, to receive the ball again..... and repeat!!

I'm not advocating some Charles Hughes lump it to the final third and take it from there tactic, but we must start to play quicker passes and inject some movement in the team - as per the last 20 minutes last night.

having said this I can understand why Pellegrini wants to control the pace of the game through possession as when we get loose we are just torn apart, even by so called lesser teams than Arsenal!!