Lordeffingham
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 1 Oct 2009
- Messages
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The following is an interesting read from an Arsenal fans perspective and clearly shows how we are no longer seen as pretenders, having to justify our place in the top four, we have now earned an automatic inclusion and unless we do something stupid or encounter a freak spell of bad luck.
There is nothing now to stop us acheiving the long overdue run of success we deserve, and no longer those nagging doubts to suggest that from this point forward, and for many years to come, it isn't something we shouldn't grow to expect.
Anyway, have a read, a well balanced and elightening view in my opinion:
"If there were two teams I could really say I hate us playing against it is Chelsea and Man City. Both teams play on the counter, the type of football that Arsenal are quite honestly pretty useless against.
Last season Man City beat us 4-2 away from home, to be honest I don’t think we ever looked like winning the game and the incidents surrounding Emmanuel Adebayor took the attention away from the team failing again – Against United away last season we were very unlucky, with City a few days later they deserved to win.
For games like this the manager, and team, have to adapt. They can’t breeze through every team passing in triangles and scoring perfect goals, that is just naivety, just use common sense, don’t over commit and wait for your chance and then most importantly grab that chance with both hands.
We can’t consider City the pretenders any-more, they are a damn good side and as much as it pains me to say it the early indications are that they will be in the title race for some time. Right now we have just as much chance of winning it as they do. It is what you might call a title race six-pointer.
They have a couple of players who are on the top of their game at the moment, you can’t look beyond Carlos Tevez as their main threat with his amazing goalscoring record over the past twelve months, David Silva is also going to cause problems as he starts to settle into the English game and I am hoping he sticks to Bakary Sagna’s side of the pitch for obvious reasons. I have massive concerns over Gael Clichy.
We saw six goals at Middle Eastlands last season, I can’t see that happening again tomorrow evening but City are a decent side defensively so the chances of us getting an abundance of goalscoring opportunities is pretty small. The midfield will win the game, Cesc has to be at his very best, Song needs to be restrained and the manager should put some faith in Denilson next to him. We need simplicity not the flashy enigmatic Diaby – is it a good day or a bad day? You never know, in games like this no chances can be taken.
In many ways the boss will have a pretty tough decision to make as to who plays up front, Chamakh has got to be a shoe-in with his recent form, so will Bendtner slot in out on the right or do one of Nasri, Rosicky and the returning Theo Walcott take their place? And then who do you play on the left? Arshavin?
It will be very interesting to see who starts and it will give a massive insight into the approach we will take.
Its blatantly obvious that we can’t afford to lose this, we got given a lifeline last week when we closed the gap on Chelsea and drew level on points with Man United and now its time to take advantage of it. Last season was the season of missed opportunities, this time out the players need to show they have learnt from that.
To be honest I am feeling pretty anxious, its our biggest game so far this season and there is already little margin for error. Losing to City always hurts – before it was because they were crap, now its because of the method the team has been improved and propelled into the big time."
There is nothing now to stop us acheiving the long overdue run of success we deserve, and no longer those nagging doubts to suggest that from this point forward, and for many years to come, it isn't something we shouldn't grow to expect.
Anyway, have a read, a well balanced and elightening view in my opinion:
"If there were two teams I could really say I hate us playing against it is Chelsea and Man City. Both teams play on the counter, the type of football that Arsenal are quite honestly pretty useless against.
Last season Man City beat us 4-2 away from home, to be honest I don’t think we ever looked like winning the game and the incidents surrounding Emmanuel Adebayor took the attention away from the team failing again – Against United away last season we were very unlucky, with City a few days later they deserved to win.
For games like this the manager, and team, have to adapt. They can’t breeze through every team passing in triangles and scoring perfect goals, that is just naivety, just use common sense, don’t over commit and wait for your chance and then most importantly grab that chance with both hands.
We can’t consider City the pretenders any-more, they are a damn good side and as much as it pains me to say it the early indications are that they will be in the title race for some time. Right now we have just as much chance of winning it as they do. It is what you might call a title race six-pointer.
They have a couple of players who are on the top of their game at the moment, you can’t look beyond Carlos Tevez as their main threat with his amazing goalscoring record over the past twelve months, David Silva is also going to cause problems as he starts to settle into the English game and I am hoping he sticks to Bakary Sagna’s side of the pitch for obvious reasons. I have massive concerns over Gael Clichy.
We saw six goals at Middle Eastlands last season, I can’t see that happening again tomorrow evening but City are a decent side defensively so the chances of us getting an abundance of goalscoring opportunities is pretty small. The midfield will win the game, Cesc has to be at his very best, Song needs to be restrained and the manager should put some faith in Denilson next to him. We need simplicity not the flashy enigmatic Diaby – is it a good day or a bad day? You never know, in games like this no chances can be taken.
In many ways the boss will have a pretty tough decision to make as to who plays up front, Chamakh has got to be a shoe-in with his recent form, so will Bendtner slot in out on the right or do one of Nasri, Rosicky and the returning Theo Walcott take their place? And then who do you play on the left? Arshavin?
It will be very interesting to see who starts and it will give a massive insight into the approach we will take.
Its blatantly obvious that we can’t afford to lose this, we got given a lifeline last week when we closed the gap on Chelsea and drew level on points with Man United and now its time to take advantage of it. Last season was the season of missed opportunities, this time out the players need to show they have learnt from that.
To be honest I am feeling pretty anxious, its our biggest game so far this season and there is already little margin for error. Losing to City always hurts – before it was because they were crap, now its because of the method the team has been improved and propelled into the big time."