Official Arsenal vs Manchester City FC Thread

15martinpetrov said:
Given that Brazil are playing at 1am Wednesday night, they probably won't get back to Manchester Friday at the earliest. Could Hughes then use this as an excuse to drop Robinho (and Elano) - something he has apparently been wanting to do for a while. If he did we could have a very solid set up: de Jong, Zabaleta and Kompany all sitting with Ireland and SWP either side of Bellamy/Bozhinov. Previous events at the Emirates suggest that if you sit back you can frustrate Arsenal. One problem would be when Arshavin got one on one with Richards though....
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3 defensive midfielders is surely too much, even if Kompany has a licence to go forward. Even if your ambition is to get a point, you have to carry some attacking threat. We'd only invite them onto us.

Besides, we should look to play to our strengths - quick passing and incisive attacking play. I would select:

Given; Richards, Dunne, Onuoha, Bridge; de Jong, Kompany (or Zab if VK's unfit); Ireland, SWP; Boj, Bellamy.

2 Strikers to threaten them, with the pace of Bellamy and SWP meaning their back line will have to play deep - and at least one Arsenal midfielder will have to have a defensive role. De Jong, Kompany and Ireland all offer a lot defensively. De Jong will be very important in containing Fabregas' scheming (if he plays), and Arshavin too.

Bench: Hart, Zab, Elano, Robinho, Sturridge, Gelson, Etuhu.

Plenty of options there to change the game in almost any situation.

Another option is to play Zab instead of Richards, but I doubt Hughes would wish to risk Micah's confidence like that.
 
Arsenal are bang in form and getting more of the key players back by the week. They also are on thier longest unbeaten run since they went the whole season without losing.

However thier style of play should suit us also, as well as the large wide pitch they have.

I think it will be a close match but i think Arsenal are just too strong for us at the moment but regardless, should be a good match.But if they have an off day and we play as well as we know we can, then perhaps a shock could be on the cards.

Lee
 
going to the game with a couple of gooners fans i kno and sat in the gooners end/

looking forward to a really open game of football.

unfortunately they are coming right back into form so i dont expect us to get a positive result unfortunately

2-0 to arsenal
 
hertsblue said:
Arsenal are bang in form and getting more of the key players back by the week. They also are on thier longest unbeaten run since they went the whole season without losing.

However thier style of play should suit us also, as well as the large wide pitch they have.

I think it will be a close match but i think Arsenal are just too strong for us at the moment but regardless, should be a good match.But if they have an off day and we play as well as we know we can, then perhaps a shock could be on the cards.

Lee
Click to expand...
And who were the last team to beat them?..........i distinctly remember a cracking performance and a jizz worthy goal from Robinho in that game. Lets see if we can take it to them at their place. I agree with the idea of Boj and Belamy up front for us, with the way Boj put that through ball into Sweep against Sunderland, he could be the man who cranks up our attacking dip in form (since before xmas we havnt scored half as many as we did before). Despite my earlier comment, i think Robbie deserves a spot on the bench and the opportunity to come on and change the dynamic having read the game from there, rather than off-perform and cop for a lot of flack before being subbed off for Boj, Bellers or Etuhu amongst a shower of boos and laughs which will do nothing for his already diminishing confidence. When the guy is confident he is in the top 5 best players in the world imo. Come on you blues!
 
4-0 Arsenal.


:-(


I just hope Van Persie isn't playing, their main threat who is quality.
 
nozza said:
hertsblue said:
Arsenal are bang in form and getting more of the key players back by the week. They also are on thier longest unbeaten run since they went the whole season without losing.

However thier style of play should suit us also, as well as the large wide pitch they have.

I think it will be a close match but i think Arsenal are just too strong for us at the moment but regardless, should be a good match.But if they have an off day and we play as well as we know we can, then perhaps a shock could be on the cards.

Lee
Click to expand...
And who were the last team to beat them?..........i distinctly remember a cracking performance and a jizz worthy goal from Robinho in that game. Lets see if we can take it to them at their place. I agree with the idea of Boj and Belamy up front for us, with the way Boj put that through ball into Sweep against Sunderland, he could be the man who cranks up our attacking dip in form (since before xmas we havnt scored half as many as we did before). Despite my earlier comment, i think Robbie deserves a spot on the bench and the opportunity to come on and change the dynamic having read the game from there, rather than off-perform and cop for a lot of flack before being subbed off for Boj, Bellers or Etuhu amongst a shower of boos and laughs which will do nothing for his already diminishing confidence. When the guy is confident he is in the top 5 best players in the world imo. Come on you blues!
Click to expand...

I agree, especially with your point about Robinho, I think Hughes needs to use him differently away from home, maybe play him in the hole behind Bellamy or Bojinov, then have defensive cover in Ireland on the left hand side. People have short memories, he was the reason we scored so many up until this year. His bad away performances only coincide with the teams.
 
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