Positives: Oxo RvP Yennaris was solid Kos, Verm & Sacker were solid Rosicky was OK Shezza was good as usual WE looked like we could have won it till THAT SUBSTITUTION Jack, Sagna & Gibbs have a chance to make it vs. Bolton (A small one, but its a chance) Negatives: Rambo had a poor game Djorou Walcott was virtually invisible THAT SUBSTITUTION AW has lost it tatically I think Chelsea is dire enough that 4th is achievable, however QUALITY & DEPTH IS NEEDED
That first half was utter tripe from us. What this game highlighted though was: 1) Wenger is actually able to make changes when he sees a problem - Djourou coming off for a proper full back at half time. 2) Wenger's decision making, which is something we have been talking about for ages. 3) Unless you have midfielders bombing on 4-3-3 becomes 4-5-1 with the striker being totally isolated - as RVP was for the entire first half. I was at a loss to why he brought on Park, if you haven't trusted him in any of the previous games when we needed attacking options why would you bring him on against Man U of all teams ??
Shezzy was frustrating, he kept making useless kicks which never came to our players, one of which almost ended in a goal for them when wellbeck ran through in the second half and Merte clear it off the line. He was also very slow in ball distribution, so I disagree.
OXO was amazing, just goes to show why we paid what we did for him! him and gervinho up front with RVP will be great! if it wasn't for RVPs miss, Evras handball, and some other dodgyness from us we could of won 3/4-1/0
MrWright, I know. Thats the annoying part of the game really, the bloody chances we missed !! But Oxo looked superb, got to say I was really impressed, £13m well spent by the look of it. What we lacked was players with the ability to "close dribble" and beat players. Its all well and good Walcott being out wide one on one, but what happens when teams play like United and sit deep ? There isn't space to exploit and no one on one chances, so we needed someone who could dribble past people, this is where Nasri did so well for us and Hleb.
Oxo + Gervihno is a positive and I can't wait to see them together Hopefull AW Panic Buys (This season's panic buys have been good)
I'm a big critique of Wenger, but in all fairness, OXO and Gervinho were not part of our panic buys, they were long term targets, and were part of our pre season and part of our starting squad for the season. I even remember most fans were not too happy about the signing of OXO.
Oh no I didn't mean Oxo and Gerv were panic buys, I was referencing to Arteta, Beyanoun, Santos and M'Sacker If he panic buys again on *cough LB, Good CF/Winger, Creative Mifielder *cough I think we'd all be happy
Tbh I think Rambo needs a break (He's too young to be starting at this level) and Walcott is having a bad patch (he still needs to be benched so that he'll be more motivated when he plays)
I think that had our finishing been more clinical in the second half and Oxo been allowed to stay through to the end we might have edged it or drawn the game at the very least. Utd had the first half and we, the second. Had we won I don't think it was because we played the better football. It would just have been not unlike luck of the draw. We lost today because of Arsene's foolish decision. From that moment we were weakened. Oxo was buzzing so you just don't know what might have happened. IMHO
Ramsey really needs a break, I still think even with the return of Wilshere we need another creative CM so we have plenty of cover in that position.
Agree, Ramsey has been asked to do a big job this season in the absence of Fabregas, who I think we still need to replace.
