Why do people insist on going on about how weak we are at LB? Gibbs is turning into a quality LB - another good performance today and if he can stay injury free he will keep improving. He doesn't look nervy at all and seems to have settled to this level of football now which makes him much more reliable. Also Santos is a fantastic player, both offensively and defensively as he was statistiaclly our best defender until his injury. He had a slow start to his career with us but got much better. We have two players who can fight for this spot and be used depending on opposition.
I'd face Liverpool and Chelsea instead of Stoke away any day... Chelsea are looking dodgy in defense and they won't be able to dominate possession against us.
On the plus side...Mertesacker was our best player. Jenkinson also looked much better - Bould could be just the man to drill some tactical know-ho' into him.
3-4-3 is the way of the future. Great formation. It highly surprises me that more teams haven't tried it yet.
the problem with 3 at the back in our team is that you need 2 wing-backs who will run up and down all day and can attack as well as defend. santos may be able to do the attack and defend bit, but he'd never last 45 mins, let alone 90. gibbs might last longer, but would be less effective. sagna could do it, but no back up on the right hand side, as walcott and chamberlain are not good enough defensively.
That was one of the most toothless attacking display's I've seen in a long time. All we did is pass pass pass with no end product, the urgency wasn't even there. When we did find ourselves on the wings, all we did is run it out, or put in a bad cross. When did find ourselves in the box, we just over passed it again and lost the ball. When we did decide to shoot the ball, we could never get it on target, the only shot we managed to get on target was Cazorla's first half shot, other than that, we didn't work Stoke's goal keeper at all. You put in this attacking display with last weeks attacking display against Sunderland, and it's clear as daylight that our attack is struggling at the moment. Anyone with a brain, will be able to see that there is a direct correlation between our departures, and our dickless attacking displays. We got rid of our best striker, as well as our best creative midfielder, RVP and Song. It shouldn't surprise anyone that when you get rid of your 2 best attacking threats in the team, you suffer. But hey, this wouldn't be Arsenal, and Wenger wouldn't be Wenger if we didn't continuously shoot ourselves in the foot, and make things harder on ourselves. I'd also really like to know what Wenger's on about when he keeps touting our midfield options, Ramsey came on, and was useless as usual, he lost the ball and nearly cost us a goal. Who else is there? Frimpong? Coquelan? Are those 2 midfielders the ones who can come on and make the difference, and bring that creative spark? Then we have Wilshere, who's coming back from a year long injury, and Rosicky, who is hot and cold, you never know what type of Rosicky you are going to see, that's not exactly the most reliable bunch there if you ask me. But off course, we didn't need a world class midfielder like Sahin, this is Arsenal, why get a world class midfielder when you can have a bunch of average midfielders in the likes of Ramsey, Frimpong, and Coquelan. I'm sure the blinker brigade will come on and say how things will get better, well you better hope so, because you look at our next fixtures and things don't bode well for us, we face Liverpool away, Southampton home, Mancity away, and Chelsea home. Those are hardly the type of games you want with a team that's still trying to gel with each other, and by the end of those fixtures, we might find ourselves in a worst position than last season. But back to the point of us improving over time, I seem to recall that this was the exact same bull **** we were told last season. We had a new team, they needed time to gel, bla bla bla. Who's problem is that? Why does Arsenal constantly find itself having to field a new team that needs time to gel with each other? Why can't we just be a normal team, and rather than always rebuild, build on our strengths? That's the irony, the blinker brigade always try to tout positives, yet fail to realise the positives you're trying to tout, are a symptom of the problems. Arsenal shouldn't have to constantly start seasons with a new team trying to find itself, we need to start our seasons with a strong squad, with new players that will make it better and carry us forward, but we never do that, we take 2 steps forward, and 1 back. But hey, it's the same song again from the blinker brigade, things will get better bla bla, the fact that we always hear about how things will get better, seems to show **** we are because we always find ourselves in a situation where we have to get better. And before you all want to start singing praises for our defence, let's wait until we face the likes of Liverpool, City, and Chelsea, then you can all start yapping about how good our defence is. I seem to recall last season, when we started off 0-0, and the blinker brigade were saying oh our defence looked good, so things weren't as bad, only for us to lose 2-0 to Liverpool, followed by the 8-2 hammering, and the 4-3 loss. At the end of the day, it's another season, and another slow start, 2 games, 0 goals, 0 wins, there is no way to spin that into positivity, unless you accept mediocrity, and no longer see Arsenal as a big club, because for a supposed big club that wants to challenge, that is not a good start by any means. But that'a the thing, a lot of fans these days accept mediocrity, and then get mad at Robbie Savage, tell me, how can you be mad at Robbie Savage saying we're losing our shine, when you're happy with the type of start we've had so far? That just proves his point, if you're happy with our start, then you just prove Arsenal are no longer a big club with big anticipation, because big clubs would never be happy with the type of start we've had.
Stoke didn't dominate possession against us, and we did **** all with the ball, so what's going to be the difference against Chelsea, who can do something with the ball even if they barely touch it? Your logic is flawed.
You should get an award for the spin master of bull ****. top quality. turns a dickless performance from us, into a top quality performance with lot's of 'positives', if you're positive about 2 games, with 2 draws, and 0 goals, and looking very very none threatening in front of goal, then hey, whatever floats your boat.
afctw posted his view of the game and you have chosen to disagree with.Because you disagree with him there is no need for you to argue against him in such a childish manner.I think if you were to read other members posts you would find your view of the game is in the minority
You think i give a rats ass if my view is in a minority? I was at the pub, not your little bubble forum here, and everyone there was saying how **** we were. So you can live in fantasy land and 'disagree' with me, I'll be in reality land, a reality land where we have looked utterly **** in attack, scoring 0 goals, and getting 2 draws from our opening, another slow start to the season. So i'll stick with the facts, you can stay in the land you go to when you smoke lot's of weed and everything is rosy and happy bla bla bla. ;-).
And btw, before you want to start saying how good our defence looks, I'd save an analysis of our defence after we face Liverpool, City, and Chelsea, then you can start talking about whether our defence has indeed improved, or if it's the same old story. If you remember, we started last season with a clean sheet, only to then lose 2-0, 8-2, and 4-3.
We only had 2 shots on target, lol, so if i'm 'wrong' about how **** we are in attack, i'd really like to know what games you guys are watching? 0 goals in two games, barely any shots on target, ohhhhh yeah but I'm wrong when I say we're looking **** in attack so far. Oh righttttttttt, we're still a new team, hey, didn't we hear that line before? Rather than constantly being a new team, why don't we stop being a feeder club, and keep hold of our best players, and support them with new players? HEY, WHAT A CONCEPT THAT IS!
Why wait for then? Our defensive performances or lack of it against team like Stoke has been highlighted in the past. We have never defended properly and every time they loaded balls into our box, it caused mass panic. Today was different a lot different. We were calm and composed and knew what we were doing. They did not create one decent chance, not many teams can reduce Stoke to that at their own ground. Today was clear and huge improvement from the past, hence we are taking that as a positive.
