It does seem that whenever Arsenal concede a goal, the commentators and "analysers" rant and rave about defensive mistakes, but when another team concedes exactly the same goal, they forget about it within 5 minutes. Maybe we do concede too many goals we shouldn't though.
Why dont you BACK the team you , dick , you only come out from under your rock to say negative things . get behind the players 1000 per cent like we all do .
To be fair, i don't think anyones been outstanding this season. All the top teams have leaked goals. Only Man City have been anywhere near solid. Had they not lost Yaya Toure then they would have a better defensive record.
I was actually agreeing with a lot of what you said here, especially regarding Cazorla and Arteta being slow and inviting pressure onto our centre-backs. But you can't surely believe the bolded bit? We make so many individual mistakes - stray passes from Mertesacker straight to the opposition's midfield, missed clearances from Verm leading to direct shots on goal, silly tackles around the box, our full-backs keeping attackers onside etc etc. How many goals scored against us come from actual good play by the opposition?
I think that some people are putting too much emphasis on statistics without analysing the situation properly. Arsenal don't concede a lot of goals away from home against the weaker sides in the league because the midfield dominate possession and relieve the pressure on the back line. That leaves the defence and keeper to deal with breakaways and set-pieces, for the most part, where they've frequently been found wanting, from what I've seen. Having the likes of Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla in the side, paired with attacking full-backs, will result in high pass completion and possession stats, but leaves you vulnerable when you don't have the ball. There's a lack of physicality there that Wenger's best sides have always managed to balance well with footballing ability. Diaby would help with that, obviously, but he's often injured.
Still think with proper coaching, Vermaelen can be a very good player for us but I do feel that him being named captain was not a wise choice. If Wenger does not want to strip the captaincy of him, then the other move, would be to sell him.
Depends what you mean by "Good play". I think people have an awfully high opinion of themselves and what they think when they watch a game. I don't have that confdence when I watch a game that I can tell a good goal from a bad goal. People tend to focus on stray passes and mistakes when we make them but I see almost 3 times as many when I watch other clubs. I realize that most of our fans expect perfection but I don't think that is realistic. Nearly every goal comes from a mistake, but not every mistake leads to a goal, so what is the difference. Is a playing mistake a "worse" mistake than a positioning mistake? I don't know. I think too many fans equate a bad result with a bad performance. For me the Spurs game wasn't a bad performance. Away from home, we played reasonably well, got beat. The players gave 100%, we just didn't get the breaks. That is football. It hasn't been a good year. The team looks unbalanced to me, a lot of players are playing out of position, a lot of players are settling in. If we scrape 4th, it will be a hell of a good job. I will get behind the team and the manager as usual. Football isn't easy and IMHO Arsenal fans expect way too much from the team.
I can't see either side of me because I have the blinkers on. There is nothing wrong with this club, it's manager, board or players and we don't need to change anything. I don't think the board need to spend any more money or think about how they operate as individuals. They clearly have the club's interests at heart above their own and they didn't sell any shares to any nasty outsiders because that would have damaged the club, not their own shareholdings. I think Wenger has got his defensive tactics spot on and his substitutions are brilliant. Our formations are spot on and suit the players we have, the ones who are played out of position do a great job and anybody who disagrees with me is a **** and I will ban them for having a view that doesn't suit the status quo
Exactly my point. It is a daunting task to be a defender at Arsenal. BTW even Santos would look better in a defensively solid team. But to have such an offensive left back in such a defensively unbalanced a team is just suicidal. I do not think Santos is an awful player (an awful player will never get into Brasilian national team even for a season or two, never), his surges forward are useful and he has a good shot, he knows where the goal is and he vcan be quite dangerous IN A PROPER SYSTEM . But someone must cover for him when he goes forward !!! And there is noone who would care to do it. Forget Santos, even SuperSagna became vulnerable. I blame Sagna's dip of form in more than one way on Walcotts ignorance and unwillingness to track back and defend. How many times have we seen Theo ball gazing and just watching a player running past him with the ball or without it. All Theo wants is to move central he does not even want to be on the wing. And he gets away with it! I do not even mention that he just stopped scoring ( ok, I just mentioned it). OK Walcot may find himself too far up the pitch. But we need a DM capable to cover for our full backs when they run forward. There is none. This is ridiculous. But what really worries me - mot only defenders bacome worse since they join Arsenal. The system is killing them all.
I agree. You should name Bendtner or Gervinho as captain next and wait for Barca/United to come in with a £15mill bid
