I'm confused about these "knee jerk" comments I'm supposed to be reading? I think everyone has made some very good points and in general, we've all been pretty fair and realistic. In general, I had no problem with the new boys yesterday. They looked promising and it was really sad to see capoue in so much pain. I read yesterday that he might have a broken tibia and fibula. Not good. My biggest beef with yesterday was the fact we didnt help ourselves when it was so obvious. We set up defensively, which I can understand being away from home and not wanting to concede, but arsenal penetrated us. Continuing with that formation and personnel was never going to allow us to get back into it. We didnt have enough variety to make chances. Therefore we should have brought holtby on at half time for dembele and tried to solve the issue with soldado being isolated. I couldn't believe the same team walked out after half time. Arsenal showed us how to be balanced testerday, and how not being balanced can make life very difficult. One player can make all the difference. Cazorla was the example of that. When we were 1-0 down and the defensive plan was out of the window, we should have matched them tactically. Not only would that creative player have provided us with something new in the centre of the pitch for arsenal to have to think about, but it would have also brought soldado into the game. - essentially giving us an extra player, as we may as well not have had 10 men in the first Half.
I know this was a question for spurcat mate, but personally I felt that it was poor defending. Lloris had a superb game and kept us in it.
I agree, not an expert like SC on keeping, but to my uneducated eye his position was right, any nearer the near post and the rest of the goal would have been gaping. I also don't blame Dawson for the goal, it was, imo, a manful attempt to cover more than he could. The blame rests fully with Vertonghen, trying to play offside when there were players behind him much deeper. Dawson tried to cover fo his absence, and nearly got there. Having said that, Dawson was uncharacteristically poor yesterday, need Kaboul in games where we are facing speedy forwards like Cazorla. Credit where credit is due, Giroud finished very well. A typical finish and Lloris may well have saved it, but the flick was just too good.
it all came from Danny Rose being slightly out of position, but I don't know whether it was solely his fault either to be honest. It was just poor organisation across the defence. - That combined with Arsenals superb counter attacking threat resulted in a very good finish. It pains me to say it, but I thought arsenal were excellent yesterday. Giroud's finish was amazing like you say. - he had a really good game.
We played poor yesterday and yet only lost 1-0 to a good Arsenal team. How many of us honestly thought we'd get anything over there? I certainly didn't and from what I read on here not many others did. On the plus side, Lloris was superb overall. Rose more than held his own. Pauliniho looked better as the game wore on and when AVB changed the shape by bringing on JD we looked a lot better and dangerous. On the down side, Dembele was once again poor and looked out of place. Walker wasn't as bad as others have said but didn't have a good game. Soldado showed that he needs someone with him, he looked lost until JD came on. Losing to them is always painful but we weren't smashed this time.
We had more possession at their place, not many teams are going to acheive that. We had more attempts than them at their place, not may teams are going to achieve that. It's not as if they were all over us is it? The game came too early in the season. The players were not familiar enough with each other and may have even been a bit surprised with the pace of the game - for example I think I noticed Paulinho react a split second too slowly on a couple of occasions. But we have bought good players and the team will improve. Unless Aresenal buy well today, how much better will they get?
Arsenal were excellent? Where they? I thought they were hanging on for large periods of the game. They took their goal well against the run of play and held on for much of the match.
yeah, we did have a lot of possession, which was encouraging. But Arsenal made more of theirs. They looked far more dangerous, but as others have said, it comes with them knowing each other. How much better will they get? Depends on today really. United are now in talks with Ozil, which could massively piss on their fire. Arsneal, when fit, have a first team that can beat anyone in the league with excellent football. But without the depth, they will struggle across the course of the season, IMO.
I agree with Roo RE supposed knee jerk reactions. No one's really blown their top at the performance yesterday, a lot (myself included) has spoken of the lack of creativity for Soldado and the poor defensive error which cost us. It's only natural for us fans to talk about negatives when we lose, this is because we analyse the mistakes and state where we went wrong and what we should/ could've done to have prevented the score line. Pretty much 95% of us have agreed though that the team will need time to gel and the fact we have a 2 week break now has actually come at an ideal time, the players can now get to know one another and also learn the tactics what AVB is trying to implement. I think come Norwich, we'll see a completely different side and performance to what was against Arsenal. I'd fully expect Kaboul, Sandro, Lamela and Eriksen all to start, that alone makes us stronger and the fact Eriksen and Lamela can both add the creative spark, I reckon Soldado will finally get some good service to show what a predator in front of goal he is.
My twopence-worth..... (Driven out of retirement... Lol) On paper, a 0-1 defeat at the Emigrates is a darn sight better than the last 2 years We certainly had a lot of possession - but created the square root of ****-all The midfield looked to be playing at 78rpm compared to the Goons 33rpm and neither Capoue nor Paulinho looked as strong or commanding as they had done in the two previous fixtures. Dembele looked completely off the pace - Carragher called him 'leggy' at half time and whilst I can't understand much of what he says, he got that spot on. Holtby seemed the obvious replacement at that stage. Townsend is trying too hard to impress 'personally' rather than contribute to the team. But the biggest worry for me from yesterday was the lack of understanding at the back - with 4 players who have played and trained with each other for months and in some cases years. Vertonghen looks to be off the pace, nothing like the confident presence of last season and he and Dawson looked at times as if they had never played together before. Walker worked hard but seemed to roam inside a lot and Rose was found wanting defensively and added next to nothing going forward. (I can only imagine the stick that the previous incumbent would have got for that level of performance!). Not the end of the world by any means - and in fact, might be a bit of a wake up call - but hopefully, the likes of Lamela and Eriksen will provide the creative spark that is still missing. Onwards and upwards!! Edit: forgot to send hopes and wishes to Capoue for a speedy recovery!
I agree. It was Dawson who screwed up and played Walnut on side, and I was Dawson again who fell asleep and let Giroud get in front of him to score. Sure he took it well, but proper defending would have ensured that the move came to nothing.
he's back. He posted this morning! Relayer, change your name back! none of this new identity rubbish thanks, mate!
Dawson did screw up but he was only sitting deep as our midfield got bossed first half. Our defending from midfield was poor 1st half and thats where I would say the game was lost.
