Most definitely. I wasn't the first or the last to say it, but Arsenal has had the easiest set of opening fixtures in the entire history of football, and yet are still down on the same fixtures last season. Did they win the league last season no. They didn't even win the Milky Cup. Oh, and guess what? That's right, they're not going to win it this season. The title will be fought out between Chelsea and £ity, the two big money-clubs in Europe. Which is exactly what one would expect.
They play Liverpool on Saturday and I'm not backing the goons to win it, if they lose it a blip will start for them. For me City will have to do something about their away form before I predict them to challenge for the title after all they've lost to average teams to say the least. I expect Chelsea to hit a blip when hopefully their luck runs out but I've been waiting since the second match of the season to see what will happen when Arsenal lose a match. They lost to Dortmund was it then needed a penalty to open against Palace and now they lose at home again tonight, come on Liverpool.
Give over he played well. Covers a lot of ground and did some love flicks. He'll be a very valuable player for us.
No, just starting to play against better teams. Played 9 in the league, 7 of which were aginst bottom half teams, the next few weeks will tell us something!
I thought that was quite comfortable for the chavski unfortunately. When they got the ball there was some pretty classy one touch passing and at other times they just let the goons keep the ball and run around wearing themselves out. I bet the goons run at least three times as far as the chavs. The chavs won that with little effort, which must make them favourites for the title.
Winning a cup tie with little effort is different than playing in the league as we know with the difference in goals for and against in the cup compared to the league and EL. I'm not sure if Chelsea were good because Arsenal are fading which they certainly are. I bet they're worried about the visit of Liverpool.
I bet they are very worried, it's a kind of must win match for them. It will be important for them to bounce back after last night, the Dortmund defeat and the unconvincing win against Palace. However, it's a bit too early to right them off yet.
The pressure of a lot of games with a small squad is beginning to tell ,and Ozil's Infuence has started to drop as well imo
I wasn't sure whether Ozil was the right choice for them at the start but only time will tell. I'm happy somebody else thinks that their win at Palace was uninspiring. As for Saturday it's a very hard match to predict. Liverpool go into it on the back of a 4-1 thrashing of WBA which was a good result and Suarez and Sturridge might take some stopping as they're doing well. I'm not predicting this one, I don't have the knowledge for it.
The problem with having an Ozil is that he relies on other players being on the same wavelength. If (big if to be fair) Arsenal are going off the boil, then his passes and flicks will be wasted. He is not a Bale that will score on his own.
He's a much better and more consistent player than Bale though. The problem is he's settling into a new league. Usually there's a quick start and then a dip around November/December. Arsenal fans probably won't start seeing the best of Ozil until the business end of this season or beginning of next. Too early to say if Arsenal are going off the boil but their performances haven't been good since beating Norwich. Not that they'll care if they beat Liverpool and United though.
More consistent, probably. Not sure about better though, hard to compare players that play in very different ways, but Bale is special. Not £85m special, but special. Agree it's too early to say if Arsenal are going off the boil - hence my "big if to be fair" comment. Will be fascinating to see their next 2 games. I've predicted a draw against Liverpool, but they could quite possibly win both.
Willian? I saw nothing. De Bruyne and, especially, Mata were a lot better. But I wasn't fully concentrating on the game, it's tricky when you want both to lose
De Bruyne was nowhere near Willian. As CP said, he covered a lot of ground and put a hell of a shift in, which tbh I didn't expect from such an attack minded player.
Don't think you can compare the two and say who is better. Prior to his Madrid move, Bale was arguably the best performing player of 2013. What he done for us was pure magic and pretty much kept us in the top 4 race on his own at times. Ozil is very much a team player, as said by Mourinho and many others he's the best number 10 in the world which I wouldn't disagree with. Ozil will rarely be the match winner but he'll be the player to supply the match winner. Where as Bale rarely needed a number 10 last season as he picked the ball up from any angle and managed to score a number of wonder goals, whether that be long range strikers or running through defences and getting a shot off. Ozil has perhaps been at a higher level for longer but Bale's final season for us was one of the best you'll ever see from a player and it was an absolute joy to have been able to witness it, I doubt any player has scored as many wonder goals as Bale did in a single season.
