I feel we're coming up to crucial period in December which could make or break our chances of title success this season, in my opinion. We have: Cardiff (A) Hull (H) Everton (H) Manchester City (A) Chelsea (H) I'm predicting 10 points for the next 5 fixtures. Beat Cardiff, Hull and Everton, lose to City and draw with Chelsea. That will put us on 38 points at Christmas. In the post-Christmas/New Year period, we have West Ham, Newcastle and Cardiff again. Win those three and that's another 9 points, putting us on 47 at the turn of the year. Compare that to the Arsenal side which finished 4 points off the pace (before their massive collapse) in 2007/08, they were on 51 points at the same stage. I think if we buy a back-up striker in Jan, we will be better placed to deal with the late season fatigue and I still feel we need some cover in defence. Thoughts?
Unfortunately, from now until the end of the season, all games are "Make or break". If we are genuine contenders (and I still think that we are), then we have to win the majority of our games between now and the end of the season. We have just come through a spell that was described as make or break and now we are going into another. I am sure that there will be another after that. I don't think that we should be looking at it like that. In my opinion, it should be the old cliché of one game at a time.
We've been the most consistent team in the EPL over the last 11 months and nothing I've seen leads me to believe we'll be any different. We even strengthened in the summer, are top by 4 points and people still say "what will happen when City sort out their away form" blah blah blah. These same pundits are completely glossing over the form and saying we lack depth. Whilst I agree that we could do with at least 2 more top players I think our team isn't all that weak when you consider the amount of players we have out injured. All we can do is take each game as a must win and stay focused. Too much importance is placed over the City/Chelsea matches when you get the same points for every game.
Yes but you also have to be strategic. Realistically, the title challengers will be us, Chelsea and Man City. We don't have to beat those teams and draws will be just as good. Keeping their points tally down will help us keep the gap going.
We have Hull (Away) Norwich (Home) West Ham (Home) then Spurs (Away) Cardiff (Home) I'm hoping we can keep up.
No disrespect, but you don't have the squad to challenge for the Premiership and have an outside chance of getting 4th. The players you got in aren't good enough and you have an over-reliance on Suarez and Sturridge. Ideally you need 3-4 quality players to properly challenge for the top 4. Even we are short on a CF but are currently making it up for a very good midfield. But its risky business and we need cover this January.
I think they can definitely make the top 4 if Suarez keeps up this insane form. He can do for them what RVP did for us. Not sure about the title though.
Only so much Suarez can do for them, he isn't a machine. The season is long and they will sustain some injuries and lack of form along the way. Have a look at their squad, they seriously lack quality. Top 4 bankers are Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal. Man U have a good squad with significantly better players than Liverpool. The players have the experience of finishing top 4. You think they will relinquish top 4 over Liverpool? I would argue that Swansea and Southampton are on par or better than Liverpool at the moment too. I would even stick Spurs into the mix despite their hapless 6-0 defeat against Man City. They have the squad to finish above Liverpool too.
They don't have the squad, but they've been right up there all season, at the moment I don't think they have an outside chance of getting 4, for me their more likely to get it over Spurs. Liverpool for the most part, only have 1 game a week for most of the season as they have no European commitments, so that's a big benefit for them and their squad, plus January is coming soon, and if they can still be near the top, which I think they most likely will, they will be able to sign some players to bolster their squad. It's time to give Liverpool some credit, the arguments you're making are very similar to what pundits keep saying about Arsenal, at the end of the day, it's only the results that matter, and Liverpool are getting the results.
I see it as: Cardiff - Draw Hull - Win Everton - Win Man City - we'll get mullered Chelsea - lose narrowly That's 7 points, not great, but not disastrous if you factor in the 4 point gap we currently have. We need Chelsea and Liverpool to start slipping up even more though. Regarding your other points, a striker is still a priority, we're not going to win the league with Giroud as our starter. Defense is alright, we have 3 CB's and Sagna who's very capable at CB, so that's OK, and we have 2 first choice LB's, so if Gibbs goes down injured, Monreal is easily good enough to cover.
After we have played the Chelsea game we will have played all of the big teams once and will have a better idea of how we will fare across the full season. It's definately an interesting 5 games. @Hans - disagree about Giroud, he has 10 goals in 19 games this season, 3 in 6 european games and 7 in 12 league games. He's scoring better than 1 per 2 games in addition to the assists he has laid on, the link up and hold-up play, his heading both offensively and defensively etc... I think our current style is built around a big forward and Giroud is doing the job really well. I read a quote today from Wilshere claiming Giroud has been our best/most important player so far this season, so he is obviously rated amongst our players. We have a system that is so far working and i'd be happy for us to sign a back-up striker and Giroud to continue as our first choice striker until summer. If he continues his form so far this season until May and he plays as many games as last season then he will end on ~25 goals for the season, which no-one could complain about. He has had a couple of quiet games but otherwise been really good this season and he has very obviously contributed a lot to us being top of the table so far. He is obviously not as technically gifted as some strikers like Suarez or RVP and i do still believe we need one of this type of striker to get the goals in the really tight games where we need a stiker to make something from nothing, but he is a very solid option to lead the line. Since i doubt any of the very top level strikers will be available in January i'd rather we get a back-up in (on loan if at all possible) and wait for the Summer to get in a World Class striker.
With the players we have as a supply chain, Giroud only getting 25 will be a poor return. Van Persie scored 30 with crap Ramsey passing him the ball, we now have Ozil, Cazorla and good Ramsey, Giroud is already a limited striker, he's being flattered by the talent around him.
We play a different way to how we did with RVP so i don't think it's a fair comparison. We are set up in a way that spreads the goals around the team and uses the striker to play in our wide players, hold up the ball and link up the play with our midfielders as well as winning the ball in the air. With RVP that year we where lacking in lots of areas and set up the team to play everything through him to get goals. I also think RVP has been the best striker in the league for the last 2-3 seasons and it isn't fair to compare Giroud to that standard. And he is a totally different type of player. I have said i think we need another striker, at least for depth, but in the Summer (January if available but i dont think the top players will be available) we need to go in for a World Class striker. But i don't see how you could see a 25 goal season as a poor return, not many players score that many in a season and if he manages that i will be impressed.
Cardiff fan in peace, are you just pessimistic by nature or do you really expect only a draw at ours and if so why do you think we can keep you guys at bay? I know historically Arsenal have struggled at times with a packed defence and defending set pieces but the precision that seems to have returned to your passing has us lot pretty worried if I'm honest. We're looking forward to welcoming Ramsey back but obviously hope he has a quiet game!
Exactly what I was thinking Stevo, I personally think we'll be lucky to hold on to a respectable scoreline.
Hans is arguably our most negative/pessimistic poster on our board, so i wouldn't take that as a general Arsenal fan point of view I'm confident we will clock up another win and 3 points against you lot. We finally have a proper bench available and more choice about how we attack and i think we will do what is required of us.
