God no. No more Arteta and Flamini in midfield please. Worked in ONE game and was **** in all the others. Also if we play Ramsey as an AM, then Ozil has to go out wide, and he is not going to defend. Walcott should easily start ahead many of the AM's. Walcott did better a defensive job tonight than any of Cazorla,Ramsey,Ozil and Wilshere could have managed. He is probably quicker than all those combined.
I have always agreed with this, and today it could also have been worse. Chelsea could have won it. But a lot of the fault should be attributed to the tactical naivety of Wenger, and I have said that in all our encounters against Chelsea. Honestly we have decent variety in the team, you'd expect that Wenger has had enough time to set his team right one of these times against Maureen?
But they havent got Drogba and they still walk away with a point from our own gaff. You happy about that coz im not .? Our team needs some punch , some teeth . Defences look at Giroud and think ........."ahh easy night ... i know we are away but , we can keep that donkey out no problem "
Actually Ramsey has had three really poor displays in a row. I think Arteta and Flamini should be given a run. Interestingly Vermaelen was our best player tonight. Giroud seems to go missing whenever the stakes get high.
No. But I'd rather a point than no points. Still keeps us near the summit and we have a run of fixtures we should be winning. Let's not discount Chelsea too. When they set up for a draw they're a hard team to crack
Our next 7 fixtures are going to be really important for us. We need to rebuild our lead at the top of the table ready for some difficult runs of fixtures either wide of our Bayern CL games. Liverpool play Chelsea next and then City so we could very well be back top of the table in 3 days time.
I thought Vermaelen was good tonight. Looked a lot more composed than he has in the past. Good news from that perspective.
In reality our defense wasn't really troubled other than Lampard hitting the bar. Our static midfield and poor link up between strikers and midfielders was the problem.
Flamini - Arteta mid, and honestly Ozil and Ramsey interchangeable on AM and winger (as they almost always do when Ramsey is not played further back). After seeing the match conditions, and the difficulties the players are having in playing accurate passes, I would sub players that take their chances from distance. Even when they don't go in the panic it causes is way more likely to cause a goal chance against park the bus teams, compared to passing in a half circle around them. Poldi would be a no later than 60min sub the way the match was going. (Cazorla if Poldi was not match fit)
Lets juts say that IF they had scored in the 80th minute , what would people have thought of his lack of subs then . Folly , just plain folly .
But they didn't score. What if he had made subs and we lost our defensive shape and they scored, what would people have thought then...
- That he made the wrong subs, and not that he shouldn't have made any? - That he didn't improve the squad depth in more positions during the transfer season? - That he didn't secure an additional CF to give us other options? People would have thought anything but "Stupid Wenger making substitutions in a football game" you are alluding to.
but ..now listen closely .... we need to win games , not draw . we have tired players , Maureen makes subs and suddenly they have some fresh players on the pitch , what does Arsene do . .............................................. fack all . IF we are serious about a title challenge we need to go out to WIN at HOME , not draw . Totally negative attitude . FACT if you set out to draw you definitely wont win , you might lose even , but guaranteed , you wont win . and we need to win . Get it yet .? coz Pellegrini gets it.
Let's just say that IF we had scored in the 80th minutes, what would people have thought of his lack of subs then. Tactical coup. You can play the hypothetical scenarios both ways.
I think Flamini - Arteta is too defensive in the middle and Ozil is not designed to track back and defend. My fear with that line up is that we'd get murdered on the flanks and wouldn't create anything in the middle. Poldi deserves his chance now though. Either on the left or at CF.