I do agree that we need to strengthen in defensive midfield, hopefully Wenger will pull off a deal for Khedira/Vidal/Bender before the window closes
Shanks I think yr under playing how good our defence is - for large stretches of the season we had the best (or 2nd best) defence in the league. IMO the problem with the games against other top 4 was that we didn't offer enough threat going forward so they were able to overwhelm us with tgeir fullbacks not needing to cover a counter attack. As such our defence was overwhelmed. Offer a threat with pace and teams will be wary and eont attsck too much for fear of being hit on the break
Arsenal's defence is excellent when playing against static sides, or against most of the prem. However, against the big teams is when you come unstuck defensively, at least recently. Not 'offering enough threat going forward' was not the reason you lost to Liverpool 5-1, as you were one down in the 1st minute and four down inside 20! Against Chelsea, you were 2 down inside 7 minutes and 3 down inside 17minutes, again unlikely due to no threat going forward. Against City when you lost 6-3, you actually looked good going forward, but they ran straight through you. I admit that to get top four your defence is fine, but against the Chelsea's with Hazard and Schurlle, and City with the movement of Silva, Toure running from deep and Aguero peeling off the defence, you are not good enough, and that is how you win the League. This is a good analysis on your game vs Everton and shows you in part, what is hampering you from a defensive perspective, by Gary Neville and Carragher; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4WWTYbKpOU
Technically, our defence was **** against the big teams only away from home, at home, our defence against the top sides was top quality, we kept a clean sheet against you, Chelsea, United, Spurs (ok they're not exactly great but still a top 6-7 team), and conceded 1 to City and Everton, so that's not a bad defensive record at all against the top 7 teams in the league.
Should be a good signing for you. Would love to add more, but it seems you have an over sensitive dipper loving mod here
Yes I acknowledged that earlier, however, if you continue in the same vein; getting hammered away to your nearest rivals and picking up draws at home (with the exception of beating us), then you will fail to win the Prem again I would imagine. Admittedly Sanchez may make a big difference in the home games where chances are rare and space is tight, but again its only a maybe, especially against the likes of Chelsea's negative tactics. Last season was a bit of an anomaly, in that Chelsea had by far the best record in the top four mini league, yet they finished well short. But generally, the better you do, in taking points off your rivals, the better chance of winning the prem. By the way, I don't think you have a bad defence; just for me, Arsenal lack something that will make you the champions, whether it is steel, organisation, mentality, tactics, or just leadership, or a combo, I am not sure, but it lacks something for me!
The reason we lost those games is not because the defence was rubbish, but because we did not set up properly in midfield. You're right to point out that we need an 'enforcer' but the game against Chelsea for example, we set up with Oxo in the middle and got torn apart defensively, not Oxo's fault because he's an AM / Winger. It was the tactics that cost us because we could have set up with Flamini and Arteta and played on the counter.
In all those games that we lost big, did we ever have more than one or two of our first choice 5 in midfield?
I rate the problem against the bigger teams was the lack of tactical awareness shown by Wenger. We're too predictable, too easy to set up against and too easy to counter. Teams know how Arsenal will play so it's a simple matter of adjusting tactics. Improvement is a must if we're to doing anything in the league next season. At times last season, we look lost. And not due to the lack of personnel either.
I tend to agree! I think it is like I said earlier, a combination of things. In part, it is the predictability, part no real steel, lack of leadership all over the field (talking about Vieira type), and nobody covering effectively enough. The clip I posted earlier of Gary Nevilles analysis of the tactics used against you by Martinez vs Everton I think are very telling. Not only as you say, are Arsenal a little easy to play and set up against; but I don't think Wenger/Bould are reactive enough, to spot the problem and change it. I still feel you perhaps need to add to the coaching staff?
Many of the teams we lost to heavily last season set up in similar ways. This shows that they either share tactics, or that there is a key weakness in the team which they are able to spot and Wenger isn't. I have a feeling it relates to the way we set up in midfield and the fact that it's easy to press, harass, and knock us off our stride by overloading the midfield area. Arteta is not the most mobile and this is an area which needs to be addressed.
i think that the losses to the other big teams was not down to anything other than confidence and belief. Arsenal are a team that are on the verge of believing in themselves and the cup win will help as well as the big signing of Alexis. Once Arsenal believe in themselves there will be no stopping them as they have the best players.
I think when we played the top teams away from home last season, we didn't show them enough respect. We should have set up much more defensively and worked our way into the games. I think our defence is perfectly capable of good performances against the top teams as long as they have sufficient protection from midfield. We didn't do that, instead we played like we were playing at home to relegation fodder and got punished. We need to address this issue if we are to rectify our record against the tittle challenging teams.
I'd agree with that. No better man to have in your team than Khedira for my money to address that, and a few rumours doing the rounds that agreement has been reached and we got him. If true this is turning into a dream window....
