Quality player and a shining light from today's game. Also Giroud scoring on his comeback bodes well too.
Ox was good in the first half, but he faded massively in the second half, once Utd stopped giving him so much space to run into.
I have to ask, what's happened to Per this season? He didn't really play poorly but his decision making cost us. For their second I have no idea why he left Monreal all alone to defend 2 players. Same with the Swansea goal where he left Nacho to contest with Gomis in the air.
Sadly, football isn't always about stats. Arsenal are the Graeme Hick of football. You can score a 100 flashy hundreds, but if you can't play the short ball, you'll get found out quickly at the top level. Arsenal can't play the short ball.
Actually looking back at that goal it looks like Fellaini pushed Gibbs into Chez. Had Gibbs not touched the ball from the shot, Per would have cleared it. Sadly it happened. Still why on earth we pushed so many up at 1-0 down I don't understand.
Looked to me like Per was in the way. I don't know. We'll just say 50/50 that Per or Rooney would have gotten to it.
Fan reactions from the game: [video=youtube;yndMFaW5vFY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yndMFaW5vFY[/video] [video=youtube;VU0h1G6rD0k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU0h1G6rD0k&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;jj5lY7ZE0bQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj5lY7ZE0bQ&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;dISKKqX0RJM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dISKKqX0RJM&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;iL7GNzxE-qs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL7GNzxE-qs&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;4Lc46F_cvVQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lc46F_cvVQ&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;ZF6ACCRsmEo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6ACCRsmEo&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;AU59EW1WsWU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU59EW1WsWU&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video]
Good selection of interviews from Arsenal fan TV and the feeling is pretty much the same. We lost to a crap Utd team and it's embarrassing. They are **** and had a makeshift back 4 and yet we still couldn't break them down until it was too late. It's not good enough, we keep making the same mistakes week in week out and it costs us big time. I really thought today could be a springboard for this season because Utd were completely beatable and we blew it again. So instead of confidence, a morale boost and 3 points, we are left licking our wounds in 8th. As for Wenger, he has to do something different with the rest of this season and that means making the signings that we need in January (we might have to pay an extra premium as a result of dithering the summer) and it means changing the tactics so that we don't end up with the tippy tappy on the edge of the oppo area to lose the ball and get picked off on the counter. I've lost count of the number of times that's happened to us and it's unforgivable that it keeps happening again and again. We need to play proper direct football with incisive passing, speed and purpose. We need to mix it up when plan A doesn't work and we need to play long passes, over the top passes, quick passes down the flanks as well as the short tippy tappy stuff. It doesn't matter if it doesn't all come off, but we need to be braver instead of hanging on to the ball for 3/4 of the game and doing **** all with it. We had 62% possession today and 23 shots on goal and yet we still crumbled and made the same stupid mistakes when we went 1-0 down. I want to see an improvement in these areas I've mentioned and if we don't then Wenger doesn't deserve to carry on managing this team.
Spot on With players like Ox, Welbz, Sanchez and Walcott you should be trying the counter when needed, they would tear teams apart.
As a neutral, I'm a little surprised not more has been said on that. I definitely thought Fellaini pushed Gibbs towards the keeper. I said to my mate at the time, it should have been a free kick to Arsenal.
They were incredibly lucky to score the first given the push by Fellini, the injured keeper and a lucky deflection. They then only scored the second on the counter when we started to throw numbers forward looking for an equalizer. Utd got lucky. Our finishing cost us. That's the entire story of this game. On another day wilshere or Welbeck slot away one of the first half chances and we cruise to victory, picking them off as they try and come at us and expose there weak backline. Unfortunately giroud was the only player who knew where the bloody net was!
