And Man C were much better than Spurs as well - what impressed me was our concerted efforts to nullify Silva, which we did without curbing our counter-attacking threat, and Santi who was awesome in defence and attack, and was our focal point for the transition between defence and attack.
I think Sanj has hit the nail on the head here. I don't think he's so much improved, rather the players around him utilise his abilities better this year. His limitations were highlighted last season in a pretty slow squad but with that now bolstered by Sanchez, AOC, Welbeck etc his assets are being seen. He'll harrass defenders, hold the ball up and chip in with the occasional goal. When things are going ****e you can lump it up to him as well and he's decent in the air. Giroud by himself isn't great, but with speed merchants to compliment him then he's a different player. In a similar way a front line of light-weight but talented forwards have their uses but would easily get bossed by a strong, organised team. It looks like we're starting to get a good balance together. Just need to sort a similar balance in midfield now and we'll look decent!
Is Giroud that much better than last season or has he got better players around him. As Sanj as highlighted, he has the right players to explo As the saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of parts. When you add them all together and it all works. You take Giroud out and our team struggles more up front. Take Dortmund, one of the reasons why they are struggling is due to losing their main CF who was their focal point. They are still a good team but are missing a vital cog. Saying that, Sanchez is amazing so having him in our squad has made us all the dangerous and have kept defenders more busy, allowing Giroud more freedom.
Thought Sanchez was a bit sh*t against Citeh if I'm honest. Not terrible but he wasn't in our top few performers in my opinion at least. Great work rate as always but was nice to see others getting credit, especially Santi who's been amazing for a while now. It's these sort of gritty games where I think your OG's and co shine. The ugly, grafting matches.
Yes but Sanchez puts the fear in god in any back 4 and allows others to come into the game. Nothing better than having a world class operator terrorising the defence...
Could it not be the case that our opponents are concentrating on Alexis thus allowing other players space and time ?
I think this is good in that other players are starting to step up, and while Sanchez does what he always does, if he's a bit quite or marked out of the game, then the team won't stop - our other players will offer threats. Now the next league game we play the opposition won't know whether to concentrate solely on Sanchez, or mark Santi/Oxo/Walcott with the danger of leaving Sanchez and Giroud with more space...
I don't think so in this game, though might be a bit in other matches. If anything I think he is raising people's games by example. There's been a noticeable difference in the team's work rate since he joined and that can't be a coincidence. They must see him buzzing about getting all the plaudits and thinking I'll have me some of that. Disco.
Yep I agree, but the reason I mention it is because Wenger has employed these tactics before. Rather than going gung-ho he is able to play a more defensively minded game when necessary. You're right though as we played a much better all round game against vastly superior opposition against City and we were brilliant right across the team.
I remember he did something similar against Barca, and it was working well until the ref decided to send RVP off for a ridiculous reason, and then we got out passed/played with 10 men...
