Sheer lack of competition, surely? We're in a similar situation ourselves what with one CB now playing as a DM, another barely capable of standing upright without making a hash of it, and another just 23 years old an in his first season in England. If you think the secret to your improved defensive record this term is Mertesacker, you're overlooking the impact a truly class goalkeeper can have on an otherwise questionable back line. Signing Cech was a masterstoke by Wenger. The bizarre thing was how he once again didn't strengthen other areas that were crying out for improvement. One or two more signings this summer and I genuinely think you'd be walking away with this league already. But, fortunately for us, your manager is a stubborn old bastard
Gabriel Paulista and Calum Chambers also play centre-back as well. The salient point here is that he really hasn't been performing badly for us overall. If we're using his time at the club since 2011 as the barometer, I'd say he has been a successful signing overall. Otherwise, as I said, he would have been shipped off within the four and a half years he's been at the club. Oh, of course. Don't get me wrong. Cech has been sensational for us, except the opening day of the season against the Spammers. His calm yet assertive presence has improved us so much, after persisting with unreliable and flappy goalkeepers for what seemed like an eternity. But generally speaking, Mertesacker and Koscielny have done their jobs well when they've been called upon. Obviously they're not perfect and they have made mistakes, but name me one centre-back that hasn't. Your last two sentences are spot on, though. It's why I'm being somewhat cautious about our chances for the title. We've been here before and things haven't worked out for us due to one reason or another. But if Wenger doesn't win the league this season, I can't see him doing it ever again. There won't be a better chance for a while.
My comment that Mertesacker was starting to marshal the defense his first year didn’t get an enthusiastic reception around here. It’s easy to see why rival fans slag him off: he’s gangling and clumsy at times. His goal post routine today by itself was worthy of Buster Keaton. But he’s clearly a good player.
Arsenal are vulnerable to teams running in behind when Mertesacker plays.We've seen it a number of times against better sides with pace. Southampton did it effectively the other night.
Most teams are, now, working out how to beat Arsenal. Expect to see the usual bottle-job in the New Year, from the Gunners.
There's always a risk of that happening in theory, but it rarely materialises that way in reality. Name me one other time that it's happened in the league this season apart from the Southampton debacle where, quite frankly, not a single player came out of that looking good. If anything, Koscielny has made more errors than Per. And I rate Koscielny higher than Per!
Quite a lot of money for a 29-year-old, though. Avoiding relegation would be worth much, much more, of course. Works hard, scores goals, presses well and seems to get on with things with little fuss. Are Everton selling him to bring someone else in? Doubt it will be popular with their fans, otherwise.
Naismith is one of those players who can fire a whole team into raising their game over a short period. Exactly the kind of fighter a team at the wrong end of the league needs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35196466 So, His Eminence Phil Mcnulty, the man who knows a lot about football because the BBC says so, has us down as finishing 3rd so that's us f***ed I find it oddly arrogant that he has Leicester down to finish 6th. There's this common assumption going around in Journoville that if one of Vardy or Mahrez gets injured their season is screwed...conveniently forgetting that City without Kompany and Aguero, Arsenal without Ozil and Sanchez, and us without Dier, Alli, Toby, Jan, Kane, Walker, Lamela, Lloris, Eriksen and Dembele are also screwed. I'm struggling to think of 5 teams who I'd put money on now to finish above them. Arsenal, City, maybe us. Maybe Palace if they put together a good run. Liverpool are now 12 points adrift of them and miles behind on GD. If United finish above them a national day of public mourning should be declared. I mean who honestly is there aside from Leicester imploding who could deny them a CL place?? EDIT: Originally posted this in 'stock taking' but realised it probably belongs here.
What an awful article. "Mental fragility. Have not yet provided conclusive evidence that they have conquered this block - and suspicions that flaw remains were raised again by the shocking 4-0 loss at Southampton on Boxing Day. Arsenal also suffer too many injuries." What kind of writing is that? He's a journalist and can't be bothered to write in proper sentences. It reads like it should be in bullet points, or just scruffy notes to be written out properly later. I'm no better, my spelling and grammar's all over the place at the best of times but he's paid to write ffs! please log in to view this image And what in the **** is this Tweet doing in there? Is it mandatory to have a Tweet in articles these days to prove that the BBC are young and hip? If not, why is it in the article, it's not particularly interesting or insightful unless you're deeply interested in the random thoughts of Rio Ferdinand. Nothing against the guy, I think he's alright, but I doubt he was thinking "this will be great analysis to use in a (supposedly) serious article on the title race" when he wrote it. ****ing hell! "The size of their squad may also be examined by the intense pressing style employed by manager Claudio Ranieri" Am I the only one that doesn't associate Leicester with "intense pressing"? They've been incredible so far but I see them as more like a Palace, led by 2 attackers at the very top of their game. They're an incredibly effective side, they don't even need to play particularly well to come away from a game with 2 or 3 goals and that makes them very dangerous. I have my doubts as to whether they can keep it up but that's more to do with whether their attack can keep o̶u̶t̶f̶o̶x̶i̶n̶g̶ outwitting defences across the whole season. 6th is harsh though, they've got a great chance at getting top 4. United and Liverpool certainly don't look like they can be consistent enough to overtake them at the moment. Ours pretty much writes itself. Obviously we don't know how we'll cope if Kane gets injured but then again, how could we? We've only played without Kane starting for 2 games this season. Those games went pretty well though with us scoring 7 goals in the Europa Lague games and if you take our top scorer out of the equation in the league, we still have 22 goals across the rest of the squad. Take Giroud out of Arsenal and they have 21 goals from the rest of their squad(plus 2 own goals, presumably). And how have would Arsenal do if Ozil got injured? They're pretty reliant on him for assists, aren't they? I'm more worried about what happens to us if Lloris gets injured, to be honest. Rant over
Sunderland in deep trouble now. Much as I like Big Sam, I can't see him rescuing Sunderland out of this one. Meanwhile, Liverpool react as if they've won the World Cup.
The 'Pool-loving media will be using this win as further "evidence" of LFC's revival under Klopp, and proclaiming that they're nailed on for a top 4 finish. The thing I hate most about 'Pool winning is having to listen to Mickey Dim (on TalkSport), prattle on about how great 'Pool are, whilst subtly undermining Spurs.
I thought we'd relegated them a couple of years ago when we beat them 5-1(I think) but then they went and beat Chelsea, City and a few others, I think. I'm not ruling them out yet. They've got quite a few injuries but they'll need more than Townsend from the looks of things tonight.
