Cazorla has been good in that position, but he has been found wanting in quite a few games at CM, a fact some people have glossed over in their hope that an injured player is the only reason we're not very good. The fact he's injured seems to make some have blurry, rose-tinted memories of him being some world-beater at CM which he isn't. He's very competent at being a central playmaker, and indeed excellent against poor teams but he's not a world class CM.
Ramsay has been mediocre for the majority of his Arsenal career. How long do we persist with him in the hope that his short period of <12 months being very good can turn into the norm, as opposed to the 5 seasons of averageness we've also had from him? IMO Wilshere, Ramsay, Oxlade and Walcott should have been shipped out a while ago (and maybe would have by a successful manager). Too much averageness interspersed with tiny periods of impressing to save their Arsenal careers.
If we put them on the market, a lot of people would look for them, Walcott would be gold for mid-table or Europa league quality teams. If Everton went for Aaron Lennon, you can bet them and many others would go for Walcott.
He's not a world-class CM and in some games he has been found wanting, but from the current crop of players, he is the best we have in that position. Our passing, ball retention and guile in midfield would significantly improve if he was in the team, compared to Ramsey, who has been absolutely dreadful for the most part of this season. The fact he is now out for the remainder of the season means that our midfield will continue to get overrun due to Ramsey's meandering out of position and we have no-one with Santi's qualities to help us keep the ball better than we have been. The Coquelin-Ramsey axis simply doesn't work, but Wenger is going to persist with it till the end of this campaign.
I think Walcott's a good player but both he and Wenger need to give up on the misconception that he's the second coming of Thierry Henry. He is blatantly a winger, not a striker as his finishing is ****e more often than not.
A few years back there were people on here arguing that Walcott was better than Bale and Wilshere better than Modric
The poster below didn't select Bale in a joint Arsenal/Spurs team And Jayramfootball said: ↑ It makes me sad when I read posts like this. Arteta, Wilshere, and Song arent as good as VDV, Modric and Parker???? What exactly have Modric and VDV done to warrant that accolade?
I think we have a little problem with all our English players, as I don't think any of them have quite made the grade. Not one English player this season has made a significant impact, and if they did, we would be a few points clear. OXO and Gibbs have struggled to justify their place on the pitch, Walcott has gone missing at key moments and WIlshere and Welbeck have been injured all season. Ramsey the only other UK player has been a flop too. No one has really brought this up but these are all seasoned pros and should be making an impact. It's disappointing that we have no outstanding UK talent. I don't want to bring up the other two teams that are leading, but they have English players that have made big impacts, why are ours continuing to struggle. Are we just overrating them because they are homegrown players?
Nobody said he is a world beater at CM, but he is far better than the other players we have for that position, in fact our record against the bigger team improved when he and Coquelin played together, Cazorla's best performance was away to City last season, Cazorla's ability to play with both feet allowed him to switch play to either side quickly and his one touch passing as well as his ability to dribble in tight spaces enabled us to play at a faster pace from those deep posistions, we have missed badly, but that does not excuse Wenger for not buying a similar player or a player of higher quality for that deep lying posistion.
Walcott is not a winger in a million years, he can't beat a man to save his life and his crossing is pretty crap. Walcott is a wide forward in a front three, but for some reason instead of carrying on trying to develope in that posistion, Wenger has tried to play him through the middle and he has been exposed.
Fair comment and pretty much what I meant given how diluted the term "winger" has become in modern football. How many old fashioned wingers are still around? The point stands though that he categorically isn't an out and out striker.
The Arsenal Syndrome Every year, the same optimistic cries ring out around the Emirates at the Premier League start line: “This is our season. This is it. We’re going to win the league!” Trusty old manager Arsene Wenger zips up his oversized coat and leads the players and fans on another long, arduous quest for the title. Eight months later, the inevitable happens.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/...e&intc_linkname=vidclip_arsenal_contentcard10
I agree that there will be several more twists and turns ... but if you didn't watch our game against West Brom on Tuesday you might well be misled by the scoreline ... attacking wise it was one of our best performances of the season .. but for the woodwork, some cracking saves by Foster and a fair dollop of good fortune, West Brom might have taken a 4-1 5-1 hammering ... their equaliser came from a rather silly hand-ball by Mahrez that led to Craig Gardner getting the opportunity to do what he does best ... but West Brom were clinging on for the rest of the game ... fair play they managed it ... but we are not playing like a team suffering from nerves by any means ... Tough game on Saturday away at Watford mind ... they must still be bemused as to how they didn't come away from Old Trafford with a win, never mind losing ...
Same with us against Swansea last night, we hit the woodwork 3 times. Also against Soton at home, we battered them but Forster had the game of his life. Two games, that on another day we would have got 6 points from, but ultimately we only got 1. At the end of the day it's only the points on the board that count.
