Arsenal are a bit fragile - & it won't take much to get the crowd on their backs. They're not a happy bunch in North London at the moment. - I might be clutching at straws here, but if the straws exist...
True, but these did win 3-1 away at watford last time out, we struggled to break them down at home. So on that basis I'm predicting I'm predicting an easy arsenal win.
Yeah, the straw I'm clinging to is that Arsenal may be nervous in front of their own supporters, & a better team away from home. We started quite brightly vs both Watford and Sunderland, if we can somehow conjur an early goal the atmosphere in the Emirates could turn a bit nasty for the home side. That's the slender hope anyway.
Interesting to see that a lot of you think we're going to win comfortably. I have to say. Despite your indifferent start to the season, this is one fixture I really hate. Especially under Koeman, it was an absolute nightmare playing against you lot (St. Marys isn't a happy hunting ground for us! ). I think this will be a tricky game nonetheless. I understand that you have a new manager and you've sold two of your most influential players, but it's very difficult to know which Arsenal will turn up and whether we will be clinical in front of goal or whether we will have a lapse of concentration at the back. Also, I recall last season where I came on here and a large majority of you thought we would steamroll you at St.Mary's, yet you ended up absolutely pulverising us 4-0. We barely got out of our half and I'd never seen us get completely dominated like that before, and I'm saying this with the 6-0 vs Chelsea and the 8-2 vs United in mind, too. I'll give you a rough indication of where we're at at the moment. Things are looking a bit more upbeat with us strengthening in two key positions - CB and CF. I don't expect either Mustafi or Perez to propel us to the title, but we should have enough to get us into the Champions League again next season, which seems to be the maximum height of our ambitions nowadays. It is what it is, though. If Mustafi is thrown straight in this weekend alongside Koscielny, it could be something that you exploit because they won't be familiar with each other and both are very similar players in that they like playing the ball out from the back, playing a high line and aggressively rushing into tackles. I'm not sure how well they will complement each other, and with it potentially being their first competitive game together, there could be some miscommunication. Who knows, though. Now that you don't have Wanyama in midfield, I have to admit I am feeling slightly more confident of us controlling that part of the pitch. Xhaka and Elneny (who I expect to start in midfield) are very combative midfielders, yet they're also both very good at retaining possession and playing the ball forward. The only issue with Xhaka is his lack of discipline. Despite being 23 years old and captaining Monchengladbach, he seems to get booked an awful lot, either due to dissent or due to mistimed challenges. If you have a midfielder that is fairly agile with a low centre of gravity (Ward-Prowse maybe?), he could cause problems for us. Hopefully he won't be as reckless as he was for Switzerland the other day! Up front, we have options and I'm not sure who AW will start with. I reckon Perez will be on the bench, personally. If Giroud starts, he will provide us with a focal point and someone to hold the ball up. Walcott will probably start out wide, partly due to how well he played against Watford last week, and Sanchez may be on the other flank. The other option would be Sanchez up front, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott on the flanks (which I don't think is as effective). All of these players can be very potent threats, but they all also have games where they struggle to influence it. In general play, we need to be quicker with our passing and use our width a bit more. Our players have a tendency to cut inside and congest the centre of the park, so hopefully our wide players + fullbacks can give us more options going forward. If we're as cumbersome and pass it sideways/backwards like we did against Leicester, you'll have as good a chance as ever to get a point (or more) against us. Sorry for the long post, but just thought I'd give you some insight as to where we stand at the moment. I wish you all the best for the rest of the season (except against us) and hopefully Puel does well for you in the long-term!
Good one, BG. I, for one, still think we'll be under the cosh, but who knows? Thanks for the analysis - hope Claude is reading this thread
I'd never discount a win...after all who expected our last win there....but I'd be very happy with a draw, because, whilst not a cause for partying in the street, losing only one of the first four would be okay as I expect us to get better as the season progresses.
Football's a funny old game. Even if all the odds are stacked against you, you just never know. How are you guys feeling about your transfers this Summer? I thought you'd get a few more players in personally, but are you content with what you have or did you want a few more additions?
We might not all think this (the bit in bold). We try to do positive threads in the vain hope that it will mean the team will win. It seemed to work at the end of last season so we are continuing it this season but we haven't had a lot of luck so far.
Happy with who we have got, but most of us felt we needed strengthening due to Europa League. And may I compliment you on the correct use of complement....so rare.
This will be a very interesting insight into Puel as a manager, I believe. Just because he has played the diamond to date, doesn't mean he still will. Pretty much everyone is calling (rightly so in my view!) for two DMs to be deployed against Arsenal. And I'd like to think that Puel sees this as well, and adjusts accordingly. I think fans would give him praise for that, even if we were to lose. But if he blindly sticks to one DM again, and risks us being seriously overrun, well...
And this is the match to see whether that something different works, because if we lose to Arsenal and fail to beat Swansea, the following league fixtures are difficult enough that his job may end up hanging in the balance come November even if we demonstrate some improvement.
