The system is the key to us winning the title at this point. More square pegs in round holes won't win us anything, if Arteta can find a system, that gets the best out of the players we have, we WILL win the league, of that I have no doubt !
Are you saying that our squad is clear of City's , Liverpool and Chelsea's? What if their managers find a system that best suits their players? IMO, winning the league is a combination of player talent, playing as a team (regardless of system) and attitude/confidence - and a bit of luck. I don;t think it matters much if we play 4231 or 433 or whatever - or if players are filling in at times in their second position,
I think we have the best defence and midfield. Attack is between City and Liverpool. I rate Arteta but I also think Pep would win the league with our squad.
I think that it's never reasonable to go into a season expecting to win anything - some vehemently disagree with that and that's fine. I just think- at best - we have as much chance as the other big teams, which means winning the league is actually unlikely (low percentage chance). We'll need a bit of luck. I am happy going to into a season knowing we CAN win the league and then hoping we get the luck/breaks to make it happen.
If we think about the season City pipped us to the title, I think they are not as good a team now as they were then, with the additions they have made. I think we are a better team (potentially) now than we were then with the additions we have made.
Their new midfielder looks Reijnders looks fantastic, to be fair. He looks far better than the degrading De Bryune they have had for a while and then they have Rodri back after the September break. We have a better defence IMO, but they have a better midfield and attack - depending on how Gyokeres turns out.
The argument has been that Havertz misses chances and that he doesn't get on the end of crosses. If we had a more clinical striker we'd score more. That has been the consistent theme of 'we need a striker'. That argument means we are creating the chances and getting crosses in - so there is no system issue at all if that's true and no excuses. If the criticism had been that we were not creating chances for the striker, then the same excuse would hold true for Havertz - but he has never been afforded any such excuse by loud fans on social media. My point was - and is - that excuses are used selectively.
Jay, there is a system issue if you are creating a load of crosses and never have anyone there to convert them. Then you have the question of, the 15% of crosses that are actually any good, because 85% of them are ****e. And no the 2 mutually exist because you have different types of strikers. If you create chances for Gary Lineker at the edge of the box you are not playing to his strengths, he is a fox in the box and I swear he said he never scored a goal from outside the box. We are creating chances but Havertz' game isn't suited to it. Compare the natural movement of Havertz and Gyokeres, its entirely different and thats not a criticism of Havertz or Gyokeres.
Hmmm - are we? I don't see us creating that many chances at all. I actually think this is one of the weakest parts of our game. We are quite stifled creatively. Which is why I did think a maverick type signing like Eze would have helped, but that ship appears to have sailed now.
Apparently, Stuttgart have said we need to lower our demands for Fabio Vieira. They want him for £17m including add-ons, whereas Arsenal are asking for £25m. Unfortunately, they have us over a barrel here. His value has plummeted, there isn't a lot of competition to sign him and they know we're desperate to get him off the books. I don't see what leverage we have here. We need to cut our losses and move on now.
I agree, for a while now it feels like we are not creating enough chances and are suffering because Odegaard isn't chipping in. My comment is more about the crosses and the reason why I wanted us to get a more traditional CF, I don't mind crosses but at least have someone in the box whose natural game it is to get on the end of crosses. Again, it sounds like I am contradicting myself, but I don't think Havertz' game is getting on the end of crosses so his game isn't affected by the way we play. He is always involved in the build up and yesterday's cameo shows the good that he can do, I thought he was good when he came on. Thats why people have not criticised the system for him because it doesn't affect his game, his numbers prove it.
I don't know how you can argue this hothead If Havertz is not the type of player to get on the end of crosses and that is why we are not scoring more, then Gyokeres will be taking those chances as he IS the kind of player. If our crosses are **** and we're NOT creating enough chances, then you can't blame Havertz - he has the same excuse Gyokeres is already being credited with.
It's a weird start to the Season I feel like the media itself is ALOT more hysterical than in the past. Fans too. It used to be common knowledge that the first 1-2 games of the Season weren't big indicators of things to come because teams were still bedding in new players and getting fitness levels up. People are making too big a deal about 'how' we played. We could easily have won that game 2-0 btw. If Saka had put away that chance (he normally would have) and we won 2-0 without playing well nobody would be saying anything. Yes maybe our forward line will struggle again this Season or.... maybe we just need to get up to speed.
SKY SPORT NEWS TV Breaking News : Arsenal close to agreeing deal for Eberechi Eze Currently watching Sky Sports News and that headline is the leading banner, hmmmmmm someone most know something here, I can't believe this is all rumour mongering like what was going on 2-3 weeks ago. I'm up for Eze!
I can't believe this has ALL just happened in the past few hours, it's just not Arsenal! Either it was always happening since rumours started weeks ago and it was somehow kept super quiet or have Arsenal really gotten serious quickly due to potential Havertz injury.. IF it is due to the Havertz injury I don't believe Eze is the man to replace him, so I tend to think it was always happening. thoughts?
