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Match Day Thread Arsenal vs. West Ham 2015/16 Official Match Thread

Discussion in 'Arsenal' started by TheOXOCube:5pur2, Aug 3, 2015.

  1. Arsenal87

    Arsenal87 Well-Known Member

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    #201
  2. Bobby Pires

    Bobby Pires Well-Known Member

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    In the past we could make excuses for Arsene not making signings - stadium debt, young team, injuries yada yada. We now have a shed load of money and we've actually started this season with minimal injuries. That was our best team out there in the closing stages.
    No excuses now.
     
    #202
  3. Arsenal87

    Arsenal87 Well-Known Member

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    Today was probably our worst performance in a long time, there usually are some excuses, even that Villa 3-1 loss we could give some stick to the ref for 2 red cards etc, other games we usually had lot's of injuries etc....But today, there was none of that, can't blame the ref, not really that many injuries, majority of key players involved, and we still lost, and lost quite easily as well, West Ham hardly had to break a sweat today, especially in the second half.
     
    #203
  4. lazarus20000

    lazarus20000 Well-Known Member

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    This is what is so worrying that we had our full first team on the pitch barring Sanchez, and we were properly beaten at home with no excuse. These are the kind of games you have to win or draw, at a minimum.

    But true champions will weather the storm and adjust during the course of the game. We quickly unravelled against a well organised and motivated team. Not one of our top players upped their game and Wenger was dumb founded when his team failed to sufficiently break down West hams defense.

    It's a good thing that there isn't any one outstanding team, so we can drop points. But
    We need to pick things up quickly.
     
    #204
  5. paultheplug

    paultheplug Well-Known Member

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    Foul count Arsenal 12 West Ham 9
     
    #205
  6. Quilllogic

    Quilllogic Active Member

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    Apparently Roy Keane has phoned Wenger to say 'I told you so'.
     
    #206
  7. Sanj

    Sanj Well-Known Member

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    We have failed to score in 4 of our last 5 premier league games at the Emirates and the reason we have failed to score is because in all those games, I am pretty sure we had a CM/AM player out wide always cutting in and clogging up the midfield, to make matters worse we have a CF like Giroud, who never runs beyond and also drops deep to add even more bodies in the middle. Benzema seems to be the perfect CF for us and the answer to our problems, because he can do what Giroud does, but he also has pace to run in behind and give the likes of Ozil and Cazorla more space to work in, as well as a through ball option.

    But we won't get him, sadly. :(
     
    #207
  8. Big Ern

    Big Ern Lord, Master, Guru & Emperor

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    ha-ha, so many cry babies
     
    #208
  9. BrunelGooner

    BrunelGooner Well-Known Member

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    It also doesn't help that we have players like Ozil who think they can coast through games and expect to be exempt from criticism and players like Ramsey who are so obsessed with marauding forward that they lose their tactical discipline. Honestly, I haven't seen a performance like that since the match against Monaco and even then, we created more chances in that game!

    This was the easiest match of our opening 4 fixtures and we totally blew it. Unacceptable.
     
    #209
  10. lazarus20000

    lazarus20000 Well-Known Member

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    Although I don't agree with Wengers accident excuse as West Ham deserved the win, I can accept the first game nerve things. However, this is more of a concern for a team challenging for the title. They shouldn't still have these nerves but well prepared going into the new season. This isn't a new team but a team with enough experience to go into the first game of the season fully focused. Instead we see this response. Poor.
     
    #210

  11. goonercymraeg

    goonercymraeg Amnesia
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    We were piss poor yesterday but there's still 37 games to go and 111 points to play for so there's no need to press the panic button yet.
     
    #211
  12. cini65

    cini65 Well-Known Member

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    Depends what one might be panicking over though. If you're someone who had aims to win the league then that was a deluded wish in the first place and the panic button should have been pressed long ago. If you're someone who was expecting another top four place then obviously there's no reason to panic and losing home games like yesterday is just par for the course for a Wenger Arsenal.
     
    #212
  13. lazarus20000

    lazarus20000 Well-Known Member

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    Nobody is panicking but the manner of defeat is certainly worrying. Its like deja vu with this team. We got burnt big time last season having a slow start, though that was in part due to us not getting appropriate reinforcements. But we got caught with our pants down yesterday and West Ham gave us a royal smacking. This wasn't the most difficult game we are going to get, but it was tricky. If a team that wants to win the league, needs to find a way of negotiating a way of turning things, especially when things aren't going according to plan. We looked like a team newly assembled by Wenger, they were all over the place when West Ham took it to us. If this isn't a worrying sign for you then I want to take what you're taking mate, as you're clearly seeing something different to everyone else.
     
    #213
  14. cini65

    cini65 Well-Known Member

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    2016/17 is our year
     
    #214
  15. Arsenal87

    Arsenal87 Well-Known Member

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    Yesterday's game was a disaster, but I think we will have a proper assessment of where things are going by October 4th, after we play Manchester United and go off for the international break. By then we will know if we are the real deal, or same old same.
     
    #215
  16. Arsenal87

    Arsenal87 Well-Known Member

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    We could end up winning our next 2 games, which would be considered 2 very good wins as well, C. Palace away and Liverpool home, and then the hype train will be back again, we need to see our form over a couple of games to be able to make a proper judgement on this team.

    Yesterday's game showed there's still a lot of room for improvement.
     
    #216
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  17. lazarus20000

    lazarus20000 Well-Known Member

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    I hope it is, as similar issues of the past resurfaced in yesterdays game. The way we were running around like headless chickens and Wenger just sitting there not making any tactical adjustments, was annoying.
     
    #217
  18. Bobby Pires

    Bobby Pires Well-Known Member

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    I think people are semi-panicking because we haven't learned from our previous mistakes. We are stuck in this infinite loop where everyone can see where our problems are and rival managers know how to stop us from playing, but we stubbornly persist with the same style and tactics. It was pretty worrying how EASY it was for West Ham to stop us from playing. A 16 year old kept Ozil in his pocket.

    Yesterday's game had a certain deja vu and inevitability about it after Kouyate scored. Swansea did the exact same to us. In previous years Sunderland, Villa and Hull have also come with the same tactics and made us look incredibly average. They are teams we should be comfortably beating at home.

    We don't work hard enough off of the ball, there was a point in the 2nd half when Giroud had the ball on the wing and was holding it up waiting for support. He must've waited 10-15 seconds and in the end put a great cross in. There was only 1 player on the edge of the box. Nobody was busting a lung to help him out. We also need to make changes to our tactics when things go wrong, make faster substitutions and get more physical/direct.
     
    #218
  19. lazarus20000

    lazarus20000 Well-Known Member

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    On the dot. The changes that Wenger made was simply to shove in more attacking players. There was no changes to tactics or to failing personnel, it was, throw in more attackers and hope for the best. All that this achieved was to flood West Hams half with our attackers, that ended up getting into each others way. I think Wenger was in disbelief over what was happening, I don't think he believed that West Ham could do what they did. I guess its good that Wenger and the team got an early reality check.
     
    #219
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  20. BrunelGooner

    BrunelGooner Well-Known Member

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    It is quite ridiculous that we have to keep starting badly each season before we get a kick up our arse. We've won 1 of the last 5 or 6 opening games of each season. Why should we have to keep losing our opening games to give us a reality check? Why aren't we prepared and ready for the first match of the season?

    It's games like this why I think Wenger is incapable of winning the league again. Because it doesn't just happen at the start of the season, it happens throughout the campaign when the players take their eye off the ball and get complacent.
     
    #220
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