If you want a difficult job, start a blog. call it Positively Arsenal, then sit back and wait to be beaten 6 0 by the team that is everything you detest in the game, and then do a write up.
I feel like taking to my bed, pulling the sheets over my head and whimpering until August.
Six nil, that’s SIX NIL, Jesus H Christ.
There can be no excuses for losing six nil. None. Yes we had half the first team missing, but so what? Every player fielded is a better player than most teams in the league can boast, and I don’t see them losing 6 3 ,5 1 and six bastard nil.
There is something wrong. There is!
But what?
How can the same eleven that defended so well at Spurs play like that? It almost beggars belief.
Its easy to say we should have started Flamini in tandem with Arteta and sat back a little more, with the fullbacks holding their positions, but to do that you need pace in the side to break away and score. Where is that coming from?
So we play a high line and get ripped to pieces. Why?
Well from what I can recall it was because we lost possession in midfield . AOC and Santi were most culpable, but even Tomas joined in when we conceded for what seemed like the eighteenth time.
It would be fair to ask why a 20 year old was asked to play in a game this big, in the centre of midfield, when he is still learning the game. Then again, were you asking that question before the game? If so what were the alternatives?
Mikel looks too slow to be playing the holding role if we are playing a high line, and Aaron is not there to compensate, but again, what were the alternatives?
Are the lack of alternatives down to injuries, or is it Arsene’s fault for not buying? Or both?
You can’t blame the manager for the players being nothing short of woeful.
However I can’t excuse Arsene either. He has to be held responsible to some degree, the buck stop there, as they say.
Forget that the wrong player was sent off , for a non-red card offence , the damage was done. At least the chance of getting anything from the game had already gone.
That display was totally unacceptable and everyone concerned should be admonished.
Hang on though, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Let’s not forget what has been good until this point. Let’s remember what wonderful football this team and these players have given us.
We must think things could and would be very different with Theo, Jack, Aaron and Ozil in the side.
All is not lost. Top 4 and the FA cup is still a distinct possibility.
As we keep getting told, there is money to spend in the summer.
All we can do is carry on supporting, there is no alternative.
Positively Arsenal 
When the most positive people on the frikkin internet say unthinkable things, you do start to wonder. I’ve seen so many people on Twitter who’re decent guys and always positive say stuff which I didn’t think they were capable of. Forgettable day really.
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You are right George. I don’t think defeat in itself is unacceptable. Of course, it’s the margin of defeat, and the capitulation after 16 minutes.
I think we have to take a deep breath here. If we assume that the chavs are amongst the best teams in Europe, then I don’t think anybody can expect to go there and get points, no matter what the team.
But the issue here is that we repeated the mistakes made at Liverpool and continuously lost the ball in dangerous areas where we were pushed up, and left men at the back exposed time and time again. Cazorla, Oxlade were culpable of losing the ball, and our shape was lamentable – that is true. We were hussled out of the midfield, and the chavs were just executing well rehearsed drills to dispossess of the ball.
One argument is that we should have been more cautious. But then we are not a cautious team. And we very rarely park the bus. In this game, unlike against Bayern or even Spuds, we were not cautious. I do not believe that Liverpool or Chelsea are better than Bayern, so I find it curious that we suffered against them by such a high margin. Of course, the margin might have been a narrower one had we had all 11 men on the pitch. But people will say we were all at sea anyway. Still, it’s debatable that we would have finished 6-0 with 11 men.
Even so, the strident calls of Wenger out are ill thought out. We should still be able to close the gap now, as our turnover is higher, but it will take some time. I think that if we had our 4 injured players available, that would have improved this result. With incremental improvements in the summer, and in the next January transfer window, we will slowly get ourselves into a position where this kind of result, nor the City or Liverpool results will happen again. But people have to be patient, as acquiring those players will take time. We can see from the Spuds debacle that the quality does not always match the price tag.
What else to say ? It’s depressing. But I think we have to take solace from 2 things. One, that we should take a certain distance from this result because it does not reflect the true gap between us and the chavs as it stands – it’s much more marginal than that. We shot ourselves in the foot somewhat, and we also had 4 to 5 of our best players out. Approximately £120 million worth a talent by my reckoning. The 2nd crumb of comfort is that we have got a lot of catching up to do in terms of transfer net spend. The chavs exceeds our spending by a huge margin – at least £500 million in the last 10 years. Once we start to spend, and by definition taking players who would be targets from our main rivals, the gap will close. The buffoons on the radio who believe that replacing Wenger with some defensive tactician like Benitez or Ancellotti are forgetting that any coach who comes in will want to go on a massive spending spree. After all, that’s what most of them do.
The final point is that I still have faith in this squad. There is still a lot of potential. And it’s frustrating to think that Ox, Walcott, Ozil, Jack and Ramsey haven’t all been on the pitch at the same time – as we’ve been absolutely hammered by injuries this year – yet again.
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Twitter is a wholly unreliable place for a balanced view on anything, much less football. Within minutes of the 2nd goal those who were extolling the virtues of our team selection before less than 30 minutes before were ripping the boss for team selection and tactics. So what is the truth.
Unlike twitter where ‘Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan.’, the boss has to take full responsibility for the result. With the players at his disposal he gambled with an attacking formation and it backfired spectacularly. As a manager with so much pride this must hurt tremendously especially on his 100th game and losing to that shower and their manager. But when you are as old and experienced as Wenger, you learn your lessons and move on to the next game. Defeated armies learn well.
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We have been thumped like this three times this season and we’re still in with a shout at the title. If we beat City we’re back in the hunt and this thrashing will have been just an ugly memory.
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One more thought; I think today marks the end of the Chamberlain-Arteta double pivot, at least for this season. Going forward, as we did in the run-in last year, we will go with a far more conservative set setup. It won’t be pretty but hopefully it will be more effective.
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What do you think of my 7:21 pm Gainsy?
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A bitter pill to swallow….but once we get over this loss we should look forward to a good response…..I tweeted earlier that Chelsea did not need their strengths to put the first three past us, any team could have done that given the way we played. I can describe what happened but cannot explain it……I stopped watching after the goal three and fucked off to visit my daughter. I needed something to take my mind of this…..anyway….bollocks….
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If was in London I would’ve hidden under Calamity Jane’s dress……
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I hope Hunter is alright…….
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Shotta @7:21 I think you are right. Arteta/Chamberlain is a no-go for now. I’m ready to see Arteta/Ramsey again.
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George has got it dead right. Although the first two goals were taken well the build up was all us and the third was just a farce, throw in a goalkeeping error for one of the goals and everyone was trying to get in on the mistakes. We hated today because of who it was against but football wise its more worrying that this is the third time this has happened in a season, to a team which is better than the one that lost to utd the other year. The missing players are of no significance as it seems to be more a team problem than that of individuals. Arsene says he learns more from defeats that victories and he needs to learn alot if we are going to take the next step and not keep repeating these horrors
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I think Gibbs has gone AWOL on one too many occasions this season……and I’m a huge fan….
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A_or_B @ 7:58 pm – It is easy to see all the negatives in the team especially because of today’s performance. But lets not throw out the baby with the bath water. We have had some heroic defensive performances this season, holding Bayer with 10-men at home, drawing with them in Munich, defeating Liverpool and Everton in the FA cup and our recent 90 minute act of defiance at White Hart Lane. People easily dismiss our two victories over Liverpool yet they are currently lying 2nd in the League.
It is evident we find it difficult to maintain the correct balance between attack and defense with teams that are very good at pressing and counter-attacking. Arsene must take responsibility for any miscalculations in team selection and tactics. But I think, the underlying problem is we are still a team in transition that still has some weaknesses that can only be addressed in the long run and not in the short term.
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I agree Shotta. On the last point inparticular.
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People will criticise the tactics, as they always do, but with our options limited by injury, and when the clear alternative would have been to defend deeper, get more men behind the ball, and hit them on the break, would the result have been any different? Without the pace of Theo, the imagination of Ozil, the engine of Ramsey, would our counter attacks have posed much threat to a team as good as Chelsea? Or would we have become sitting ducks, finding it increasingly difficult to get out of our own box as the game progressed, waiting for Chelsea’s killer blow? To my mind that would have been playing for a draw at best or, more likely, a narrow defeat at worst. So Arsene decided to go for it from the start, which gave us a better chance of winning the game but also a higher chance of getting spanked if the players couldn’t fulfill the high-risk/high-reward game plan. It worked at Spurs, we could have done to Spurs in the first 20 minutes what happened to us today and at Liverpool, had we been able to finish our chances like Chelsea and Liverpool did. It didn’t work today. Chelsea were too fast in closing us down and we were too slow escaping the pressure, losing the ball over and over.
It’s a shame that these results paint a picture of a much worse season than we’re actually having. Had we lost those away games to top 4 sides by a goal or two we would be on exactly the same points we are now but I’m fairly certain the mood would be far, far better.
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Great analysis LeoS. Spot on.
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I though I said that ! Well I meant that .
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Great perspective LeoS
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You did George to be fair, I said so on twitter too. I just felt like repeating it, and when it’s so easy to criticise these decisions without offering a better alternative, or even considering the alternatives I think it’s worth repeating. We’re in a tight spot while we’re missing those big players, not just in terms of their quality but tactically it’s become very limiting.
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Punch drunk.
We must learn from, forget this result and regroup ASAP.
there is not much time and not many games left to closing the gap.. ARSENAL!!!!!
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Was it but six short days ago we were smiling on the strength of three very good performances and results against Everton, Bayern and Spuds – ? Indeed it was
Have the squad been transformed into a set of individual incompetents, unable to pass, tackle or shoot ? No we have not
So a disappointing afternoon, a fragile afternoon for players, and for supporters too. That it was the Chelsea, on AD’s big day – the same opponents who ducked up against the mighty Villa a week before – well that was a bitter cherry on an unpalatable cake.
But the game goes on me
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Motd ? I don’t watch it when we win because it’s rubbish
Quite handy rule tonight
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So much tactical experts on twitter and the blogsphere. 1,000 games, 56% in victories and suddenly Wenger is lost tactically lost and a void to be filled by twitter.
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Regardless of who plays we have to learn to sit back at times, until the storm passes. We ought to go for it but when it isn’t working out and we are being picked apart, something has to change. I also said this after the Pool match. There is no shame in parking the bus for a minute, out of necessity.
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Some of the players in our team look very good when they are surrounded by even better players. Unfortunately, due to injury those better players were unavailable and so we were very exposed (and have been before) when we came up against the very best opposition. All this game tells us is what we probably already knew. the strong finish we will have (better players returning coinciding with weaker opposition) will make the end of the season seem much better (as it did last year) but it won’t alter the fact that we know that we are a few (4?) world-class players short. It is only now (due to AWs astonishing talent, vision and husbandry – all those things celebrated before this latest game, remember – that The Arsenal is in a position to attract and secure those top performers.
I think the future looks remarkably bright. And I shall delight in the discussion over whether the Red Card for Gibbs should be revoked, and whether Oxlade will be retrospectively punished.
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Arsenal attempted the high-risk, high-reward strategy; and it’s conceded an awful lot of goals against top attacking opposition. My opinion is that Wenger is thinking Arsenal won’t beat Chelsea, ditto top teams, especially at this stage by playing conservatively and conceding control, allowing them to dominate is more certain failure; you can beat them or create draws however by bold attacking strokes but you need to keep the ball, be highly mobile, fast, and play through them to do that, you need to actually dominate your periods of possession; and keep strong defensive shape. It takes great concentration, players at the very top of their game, full of confidence; and supremely fit. So it was a gamble, I am certain Wenger would know this. A gamble worth taking?
Lousy result and confidence crusher but I doubt it matters that much. We needed 7-9 points from the coming 4 games, we have zero. Now we need 7-9 from 3. That is to stay in contention entering the final 5 or 6. The others will mathematically drop points as they still play have a few left against each other.
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Great points Shotta, LeoS, ZP…
Luckily for me I missed the first half so I was able to get over the minor stroke faster than I feared.
F**k it its too late in the season to over-anlyze the whys
Throw all available into the mix & stay focused.
Swans are next.. followed by the blue Mancs
Keep the faith
Stay positive
Take a cue from our amazing away fans that kept on cheering till the end yesterday.
CARMON ARSENAL!
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Well done George for getting the balance of the post right and there are many other excellent points by the commenters. Arsene has already taken full responsibility for what happened. He clearly gambled on a high risk strategy but the team were unable to execute it on the day.
There does seem to be a pattern to these games – top opposition, early kick off and after a week between games. We seem to start very sluggishly and before we know it the game has gone away from us, then we go chasing after it only to make a bad situation worse. One day we will have all our first choice players available for one of these games and I’m looking forward to seeing it.
The most annoying thing about yesterday is that maureen will be hailed as some kind of tactical genius when we just handed the game to him on a plate.
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I agree with Zimpaul and Passenal.
–
I sometimes think in some games that it would be better to rotate in TV5 for PM4. The impression I had was that Liverpool worked the wedge between Sagna and Mertesacker, but I don’t think that was the case yesterday so I don’t really know. I can’t be sure because unlike G69 I will not be watching that again!
I’m sure many Experts (see Kean Out Brigade at Blackburn. That went well for them, or maybe it went better for the chicken launderers? The graceless idiots) have been bashing the keyboards today. All this rebuilt Arsenal squad need to do is to keep hold of Tommy V, win the cup maybe, and keep on progressing.
Simples, innit.
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And to keep that bizarre being (A.Taylor) who thinks all Arsenal players look alike *coughs* away from Arsenal games.
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foreverheady @ 7:38 pm – Significantly you made the point that “we are a few (4?) world-class players short.” Unfortunately the ninnies in the media and the moaners in our ranks have come to the simplistic conclusion that it is simply a matter of Wenger’s willingness spend when this flies smack-dab in the face of reality. If it was merely a matter of will then clearly Tottenham should be way ahead of us. The last reliable data up to 2011 shows for the prior decade their net spend was £235 million vs Arsenal’s £48 million. Everyone on this blog is somewhat familiar with these figures so I won’t labour the point.
What grinds my gears, however, is the idea that we can simply belly up to the football buffet and snaffle up the world class player we need. By definition there are relatively few exceptional players in the world. Logically they are well known to all and sundry because they already play for the biggest clubs. In general these players are already tied down to huge contracts to clubs with the means to pay and enforce these contracts. Apart from the established giants like Real Madrid and Bayern, we now have the state-financed or oligarch owned entities like PSG, Monaco, Man City and Chelsea willing to spend ridiculous amounts to sign the very few elite players that are willing to jump clubs.Yet we have numpties projecting the idea that Arsenal and Wenger can easily sign the Cavanis or Costas of this world. You would think these dopes learnt a lesson from the dirty game played by Liverpool when they lied to the world by saying our £42million bid for Suarez did not meet the buy-out clause. What about the machinations by Tottenham to delay to the 11th hour the Bale sale when they figured it would scuttle our purchase of Ozil?
My point is, yes we could do with more world class players in our ranks, only a fool would deny that, but with all the money we have, signing world class players is not a short-term solution or immediate priority. More pressing is getting our best players back from injury such as Ozil, Ramsey and Walcott. Any team in the world would suffer with their absence. Give me a world class class team over world class individuals.
Whew. That was long.
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Injuries have done us in big time. That being said, I look at the team selections and still believe that the players on hand were more than capable of getting something from this match. Regardless of player cost, I don’t see a gulf in talent. For whatever reason, we did not play well enough.
Anyways, as the man has said, what is important now is for us to win our next match. All is certainly not lost at all, there is a whole lot to play for.
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We have the 4 world class players that we are short in order to beat the big boys, but they are fucking injured, Theo, Ozil, Ramsey and Diaby.
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Shotta,
“What grinds my gears, however, is the idea that we can simply belly up to the football buffet and snaffle up the world class player we need.” – exactly. This is the delusion that we are faced with. That these players will come to us. What people forget is that in at least 2 of the last major windows, we have failed to get these players, because either they were simply not available, went elsewhere, or we did not meet the sky high price tag. I am pretty sure that there has been already – bids for Cavani/Goetze/Draxler. Whilst we know we were in for Higuain/Mata/Suarez. God knows how many other players have been bid for – as we keep our business secret.
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Exactly George – and don’t forget Wilshere. A good player as well, who was missed.
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I woke in the wee small hous to the shocking, almost unthinkable reality that out midfield had been outplayed and undone Matic and Luiz.
One has maybe a dozen PL games under his belt, the other is a discordinated accident.
And yet and yet
Is it size? strength ? Robust physical capacity ?
I shall look carefully at the game on Saturday
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Muppet @ 1:27 pm – We haven’t even discussed teams like Chelsea who hoard the next level of stars, signing them up at enormous fees and salaries and sending them out on loan to clubs where they not only gain high level experience but can do real harm to their immediate competitors, Lukaku being the most egregious example.
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If Chelsea have such a sophisticated masterplan Shotta why are they playing Torres, Ba and Eto’o up front ?
If there is a master plan conceived by a superior mind why flog Matic for a couple of £m then buy him back for £23m ?
I suspect Jose is as surprised as I was by yesterday’s result – serial errors by an opponent
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I written this before. We gifted them the first three goals. It was not down to Chelsea’s superiority. In fact if we’re not careful Wigan could do the same. This team must concentrate and ease themselves into a game. This happened at Liverpool. It nearly happened at the Grove against the Scousers. We were fortunate to escape that initial flurry of attacks, but once we weathered that storm we came into the game and took control. We were deserved win. A little more care and patience.
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If a high risk game didn’t work against city and pool why would it work against the side that sits and reacts more than any other side in the league. Actually it was the spuds and not us who played a high line last week. Also if you employ a high risk policy and concede early then a new tactic would need to be used, our players are noted for there versatility and for Arsene giving them responsibility to adapt and change themselves. The injured players have been involved in similar defeats although maybe not all together. I think the main problem was just our core axis of the ox, art and santi just simply had stinkers and where normally the back five have performed heroically to stem the tide against the more clinical sides this is very difficult. Intricate passing by the opposition wasn’t our undoing yesterday but losing the ball in our own half and not being able to recover with both feet and heads. The chelski front 3 done all the damage without outnumbering defenders but by attacking our CBs very quickly. This was because of a, losing the ball by a pivot player when the team was moving forward and b, the covering midfielder going missing or making the wrong decision.
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Disastrous and painful as the result was and lack lustre performance this season has more positives than negatives. We have been robbed again this year with terrible injuries all long term and no team can sustain so many big players missing. But we still managed to stay at the top. hopefully the 3 big season finalies are CL qualification, winning the FA cup and Mr Arsenal Wenger contract rubber stamped
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We did exactly the same last season at the Bridge George 2-0 in ten minutes and all over the place – at which point we got our shit together unlike yesterday
Benitez obviously a tactical genius
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Shotta,
Absolutely. This has to be stamped out.
And what I don’t understand is when “FFP” is supposed to be coming in. Haven’t see any restraint yet from any of the big clubs. It will interesting to see what happens in the summer. Whoever loses the title – be it the Chavs or City will got out and spend £100 million. Man U as well.
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Georgaki, Anicoll and a or b, I agree. We simply got it all wrong. I actually think we do a disservice to the players who played yesterday by mentioning injuries as far as that result is concerned. Yes, we are missing some excellent players but that was not the cause of us gifting 3 goals, it was crappy play. No more lessons to be learned I hope, Pool should have taken care of that. We are simply too good to be getting dismantled like this so regularly.
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Paul-N: By now, it is entirely predictable that at the beginning of games teams will press us high , isolate our CBs and DM, and in general disrupt our passing game . Strange we would not be physically and mentally prepared especially in a big game. Either Wenger is negligent in team preparation or the players were unable to execute under the pressure. But I find it difficult to accept either argument. After all, this is the same team which has managed Liverpool’s pressure and twice prevented them from scoring, only one of other team has done that all season. Similarly we contained Bayern more or less.
I think the issue goes deeper. I would suggest the weakness starts upfront. Teams know we have to build from the back, get Giroud involved so he can lay off balls to attacking midfielders and wide players. They have no fear that to relieve the pressure we will successfully hit long balls to attacking forward who will create chances on their own. (The thought came to me as Ii watched yesterday’s El Classico and saw how Madrid would break Barca’s pressure to free Ronaldo etc.) Until we can get more of that type of attacking player I suspect we will remain vulnerable. Just my opinion.
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Shotta
I think you make sense. Suarez is the type of player we need…..
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I mentioned the five absent before the game yesterday. And I stay true to what I said: even with them the squad is probably four top, top players short. Whether we will ever be able to sign them is another matter, but it won’t be for lack of trying. And I suspect that if we have 12 top, top players, rather than the 7 or 8 we have at the moment, we will see less injuries too.
That is not an attempt to be negative, or disrespectful: it is just where I think we are. Better off than last year, not quite where we need to be if Champion and Premier League winning form is our true aim.
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we dont need four world class players to beat chelsea or not to lose five nill agaainst liverpool. we need to start games slowly and carefully. if aston villa can beat chelsea, we surely can wallop them.
what was wrong with kos yesterday?
we may need a player like suarez, but we are not going to get suarez now. maybe somebody like draxler can be converted.
has mariner been ban yet?
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if we can win our remaining matches, we will surely win the title.
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The loss of players of the calibre of Mesut, Aaron, Jack and Theo would be catastrophic for most teams and so it has proven for us. Having said that I am still bemused by our approach in the first ten minutes of yesterdays game…for the Eto’o goal Kieran was still well up in their half when the goal was scored and Bacary was nowhere to be seen. I know that Oxo wrong footed everyone with a naive pass but I would have expected our full backs to at least leg it back to our area? .
However as Layksite says….
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