Good morning Positives,
An interesting afternoon at the Ems I am sure you will agree, and once my pulse had slowed to a respectable rate courtesy of Mr Dean’s final whistle, supplemented a bout of traditional self medication using the traditional method, a game to look back on as genuinely entertaining.I shall take the point.
Needless to say I set myself up for a bumpy afternoon quoting the OneBoro website on Friday concerning the best expectation of the visitors was a good “do-ing”, as their correspondent so succinctly put it. Fool that I am, listening to football bloggers. I was not the only one though. The bookmakers had Boro at 12/1 before kick-off yesterday. In fact the Tees-side club were by no means done. While I guess Karanka and his boys went home thoroughly satisfied on another day, with a keeper facing them less sharp than Cech, it could have been their famous victory. Another clean sheet, four so far, and if he keeps up his average it will be another set of Golden Gloves come May.
Of the game itself ? In spite of the result I thought we played well as a team. As you all saw we faced a well organised side who defended deep and denied Sanchez any space to do his work in the final third all afternoon. Every time we got into the final third we faced a wall of nine blue shirts, a bank of five behind a bank of four, as well as Valdes all day. With our Chilean tiger mostly leashed, and only one scramble and one late burst that got him in on goal, we relied on the players behind him to come through, in both senses. The players behind Alexis I think stepped up, tried to create, tried to take on the Boro defenders and make space and time when very little was available. Iwobi, Theo and Ozil can all take credit for their contribution. My only criticism of them was they perhaps could have tried to get more into the box themselves as targets. I felt that when Perez and the Ox came on we shifted the gear up a notch and for the first time had numbers in the box and the MFC back line wobbled.
The base of our midfield Le Coq and Elneny worked hard and again I did not see much wrong there. We missed the eye of Santi but I would not put down our lack of a goal to his absence, it would be too simple. We did not solve the Middlesbrough puzzle.
Of the visitors ? Adama Traore was a name that rang a bell although even the Arsenal website had no picture of him. I remember him coming on for the final five minutes in our game at Villa last season, by which point we were home and hosed, and him running past Nacho twice. I remember (honest) puzzling why they had not put the youngster on earlier as he looked deadly. So it proved yesterday, with the boy beating Kosc and Bellerin for speed – THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN! (the only man to beat Hector for speed once was Neymar as far as I know). Bizarrely, until his start yesterday Traore had played only twice, from the bench, for Boro since his arrival in August. A great display of strong, very fast attacking football. And just 20 – I hear the rustling of football agents in the undergrowth!
Teams are accused of “parking the bus”. It is a term of abuse apparently, invented by that Portuguese clown. Accordingly I am not sure what the term means. Boro are not Barca or Bayern. I could see that if they turned up at the Ems, played one man up, held on and celebrated with their fans a 0-0 draw they could be accused of failing to play the football they were capable of, and spoiling a potentially entertaining spectacle. However I don’t really see a team in the position that our visitors are in the PL, with the players they have, rolling up at the Emirates, doing other than they did yesterday.
So as the ashes of one PL game smoulder and gently fades away we have but a short break before Tuesday and Reading. In the meantime enjoy your day of rest and the fresh air of a mild Autumn day.
Positively Arsenal 
The old fart’s thoughts.
We had about 70% possession; twice as many passes, less shots on target and no goals. Given Wednesday’s performance and those stats it just bears out that football is a strange game.
It really was one of those ‘bad days at the office’. Why is it that this seems to happen on auspicious days for le boss? Thankfully Petr was in top form when Boro realized that we were having one of those days and we could be attacked. So they did. But thanks to Petr and the woodwork they couldn’t score either. Maybe it wasn’t just the crowd who anticipated an easy win but also the players who didn’t really listen to Arsene’s pre match chats.
It’s no secret that we do have a problem when the bus (the long wriggly one) gets parked and it seems as though there was no other plan to hand. One might think that there’s only plan A and that’s it. But there are another 25 letters in the alphabet one of which must include one that advises “shoot when you can” How Granit might have enjoyed himself.
So we go to the top for the time being notwithstanding dropping the two points, but that minor bit of happiness is offset by the fact that it was a “poop, bums and wee-wee” game. (We live next to a church so I can’t express myself as I did in the game.)
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Top write up A5!
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Can’t be so gracious about the bus me. Maybe a lot of that is down to having a faulty memory.
In my mind, defensive football of my youth meant midfielders staying just inside their own half a lot of the time; not committing too many numbers forward as a team; and pumping long balls up towards a striker or two. Or something like that. Basically it did not look like the ultra defensive football of today which really is best described as parking the bus.
If I’m wrong about that, I’ve less cause for being miffed. As it happens, one of the main things which makes me believe my memory (if a near blank can be called that; I take my lack of memories of the bus in pre-Mourinho years as evidence it didn’t exist) isn’t misleading me is that we, as a team noted for our defensive abilities, worked so extensively on our famous offside trap.
That seems a clear indication that defensive teams were operating higher up the pitch, also that defending involved a bit more skill and co-ordination and relied slightly less on luck.
Anyway, I sure do fecking hate bus football.
As for Traore it’s noticeable and makes sense that some fliers will have one of if not the best day of their season’s against us, often incongruously out of line with their average performances. Makes sense that if your own team has the bus out and the opposition commit many forward to try get through it, you’ll be left, as a speed merchant, with the type of space you dearly want but rarely get to see.
Also we’ll tend to be a bit cleaner on ole speedy than most teams, knowing as we do that a booking is a near guarantee, instead of a maybe, for any shirt-pulling,etc.
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Talking of bookings Rich hands up everyone who thought Mustafi was on his way after clumping Ramirez in the 2nd half
(Forest of hands go up)
Banned smiley
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I feel much better now. Thanks Andy.
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Exactly that AN5! Top stuff.
Boro came for the point, held their discipline in defence and unleash their fizz on the counter. On any other day our unbeaten streak since the opening day could’ve ended. Something I’m sure Arsène and the boys are fully aware of.
Perhaps a timely reminder for us too to be made aware prior results from both us and our opponents means nought. The season is marathon and if we want to take it right down to the final stretch, we’re gonna need to pace ourselves.
Roll on Tuesday. 10 changes and a lovely week of recovery time for the 1st team regulars to recharge their batteries.
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Was the banned smiley for my predictable predication of good behaviour from the fraud for his first visit to N5 following his transparently and undeniably fraudulent performance this time last year? We’ve always asserted here that *gollum gollum* most definitely knows the rules (Negredo dive) which makes his conduct at the bridge last season all the more transparent. Please, let us not insult the esteem we have for the Dickie Birds out there by comparing this bald turkey with such loved and respected officials which we know exist in sport.
–
Traore vs Bellerin late on was a bit of a tie as Traore had a slight head start no?
A duel that began at la Masia. I enjoyed the challenge for the AFC back line.
Interesting to see Bellerin stop attacks for a spell to stay back and cover.
Has Koscielny lost half a yard? Could he just have done with a few more weeks off this summer? Or is it a natural development that complements the arrival of a younger CB partner (further evidence of great management of this squad, given Koscielny’s amazing form)?
If he has does Monreal need to adjust his positioning slightly? With Gibbs waiting in the wings it’ll be intersting to see what happens on the left hand side. Iwobi and Chambo are competing for that forward spot but with Giroud returning we may see more games with Alexis on the left especially against teams clogging up their own pelanty area. Then there remains Ramsey, a candidate for that left side especially for his first few minutes after returning from his staggered pre-season.
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Excellent job there A5. As for Mustafi, I thought your boy Deano did a really good job there, none of the grandstanding that he is so famous for. Pursed lips, while tugging the yellow card from his shirt pocket, no drama, no fuss. I still can’t get over his look of barely concealed contempt as Negredo prostrated himself on the turf, after being decked by Mustafi in a 50:50, trying to con Deano into giving him a foul. Seems your sweet whisperings into his ears that he is a better ref than most has borne fruit.
As for the result yesterday, give Middlesbro credit. They had a whole week to prepare for this game and it showed in their performance; they easily could have pulled off a giant upset if Petr Cech didn’t do the job he is paid for. I am convinced if we were a little sharper, we could have converted one of those marginal chances. 3 games in 8 days was going to take its toll.
Sorry but I cannot join those who are wallowing in doom and gloom after we came through with at least a point. As A5 noted on Friday, if we had won our PPG would have been 2.44. Yesterday’s draw made it 2.22. Win our next game and it is 2.3. The data, absent the headlines and emotion, demonstrates that a consistent 2.32 PPG over the season means a 95% chance of winning the title; streak or no streak.
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As we saw last season in December you can lose key players from the squad and carry on but eventually you need some freshness in there as the matches do come thick and fast (e.g.: less of an issue for Liverpool, but they’ve also struggled to find the same fluidity and form whilst Lallana and the other new CM have been out ).
A calculated risk to give Giroud and Ramsey a pre-season but given the enforced gambles at the start of the season following Gabriel’s injury it seems fair enough!
The season is long, with many a winding turn…
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Then there’s the understanding Ox or Iwobi can play at ten with the Ox also having respectable notches from his performances playing at eight too.
The manager is spoilt for choice.
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Quite right Fins. Hopefully a fresh Giroud and Ramsey as well as the likes of Gabriel, Gibbs, Xhaka and Perez (I regard them as our strategic reserves) will help us maintain our form post December, the period when we usually stumble.
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< not forgetting Perez as an option in the wide forward role too.
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Nice write up Andrew.
I’ve always felt 0-0 draws should attract null points as fundamentally negative ‘bus-based football’ tactics don’t deserve points on the board in my opinion. And spare me the ‘tactical masterclass’ arguments; we have 5 day test match cricket for that sort of thing, thank you very much.
In the same way the Offside Rule is intended to eliminate ‘goal-hanging’ so too should points awarded be structured to remove the reward element of ‘anti-football behaviour’.
A significant crumb of comfort for our boys is that our main opponents will all have to overcome the Bus game at various points during the season and some will cock it up to the extent of conceding on the break.
I saw the possession stat at one point yesterday reached 75:25%. Perhaps those of you with a firmer grasp of football tactics (and stats) than me might explain why, when this is happening, the dominant team doesn’t cede possession more often and ‘simply’ sit deeper in their own half, if only to open up the play? Only by teasing the bus out of the depot can a more conventional form of the game emerge, it seems to me.
If it was easy or viable I imagine Arsene would have done this sometime ago. But it’s certainly possible to win well with lower possession just as it’s possible to fail to win with all the ball. Just a thought really, would be interested to hear the views of others on this.
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PS: I am doing some research for my next blog and it suggests the load we were forced to put on Santi this past 3-years has been back-breaking.
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have to say anicol on the mustafi booking, the only thought in my mind at the time was that its a clear yellow, but being used to Dean screwing us over, I wondered what he would give. Mustafi clearly slipped and fell, and we had others goal side, kos certainly was there to make a challenge. So if Dean had sent off Mustafi, it would have been an even greater error than Moss committed last week with Xhaka sending off.
you say in the article of our midfield duo – Coquelin and Elneny – that they
“worked hard and again I did not see much wrong there.”
and that about sums them up, and also summed up a problem we had yesterday. Both players are very efficient, there is little fuss, little drama, from either of them, you get what you expect to get from both of them. Both players are “safe” players. I bet the passing accuracy of both yesterday were in the 90% bracket, but I would also bet that a very high % of their passing was “safe” passing, sideways, backways, no risk passing. Many times yesterday the chance of a quick attack ended at the feet of Coquelin and/or Elneny. As Wenger would critically call it – “possession without penetration”.
The lack of our bodies in the box was annoying, I was critical of Bellerin, Monreal, Iwobi and Theo, for not putting in first time crosses into the box, but having viewed the game again, they usually had no one or only one to aim a cross at, so would have to stop, take the extra touch, and wait for someone to join the attack, but no one was bursting a gut to get in the box, neither of our “safe” midfielders have that in their game, theo, iwobi, alexis and despite his recent run of goals, even ozil all seemed happier to stay on the fringes of the area.
There is no doubt that not having any of Giroud, Welbeck, Akpom or Sanogo meant no “plan B”, type of aerial attack. And no Ramsey meant the one midfielder who wants to get in the box was missed too. As you said, when Lucas and Ox came on we caused them a few different problems. Ramsey, Giroud, Welbeck and Sanogo all have their critics but one thing that none of them can be accused of is being afraid to get in the mixer and put their bodies on the line in an attempt to score a goal. When we get some of them back in the match day squad, it should improve our chances of breaking down the many parked bus defenses we will face for the rest of the season.
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I knew you’d give a calm well balenced report rather trhan my irrantional ramblings yesterday well done Andy.
For me this was always going to be a tight affair I had us down sneaking it 1-0 in my soccer six. I was hoping for an early goal to give us the cusion to push on but it didnt happen. The second half upped a bit and then the subs defenatley made a difference but it wasn’t quite enough. I said before on these days, when you lose valueble minutes every time you lose possession, Alexis reluctence to pass is costly and it happened again. I would have prefered to have seen him wide left when Perez come on andd early if poss but thats how it goes. Like I said yesterday although there were individual errors I didnt think anyone had a bad game except Nacho. I hope he gets his rest soon and comes back to the brilliance of last year.
Thanks go Bournemouth, Burnley and that late goal from west brom for keeping us top for a few hours at least.
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Rich you may be on to something as to why we now have ultra defensive football of a kind not seen before. It may be the changes to the offside rule. So the defend in a line anywhere in your own half, hands up is not a common tactic anymore, due to changes in the rules, means teams are by and large defending deeper, the active/inactive phases rules, means now it is no longer good enough to know you have let an attacker wander into an offside position and no longer need to worry about him, cos if the ball goes to another attacker who is onside out wide, all of a sudden the guy miles offside a moment earlier is now back in play, but has a head start on you.
So we now have deep lying backlines on edge of their area, even in their area, and where the defenders used to be, we now see a line of midfielders parked.
AA you ask why teams don’t sit back and let the opposition come out a little more, well the main reason is the fear of them actually getting the lead goal, and then nothing will move them out of defense as they will have the goal to hang onto. Plus the tactic has been tried and ultra defensive teams, still don’t come out, the stick to their game plan. Willing to let two or three players try to get the goal, and keep 8 or 9 back.
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Eduardo – yes, unless you are VERY confident of your ability to win the ball back, simply ceding possession would be seen as too risky I guess. But for Arsenal, an indefinite stalemate is also too risky, of course.
Very interesting observation on how the last disastrous tampering with the offside rule has delivered us undesired, unintended consequences, as so often happens.
I do think the current state of that law leaves everything to be desired making an already impossible enforcement job yet harder. The whole idea of ‘interfering with play’ has been reduced to a farce.
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one thing that really pisses me off is this nonsense soundbite that crops up everytime the team puts in a bit of a flat performance – “wenger needs to learn to rotate, its clear the players are knackered/tired”. For me its one of the most lazy and stupid soundbites. We even get people saying that subbing off the likes of Ozil, Alexis and Theo at 60 or 70 minutes in games would mean after three or four such subbings, then said player would not be tired as he would have played a full game less.
Do these people actually think that the players only tiring activity any given week is the 90 minutes of game time they play. The players do far more hours training any week than they do playing matches, they probably do more travelling time than game time too.
20 or 30 years ago, it is generally accepted that players were not nearly as fit as now, yes the game is faster now, but back then it was not unusual for every club in the league to have ever present players, There was only one sub at that time too. It was not unusual for a player at a top club to play 60 games a season, and every minute of said 60 games. In 71 didn’t the Arsenal double winning side only use a total of 16 players all season. League, FAC, LC and Europe, and only 16 players, something like 8 or 9 of them played in every single game.
Surely the improvements in fitness levels and the size of squads compensates for the speed of the game now.
It the players are tired, then surely its down to too much or wrong type of training, than playing 90 minutes twice a week. For me its just a lazy soundbite, that does not stand up to scrutiny.
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Eduardo
If I was diligent enough, I’d try catch out the people who decry a lack of rotation, after the fact , yet fume about rotation, after the fact, should we do it and not get the win.
I’ve a strong suspicion they are almost always the same people.
I indulge in this stuff a little, mostly after poor results, but at least try hard to keep it to a minimum.
The commentator on Wednesday’s game came close to nailing the key point : he suggested, in the second half, there were lots of players who looked like they wouldn’t mind being substituted and that Wenger had to carefully decide who needed it most.
Cazorla was enforced so he just had the two. Walcott and Sanchez made all sorts of sense to me (like to see those who are the most intense sprinters rested when possible).
Point here is that if Ozil had been subbed off instead of one of those two, and one of those two had been injured yesterday…stupid, stupid Wenger, would be the cry.
Even Wenger doesn’t get definitive proof of when resting a player has helped prevent an injury. That’s the tricky nature of it.
Anyway…I hope he rests lots of the key men on Tuesday. Surely the right call (plus I want to see some of the other players in action!)
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The Arsenal AGM is tomorrow, and as usual at this time of year, Tim Payton and the AST get their 15 minutes of fame,
The latest “demand” is for season tickets to be taken off those that do not use them every game.
They are also demanding to know what the clubs view is on having a safe standing area – something that no matter how much the club would be in favor of, they can not have, till the Government change the law. No BPL club can just install a safe standing area.
I’m sure the AST will be hoping that Southampton do not somehow manage to get a win at City today, as it would not be good to have the AGM with AFC sitting top of the table.
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I love Rich.
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Rich I agree that a lot of the people who bemoan a lack of rotation after the fact, are the ones who go ape shit when changes are made to a winning team.
we are likely to rest 9, 10 or even all 11 v Reading on Tuesday, and if we don’t win, then the very people who are denouncing Wenger for not rotating more in the CL game, will denounce him for rotating too much in the EFLC game.
Monreal was rested midweek, did he look fresh yesterday, not to me, so why did he look tired, Iwobi did not look fresh after being rested too, Elneny was not his usual bag of energy either, and he has not started games recently, so why was he tired.
Could it be that tiredness was not the reason for us not being at our flying best.
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Match of the Day @BBCMOTD 26m26 minutes ago
🙈 Just 1 clean sheet in 12 Premier League games now for #MCFC, who are losing 1-0 at home v #SaintsFC.
Latest: http://bbc.in/2euuDP8
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Some cracking comments on here today.
Rich, regarding ultra defensive football I reckon it was always out there but regarded as a nasty ‘Italian/foreign” thing. The approach was regarded as effective but English footballers had neither the temperament or the technical skills to perfect it. For what it is worth I always revered the no nonsense Italian approach with Rossi or Riva up front. Perhaps with the opening up of the English game the philosophy has been brought in and applied.
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1-1 at the Etihad – the crowd have woken up.
Driving along this morning listening to R5Live – heard John Stones described as “best ball playing defender in PL at the moment”.
I nearly crashed the car.
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Eddy, do you think the lads were tired in their minds though? Thoughts are the parent to all action, and each game is somehow like finding a new dimension in physics,to put a point outside the existing one and bingo! off we go. I think that after the 6-0 thrashing they gave out the other day they were on the top of a kind of thinking rather than trying to reach up?
My own thought is we can never get to the bottom of it as everything is affecting everything and sometimes it swings other times it jitterbugs. The old chaos theory frying up everyones minds!
Good points about the old days though and the stacks of games they played with one or two subs!
Imo though players are of a higher standard technically now,but perhaps in the past they might have been tougher. But its impossible to compare really.
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Totally different conditions. Soggy pitches, different diets, different conditioning during childhood = impossible to compare athletes of different eras unless you’re a sports scientist/physio in the employ of someone like: the World Cup winning German team and AFC.
Even then it’d be hard to introduce the most progressive developments from the physiotherapy world into the world of professional sport. There was a freelancing physio I’d like to have seen pulled into AFC full time but a certain snake probably did for that opportunity. Eventually the club found ze German specialist,
How many players took over the prescribed amount of cortisone injections a decade or two ago and ended up with fused limbs? Quite a few, some in the current era even though the physios know better*. e.g.: The pgMOB took pity, or something like that, on Terry’s fused limbs and prolonged his career by a few charitable seasons.
Stories of queues of players lining up for injections and ‘blood spinning’ before a NFL match do not sound like the most advanced holistic care programme in the world. And surely there must be a reason why they do that? Being that they are playing at the absolute physical limit which these doctors can push their bodies to, in many cases regardless of the consequences.
Throw in a special agent and you can see the contrast in recovery programmes taken by Walcott and Falcao -similar injuries at similar times, one had quack surgery followed by a sequence of hilarious laundry loans (unless you are an S&M aaa Expert) the other followed a proven path and had the usual ups and downs on the way to rebuilding his strength confidence and fitness, and right now it looks like he chose the wiser path!
*the fall out between the specialist and team doctor has unwritten chapters, but we can guess the rest of the content alongside the feigning injury that Jose so loves.
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FT: city 1-1 sfc
one goal has city on top, ahead of afc, who are ahead of lfc by one goal
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So Citeh drop two vital points at home in a game they must have expected to win. In fairness to Southampton there were few signs of bus-parking going on so not a great result for the Manchester blues in a half empty stadium and their gently slumbering fans.
Now, can Chelsea overcome mid-table opposition or will they too succumb to a bus-playing opponent who only has eyes for a single point?
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…does that mean the Pobs will be moaning in Manchester? If we had been hammered by Barca and then drew with the Sotonists it would be the old hairdryer and grill time.Peps tactics letting him down? Should have parked the bus!
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city now without a win in five, and they play man utd next in the eflc
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Look to how Jogi Lowe juggled his squad through that World Cup.
My own instinct is that an super intense contest ideally needs four / five days recovery time.
After Chelsea & Basel the squad did well to return with three points from what the Manchester Grunt describes as “fortress Burnley” with all three points, following Swansea contest which in the end was a tougher match then the one against Gazprom, followed by another mid-week CL there was a similar contest against boro in a match with the tanks a little less full then we’d all have liked (and loops back to the thoughts about getting Giroud and Ramsey as strong and as fit as possible following a proper purée-season for the many matches that lie before us).
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Haha
< pre-season!
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https://youtu.be/k7x5aIifokw
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All the above was elegantly summarised by Andrew:
“Pointing in the right direction”
: )
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cl teams from the four big leagues not to win this weekend, AFC, THFC, MC, Juve, Dortmund, Brorussia M, Leverkusen, and at least one of Seville or Atletico Madrid, will not win
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wait for the adverts in this!
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SlovenianGooner @slovenianGooner 26m26 minutes ago
No wins in 5 for City. But Arsenal have one draw and it’s a crisis.
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anicoll
No doubt there’s some hypocrisy in my views on ultra defensive football. For instance, if it works against a rival, I’ll celebrate the result and enjoy any signs of frustration.
Also, maybe I imagine a bigger difference, skill wise and even entertainment wise, when, say, the classy Italian three from Juventus * are marshalling a packed defence than whoever Stoke, West Ham, whoever have who are doing it here.
Sure there’s more. One thing I feel pretty safe with- i.e not too hypocritical nor swamped by bias- is my view there’s something distinctly parasitic about Pulis style anti-football. He makes his excellent living because there are, inevitably, some managers who are less negative than him and a few who are far less. Game/product would be execrable if that weren’t the case.
You know I can’t finish without a word on the role of my ref friends. Full on bus parking almost inevitably goes hand in hand with trying to bend rules with fouls and time-wasting. If a ref deals with that well, then much of my frustration with those tactics disappears. If they don’t, it can increase exponentially.
Now. Can Chelsea Utd serve up something more watchable than Monday, and what the hell result do I want for this one?! Another unwatchable 0-0 might be best for us, but wanting to see Jose lose can’t be switched off easily.
George
Thanks
* bad example. They really are classy players
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I know all common sense demands I don’t waste the next two hours watching the game from the Bridge
But I must
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how was that chelsea goal allowed, utd had not been given the time to park their bus, more signs of a pgmol agenda against jose and utd
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Pedro the Spanish Theo (more consistent technique, less goals and assists) scores a rare goal.
Blimey.
The specialist in bus parking will need to try and find another gear.
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Jose’s tactical masterplan is a bit difficult to follow this afternoon 2-0
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Watching the plundits two pre-season title favourites struggle against Southampton and Chelsea makes me consider that the Arsenal are not completely and utterly D**Med?
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James Olley @JamesOlley 3m3 minutes ago
“You’re not special anymore,” sing the #cfc fans
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Chamberlain > Pogba?
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Mou= Blakey? “I hate you Butler/Conte”…
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Seeing Good Football @theiconic14 9m9 minutes ago
I didn’t know if I hated Chelsea or Mourinho more. It is 100% Mourinho
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