Bom Dia Positivistas,
Yesterday’s Trafford Park contest is not one I shall look back with much pleasure. A draw a fair result and given our overall performance probably the best we might have expected. I have a phobia of early 12.30 kick-offs on Saturdays, with painful memory of being out of the game before the clock strikes one tattooed on my psyche.
Of the 90 minutes ? First half I thought we looked like our usual selves, with accurate, quick passing, players finding space and the Mancs backing off. Alexis looked anything but fatigued and Theo tore into the hapless Darmian. On the one moment of controversy I suspect if Valencia had not been so desperate to fling himself to the ground following Monreal’s clumsy challenge that Andre Marriner might have pointed to the spot. At half time I was confident that more of the same and the home side would crack. The second half ? Not nice to watch was it ? Our game is based on possession of the ball and, other than the final frantic minutes, we rarely kept the ball, the few sequences of passes we had went sideways and backwards, the ball never went in the Mancs’ penalty area let alone troubled De Gea. United deservedly went ahead in the 70th minute and although we had plenty of time to get back into the game the next fifteen minutes were excruciating, as we struggled to stem the red horde.
And just as I was beginning to mark it down as one of ‘those days’ we put together our best move of the afternoon. Ox put in his best cross all seaon, Kosc bulldozed Jones out of the way and Giroud, leaping like a salmon to 12 feet in the air ( see above the snap of Olivier and Kosc caught in the moment) POWERED the ball in from five yards. Unstoppable. The weekend took on an altogether more relaxed tone.
Of our brave lads Cech, Mustafi and Kosc put in very, very good performances in my opinion and did not put a foot wrong all afternoon. Cech’s saves in the first half were not exceptional by his standards but ensured we stayed in the game. Carl Jenkinson was marked out as the focus of attention by the United but I thought he responded very well, defended sensibly, never dived in and was decisive in clearing the ball when needed. Clearly a disappointing day for the social media boo-boys. The Le Coq put in his usual hard working and disciplined performance. Francis is really coming to grips with doing his job but not getting booked. He put in seven tackles yesterday and conceded just one foul.
Looking further forward I am hard pushed to find much to pick out. First half we did well as I mentioned with Alexis and Theo looking sharp. Second half I would not criticise the effort put in but it was a long way from the Wengerball I am lucky enough to be used to.
Of the home side ? I like Mata, I have always liked Mata. He is a very good footballer. It is a great pity he has been forced to play for the Portuguese idiot again. Hopefully Mata will not have to put up with the current regime too much longer, as United sink into a scarp for the Europa place with Watford and Everton.
Well that is me done – you all saw the game and our collective dust has no doubt settled compared with the immediate post match blizzard of emotion. While Trafford Park may not have been fun yesterday a point keeps us nicely in touch, with a decent break before PSG and then Bournemouth, both at home. I think the voyage is progressing rather well.
Positively Arsenal 
Everything he did was upsetting the balance of the team. Also Arron should not have had to drop into MF to help Coq and Mo, because that is Ozil’s job, what with him being part of the MF and all.
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Traore waltzing past Gazprom players with frequent ease.
Hopefully the Bunga Experts forgot to put in a buyback clause there.
And the ricochet from a corner is what it took for Gazprom to craft a goal. As we saw earlier on it’s at the other end of the pitch that ‘boro are lacking the quality. I’d put my chips on Gazprom holding out here though I hope I’m wrong.
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Don’t forget to consider that Alexis was nominally a forward.
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You can’t write that Elneney can’t pass. As evidenced by his pass in the last CL match, that’s risible gibberish.
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He couldn’t pass in the last game. Every time he met the ball he took two-three touches to pass it and never passed it into dangerous zones.
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I think he forgot he was a forward.
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And Ozil has been playing as an AFC 10 (second striker) for a while now, with the goals coming this season, on the pitch throwing shapes that resemble 4-2-4 or in some peoples’ opinions something more like a WM 0898 unfathomnable structure-less mess: which all means that the truth is probably the opposite of the Fast Show satire which is still the vogue on the plundits couch and for the Arsenal blogger, surreal and comical as it is!
I wouldn’t bother trying to figure it all out but we do know that Young Pep’s attempt to copy Arsene’s cunning plan of having a target man in his squad alongside the other options backfired spectacularly when at Bungaloana. With a well rested fitter Toure now back in the city squad that is the only weakness in the petrodollar flag bearers’ squad (the Nigerian kid is a good prospect and has done the job this season but he doesn’t provide that kind of alternative option – last time City won the league they needed three strikers in the squad.
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George, if he was idly waiting for the ball in the penalty area he’d have seen none.
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Fair to say Oleg that Mo is a better passer of the football then you or I ever were
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And that he can pass a football in a competitive match.
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on average – sure, but not in the last match
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I never learn, I really thought we’d win yesterday but I should have known better with the dreaded lunchtime kickoff following the dreadful international break. Away from home. At Old Trafford. V Mo. Big CL clash coming up. What could possibly have gone wrong?
On the upside, and though we weren’t playing especially well, we were light years away from being at risk of a thrashing and for all of us (surely all of us?) who can recall the 8-2, it’s worth reflecting how far we’ve come, and how quickly, when anything less than a win at OT is cause for dismay and discontent.
Another very good write up Andy on a game that ultimately proved hard to watch. I was unable to fathom what Sanchez’ role was and I suspect more than one or two of his colleagues were in the same boat. I was genuinely puzzled that Giroud wasn’t on earlier but never surprised by the unending inconsistency of our inglorious, game-affecting referees. Thank God video-refereeing is now well on the way.
Being deep into November, injuries are off course becoming a concern yet even here, unless I’m very much mistaken (and I’m very much often am), most seasons our treatment room would be bursting at the seams with the long-term injured.
And of course, we’re nicely in touch in all leagues and competitions.
So all in all, things really could be much, much worse. A good result in the week will go a long way to picking us all up.
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You’re attempting and spectacularly failing to convince me that AFC had more possession at OT with just one midfielder on the park (given that Ozil plays as a second striker)
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Pedro the Spanish Theo hits the bar.
Good player, key part of CL and WC winning squads, but he’ll never score at the same rate as Wally.
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with alexis way too deep we had no one up front for our midfield to actually give the ball to, he was chasing the same ball as our midfield, and when he did get it he bloody well gave it away cheap, but he is alexis so this will be ignored, as will how awful ozil was, its all elneny’s or ramsey’s or theo’s fault, god forbid our two biggest stars get judged the same way.
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Some decent moments in this match for Chambers opposite Costa (at RCB).
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A dive from Costa earns Chambers a yellow.
All a part of the learning curve.
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I thought Theo and Alexis both had good first half but second neither made any impression. I can’t see any point in knocking long high balls to Sanchez. He and Ozil do their best work from midfield.
Chambers having a good game at the Riverside – Boro have 15 minutes to grab a point.
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man utd v arsenal in BPL in Wenger era full record
overall
P41, W11, D12, L18
At Old Trafford
P21, W3, D6, L12
At Home
P20, W8, D6, L6
Highbury P10, W4, D3, L3
Emirates P10, W4, D3, L3
by the way the results for the Emirates era are P 10, W 4, D 3, L 3
in the same seasons at OT the results are P 11, W 1, D 3, L 7
so in the Emirates years the overall results P 21, W 5, D 6, L 10
in Highbury years the overall results H&A P 20, W 6, D 6, L 8
from those stats it looks to me like we have always had problems beating man utd, especially at Old Trafford, and remarkably our results at home to them is exactly the same at the Emirates as it was at Highbury. There is also very little difference between our results at OT in Wenger’s first ten years, as there has been in his second ten years.
My conclusion – (especially at OT) we have problems beating Man Utd now, we had same problems beating Man Utd in the past, and I would not be surprised if we have problems beating them in the future.
But I bet if you asked the uber bloggers and malcontents about our record v man utd, they would have you believe that from 96/97 to 05/06, we beat utd at will, but since the move to the Emirates we get beat every time. Little thing like the actual stats would not come into it, as its all about their perception, and all they can remember is Overmars winner and Wiltord winner, the haze of memory has blotted out the likes of the 6-1 loss at OT, or even the 2-4 loss at Highbury. Jumper for goal posts and all that. Its the day trippers fault.
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Chelsea crowned BPL champions this week, can they get the trophy off Liverpool who were champions last round, after spurs got it the week before, and lets not forget man utd had it earlier in the season, and of course Man city went season not only unbeaten, but with 100% record.
Chelsea play spurs next saturday, and man utd play West Ham. as things stand utd are already 9pts off top, and 5pts off 5th, and 6pts off top 4
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PG when I see the convo you are having with rudi on twitter, it makes me thankful I have fought the urge to join twitter, as I would like you fall into the trap of interacting with idiots who base their assumptions and opinions on faulty logic and even more so incorrect data. There is nothing you can do to convince someone who bases their view that we can spend like city etc, cos we have two very rich shareholders.
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My point here is that when the MF is under pressure Ozil should lend a hand rather than drift wide into space. I know he is a genius, but he goes missing not because he is playing badly ,or hiding, its because he is finding space,but its a fruitless exercise when the other 2 in MF can’t find him. The problem is then made worse when Alexis takes it upon himself to drop deep and hog the ball. He doesn’t drop deep to put his shoulder to the wheel, he drops deep to get the ball for himself. Fluent interchanging of position is great when we have the ball, but it’s a fucking liability when we don’t.
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How to alienate people. Chapter 1.
I can’t let the Ramsey stuff lie,folks (what else am I going to do, actually concentrate on Chelsea winning a game?)
First off, a bit of trust (you especially, George) that this is the opposite of knocking the player. 2nd, if my memory has failed me big time and left me looking a tit, well, treat it as just that.
Anyway…my impression before delving into the past was that Ramsey’s magnificent run of form a few years back was when he had lots of licence to attack from the centre, and Ozil was ostensibly left wing. Other than that, I had little recollection of the rest of the midfield but I’d heard a number of times that it was an Arteta/ Ramsey partnership as the two in central midfield.
At least I thought/think this was the period referred to as proof Ramsey works as one of the two (with an attacking midfielder/ten in front)
So I went through the games from 13-14. There were lots of surprises for me. First of which was that Wilshere played plenty of the earlier games that year, and Arteta was absent. Flamini also played a lot, with Cazorla and Rosicky in the mix plenty also.
Arteta joins the mix on October first for the Napoli game, one I remember as particularly enjoyable, with Ozil and Ramsey linking up brilliantly high up the pitch together (if memory serves, that was a regular occurrence and one that amazed and delighted me. Think I thought Cazorla and Ozil would be the two who would quickly gel, but it was Ozil Ramsey)
Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey ; ozil, rosicky, giroud
Next game was also a spectacular, 4-1 Norwich, with more of that Ramsey Ozil link up, high up the pitch
Arteta, Flamini, Wilshere,
Ozil, Cazorla, Giroud (Ramsey subbed on for Flamini on 38).
Long and short of it is that none of the lineups seemed to offer any proof that Ramsey plus 1 in central midfield with Ozil in front is the dream ticket or in fact the equal of Coq, Cazorla, Ozil.
What they do firmly suggest is that Ramsey plus two other central midfielders seems to lead to good times generally and Ramsey performing at an exceptionally high level, with an excellent goal and assist output.
I’ll follow this with a crudely put together post of the games Ramsey scored that year and the midfield composition each time, if anyone isn’t irate enough with me already.
What we seem to have,then, is our trusted Coq/Cazorla partnership + Ozil working well, and Ramsey needing two true central midfielders in there with him to play near his best, with him being the one given the main attacking licence.
If having too many good players is a nice problem to have it would, with Elneny and Xhaka about,too, amount to one of the nicest problems in football.
I think that if Wenger wants Ramsey to thrive and stay at the club long term, Ozil has to be shifted left again on occasion, or even start a handful of games per year from the bench. Otherwise he will keep on being unfavourably compared to the player who gets to play in an ideal Wales set up for him or the similar one he played in for us in 13-14.
Maybe crafty Wenger is just waiting for Ozil to sign up before he dares play him anywhere but at 10.
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13-14
goal= Ramsey goal
Fenerbahce (away) 1 goal
Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla
Rosicky, Walcott, Giroud
—————————
Fenerbahce (home) 2 goals
Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla
Walcott, Podolski, Giroud
—————————
Ozil joins
———————-
Sunderland away
2 goals
Ramsey, Wilshere, flamini
Ozil, Walcott, Giroud
http://www.arsenal.com/match/report/1314/post/first-team/sunderland-1-3-arsenal-match-report
———————————
Marseille away
1 goal (late winner)
Ramsey, Wilshere, Flamini
Ozil, Walcott, Giroud
—————————————-
Stoke home
1 goal
Flamini, Ramsey, Wilshere
Ozil, Giroud, Gnabry
———————————-
Swansea away
1 goal
Flamini, Ramsey, Wilshere
Ozil, Gnabry, Giroud
———————-
Arteta returns 1st Oct (Napoli; top performance ) 2-0
Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey,
Rosicky, Ozil, Giroud
—————————
Norwich, 1 goal; 4-1, that Wilshere goal, tremendous skills late on
Arteta, Flamini, Wilshere,
Ozil, Cazorla, Giroud (Ramsey subbed on for Flamini on 38)
————————-
Liverpool 1 goal (another high-point)
Ramsey,Arteta,Rosicky
Ozil, Cazorla, Giroud
————————————
Borussia Dortmund (a) 1 goal (crucial, another high point)
Arteta,Ramsey, Cazorla
Ozil, Rosicky, Giroud.
———————————————-
Followed by a disappointing 1-0 loss at Old Trafford
———————-
Then four good wins on the bounce without conceding, including
Cardiff, 2 goals
Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey
ozil, Cazorla, Giroud
———————-
Winning run ends in painful fashion. Ozil gives us late lead against Everton, I have my moment when I think this is gonna be our year, they equalize immediately and I don’t have the feeling agin.
——-
Defeats at Napoli and city, home draw with Chelsea, then win away at West Ham (Boxing day) in which Ramsey gets injured.
13 goals scored at that point, 3 more to come, including a fantastically important one.
————-
Theo injured shortly after and title challenge dies in his and Ramsey’s absence. Ozil also out from mid-March.
—————
Ramsey returns in mid April, scores 3 in 5 as we win last six games.
Newc : Arteta, Ramsey, cazorla,Ozil
Hull lge : 1 goal : Arteta, Ramsey,Cazorla,Ozil
Norwich 1 goal : Ozil, rosicky, Arteta, Ramsey
Hull cup final : 1 goal!! : Arteta, Cazorla, Ramsey,Ozil
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just seen someone claim Ramsey has had an “utterly mediocre career”. I do think that comments like that show care in the community is clearly not working.
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Rich, Ozil on the flank might make sense in the Germany squad with Kroos pulling the strings, but probably not in Arsenal, especially since we’ve got plenty of talent like Ox Iwobi Theo and Alexis (wish Campbell and Gnabry were still here though). There simply is no substitute for Ozil as number 10 in current squad. Aaron and Jack might come close in the coming years though.
George, please leave Alexis alone.
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I am minded that Ozil should play left in a front 3 with Alexis and theo. With Ramsey most advanced in a MF3.
But, I am sure Arsene has considered this and rejected it, simply because if it was the way forward, he would know.
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Ramsey has played 2+2 of our 12 BPL games this season, and has 1 more game of our other 6 games, but he is not allowed to work his way into match fitness like others, no, anything less than a goal and he is deemed to be shite. I do think that for some he gets the full on attack mode, cos he dared to be the player who won us the FA Cup, and that was a real slap in the face for the WOB, and they will never forgive him for it.
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Yet, should someone like Real Madrid entice Ramsey, the WOB would be the first to cite a lack of ambition and selling the clubs best players.
The beauty of being WOB, in their minds , they can spin any scenario to confirm their obsessive beliefs, and what’s more, the MSM and the Spurs/Utd/Chelsea fans that share their forums will back them up all the way
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can anyone explain the phenomenon, or when it became a thing, or what caused it, that fans dislike/hate/attack their own players. its not just an Arsenal thing, but we do seem to have a high proportion of it.
I can remember as a child disliking a player from another club, sometimes for as trivial a thing as getting picked for their National team ahead of one of our players(disliked mick mills and derek statham cos they got picked ahead of kenny sansom).
But I never disliked, hated or attacked one of our own players, no matter how poor they may have been, no matter what thuggery they did that I disapproved of, no matter what game they cost us. They were an Arsenal player, I was an Arsenal supporter so it was only right that the player got my support. But that concept seems alien to so many fans now.
I now see real vitriol aimed at their clubs players by supporters. We are only 12 games into this league season, we have one defeat, are on an all competitions 17 game unbeaten run, and yet we could all probably list at least half a dozen players who have received much abuse from our fans – Ospina, Jenkinson, Ramsey, Coquelin, Ox, Theo, Giroud, to name but a few, I could even include two players who have not played for us so far this season – Per and Danny – and as I said we could include more. Probably every single one of our players have received unwarranted criticism, but its not criticism that I am really talking about, its the over the top stuff, its the nastiness of it.
The part of the phenomenon that most intrigues me is that there seems a direct correlation between highly rating a player and highly disliking another one of our players who is a rival for the same position in the team. For example I notice a lot of the biggest Ramsey haters, are those that would see him as taking the place of Wilshere or even Cazorla. We have the same with Theo and Ox, and visa versa. Monreal and Gibbs is the same deal. Its especially prevalent where player x is the second coming, so player y is Satan.
We also see a lot of hate aimed at a player by those that see their presence as being the reason why some fancy new, latest flavor of the month, player has not been signed.
So can anyone shed some lights as to the cause of it, when did it become a thing. is is down to twitter/blogs/internet in general giving everyone the tools to air their views, under the misconception that just cos everyone is entitled to a view, that this make the view valid and of merit.
I can fully understand rating one player higher than another, but I just can not understand why holding said view, means you must treat another of our players with vitriol.
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spot on Mandy, as I said yesterday, Wenger was being faulted by those sort of people, for not bringing on subs earlier, and the main reason for finding said fault, was so that they would not have to actually give him credit for bringing on Giroud and Ox who combined to created and score our goal, the ox at right back sub, turned out to be a masterstroke, but did you see one journo, or one arsenal uber blogger, give Wenger one iota of credit for it. Not a fucking chance, it was all the usual soundbites they throw out. Its no wonder Trump could win an election with nothing more than soundbites, as its the modus operandi of so many in the media, and especially social media/blogs etc.
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Am I allowed to curse on here? I can’t remember. I know about the ban on smiley faces, but I’m not planning to use one of those today. Regardless…here goes.
I am so fucking sick of Aaron getting blamed for every goddamned thing that goes wrong with this team. No one gets as much stick as he does. Not Giroud, not Theo, not anybody. Certainly not Alexis or Mesut. For the last two seasons now, he’s done nothing but plug holes. People bitch about him saying he doesn’t like playing on the right. Well excuse him for wanting to play where he feels like he does his best. Such a horrible trait to want to do the thing in your job that you feel you have the most success at. And what does he get when he does play outside central midfield? Support? Encouragement? Thanks for doing your level best at a job you’re not particularly comfortable in? Hell no. He gets blame and grief and called shit and identified as the “what’s wrong” every goddamned time.
And let’s talk about yesterday. The first 90 minutes he’s played in the league, and only the 2nd 90 minutes he’s played at all since fucking July. And he gets to play it wide left; a position he hasn’t occupied since I can’t remember when. Because Aaron can do it. Do you stick Coquelin out there? Elneny? No. Aaron is always the choice. Because he’s smart enough and he’s good enough and he’s versatile enough, and he’s willing (or at least he’ll give it everything he has, even if he doesn’t really want to do it). Everyone acknowledges that it takes time to build up match fitness. But I don’t think people always remember that it takes time to get your brain back up to match speed as well. Try doing that while not relying on your instincts to guide you while you play in your preferred position, but instead while looking at the game from a perspective you haven’t seen in a really long time. And here, Aaron, help Nacho deal with Valencia too while you’re at it. And also, score, you know, or else everyone will say you’re shit.
I’m really happy that Olivier does well when he comes on as a sub. I love it for him, and I love when he scores and gets to throw it in the face of people who doubt him. But he always, ALWAYS, gets to do that from the position of striker – his preferred position where he is comfortable and where his instincts take over. Aaron never gets that opportunity anymore. I can’t imagine how disappointed he must have been to come back from the Euros having accomplished everything he wanted to, and more, only to get injured and then left behind as the train pulled out of the station and the team gelled without him in it. That’s football, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.
To Eddy’s point above about the reason he gets full on attack mode: I think you’re right on target about the WOB, but not because of the FA Cup. It’s because to them, he is the lightning rod Wenger player. No matter what people say, Arsene trusts him, and he plays him whenever he can, and they hate Aaron for that. I don’t know what they will do for a lightning rod if he leaves before Arsene does. Which he very well may do. And if he does, I won’t blame him one bit.
And before someone accuses me of blaming Arsene, I’m not. Arsene does what is best for the team – that is what he has to do. He believes in Aaron, I know that he does. But if Aaron cannot thrive in the structure of this team, then I don’t think he should be expected to be subservient to the needs of the team forever. He has the right to think about himself as he comes into the prime of his career. I just hope Arsene finds a way, because it would be a damned shame to lose him now.
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Likewise, George. If it was an obvious move to make, a near sure thing, it would have happened already.
Conversely, seems fair to account for a manager’s natural and correct aversion(stronger than a fans because the fan isn’t responsible for outcomes) to changing a winning formula, or even a non-losing formula. I think this might have grown a little for Wenger in recent times- maybe a consequence of the league being harder than ever and the desire to win it, for Wenger, being more acute than ever. As with us, but more intense.
In other words, he may be extremely tempted to try something different, but just as Coq/Caz and Mustafa/Kos are established as 1st choice partnerships, Ozil at ten might be regarded as too successful to risk changing for the time being.
He’s said a few things recently in the same vein as ‘you don’t want to change two positions to solve a problem in one’ (about Bellerin’s absence)
If you suffer a horrendous beating or go on a bad run, that forces the hand- change something- but while results are still ok, even if performances aren’t great and some worries are emerging, it’s a far more difficult choice whether to stick or twist.
It’s just one of those things we, quite rightly, can’t know : we see when a manager picks x over y or makes some tactical shift, but we don’t see how close that manager might have been to doing something different. That invisible stuff is important,though, as it can easily inform decisions that are made in the near future.
Ha, I’ve just realised this is all an attempt from me to reconcile thinking I’m right that, in Santi’s absence, some fundamental change is needed, while Wenger as yet has not agreed- i.e he has good reason not to do it so far, but it’s a damn close thing.
I think we’ll try something different very soon : either Xhaka, Ramsey with Ozil in his normal spot; or Xhaka ,Coq/Elneny, and Ramsey with licence to roam. Cup may provide chance for that Ozil-less experiment and a very strong midfield three who all have some defensive chops.
I’ll stick my neck out and say the lineup will be : Xhaka, Elneny, Ramsey; Ox, Iwobi, Giroud
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Rich, I’m confused. In all of those many examples you gave ostensibly showing that Ramsey didn’t actually work as part of a midfield two with Arteta, wasn’t he playing as part of a midfield two? And usually, but not always with Arteta? What am I missing there?
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AW: “Aaron, I have a cunning plan”
AR: (for it is he) “Yes boss!, count me in”
AW: “I will put you in on the right wing/left wing/defensive midfield/number 10, right back – can I rely on you ? ”
AW: “No problem, I do the job required”
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New blog is up Kelly is the main event. Fucking wonderful post.
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I can totally understand the safety first approach, we have another massive game midweek, and Wenger has explained many times how quickly confidence can go and how slowly it can be to get it back. He has stated that when we lose a game, the approach for the next game is extra safety first, as you do not want back to back defeats, as it really affects team confidence. So with the PSG a winner takes top spot game, we did not want to be going into it with having to go with a safety first approach. We need to have free minds, if we are to play our best and give ourselves the best possible chance of a win.
Win v PSG and we can field the squad players for our last group game, knowing top spot is safe regardless. It can be a week off for every first choice player with the christmas fixtures on the horizon.
for years Wenger has been lambasted for his gung ho approach to the big games, his we go out to play, we go out to win, regardless of our team, who we play, and where the game is, and everytime that it did not go to plan, it was all – why can’t wenger be more pragmatic, why can’t he just go for the draw, etc etc etc, – and then we see the reaction to yesterday, a game we took a safety first approach to, not forgetting that if our players had played to the level they can, we could very well have won it with a safety first approach, its still all moan groan and complain from a certain section of our fan base
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anicoll post 9.17
how can that be, the malcontents and uber bloggers tell us that Ramsey is selfish, only plays for himself, is a glory hunter, etc etc etc
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New post up
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Alabamagooner
Like your recent post. To clear up what I was on about : there were always basically three central midfielders during Ramsey’s great spell. So he was one of three, not two, and had the freedom to attack whenever he wanted to
That’s me counting Wilshere, Cazorla, Flamini and of course Ramsey and Arteta as true central midfielders.
In all the many lineups I gave Ozil was, I think, playing left.
As I said, my memory is untrustworthy, but there’s no way Flamini or Arteta were the advanced player in those fixtures where they played well with Ramsey. Or if it was Cazorla or Wilshere making up the three, similarly I don’t think either of them would have been permanently stationed in front of the other two, and both would play their part in defending and covering Ramsey when he chose to attack.
Point I was trying to get at is that I don’t really consider Ozil as a central midfielder. He’s a number ten or a (very) attacking midfielder, in my book.
I think Ramsey is completely proven to be a big success as part of a three, with him as the player with the main attacking duties… but while Ozil plays at ten we don’t even have that three (we have two and a number ten, who is unable to contribute much defensively), and Ramsey can’t do what he’s best at anything like as much as he wants to and as we want to see.
It’s a conundrum: Ozil is special, but Ramsey can be immense,too- and it annoys me that people expect Ramsey to consistently play as he does and as well as he does in an ideal setup for him, when he is not playing in an ideal set up for him.
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