Good afternoon Positive Arsenal fans,
A fine game of football between two high quality sides, both sets of players underlining the professional aspect of their trade, with a display of concentration and controlled physical aggression over 94 minutes. Clearly defeat at the end of the contest is a sour result but I’ve no serious complaint. 1-0 did not flatter them.
Of our brave lads I thought it was an excellent defensive display. Admittedly we were clinging on at times as the Totties cut into us, ragged in the opening ten minutes of the second half which cost us, and Cech made 2-3 good stops. Some of Petr’s footwork was a little alarming today but nothing the matter with his positioning , handling or shot stopping. Bloody hell that 200th clean sheet is proving an albatross for our stopper though. Our defensive unit of Kosc, Shkodran, and Nacho gave 110% and Hector, in my opinion, was our best player.
Further forward was probably the difference between the teams today. It was always likely to be difficult to control the ball, hence our set up in the first half to hit them on the breakaway. But we just did not make enough of the possession we had. It was c. 70 minutes until our first shot or header on goal I think ? That is just not us !
Of the midfield personnel Jack was our most creative player, Granit dependable and did not waste the ball, and Mo made 50 blocks, tackles, half tackles, nudges etc. I thought Mesut had a poor game today by his formidable standards, though he had little time or space to work in as a white swarm settled on him.
The last fifteen minutes we just began to get a modicum of control, and for the first time in the match seemed to have more possession At last we huffed and we puffed a little. But even then the home’s side seemed steady, and held us at arm’s length.
I had probably settled for the defeat by the 90th minute, to everyone’s surprise the 4th official popped up 4 additional minutes. And being football of course we then created two clear cut chances, both of which certainly should at least have drawn a same from Lloris, but neither of which were on target. What a different mood I would be in if either strike from the Frenchman had gone where they should have. I suspect Lacazette feels worse than I do about those two disappointing efforts, but he is a hard man to read, facially speaking.
So there we go – gritted teeth – beaten on the day by the ………….bbbb… bbbbeee….
No I just can’t do it.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Positively Arsenal 
Just read your point about not blaming Laca Shard and your right – unfortunately we got to so late in the game without almost any genuine penetration in the box or clear scoring chances it all suddenly fell on him.
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not sure it could be claimed our defense played well, when cech had so many big saves to make and spurs had so many clear scoring chances.
midfield was second best today, and for me xhaka seemed to be playing in slow motion in that second half, jack completely sold himself in the build up to their goal, leaving bellerin a 2 on 1, and no chance to stop the cross coming in.
68 minutes before we had a shot on target.
everything was so slow from us today, the thinking by our players was not sharp or quick, how many times did we see, especially at the back, our player get the ball, hesitate, then have to go backways with a pass, usually back to cech, who would then also hesitate and have to in the end rush his clearance, again putting us under pressure.
Now I don’t know if the hesitation with passing out from the back was due to Elneny, Xhaka, Wilshere, Ozil and Mkhitaryan not making themselves available enough. Ball also never stuck up top.
We played like a team totally lacking in confidence, looked like there was no real belief that we would win, I would go as far as to say once we went behind some of our players looked lost
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Well I watched Liverpool get opened up all second half last week at Anfield a bit more than we were opened up today eddy – a good attacking team. First half we managed it, but just a 5% switch off in the second, or maybe a +5% from them and Kane was in.
We had to had to had to get on the scoreboard today.
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Was it 68 minutes btw ? – it was a bloody long time coming.
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An on form Ramsey is a rather important player for us, his injury record is understandable but a real shame
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Hurts to say it but the truth is the Spuds were better than us.
Weather conditions required more consistent grit than we could muster.
Mikhi was bossed by Trippier, Jack & Ozil rarely bothered Dembele, and Davies never really had to work that hard defensively.
We needed a little more physicality and it wasn’t until Danny came on that we got some.
Iwobi is not the player to build attacks up from deep.
In hindsight shoring up the middle with M.Niles or Kolasinac (for Elneny or Jack) might have given Ozil more room….oh well.
Xhaka played well enough not to take the blame for Davies’ cross in my opinion.
Ozil was more at fault.
The need for a robust DM remains most urgent. Our CBs have too much responsibility on them in every game.
It could have been worse but we still lost.
Pretty much sucks.
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wenger after game comments – from football.london
On the defeat
The game should have been finished at half-time for me. We missed opportunities on the counter attack at this level.
The second half we should have lost the game in the first few minutes, they had lots of chances.
At the end we should have come back to 1-1.
Overall it’s mixed feelings, a bit more quality in the first half we could have won the game.
On the goal – was it a foul?
I have no complaint. I watched it again, it’s a regular goal – we can only look at ourselves.
Keown said your players lack hunger to defend – is that right?
No, I don’t think they lack hunger to defend. He is a super striker, one of the best in the world who scores against everyone.
On the top four hopes
It was a game we couldn’t afford to lose. it makes it more difficult now, but we have to fight.
On the away form
It’s very poor. I believe as well once they scored that played a part.
Football is about scoring goals. You can say we are not strong enough, but you look at the numbers and we don’t score enough goals.
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Aaron might have made the difference today Mandy as he has a great record against Spurs and at Wembley. However we had enough good players out there do better. Maybe not won, maybe not even got a point but “better” in a football sense.
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14 away BPL games so far this season, only 13pts won. 3 wins, 4 draws and 7 defeats
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Before today’s result the Europa League would have been a good trophy to add to the collection. After today it took on a whole new significance.
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more wenger comments
On the missed opportunities
I believe that we had opportunities, dangerous situations that we didn’t transform into opportunities – That’s where my regret was. In the final ball we missed something.
Overall when you have two or three opportunities like we had in the final part of the game, you have to take your chances. You will not have 10 chances, if you don’t take them you will suffer at the end of the day.
Unlucky with the Aubameyang offside in the first half?
I haven’ seen it again. To me it looked that he was level. Is the boot in front or not? I will have to watch on the video.
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Hmmmm. Definitely feels like teams have a surer formula to work to than us, and that this is particularly true once in the lead. (Spurs aint lost apparently from lead in prem this year whereas we prob have handful of times)
Maybe it’s unfair to be too down on us given there were a handful of very promising counter situations first half, we lost out on that close offside call (where attacker meant to be favoured), the first half was close against..eurgh, bleurgh, a strong team these days?
Nearly all teams seem to have that ability to make life very hard against a team determined to play from back, and I don’t think we do. Relies on speed, aggression, bit of nastiness, players up top and in mid, plus further back, to a degree, with decent defensive nous.
Palace and Everton belatedly found it against us but it don’t matter because we blitzed them early; Spurs had it second half when ahead and it made things very tough.
Feels like we are hugely dependant at the moment on passing football working, getting ahead, preferably by a few. We’ve enough good players that it can happen, quite often, at home at least,but it puts such enormous pressure on team to get it right that way.
Should they begin to struggle with it, as was case in second half until late on, seem to find it very tough to make any adjustment.
No wins in 16 away at top 6 is downright grim
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We certainly had the players to do better.
These away performances are a complete mystery, especially when we go behind, all the things Wenger stamps on his teams seems to desert in these circumstances.
I have never seen a Wenger team so poor at keeping the ball as the last couple years away, and if anything, it’s getting worse.
There are always mitigating factors, new players adjusting, improved coaching and resources available to opponents, lesser teams have got streetwise against us, but they really need to find a way to improve things, as things stand, it looks to me like we are underachieving in the league, never really thought that before under Wenger.
Still, let’s go out and batter some Swedes mid week, and get some confidence back for some of our forwards
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seen a quote from Wenger today re not signing Johnny Evans in January.
“we could not afford the fee WBA were asking”
it was said WBA wanted up to £25M, so it seems odd if we could not afford that sort of fee.
AW was then asked could he not have asked Stan Kroenke for more transfer funds, and he said
“if he gave me £200M, Man City would raise theirs to £400M”
found this rather odd
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mandy there is some talk that the game in Sweden is a doubt, due to heavy snow, the ground was under a couple of feet of snow earlier in the week,
but if it does go ahead, we really need a big win, so that we can rest the team for the second leg what with the CC final on the following Sunday.
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OptaJoe
Verified account @OptaJoe
2h2 hours ago
9 – Petr Cech has now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of his last nine Premier League appearances – his longest ever run without one in the competition.
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Hope this game can go ahead if conditions are safe, our players need to get back in the saddle and win away.
Was strange that quote from Wenger, especially as we are still in or close to the black on transfers? we may be saving for the summer.
If things don’t go well, the club may regret, but 25 million seems a hell of a lot for Johnny Evans .
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it might be a lot for JE, but to say we could not afford it, is a real worry, as, like you say, we had a small net spend.
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Arsenal only won 9 away BPL games last season and even if we win all our remaining away games this season we can not match it, 5 to play and have only won 3 so far. Brighton, leicester, Newcastle, Man U and Huddersfield to play away
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Report – Swanson and Balogun hit braces as Arsenal U18s score six in win over Reading
U18 Premier League
Reading 2 Arsenal 6 (Swanson (2), Balogun (2), Benson, Burton)
by jeorge bird
Arsenal U18s extended their unbeaten run across all competitions to 13 games with an emphatic 6-2 victory away to Reading in the league today, with Zak Swanson and Folarin Balogun both hitting braces.
The young Gunners will soon face Reading in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup and this game will give Kwame Ampadu’s side much confidence going into that fixture.
Swanson opened the scoring in the eighth minute after being teed up by Jordan McEneff, with Balogun getting his first goal of the game shortly afterwards.
Josh Benson then struck to give Arsenal a three-goal advantage with just 16 minutes gone, but Reading reduced the deficit through Thierry Nevers.
In the second half Arsenal continued to impress as Swanson and Balogun both scored again and Robbie Burton then added further gloss to the scoreline.
Reading got a consolation goal when Tommy Stevens found the net, but Arsenal fully deserved to take all three points.
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Having a legitimate goal taken away from us in the first half really hurt our chances t get something from this game.
More decisions going Spurs way.
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A fine game? Don’t think I’ll necessarily agree with that. Both teams looked a bit off, especially in the first half. Just that one moment when Jack allowed Davies time on the ball to whip a delicious cross for Kane that cost us. Spurs came alive after that but their horrendousness in front of goal continued after that as our CB’s were left too exposed chasing the game. We didn’t fair any better with the chances that gone our way toward the end.
So ultimately that solitary better moment in the game was enough for Spurs to take home the points.
I hope the boys don’t beat themselves up too much as Arsenal home and away are like 2 different teams this season. There’s a Cup final soon so need put all of today’s disappointment behind rapidly.
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That is the thing DC – last week PEA was a yard offside and got away with it – this week it was marginal at best.
Bloody football.
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had the feeling all week that Aubameyang being offside last week for his goal, would come back to bite us, especially as everytime the goal was shown be it BBC, or Sky or BT, they mentioned and paused the footage to show he was off, so had the feeling that any tight call would be evened out this week.
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Just seen a tweet, we need to win ten of our next eleven just to match last years league points, when as we know, we finished fifth, not good.
We really need those cups, top four is looking as shaky as Shakin Stevens having a dizzy spell, that is unless they really turn things round and two above us hit a bad spell.
Come on Arsenal, you are better than this!
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If we get 75 points I will eat my hat – 4/5 in front of us now and disappearing over the hill.
Points totals vary from season to season though – Citeh got 4th with just 66 points two seasons ago.
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Just hope, Chelsea most likely, and one other implodes, but them aside, none of them really look sufficiently inconsistent , nor do we look sufficiently consistent to catch them.
Just hope the Europa brings dividends.
Know things go in cycles, and know they get their help, but how have they let the spuds become better than us over two seasons?
Still, we can be a more than decent cup team
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I think one of the problems is that you can do blood and thunder, guts and passion – or you can do cool and intelligent tactics. But if the latter doesn’t work out then it looks as if you don’t care. We might easily have been one or two up at the break if the counter attacks had been executed properly – but they weren’t, so we end up looking like we are weak and gutless. I enjoyed last week very much, expect there will be more games to enjoy this season – and a fair few abject disappointments too. And then next season it will all begin again with new hopes and maybe a bit of a change of personnel.
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foreverheady, I think the lack of real pace in so many of our players make it look like they are not trying, when you see opponents burst past them and so many of our players struggle to catch up. That some seem to, knowing they are unlikely to catch up, not bother to keep trying to catch up, does not help either. Xhaka, Elneny and Jack have no real pace, Elneny being the quickest. Rambo no slouch but he is not lighting quick either. Mustafi not super quick, and Koscielny certainly seems to have lost a bit of his speed too.
Mkhitaryan, Lacazette and Ozil are not sprinters either, Iwobi is an odd one, he has great speed when chasing back, but I don’t recall seeing it from him going forward.
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seemingly this will be the color of one of our kits next season, likely the 3rd kit
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DViwwwvXUAI7zlI.jpg:thumb
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I thought we set out with the right game plan, defending deep but the counters weren’t executed well enough. That said, Spurs got all the calls going their way. Every 50/50 was called in favor of Spurs and that ultimately proved to be the deciding factor, as I thought Kane fouled Kos on their goal, Auba through on goal in the first half and also in the second half only to be called offside, wrongly imo.
Our away record is unpleasant to look at but also highlights the injustices we have suffered this season at the hand of refs. We have at least 9 less points than we should have presently, that not taking into account the psychological impact of those games on our players.
I will excuse Laca for the missed chances, it happens.
We regroup and go again, top 4 just became harder but not impossible.
#UTA
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having spent some time on twitter this evening the causes of the defeat today has been made clear to me
jack was great but was made to look poor by elneny and xhaka
we should have stuck to the same formation and as much of the line up as last week, but we lost the game by bringing on Iwobi(who played very well last week)
Bellerin was our best outfield player but was also dog shit
Cech was our man of the match but he retired last summer
Mustafi and Koscienly can’t organize a defense like Per could, but Per should have retired at least one year ago, if not two.
Ramsey not missed at all as Wilshere ran the show today
our season is over as CC and EL don’t count, like the did only last season for MU.
now I hope that has cleared things up, well its as clear as mud.
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Unfortunately, Spurs were better than us in every department….
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Georgaki: “Spurs were better than us in every department”? Sounds more like its the winners who write history. From my viewing it was even for long periods except for that spell in the 2nd half when they created 2-3 big chances and scored one. We got 2 chances in the end but Laca inexplicably did not put either on target.
IMO, we lost the game in MF. Generally speaking none of our midfielders could consistently break the Spurs lines and burst into their box or deliver a through ball to Auba. As a result they gained in confidence and they became more successful than not in pressing us hard and fast when out of possession.
Grade: Needs to Improve.
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Midfield was definitely where we lost the game. (isn’t this true of most games?)
Our inability to keep the ball or press Tottenham and win the ball back, and their ability to keep hold of it and force us into errors was evident. I realised how frustrating Santi must have been for the opposition with how he could keep the ball and manufacture space for himself in the midfield. Dembele was annoyingly good and we couldn’t get the ball off him.
In the first half we at least shut down the passing lanes and were ready to hit them on the counter. Both Miki and Ozil failed to find the right pass despite multiple opportunities. In the second, they stopped concentrating on defense, Cech typified the lackluster attitude with his terrible kicking game, and after the goal, we just lost any belief and everything just fell apart (except for maybe the defenders) with us playing less like a team and more like a bunch of frustrated schoolboys running about in the yard.
What’s annoying is that if we had kept our defensive intensity up, we likely would have won this game, because Spurs were always going to give up some chances like they did at the end. (And this was despite us not being able to do anything with the ball)
And I think that is the problem. We didn’t have the intensity. For an NLD! I am very disappointed with the players.
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shotta_gooner
Thats how I saw the game
This is a team searching for an identity, whilst competing for prizes.
In the recent past and the early ‘Ems’ years, Arsenal have put on performances like the one spurs put on today and end up drawing the game ,By the opposition taking one of the chances Laca had today.
Execution at crical times was the failing (The fine details)
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Shotta I generally agree with your assessment. But they were better….
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Such a shame we are making the idiots in the media so happy these days, queuing up to announce power shifts and the like.
We are going through a very inconsistent time at the moment, but will rise again, though of course will get no credit when we do.
Wenger and the club need to do whatever it takes to sort out this away form, I suspect they are closer than some realise, though it may be too late to do much in the league this year.
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Mandy
That’s the hope. The thing is Wenger is accused of not being a great coach. I think that criticism is valid, to an extent, or rather in a specific sense. He, seemingly, doesn’t go out ‘drilling’ tactics into players, apart from passing and combination movements to build chemistry. He apparently demands that players analyse their own performances and come up with their own solutions (of course he is there to help) Which is why he likes having intelligent players around, even sometimes at the cost of outright skill.
But, when it works, when the players do figure out what they are supposed to do to make the machine work as the manager sees it, it can and is often great. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a squad with a great level of talent (midfield is especially a problem and recruitment here is where I do blame Wenger) The idea that some managers might do better with this squad is probably valid. But I think that is akin to Everton signing up Allardyce and saying yeah we need to do better than be relegated. I guess at some point, it might be the right thing to do if we consistently show such poor performances in the league, but for now we can hope that the manager and the players can sort this out and perform like we know they are capable of.
PS. on a related note, eduardo found it weird that the club couldn’t afford 25m for Evans. It is weird. I don’t agree with those that spout civil war, but it might mean that having pressed the reset button on the squad in January, they are looking for a continuation of the process rather than add a stabilising force in someone like Evans. Also, maybe they are considering if Wenger is the manager they want spending the money. Arsenal don’t do knee jerk reactions and Wenger is more than a legend, but it has to be a point of discussion if performances like Swansea and yesterday continue.
PPS. I am not calling for Wenger to be fired hurrr durrr. I’m merely saying that it’s not working right now, and as such the board must be exploring all options. I still maintain faith that it can and will click into place once the new players have adjusted to the team and vice versa. We’ve got the League cup final and the Europa League to go for, and we can still just about hope for top 4 if we pick ourselves up and perform better.
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I can understand any club not willing to pay £25 million for Evans, if that was the deal, and both Citeh and us rejected the valuation. What is more puzzling is why I’d we had wanted a defender as AW said after the window closed the only target had been (apparently) JE?
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Andy
Maybe because he was the only one available who fit the age profile AW wanted? We’ve already got young CBs. Unless someone really good was available then an older CB might be the ticket. (Ornstein did suggest Manolas was also of interest)
Actually wasn’t there a thing about Evans having a 3m buyout if WBA get relegated? Arsenal bid 12m according to Pardew. Probably decided that’s more than enough.
The use of the word ‘afford’ is a bit weird, but nothing more than that, Pure speculation on my part.
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Georgaki,
Comfortably better. It was pure luck, Cech and last-ditch defending that kept it down to one goal.
The flip-side of Arsenal being a good cup team these days is that it only gives you islands of cheer against a lot of drudgery, like the last days of George Graham.
As a purist, my least favourite development of the last few years is this new pragmatism: Sitting on one-goal leads, or setting up against rivals (Spurs, Liverpool) like we did yesterday. By all means, play that way in the cups (because those matches have their own flow), but it hasn’t made us more successful in the league. It’s like we’re accepting that we can’t go toe-to-toe.
Saw somewhere that xG against us has grown year on year over the last few seasons, so it’s not even making us defend better. Of course, this takes nothing away from the cup wins. They’ve been memorable.
–
Watched on mute yesterday, and a few times I saw a dark-haired left-footed player do something intelligent in the centre of the park to make a bit of space, and I thought “Wow, Xhaka is improving”, and then I realised it was Ozil dropping deep.
In the past I’ve always got the reasoning behind picking unpopular players, from Song to Ramsey when he was coming back from injury. But I’m staggered that Xhaka has started every league game for us this season, in a midfield dying for quick thinkers and a bit of guile.
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He is put in as the engine Birdie. We did not lack guile or quick thinking players yesterday in Ozil, Mhki and Jack but even with Xhaka and Mo adding muscle we were dominated in midfield. And when we did hit the home side on the break the useful possession we did have was wasted.
68 minutes to get a save from Lloris – Not good enough.
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That was moany, sorry. This is all to say that it’s a crying shame that Santi has been missing so long, and we should be looking for a player in his mould who can eliminate a few players in compacted midfield with a feint, turn, perceptive short pass, anything.
Xhaka did a clever dummy in the first half to start one of our counters. That kind of thing makes all the difference. But I don’t think we’ve seen enough of that craft. I don’t think he has it in him.
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Andy, in what sense is he an engine though? I’m not sure he’s really a tempo-setter like say, Arteta was. He’s not really as varied or intuitive with his passing. What’s the way to put it? I don’t think he works things out quickly enough.
I also reckon tempo setters are also meant to be adept at wriggling out of crowds, like Arteta could.
I think there’s an absence of guile in deep midfield for sure, which makes it difficult to open teams up, and leaves someone like Ozil crowded out (he did struggle yesterday independently of that).
This just occurred to me, but many of the best deep midfielders (like Santi, like Arteta) are usually former wingers or attacking midfielders who have settled into a deeper position as they’ve got to know the game.
And that goes for Dembele, a former winger who dominated the mf yesterday. But what bothers me is when people harp on about his physique, with problematic words like “beast” or whatever. As well as being offensive, it’s not what he’s about. He has a composure, variety and nuance that a long succession of AFC midfielders had.
Despite looking completely different I think Dembele loads in common with Santi. And I think their qualities are what dominate midfields in the PL these days.
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Pretty morose today.
Used to always have ideas (plenty proven wrong by time!) about how this type of player or that could be the missing piece in the team and improve us significantly, but at the moment nothing like that.
Yesterday was obviously the double blow of losing to them and what it did for top four hopes this year, so always going to be painful if it came to pass.
If we closely resemble any team in our intended football style it is surely City, in that our aim is to pass from back through pitch, overwhelm teams with numbers and quality in top third, play attacking football, not play defensive football, and not really recruit players with a big emphasis on size, power or aggression. One huge difference is we don’t press high up or anywhere on pitch like them.
Their main advantage barely needs elaboration. They are ridiculously rich and spend relentlessly. Doubts over a 50 mill centre back, buy a 60 mill one. Premium young players mostly who fit exactly what they want. Annoying but we just have to get on with it and accept their unearned strength.
The best positive slant I can muster is that we do have a lot of good players and this has turned into an extremely unsettled year, with perhaps unprecedented change to the squad. It’s still the very beginning for two huge new players.
We have the cup final ahead and have to hope we hit new heights for the season in the Europa league. We will need to beat at least one or two high quality, savvy teams to succeed there, including quite possibly the incredibly strong defence of Atletico Madrid, but maybe the slightly different and, for me, better, European refereeing can boost our chances.
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As in the player who does the great majority of foundational things, picking the first ball up from the keeper and moving it to OJM or R, picking up the scuffed Pass, being available when a defender needs an out ball so as not to get into trouble, tackling, using his height to win headers and/or disrupt the opposition’s airborne threat etc
The water carrier role
I may be wrong but is he still ahead in the number of PL touches this season (albeit he had probably played more)
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Andy, it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing that he has so many touches! I don’t need to say that I’m not a wannabe scout or anything like that.
I described him to my legions of twitter followers as Edu with ankle weights. But if he is a water carrier, and not this mastermind Xabi Alonso style playmaker that he’s marketed as, is he good enough at any of those odd-jobs, particularly the defensive ones, to warrant selection?
I mean, it sort of makes sense that Wenger sees him as a water carrier now we’ve flogged Coquelin, who would be his rival for that role.
And I guess, secondary to that, if we’re setting up to counter attack like yesterday, isn’t a player like him obsolete when the onus is on us advancing the ball as quickly as possible? What’s the point in someone playing scores of safe passes if we’re not out there to keep possession?
I don’t know, and that’s not rhetoric. I genuinely don’t know what he’s all about, and I ascribe our decline in the league over the last 18 months to him, partly. I think we can call it a decline now.
What I’d love is for a journalist to get AW to answer in detail, what Xhaka is and what he’s good at. I say that out of real curiosity. But that would require journalists here to be interested in what actually happens on the pitch.
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OK, I really am going to stop. I have a fixation with this guy. Haven’t felt this way about a regular Arsenal player since forever.
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anicol it was not a case of wenger saying we were unwilling to match the asking price for Johnny Evans, he said we could not afford the asking price, and was even asked could he not have asked Kroenke for a bigger transfer budget.
also Wenger did say after the window closed that did not get all we wanted signed, that we wanted to sign a defender.
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