Thursday, December 19, 2024

Wenger: returning duo give us cutting edge

Arsene Wenger has hailed Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil after Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Hull at the KC Stadium today.

The Welsh Jesus scored one, made one, and saw the rebound from his shot tucked away by Lukas Podolski for Arsenal’s third, while Ozil played for an hour and provided some moments of real quality before he was replaced by Mathieu Flamini.

Afterwards, the manager was keen to praise the duo for what they added to an Arsenal side that has struggled in recent times.

On Ramsey he said, “He’s a threat. We looked like we had problems to score goals away from home recently. Him and Ozil give us a cutting edge in the final third that makes us look more dangerous to score.”

And on Ozil – “Yes, he always has the timing of his pass, the incisiveness of passing makes you always turn quickly from defence to offence. That is of course very important.”

Wenger was also pleased that his team seems to have found a bit of confidence after what has been a difficult time.

“We knew we had to win today and we had that kind of pressure,” he said. “But I think you could already see that against West Ham there is something better in our game and today there was much more oil in the engine again.”

Sadly, Man Utd couldn’t do us any kind of favour as they went down 2-0 to Everton at Goodison Park, but today was all about ensuring we got the three points, and to that extent it was job done.

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Arsical

It was good but at times Arteta made us look a little toothless.

AllGunsABlazin

Can we spare the Arteta puns? He put a lot of bite into our game today.

Gooner

Just be glad that when it comes to the crunch, Arteta is playing on our team

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Congratulations AllGunsBlazin, your pun has won you a red Gummy Bear

godooner

If only we had those boys fit for the hole season we would be still there fighting for the leauge not just a champions league spot..but that’s just our luck ..great to have them back bring on fa cup final

Gargoyle

Maybe they were being a bit overplayed?! I don’t like pointing fingers but I honestly think that sometimes Wenger takes too much risk fielding players in the red zone. On one hand that’s really desperate, stupid and irresponsible, on the other it seems that he didn’t really have a choice since other players were missing as well. I think that the setbacks they suffer a just rushed comebacks. Then there are Walcott and Diaby who are just completely unlucky. I really hope we see the team fulfill its potential next year. It would be glorious.

AN Other

Indeed. It’s our most convincing away win this season. Ramsey and even Ozil are so important.

Mpls

You can erase the ‘even’ from in front of Ozil. He needs no qualifier in that statement. He’s just so smooth some fail to notice.

heartbroken_gooner

i criticized ramsey a lot in the past.and after that injury he had sustained in boxing day, i still had a doubt that he might not be the same ramsey when he comes back..But all the doubt has vanished now..i am very sorry Ramsey for hurting you in the past. You are a true fighter and future of arsenal !!

sohham

The Welsh Jesus always forgives.
Except when you’re on the other team.
Then he just rips you right up.

A Yank in King Arsene's West Stand

This is why investigating injuries/training methods should be as high a priority as transfers. I think Wenger has assembled a tremendous team (not saying we don’t need to buy, mind). If we’d had our boys fit, we’d be in such a different place.

Still points to be won, glad to have people back for the run in. COYG!!

A thousand times thumbs up on this comment. CF and maybe CB aside, this team is SO DEEP when fit. Let’s get this sorted!

(And win our last four, too.)

Gutbukket Deffrolla

We have a state of the art medical facility, and we know that Arsenal’s medical term are completely conversant with the idea that players in the Red Zone get injured more easily. The problem is either very, very complex, very weird, due to us always buying glass players, or is down to Wenger pushing them to let him have players back too soon. If that turned out to be the problem then it wouldn’t need investigating because the medical team would have no choice, if they are true to their calling, but to tell Wenger it’s his fault if he’s… Read more »

Gooneron

Ramsey, super player. Ozil, pure class.

Aysun

Ozil is as important as Ramsey. We missed both players so much and cost us dearly!

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Wenger has developed a brilliant strategy for our team based on the particular skills it has. Unfortunately we don’t have backup players who share the same skillsets. We have no Ramsey 2, we have no Ozil 2 (no such thing anyway, but Cazorla tries), we have no Walcott 2. We continued to play as if all of our best performers were healthy for too long, which more than likely tells us that Wenger thinks our second string have, or can develop, the same skills and energy that the first choice players do. Perhaps he will buy well in the summer… Read more »

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Or maybe he could develop a Plan B that caters to the strengths of the second choice players?

Me So Hornsey

Love to see podolski’s goals per minutes on the pitch stats also his chances to goals ratio. I bet it’s high.

WengersNoseHair

In the League, Prinz Poldi has 8 goals in 897 minutes, that’s a goal every 112.1 minutes. He also has 3 assists, which gives one goal or assist every 81.5 minutes, i.e. better than 1 G/A per game. Compare that to other wings in the league: Walcott: 1 goal every 171.8 min.; 1 G/A every 85.9 min. N*$ri: 1 goal every 342.3 min.; 1 G/A every 171.2 min. Navas: 1 goal every 444.5 min.; 1 G/A every 161.6 min. Silva: 1 goal every 275 min.; 1 G/A every 101.3 min. Hazard: 1 goal every 196.9 min.; 1 G/A every 119.8… Read more »

sohham

That Shirley isn’t half bad.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Shirley you jest?

bonbonbon

Hull fans: Ozil fouled for a clear pen – BOOOOO! Arteta gets his teeth knocked out – BOOOOO! Giroud gets pushed in the back and wins a freekick – BOOOOO! As for Arsenal, a performance like today’s only leaves you wondering what might have been had we not lost Ozil, Ramsey, Walcott, and Wilshere. The way things have worked out it looks likely that the consistency we showed before Christmas would have carried us to the top of the league or certainly still challenging right now. Oh well, get fourth and the FA Cup and its still been a good… Read more »

The Only Olivier is Giroud

Oooh to be a Gooner!

AutoCorrect Gooner

*additions

Gutbukket Deffrolla

I’m sure The Only Olivier is Giroud will take your correction on board, if he ever decides to let bonbonbon write a post for him.

Is bonbonbon and AC/DCAC/DCAC/DC fan?

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Hey AutoCorrect Gooner, I need you. I said and instead of an.

Gunman

O(z)il in the engine !!!!!

Gooneron

Ramsey is the Turbo

Jagger

I know Everton is in direct competition with us for the final CL spot, but I couldn’t help but enjoy their victory today against Manchester United, such is my hatred for them. I think our players all know that they have to win all the remaining matches plus the FA cup and I would be happy for both us and Everton to go on a winning streak till the end of the season with the caveat that we finish above them.

non flying dutchman

Still possible that both we and Everton could get there at city or Chelsea’s expense. That would be glorious.

non flying dutchman

Still united being as crap as they are, makes one thankful for quality teams like *ahem* Crystal Palace

Gutbukket Deffrolla

They’ve got a pretty good striker. Gets goals and assists as often as Rooney this season (I may be making that bit up)

leksang

Truly class… So much different with Ozil! whole team got changed: eternal booster.

renaissancerosicky

Anybody else noticing the recurring Giroud cross-Ramsey touch-Podolski goal combo?

Goonbag

Dont take anythiing out of Poldi’s performance, he was clinical as usual 🙂

Possession

It’s like playing with 12 men with Ramsey in the team…awesome.

Mooo

Yeah, but they had Moss on their side.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

I wish that bastard would get gathered by a rolling stone. A big one.

Hutch

The way they played, it appears that Hull are the new Stoke.

Lets fuck them right up in the final.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Well they had some incentive. They were trying to soften us up for the FA Cup final. Stoke never needed an incentive.

The Beast

I wouldn’t expect any favours from Man united coz they hate us so bad,what hurts most is we failed to beat them in this shit season they are having and Everton have done the double over them and taken maximum points.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

Still not sure why we were the only team to go there and respect them for what they once were.

James mckena

Oil in the engine, handbrake off. Up The Arsenal

om

Some lovely moments today, my two favorite The first goal. It was an Arsene goal, and you could see how happy he was. That kind of almost psychic speed of vision and passing, whether it’s Petit to Freddy to Pires, or Hleb to Flamini to Fabregas, or today’s players; that kind of demonstration of humans working together at near impossible perfection, it’s a thing of beauty and inspiration. Hearing the glum northern half of the commentators on the US stream I was watching say “It’s all gone a bit olé” Happy times. And I think that with any two of… Read more »

Lash89

Outstanding performance from the team. Makes you see how good they can be, and don’t deserve to lose those games in the manner they did. But no doubt, the combo of Ramsey and Ozil has been missed. That was obvious today. I guess AW (if he stays) has to find a way of playing without them or find quality subs so the team doesn’t suffer like we have in their absence. Lets keep this up for the remaining 4 games with or without them.

F4phantomphreak

Wow what a performance, now that’s the Arsenal that we all have come to love! On Rambo he is a force out there, I just wonder how long it will be until Real Madrid or Barcelona come calling and Sir Weinner folds and sells?

vin_unleaded
Aamir

To be honest, I also enjoyed Everton’s win over United. We have two home games now against West Brom and Newcastle (who are the worst team in the division at the moment). Frankly speaking,with Rambo and Özil back, and the team picking up some momentum, we should smash both of them. Ideal goal difference boosting fixtures. (I’ll still take two scrappy 1-0 wins but that’s not good for anyone’s health)

Gutbukket Deffrolla

All season the ones we should smash have been the ones who took a point (or three) home with them. Never underestimate teams fighting to stay out of the drop zone (like both Citeh and Chelsea did last week).

Penis

Love a good car analogy

santori

I think we found the fourth gear.;)

NickyB

So do I.

Az Ahmed

The thing which hurts most is that Liverpool are looking like they will win the title from the position they were in at the start of the season, we obviously missed out big time on getting a winger, defensive midfielder and a couple of class strikers. We were in a better position. *sigh

mimi

but what about sagna

santori

Give me Seamus Coleman. Seen a number of rumours on Sebastian Jung but I truly hope Wenger pays the extra dosh and gets someone already blooded in the PL and performing at a high level for this position. Coleman is a worthy successor to Sagna. As promising as he is, Jung carries risk of adjustment issues and with Jenkinson as a back up, does not fill me with entire confidence. The other issue is if Podolski doesn’t get his head turned, with the current 4-4-2 option, we could re-role him as a striker off the big man. In which case… Read more »

nigel

title lost in 4 games: home to man city and swansea and away to chelsea and everton

santori

3.

Stoke, Swansea and Everton.

That’s 8 winnable points (even with heavy defeats to City, Liverpool and Chelsea)

It would have got us to within two points of current leaders Liverpool.

The sense of frustration stems from how close we were despite hectic schedule, injuries. We were depleted but with a bit more belief, the squad could have still pulled through with narrow wins (with the right tactics)

Pity.

DB10**

I had great hopes when we got through the congested december ney year period relatively well. I really thought we would be there at the end. Gutted. Really missed the urgency of Rambo in the team. And I would blame Wenger for not taking extra care of the gold laying hen.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

So how many games that he played in do you think he should have been left out? Do you know the balance that works perfectly? Would you have predicted the games we didn’t need him before we played them? Would being ‘rested’ have affected his attitude? Woul other teams have played better for knowing he wasn’t in the team?

There are no quick fixes, no easy solutions, and no point making anybody a scapegoat.

Clock End Mike

It’s surely no coincidence that the last time Arsenal scored 3 goals away from home was the 1-3 win over West Ham on Boxing Day — the last away game Aaron Ramsey played. On that day, 2 of the goals were scored by Theo Walcott. (Not sure what the relevance of that is.)

santori

We weren’t unlucky with injuries on all fronts. We could have been without Giroud or lost one of Meterscielny long term or had both CDMs out. OTOH we lost a lot of creative verve without Ozil and Ramsey (never mind Walcott or Jack). Still we should have had enough in the drawer to scrape through 3 wins against Stoke, Swansea (whom we drew) and Everton (despite their impressive form, had we adopted the right tactics). A lack of belief (amplified by poor tactics) cost us. This squad is quality (despite being a bit light weight up top), we aren’t that… Read more »

santori

Taking nothing away from Liverpool and Everton but they have had less games to contend with than our heavy schedule and the loss of key players (in one important area – creative midfield) have been detrimental. Not that this matters to the simpleton pundits in the press of course. A much different dynamic on show with Ramsey available (and Ozil). The Welsh man’s energy levels afforded us the opportunity to go 4-4-2 and capitalize from Podolski’s new found anger driven efficiency in front of goal. All the pity we could not translate 3 critical games to narrow wins in Stoke,… Read more »

Gutbukket Deffrolla

United fans were well up there when it came to deriding the “4th Place Trophy”. Half of them are hoping they lose all their remaining games so that Moyes will be sacked and so that they can have the midweek free to rest and recuperate between PL games (now that really is small team mentaility), while the other half desperately want to win the 6th Place Trophy this season. Pity that Moyes’ compensation package would eat up their transfer kitty for a year or more. Well, when I say pity I pronounce it hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

palace gunner

Good clean sheet 3pts & it good ramsey ozil back & ox & flamini podolski has scored 4 in 3 games coyg

Davey

Santori – we are by far and away top of the injury league… By 100pts!

You can’t just disregard that!

Obv Wenger’s tactics have been well off in certain games, but had we had the same amount of injuries as say Liverpool, we’d be well up there.

http://injuryleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/140416.jpg

Davey

Sorry, 80 points.

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