Friday, March 29, 2024

Arsenal 0-2 West Ham: By the Numbers

Errors

Let’s get this out of the way: Arsenal made two errors which led to two goals today but interestingly, WhoScored.com is assigning one error to Cech and one error to Ox.

This highlights a fact about stats, they are always subjective. No matter how much we like to think that stats are above human subjectivity, they aren’t. People watch the games and decide on events based on a set of well defined criteria. But regardless the rigor of the definitions, these are still people, watching events and deciding to code an event as a specific type.

There are countless examples of this that you can probably think of off the top of your head: if Walcott shoots, and it turns into a cross, and Ramsey scores off that cross-come-shot, is it an assist, a shot?

But big events, like “errors” and “big chances” tend to be more subjective than small events like passing. This is actually human nature. Look at the debate after the match as to which individual is responsible for both Arsenal goals.

Most folks, I think, would assign the blame to Cech on both goals and for good reason. For the first, if the ‘keeper comes, he has to claim. For the second, he clearly starts left and the shot goes to his right. Both goals easily can be ascribed to Cech error.

But there were a comedy of errors leading to both goals. For the first, who organized the line? Who was supposed to be marking Kouyate? Why were there four guys behind Kouyate, looking like they were caught flat footed? For me, there were two errors in that goal: the fact that Kouyate got a free header was one, Cech’s poor claim was the other.

The second goal is even worse. Coquelin’s tackle could have been better but he does win the ball. Ox takes the ball and dribbles it straight to Zarate. Anyone who has studied football knows that’s the worst place in the world to turn the ball over. But then the whole team freezes; no one closes down on the ball, Zarate has an open shot, and Cech guesses the wrong way.

Interestingly, WhoScored gave the error on that goal to Ox. There’s a logic to that. Ox’s turnover led directly to the shot. Cech had a howler, but the “error” goes to Ox for the turnover.

But, more important than who gets what tick mark in which stats box: Arsenal allowed two sloppy goals, to a team which didn’t have to do much to win, on opening day, at home. Shoddy from Arsenal at best, shambolic at worst.

Lack of urgency

My first sense of the game was that there was a lack of urgency at the start but the stats don’t really bear that out. Arsenal had 8 shots in the first 40 minutes which is a decent start to the game. But West Ham simply denied Arsenal good shooting chances and as a result, all but one of those 8 shots was from a dangerous position. That was the shot from Mertesacker, Arsenal’s only shot on goal in the first half.

The second half started the same as the first, Arsenal getting just one shot on goal between the 45th and 56th minute, Giroud’s effort from distance which was saved.

It’s tough to take it but after Walcott was introduced, Arsenal looked much more interested in scoring and had 4 shots on goal. But again, just one of them was from a dangerous position and again it was an effort from a header, this time from Giroud and he was concussed in the effort.

I’m not saying Arsenal didn’t lack urgency. There were large portions of the game I felt Arsenal took their foot off the gas. But for me the bigger problem was that the team lacked sharpness.

Coquelin

A lot of people are complaining about Coquelin’s match. He went 0/2 on tackles, had just 2 interceptions, was guilty of making some pretty poor passes forward, and made the cardinal sin of the DM in allowing himself to be dispossessed twice. He misplaced 6 total passes (of 41), though, and this is the thing with the DM position, any bad pass is magnified. But let’s look at the bad passes: 2 were long balls to switch play, one was a long entry pass into the final third, and the other three were short, forward passes. That’s not terrible but in the context of the bad tackling and the turnovers means he had a stinker.

Part of the problem is that Coquelin is used to playing next to Cazorla and Cazorla started out high left (odd fact, three of Coquelin’s long balls were to Cazorla, it’s like he was “longing” for him). Of course, Cazorla led all players in passing % today, hitting 93% of a game high 76 passes. Ramsey had the 4th highest passing % on the day but was also dispossessed a game high 5 times.

Another big problem, and something I didn’t notice during the game, is that Mertesacker and Debuchy had nightmare passing games. Mertesacker was 84% which is about 6-8% below his average over the last few years. But Debuchy was atrocious with just 78% completed passes and four of his bad passes were in his own half.

Coquelin had a poor game and showed weakness but that entire right side was simply shut down by West Ham.

Where was the pressure?

Arsenal built their great end of season run last year off pressure high up the pitch, so how on earth is it possible that 16 year old Reece Oxford completed 95% of 21 passes (one bad pass, long) and Mark Noble was allowed to complete 88% of his 41 passes? Oxford didn’t have a single turnover on the day and completed 3/6 tackles. Again, this goes back to explaining the urgency problem. Arsenal didn’t seem to apply the necessary pressure on West Ham and a 16 year old kid was allowed to boss Arsenal’s midfield.

@7amkickoff

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goontang

I agree that the ox was at fault for our second… youve got to clear any ball in our box yet he went to run it out. In saying that why everyone just stood around with their hands in their pocket when zarate had the ball was a disgrace. Not even an attempt to block with 4 men around him.

Couldnt of started this week any worse. Couldnt believe how poor coquelin was either, not the performance weve come to expect from anyone

Gandalf

It’s not even the fact he lost it – he made no attempt to recover the ball, he ran away from Zarate as if he was saying “it’s not my responsibility”.

Close him down ffs! Even if you don’t get the ball, you at least put Zarate off from having the shot that nestles into the bottom corner. Very disappointed with the Ox there, who otherwise had a good game. Others should have closed Zarate down too.

I AM ARSENAL

Ox’s touch was terrible…Than he got nerfed off the ball and gave up…Cazorla, Mertesacker and Koscielny were most at fault for not closing down….Coquelin was slow gettin up off the floor after his initial slide challenge…However they did all recognize the mistake and look at each other in disgust.

Hurensohn

The first goal yes, the line shouldn’t be that high but it’s not a massive problem, the player was marked too but when your keeper screams ‘keepers ball!’ (I’m assuming he did) then you naturally take a back seat, you shouldn’t but you do. There are a number of mistakes for the 2nd goal. Ox giving the ball away is a turnover in a dangerous position, the players hesitating gives them a chance on goal and then our keeper not making a routine save gives them a 2-0 lead. I would apportion the blame 80:20 to Cech for both goals.… Read more »

Deadwood Gooner

Don’t agree that staying on the line is an ‘automatic’ save for the first one. The ball comes in at pace, he’s got a free header and if he nods it to the back / left post it is likely to beat Cech as well if accurate enough.

SG_Gooner

walcott playing them onside for the 1st goal…anyone noticed?

SG_Gooner

oops, it someone else

Deadwood Gooner

Le Coq

ding

it was coq at the far post.
btw is there ANY conceivable advantage of holding a high line when defending set pieces from wide? (non-rhetorical question)

aaron

Nope, not that I can see. I just see it as then having to run towards your own goal to make a clearing header as opposed to running towards the ball to make the header

Crash Fistfight

Well, the higher you start, the further from goal the opponents have to start their runs from to stay onside. That means 2 things:

1. That by the time they head the ball they’ll probably be far out enough that it’s unlikely the header will be dangerous (look where the header came in from).
2. It gives the keeper the chance to come out and catch it if it’s close enough to him (which it may or may not have been).

Xxxrob

If you recall the only goal we conceded pre season was barkleys screamer. Unstoppable yes but ox also dribbling into someone in our half and lost the ball. Two goals both borne of an urge to dribble out when a pass or clearance would have probably prevented both.
Ox has been one of our brightest so far this season but someone might tell him to keep an eye on his dribbling

assistantref

Ox has made that same mistake and had it lead to a goal at least 5 times in his Arsenal career. That it hasn’t been drilled out of him yet suggests either bad coaching or an inability to learn from his mistakes. Both concerning.

He’s fantastically talented but he keeps making this one fatal mistake over and over. He has to stop doing it.

crazed

Agreed. From start to finish Arsenal looked slow. Outside of the 1 run I do not believe he had as much impact on the game as anyone would have expected nor liked. My question is how much do we put down to the change of Bellerin prior to kick off for Debuchy? There were a number of times where Debuchy got in excellent crossing positions and failed to put a good ball in. OR twice (3 times maybe) Giroud was wide left with no one in support. I honestly think start to finished the team was complete unbalanced. We saw… Read more »

SharinganIxU

Don’t forget an infamous Champions League goal one night at the Emirates. Ox lost that one too.

DFS

Yeah The Ox lost the ball…however, there were actually 6 Arsenal players in the direct vicinity and not a bloody one of them made a purposeful move towards the ball. Great breakdown of stats and tactics. I am sure we all hate underlining the idiocy of playing Santi out left to accomodate Ramsey next to Coquelin – but that showcases a stupid arrogance on Wengers part to try to make some point no one cares about. This game might have been a great opportunity to see Walcott played left (as he has done), The Ox right and Giroud as usual.… Read more »

Bould's Eyeliner

We certainly missed Bellerin, but that selection comes down to the Wenger. While I still believe Wenger is a brilliant tactician, clearly he gambled on something here that did not quite go so well. Debuchy’s match today was what, his first competitive fixture in over half a year? It’s generally expected that a player is going to be rusty, but then again, if you don’t ever break that rust, when you really need a substitution or if Bellerin is injured, then is not the time to do it. We’ve always held solid displays, even in the recent past, against West… Read more »

Cornelius P. Snuffington III

Bellerin was out with an injury, it wasn’t a strategic decision by Wenger. That’s why Bellerin wasn’t even on the substitute’s bench.

Bould's Eyeliner

Now I feel even better.

thw14

If Ramsey continues to start in CM over Cazorla, we will win approximately fuck all this season. The whole summer there have been rumblings that this is the way the boss would go and it is totally, totally unjustified. Ramsey is a very talented player, but Cazorla is arguably more talented, it’s just that the attitude to playing the position is so different. Cazorla realises the cost of losing the ball in a dangerous area where Ramsey only sees the potential upside to putting his skills on display. In addition, Cazorla seized the initiative when the chips were down in… Read more »

SharinganIxU

See, I’ve been thinking, all this talk of Ramsey being sold for £50 million, is that not about double what he’s worth? I like him, I think on his day he’s really good, but he’s not £50 mil good. Cazorla has to be the heartbeat for our team, Ramsey doesn’t have the distribution or the ball retention skills of Santi.

I AM ARSENAL

Both Wilshere and Ramsey should be studying Cazorlas game…The maestro of running a game with the ball rather than trying to ran past everyone and getting injured (Wilshere) or taking many unnecessary touch’s and flourishes on the ball slowing everything down because im Hollywood now (Ramsey).. Wenger also needs to be more ruthless..Change things quicker…Stop accomadating players.. Too many players on our team want to be ‘THAT’ guy who dictates and is on the ball. We really need an out and out left sided player…If we can’t get Benzema i think we should enter the race for Pedro. Putting Cazorla… Read more »

ding

I actually think Ramsey would be best deployed as a centre mid in a 4141. That way he has all the space to shuttle forward and isnt given too much defensive responsibility. because although his energy is applaudable, too often when we are out of possession he is so involved in the attack that he has to track back instead of taking up good defensive positions to intercept/maintain shape.

Stringer Bell

Could not have put it better. Well said. As much as this will get me lots of thumbs down, fuck it, Ramsey needs to be dropped if he can’t claim the one place in team he can make his own. At the moment it’s Santis so please boss stop trying to accommodate Ramsey in team. Here is something else to get me slaughtered, Ramsey was never as bad as some thought and equally never as good as some thought. He had incredible run when everything he touched turned to gold. I like him but please let’s get some fucking perspective.… Read more »

Gooners & Roses

Constant – Arsenal tendency to bottle up when its matter.

like a red head Ljungberg

0 number of fucks our men seemed to give

SharinganIxU

My biggest problem today, and something which I think needs to be watched over and highlighted in absolutely every aspect possible, was when Giroud did really well down his left hand side, whipped in a really nice cross and there was not a single body in the box. That was an absolute disgrace if you ask me, considering the amount of people who want to play centrally, the lack of any one of those helping our lone striker was unforgivable. You can blame Giroud for missing chances, you can cry for Benzema, but when all you’re giving any striker to… Read more »

AmericanGooner11

If I recall correctly ozil was just kind of hanging out on the edge of the box for that one

Richie

Am going to be very honest here. Mesut Ozil has undoubtedly been an excellent purchase for the club. But per his reputation as a world class player as well as his mesmerizing few seasons at Madrid, I am rather disappointed that Mesut hasn’t really been lights out for our side. Albeit he performs well at most in every game. Before Cesc left the club and even now that he plies his trade with Chelshit, the lad seemingly influences the game and most of the games he plays. By influence I don’t mean, flashy passes and feints and occasionally through balls… Read more »

Ferngunner

100% agree. His body language also never sits right with me. I think we might never come to see the player he was at Madrid which is totally bizzare. Ozil has to STEP IT UP certainly, these flashy one of two passes in a game only show how his game has really diminished.

Think whatever happened to Torres Falcao. Two worldbeaters who couldn’t hit a barn door after a single move is now happening to ppoor Ozil.

Alex

Btw, yesterday Özil = 2 tackls and 2 blocks. More than Coquelin. Not bad for a lazy player who isn’t strong enough.

Stringer Bell

Richie just to inform you Cesc was slaughtered by Chelsea fans for his non performance on Saturday. He had a very poor game just as ozil did yesterday

Alex

This is truly funny, guys! You want trophies and Holy Cesch NEVER brought you anything that kind in… how many years? 9? Mesut arrives and offers you two FA Cups and two Community shield in two years. What do you f**** want? Plus : http://www.championsleague.ca/2015/08/09/arsenals-mesut-ozil-statistically-more-productive-than-messi-and-eden-hazard-11617-9932 And Özil second best creative player of the PL for his first season and best creative player of the PL for his second. Now if you think you can put on the same level Chelsea’s squad (who finished first with 13 points over the second) with Arsenal’s, then… ok… Btw, stop watching Youtube to know… Read more »

Sam

Could you link to your sources on Özil? My cursory search has the top four creative players of last season as:
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) 99
Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea) 91
David Silva (Man City) 91
Stewart Downing (West Ham) 84

Özil was the 6th most creative player in the league in his first season.

Me

I’m probably the only one who thinks this, but perhaps this game was just a bad day at office, and not indicative of fundamental problems with our team, like the Monaco loss was. That game came after a great run of form and preceded a great run of form. This game looks like it will do the same, as we weren’t particularly abysmal (although we were quite bad), and West Ham were excellent defensively. In any case, we can perform better than this, and we will do. Titles are never won on the first day, and they are also never… Read more »

Mubashir

Arsenal were off the pace today, season starts next week for the lads. Cech had a bad game- first one in 11 years and he chose to do it on his arsenal debut, wonder if mourinho had anything to do with it? You can tell the players are not fully ready yet as Payet outpaced Koscielny and left him on floor, which i’ve never seen anyone do to him before. Only positive is that the OX looked very very gooood and sanchez and bellerin should start next week. Overall, West Ham were defensively sound and stopped all our attacks brilliantly.… Read more »

Ferngunner

Debucy is not near as adventurous as Bellerin. Straight back in next week please

Arky

Bellerin was injured. Not a change by choice (that said, I don’t recall any glaring mistakes by Debuchy and he made a great run that would have had him through on goal if Ramsey made a simple pass instead of glory hounding).

Mubashir

Plus people saying sign benzema, i think his best season in La Liga is 17 goals, which is not that good considering he’s playing at one of the best teams in the world alongside Ronaldo,Bale,James and co. Although, he is a upgrade on Giroud, even though Giroud is ahead of him in the France team. I would get Benzema if he was available because he is a top class striker who could help us REALLY challenge for the title and also motivate giroud to score more of the easy chances he misses. Finally, if we do sign him hopefully he… Read more »

Seik

I felt that Cech was thinking too much (due to lack of match fitness). I mean:

1st goal: “OMG, nobody is tracking the striker down. Should I stay and try to block the header or try to intercept the ball?”

2nd goal: “Not again, really? Mark something!! Ox! At least reduce his shooting angle! With that much space he’ll try to put the ball on the further corner, I must move a bit, otherwise I won’t reach.”

Wolfgang

We will be able to judge how Arsenal will challenger after about 10 games. Against WHU,it was very predictable like MU/Chelsea/MC/Pool in previous seasons.I am no coach but I know if you give defences times to regroup with elaborate passing,.it will be tough to shoot let alone score. The trouble is Wenger likes to play ahdl . With the bg too slow to react,it is will be fatal. Arsenal may have 62 % possession and 21 shots but only 5 on target it’s no use.WHU had their gk to thank for their win. The moral of the story is unless… Read more »

SDB

I suspect neither giroud or ramsey will be starting next match. time to get ruthless wenger. and why does west ham have a 16 year old starting and we bought this older beilik kid and he’s not even in the preseason squad?

honestabe

Where is Jeff?

Maddolove

Alex O Chamberlain must be Cečh Achilles Heel

Two of the goals he’s conceded so far have been through turnovers on The Ox in midfield

He’s first goal was v Everton (preseason)
The second was v West Ham

The Ox has a tendency to lose concentration or make the wrong pass during games( by now he should have dealt with that issue in his game)

The Monaco should have thought him that lesson, especially when it was so rare

I see great potential in his gameplay, but Petr Cečh must see him as a bad luck symbol

Ferngunner

The ox is our worst passer and it reeally does affect his overall game. He will do everything right, nutmeg you, put you on your backside but a simple pass to make he fails. Also his passes are easily readable. Hence multiple interceptions eg (vs ross barkely BAT)

Third Plebeian

Expect a good response. That’s what this team does best. Drop points when expectations are high, gain them when low.

Familiar pattern on exhibit today.

GU1TAR-D3MON

Firstly, love these by the numbers articles in this format 7Am! Secondly, I just don’t get why at the start of this season and last season we started off trying different formations that were successful to is the previous season… What’s up with not playing Santi is the middle and shoving him to the left? Why insist on playing a midfielder in the wide area? We lack so much pace when this happens especially today as Bellerin didn’t start so Oxlade was our only outlet for pace. Look I’m not pretending like I could do a better job than Mr… Read more »

GU1TAR-D3MON

Back 3*

Wolfgang

Wenger says he will not panic buy. Well he did after the 8-2 massacre when fans had urged him to buy.He got 5 guys but only 2 are left.
Hopefully he will not make the same mistake.I still believe the bg shd be dispensed with.He is a lumbering giant and though he can read the game he will be aliability when confronted in a one on one situation.

Pony

The Coq tried to take on too much, almost trying to shield the entire team instead of the back four, and failed. Carzola as box to box plays for the team, Ramsey despite his large engine, plays for self glory. Carzola should be the first choice there. And why is everybody fixated on Ozil being a permanent fixture at No 10. He is good but time to should break free from the prison of £45.5M.

Alex

The time Arsenal fans will forget how much Mesut costed (and that Holy Cesch earns 50 000 £ more than him PER WEEK) and then they’ll start consider him as an entire part of the team and will start appreciating him as he deserves to be considered.

Gerry

As most have said, without pointing the finger to the individuals, it was the balance that was wrong from the outset. Funnily enough, line the midfield trio of Cazorla, Coquelin, and Ramsey with the front trio of Giroud, Ozil, and Ox and it looks a quite tasty 4-3-3? The problem becomes obvious as soon as play opens up. If Ramsey stays back to assist Coquelin, then Santi moves up and cramps Ozil. The central area got even more crowded when Ox went to the middle when Ramsey went out to the wing(?), and we went back to the old formula… Read more »

NaijaFan

I agree with you. The team need to be fast when they attack. Tiki taka allow premiership teams to comfortably park the bus when they play arsenal.

Crew

Easy solution – drop Ozil and start playing a 4-3-3 with Coquelin Cazorla and Ramsey in midfield, with Ox on the right wing, Alexis on the left and Giroud/Walcott as a striker. Will bring balance to the team. Worked well against City last season. People can defend Ozil as much as they want, he has not showed he is worth the 42m we payed for him. He’s a world class talent no doubt about that but despite improving defensively and running a lot his demeanor is still so appalling. I want warriors in this team! like Sanchez! Ozil is easily… Read more »

Henry

I might be the only one but, if rosicky werent injury prone, i’ll play him ahead of both ramsey and wilshere. attacking wise we all know his capabilty and his shooting accuracy is 95% good. and he is also switch on defensively. can also play out wide and thru the middle. ramsey is thus hyped because of that one good season he’s had

Ferngunner

Wilsherr over Rambo for me too. Wilshere will take initiative and r
Drive the team forward especially through the middle (we did none of that yesterday) Ramsey on the other hand will show some skills and put in a cross field ball.

Ajinkya

I can’t believe people are assigning blame to Cech. Kouyate was between Monreal and Kos and got a free header. What the fuck was that? No matter which keeper you keep, even Arseblog’s fav Szczeny wouldn’t have cleared it if our defenders give a free pass to head the ball in the box. And for the second goal, Ox is entirely to blame. He has done this before, many times, and we have been punished for it a few times. How can he lose the ball just outside the box so many times? Why would a keeper anticipate that your… Read more »

Crew

No doubt Cech is not the only one to blame in both goals but saying he’s not to blame at all? 1st goal if you come out you have to claim, no excuses otherwise don’t come out. 2nd goal, even if your midfield and defense allow a free shot you’re supposed to save that shot from Zarate. It wasn’t a very strong or accurate shot to the left.

Ajinkya

Yes, some blame definitely goes to Cech. But people are blind to the costly errors made by Nacho, Kos for the 1st and Ox by the second. My point was that you can’t allow the opposition free headers in the box. No keeper is going to be effective if we keep repeating the same mistakes. As for Ox, I am sure he is going to keep repeating his mistakes. Cause if he can’t get it out of his system after the UCL match against Monaco, then there is surely more to come from him. 🙁

Francis

Same old stories hw can a big manager like him fail to change the tactics to cope with team that parks the bus? He had wide players on the bench who could have changed the game after HT but his naivety is unacceptable making changes after an hour made me sick. Expect this horror shows at emirates. Teams will come n will Park the bus forever but if he can’t change the tactics then he will lose or drops the points. Offensive is only area where these teams which parks the bus can get caught from but he so blind… Read more »

vnet

Problem with this team is that they are prone to these brain fart performances about 5-6 times a season. If you do that, then there is no chance of a title at the end of the season.

Once they cut these out, only then would they be realistic title contenders.

jiminycrickets

Depending on the number of draw results in a season (which I think our team can be prone to if we stick with giroud upfront), a title winning team usually have 3-5 losses in a season. Take the middle number, 4 losses; we already have 1; say we have one loss each to MU, chelsea and Mancity and we’re already at that number. Save us signing luis suarez, I don’t see us being good enough to not slip up at least another 3-4 times against all the other teams. The defeat was a big blow psychologically because of the expectations… Read more »

Thierry Bergkamp

Jack’s energy and direct play would have been perfect to bring off the bench at 1-0.

Ajinkya

I think our aged general Tomas would have been better suited. Jack would have tried to dribble and failed misreably, running into a crowd.

Harish P

“Coquelin is used to playing next to Cazorla and Cazorla started out high left (odd fact, three of Coquelin’s long balls were to Cazorla, it’s like he was “longing” for him).”

Sublime writing.

NaijaFan

Same old stories. Same old flaws. Every true fan could excuse Wenger and the team for the past seasons but not now when the books are better and expectations are so high. Tactically the player set up was not perfect, but the team could still have salvaged a point. That is what makes a champion. The stake is high now and Wenger should begin to bench any player who fails to show enough commitment on the field, these are pros and get paid for that. Having said that and I know a lot will disagree with me here. I don’t… Read more »

Aamir

Cech made 2 errors, he looked sloppy, conceded. But apart from that i just think he had a bad day b he will be back. The serious trouble at the moment i feel is they positions cazorla and ramsey are operating in. If only wenger can see, they are not being productive there. I have never been a fan of ramsey, and to play him out of position makes matters worse. Furthermore, ozil need to friggin start performing otherwise i think he deserves to feel the way di maria is feeling at the moment. He is just not being upto… Read more »

Merlin's Panini

At the moment I’m just thinking that game was a bad day at the office. Nothing more. It’s the first game of the season. Weird stuff happens. Everyone is getting used to playing proper competitive football again so there are bound to be strange results and strange instances in the games. It’s just a shame it had to be us that fucked up. At least it happened to Chelsea and Sp*rs as well.

Let’s see where we are after 10 games before we make too many judgements on the team.

heihaci

same old arsenal. BUt in some ways it’s good to have a reality check at the start of the seaon.

We need a world class striker and DM if we want to compete for the title race!

Verminator's Mojo

I don’t know how a keeper’s failure to save a shot from a dangerous position can be counted as a GK’s error. Our players need to be more conservative when playing the ball out of these positions. Why dribble towards an opposition player from there, even if you are Messi? I think the first instinct should be clear the ball or find a teammate.

OoohSantiCazorla

Thing that annoyed me with Wenger, after the game he said he knew if they delivered a good ball at the free kick, because of the high line we would be in trouble. As a manager, If I saw that wouldn’t you be screaming at your defence to move the line? Coq had a poor game, so did everyone else really, Ox did well bar the defensive lapse and Walcott did ok when he came on. I thought Ozil was very poor yesterday but he seems to have got out of the firing line, maybe masked as everyone just wasn’t… Read more »

Mo

As others have said, I believe the solution is to drop Ozil from the no.10 role. How can our support striker not want to score goals at all? He never gets in the box to support Giroud. I would actually consider playing Ramsey as a no.10 with Carzola sitting deep with Coquelin. Ozil should shift to LWF, play Sanchez CF and Welbeck/Ox RWF.

Mark

Whatever you think of Giroud offensively the one thing that all know is that he does not press well defensively. Generally when the ball is either being played out of the back or gets near midfield to the DM position of the opponent he generally has the look that his job of a short burst of effort is over. You contrast this to Welbeck or Sanchez when playing striker how much more aggressively defensively we can be. Even Walcott really doesn’t work too hard defensively in the striker position. To me that sets the tone for the rest of the… Read more »

Mubashir

Should have signed khedira who was available for a free as we can’t just rely on coquelin in that position.

Chibuzor Amos

Objective post. Another view of others view.

Alexis4fifapresident

The second goal was so odd to watch as it seemed like there had been an infringement as the players stopped playing. I believe this confused Cech as he is used to Chelsea defenders throwing their bodies at the ball even after a whistle is blown. Our players just froze and Zarate was served the opportunity on a silver platter. Cech should of been more alert and agile but I think he must of thought he was in a bad dream with the comical defensive performance he was witnessing. There was no player that left the pitch with any credit;… Read more »

Alexis4fifapresident

In fact I would bench both Ozil and Ramsey and play Theo and Ox wide off Girroud. Also I would start with Bellerin and Gibbs in full back positions. Dont want to see Girroud going wide at all and with those 4 he will get plenty of service.

palace gunner

The first game of the season is a big game for every team, mind you west ham first goal was from a mistake from a keepers ball or nacho wrong side of the player nacho does not look like a box marker he is more of closing down passes to wing the team from the start although debuchy, had his start cech new in goal subs gd players brought on pressure built up early for the arsenal team never underestimate little hungry teams hammers closed down and watch how they blocked and stopped afc attempts on goal i had a… Read more »

Oppitz

The thing that pissed me off is that they were so freaking passive, they didn’t pressure, didn’t move the ball fast enough, very little movement off the ball and no sense of urgency at all.

You can have a bad day, make a couple of mistakes, miss some shots/passes/tackles, but you have to play with more urgency, passion

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