Just to add more icing to last night’s cake, it looks as if Arsenal will be without Laurent Koscielny for this weekend’s clash with Manchester United.
The French international seemed to tweak a hamstring making a typically committed challenge early in the second half. He tried to play on for a while but in the end succumbed to what Arsene Wenger revealed afterwards was a hamstring strain.
“It is a hamstring,” said the manager. “This is why I rotate as we play many games. The other teams do it as well. You look at the other teams in Europe’s benches and you will see them rotate.
“You cannot play every three days without rotating your players That is a fact and you have to accept that.”
It’s obviously a blow to lose him for such a big game, normally a hamstring strain is about three weeks out, so we’ll have to wait and see how serious it is.
Superb
Wenger better turn this shit around right now or this season is going to spiral into disaster in fucking September. It’s still early enough to undo all this early damage. We’ve proven we can beat Bayern at their place. We still have all the same talent we were all so excited about just 24 hours ago.
We did it in a game in which Bayern thought all they had to do was show up because they already had a 2 goal advantage (with the added benefit of 3 away goals).
Notice how the following year they made sure we didn’t do the same again, and only drew the game thanks to the referee not spotting Podolski fouling Lahm in the build-up to his goal.
We play better as underdogs. If we can draw one atleast then we have a chance to qualify. We better get our shit together.
More worried about their midfield.. they could boss us
I keep dozing off. Weird dreams…thank fuck for… FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCcckk!!!!!!!!!!!!
“You cannot play every three days without rotating your players That is a fact and you have to accept that.”
Your number one goalkeeper doesn’t need to be rested. If there wasn’t an injury (I truly doubt there was), then not starting Cech in a “must win game” is indefensible.
I don’t blame ospina and I don’t blame wenger for making the change. All keepers can make mistakes as chec did against west ham. What is not forgivable and wenger has to take the blame for is the weakness of attitude of this team. We have no leadership no spine, we make the same mistakes over and over.We take some teams to lightly and only then play when on the back foot. Ground hog day and it’s boring now. Q the usual we have to put this right shit, we have a big game saturday to prove ourselves bolox. Same… Read more »
Maybe Bayern will rest Neuer against us. They’ve not bothered resting him for the other two games so could be time for a break.
Wenger knows this and never thought of who would replace Coq due to the rotation, who would replace Giroud etc.
Why do you keep contradicting yourself Arsene? A few seasons ago, you ran the first team to the ground because you couldn’t tweak a winning team, now you preach rotation? Excuses all the time to justify his fuck ups……how many more years of this can we stand?
Say it man. This bullshit from a man who has run players into the ground in the past, because he hates rotating.
Maybe we are not seeing Arsenal’s step by step improvement. Instead, we seem to be witnessing Arsene doing one new thing every year. New Goalkeeper (finally) and this season, he will rotate (a little too much, but maybe he is learning).
Next Season: substitutions when the game needs them, not at 65 minutes and 88 minutes.
There is no way Arsenal will qualify for group stages not a chance. Let’s just concentrate on Premier league. Most likely to get 1 point from 2 Bayern games and maybe 4 points from the other 2 games. I’m not sure if that’s even enough for Europa. Chelsea/City are inconsistent,United look ok..thats probably probably makes premier league title winnable but I would not put my hard earned tenner on it.
Kos, Wilshere, Rosicky, Welbeck, Flamini, Arteta…..same old bollocks. It just seems to happen to us time and time again and never our direct rivals.
Mix that in with a tactically moribund manager….and that’s another CL write off.
How was yesterday’s loss due to tactics? We her can’t legislate for the errors we made. Other than those errors, our tactics worked reasonably well.
Tactics? We are useless at set pieces and it’s plain to see that we don’t practice either attacking nor defending them on the training ground. Apart from working on their Stamina and ball control, I can’t see what else they do! I’m guessing a lot of banter and trumpet blowing, along with showing each other their latest selfie’s and not forgetting the who has the best 6 pack that can be seen from the moon competition lol. The most important tactic is the WILL to win, to bust a gutt for the team! Talk is cheap, Acton speaks louder than… Read more »
I have to agree that Wenger clearly isn’t cut out for active motivation of his players and I do believe that, despite all that is great about Le Prof, this holds us back in a big way.
To be fair they looked far more organised especially in defence. Could argue that tactically they were better.
That might be true, but the fact is, if you have three mistakes of different levels (corner, GK howler, team switch off from kick off after scoring + Per Standing around) that all lead to goals, you can’t really say that we looked organized in defense. If 95% of the game is fine, and you lose because of that 5%, that’s that. Unless I’ve misunderstood your point. Wenger makes this point again and again, 4 shots, 3 goals. Stats here actually reveal that the team is atrocious at efficient defending and lacks the little extra. He argues instead that the… Read more »
Wenger can’t coach defending, that’s for sure!
He also picked the wrong team.
I think people who are blaming David Ospina for the loss need to have a reality check. The thing is the most magnified mistake anyone can make on a football pitch is at the goalkeeping position.Yes it was a howler. It happens with the best but did we lose because of that hell fucking NO. How many mistakes did Fabianski make in his Arsenal career yet everybody was ready to jizz themselves over his name during that FA cup run which finally ended the drought. Is Ospina the reason why Ox made the decision to make a half arsed block… Read more »
Per and Gabriel will be fine against United. Get well soon Kos.
Off topic, but whats wrong with the Ox. It’s early days but he has looked pretty shit so far this season. Thought this would be his break out year but he seems to be really fighting it in the games he’s played.
Ox only plays in games AW expect to win despite nobody covering for the full backs. He needs to be sold in January.
Sad to lose your best defender but a team of Cech – Bellerin – Mert – Gabriel – Monreal – Coq – Cazorla – Ramsey – Ozil – Alexis and Walcott should be enough to get a good result on Sunday.
I expect a good reaction from the boys.
That’s the problem, Arsenal fans expect too much.
It will be a very tight game which hopefully we can win.
How is that a problem? Getting a good result doesn’t mean the game will be tight. A 2-1 win is a good result in a tight game. How is that expecting too much dear Hairy Arse?
*”doesn’t mean the game will NOT be tight” please.
I think Cech is carrying an injury and wants him to play against Man U. Nothing wrong with that. Would have started with Ramsey though!
One thing I can say from my observation is that throughout the season we don’t have a balance in our team. We lack defensive shape and are found out while we are under pressure from the oppositions. We can get good results against midtable and bottom of the league teams but when it comes to top 4 who really can test our defense with their own attacking options we are found out. Wenger can call it naivety, being gullible or whatever, the blame rests with him.
You make some good observations. Now wait for someone to come back with STATS to prove you are wrong and we have one of the best defenses in the world.
No we don’t, we bottle it exactly when the defense needs to be strong. Stats don’t tell that story.
The issue is not (and hasn’t been for a long time) with the defenders in the team. It is with the team’s defending as a whole (and the strategy that goes with it). We’re useless at defending corners and set pieces because we’re completely disorganised and ill-disciplined, not because we haven’t got [insert flavour of the month defender] in the team. It’s also nothing to do with ‘heart’ or ‘guts’ or ‘leadership’ or any of those other nebulous terms. Do all the crappy teams that beat us by being disciplined and having a game plan have all these things or… Read more »
“We should win the league in next three years”…. naaah..
Happy to be proven wrong…
Whilst I accept last night’s fiasco was down to the defensive side of our game nevertheless why, when you know you will be in CL & supposedly want to challenge on all domestic fronts dont we have a quality players in depth so that we can have a bench capable of allowing us to rotate whilst also factoring in the absolute given that you will also have players out injured. Our only attacking option from the bench was Campbell? Having said all that Chelski’s much more expensive and deeper squad are also struggling – so is the issue money, motivation… Read more »
That’s sums it up. We’re fucked against utd scums. I’ve taken solace from today. I won’t b disappointed on Sunday if we lose
Some of us poor folks live in 3rd world countries relie on your text commentary mate! ?
And your killing me with your “Ooooooooh” and then long pauses, at least give some indication if its a “Oooooh” in Arsenal’s favour and not our opponents lol…
How about…
Oooooh = Arsenal chance.
Ffs! = Opponents.
I used to enjoy your commentary and sense of humour but lately it has been annoying mate!
Peace and respects…
some cunt off, some cunty on ?
Oh ffs! What a load of Tottenham.
The obligatory injury and/or red card to a key player in a must win game that we lost!
To perform every few days at the level required, one important element is to have sensible resources in the midfield “breakup” area.
Last night tells me everything.
To have to start Coquelin, just back from a knee injury, is madness.
But Arsenal have to do it, risking a further injury to the player.
This essential area of battle has been neglected since the days of Viera/ Petit/Gilberto/Etc/Etc
Why?
Makes little difference really. With or without Kos we’re gonna lose.
Might as well play him in goal.
Of the two first choice Cback pairing to rest, I would have thought Koscielny was the one as he looked below par against Leicester. Even so, if one of the main choice Cbacks in Meterscielny is out, he should make it a point to start cech. This is a CL game FFS. I will have to take it that Cech was having a niggle as the gaffer mentioned. BUT even with the team put out, where is our concentration level? We should have enough to beat the likes of Olympiakos at home. Simply, put the team is not sufficiently (mentally)… Read more »
Its funny I wouldn’t be at all confident of beating the shitstains on Sunday but when you actually look at the two probable line ups, Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gab, Per, Nacho, Coq, Santi, Ozil, Sanchez, Walcott and Ramsey. Man Utd: De Gea, Blind, Jones, Smalling, Darmian, Schweinstieger, Schniederlin, Depay, Rooney, Mata, Martial We actually have a MUCH better team. The only United players I would put in our team from that lineup would be De Gea for Cech (marginally) Smalling maybe in front of Per on this seasons form, and I would take Martial up front instead of Theo. Other… Read more »
De gea over cech?? Martial over theo?? Are u watching the same league am watching mate??