Arsene Wenger says he’s not hugely concerned by the fact Arsenal have conceded seven goals in their last two away games although the boss does admit his side must tighten up on ‘little details.’
The Gunners went down 4-0 on a traumatic Boxing Day showing at Southampton and afforded Liverpool 22 shots at goal on Wednesday as the home side grabbed a late 3-3 draw.
Reflecting on the results ahead of Sunday’s trip to Stoke – a match we’ve notoriously struggled to get to grips with in the recent past – Wenger stressed that he can’t pinpoint a specific reason for recent lax defensive performances on the road.
“There are periods in the season… overall 90 per cent of the time we are very solid defensively, but on these two occasions [Southampton and Liverpool] we certainly looked vulnerable defensively,” he told his press conference on Friday.
“There does not look to be a special reason. At Southampton we looked a bit jaded after the Man City game, at Liverpool maybe we lacked a little bit of calmness and when we played against Benteke we should have moved out of the box because it is difficult to win a header on a long ball against him. Little details we have to work on and improve.
“My regret [from the Liverpool game] comes from the fact that at 3-2 we had two or three good opportunities to kill them off that we didn’t take.”
While Arsene may not have a reason for the recent glut of conceded goals, our man, Tim ‘7amkickoff’ Bostelle, provides some pretty damning evidence suggesting it’s down to our current midfield pairing of Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini; a duo forced into action in the centre of the park because of injuries to other players.
Here’s a taster from his latest ‘By The Numbers’ article:
“Arsenal’s passing has fallen off a cliff, Arsenal’s dribbling has fallen off a cliff, Arsenal’s shots taken has fallen off a cliff, and Arsenal are now allowing the opposition a crazy number of shots per game, while not tackling as much and not intercepting the ball as much.”
You can read Tim’s stat-tastic evidence of the above here. It’s well worth five minutes of your time.
We need Coq back badly
Whatever he^ said.
And Santi.
While we wait on Coq, Elneny to the rescue, mate.
To defend properly against our opponents we need our Coq between their legs!
You’ve pushed the pun too far. Anyway, to defend properly you need to get your Coq in their faces.
Should dig out the old horses placenta to rub on our Coq
Well said Arsene, you can guarantee he has looked at the stats and seen how far below Ramsey is compared to santi. Ramsey is a decent squad player and potentially can cover an injured player on the wing or against easier opponents in the middle. When a team press us like saints and Liverpool we are totally overrun and unable to keep the ball and recycle possession. Makes our defence look vulnerable and the evidence is they are vulnerable without cover. Ramsey learns to be more disciplined, developed a bit more technically and quickens up his thought process he could… Read more »
Ramsey is not below cazorla, is is a similar player in the sense he likes to get going offensively. Different though in possession play. He would be better suited next to someone more reserved, like chambers or le coq for example, oh wait…
Hey Bill, check out 7am stats, think you will find Ramsey was below cazorla in almost every department. Then come back and make a valid point. You let yourself down in terms of being credible when you used chambers to justify your point, it became laughable. Fool of a man
Wow relax, I’m just saying he’s not a worse player than cazorla just different chief.
Coq or Chambers wouldn’t make a difference. One man can’t cover a whole midfield. Liverpool had 3 in there and Ramsey deserted Flamini. War crime
Ramsey isn’t below, just different.
What he lacks in passing and controlling the tempo compared to Caz, he makes up in energy and end product (already more goals and assists than Caz).
Just as Santi has a complimentary partner in Coq, Ramsey needs a complementary partner too that’s different. Someone like Arteta, but better (passing, possession, controlling tempo and high reading of the game and interception), that complements Ramsey.
But Ramsey does need to pay more attention to his defensive duties, mind.
No he is below check out the stats.
Which one? The high-intensity and total distance covered? The assists? The goals?
Check out the defensive stats that arseblog did. Very telling. I can’t be asked to search and relay to ya but worth a look. Huge difference. Might open your mind a little on this one.
Yes Ramsey’s defensive stats are lower then cazorla playing next to coq, and Ramsey playing next to flamini. Well noticed.
Like cazorla is not just sitting in front of the back four he’s generally on the edge of the opponents box.
I agree with this, and I find the “criticisms” of Ramsey a little over the top. (to tell you the truth of the British core I find, Walcott, Ox, and Gibbs’ performance in the Liverpool game much worse, and Flamini, forced to drop further back did not offer much of an outlet). Statistics are only a snap shot, they are part of the puzzle in understanding the game but they are do not equal an understanding of the game. Carerfully rewatch the games (Tottenham, Southampton, and Liverpool for example) and consider how we can evade pressing and also try to… Read more »
But in the FAcup our central defenders beat Benteke in the air several times…
That’s because in the FA Cup final, Benteke was the only actual player the opposition had on the pitch.
Get that coq out there asap!
i think we need come to the realization that santi is not going to be around forever so it’s not enough to say he’s the solution to all our problems. in fact, we may not see him again this year depending on how his recovery goes. first game of the year wenger’s intention was pretty clear…ramsey is going to play in the box-to-box role going forward. the question is how to make it work with him and coquelin/elneny. i’m not putting any eggs in the basket of jack getting fit anytime soon, but is it possible he might dovetail better… Read more »
I think a year ago many people were tipping Wilshere to eventually succeed Cazorla and form a solid midfield partnership with Coquelin. I can still see it happening, but Wilshere is also looking more and more like the next Diaby (which isn’t meant as a slight on him, I personally have huge respect for Diaby), so I’m not really counting on it anymore. I would still love to see them get a run together though. If we have to make do without Cazorla and Wilshere for a while, I could imagine Coquelin, Elneny and Ramsey sharing the two central midfield… Read more »
Wilshere is not Diaby. From what it sounds like his injury at the beginning of the season wasn’t physical-structural, it was down to bad luck and (supposedly ) Gabriel being a bad-ass. Be more positive. Everyone thought Campbell was a waste of time, now he’s ahead of Walcott and Ox in your ideal XI. Everyone thought Ramsey should be sold (Judas especially) and then he has the Welsh Jesus season. Everyone thought Sylvestre was shit… OK, he was shit. But you get the point. I can’t believe someone thinks Ramsey is a ‘squad player.’ Barca wants to buy your ‘squad… Read more »
So true, man. I don’t get the Ramsey hate amongst fans. He is usually the scapegoat for everything and in a season were we hardly had anybody shooting on goal ut felt like he was the only one trying to make shit happen and scoring. Now, he is blamed for glory hunting, when in reality we have needed a player like him. He is also of course different to Santi and has not found his partner in midfield yet. Telling him to be a defensive anchor is just wasting his strenghts. I’d like to keep Ramsey and not sell him… Read more »
When we are under pressure from opposing team, we need to defend in midfield not in our box. The back four should remain around our box and all other six outfield players remain in midfield and defend.
When Ramsey was playing right, he was whining to play at Cazorla’s place expressing his wish directly in interviews. Now he plays at Cazorla’s place and he wants to do the job of an Özil and of a Walcott (“My runs, My goals” – latest interview)… This guy just has to know what he wants and MOSTLY to understand there are guys around and this is not only to make him shine.
When a guy is asked about his own contribution, he tends to answer in that way. I really don’t understand how one of hardest working players on our team is being dubbed selfish.
there is a stupid section of the Arsenal fan base who have decided that Ramsey will be their target, no matter how he plays, no matter how the team plays, no matter what position he plays, no matter how many goals he scores, no matter how many assists he gets, no matter how many km’s he runs, no matter how many tackles he puts in. The decision is in from them, and nothing will change it. I find a lot of them suffer from this idiotic affliction that if they rate Cazorla they can not rate Ramsey(he is seen as… Read more »
Ramsey is selfish! He runs around like a headless chicken but it seems all he wants is to get to the box and score. He doesn’t care if the team conceed in the process.there is no substance in his game in general. Either he doesn’t understand the game or he doesn’t care.
You genuinely think he doesn’t care if the team concede? Do you think a manager like Arsene Wenger, who continually stressing the importance of the collective, would continue to play someone who thinks only about himself?
Ramsey is a great guy who contributes a lot esp. his goal scoring but you have to understand that people get frustrated by his game sometimes, it’s not hatred it’s how fans get.
“There does not look to be a special reason.”
Hey Arsene, it’s called high tempo, high pressing and it gets us everytime. Try getting the team to close players down instead of standing off them and allowing them all the time and space in the world and maybe suggest a tackle or two. Just a thought.
How many premiership teams have you managed mate?
3 more than you
Cazorla is among many of the special generation of spanish midfielders who possess an innate gift of being able to control football matches with the ball alone.. Alonso, Xavi, Busquets Even cunt fabregas when he was here etc Cazorla is similar to these guys in his ability to control the pace and tempo of the team..All without being physically imposing or quick. Ozil is getting less of the ball because Ramsey and Flamini are not as good at finding him as Cazorla and Coquelin. Ramsey has different attributes to Cazorla…Some which make him more effective and more valuable in certain… Read more »
to listen to some of you its amazing that we manage to win a game at all with Ramsey and to a lesser extent Flamini in our central midfield, how with such inept CM’s we have only lost one game I will never know, and I find it extraordinary that with Coquelin and the general like Cazorla in central midfield we lost any games this season, but on checking it seems we lost six, now how did that happen, I bet it was still Ramsey’s fault
Spot on. We have lost games with both Santi and Coquelin yet many people (Amy Lawrence eg.) seem to suggest there is an inherent flaw in Rammini where Coqzorla is infinitely more solid. Then she would suggest this eccentric selection of Rammini won’t stand the pressure of a tough game like Liverpool. What was City and a high pressure game in Olympiakos? Blatant nonsense. And to think Elneny could be expected to hold midfield without so much as half a week’s training to adapt to a team, do these people even understand or play the game. Wenger will like to… Read more »
we have absolutely no idea what Flamini said to Ramsey after he scored, he could just as easily have been saying “keep making those runs and get us the lead goal”, but to suit a given stance of course he had to be telling him not to do what he was just after doing to get us a goal, can you see the utter madness and nonsense in that view. Also to simplify this whole Ramsey debate, do any of you really think that Wenger would continue to pick the lad if he was ignoring instructions game after game, cos… Read more »
If only we could blame Ramsey for our injury crisis, as well…
isn’t it odd that Wenger’s comments on what we may have done wrong on the third goal has been ignored, and once again the thread has been turned into the character assassination of Ramsey – by the way Wenger said our defenders played too deep and needed to be on edge of area and that this would have limited Benteke, – by the way just as was done on him in the FA Cup final last May.
But its Ramsey’s fault. You know its snowing where I am, I blame Ramsey.
Tarquinius refers to the stats but I think in Ramsey being more offensive, he’s get in the oppositions box and scores more goals than Santi….
I wouldn’t rate Ramsey as better but just different. You’ll probably find that he covers more ground too
The other detail I think that could be worked on is the manager reflecting on tactics against a pressing side….
For the 20 minutes of high intensity in that part of the pitch, get the ball straight up to the wing with longer passes where there’d be more space as the high pressing team would then be hurdled
At the end of the match, perhaps man marking Benteke with Mertsacker and bringing on Gabriel instead of Arteta would’ve been a better option
Ramsey is an exceptional footballer capable taking over a game in a way I’ve only seen Gerrard do before him, a lot of the criticism levelled at Rambo now was slung at Gerrard too. In that central midfield position a player becomes the heartbeat of the team, Ramsey’s problem is his reading of the game and adapting his style of play to suit the team something he needs to learn quickly. Against Man City is a good example of this we had just conceded, after allowing Yaya to waltz his way through our midfield, the situation called for calmness and… Read more »
We need to keep numbers organized behind the ball when protecting a lead and not having our fullbacks and all but the one midfielder running past the ball trying to score. We can still try to score and should, but need to do it smartly and not take dumb risks that over and over again let teams get dangerous chances to come back.
yeah little details like ‘be brave and win the first header’ and ‘take a card for the team’