Goals from Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain saw Arsenal secure a much-needed 2-0 win against Bournemouth that sees them climb to third in the Premier League, level on points with Sp*rs.
Pre-game
Arsene Wenger kept faith with ten of the 11 starters who drew with Southampton on Tuesday night. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took a place on the right in place of Joel Campbell and Gabriel retained his place. Surprisingly, the boss stuck with the struggling Flamini-Ramsey partnership asFrancis Coquelin settled for a place on the bench again. Mohamed Elneny was missing again after his wife gave birth this morning.
First half
Arsene Wenger had spent the week telling the media that scoring goals is ‘cyclic’ and his side went about proving his point by scoring twice in 90 seconds at Dean Court to end their five hour goal drought.
On 23 minutes Mesut Ozil hammered home an Olivier Giroud knockdown in the box – the result of a fine ball by Aaron Ramsey – before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain arrowed in a low drive to claim his first Premier League goal of the season.
After a very scrappy opening 20 minutes the quick-fire goals put the Gunners in a commanding position and settled the nerves of a side who initially looked tentative on the ball after four games without a win.
Mathieu Flamini’s yellow card on 8 minutes, for an unnecessary two-footed challenge that could have been deemed red, had set the tone for the untidiness, while Alexis Sanchez’s wild strike, high and wide, of Boruc’s goal five minutes later was representative of our recent poor finishing.
It was left to Ozil, as he so often has this season, to take the game by the scruff of the neck. The German’s technically-perfect finish, applied to a bouncing ball 10-yards out, rocketed into the roof of the net and had the travelling support gleefully indulging in his new chant. (1-0)
In the blink of an eye the lead was doubled. Ozil’s penetrating pass to Sanchez was intercepted, but as Ramsey picked up the loose ball Chamberlain showed good initiative to burst into the free space in the right channel. The England international’s right foot finish was hard and true and pinged into the net off the far post. (2-0)
At the other end Petr Cech produced two fines stops, an acrobatic dive to deny Harry Arter’s long range effort on 26 minutes and a sprawling save at the feet of Adam Smith in first half stoppage time. In between, the Gunners were also thankful for a fine recovery tackle from Hector Bellerin who bailed out Gabriel after Marc Pugh bore down on goal.
Second half
Both teams had chances to score in a frenetic opening 10 minutes of the second period. Matt Ritchie fired over and Smith hit the side-netting as Bournemouth dominated possession. On the break Sanchez forced Boruc to palm away a low drive and from the resulting header Giroud headed straight into the keeper’s arms.
The game subsequently settled down; the high tempo broken up by a series of substitutions by both sides. Dan Gosling and Ritchie went off on 65 minutes, Junior Stanislas and Josh King coming.
In response Arsene Wenger added extra steel to his midfield in the form of Francis Coquelin who replaced Oxlade-Chamberlain. In the final 15 minutes ex-Arsenal man, Benik Afobe, made way for Lewis Grabban, having been kept quiet all afternoon by Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel, and Kieran Gibbs replaced Alexis.
The Gunners were more than happy to slow the game down at every opportunity and did well to ensure Bournemouth never really came close to testing Petr Cech. That was until stoppage time when the 33-year-old made a brilliant double stop to deny Steve Cook and Arter.
More of that every week please!
Nice cameo by Walcott.
Ahh beat me to it 🙂
He probably had more touches of the ball this week, than last.
Every touch was sublime
Sub lime.
More of that every week please.
(Introduction in 93th minute)
Good result, we did what was needed. Let’s hope that is a turning point for the season, especially given our next opponents. However, we’ll never do anything with Flamini in the side, Wenger out…. Or did anyone else think he did a decent job and was unlucky on a booking given he got the ball? Afobe will come back to haunt us… Not a sniff. Gabriel’s pace is a big plus. The Ox is a waste of time? Not with ability like he showed. He is still young and will improve. Maybe it is the up and down Twitter world… Read more »
Flamini was awful. What game were you watching? He simply isn’t good enough technically to get the ball off the back four regularly and it causes us huge issues. Gabriel was also poor. His pace didn’t seem to help him Pugh waltzed by him and went through on goal. What ability did Oxlade show? His first league goal since September 2014 and 7th since he joined us in August 2011 was nice but other than that he was average. He kept giving the ball away and did nothing in the second half and was then taken off. You do realise… Read more »
Flamini came up with several crucial blocks in the goal area. What game were you watching?
He did nothing wrong maintaining discpline ahead of the back four where Coquelin charging higher up left us exposed on a number of occasion with space opening behind him.
We kept another clean sheet with Rammini. This time the forward line was less wasteful.
Flamini is streaks better than Elneny at the moment. Yet some would prefer top play an inexperience player or hanker for Wanyama who again notched another red.
You do not know what you are watching. Sorry.
I’ve already posted about Flamini’s shortcomings on the ball. Coquelin played the box to box role when coming on so that’s why he went forward. Flamini didn’t maintain discipline when he went in 2 footed in the first ten minutes of the game. It could’ve been a read card and it meant he was on a yellow for the rest of the game. He then couldn’t play his natural game and couldn’t be aggressive. Putting in blocks isn’t the sign of a good dm performance. Interceptions and being able to get the ball off the back four and pass it… Read more »
I’ve already mentioned Flamini’s shortcomings. Blocks aren’t a good indicator for a good dm performance for Arsenal. Interceptions and being able to take the ball off the centre halfs and move the ball forward are. The latter is something Flamini simply struggles at. For example Flamini didn’t feature in any of Arsenal’s top 18 passing combos on Tuesday. Coquelin came on as a box to box midfielder that’s why he went forward. Flamini certainly didn’t maintain discipline today when he went charging in two footed on the half way line in the first ten minutes of the game. With another… Read more »
Tend to agree Flamini was awful. He got turned by the Bournemouth mids on countless occasions on the edge of the box, if they had better shooters we would have been punished. His tackle was rash, not a part of modern football, but luckily was well before the player and got the ball, still deserved a yellow. Simply put we cannot control the midfield with Flamini and Ramsey in there. Flamini should be playing for a team like Bournemouth not Arsenal. I really wish we could see El Neny get a chance or just put Le Coq back, because we… Read more »
Players and managers are human beings.You think they dont read their own twitter feeds?
Comments like that affect the confidence of the players and frankly speaking, at this level confidence is everything
Yes but they’re obviously not being read out arseblog at halftime either. I doubt in a game when say Giroud’s through on goal he’s thinking about what some kid wrote to him on twitter. A lot of our players have a pr company run their social media accounts aswell. Confidence certainly isn’t everything. If it was Walcott would be scoring 30 every season. Criticism isn’t always a bad thing. How can anyone ever improve as a footballer if all they here is how wonderful they are? People on here act as if our players are delicate flowers who’ll fall apart… Read more »
While presumably every word of yours is pored over by the football Illuminati as if it were Gods Holy Truth……
It’s pathetic to fish for thumbs up.
Vnjvnjv this isn’t fishing for thumbs up but you sir are a shit fan. If you can’t celebrate a victory without fishing for negatives, most of which are complete and utter bollocks, then why bother watching at all?
Are you trying to fish for thumbs down? Cause you succeeded
For some reason i can’t reply to MannyG’s comment directly so I’ll post it here.
I’m not really arsed about the thumbs up and thumbs down voting. You’ve got posts on here with plenty of thumbs ups slagging off the away fans that fork out thousands every season and are always loud.
Zippit So according to you anyone that’s negative about this win is a shit fan? Honestly this place is like the ministry of truth. Any thing that doesn’t fit the team positive narrative is down thumbed. Arsenal scraped a win against one of the worst teams in the league and we’re supposed to be dancing in the streets. Arsenal haven’t played well in the league since the united match in October. Arsenal clearly have big issues but you’d like to keep your head in the sand. If you really want to believe that Flamini played well then fine but Flamini… Read more »
I don’t think he played that well but i wouldn’t, 2 footed tackle aside, say his performance was even a talking point. I’m just sick of being surrounded by fans like you who seem hell bent on looking for something to moan about. It’s tedious hearing it and there is no doubt whatsoever that the negativity finds it way onto the pitch and effects the team.
Zippit how can you just dismiss the two footed tackle? That could’ve easily cost us the game and if he does it again it probably will. I love how people who would never slag off the players or manager are so quick to have a go at the fans. It’s strange that when things are going well for Arsenal the fans don’t get any credit for their supposed roles in the wins. I myself am bored of people with their head in the sand who continue to act as if everything’s hunky dory at the club and believe that any… Read more »
Nah you’re wrong mate. Even when we were top of the league the atmosphere was site and fans were fucking whinging. It’s dull as dishwater and you are the epitome of it coming on here and whining with your sense of entitlement and self importance. I couldn’t give a shit if flamini went in two footed. He got away with it, we won, and that is all I care about. Now bring on Leicester and you can bitch and whinge if we scrape a win in that one too
zippit You’ve made yourself the arbiter of whether an Arsenal fan is a good fan or and shit fan and you think I’m the self important one. Jesus wept you’re clearly not the brightest. As I’ve already posted Flamini’s two footed tackle does matter cos if he does it again he’ll probably get sent off and cost us massively. But somehow this doesn’t matter to you cos he got away with it. So if Arsenal wins you don’t think about the performance or any problems that are on show. You don’t think maybe there’s problems with the kos-gab partnership. Or… Read more »
I don’t slag off the away fans? the away fans are incredible. I slag off the home fans, though because with 60,000 people, you expect to outsing a few thousand opponent’s fans, right?
Flamini’s tackle was horrendous and given our previous with bad leg breaks I think it would have been good for wenger or he himself to apologise. An inch higher he goes over the ball and potentially snaps gosling’s ankle. Giroud’s attempted trip wasn’t very nice either, though I do think he tried to just trip him rather than rake him as he did. Given the amount of people who moan about the refs against us I think it’s fair to acknowledge when it goes the other way.
None of our players are a waste of time. They have off days, some have periods or poor form and they soldier through it and come out on top. Like Ox did today. Like Flamini have in the past. Like Walcott will eventually. That’s football and that’s why you support your players even when they frustrate you. Criticism is fine, writing them off is not.
Good result today!
Best game Theo’s had for a while..
Meters run per seconds, it’s one of his best games. (Note I didn’t use kilometers per minutes.)
we can win it
just never start Flamini again, i’m having a mini heart attack every time he has the ball
We got Ozil Mesut Ozil, I just don’t think you understand
The most boring match ever. Almost fell asleep halfway through the second half. Good 3 points nevertheless.
Attack-wise, it’s was pretty good. Defensively, we were a bit shaky. We need to improve on the latter for next week because Leicester will capitalize on our mistakes. Other than that, 3 points is all that matters.
I think it was the other way around. Poor in attack (despite scoring two goals) while quite solid defensively.
shocking going forward..Sanchez and Giroud wern’t with it today, coupled with Ramsey, Ox Flamini failing to control midfield left Ozil alone today. Nothing came off but days like that happen.
Finally back to our winning ways. But what the hell was that 2nd half all about? Bring on Lestah!
Wenger out!
Well we got the result and a better performance in terms of converting chances, but I don’t think Leicester City will be overly concerned if they were watching!!!
Fuck Leicester we are the Arsenal. Wake up
Idiot
Don’t be afraid to believe fool. We are the Arsenal and we never fear Leicester coming to the emerates. Your probably a Jonny come lately so why am I wasting my time replying to a proper John Terry.
Oh didums truth hurts, Leicester are top of the table for a reason in the same way we are not!!!
Cunt!
the same leicester we trash 2-5 away ? just after loosing at home to olympiakos , they werent impress either i suppose after loosing to the greek
Not the best performance, but I could care less. We got the 3 points, kept a clean sheet and put a halt to our free fall down the table and that’s all that matters today . Nice to see Ox get a goal, hopefully a sign of better things to come from him. There’s a lot left to be done if we’ve any hope of putting a run together to take us back top, performances like this won’t cut it for the most part, not even thinking about Barcelona…but let’s hope it’s onwards and upwards from here and we return… Read more »
Agree with everything in your post, but I really can’t understand the Americanism that is “I could care less”. I don’t see how it makes any sense – if you could care less, that means you were bothered. Saying “I could not care less” means exactly what it says – there’s no way I could care less about (…), i.e. I’m not bothered.
I think he meant couldn’t Albert
No offence intended to the American readers out there, by the way. It’s not the fact that it’s an Americanism that I dislike it, but rather the fact it makes no sense.
It’s nearly as annoying as people who reply “or what” to a rhetorical question “… or what?”. If someone asked if you’d like tea or coffee, and you wanted a coffee, you wouldn’t reply “or coffee” would you?
As an American I always thought it was “I couldn’t care less”.
As in, I couldn’t care less about people stereotyping Americans with stupid comments
Apologies, again. I’m not one of those people that moans about anything American, like you guys having the gall to pronounce it aluminum (seeing as you discovered and named the thing).
I’ve never heard or read anyone outside of the US using “I could care less” though. It’s not a stereotype – I wasn’t saying Americans don’t understand the phrase, but that is a commonly used version of it (and if you look it up, it is an American-coined phrase, hence it is an Americanism).
Link to first goal appears broken, not working for me at any rate.
Worked it out. For anyone else having bother link is: http://arsenalist.com/f/2015-16/bournemouth-vs-arsenal/goaaaaaal-mesut-ozil-0-1.html
Belter of a finish too!!
A good win but not an impressive performance. If Bournemouth were a tad more clinical, the result would have been different. We really can’t play like this versus Liecester, we’ll get punished.
Even less so against Barca. But hey, many of our “bad” games were us simply not being clinical enough that’s how slim the margins have become in pro football.
Barcelona!!! We should give up on that one if we are serious about the league!!! Play second string or youth players – be pragmatic!!!
Cunt!
Very average performance from our boys tonight. Can’t believe we still have Flamini in the squad, he shouldn’t even be on the bench. This brainless bufoon could’ve cost us the game because of his two-footed tackle, deserved a red card for it to be honest. Giroud was uclose to useless, no shots on goal, dunno why Wenger put Walcott to be on the pitch for only 20 seconds. Could’ve tried him for 20-30 mins as a striker to try and get him scoring again from his favourite position, even if he was rubbish in the last few mths. On a… Read more »
Another fool who doesn’t understand the game. Flamini was solid today with Ramsey The pair have held our lead at the top for long spell plus seen off City and a very high pressure match with Olympiakos. There’s a reason why the gaffer continues to choose Flamini. He came up with several important blocks in the box today and was discipline where coquelin pushed up too far and left space behind him for Bournemouth. Instead of listening to the media and other fools, watch the game again. Flamini did nothing wrong and last I checked we came up with another… Read more »
No need for name calling because someone disagrees with you – it’s in the forum rules and everything. Personally I thought he was pretty ineffective once on the yellow card as you could see him holding back on tackles. That, plus the fact he kept on dropping back on top of the defence was pretty much allowing Bournemouth at us time and time again. I think you might have a point on Coquelin, although it must be said that he plays ahead of Cazorla when the two of them play (which is why Coquelin and Ramsey is probably not a… Read more »
Look, because you called me a fool I will not bother to read the rest of your post. Get some manners first, this was my opinion and I am entitled to it just as you are entitled to give yours, and I would respect it.
So you can call flamini a ” brainless buffoon” but whine and Moan when someone calls you an idiot? amazing!
Santori-you really are a know-it-all bore.
Flamini ‘did nothing wrong’?
Ridiculous.Got a yellow card,another day,another ref it’s a straight red.
And the reason ‘the gaffer keeps picking him’ is because Coquelin isn’t 100%,and unfortunately there’s no one else to replace him due to the gaffers’ lack of activity in the transfer market.Flamini is a liability,& always has been.
Did you think Giroud was “close to useless” when he rose at the far post to meet Ramsey’s cross, spotted Ozil ghosting into space, and cushioned a perfectly placed header for him to lash the ball into the net for our first goal? Or when he shook off two markers and rose to meet a free kick with a firm header that was just a little too close to the keeper? Or the countless times he won the ball under pressure and played a first-time ball to the feet of a team-mate in space?
You are right, he did make a brilliant assist, my mistake. Other that that (also a few headers, true) he did not contribute much. And that header, which you described as bit too close to the keeper summed up him aa a player, most of the time missing or shooting at the keeper. I watched all Henry’s goals for Arsenal in the last few days and there is such a difference between what we had before and what we have now in Giroud as a main striker. No killer instinct, no ruthlessness in front of goal, just glimpses if quality.… Read more »
Really good win, two nice goals, a nice weeks rest (a few still look knackered) and then give Leicester a tonking next Sunday!
– Happy Days and I think we are through our blip finally
Glad to see Walcott kept at arms length from the action and we were very lucky Flamini didn’t get a red
Good win – should restore some confidence.
But I was just thinking that we could have freshened things up a little bit in the second half; Walcott earlier, Coquelin for Flam and Campbell for Ox. Go for more goals and improve the goal difference.
Wenger was clearly sending a message to Campbell and Walcott.
3 points in the league, I almost forgot what that felt like.
Hopefully we can build on this on and go on a good run and finish the season strong!
Ox starts, defends very well and scores…Ramsey in the middle gets man of the match…it’s almost like Arsene knows what he is doing?…curious 😉
Haha its against Bournemouth
See what you say when he starts per against barca
Regardless of who starts against Barca, I trust Wenger, and we have history for doing the unexpected in all ways!! COYG.
Its good to be back.
I think this is the least happy Ive ever been with an Arsenal victory. I didnt even smile for any of the goals. This is a massive opportunity for Arsenal win the league this year. Please dont let me down. #justapassionategooner
We can’t win the league unless we win these games first!
That’s the spirit
A comment worthy of a pundit. If the Arsenal wins you smile if youre a gooner.
That’s what we have come acustomed to when it comes to Pundits in regards to Arsenal
Yeah you sound passionate #didn’tevensmileforanyofthegoals
I agree with you mate (poster). I felt indifferent for both goals. This was expected, now the guys are in their comfort zone (4th place), they are producing. But not an impressive performance by any means and I lost an illusion that we are fighting for a title last week after the S’hampton game and it felt better than pumping myself up and becoming bitterly dissapointed. I also sorry for Ozil and Sanchez for not having enough good players of their quality around them. I know I’ll get many thumbs down but can you imagine what would have happened if… Read more »
Good to see Mesut and Ox on the scoresheet – hopefully a confidence boost for the latter.
Genuinely think we should sit deep against Leicester, as all I can see to their game plan is the long ball over the top and into the channels, to Vardy and Mahrez, and their admittedly excellent use of early crosses, both tactics which are nullified by a deep defensive line. Thoughts?
First Flamini out!! He is a time bomb, he shakes every thing from our nerves to our defence. If Coq is fully fit & with Gabriel speed we will nullify both Vardy & Meherez.
Good to see anybody on the score sheet
It makes sense in a way, but at the same time you risk giving up the midfield and giving them too much confidence. You don’t them to start the game on the front foot and rattle us, specially at home.
We should be very careful though and put Coq back in the middle. Campbell could come back in the team as well for extra security on the right, but doesn’t Ox deserve to keep his place after a goal and an assist in his last 2 games?
Really happy OX took his chance and played a decent game, with a great goal!! Ozil and Sanchez working their socks off to add magic. The ball was passed from def to att seamlessly at times. But flamsey still lacks that balance. Nonetheless, a safe game with 3 points in the bag! Up and only up please! COYG!!
Petr Ceched Bournemouth!
Flamini is bad for my health.
At this point in the league there is no need for negativity. Let us just enjoy the win and hope for better performance and consistency .
Two great goals..Borderline bad to average performance..On top of which Wengers subs pissed me off….UNTIL he brought Theo on in the 92nd minute and i cracked my first smile since Ox’s Goal..Wenger trolling Theo was like a 3rd goal right now..Hopefully the message was delivered…Same for Joel Camepbell,
Massive games coming up…I still have faith.
Three points. Not a performance to inspire confidence but anything other than a win today and I would have been thinking our title challenge is pretty well over. But we won. And it’s not over yet.
Estatic with the three points but my oh my what a shit performance .Defensively at times all over the place one of monreals worst games in an arsenal shirt.Second half invited Bournemouth on far to much just a good job they couldn’t finish hope to god we don’t play like that against Leicester.And what was the Walcott substitute all about apart from embarrassing !!!
Ramsey was involved in both goals. The balance you are talking about was more than remedied by the two goals. Overall I thought Ramsey played reasonably well. No need to single him out
Not to suggest we retain him next season but apart from the 2 footed challenge incident, Flamini was excellent today
We were lucky not to be playing with ten men for three quarters of the game again because of his two footed tackle. Terrible decision making from him, would expect a player of his experience to know better. Personally, I would drop him as soon as possible.
I think we were lucky that he didn’t connect with the Cherries player just before the shot and great save by Cech. A touch there and he’s off. With a yellow card, you can’t fly into such a challenge.
Now, where’s that midfielder we paid about ten million for..?
Petr Cech… another Masterclass, another clean sheet.
Running out of superlatives for this great man.
He is the reason why I still believe we’ve got a chance to win the league this year.
Delighted with the win, abysmal 2be half though, invited pressure, couldn’t keep te ball and no general game plan. Thanks to Cech we got it done without conceding
A good win. Hope the Coq will be in shape to start against Leicester, the team looks too vulnerable with Flamini. Otherwise a good performance that can hopefully be built on.
Very average performance if I’m honest it was boring there was no dynamic from midfield. I just can’t see if anything what flamini has to offer he is huge unnecessary risk.
Cech!! That double save at the end!!
For me it was a massive and well needed 3 points so on that level, well done boys.
Otherwise I was left thoroughly uninspired, especially in the 2nd half.
But we won, I’m happy we won and we needed to win so job done.
Still so much negativity on here! We won didn’t we? Bournemouth are decent and I thought we controlled it well overall. Did you see the Ox cupping his ear when he scored? That was for the shit Arsenal fans I expect.
So because Arsenal have won today people shouldn’t be negative. So even though Arsenal hadn’t win in 4 and hadn’t scored in 3 prior to today people shouldn’t be negative cos Arsenal beat Bournemouth. Do you really think people are just going to ignore what’s gone on before cos of this one win? Arsenal away fans are many things but shit is not one of them. The people that go away are the die hards that love the club. They’re the people that fork out thousands of pounds every year to support the club. I like how so many on… Read more »
I’m not talking about the away fans, they’re fricking awesome. I’m talking about fans like you.
So why would he be cupping his ear at the away fans then? If they’re so ‘fricking awesome’. It makes no sense. The actual reason he was cupping his ear is that he’s a Southampton lad and Bournemouth are their rivals.
How many times have you been to the Emirates?
More times than I can remember but I could work it out for you if you want? Probably gonna bail out this year though. I don’t care about the money so much but I come away feeling frustrated at the lack of atmosphere, even when we’re on top. Newcastle did it for me when there were boos at half time. It was nil nil, the weather was abysmal and we were top of he league with half the team out injured. I go to football for the release after a long hard week at work, not to have to sit… Read more »
Well it’s a win, but we look a bit ragged. Flamini was a lucky boy, that could have been a 10th minute red card. We do not look like title challengers based on our recent form. Only Cazorla and maybe Welbeck to come back. It’s going to take them both 5 or 6 games to get match fitness so they’re not really going to influence games. Wenger stuck to his guns and played Ramsey and Flamini again, when it’s so obvious it has never worked. Even when we were winning we seemed to be falling over the line. We need… Read more »
Someone who can play badly but score from nowhere: that’s Walcott you’re describing. Plus he can be invisible too. Would like to see him get a run as CF again though, he worked hard to develop himself in that role but got moved out to the wing after the injury where he hasn’t been too effective (apart from the Olympiakos and City matches)
Walcott isn’t a proper goalscorer though. I’m talking about a natural goalscorer, someone who can have his back to goal, twist suddenly then, bang it’s in the back of the net. Someone who consistently finds the back of the net, but doesn’t necessarily contribute much to our overall play.
Newsflash “Walcott is not good enough” (ten years of research).
You should do a blog, that way people would not have to skip through your jibber jabber
Yet we are challenging and still in the mix. And Flamini is still holding for us with another clean sheet plus crucial blocks in goal area where say Wanyama got another red. Wenger has options at RW. He has both Campbell and Ox developing and both will get better. Ox has the right attitude and the assets in his locker to score goals. If he cuts out the naivity in his defnsive game, he will be devastating. Don’t agree with your assessment at all. I see positives. True we are not as efficient or fluent and make some poor judgements… Read more »
Good observations, I agree with you.
Jack to replace santa. Great close control and brilliant under pressure. Plus has superb technique
Better performance in front of goal. Midfield still bypassed very easily but that’s not gonna change. Ramsey does seem to have developed some positional discipline – 1 assist and 1 pre-assist aswell. Flamini is Flamini, can’t really expect him to be anything else. I don’t understand his inclusion in the side but I have no sway in the first XI sadly. Saw a comment about the defence being shaky. I thought the back 5 were great, it’s the lack of cover in front of them that’s the real issue. Not gonna find me complaining about clean sheets. 3 points with… Read more »
Pre-assist? Wtf!
Flamini had 2 pre pre pre assists. Mint! Player of the year.
And don’t think I saw Ramsey behind the ball once. He doesn’t seem to have a football brain. I think Wenger should try him up front, would be great I think.
Yes, a pre-assist – credit where it’s due. You think Ozil would have had that chance if Ramsey hadn’t played the ball to Giroud in the first place? It wasn’t a 5 yard sideways pass, it was an over the top through ball that facilitated Ozil smashing in the opener. Cazorla is regularly highlighted for the incisiveness of his passing even if he doesn’t get very many direct assists. Today Ramsey went some way to filling that gap.
I think preference for Flamini is mainly due to the fact that our Coq is not quite ready to last the distance and is being worked in slowly until he’s fully fit. I imagine once he’s fully fit he’ll assume the position.
Think it had more to do with the BFG not playing. Flam is seen as a senior squad member, with Wenger liking to have at least two older heads in the outfield team to act like his “voice”. Today it was Flam and Kos who were responsible for organising the team. It’s pretty clear though that Flam and Ramsey are too easily by passed in midfield, so the Coq should play when he’s fit.
Good show from the Ox today and an important goal for him. As I’ve mentioned, he has the right attitude,a solid set of skills and will get better. Goals are in his locker. And as I have also mentioned, the right side berth is open with both Campbell and Ox close to even with different attributes. Ox needs to cut out the naivity in his (defensive) game but going forward, he can have a devastating effect much like Alexis (who was a bit off today) Choices are important and it is not a problem that we do not have a… Read more »
Not good enough, in my humble opinion. Come to think of it, the only game where we scored prolifically was against leicester, which is quite ironic in a way. There’s a difference between being conservative, and being downright cowardly. We’re talking about a team the spuds trashed 5-1 at the vitality. We’re still in it, but hanging by a thread. Flamini is a mid-table ligue 1 player at best. He slows our play down and lingers around opposition attackers like a barking dog who never bites, or bites too hard. Everytime the ball is at his feet i’m cringing, even… Read more »
Who cares about Spurs’ scorelines? They managed a 1-0 home win over a promoted team this week, one who we quite happily bashed 3-0 away earlier in the season.
I recall the Watford game being far from a walk in the park. They are doing tremendously well, and it took us a long time to break the deadlock against them. I also watched the spuds play against Watford. They could’ve easily put 5 past them. Let’s not be naive. Breaks my heart to say it, but Pochettino did a great job there, they are threatening when going forward, an up and coming team and no longer the joke of North London. Maybe they’ll fall off pretty soon and we’ll all have a good laugh, but if we want to… Read more »
We’ve got Mesut Ozil
Really hope flamini is not playing againsy leicester.. it’s high tine he retrns to the bench.. why don’t you see this wenger?
Some of you are so bloody miserable.
We scored and kept a clean sheet for an important away win.
Sometimes I feel our back line muffs things up to see what else Cech can do. Too many shots skied in to Row Q? We got ya big Pete, we’ll let a few balls through in the last few minutes for you to break a sweat…
Points, a couple of goals for two of our playmakers and a clean sheet on a weekend where Leicester made their voices heard. Let’s take the positives, get back to London and look forward to next week’s showdown & closing this gap as we go into the business end of the season.
Arsene knows which is the best midfield partnership for us at the moment, and proves it by the consistency in his selection. They are, despite all the criticism, both players with a big heart, and especially with a big Arsenal heart.
Now let’s show Leicester, let’s show everyone, that we are the best side in the league. And I’m sure we are, quality-wise at least.
Let’s hope Alexis will regain his sharpness soon, and we’ll become unstoppable
630 am comes early, and I slept through the match today- but pleased to wake up to a fine scoreline and a much needed 3 points!
im always amazed at how britle our confidence is. we are continually told what amazing character and spirit we have. if thats the case we wouldnt let our heads drop at the first sign of difficulty. that said, a win is a win. by no means a classic but we move on to next week. i have to say im glad gabriel is now getting a run of games as upcoming opponents would have a field day against per! the sight of vardy and suarez just hanging on pers shoulder waiting for the through ball is frightening. costa is no… Read more »
Lets be honest we need to win pretty much every game remaining to win the league!!! We have table topping Leicester and rejuvenated manure next!!! When it counts you know what happens!!!