Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Elneny, Ozil, Iwobi, Walcott, Alexis
Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Gibbs, Maitland-Niles, The Jeff, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Perez
–
Arsenal suffered something of a Champions League hangover, and had Petr Cech to thank, as they drew 0-0 with Middlesbrough at the Emirates this afternoon.
Arsene Wenger made three changes to the side that beat Ludogorets in midweek with Mohamed Elneny, Petr Cech and Alex Iwobi coming in for Santi Cazorla, David Ospina, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The game began with Arsenal camped in the Boro half, the visitors sitting off and defending deep. The first chance of the game came from a free kick on the edge of the box, Mesut Ozil curling over from a dangerous position in the 8th minute.
Elneny fired a shot wide from distance, Walcott set up Ozil who was bundled over in the box, and then the game took a massive turn towards Boro who almost went ahead a number of times.
In the 20th minute Traore roasted Koscielny, drove into the box and forced Cech into making a big save from close range. That ball rebounded to Negredo and Cech saved again.
Seconds later Bellerin conceded a free kick on the edge of the box, and Arsenal had the crossbar to thank after Gaston Ramirez’s effort almost went in with Cech scrambling.
At the other end Alexis saw a 25 yard free kick pushed away by Victor Valdes, but again the best of the chances fell to Aitor Karanka’s side. In the 34th minute Traore crossed it from the right, Negredo flicked it on, it came to Ramirez at the back post whose point blank header was saved brilliantly by Cech.
It was a relatively poor period for the Gunners, with 8 shots from Boro to just 3 for Wenger’s team. Walcott’s low cross just evaded Ozil in the box, and the first half ended scoreless – with Arsenal having Cech to thank for that.
There were no changes for either side at the break, and Arsenal might have been ahead 3 minutes in. After Alexis was fouled, Ozil curled in a free kick from the left hand side. The ball came into Koscielny, he headed it across goal, Valdes came and missed it, Alexis put it back into the box and it just went behind Koscielny with the goal gaping.
Great defending prevented a chance for Iwobi, Gibson clearing just as the Arsenal man was about to slot the ball home. Alexis curled a free kick just wide in the 53rd minute, and minutes later his former Barcelona teammate Valdes made a brilliant save from a 25 yard strike that was curling in.
Great defending from Bellerin prevented an open goal for Boro, and Cech was once again called into action when Traore drove into the box and fired a shot across goal which the Czech palmed around the post.
Mustafi picked up a yellow card for a foul on Ramirez, before the Gunners fashioned their best chance of the game. Walcott slipped Alexis in behind but his shot was tame, allowing Valdes to make an easy save.
Arsene Wenger made his first change in the 67th minute as Lucas Perez came on for Iwobi, and when Valdes headed away there was a chance for Walcott to catch him off his line but he failed to connect properly with the bouncing ball.
Oxlade-Chamberlain came on to replace Elneny with 15 minutes of normal time to go as the Arsenal manager tried to change the dynamic of the game. It didn’t make too much difference, Lucas and Walcott combined but couldn’t work a chance, and the England man got a good header on an Ozil cross but Valdes took the ball.
Boro did work an opening but some lad thwacked his shot over the bar and wide. As Arsenal pushed for a goal there was the danger of a break from the visitors, and Traore was capable of that – so when he freed Negredo hearts were in mouths but Koscielny got back to make an impeccable challenge in the box.
Arsenal did have the ball in the net in injury time when Ozil turned in an Oxlade-Chamberlain shot, but he was well offside.
For all the pressure, we couldn’t find a breakthrough, and although we remain unbeaten and kept another clean sheet, the winning run came to an end. It was the first time we haven’t scored since the 0-0 with Leicester in August.
We just weren’t quite there today. Intricate play is all well and good, but when you’re playing a team that have fully parked the bus someone’s going to have have to put their foot through it.
We’ve always struggled against teams that parkwd bus.
What’s wrong with Monreal? His successful crosses was like 0/6?
i agree with that plus he has been a suspect defensively as well…there are issues on the left side of the defence from day1…most of the attacks/goals have happened from the side of monreal this season..we cannot jus blame iwobi for not helping out monreal..he is getting skinned almost every game..
They put up two brick walls! I think we could have done with Giroud in this game he would held up up play and brought others into the game. Sanchez just doesn’t have the height. Anyone know how long Giroud is out for?
Agreed on Giroud, and fortunately I think he’s going to be available for the EFL Cup match on Tuesday. We could definitely have used him today.
They pressured him well, and he had trouble. We were tired and they were organized, oh well. This is the type of game where we need Giroud to just anchor something down in the final third. Here’s to his toe!
Glass half full. We are top of the league (for at least a few hours maybe more)
Boro was so hell bent on maintaining the compactness of their train that there was a lot of space was freeing up in front of their box. We should have tried long shots from there, just to make them quit their bus and come forward. This would have loosened them up and we could have gone about with our usual one-twos and a goal game.
So frustrating. Boro parked a fucking train.
It’s not the fucking parking the bus it’s the fear of being top of the league. Now watch us struggle through November AGAIN.
Champions win these type of games even if they park buses, trains and plains.
Shut up. We’re The Arsenal and we’ve played fantastically this season. Everyone has an off day.
Very true…except didn’t we win against Southampton, Burnley, and Swansea? Exactly in the scrappy manner a champion would do so?
Thumbed you down by mistake of mind sorry…
Only me and FatGooner are allowed to be cynical, get your own fucking hobby x
Can’t win it all. Games like this are bound to happen. Good it happened before the sp**s game!
Onto our next game. COYG!
Btw.. may be we should have appealed that xhaka red.. either him or santi should be in the base of our midfield all the time! It just don’t work otherwise! Them both provide that assurance!
Had we appealed and failed (as was at least somewhat likely), he’d be out for Spuds. So perhaps it’s for the best.
Not necessarily. The extra game for a failed appeal is only if the appeal is deemed frivolous. Given that Moss was demoted to the Championship this weekend due to his poor performance last week, I don’t think there’s any chance an appeal would have been ruled frivolous.
I think we missed Santi and Giroud today. Coquelin and Elneny doesn’t seem to work as they are both too cautious with the ball and lack the pre-final ball if you know what I mean. Both are good in distributing the ball and keep things ticking, but in games like these you need to move the ball faster and find those little pockets of space that Cazorla does so well. And since ‘boro defended so deep, as expected, then Giroud in the middle would have given us an extra outlet, his flicks at the edge of the box and his… Read more »
Agree that Elneny and Coq lack the creativity to break down defenses like this, would rather see them start against top opposition, but well it’s not like there were too many alternatives with Santi and Xhaka out. The non-functioning midfield led also to Alexis dropping deep and trying to be a playmaker which led to us having nobody in the box for the crosses. I think Wenger made the right changes, not too much else he could do. we really missed a plan B in Giroud today, maybe it would be handy to have Sanogo on the bench against this… Read more »
it’s a day like today when you miss having big olivier to smash the ball in to when you need to play direct
Our Coqneny is just not working
Hard not to feel that Santi is the lycnhpin of everything we do, and whatever midfield combination we try should have him in it somewhere. Last season fell apart when he got injured, and today we just didn’t seem “right” (for want of a better term) without him. Not that his deputies are bad players, but nobody can tie it all together like he can.
Or maybe I’m overreacting after the disappointment of dropping points, who knows.
totally agree…thou elneny is a tidy and assured player he offers little creativity compared to cazorla…most of his passes were sideways today apart from one long crossfield ball…
Just not the type of that match for that duo to shine
Happy birthday Arsene! (though no win, but it could be worse)
MOTM Cech, those saves ensured we had a point in the end.
Oh boy how we missed Cazorla! Our midfield looks so different without him!
We looked exactly the as we did against burnley when cazorla played.
Difference was we got lucky against them.
Good point – one that I hadn’t thought of when getting annoyed that neither Cazorla nor Xhaka were available because we didn’t appeal that ridiculous decision.
Oh, and if what Ox and the bloke on the Sunday Supplement said is correct, why was Mustafi not sent off for rugby tackling Ramirez with no intention to play the ball? Could it be that it being a straight red when a player makes no intent to play the ball is complete bull shit?
We needed Ozil or Sanchez to prove why they deserve that money. Coquelin and Elneny will catch a lot of flak but when we play with that front four against a side like Middlesbrough that should be plenty
This was a day for Giroud.
Fair play to Boro. They played well. I guess we’ll have to work on getting Giroud fit quicker. We desperately need someone to cross in the box when things aren’t working out.
I knew it was too good to be true; same problems, different season.
Couldn’t be farther from the truth. We are a very different team this season, and this is just ONE game. Long long way to go yet, and we are currently sitting to of the table.
It’s most certainly not just one game. We struggled in more than half of our games this season and battering Ludogorec and Nottingham Forest (and Chelsea) won’t change that. And yes, we’re a different team this season. We create less shots but we’re more efficient. Sooner or later it’s bound to catch up with us.
And there’s me thinking we just went top of the league.
What a twat I am.
There’s a difference between performances and results. And if you took the time to understand what I wrote you wouldn’t act like an absolute cunt.
To be fair I get what you’re saying. We have struggled in some games this season, but things could be much worse. No team is going to win every game. I sometimes think we as Arsenal fans have expectations which are unreasonable. I know we’ve had a frustrating time over the last decade, but let’s just enjoy the fact that we are doing pretty well so far this season. One draw does not spell the end of our chances. But I do despite that we’ve struggled in more than half our games.
*dispute
Oooh, “we struggled in more than half of our games this season”. Has nobody told you how competitive this league is?? Anyone can beat anyone on their day, thus any team is capable of dropping points. The new darlings of North London up the road have taken 2 points from 2 and that was against West Brom and Bournemouth!
Teams drop points and so do we. We’ll drop more in the next 29 games, but it won’t just be us. Chin up and focus on the next game!
Did we struggle against Swansea? Sort of, but not in attacking fluency, which is what you’re complaining about. Did we struggle against Basel? No. Against Hull? No. Against Watford? No. Add those performances to Chelsea, Forest, and Ludogorets, and I think we’re doing ok.
There’s always one drama queen. Go have a coffee or something.
Fuck off, we are top of the league you idiot
Geez, one game that didn’t quite go our way and the moaners are out of the woodwork. We don’t have a god given right to win every game.
and so it begins….. Wenger out!!!!
I enjoyed the peace of the comments section whilst it lasted.
And to think Mr Wenger still thinking about offering Santi a new contract!.
The easiest chance to go top and the bottle job starts. What’s the point if we can’t beat Boro with enough goals to go top if we just can play when there’s no pressure?.
Cazorla has an option on his contract which Arsenal can apply – so there’s no need for an offer;
The easiest chance to go top…which is exactly what we’ve done, genius.
As we speak Liverpool are top and city with any positive result tomorrow and we’re third “genius”.
I am really wishing comes May and I’m wrong, but I do that every year and seen it so many times when you join like the blog and say enough is enough and then two good results and you start flip flopping again.
Unnecessarily hard hitting passes and soft hitting shots. Should be the other way round. Boro Mourinho’d the shit out of that game
Blaming Boro for playing defensive football is just cowardly. The onus is on us to break their defense and we simply didn’t know how. Burnley did something similar a few weeks ago and we were very fortunate to win that one. Any team happy with a point will get one against Arsenal because we don’t know how to break down a sturdy defense. Also, they had way better chances than us and we were lucky not to concede one of them in the first half.
Basically summed it up, Ozil cost more than most of their team combined, the onus on us is to try and break them down, they get their tactics nailed down we didn’t.
Cowardly? Do you know that that word means, because it doesn’t mean what you seem to think it means. You can disagree with “blaming” Boro (I do; the problem is with a sport that consistently benefits conservatism over risk taking, not the small teams that take advantage of this fact), but no one is a “coward” for not liking the way they set out to play, or attributing our struggles to their style. It’s just a fact that it can be really, really hard to break a well organized team down. And while they clearly parked the bus (and as… Read more »
I only watched the second half but monster keeping from the Boro keeper and we seemed to get too close to him every time.
And dare I even say it, but Mike Dean wasn’t half unreasonable today. Based on only one half and by his standards of course.
Also, praise to Koscielny for super human defending and Mustafi for a possibly even more cynical foul than the one by Xhaka against Swansea AND managing to not get sent off with Mike Dean in charge. Charmed life!
Koscienly’s defending wasn’t very super human when Traore brushed him aside and raced past him twice, i thought he had a patchy game at best.
You can see that Karanka has spent time as Cuntinho’s assistant… parked a frigging aeroplane in front of our goal…
When teams like boro are parking the bus and defending with immense intensity and focus, a spark or a moment of brilliance is needed and unfortunately we just fell short today. I did like the performance of Walcott today though, thought he was really good.
Agree with the first bit, but what exactly did Theo do today, other than try hard and fall short? He wasn’t worse than the other players today (well, he’s always worse than the other players at the stuff he’s not particularly good at, like close control and passing in tight spaces, but…), but hardly deserves a special mention.
We really missed Giroud today. I guess we could have taken more shots, sometimes a lucky deflection is all it takes.
It’s a long season. On to the next game. COYG
I agree with this. When we aren’t able to cross the ball from wide positions in the air, our attack can become predictable.
Giroud would have added a different element. Good point where we would normally drop. Encouraging steel. Next week some boys are back to help us in November! COYG!
Looking like some will bitch about Boro “parking the bus”… Boro had more shots, and 1 less shot on goal in the game.
The truth is you could see this coming a mile away, the way they’re struggled against Burnley and Swansea was food for thought and some of the same concerns reared their head today.
In typical Arsenal fashion they had a chance to go up top in the table and produce this dud. Hopefully Ozil and Sanchez get a rest mid week they need it.
they*
“They had a chance to go up in the table” – which they did.
Just a general trend I have observed in Arsenal matches for a while
– We dont do well in corners and free kicks. We get a lot of them but usually we fail to test even the keeper, why do you think this is?
in the last 15 years, at least, corners have been more of a hindrance than help to us. haha
I agree intricate play is good, but corners and free kicks are vitally important as well. Its true that Boro had chances, but had we made use of our corners and free kicks better , we could have taken 3 points. Defending from corners is ok, but attacking from corners is something we should focus more on. We also seem to be obsessed with slicing through the centre, when there are vacant spaces on the flanks present- Another issue I think is we dont seem to be scoring from crosses from the flanks (similar to our ineffectiveness in corners). The… Read more »
We do score a few (Burnley the other week)…Our conversion rate is awful…We probably create the most chances per game in the prem, the most shots, the most corners etc
Even when we win a game comfortably we miss loads of chances and don’t make the most of the corners and free kicks we earn. Which is usually a lot.
Sorry, but No it’s too easy to say we missed Santi! He would have ben tired as well as the others and he is not God, sorry! Love him, but if the problem is just the absence of one player, then we’re no great team (i’d say the same with Sanchez, Özil, Cech, Kos……..).
Btw, with Cazorla, we lost against Liverpool…
Frustrating game. Our midfield pairing were fine. Coq was his usual solid self and Elneny did his job as well as making several penetrative and play-spreading passes. It was our attack that lacked incision, and it just didn’t click today. A lot of sideways passing, failed 1-2’s and flicks, and our final balls were really lacking. On reflection of what actually happened in the game, I think it is one point gained rather than 2 points lost. We will have days like this, and we won’t scrap the victory every single time. Let’s keep perspective, back the team, and look… Read more »
Would like to see have seen Ox in a bit earlier than around 73 minutes as he is one of the only players that will dribble by people and get a good shot off like he did when Ozil scored, but was rightfully called offside. It is frustrating when teams do that, but until we figured out more effectively how to break them down then they will continue to do so especially at the Emirates. Too many wasted crosses that were easily cleared and not enough looking to get some shots off from outside of the 18 that can be… Read more »
Agree Elneny could have taken some more shots when on, I guess that is now coached out of him…(sarcasm) Our front 3 didn’t work at all today and I think Walcott stayed a bit too much on the wing and Alexis couldn’t really decide if he was a striker or a playmaker.
Our build up was also too slow and couldn’t use our counter attack as we have done so well this season. Maybe it could have been a good idea to let Boro have more of the ball and hit them on the break..
Its official we should worry more about Cazorla’s back up than world class striker or Alexis and Ozils contract. Not denying proper striker would have scored somehow this kind of much but stull…
Wonder how much effect the game on Wednesday had. Oh well better luck next time.
To put it in perspective, for most of Middlesbrough’s players it was the third match in the last 2 days for them, and for most of ours it was the sixth.
*weeks, not days!
We missed Santi, simple as. Could of done with big Olly today as well. No real plan B
Crap performance. Crap result.
Title winning teams don’t draw 0-0 at home to dross like Boro.
Top quality trolling.
All good teams have their days. And FYI it’s easier to get teams to score goals than it is to stop them conceding them. So I wouldn’t really call Boro dross.
i hope soton can give the bald guy nightmare tommorrow
when boro park the train , one two pass in the middle is easy to broke down , need to exploit the wings but we dont have the target man .
I’ll take this one point than nothing
We are missing giroud badly for.these types of games. They we already signs against burnley, soton an today we was missing him badly alexis was isolated with 3-4 playeres forcing him out of their box and he didn`t have a touch in the box. Before you all starting saying it is because of cazorla not playing , not its not yes he is vital but in this game the forwards were isolated they knew we are not a threat with crosses and high balls.
Can’t blame Boro for there approach.. We saw what happened when a team came and tried to go toe to toe.
Cazorla was a real miss..Also those who are writing off Giroud and Ramsey..This was there type of game.
Disappointing. Bottling at the slightest opportunity to go top. Looks like Karanka got tips from Mou and Rui Faria.
Poor mentality from us. This is why we won’t be winning the league anytime soon. Games like these are the ones we should be winning. Next month, it’s manure and spuds and no way are we getting 6 points from those games.
To me it seems our weakness is against teams whose main tactic is defending. Manure and Spuds will be coming out to play against us and for their efforts we’ll take them apart.
We’ve gone top, if you haven’t noticed.
Totally agree with you.
I don’t think we’ll even make top 4 after drawing a game after winning 7 in a row.
Wenger needs to go. Let’s get the banners out. It really feels like groundhog day.
We well and truly have bottled it in October. Season over. You can’t expect to win the league when in October itself you are wait… top of the league??
Not happy with the draw but hey we are top of the league
Alexis gave his usual effort, and he had the only really dangerous shots on goal. But boy oh boy he really likes to hold on to the ball, and always tries to work his way out of tight premises, which gives opposition defenses time to set up the parked bus. I’d have liked to have seen Lucas start and get a good run out. And yes we did miss Ollie G, not only as a target for headers from crosses but also for his talent in releasing penetrating runners like Ramsey with deft touches at the top of the box.
Front four weren’t quite at it today and maybe it should be no surprise considering the minutes they’ve all clocked together. Ozil in particular looked a little jaded, and could do with a rest potentially. People will say we missed Giroud and there’s definitely and argument for that, Sanchez not being able to profit from some of our wide play. But I’d argue we missed Cazorla more (and Wilshere/Ramsey funny enough). We knew Middlesborough will be hard to break down but not very adventurous, so why we started with two defensive holding midfielders is a little perplexing. I would have… Read more »
Agree with the rest but I don’t think anyone who has seen Ox play this season would have liked him to start before the match, especially in midfield where his lack of defending would be even more exposed. But He played surprisingly well after coming in must be said, also partly because at that point boro had parked the buss totally.
Pity we’d already used one of Koscielny’s late winners a few weeks ago.
Our creater in chief just ain’t creating at the moment but Girould would have been a good option from the bench
There was actually a 4th change from midweek, Monreal coming in for Gibbs, but I think we all forgot
Not ideal but a little reality check for us all. Cazorla is instrumental in so much of the good we do. Ozil, Sanchez and Walcott of late have been getting the plaudits but when Cazorla doesn’t play we invariably lack creativity deeper in the play. We lacked a bit of sharpness too and Boro had some great chances also, so today I think we dust ourselves off and get ready to go again. Yes, these are the games you need to win but that goes for all the teams challenging – you should be beating Burnley away, Bournemouth away, and… Read more »
That was frustrating as hell, but it’s always going to be frustrating when you play against a team whose only intent is to defend. Can’t blame Middlesbrough for using the tactic, as it was the only thing that could have worked against us. Sadly, only Theo of our front four was even average today and the rest were quite poor. Many thanks to Cech for gaining us the point. This is merely a blip, and we can get back on track when we go up to Sunderland. Ollie should be available by then and he will give us another option… Read more »
Excited for Ramsey’s return to training. He always divide opinions, but for me Ramsey is the next best player we have in Cazorla’s role.
I’m not sure I understand some of the negativity around Boro and parking the bus. It’s not pretty to watch, but when minnows go up against a giant like Arsenal, you can hardly expect them to play a high line and play expansive football can you? They don’t have the players to do it. Negredo isn’t a pacey player so they couldn’t attempt a counter-attacking style either. Remember when we got buttfucked 6-0 and 5-1 by Chelsea and Liverpool respectively in 2014? That was because we tried to play an open and expansive style and got mullered for it (Chelsea… Read more »
That’s two weeks in a row Nacho’s been burned by pacy wingers 🙁
Today was my fault, I triple captained Sanchez in my dream team.
Sorry chaps.
Crumbs too many people actually listen to poxy pundits and take their word as red!!! So we didn’t beat middlesbore but last season we would have lost that game and also we did beat Burnley and Swansea despite playing pants – but that is not the work of a champion?!?! Give it a rest grumble weeds!!!
Putting this at the manager’s feet. My opinion, the hardest thing to do as manager is get the squad rotation right and keep everyone sharp and focused. But that is what you are paid for. That is your job. Arsenal have the squad to beat a Bulgarian side at home in the Champions league and beat a newly promoted side at home in the Premier League 4 days later. With four competitions effective rotation is essential. Wenger must do better.
Also, is there an update on Giroud?
November is coming.
All these people going onw this or that player can fight their way back into the squad… I mention this before, it isn’t a zero sum game. We played barely 2 and a half days ago and we will need rotation. Rotation to freshen up legs. Rotation because there is such a phenomenon at Arsenal FC known as injury. Simply put, we need as many different tools to unlock defenses as possible. Which is why the Alexis up top is the only answer to everything was never going to happen. We will need, Granit back in absence of Santi for… Read more »
Is it just me or does the gaping hole in creativity when Santiago is out make one question Wilshere being let out so easily?