Per Mertesacker says Arsenal’s failure to keep the ball proved to be their downfall at Vicarage Road as Watford came from behind to secure three points with a 2-1 win.
The Gunners looked decent value for their 1-0 lead at the break, given to them by the German’s towering 39th-minute header, however, after a controversial penalty was converted by substitute Troy Deeney, the visitors retreated into their shell and capitulated in stoppage time as Tom Cleverley converted from close range.
Speaking to Arsenal.com after the game, Mertesacker was unimpressed by the way his teammates failed to deal with the Hornets’ second half pressure and the fact they contrived to miss the few chances they did create.
“I think we could have done a little bit better, when we gained possession we lost it straight away,” he reflected.
“I think we struggled a lot in terms of that and that’s not our game, you could sense that we struggled a lot in those scenes where they just regained the ball back as quickly as they could.
“I think that’s what we lacked, especially in the second half, you know when we got the ball we missed a chance, but we missed as well to play, we missed it completely. That’s what we did really well in the first half, where we regained possession, kept possession, that was really good.
“In the second half we just wasted the ball and that’s obviously not enough. If you just protect and you have no chances on the break and you miss one chance to kill the game, then it’s difficult in the Premier League to win any game.”
I love the bfg but like Wenger he is stating that we played well in the first half. It was insipid. We look and play like a mid table team. Most players are of that standard. Our only two genuine class players won’t commit to club. Even the technically not good enough Ox wouldn’t commit. Says it all really. We will put a few results together and then hear the same shit “we are on way up and finding our form” bla bla fucking bla
Guys I have a weird theory. I am starting to suspect that Lacazette and Giroud are the same person. Have you ever seen the two of them together on the field. Now the question is, whether Giroud is cleverly disguised as Lacazette or Lacazette is cleverly disguised as Giroud?
I didn’t watch the game because it was on the same time as Dortmund Vs RB Leipzig and I can safely say I made the right choice.
Then don’t bother commenting.
I like Lacca, but I will stick with what I said in preseason; I’m not quite sure if he’s THAT much better than Lucas Perez.
I think his price has warranted he has more opportunities than Perez, but there’s something about Perez style I likes. Like a budget Suarez/Sanchez (mad dog fighter making runs, pulling out wide, dribbling at defenders, pressing them and generally being an influence or a nuisance), just wish he was given more of a chance.
i like both perez and lacazette . that being said i think lacazette is better than perez technically on the ball. the problem is lacazette is not getting much service. Iwobi is ok , but he shouldnt be the primary chance creater of a team . But against watford i think our biggest problem was that both our central midfielders could not take the ball upfield , all they did was pass the ball sideways . i think its time to give wilshere a chance in the place of xhaka
Lacazette has not had much chance to play with Ozil yet, and Alexis seems to get greedy when the better option of passing to Laca is there.
That and Laca I’m sure is still figuring out how to be effective and dangerous against the perennial packed in opposition defense. I don’t imagine he came up against quite so many 10-men-behind-the-ball at Lyon. Might explain why he’s been more effective in away games where home clubs are expected to go after the match as opposed to the constant Mourinhization of the game when they come to the Emirates.
oops – sorry, clicked down-vote when I meant to click Reply. Just to say, he hasn’t scored in an away game yet, so not sure you can say he’s been effective in away games where the opposition has come out. Also, the moment Ozil came on (and when Watford were affording us the opportunity to play on the counter) Lacazette got taken off for Giroud, who is frankly useless for counter-attacking football. He’s slow, so can’t get involved in a swift break (fair enough, that’s not his fault), but he doesn’t even hold the ball up – he constantly wants… Read more »
Ha – you’re right, I had that backwards. Ah well, i’m a fool anyway, so if anyone’s listening it’s on them! Totally agree with Giroud – his holdup play has (unscientifically) gotten worse, not better over the last couple of seasons. We’re not playing the same as we did when Jack and others were playing slick 1-2’s with him top of the box, and nobody is making that run to / beyond him when he’s winning a long ball. Honestly we’re better off playing out to Ozil – he frequently gets space on the counter. And yes, subbing Giroud on… Read more »
I’m afraid you’re right bro.
This is the same old problems, over and over. Arsenal is now a football club with no desire, no backbone, no belief and no footballing identity. Watford think we are cowards ffs. Our former players think we are cowards, these are ex-Wenger players that are saying it., pretty much unanimously. It really is time for change. Massive clear out of the manager and players is needed. We all knew it last season and were reminded clearly after the Liverpool game. Many have known it for a decade. All Wenger has left is his legacy and he is eroding it by… Read more »
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It’s time we built Wenger a statue.
He also just stood there for Watfords second goal. As Cleverly was lining that shot up, he easily had enough time to get across to him and put a block in, like a proper captain, dying for the cause, putting his body on the line – instead of just leaving a young Rob Holding to try and pull off some miracle block on the line. It reminded me of that game when he ducked out of the way of that Skrtel header in the dying seconds of added on time away at Anfield a few seasons ago. There is just… Read more »
The struggle is real. Quick thoughts on why lacazette is being subbed at 70min even when the game requires him to be there.
I’ve been wondering if it’s to try and keep Giroud happy?
Or maybe because he really didn’t do anything? Come on, what did he add during the time he was on?
Was more of a threat than giroud atleast.
He was the only one causing them problems when he got on the ball. More often than not he had to go get it closer to the half way line as there was no link.
I get he has an issue with Ozil, but if he is benched then with Santi injured Jack is the only answer. Lack of creativity shone like a beacon last night.
Özil created more in 30 minutes than the other guys in 90 minutes…
Fock this kind of stats when we always lose even though it’s quite visible ozil was a liability yesterday and the only chance he created for iwobi was a good save from gk.
And missed the chance to put us 2up!
That miss is what nightmares are made up of. Absolutely annoying for a world class player.
And missed a sitter and ‘ushered’ Richarlison through to put Beller under pressure, resutling in their first goal.
Within 10mins of coming on, he’d been personally responsible for a 2 goal swing!!
That half an hour encapsulates Ozil’s Arsenal career in nutshell and was a clear demonstration of the flaws of being a footballer that can only create chances and do nothing more.
Yes creating chances and helps with buildup is what he does and does with world class levels. Have you just started watching Arsenal play this season? or Ozil? No one says he’s perfect.
Lol thats how you view football?
Curious that there are so few mentions of the abject display by Alex Iwobi: lazy, self-interested, cowardly (not ONE tackle attempt in the entire 2nd 45!) and profligate with his passing. When the first change came, I was certain the boss had had enough and was hooking him for HFB or perhaps Jack. No – we take off the bloke who’s scored almost 80 goals in the last 3 seasons to bring on a malcontent, albeit extremely talented, who is the only bloke in the squad who does LESS work than Iwobi!! We were controlling the game at that point… Read more »
Glad someone brought it up, although I didn’t think it was laziness but rather a lack of quality (on the day – I think he’s better than that). He was doing a really good job of looking like he was playing well, but was actually doing everything important wrong: bad shooting, bad decision-making, inaccurate passing, mistimed passing. I wanted him to come off for Ozil but then Welbeck got injured. Then when I thought Jack might come on and make something happen Koscielny went off for Holding! Why not go four at the back and put Jack on? I remember… Read more »
I agree with the substitution. Laca wasn’t good on the day. How much have we heard of the need for a plan B and Giroud is that. Of course, it didn’t pay off but I think the result was down to a lot more than that. I think a lot of managers would have made that sub but a lot of managers would have signed a CM in the summer also.
That is so obvious. To pacify Giroud. But that is like taking a gun and shooting yourself on the foot.
We were pedestrian. Pathetic, in fact. Watching the central midfielders (Xhaka, in particular, again) standing outside the box and watching what was happening, left me thinking that they just don’t give a damn. Coquelin remains my favourite PLEASE PLAY HIM MORE!!!!!
He did the same when the Swiss conceded their second goal few days ago
This is the same old noise that we’ve been hearing for the last ten years. And each time I see a performance like last night I think of two things, our players are not well organised and there is a fundamental flaw in the character of the team.
I’ve seen it so often and for so long that I know AW cannot fix it.
I really tired of nobodies like troy deeney coming out and abusing our team over ‘having no cojones’. The really sad thing is that he’s right
Yes, a nobody from Watford criticising Arsenal and its titles is hilarious.
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Troy Deeney hit the nail on the head. I hope the players have his BT interview on repeat showing.
The great thing is aw has to answer those criticisms this week in a press conference.
Hopefully a reporter just reads today’s arseblog to him
But when Walcott basically said that after Crystal Palace last season, he got dipped from the squad!
I feel confused: the first half is meant to have been very good, ok, then why not scoring a second time then? Why blaming Özil and not Iwobi and not Xhaka, Elneny, Monreal…for shouting out wide? Why nothing happened in the first half expcet a scrappy goal? The clearest chances were during the second half, but if the first one was so good, then why why why no second goal then?
How football generally works is when a team is losing and pushes more men forward you tend to have more chances. Your sweetheart Ozil did indeed create a great chance but he has to take responsibility for our inability to stop them getting all us once he came on. Yes, Deeney did come on and cause a bigger thread, but they weren’t just lumping it forward from deep. They were all over us and we couldn’t keep the ball for long periods or press them high to not allow them to keep attacking us. And he did miss our best… Read more »
Never mind the penalty decision, the only scandalous thing I saw was the shambolic performance, especially in the last 20 minutes, you can have world class players, you can have a world class manage (!), but without passion you’ll win fuck all…
Agree with Blogs – it is the same old story, but I would say that there are some small margins (even if we always seem to be at the wrong end of them) Biggest problem is still the midfield. Can someone tell me exactly what Elnenny does. I know he runs around a lot, but so does Mo Farah. And he lives Arsenal!! By that rationale, get him in the team…. Welbeck is another one who I don’t understand in afraid. How does he just walk straight back into the team? 20 goals in 75 games for Arsenal? Really? And… Read more »
We went from a solid defensive display to “shambles” in minutes after Ozil came in. We were bad away against Stoke and Ozil played that match. He just isn’t suited to PL away games.
Also, don’t understand how Elneny gets so much stick when Xhaka has been shockingly bad for 4/5 games this season. At least Elneny wasn’t losing the ball constantly and actually defended.
We can’t carry “specialist/luxury” players like Ozil and Xhaka. Ramsey and Wilshere who are good all-round players start easily ahead of both of them imho. Even the Coq can at least defend properly.
We won in the Cup semi and finale with Özil. Özil created more in 30 minutes than Iwobi and co in 90 minutes. I know it’s easy to attack Özil, but why not Lacazette? He costed more than Özil and his wage is significantly higher than Özil’s. Özil is suited to football. Is the English football suited to football? The result of the national team and the clubs in Europe competitions would answer NO.
And there you have it. We were not bad at Stoke away we dominated game and ozil was our best player by far, creating great chances for bellerin and welbeck. Think he created 4 big chances in game. The narrative continues. Stoke had one chance and scored, due to xhaka giving ball away and his midfield partner being in centre forward position. I can only think that most if not all of you Ozil haters don’t watch him live. The away fans do and we’re all singing his name when he came on and played a beautiful pass for iwobi.… Read more »
I was mostly criticising the tactical decision to bring him on when we were 1 up away against a physical side when we only needed to keep a clean sheet against. Wenger gambled on us scoring one more. Our problem is conceding goals away.
I am tired of seeing Wenger gambling.
I appreciate as an Arsenal fan you see all opposition as equal, but Stoke are utter shit compared to Watford. The table reflects this.
The point Bromley was the narrative that Ozil can’t play away games and Diarra used Stoke to emphasise this. A game where he was our best player by far.
Ramsey is a huge part of the problem as he thinks he’s a number 10 when he’s supposed to have defensive duties.
Never thought I’d say this but right now I’d have Ramsey at 10 over Ozil. He’d have buried that chance back in the day, certainly he wouldn’t have let Richarlison have a free run at Bellerin. It’s not enough to just create chances, you have to take them or at least help prevent them for the opposition too.
You know Ramsey has like one of the lowest conversion rates in the Prem?
Lol we weren’t solid defensively. Only reason we made Watford look impotent offensively is because they gave us too much respect to start off with. If they started off Deeny the starting X1 and was aggressive from the beginning then this game would have been totally different.
” if Ozil starts that game, we win. Simples. He would create more for others, even he wouldn’t win many tackles(!) & he would’ve ran that game in my opinion.” We were in fact winning when he came on and we then lost it. I am not saying it was all his fault although he has to take his blame. But your comment given we were winning when he came on is odd. It’s not as if we’ve been hitting teams for 4 or 5 in the premierleague where you can say that we would have been away and sailing… Read more »
The boys need to show some passion. That’s what the meltdown is all about.
Join the discussion?? There should be nothing to discuss!! Just feck off kroenke. Feck off wenger and take ya feckin pussy players with you for fecks sake. FECK!!!
I think the word BFG is really looking for is “shit”
Really?!!! BFG is shite himself!!
Our passing was bad for the first half but we still looked solid defensively, which we usually don’t do. We were 1 up, WHY does Wenger sub in Ozil in that situation?? We lose our defensive form immediately (though create some chances). Would have prefferred Wilshere or even the Coq. The only thing we needed was to keep a clean sheet. Tragically bad management.
We have looked dull this season but yesterday it looked like we could do a “Mourinho” in winning away 1-0 with good defensive display. Wenger just couldn’t hold to his game plan, if it was such.
Özil defended, gained balls but the pundits didn’t notice it so you didn’t either.
My point was that it was a tactically bad decision. Look at their last goal. Yes the whole team was playing badly but Wenger can’t grind out a result when the team is playing badly away from home. Can’t see Mourinho or Conte subbing Ozil on in such a situation, and they are masters in grinding out results when needed.
Ozil defended??? I didn’t need a ‘pundit’ to watch him ushering through Richarlison to put Bellerin under pressure. Or trudging around in our half make half tackles if any. Oh yes… and that open goal? To have him and the ultimately lazy Iwobi on at the same time is bereft of any tactical logic – especially when you’re trying to hold onto a lead? And before you argue that Arsene was perhaps going for the 2nd to kill the game off… taking off Laca – one of the top scorers in Europe for 3 seasons running??! There’s no understanding those… Read more »
Watford was playing not to lose in the first 60 until they made their subs to be more aggressive. Thats the only reason we looked good defensively.
My observation with all Arsenal related discussions(predominantly this one) is that opinions here seem to change with every match. Win the game and any WengerOut comments or any comment for that matter even mildly critical of the team gets downvoted the hell out of it. Lose the game and any comment even defending the team/player/manager is downvoted to the depths of the earth. The same people who said Xhaka can be the next Xabi Alonso last week are claiming he is at best a starter for a mid-table club. One week, people complain that Alexis and Ozil should be be… Read more »
IMO this is probably the worst part of being an Arsenal fan.
Everything is predicatable; from the Arsenal performance to the Groundhog Day-like swinging reactions of fans.
No doubt once we put a couple of wins together, any Wenger Out comments will be downvoted for being too negative as “we’re winning aren’t we? Stop being negative and GET BEHIND THE TEAM”.
Groan.
It’s a really tough situation in that we have a once great manager who know IMO has over time become a bad manager (the teams he puts out are consistently less than the sum of their parts). However we have a high enough wage bill -i.e. good enough players to on average overcome this. This just leaves us with groundhog day of being good enough to beat most of the lower teams while not good enough to compete with any good teams. The major issue now has become thanks to finances the lower teams now can get much better players… Read more »
Tbh it’s no time down to finances, but it’s not a surprise that Wenger’s most recent losses seemingly come from teams which have managers that are more progressive and fit with modern football tactics, like Silva.
Watford’s squad shouldn’t touch ours next to money, what we had was a well-drilled team with a very specific tactic to get at us. And Wenger is way past it.
Finances matter more than I think people realize though. We might not spend a lot on transfers, but Arsenal has always had one of the highest wage bills in the Premier League. That on average has simply meant that we have had better players than the teams below us (on average). Since PL finances have exploded the past few years, even teams that are facing relegation are now among the richest in Europe. That’s how you get players like Cabaye going from PSG to Crystal Palace etc. The quality of player that the lower clubs can attract is much higher… Read more »
When have I praised Xhaka? Barely comment on this site My opinion: Solid players who shoud start whenever they are available: Welbeck, Ramsey, Lacazette, Alexis, our usual back 5 Players who should start when fit but usually aren’t: Cazorla, Wilshere Players who are overrated/not suited for us/not suited for PL/are not played to their strengths: Ozil, Xhaka, Walcott. Players who are replaceable but still usually pretty solid/okay when they play: Coq, Elneny, Iwobi, Holding, Giroud. In other words good squad players. Jury is still out: Chambers, AMN. Our GK’s are both good but not good enough to challenge for PL… Read more »
Oh sorry, thought this was a reply to my comment.
I was at the game in the Watford end surrounded by a couple of cursing abusive halfwits which made matters worse.So much for a family club! First 25 minutes we really struggled to get any decent possession due to their intensity and got a foothold when they dropped off . They found it again for the second half and barring the two chances we created little. The midfield did not function and we rarely controlled possession for more than a few passes. All the creativity was placed on Iwobi and to be fair he did his best as well as… Read more »
whole heatedly agree with this
I understand Facebook users to have swinging opinions like that-they rarely watch matches and their knowledge of Arsenal or football in general is from football trolling pages.
A forum as this, where users watch every minute of the game, and still the same pattern of comment upvoting and downvoting-hard to take.
We win and any comment abusing Wenger even remotely will probably not even escape moderation. We lose and comments calling Wenger a ‘twat’ or ‘delusional old fool’ get some of the highest upvotes
The views of anyone who describe Danny Welbeck as “brilliant” should immediately be discounted.
Then the opinions of half the people commenting on this site should be. Whenever we win and Welbeck is involved, people praise his energy, pressing and running around and haggling opposition defenders, fawning over him like he scored a hattrick. he is a striker ffs, not a competitor for Mo Farah! Judge him by his goals scored, assists created, not by the distance run. Thats exactly the problem with the English team-athletes over footballers . The moment he is anywhere inside the opposition D box and he looks like Bambi on ice, slipping, sliding and kicking at thin air, routinely… Read more »
not a candidate for the 800M World championship ***
Respect your point of view but that is a bit harsh on him. He has been one of our better players this season. Just back from an injury to this match. Shouldn’t have started tough.
You know why that is though ritabhash, it’s because they have no idea what actually cost us the game we were in total control of for 45 minutes. They’ll blame this, that and everything, all the intangibles because they really don’t know the answer. Then the next week when the previous failings are addressed and the intangibles don’t matter anymore.. They’ll just say they tried harder, gave more of a shit etc etc..
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Errors from everyone; the ref for the penalty, Wenger for taking off Lacazette, and the players for not keeping possession. Also can’t fathom how Welbeck and Iwobi are picked ahead of Ozil. Fortunately Chelsea and Liverpool dropped points in that familiar race for the top 4; but how we look a million miles away from Manchester City.
In the first half nobody was looking to pass to Lacczette over the top and he was getting frustrated. So when we brought Ozil on I thought great he can find Lacca with some passes over the top. We then subbed Lacca! Crazy.
Imo, time to burn it all and start afresh. We’re not winning the league under Wenger and I now doubt if we can make top 4 under him. Our best players will leave, and even though we have money, the amount required to invest these days is still beyond us, let alone the fact I doubt many top players will even come to us (or we can afford to have everyone on 6-digit weekly wages). So just burn it all and start afresh. Let Wenger go, get Tuschel, a young, progressive and tactical manager who’s known for developing young players… Read more »
Agree wih everything other than Tuchel. Tuchel has had severe conflicts with the board in all the clubs he has managed in the recent past, which ultimately end with him leaving the club-Mainz, Dortmund. I dont think a new manager and the board reaching an impasse in a couple of years is the solution am looking for.
Laurent Blanc, on the other hand will be fantastic in my opinion. Can’t figure out for the life in me as to why no club has gone in for him yet
Maybe we need to conflict with the Board. Especially our current board….
The board will win. You think this board gives a shit about the club? Any conflict involving a board and a manager always leads in the manager walking,not the other way around
What drama did Tuschel have at Mainz?
Ok. My bad.Apologies due. I saw one article that stated Tuchel’s relationship with Mainz was in tatters and jumped to conclusions. Bloody clickbait.
Have you bordered to source and confirm the issues he has with the board of the two clubs? That can have a great bearing on your post. Blanc though much older, can serve as a fall back in your scenario.
My issue would be that he didn’t do that amazingly with Dortmund, not the board disputes. Looks Like Peter Bosz is doing a better job than him already. Maybe the person we should be looking at is Michael Zorc, who has the foresight to sign managers like this.
Same old shit performance
I don’t even care anymore
The players obviously want to win, but don’t come across as being motivated enough to really give 110%. Why? because there are no repercussions if they don’t!! I cant see Wenger losing it with a player or singling him out like other managers might. Wenger and Bould need to start throwing some bloody teacups, or better still, move on and let someone else do it!
Let’s not forget we just had an international break, every team bar Man City weren’t at there best yesterday and Stoke were hit pretty bad by injuries and the international break. That being said should have been able to grind out a win and we weren’t able to do so because we have a manager that is out of date. While the Watford manager went three at the back instead of his usual four, he also put on all his attackers when he saw the game was there for the taking. What did our manager do? Nothing! he watched as… Read more »
Deeney had you in his pocket again per. Embarrassing
Please let us stop with the three centrebacks and get an extra midfielder on the pitch to control and move the ball forward through the lines. None of our players are natural born 3-4-3 specialists, and while they’ve adapted well we’ve merely brought the same fragility with us. Our swagger and confidence always resides in goals — we (used to) score a lot of them, beautiful ones. No one is ever going to be afraid of the way we defend. They have been, and will be, afraid of our offensive potency. Wenger knows attacking football; his players have attacking football… Read more »
Watched match of the day this morning and was amazed by City. If De Bruyne keeps it up for me he should win ballon d’or. It’s been a long time there has been a player of his quality. No one has his vision, technique to realize his ideas, his imagination. Idk why I’m going on about him but all it makes me realize is how we’re light years behind teams like City and Utd in terms of quality and depth. I don’t think I’m being alarmist when I say that I think we’re in for several rough years. The squad… Read more »
I am not disturbed by the loss. I am disturbed by the fact that we had Theo Walcott a player who had a full rest during the interlull and he is deemed not good enough to start ahead of the likes of Iwobi and Welbeck.
Iwobi has just come back from qualifiers and Welbeck is back from an injury. Why not bench one of them and start them against Red Star??
What is the point of Theo Walcott?What are we saving him for??
Same thoughts. In the second half when watford start pushing forward, I actually thought that introducing Walcott can push watford back deeper st the right flank since Richarlison keep attacking bellerin flank. His speed can stretch the defense which can allow giroud more space to exploit. With Ozil in the midfield is so packed and no fit runners behind the defense. Iwobi definitely was tired and can’t seem to contribute any longer. All in all, Silva has outperformed wenger tactically in the second half. Silva has countered TM Giroud by double teaming him and our passing just went missing. I… Read more »
Arguably, this is the worst Arsenal squad I’ve seen since the days of Don Howe. Even when he has a game changer on the bench in the form of a true gunner, namely Jack Wilshere, Wenger doesn’t being him on. No wonder Alexis wants away. We’ve become a one man team. Disgraceful and with only Wenger to blame for his over-inflated opinion of his squad.
I weep because, fans who should know that Wenger is a spent force keep expecting a miracle.
Common core issues mentioned ample times. 1) Wasteful. I mentioned this last game but we all know this to be an issue for the longest time. We prefer to showboat instead of getting the job done simply first. Get 2 goals up before taking the foot of the pedal. 3 goals or more and you can afford to showboat a little. 2) Squad depth. As mentioned last week, I said we are at risk without Mustafi. Much derided, he provides a lot of critical tackles for us which do not go highlighted by the such number obsessed statisticians as 7amkickoff.… Read more »
We are so fragile. Its fashionable to criticise Ozil or Alexis ad tedium because they are wantaway but imagine us without them, we would be decidedly even more average. We are in fact lucky these two players are staying on for one more season considering we are without CL. Its easy to trump one player over another, say clap for HOlding but be critical of Mustafi or big up Elneny a decidedly average player. In truth we need all players to be available and performing at their optimum or better. BUT much of our issue has always been about on… Read more »
And why keep blaming Ozil? He fluffed his chance admmitedly but he came on and created a number of chances for us.
Lacazette our record signing came up with nothing. Just saying.
Selective criticsm by many poeple who ought to know better but frankly don’t.
Next they will tell you Elneny is the dogs bollocks, just needs time.
I’m sick to death of the spin – played well first half, dodgy penalty. And now already gettting our injury excuses in early. Its all bollocks. We are average at best and fundamentally rotten. Too many players not fit the wear the shirt. I don’t even read Wengers words anymore as know exactly what he will say. Just biding time until he goes. Rotten to the core. Dysfunctional. I can almost understand now why Sanchez laughs whenever someone tears us a new one.
Anytime we don’t punish the other team and take our chances, we give them belief, let them in and put our defense under unecessary stress.
By second half, our midfield pair were non functioning.
Granit has some flaws but is pivotal still considering his distribution from deep.
Elneny was a bit of a passenger. We need better options in midfield.
Arsenal sides for the last seven years or more do not inspire confidence no matter if we are leading by two to three goals a capitulation is always a possibility in fact when we have a 3 goal lead you can only be reasonably sure we’ll get a draw ! We are wasteful in front of goal and always potentially fragile if the momentum of a game turns in favour of the opposition! No way would a Wenger team of the last decade be able to do what the team of 1970 did in the Fairs Cup against Anderlecht and… Read more »
Would the midfield trio of ramsey, wilshere and xhaka work in terms of balance between, possession, workrate and creativity?
We’ve had a problem in midfield for years. We accidentally fixed it for a bit with Santi-Coq.
I think Xhaka was intended to solve the problems or at least be a big part of the solution considering his price tag. Xhaka seems so bad at so many things that a midfielder should be good at like running, tackling, reading the game, playing a quick pass.. We actually played better football with Denilson in the midfield.
Wow. What a unique thing for one of our players to say.
Next.