Arsenal: Szczesny, Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Wilshere, Arteta, Ramsey, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Welbeck
Subs: Ospina, Coquelin, Flamini, Rosicky, Podolski, Cazorla, Alexis
—
Arsenal came from behind and had Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to thank as they drew 1-1 with Sp*rs at the Emirates this evening.
Arsene Wenger made just one change from the side which beat Aston Villa last weekend, recalling Jack Wilshere at the expense of Santi Cazorla, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain continuing on the right ahead of Alexis Sanchez.
It meant that Mesut Ozil was shifted out to begin the game on the left hand side but as always the German was at liberty to roam. The Gunners had the first shot on goal when Aaron Ramsey chose to go for goal when he might have been better advised to find one of the three red shirts in the box.
Referee Michael Oliver booked Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for a foul on Capoue but kept his cards in his pocket when Jack Wilshere was taken out in midfield.
Danny Welbeck stormed towards goal with a lovely turn which left Jan Vertonghen floundering in midfield but saw his shot deflected wide, and the former Man United man saw a shot saved by Hugo Lloris after good work from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Wilshere followed the Ox into the book for a trip on Mason and then tested Hugo Lloris with a stinging drive which was saved well. Sp*rs got forward through Mason but his cross for Adebayor was easy for Szczesny, before Arsenal were forced into an early change.
Mikel Arteta looked to suffer a calf strain and was replaced by Mathieu Flamini and there was a worry when Wilshere got a kick and turned his ankle in the Sp*rs penalty area (might it even have been a penalty). Thankfully the midfielder was ok to continue.
After a careless Ramsey backheel gifted possession to Sp*rs, Emmanuel Adebayor found himself one on one with Szczesny but his first touch was poor. Then, as the visitors applied pressure after more slack Arsenal passing, Per Mertesacker headed a corner back towards his own goal but Szczesny made the save to prevent an own goal.
Good work from Ramsey then set up Oxlade-Chamberlain for a low drive which Lloris save while at the other end Chadli spurned a great chance after finding space behind the Arsenal defence. Arsenal’s injury problems increased when, late in the half, Aaron Ramsey pulled his hamstring and was replaced by Santi Cazorla, the second enforced change of the game.
Szczesny pulled off a good save low at his near post to ensure the teams went into the break level.
The second period started brightly for Arsenal with Santi Cazorla putting Sp*rs under pressure with a low cross/shot that Kaboul put out for a corner. From the resulting set-piece Kieran Gibbs found himself with space but from a tight angle lashed the ball over the bar.
Moments later Jack Wilshere played in Ozil whose left footed shot was saved by Lloris as the Gunners looked to raise the tempo. Mathieu Flamini saw a shot drift wide after a series of corners put the visitors under some pressure, but the Frenchman was the architect of the game’s opening goal, and not in a good way.
He got caught on the ball in midfield, Lamela fed Chadli who finished past Szczesny from close range to make 0-1. Against the run of play, perhaps, but still a terrible goal to concede.
Arsenal nearly responded straight away when, from an Ozil free kick, Mertesacker’s header was brilliantly saved by Lloris, the ball just staying the wrong side of the line from an Arsenal point of view. Having to chase the game, Arsene Wenger made his final change of the game bringing on Alexis for Jack Wilshere in the 63rd minute.
Claum Chambers came close to getting the equaliser, volleying just over the bar but it was another former Southampton man who made the breakthrough. Arsenal had Sp*rs under real pressure, Alexis fed Cazorla who hit a left footed shot which rebounded across goal. Danny Welbeck cleverly dummied it, allowing Oxlade-Chamberlain to lash it home from close range to get the goal we certainly deserved. 1-1.
Calum Chambers picked up his fourth booking of the season for a foul on Aaron Lennon as Arsenal looked for a winner, but despite all the pressure the goal didn’t come.
So, Arsenal remain unbeaten but will feel that they should have beaten a Sp*rs side who are, basically, a bag of festering shit.
Overall an ok performance today from the team and possession-wise we dominated Sp*rs who never really threatenen Sczcesny’s goal too much. We did lack some end product in the final third again. I usually prefer not to be too critical of the team or individual players but I do have to say the current defensive mid position is something I’m really extremely about. The fact that that our full backs resemble more traditional wing backs than defenders puts the DMF position into the spotlight because he needs to cover the runs of the fullbacks. To me neither Arteta or Flamini… Read more »
Extremely *worried* about. Don’t drink and type, kids!
I fucking hate tottenham. Injuries are of real concern, players are dropping like flies. Good showing by Ozil, Ox. Decent point.
We look a worse side than last season when on paper we’re actually better. This 4-1-4-1 system Arsene keeps playing isn’t working, we need to go back to how we played last year.
Decent point? This is fucking Spurs we’re talking about, at the Emirates. 2 points dropped for me.
Same, Feel like we drew to Leicester not a top team
probably a decent point because if we give the ball away as easily next week we will be seriously punished !
and why do we cheer when we get a corner ???? we never threaten from corners . we should use the short corner option when we can keep the ball . not just lump the ball in for their players to head clear and get us on the break
Right, but with Mertesacker and Koscielny in the side we have the potential to score from corners. Obviously, we all know this… we’ve been unlucky thus far.
Wenger should have started those who love playing in the derby! Cazorla? Rosicky?
We made spu*dz look good!
We made the spuds look like the mid table turds they really are. Can’t remember the last time we dominated them so much.
Struggling to comprehend how we didn’t beat them in this game if I’m honest.
I’d take the same result against Chelsea though. Constitutes progress somehow.
There’s the ambition that has us in the state we’re in today!
Screw that we should have won today against the spuds they were crap. And we should be aiming for a win against chelsea why settle for a draw! we need a winning mentality if we want to challenge for anything this season
This is where other managers are different to Wenger. Seemed like Fergie always played Fletcher, Park and Nani against us. Cazorla looked ready to play out there. And Rosicky would have been chomping at the bit to do better than the other night. Ozil looked great. Really good.
Hate to say it but we don’t stand even a small chance against C%?*ski
i hope you are wrong about “chance against C%?*ski”
but the facts is it looks scarily true
it sucked when we had bad players and we lost..(A. santos/denilson)
and now on paper a better side… still we cant win..
its getting less cheery ..:(
I dont think we were poor today, we totally dominated possession, even taking into account the fact we lost 2 of our most important players. We had loads of attempts, we were just not clinical enough.
Also, though it pains me to say it, but the Spuds were very resillient, organised and defended well, probably their performance of the season so far, I bet their knobhead fans are delighted to get a point.
Just from the way they wasted time for the last 15 minutes shows just how much a point meant to them, the silly twats.
They did play well although I thought it was Jack and later Santi on the left with Ozil at 10. 2 points dropped though as we had enough shots, possession and corners to get more than a draw.
Flamini and Arteta are not cut out to play in the 4-1-4-1 formation that for some insane reason Wenger persists with. They’re too old and don’t have the physique to play there. Flamini sloppy and slow for their goal. And why the fuck are we back to tiki taka again? So annoying. We always get done through a counter if we play that way and so it happened again today. Fucks sake.
Getting fuckn sick of conceding to oppositions first attempt on target.
I think the team selection was wrong from the start but even that considered we were dominant from the start. Feels like 2 points lost more than 1 gained.
Just quietly that chambers volley was fuckin sick!! Shame it went over would have been a beauty. I absolutely love this kid, ox too.. Cheers Soton
As you can see I feel completely differently about him after the performance, don’t mean to pick on him. But he’s more center half than a right back.
I loved the “most intricate dummy of all time” by Welbeck for our first (and only, un-fucking-fortunately).
Poo performance and a poor result. Chambers particularly poor offensively, silly kid got himself booked. Lacks a little bit the football intelligence. Anyway, oh well. Just poor.
Get a better TV or get your eyes checked. He played a good game, very positive going forward and good defending. He’ll get better and better in years to come. Great signing by Wenger.
If you didn’t notice Oliver was handing out cards like lollipops tonight
Some flashes of excellence, but we lacked end product and maybe a little bit more effort was required after Wilshere came off. However, we were far from the ‘poo performance’.
Typo, wanted to say poor,
Typo wanted to say blind as fuck. Leave you little fella alone young man. It’s ruining your vision
Did you actually watch the game? Also that was a smart yellow there was no way he would’ve caught lennon and they would’ve broken on us with 3 v 3.
STOP. DOING. QUICK. FUCKING. THROWS. AFTER. SET. PIECES. WHEN. EVERY. OPPOSING. PLAYER. IS. STILL. IN. OUR. HALF.
This has to be fucking purged form Szczesny’s game. Costs us time and time again.
The blame is not on Szczesny there at all. It is on one of the two usual suspects; Flamini or Arteta
But why is he giving them the ball with a defender 5ft away. Just hold on to it and let us regroup, we rarely build a counter that far back.
It is EXCLUSIVELY on Szczesny. He throws the ball early like it’s a hot fucking potato and puts players under pressure (because every opposing player is still in our half so they can press very high), which leads to bad passes which leads to losing the ball. And that happens in 99 fucking percents when he does that. And even if Flamini was a bit clumsy, why not just wit until there’s more space between them and us and eliminate the risk altogether? How many top keepers have you seen doing that? Lloris certainly didn’t make anything like that today.… Read more »
There was no pressure on Mertesacker when he passed to Flamini. Not on Szczesny at all.
And another thing, when the opponents are in our half that is a good time for a long throw or a punt into thier half for a 50/50, not short stuff
The blame certainly was on Szczesny. He put Chambers under pressure, he off loads quick to Per – He’s under pressure and offloads to Flamini who’s not ready and away they went.
I am all for a quick counter attack but we handed that goal to them on a plate.
Problem with that is, I don’t really remember us ever making a counter out of the similar situation. I can however remember us losing the ball immediately (I was spitting with fury at just that in a game against Villa or Dortmund a week ago) almost every time and conceding a few goals too.
Szez has had a dodgy start to the season, poor today, almost gave a goal away against Villa after 2 mins, should have saved the header from Demichelis against Shitty. I think Ospina deserves a run out on Weds.
Sczez isn’t at all the problem FFS!
In fact It’s the same thing year after year, keep possesion, pass the ball really slowly in the first half, get kicked for holding possession to long( which usually leads to injuries), give up possession cheaply in midfield and then get hit quick on the counter. Then of course the other team scores and sits back. After giving up the ball and often a goal, we then start playing faster but since we’re useless on corner kicks we barely get a goal back in a scrappy way, and it’s a draw.
* Or against better sides a beat down, like the 2-0 loss to B.Dortmund a few weeks ago, and MANY games over the past few years.
“we’re useless on corner kicks”
“give up possession cheaply in midfield and then get hit quick on the counter”
all this truth is hurting… aaahhh!!!
where is my delirium of being FA cup winners… it seemed like ages ago….
Maybe Wegner will give ospina a go? Our current no.1 hasnt been distributing the ball well either but he has been solid cant take that away.
Sp*rs players are really ugly huh
Thats because David Pleat shagged their mums.
Nope.
NOPE. Not good enough. 15 corners. Three players injured. 70% possession at least. Dominated from start to finish, and couldn’t score anything more than a tap-in.
ANOTHER two points dropped. Not a happy Gooner tonight.
We were a bit lethargic today. Not enough buzz and nobody really stepped in with a performance to lift us. For a derby, it wasn’t a great game.
good comeback, really did not deserve to lose!!
We are dropping too many points. I think we must get something from Chelsea next week.
We won’t. Not negative, just realistic.
What are the odds on Fabregas to score first ? Short I reckon.
The only thing worse than the spurs were the Commentators! Had to mute the biased cunts.
If only we had top top quality midfielder to come on and replace Ramsey when he’s injured, maybe like that guy Fabregas or whatever his name is.
Shame we didn’t win this one, hate drawing with the scum. Got to beat the little teams at home
Oh please, we brought Alexis Sanchez on for Wilshere. Our bench isn’t the problem, everything else is.
Wonder why wenger thinks whatever he does is right!
Poor team selection!
WEnger y U no play ALEXIS
Thank god they had Loris or it would have been more than 1-1. What a gift to give sp*rs! So unnessecary!!!
Well, that was a terrible day for football. Also, we’re increasing our injury average. Two today. Maybe we’ll hit some kind of world record soon?
Oh yes, and please stop the 4-1-4-1 experiment. We actually created something after we swapped. And no, that does not mean an injury to Ramsey is a “blessing in disguise”. It’s not. It’s bad news, period.
At this rate we’re gonna be unbeatable again by the end of the season, and not winning the league.
Wow, 8 points dropped after just 6 games. And subtly our shit start to the season unfolds. If we can’t beat the scum don’t see us getting anything at the Bridge. Turns out spending on players doesn’t necessarily improve you, does it?!
Oh, and Chambers will become a helluva player
It improves the squad, it is just that we are lacking in some areas..
Yeah, we look improved …
well we made an draw at home against an mid-table team: the reason is that some of the players from last season is worse. Eg. Podolski, Rosicky, Arteta, Flamini..
We are lacking in some areas and it was made obvious today. I hope we will improve our results against the topteams this season as well. Last season wasn’t that great, we lost out on the league thanks to horrible displays against our league rivals.
Or am I missing something? Four fucking draws out of six games. Are we still blaming the World Cup, ’cause I’d like to get on that bandwagon.
City had 9 points after 6 games last year and won the league
So weve become city then?
Didnt know city had suh hopeless DMs like no caps for spain Arteta /or Milan reject Flaminni; with these sorts of pathetic players you cant win the BPL.
And now genius Wenger wants to turm Mr Glass to a combative DM?
Someone not playing combative role who has been injured for 7 years now to be turned to Vierra/Roy Keane like glass version…..this man has lost the plot.
Feels like a loss, they’re not even that good of a team. Should be beating them. Two injuries to make up for the lack of injury last weekend, fair enough. No idea why, Forsythe hasn’t had the hoped effect so far. Corners are terrible, we just float them in and there’s no movement or plan. Tired of Wenger and his lack of game management or tactics other than just pass it around, it’s a pisstake in today’s modern game when everyone else can do this (mostly). 3 year contract we just gave him will be our biggest mistake of the… Read more »
Unfortunately this game has made crystal clear a number of problems we are struggling with: 1) It’s all foreplay and noone really has the guts to put it in. 2) We need to do far better from set pieces, both attacking and defending. 3) We are really prone to counter-attacks, especially with out new high-pressing tactic. 4) We constantly try to engineer the perfect goal when all we need is for someone to put their foot through it. 5) We need a plan B. Passing the ball round the box without creating any clear cut chances is a big problem.… Read more »
Totally agree with your comment.
I believe, the vulnerability from set pieces is down to us missing Giroud.
If Giroud was availble, it should have been him instead of Alexis and could have done a cameo just like he did against Everton.
Decent performance, not great, but came back again, I hate Spurs and injuries!
COYG
“Welbeck cleverly dummied it” is a pretty polite way to say he missed it completely..haha
If it was another team, I would be happy with the draw. But against this lot? Ugh..
Awful selection. Our two best players santi and alexis on the bench. Deserved dropped points. If we line up at home like that against spurs donno what we are gonna do against chelsea away ! What the fuck is wrong with you Arsene ?
Wenger would have started this game with Chelsea in mind, my guess this was the team he wanted to play at Stamford Bridge. The guys an idiot in my opinion.
I know we’re famed for having the best grounds, but could our pitch be causing our injuries? Just frustrated thinking right there. Welbeck was poor today.
Nothing new here, just Sp*rs displaying their small club mentality, yet again.
“Oh they’re applying pressure, go down with cramp, Danny.”
It’s really worrying that we can’t create goals from all the chances. We need to be doing corners all next week.
Wenger got the team selection wrong AGAIN. Why keep Alexis out, and why play Ozil on the left in our biggest game of the season so far? Just doesn’t make sense to me at all.
This also shows that Wenger was clearly wrong in not buying a DM. Arteta is done imo and Flamini was very sloppy. The excuse cannot be that there were no quality players out there. Schneiderlin or Wanyama could easily have made us better.
Positive : we didn’t lose to sp*rs
Negative : we didn’t win sp*rs
I am fucking disappointed about this! Flamini are to blame for the first goal (We need another DM…..)
Wilshere was absolutely not to start this game, he was the reason behind a lot of the counter-attacks from tottenham.. Why Cazorla and Sanchez wasn’t starting ahead of Wilshere and Oxlade is beyond me.. Galatasaray is hardly an more important game than this.
The Ox was our best player.
I would in all honesty give that to Özil as his passing was splendid today. Sure, Oxlade was very good today and got our goal. I just think that Sanchez and Cazorla are more techniqually gifted than chamberlain and wilshere.
Tottenham celebrating a draw like they’ve won the World Cup. Guess we’re back to the old days when we dominated them. That said hard to see this as 2 pts dropped. This 4-1-4-1 is fucking terrible. Not so much the system but how we’re trying to fit in certain players in that system which doesn’t bring the best out of them. Ozil on the wings, Arteta as the sole anchor in midfield, Ramsey an attacking midfield.
Early curtains on our Premier League title bid.
If we lose against Chelsea on Saturday we will know if the curtains are closed or not.. It has become an must-win game after this horrible team selection. I don’t realistically expect us to challenge this year, the competition becomes even more competitive every year because all other teams makes sure to get new quality in. It is all about who has the best players and which team that plays best together. If you do not even make sure that all the holes in the squad are covered then you have kind of shot yourself in the foot before the… Read more »
only 3 players in the box for a corner?????
poor result to me as I feel we could have taken three points from this.overall crap starting formation,crap injuries and why wasn’t Sanchez switched to central and welbeck wide ? it was obvious welbeck was tired. anyway chambers,ox and ozil(central) played well
Disappointed not to pick 3 points. We should have taken more risks in the first half. Glad to see jack keeping his cool in the second half knowing he is on a booking , seeing how badly wanted to kick those scums but refrained from doing so.
Wenger needs to decide either wilshere or ramsey in box to box role with ozil at 10. Seems to want to play both but accomodating both and pushing ozil wide leaves us disjointed. No surprise that the only game we played well was villa with midfield 3 of arteta, rambo and ozil. Wilshere and ramsey will have to be rotated in that role which would work out as they are both injury prone as we saw today! Frustrating as im sure if we picked our best players in their best positions we would probably have 4 more points at least.… Read more »
Can’t really fault Flamini for spurs goal his human though it was careless….Why bench Alexis?? Chambers had a good game…
Someone with extensive football knowledge please explain this to me:
First, we are supposed to have a good midfield but why are they always the reason we concede goals? Why do they always make school boy mistakes? Don’t mention DM, it’s not an excuse.
Second, whenever we lose the ball in midfield, every good team scores against us. Whenever the opposition loses the ball in midfield, we never look dangerous. Again, why the f*ck?
Oh and Sp*rs’ goal was a Flamini own goal. Again a draw in a match where we dominated and should’ve won. Arsenal 1 – 2 Injury.
1. Not having a DM is really the answer. They can slice through our attacking midfielders very easily.
2. We concede so much because we don’t have a DM. When we have the ball, we need to be more direct instead of trying to walk it into the net.
Nah, it’s not just the DM thing. It’s also about tactics. We push most of our players forward, meaning we have very few covering whenever we lose the ball. Most teams don’t push both full backs + every midfielder forward at all times.
We also have one of the most impotent attacking forces in terms of shooting from distance. Opposition teams know that all they have to do is sit deep all the time and counter attack. We’ll one-touch pass our way through for a Wilshere-esque wonder goal about 1 time in 50. The rest of the time we’ll just lose possession.
Usually sitting deep allows your goal to get peppered by accurate, and potentially deflected shooting (which is the greatest risk). Not with us though.
We rely too much on Koscielny and Gibbs to run back and defend. They’re both pretty good at that. But an extra midfielder with a crunching tackle helps. Ramsey can do that. But in his absence or when he’s out of form, I think we look weak at the back when facing a counter.
On the second, when we win the ball in midfield we tend to slow it down to retain possession, giving them time to get back. Sometimes we don’t, you can see it when Ox wins it and drives forward, and it looks threatening. Most of the time we slow it down and lose the chance.
I really wish the Ox develops into someone with more end product. It’s really exciting to watch him with the ball.
Chambers and Gibbs were very good today.
I think the injuries really messed with our lineup today. I’d like to see us play a little more direct at times; too many players are unwilling to have a crack at net.
That Chambers strike…wow! So close.
Would have been a fucking impressive derby debut winner!
S-Lain down the right hand Chamber was ripping it apart!
We have better players than we’ve had in recent seasons.. But somehow, we’re struggling to create clear chances.
I know its early in the season, but it looks like we’ve regressed.
I’m not happy.
Disappointing result, but still unbeaten.
THAT volley by Chambers though!
Bring on the CL
Disapointing Result..
We really should have won this one. I am a bit worried about this tendency of ours to draw games – 4 draws out of 6 is just ridiculous. On the downside, I don’t see this 4-1-4-1 working. It neither improves our attack nor our defence. If we want to play this we need that ‘mythical’ DM. The only other team which plays it our Bayern Munich and their DMs are Javi Martinez and Bastian Schweinsteiger. And how fucking unlucky are we with injuries – Mikel and Aaron. Hope they get well soon. I understand Arsenerresting Alexis. If he gets… Read more »
I apologize for all the grammatical mistakes – It is a late in my country and I am really sleepy…
Our corners – wow!
Played 6, won 2, drawn 4
We’ve had to come back from conceeding on 5 occasions only to win one game and on each occasion we started with a 4141, the 1 game we’ve won without conceeding we started with a 4231 with Ozil behind the striker. When will Wenger see the pattern!?
This 4141 makes us slow and weak in attack and open to the counter, what is he trying to achieve?
He’s trying to turn Wilshere and Ramsey into Iniesta and Xavi in their prime. Or something. Not sure. Whatever it is, it isn’t currently working, so it’s a bit hard to tell.
It’s impossible to tell, my take on it is it’s his internal(tm) solution to the maulings we took last season. My worry is, he as usual, will only take the positives from the game, like the possession stats, and the fact we didn’t lose and completely ignore the negatives like we didn’t look like scoring for most of the match, being open to the counter, and going behind again.
You can’t turn Wilshere and Ramsey into Xavi and Iniesta without having Busquets/Mascherano behind them.
Overall there was a lot of under performance today.Gibbs need to start delivering the ball quicker or else learn how to beat his man consistently – he’s not as fast as he hopes he is it seems.
Or Messi or Pedro or Neymar or Dani Alves or Jordi Alba, there’s quite a few players we’re missing to play that way!
I agree with everything you’ve said. This formation isn’t working, I’m not sure if it ever will with this group of players. One thing I notice is how slow the team are in this formation, and it’s no surprise with Wilshere Ramsay, Arteta and Oezil all operating through or around the middle, none of them are particularly fast.
For me it’s always been either or with Jack and Aaaron at the moment. Frustrating to see such constipated performances, especially against the scum.
when we have corners we are not in chance to score the opposition has an advantage to clear the ball very easily and start counter attack and we are in danger to concede so it’s more of a chance to opposition who concedes corner against us to score than us. disaster
frankly, i am starting to feel worried about our form and formations this season. 4 draws already and 6 points behind the Chavs definitely has to ring alarm bells.. The 4-1-4-1 formation isnt working with Wilshere and Ramsey playing together alongside Arteta. Both are very similar kind of players who like to pick up ball from the deep and run with it and both end up hampering each others game as both end up in same places on the pitch. I just cant understand why Wenger continues to persist with it. Playing Özil on the wing again and why the… Read more »
Glad Ox got the equalizer thought he played well
Kaboul had a great game didn’t think he had that type of performance in him
Flamini oh Flamini
we made kaboul look great with our poor final pass in their box, he is shit.
More Performances like this then chelsea take the league can’t deny them being good at the moment…Chin up we didn’t lose..
Once Alexis came on we changed. With him, Ozil and Santi on at once our chances can come from anywhere and it rattled Sp*rs. Try it against the Turks in preparation for Sundays big game. This Chelsea game is huge. They’re the favorites this season and if we’re up for it we can make this a defining game.
Yes but i was confused in the final ten minutes of the game what were all 3 doing in the left wing ozil cazorla and sanchez plus gibbs. strange tactic .
Sigh. Remember when Chelsea were just another Tottenham?
Spurs are bags of SHIT