FULHAM HOME GAME

[MutleyGooner]

I share the anger and disappointment aired towards he team on his thread, however, football aside, I had a great day meeting up with lots of old friends. That is why I love the Arsenal, it's the people who follow them not the team itself.

[Dan_85]

Meh.

Don't really care anymore. We are mid table at best yet nothing will change.

[1989]

We drew? Who cares. It's not a football club anymore.

[skipper]

Why does the Nutty Professor persist with the f*cking zonal marking?

Why does the nutty professor persist on managing . ??

7 000 000 reasons for that, year after year...

[jimmy rim-her]

Normally I'm the eternal optimist, would even back us to win X Factor, Strictly, The Grand National & even Masterchef...these days I'd happily settle for a point even if the opposition didn't turn up

[Perryashburtongroves]

Normally I'm the eternal optimist, would even back us to win X Factor, Strictly, The Grand National & even Masterchef...these days I'd happily settle for a point even if the opposition didn't turn up

Bet we still wouldn't keep a clean sheet though.

[rudytel]

Another poor defensive performance...Another poor result.

Investing passion, time and money in this load of bollox is becoming ever more painful.

Regime change is a MUST.

[augie]

Just seen the 1st half on sky and it was woeful - people go on a lot about the flaws in zonal marking from set pieces (I don't like it myself) but if your keeper can't come for a corner that is headed in from the 6yd line then you are fcuked whether you go zonal or man to man When the goal went in you could see tv5 going ballistic at the dopey Italian c**t

It was also very noticeable in the first half how frustrated cazorla was getting - he was squeezing the Fulham players in possession but there was an acre of room between where he was (playing off the front man) and where arteta and coq were playing (just in front of the centre halves). It seems to me that a lot of time our players don't know positionally where they are meant to be - I feel that arteta and cazorla are tactically adept but the likes of walnut, Giroud, coq etc don't have the intelligence to adapt to a different system

[richpye]

Couldn't bring myself to watch it, went swimming instead. Normally I'd be rushing back from work looking for ways to leave early etc. just couldn't be bothered.

On a positive front, I really think Giroud will become a decent player. Forgetting his goals, his movement creates space for other players to expose, this is good.

Negatives

Am certain that Walcott and Podolski are playing injured, this is limiting Wenger's tactical options later in the game, as he knows he almost certainly has to take these players off. Saying that Wenger doesn't seem bothered about switching things tactically when he makes changes anyway, so would it matter?
It also exposes the threadbare nature of our squad, in that we simply can't rest any of our first team (except for the standard 5-6 injured players) because we simply don't have a good enough squad of players ready to step up.
Defensively, we may want to play Zonal Marking, but we need players capable of doing so. Wenger may enjoy playing players out of position but exposing them to a tactical system they are not either used to or comfortable with is ridiculous. Leaving the experimenting to the training pitch until it's ready to use properly.
Been trying to think of a side who have been successful without a solid Goalkeeper (In the top 3 keepers in the league;Tim Flowers maybe?) and really struggling. I suppose De Gea makes errors but then he also makes World Class saves, Newcastle were inspired by Krul's performances last season...the list goes on. As much as I like Ches, we don't have a truly World Class GK. I believe this is a) costing us goals in isolation but b) causing real problems in defence as the defence simply aren't confident of the man behind them.

I have always been of a positive mindset and very defensive of Wenger but the excuses are becoming harder to justify week after week. I believe Wenger has earned the right to choose when he steps down, but get the feeling this moment is coming.
There is raft of young inspiring managers becoming available and we have a real opportunity to snap one up before they go to the biggest European clubs (Pep to Chelsea; Moyes/Mourinho to Utd/City; Klopp to Bayern etc). Positive action now could be the decision that freshens things up or we could end up with a Steve McClaren.

[highburyJD]

I wish we'd had Benik Afobe and Ryo Miyaichi to ease the burden on Podolski (who has looked shattered for weeks)
and Feo, who was decent but eventually pulled up.
small consolations: Giroud now looks a proper centre forward, Feo is finding some consistency, Sagna is class, Arshavin looked good in his cameo

Fulham had some excellent players on the day: obviously Berbatov but Ruiz was also excellent and Hangeland + Schwartzer held them together. They were surrounded by some real dross (WTF are their wingers anyway?)
Mixed bag midtable team, much like us.
Embarrassing. We need a big turn around to get to Everton's level...

[N1Goon]

What if... we had signed Schwarzer back in 2010...Certainly would have won the Carling Cup, perhaps would have stayed in the 10/11 title race until the dying games.

But no, the man who earns £170,000 a week refused to pay £500,000 extra for a Premiership-proven goalkeeper and he has come back to haunt him again.


Schwarzer is ten times the keeper Chesny or Mannone is (at least, at the moment).

[highburyJD]

Big blind spot of Wengers the goalie position, seems to attach too much importance to character
there are other keepers I'd rather we bought than Schwartzer, even from Fulham

[N1Goon]

Big blind spot of Wengers the goalie position, seems to attach too much importance to character
there are other keepers I'd rather we bought than Schwartzer, even from Fulham

Me too, but i'd have taken Schwarzer happily over what we ended up with.

[SteveO 35]

We drew? Who cares. It's not a football club anymore.

Exactly - as long as the core property business delivers a return then who cares about this side issue of the football

How is that latest commercial property development coming along? I hope we're not going to risk its success by investing in any players in January

[Rosie_titters]

we were robbed i'm telling ya, before Arteta strikes the ball for the penalty there is at least 2 or 3 Fulham players inside the area

should of been retaken, also look at our bench after he misses, Walcott, Podolski, Jenkinson & Coq all look gutted, Chamakh sitting there motionless, without a care in the world.