West Brom Away

[DB10GOONER]

Our approach yesterday was worryingly similar to Arsenal of the last couple years; innefective tippy tappy.

WTF was Wenger thinking putting Ramsey out wide? Rambo has been exceptional in his (self-stated) preferred role in the middle. Is Wenger THAT egotistical that he sees the media praise a player and then thinks "I'll show them. I am the boss. I'll move him. I am the genius, not the player."?? Does he? I'm starting to fucking think he does tbh... Why play Ozil more centrally? He has the pace and touch to kill most FB's out wide. Wenger got this one totally wrong.

Jack was absolute shite. No getting away from it. Even his goal was a huge deflection, his original shot going right towards the keeper. But still, even after being so shite and being roundly booed for his whining, at least he had the grit to get in there and pull the trigger. So fair fucks to him.

The 2 DM thing might work in the CL but it kills us in the PL. It sucked the pace out of our game. Arteta is a good footballer and a good DM and Flamoney has been solid as a DM too but together they slow the game down too much.

I'm not Chesney's biggest fan but he made one fantastic save that probably kept us in the game. Giroud worked hard but his lack of pace was shown up again on several occasions and the folly of playing him as a lone striker was obvious again. He wins so much in the air and 9 times out of 10 the ball drops to no one. Fucking pointless. Play him with a pacey striker in a 4-4-2 for the love of fuck!!

The ref was fucking dire but he was as shite to them as he was to us. Except the first incident in the box with Jack was deffo a penno. 100%.

In the end I feel we turned up with a bit too much arrogance, a sense of we'll win here and WBA showed they can play a bit and can scrap too when needed. A draw was a fair result and tbh we rode our luck with Anelka missing a nailed on winner. I'll take the point but I feel if Wenger hadn't fucked up the player positions we could have got more.

[markyp]

I think everybodies being a bit harsh,yesterdays result was a hard earned point,although team selection was a bit weird in recent years we would have lost these kind of games.also I think Tuesdays night performance and lack of rotation had caught up with us,some of the players looked a bit leggy for sure.you cant win them all,we didn't lose and we are back on top,hopefully this international break will give some of our players a well earned breather and afterwards Pod and Santi may be back.things are still looking good imo,if you cant be reasonably happy now I don't think you ever will,we aren't gonna smash teams every week,nobody does that

[northbank123]

On reflection markyp I agree that it was actually a decent point - we're not going to play well every week, it wasn't the easiest fixture after their result the previous weekend especially and to take anything from the game was a bonus because we could very easily have lost it. To be honest the way the chances fell I thought we were lucky to get a point as we should have been buried by Anelka and it was a somewhat fortunate goal that got us level - and even then I was disappointed we didn't really look like winning the game.

But I also agree with DB10 and others that we looked like we were slipping back to old habits, which is extremely worrying. It was alarming to see how a team that has showed so much creativity, speed and confidence is still nullified so easily by a simple tweak in the way the opposition set-up. Now I don't for a minute think we have a chance of winning the league this year but even those that do surely have to admit that it will never happen unless we find a way to beat teams who set up to constrict us? The worrying thing was that it's not like they even parked the bus - Szczesny made one great save and Anelka missed two sitters, they could easily have scored a couple. We should have different approaches based on who we're playing and then more flexibility to change our system during them, but instead we set up with the same system every week and stick with it for 90 minutes. We just can't expect to prosper over a prolonged period doing that.

[Dan_85]

We should have different approaches based on who we're playing

Different approaches depending on who we're playing?! What is this madness?! You clearly haven't worked a day in football. Don't you know that we can defeat every team with our tremendous spirit and mental strength?

[northbank123]

We should have different approaches based on who we're playing

Different approaches depending on who we're playing?! What is this madness?! You clearly haven't worked a day in football. Don't you know that we can defeat every team with our tremendous spirit and mental strength?

I can imagine Wenger trying to burn somebody at the stake for suggesting that at Colney

Imagine if he would have made his unapologetic admission that he doesn't ever change our shape and style whatsoever based on who we're playing after the Villa. Done well to slip that one in during one of the media's love-ins in their topsy-turvy relationship.

[1989]

I don't think the attacking players are fixed to one position. It may seem the case on paper but if you actually watch us play you'd see that they always interchange and roam. Wenger did say he gave them all the licence to do so. Whether this tactic works or not is another matter though.

[northbank123]

I don't think the attacking players are fixed to one position. It may seem the case on paper but if you actually watch us play you'd see that they always interchange and roam. Wenger did say he gave them all the licence to do so. Whether this tactic works or not is another matter though.

I don't think that they are necessarily rigidly fixed to one position, and against Swansea in particular we were fluid at the start of the second half with players moving about all over the place. And imo that 20 minutes was fucking fantastic, every time we got the ball we were passing it round them for fun.

But we're still fundamentally set up with 1 striker every week and the vast majority of the time we play with wingers who are encouraged to get chalk on their boots all game. Which in the grand scheme of things is incredibly rigid and easy to set up against.

[QuartzGooner]

Augie - I was one who agreed that Remy would be a decent buy around the £8M mark, in fact I have long argued that we should buy him, but I think his criminal charges scuppered his proposed move to us.

Bent is OK, but not for more than £7M or so, his recent form over the last three seasons does not suggest he is worth more.

For the same sort of money, might be worth a gamble on Abel Hernandez?

[beck]

I know we are desperate for a goal but for the away fans to be chanting "super super nic" is almost laughable

Plenty of window lickers in our away support these days; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbGjJaij1I

yes they should be sitting on the internet having a moan
we don,t want that singing laughing and getting behind the team lark

[beck]

Can't help feeling if we had a world class striker out there today instead of Giroo we would've come away with the 3 points.

im not sure,ozil was anon today,west brom defended well and kept their shape,we cant win them all and giroud ran his heart out,id rather take our completeness as a unit with giroud up top than have a super striker that you become to reliant on ala van penis

ozil
played in gibbs for his shot over after 15 mins
crossed for ramsey to shoot about 5 mins from half time
played in flamini for that blocked shot 2nd half
played in giroud for the shot that he skewed wide

[northbank123]

Can't help feeling if we had a world class striker out there today instead of Giroo we would've come away with the 3 points.

im not sure,ozil was anon today,west brom defended well and kept their shape,we cant win them all and giroud ran his heart out,id rather take our completeness as a unit with giroud up top than have a super striker that you become to reliant on ala van penis

ozil
played in gibbs for his shot over after 15 mins
crossed for ramsey to shoot about 5 mins from half time
played in flamini for that blocked shot 2nd half
played in giroud for the shot that he skewed wide

For a bloke of his immense talent helping create a few half-chances isn't a healthy return as I'm sure he'd be the first to admit.

[beck]

Well happy with a point Flamini was excellent today and should of got motm, Alan smith is a wanker.
Well played all the fans at the hawthorns today, best away support in the prem

Why do some people have such a beef with him?

He never says a good word about Arsenal.

his actions spoke highly at anfield 89 and copenhagen 94
he was praising both the team and the fans recently after the stoke game
i would rather an ex player offer constructive critiscm rather than the love in that happens with certain ex players
the liverpool contingent i,m talking about you
loving the smudge

[beck]

Can't help feeling if we had a world class striker out there today instead of Giroo we would've come away with the 3 points.

im not sure,ozil was anon today,west brom defended well and kept their shape,we cant win them all and giroud ran his heart out,id rather take our completeness as a unit with giroud up top than have a super striker that you become to reliant on ala van penis

ozil
played in gibbs for his shot over after 15 mins
crossed for ramsey to shoot about 5 mins from half time
played in flamini for that blocked shot 2nd half
played in giroud for the shot that he skewed wide

For a bloke of his immense talent helping create a few half-chances isn't a healthy return as I'm sure he'd be the first to admit.

anon means nobody knows you are there
i am well aware that ozil is here and will not always have his best game
just like many other arsenal players who never had a bad game in our rose tinted memorys
thats why we have a squad

[Natural Born Gooner]

Well happy with a point Flamini was excellent today and should of got motm, Alan smith is a wanker.
Well played all the fans at the hawthorns today, best away support in the prem

Why do some people have such a beef with him?

He never says a good word about Arsenal.

Just seen this now

Aww diddums Did he hurt your feelings

Fucking amazing!! A player busts a gut for close to a decade being top scorer in 2 league championship winning teams, doesn't complain when a new striker brought in and plays ahead of him (changing his style of play in the process), and then scores the goal in one of our greatest ever nights against Parma.



And you think he's a wanker as he dares to criticize us once in a while SMH

[markyp]

anyone slating smudge is knob,the bloke is a gooner ffs,and if critiscm of Arsenal makes you some kind of lady part then look no further than this place,we all culperable.why is it ex Arsenal players slating Arsenal always get a rough deal on here,we are far worse,jeez