As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
northbank123 wrote:So after he was clearly shattered and off the pace against a poor Swansea side following another taxing international break, presumably Sanchez was sharp as fuck today after he needlessly played 75 minutes as lone striker against that pub team on Wednesday?
Fucking ridiculous. The bloke is guaranteed to break down before Christmas at this rate. Not to mention go off the boil.
^^ This 100%.
Cech saved us on a couple of occasions and Kos saved us right at the end with a superb tackle. But we were muck. One of our main problems is still no Plan B - even when he makes the substitution, he just sends on 2 players to do the exact same stuff as the 2 coming off! FFS.
I reckon that's Cech having saved 1 point out of that 12 points a season, SteveO...
A11M11 wrote:Playing two defensive midfielders against a bus parking team ? Missed Cazorla badly and proved that he needs to be offered a new contract although I think Clueless is waiting for Jack and Ramsey to replace him. Seen this game so many times before .Against the teams that play with two banks of four and break quick we have to start quick our selves. The continual passing game intending to wear them out will only work when the other team are continually under pressure. Once the time wasting starts and they get recovery periods , we are lost.
The best way to beat two banks of four is to get behind them and I know fullbacks have a bigger attacking responsibility these days, but surely the prime responsibilty for getting to the byline should be Wally and Iwobi, neither of whom gave their fullback a difficult day.
Problem is most of these teams don't play 2 banks of 4. They play the old GG away formation of 9 across the back 4!
Herd wrote:having giroud could work but u still need to take them on round the back AND get more than 1 body in the area or they will double team and bundle u out. chelsea under maureen did this to us for eons . this isnt a new tactic weve had years to work it out .
Agreed. Just getting in round the back isn't enough by itself. You need a ball winner and a runner as well. In 2014 when Ramsey had his one decent season, we broke down many parked defences by Giroud winning the ball in the air and knocking it down for Ramsey to run onto. It mostly worked well. But we now have a Ramsey that has reverted to being an immobile stagnant player that would rather take 52 touches than run into the box and feed off a layoff, and a Giroud whose form has gone downhill nonstop over the last year.
The warning signs were there against Swansea (somewhat mitigated by Xhaka's daft sending off); but we were carved apart on the counter by a side that won't score enough to beat the drop.
If it weren't for Cech (who turned up big time, for once) we'd have been handsomely done.
The lack of a a real, top-class centre-forward will hole us below the waterline again.
officepest wrote:The warning signs were there against Swansea (somewhat mitigated by Xhaka's daft sending off); but we were carved apart on the counter by a side that won't score enough to beat the drop.
If it weren't for Cech (who turned up big time, for once) we'd have been handsomely done.
The lack of a a real, top-class centre-forward will hole us below the waterline again.
^^ This 100%.
No matter how well your defence does, no matter how many passes your midfield string together, no matter how many saves your keeper pulls off, you need at least one striker that weighs in with 20 to 25 PL goals.
g88ner wrote:5mins stoppage time... Boro take off Negredo in stoppage time... final whistle blows at 5 mins 2 seconds of stoppage time.
2 seconds allocated for a substitution? How is that fair? I thought it was supposed to be 30 seconds?
F**k, do you mean we lost out on 30 more seconds of tippy tappy....I feel cheated
You should do
It's the easiest thing in the world to time when a game was stopped to when it started again
I don't understand how it is so difficult to time a game
We have been absolute shit and scored in the last 30 seconds and we have been fantastic and not scored in 90 mins
The correct time is the correct time and we could have scored or conceded
Otherwise just blow the whistle when the ref feels like it
It's the one aspect of the game that they can get spot on
