Morning all.
If by some miracle we secure top four then great. It’s what the club needs financially, the players need for Champions League and it’s probably what most fans want too. Arsenal back competing with the best clubs in Europe. We’re fortunate though in a way because we still have two chances to obtain that goal. Chelsea do too, Utd though, well their eggs are all in the top four basket and of course, I hope they fail.
Unai Emery held an interview with Sky Sports over the last couple of days. It made interesting reading. For me anyway. The usual stuff was said about improving our defence, getting the fans up for all the matches and not just the big ones like the NLD but he knows that it’s up to his team to do that. Just as it’s up to his team to have all lovers of football wanting to watch Arsenal from beginning to end. Kind of hints at him acknowledging that perhaps some of us would rather stop watching than endure the pain which comes with Arsenal’s struggles, especially away from home. But the sentence which stood out from the rest was this one:
“In the Premier League, technical quality without physicality is not enough,” he says. “City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea… All the top teams here are physical andtechnical. Arsenal need to be the same.”
The good old soft southerners who don’t like it up ‘em has been attached to Arsenal for years now. From being a tough physical side thanks to the likes of Adams, Keown, Vieira, Gilberto, Wrighty, Bergkamp, yes Bergkamp didn’t suffer fools, Arsene Wenger changed tactic preferring smaller, technical players. Or rather small. Or smaller, but definitely less robust and that’s how it pretty much stayed until he left.
I can name on one hand who I believe our tough players are, probably with a thumb left to fill and that’s the difference between us and many of the rest. Not just the teams Emery referred to either as we more than matched Toots and Chelsea. It’s the Wolves, Watford, Burnley, Palace, Southampton etc who we struggled with. They’ve got good players, some probably better than ours but their biggest and best quality is their build. Physically and mentally.
Lacazette, Torreira, Sokratis and Kolasinac, after those I’m struggling to think of a player who looks ready to go into battle with his teammates away from home. If there was a brawl, those listed would probably be the first to get involved, to be in there with their mate to protect him. Look back to that infamous game against Utd. That’s what we lack, camaraderie, a trenches mindset. I’m not condoning the actions of our players against Utd, just their spirit and respect for each other.
So when Unai Emery says he wants his Arsenal team to be more physical, perhaps his intention is to sign players more like Sokratis and Torreira and less like Ozil, Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Koscielny, Ramsey, Iwobi, Elneny etc. Perhaps players with a bit more height and physicality about them too. I certainly hope so.
Be honest, if you were a professional footballer playing for a Premier League club, would you fear playing against this Arsenal team? Compare that to the good old days, even back to the George Graham era, we were a team to be feared. ‘We once could win a game in the tunnel’ is something I’ve often heard/read our previous players say.
Fat chance of that happening these days eh…
Morning all,
Whatever we think of our “soft” players, for years, opposition teams have got away with blue murder against us.
Look how many cards we get and yet we are soft?
Either we aren’t soft at all, based on the foul count, or we are and get torn to shreds by pathetic officials who hammer us for very, very soft fouls.
We all know the answer.
I’m glad that somebody at Arsenal has finally twigged to the lack of physicality in our squad, particularly in defence. Vermaelen, Koscielny, Monreal all lack height and bulk. They’ve been dominate over the years by players like Drogba, Costa, and even by donkeys like Deeney. It’s gone on for far too long.
There’s being physical and there’s fouling.
Ditto Cicero. This team has been crying out for a bit of height and physicality for a long time.
Nice article. Well said, other than the fact that Koscielny is no soft player.. he’s tough. He plays better with a beast next to him
Thanks Timi, thinking back on that game v Chelsea when Costa got Gabriel sent off, well, kind of, Koscielny was a bit of a wimp. I think he’s good technically but he’s too easily beaten in the air imo. Not that he’s alone. As you say though, alongside a tougher player he’s good.
A bit like when we had Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure.
Tottenham have lost 3 more games than Arsenal, but are still 4 points ahead of us..?
It’s always funny to see them lose, but we know that Arsenal will muck it up tomorrow, so my focus is still the Europa
Evening all and thanks Rico.
Nothing pleases me more than seeing The Spuds lose, but I`m with Kev in that EL is the main goal as we dont give/show any confidence playing away in EPL, only a flukey win at Watford recently !………….Leicester will be hard.
Well done U18`s and hopefully Arsenal Women will do the biz tomorrow ( which I think is on BBC i player )
https://twitter.com/Cechque/status/1122104485478748160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1122104485478748160&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.football.london%2Farsenal-fc%2Fplayers%2Fits-happened-again-arsenal-fans-16189827
…..but they’ve won three more than us….and drawn only one to our six, Kev.
All those draws are coming back to haunt us Kev, not to mention the losses.. lol
Haunted by draws? A pants title for a book. 😉
Ha ha! According to their manager, Spuds were suffering from “Stress and Fatigue” in their defeat at home, in The New Swamp, to West Ham. Ah! Bless the little Spuds. They don’t like it up ’em Mr Mainwaring! 😊
I read they played badly and were tired. Ajax will be rubbing their hands together…
Its easy to say we are soft !! i believe that its not down to much to the physical or lack of it. Its all about belief and heart !! When we get at the opposition from the start closing them down fast hurrying them into mistakes then we are a side to be reckoned with but its when we stand off and close slowly we get hurt and that has to be down to lack of belief and heart !! Emery in my eyes has made players better and in time their belief we come back. Look at Iwobi for me before Emery came he was awful in everything bar trying to look good for himself and failing with every dribble…. But now he is a player i believe has it in him but has to be consistent and by being more consistent comes form and that can be said about a lot of players in the squad… Torriera is aggressive and like s to get stuck in but again its about consistency… We do need a center back without doudt one that can impose himself in the box !! we need a natural wing that can run with the ball and deliver the final hurting pass cross etc we need a Center mid someone that can get the game by the neck and stop the other team from playing !! But in Reiss Nelson we have that winger and in holding i believe we have that center back but its the center mid position that is going to take some filling. Xhaka has grown since Emerys arrival but we need better someone that is proven week in week out !!
Rico, our players get fouled regularly and with no free kicks or fouls resulting, and we all know it.
The slightest touch from our boys and the whistle blows.
Same right there’s a difference between physicality and fouling.
We show the slightest bit of physicality and pay the price.
I’m not denying that Scott but it’s down to us to not give the officials a decision to make. Play hard but fair and let VAR highlight the cheats and bad officials…
Canaries promoted to the Premiership, On the ball City!!!🔔🔔🔔
I watched the game Rico, they didn’t play well at all. Chockers?
Xhaka steams in if anybody starts taking the piss.
Rico, VAR won’t fix it.
It’ll help with offsides and SOME obvious officiating errors but most still have half the fans agreeing and the other half disagreeing with every call.
As for not giving officials a call to make, not sure how you can say that when diving is entrenched in the game.
The perpetrators give the officials a call to make, not the defenders in these circumstances.