Morning guys.
The first half was honours even I thought. A dodgy offside given against Aubameyang was about the closest we got to breaking them down. We looked relatively organised in defence, solid too so it was no surprise that going into halftime the game was goalless. Ozil and Mkhitaryan were struggling to make much of an impact on the game and if we were to have any chance in the game, we needed them to buck up.
I don’t know what happened during the break but the second half was very different to the first and after Kane rose above Koscielny to head home the only goal of the game, we went to pieces. Spurz went through us time after time and to be honest, we were lucky not to be four or five goals down before the game ended. But as extra time loomed, Lacazette had a golden opportunity to nick a point but he blazed his volley high over the bar. Welbeck won a free kick which Ozil blasted into the wall and finally, with just seconds left, Lacazette again missed a wonderful chance to take a point back to north London. In hindsight, a ball across the box into the path of Aubameyang would have probably been the better option as Lloris had already gone to ground.
If things weren’t bad enough as far as the way we were playing, once Arsene Wenger swapped Mohamed Elneny for Alex Iwobi, we were worse I thought. I lost count of the times the Nigerian either lost the ball or misplaced his pass. Honestly, I think the level we should be aspiring to play to, is a step or two above where he’s at in his career.
As already said, Mesut Ozil was another who struggled yesterday, in fact it was his lethargic attempt to win the ball out on the wing which led to them taking the lead. Really poor from a player who’s just been given a rather large pay rise for the next three and a half years.
Mikki, well this was a game much different for him than the Everton one. He wasn’t allowed the freedom to play but that was no surprise. Saying that, only Wenger would switch him to the left having done so well on the right last weekend.
Petr Cech had a few head in hands moments too which was poor from a goalkeeper with his credentials. He did make a few crucial saves though, the best was a tip over the bar.
The biggest disappointment though was the lack of creativity from us. Everything which we tried, failed. Their players either intercepted the moves, our pass went astray or the offside flag was raised. Poor.
As much as it pains me to type this, the gulf between the two managers yesterday was clear to see. One has assembled a squad, a deep squad I hasten to add, with strong physical players, certainly in midfield. Where as the other, for some reason only he knows, ditched that philosophy a long time ago. Our midfield is far to lightweight, weak on the ground and in the air. Koscielny is weak in the air too, in fact apart from Mustafi, none of our players win an aerial battle very often.
A weak midfield will win nothing, certainly not the Premier League or a European trophy.
With yet another three points (29 in total) dropped away from home, our chances of getting a top four spot get more and more unlikely. Just think, had we been able to beat the teams below us on the road, top four at least would be pretty much guaranteed by now.
Yes we have a Cup Final to look forward to later this month but in all honesty, I’m not sure it’s really something to relish, not with Man City in the form they’re in. Also we have a Europa League journey to continue on but I don’t hold out much hope on that one, certainly not when the draw lands us up against one of the better sides like Napoli, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, or Villarreal.
Wenger has said that Europa isn’t a priority as he continues to chase down a top four spot but in all honesty, I think the latter challenge is beyond us. On Thursday we’re in Sweden for the first leg of our Europa League match against Ostersunds. We’re expected to win the game but with temperatures into double figures on the minus side, our little pampered darlings might struggle.
Just as they did yesterday. Actually, just as they have done for a few years now and we’ve got Arsene Wenger to thank for that…..
Damn haven’t read the post yet but God Rico that’s sounds like a death knell. Arsenal is dead as a football powerhouse. The earlier the board get off their fat asses and do something the better. Off to read the post.
Goonie, just read Kk comment from yesterday, Liam Brady reckons he’ll be gone end of season. Fingers crossed eh.
Great post Rico it’s really a shame when we only have one recognizable winger at the club and he’s shit(might sound harsh on iwobi but he needs a loan move or proper coaching). We had no outlet on the wings yesterday. No one could take the ball out wide beat his man and whip in a delicious cross. Said it before and will say it again bellerin(bellend) more headless than Theo ‘ll ever be. He offers nothing going forward and defensively he’s shit. The whole back line needs revamping. Kozzer has a mistake on him in every game. Mustafi us suspect. Monreal is the only genuine defender we have left. The midfield is cringe worthy. Xhaka elneny Rambo and Wilshire don’t inspire confidence. We spent 50 million quid on laca in the summer and another 60 million on auba yet no one has enough brain cells to acquire a genuine winger a dm and another RB to relegate bellerin to the bench. The spuds got moura for 25. Yet we just blew 110m on 2 strikers yet no one to winger or dm came in??? This is unacceptable. The press jumps on conte’ s dick about the spate of bad results the chavs have yet no one has called out Wenger on arsenal’s decline for 15 years!!! It’s all a scam. Someone somewhere is benefiting from our mediocrity. It’s just unbelievable .
That post just about sums up how I’m thinking well done Rico??..
just read a stat that doesn’t surprise me but it’s still shocking to read.
we’ve won 7 of the last 26 PL away games..
Rico I ‘ll believe it when I see it. Why wait till the summer??? Fire his ass now. He’s not going anywhere Rico. Look at his press conferences. He’s so relaxed you ‘ll think we just won back to back CL. I want to believe you Rico but we ‘ve been here before.
Kel we ‘ve not won a game away at manure pool totts shitty and Chelsea since santi and coquelin inspired us to a 2.0 victory at the wastelands!!! Chew on that made. We are dead as a super club.
I watched that clip on youtube with liam Brady he thinks there Will be change come Summer but maybe he’s just hoping like the rest of us or should I say the overwhelming majority of us.
That might explain why Ancelotti was in attendance at yet another Arsenal game wasn’t he at the Emirates not so long ago.
Thanks Kel, goonster.
When you think how much money Wenger has spent, what does it say about him? No leaders, no midfield strength, a striker who once scored for fun out of confidence and the same boring boring style of football. Yes, Mikki and Ozil had an off day but why? My guess is because both were shoved into different positions just because Wenger could. Talk about round holes and square pegs.
I’d sack him Goonie, but we’ve got a board who apart from Ivan, haven’t a clue. They don’t have the balls to sack him imo. If there’s the clause in the contract as has been rumoured, it’ll be easier to part company at the end of the season. Personally, as much as I’d love us to win the Europa League, get third spot and win the league cup, that will be seen as a good season by the board.
Lose out on the lot and he buggers off…
Morning Rico, goodpost.
Although MotD didn’t spend too much time discussing it, I think that the offside given against Aubameyang could have changed things. When you look at his position as he ran onto the ball i’m fairly certain that he would have scored. Not saying that we would have won, but goals change things (obviously) the Spuds might have got edgy and we might have scored again…
Ok, enough clutching at straws… ?
Rico we only tried to break them through the middle and failed miserably. A rational thinking person ‘ll make a quick substitution and yank off one of xhaka or mhki and put in a genuine winger oh wait we have no wingers at arsenal. God this man is so Infuriating. Having a powerhouse of a striker in auba without adequate supply lines behind him is just a waste of 60 million quid. Poor bugger looked helpless all game.
Rico I would have sacked him after the Birmingham debacle. The league cup final that is. He’s overstayed his welcome. 20 years is enough.
player’s like Miki and ozil need ball winners beside them ie a wanyama, matic, kante, fernandhino.. These guys are enforcers
Wenger is expecting wilshere, iwobi, Xhaka or elneney to do it..
it’s not wilshere’s game to do that, Xhaka is absolutely terrible, Arteta was twice the player. iwobi has no idea what he’s doing and elneney who seems to be a decent guy imo just isn’t good enough.
The defence is shit but they literally have no protection.
Interesting that you should talk about wingers Stan as I don’t think that Tottenham have any, but they do have players who aren’t afraid to whip in a few crosses, one of those crosses totally undid our defence, Koscielny got caught and Kane put away a great header.
I know what you mean about wingers but we don’t necessarily need wingers to put in a few crosses.
What we need is a couple of centre- mids who can defend, properly, and a pair of properly coached centre-backs.
Morning Kev, thanks.
I too think that Auba would have scored. Could have been so different but I guess that decision was payback for our victory at The Ems….
Morning kev the best arsenak sides had world class wingers. Bobby pires ljunberg and of course rocky rocastle. Yesterday we were boxed in. Dembele had a stormer. All we needed was a new outlet. Someone to stretch the game. Keep trippier and ben Davies from bombing forward. One of which resulted to the goal. I ‘ll would have spent that 60m on a DM and a winger than on auba. Sorry kev.
Shouldn’t be an and or or though, we have the money, sign who we need with it. Mind you, when it comes to defensive players, Wenger couldn’t spot one if he was stood in front of him…
Morning Rico and All
Well prepared 1st half,What happened 2nd.
Wonder what he said to them,,Half time?
Anyway…Auba(Taxi Firm) our new dead-eyed-dick
get’s sent to the wing..Master stroke?
Ackney Gazzette shoved on to get a goal?
Cow’s Arse with a Banjo..I think sum’s him
up at the moment.
We then get a chance to spot Where’s Wally
Not one but two of them now..Micky and Ozil
were they on the pitch?
Maybe next time we can tie a red/white scarf
around their necks.
Cech doing Cruff/turns and Kosser looking for
Aurry,
it must of been great for the Neutral’s.
Happy Day’s.
Stan, I think that Wenger played Ozil and Mkhitaryan where he did, to clog up the midfield, it worked in the 1st half. But the Spuds goal was difficult to defend, a good cross and a fine header by Kane, but our response wasn’t that great, even so we could have nicked a draw at the end, the margins were that narrow.
Yep, I get what you say about wide men although Pires, Ljungberg and Rocky weren’t really wingers, well not to me, Overmars was a winger and Marwood was a winger.
I’ve noticed that Walcott has started to put in a few crosses at Everton, different coaching?
Interesting to see us being linked to Butland.
Morning Fred. Gawd knows what Cech was thinking sometimes…
I’m really not surprised about Walcott Kev. A great shame he didn’t get a chance under a new manager at Arsenal. He’s not the only one either….
Just can’t understand for the life of me why some fools still defend this fraud. Is it until we ‘re the new “Leeds United ” hell we are on our way there. Just a few more years with Wenger in charge then bam obscurity.
Butland assland bumland whomever we get Rico still won’t make a damn change. We still have the same old goal keeper trainer don’t we?? Our backroom staff just reeks off incompetence. How on earth is boro primorac still employed when we have guys like keown sitting idly by. Rico I so want to believe it’s his last year. It ‘ll make me sleep better at night but I just don’t see it.
It’s all Wenger’s master plan to keep the opposition guessing.Trouble is he hasn’t told his own team yet.
When Wenger goes Goonster, I strongly suspect his coaching staff will as any new man will want his own team with him…
That ‘ll be a glorious day. I just can’t wait to see the back of boro primorac vic Akers and the rest of them old has beens.
Morning all. Jolly cold here!
I reckon the stripping out of the dead wood has already started. From the U16s up to the U23s, well nearly. Steve Gatting is still in situ but whether he’ll be retained post WEXIT I rather doubt. It only leaves the top job to change hands. I suppose it will depend on whether Ivan and the Board want a hard or a soft WEXIT. I’d go for hard, in this instance!
As with the coaching staff there has been a bit of clearing out of the first team squad as well as further down the pecking order.
It seems that the club seem to be preparing for the departure of the fabled or should that be feebled Wenger and Bould and Primorac, and any of the other hangers on!
wavy, goon, potter, Rico…
Remember guys be careful what you wish for.
if Wenger goes we might drop down the league like utd did after fergie.
we’ll lose consistency in our results.
we might not challenge for a few yrs.
?
Stan, we still need to have a certain number of English/British/home based players in our squad, not sure if that number will increase next season.
Rick, if you know, give us the heads up?!
Anyway Stan, one way to have the required number of Anglos is to have an English goalkeeper I suppose, that’s why Liverpool are looking at Butland, signed Oxlade-Chamberlain and were/are sniffing around Jack Wilshere.
McGuire is another who’ll be highly sought after next summer as not only is he English but he’s a bloody good defender and I know this because Adam has been in my ear hole all season about him.
Burnley have a few decent centre-backs, I guess you look at the manager and appreciate his coaching, how he works on a small budget, comparatively, and with a small squad.
Tottenham (pass the sick bag) have some really good defenders, as did Southampton when Pochettino was at St Mary’s, because the coach does quality work in that area of the team.
There’s good defenders out there, you just have to coach them properly.
Don’t laugh but Chambers was really highly rated when he was at Southampton as was Holding at Bolton. It’s safe to say that both have gone backwards since joining Arsenal.
As has Mustafi (World Cup winner) as did Gabriel.
And so it goes on…
Kev laugh??? No way. I saw chambers at soton he was a ball playing beast. Him and holding stagnated when they joined us. Just look at theo and oxcham lately. Did you notice anything different? I saw Walcott barge into a big brawny bastard in fosu-mensah yesterday (shoulder to shoulder) and won. The latter just bounced off him like theo was Chris samba or akinfenwa. 12 years at arsenal i never saw him win a tackle let alone bullying someone off the ball. Kev our players are not shit. The manager is. Laugh he says.
Holding was the next big thing before he joined. A loan move would have worked out well for the lad but lecrook kept him and ruined the poor bastard. Now the poor boy is a bag of nerves whenever he’s on the pitch. You don’t need to look to far. Rambo was one of the players of the tournament at the last Euro. He was like the Welsh xavi. Have you ever seen him play so well with us ever???
Chris Samba! ?
Yep Stan, I’m afraid our manager just doesn’t, or won’t, work on those areas in the defence that need working on. As Wrighty said recently, he stopped Steve Bould doing some extra defensive work as it didn’t fit in with his timetable. Something about overworking the players, which is rich when you consider how he’s ran some of our players into the red zone and beyond.
Ramsey has not played in the position he plays for Wales Stan as that’s where Ozil operates.
But no, I’ve not seen Ramsey play like that for Arsenal.
I’m off to work now, chat lata Stan ?
See ya kev ?
Nothng against Vic Akers, he only sorts the kit… 🙂
🙂 🙂 Kel, as if eh…..
Rico still part of the furniture isn’t he ?we need new. He’s part of the old.
1.03 Kev, just a number of many who Wenger has destroyed since they arrived. Look what he’s doing to Lacazette right now too.
Why the board can’t see it I don’t know. Or maybe they finally do..
I’d like to see him stay Goonie, it’s not like he has a say in much, if anything really other than whether to use Daz or Persil… 😉
Afternoon Rico and all. Just home from shopping. Nice post with that air of resignation about it that I have noticed hangs above most Arsenal supporters these days. It’s unfortunate for Wenger but it’s days like yesterday that will define the latter part of his tenure. There are the FA Cups of course but this horrible softness that runs through the team, this lack of leaders and this big-game bottler stench that follows us wherever we go lately not only sticks in the throat but exemplifies our game plan. Personally I really cannot understand why so many players seem to have so little about them. Where are the core that will stand-up and say “Fuck that. We won’t be pushed around on the pitch and you aren’t gonna steamroll us”. Where are they? Where is the character in our team. I simply cannot believe that, given the players we had yesterday, that Wenger is getting much more than 40-50% of their potential out of them.
It’s a horrible experience but perhaps a neccerssary one if we are going to move on. And move on we must.
Afternoon Adam, thanks.
I feel the same. Our players aren’t bad as we’ve said many times before, it’s just the approach is far to laid back but we know where that comes from. I reckon at halftime they were told to go for it and get the win but as we all saw, that didn’t work.
Newcastle denied a dead cert penalty..
Afternoon all and thank`s Rico for a fine damnation of our dreadfull away form !
🙂
Talking of Daz or Percil………………..I`d like to see Wenger Cillit Banged !……………………………………….actually, make that Kroenke, Gazidis, Sir Chips and Lord `arris aswell and make it a Cillit Gang Bang !………………they all need a good clear out !
😆
Thanks Lc. Just Wenger would do me for starters and go from there..
Anyone been to Hospital lately ?…………………………..was in A&E with Mother in Law and the Doctor was asking the old bat some questions !………………………”nothing is 100% certain, so if the hip operation goes bad, do you want to be resuscitated ?”……………………my wife gave me the look that said……….dont you dare say a word !………..hahaha
Aparrently that`s the norm` now for people of a certain age (she`s 90 on Valentine`s Day, talk about oxymoron !)……….with younger people they automatically resuscitate if problems in op`, but oldies have to say that they want to be resuscitated !……………….talk about wanting to save money !…….gets another off the pension bill !
Here’s a stat for you. Maureen has never won at St James park. Let that sink in gooners. No offence to Newcastle but that’s a shit show kind of club yet the “great Maureen ” still haven’t won a game on their turf. Quick question how many times have Maureen beaten us over the years at the emirates??? Be careful what you wish for the AKBs say. Good one Newcastle. Really want them to stay up for rafa. Top man.
Outstanding performance by shelvey..
Who said he is a cheaper Xhaka!?. .lol..
He is twice a player than Xhaka could ever be..
Kk, he was superb today…
I thought Newcastle had never beaten Utd?
rico they are the barcodes. .
jojo was man of the match along with their new keeper. .
Mourinho taking off his record signing midfielder for a semi retired 36 yers old who hardly played any football, says all.
That extreme I thought. .
Persisting with the like of xhaka is the other side of extreme..
Good to see sanchez struggling as well. .?
A little slip up Kk.. 😉
I watched the game, it was good. Their keeper was superb.
The really sad thing, even if we shipped the old fool off to the Arctic circle he’d only return as a stowaway in Aaron’s underpants next week !
I thought diame had the game of his life Rico but shelvey was imperious. Looked more 80million than pogback. Happy for the toons. That’s how to beat a Maureen side.
Lol arsenal fans trolling manure over Sanchez miss. Yesterday it was manure fans ripping us to bits over mhki. The banter is unreal. Twitter is on fire.
Aren’t we lucky knowing Wenger will watch that Newcastle performance and learn from it before we go to OT goonie… ?
We’ve got to go to St James Park too I think..
Ha ha Micko… Not if Ramsey is playing for Real by then.. lol
Was watching Napoli Vs Lazio yesterday and a Lazio player caught my eye, he looked the best player on the pitch even though they lost 4-1………………………Sergej Malinkovic-Savic…………. tekkers in abundance !………………….not sure who he is and what he`s worth !………………….
It’s going to be cold in Sweden, make sure our overpaid pansies don’t forget their mittens. Oh yes le fraud will need a fleece under his blanket coat, and the zipper must work. I have supported this Club since I came from Ireland in 1966 as a 16 year old. I am disgusted by the lack of effort from these players and the arrogance of an overpaid manager. I stood on the North Bank many times in the late 60s watching us lose but at least the players put an effort in. I expect us to lose in Sweden. The excuse from Le Fraud will be “it was very cold”. Sorry rant over
Paddywack, I doubt anyone expects us to win every game, but like you say, at least bleedin try. Our lot reflect the manager when they come up against a team which is strong.. physically I mean…
Catch up tomorrow guys…
Nighty.
12.44 Kel , Hope you’ve got your tongue out of your cheek now.
Morning Potter, all.
New post up now…