Our Rivals Squad next year - Arsenal

From BBC: "
A classic Arsene Wenger response to Jack Wilshere's clash with Marouane Fellaini.

"Honestly, I didn't see the incident."
 
Arsenal will feel hard done by with their first half performance. We were in absolute disarray and they were playing some pretty good football. Understandable as we were playing 2 teenagers at the back who were both shaky. We couldn't even get a sniff till about 35-40 mins are so and the threat of counterattacks was almost nonexistent from us till that point.

They just lack the sheer ruthlessness and the mental fortitude as a team. You just knew they weren't coming back after going down. Zero self belief and resilience. They really need a new manager and there is clearly a good team in there somewhere. If only Wenger isnt so feckin obstinate in the transfer market...


The return of Giroud will be a huge boost. Welbeck's been decent but just doesn't possess the goalscoring touch relatively.
 
The Taurean said:
why not just say why the Wilshere incident shouldn't be a red card?
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What I said (badly, admittedly) was a bit of handbags between Wilshere and Fellaini. On first sight a 12 year old boy pushing his head into the 'chest' of a 42 year old giant bogbrush looked funny. The boy obviously looking like a real cnut that we know he is. When the replays were shown there was no doubt Fellaini's chin was caught but in real time you could overlook the incident as Fellaini didn't go (and maybe should have gone) to ground.

Anyway, its hardly crime of the century and Wilshere will get his comeuppance. As will Di Maria at the end when Chambers should have hit the turf like he'd been shot by a cannon in the solar plex. The result wasn't affected either way.
 
When United's first goal came, it was so soaked in Arsenal tragedy that you were surprised the camera didn't focus on Gunnersaurus crying into his t-shirt cannon in the stands. Wojciech Szczesny made a hash of a cross after colliding with Gibbs, with the ball rebounding out to Valencia. His shot was wayward, but struck Gibbs and flew into the net.

1) Allowing the opponent to counter

2) Making a mistake on a cross.

3) One player injuring another

4) An own goal.

All in the space of five seconds. It really is a stunning commitment to slapstick.

As if to add the final layer of varnish of Arsenal to a shiny surface of pure Arsenal, United had taken the lead before they had even had a shot on target. Half of Arsenal supporters laughed, the rest cried.
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For F365's match summary. So true. :lol:

The first goal was pure Arsenalism.
 
Didn't register Giroud for CL group stages. To be fair, he was injured.
 
An embarrassment how we lost that match, last season I said when we lost at Old Trafford it was the worst Utd team I had seen in years but this was even worse. To be fair you had a lot of players out but that just meant you were there for the taking. De Gea got some praise but some of our finishing and the final ball was completely pathetic. If we had scored early on I reckon we'd have registered a big win but I could sense early on we weren't going to score. Just felt like one of those days again! When your lot got the goal I knew it was game over, completely lost our heads and could have been more embarrassing in the end.

I said it the other day, felt like you could have put your U18s out and we'd still have found a way to lost.
 
JazzG said:
An embarrassment how we lost that match, last season I said when we lost at Old Trafford it was the worst Utd team I had seen in years but this was even worse. To be fair you had a lot of players out but that just meant you were there for the taking. De Gea got some praise but some of our finishing and the final ball was completely pathetic. If we had scored early on I reckon we'd have registered a big win but I could sense early on we weren't going to score. Just felt like one of those days again! When your lot got the goal I knew it was game over, completely lost our heads and could have been more embarrassing in the end.

I said it the other day, felt like you could have put your U18s out and we'd still have found a way to lost.
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Hopeless drama queening. Man up!
 
Why is it - that of all top teams - only Arsenal struggle when it comes to beating a depleted Man Utd side?
 
peterstorey said:
Because you were as lucky as pigs in shit.
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Yep, we were lucky. You were also shite. Arsenal "outplaying" us is somewhat overstated, we were cut apart a few times (as we would have expected given the defence out there and reverting to the 3 man defence), but after the first half hour it turned into a very timid performance by you guys.
 
JazzG said:
An embarrassment how we lost that match, last season I said when we lost at Old Trafford it was the worst Utd team I had seen in years but this was even worse. To be fair you had a lot of players out but that just meant you were there for the taking. De Gea got some praise but some of our finishing and the final ball was completely pathetic. If we had scored early on I reckon we'd have registered a big win but I could sense early on we weren't going to score. Just felt like one of those days again! When your lot got the goal I knew it was game over, completely lost our heads and could have been more embarrassing in the end.

I said it the other day, felt like you could have put your U18s out and we'd still have found a way to lost.
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You should watch it again, it's actually farcical how Arsenal throw every man forward, you lost that game same manner as you lose every big game, the fact that Rooney can play Di Maria onside by passing in his own half is just laughable.
The finishing from Arsenal was woeful until Giroud came on, Wellbeck his usual wasteful self and Wilshire couldn't finish his breakfast.
It will always be one of those days if your just going to set up exactly the same every time you play a big rival, Wenger was found out about a decade ago but has still failed to adjust, it's painful to watch at times as he's clearly a talented manager but it looks like change is beyond him.
 
Rooney in Dublin said:
Yep, we were lucky. You were also shite. Arsenal "outplaying" us is somewhat overstated, we were cut apart a few times (as we would have expected given the defence out there and reverting to the 3 man defence), but after the first half hour it turned into a very timid performance by you guys.
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You were lucky we were shite. So, so shite. Reminds me of the 06-08 period where we'd go to extraordinary lengths not to score easy goals.
 
Yep, we were lucky. Lucky that Arsenal couldn't score against a defence made up of two right wingers, two youngsters, and just one (relatively) experienced centre back.
 
Sam said:
Yep, we were lucky. Lucky that Arsenal couldn't score against a defence made up of two right wingers, two youngsters, and just one (relatively) experienced centre back.
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When you put it like that :lol:
 
Arsenal fans and players must think they've been bossing it all this years then, if the things they think win football matches are possession stats and them having that possession high up the field, with extra points for every inch they're closer to the opposition goal.
 
gasmanc said:
Being lucky for about ten years now.
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Christ, that is some mental gymnastics. I have to applaud you for somehow managing to crowbar Ferguson's success into a discussion about last week's match.
 
peterstorey said:
Hopeless drama queening. Man up!
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They were shit (especially the first half) and we still managed to feck things up. They had a lot of injuries but that back three were worse than any of our defensive performances but we still managed not to beat them. The usual fans having a pop at Wenger but you can't blame him when the players feck up like this.

Overall I'm not too bothered, our main challengers for the Top 4 spots are just as bad as us right now.

gasmanc said:
You should watch it again, it's actually farcical how Arsenal throw every man forward, you lost that game same manner as you lose every big game, the fact that Rooney can play Di Maria onside by passing in his own half is just laughable.
The finishing from Arsenal was woeful until Giroud came on, Wellbeck his usual wasteful self and Wilshire couldn't finish his breakfast.
It will always be one of those days if your just going to set up exactly the same every time you play a big rival, Wenger was found out about a decade ago but has still failed to adjust, it's painful to watch at times as he's clearly a talented manager but it looks like change is beyond him.
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After the goal it was a joke, I could see it straight away. We had 30mins to get a goal against a team who were on the ropes for much of that first half. Just needed to keep our heads and keep the pressure on without being reckless with the ball.

I think we lacked composure in the final third. Sometimes it isn't about just getting the ball up there quickly and forcing the issue but actually having sustained pressure there. We had that for one spell after we went 1-0 down and your team did not look comfortable at all dealing with it. Ozil for all his faults does that better than anyone in our squad, in the final third he does not lose the ball and keeps it moving. When teams have everyone back all this plan B nonsense is bullshit, you have to wear them down and when they make a mistake pounce. We had too many direct players if that makes sense. Worked great in the first half because things were so open and the back three had no shape or cohesion but when you dropped back it made things a lot harder.
 
Fair assessment Jazz. I know a lot of our posters will have red tinted glasses on, but feck were we lucky to get 3 points out of that game. But once you went 1 goal down your tactics were suicidal. You lacked that final pass and that bit of patience in the first half. I also think you don't get enough bodies in the box to support Welbeck. I still have no idea how we won that game, was absurd.
 
Yea it's a fair assessment but United were only shit for about 20-25 minutes, LVG had spotted the problem by then (aside from a makeshift defence) we then started to get a foothold by soaking up pressure and countering at any given opportunity. After a half hour it was becoming increasingly apparent that United were well in the game and had survived the worst of it, the first 25 we did ride our luck not being a couple or at least a goal down but once United had given Arsenal a couple of scares on the break then the message should have reached the players to not all bomb forward like headless chickens, it was suicidal even before the goal.
JazzG said:
you have to wear them down and when they make a mistake pounce
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There is always more than one way to skin a cat, United sat and held shape and when Arsenal made a mistake pounced, it's not just United either most big rivals have been onto it a while now, it's been happening for 10 years now, surely someone at the club has spotted it.
 
RedSky said:
Fair assessment Jazz. I know a lot of our posters will have red tinted glasses on, but feck were we lucky to get 3 points out of that game. But once you went 1 goal down your tactics were suicidal. You lacked that final pass and that bit of patience in the first half. I also think you don't get enough bodies in the box to support Welbeck. I still have no idea how we won that game, was absurd.
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I'd probably be laughing my head off if we won a match like that. Hell we won the FA cup final being battered for most of it and taking it to penalties! My cousin reckons the footballing gods have put a curse on us after that cup final, sounds about the only reasonable way of explaining our record against your lot since :lol: Thank god it was only 2-1, if Di Maria hadn't fluffed his chance it could have been even worse.

We fecked up big time in the summer, we desperately needed a DM and when it turned out in the summer Koscielny had a chronic achilles problem was only a matter of time before he had a lengthy spell. I'm generally not one of those Wenger out people but not signing in those two positions was pure negligence. It was so obvious yet again we haven't addressed key weaknesses in the team.
 
gasmanc said:
There is always more than one way to skin a cat, United sat and held shape and when Arsenal made a mistake pounced, it's not just United either most big rivals have been onto it a while now, it's been happening for 10 years now, surely someone at the club has spotted it.
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I think not having a top class DM and now another CB has made us very vulnerable, especially on the counter. Per Mertesacker has been average this season, last season he was on the whole very solid. Now he looks all over the shop.
 
JazzG said:
I think not having a top class DM and now another CB has made us very vulnerable, especially on the counter. Per Mertesacker has been average this season, last season he was on the whole very solid. Now he looks all over the shop.
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Certainly a lack of DM is hurting but tactically it's always too gung ho in the big games.
Flamini would have his uses against better opposition, what's happened to him ?
 
gasmanc said:
Certainly a lack of DM is hurting but tactically it's always too gung ho in the big games.
Flamini would have his uses against better opposition, what's happened to him ?
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He's shit.
 
gasmanc said:
He was surprisingly good on his return as I recall, i was wondering along the same lines as your post though.
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He was alright but that was a year ago. Now it seems all he does is point and shout in an attempt to make it look like he knows what he's doing.
 
gasmanc said:
Certainly a lack of DM is hurting but tactically it's always too gung ho in the big games.
Flamini would have his uses against better opposition, what's happened to him ?
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Against Man City & Man Utd we've shown the good and bad about this team. Both games in the first half we dominated and should have put the match out of reach. Second half shown some very naive play especially defensively.

I didn't watch the match but against Chelsea we were tactically a lot better than in the past, apart from that Hazard run both teams had nullified each other out. So there has been an improvement but clearly two defeats and a draw is what really counts at this stage.

As for Flamini, the guy is well past it. No coincidence we played much better football with Arteta in the team but even he needs replacing
 
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