Arsenal vs QPR

Dan Hakim wrote:

Also, MOVEMENT OFF THE BALL! Everyone is just standing around, not getting into position, or creating space, for the man on the ball.

I think it would benefit us to start trying to attack from deeper. Same old Arsenal , keep passing it around their 18 yd line and run out of space. There were a couple of times when the 2 forwards were just standing still in a line, and there were massive holes for a MF'er to run onto the ball- ie take a chance -but no one did it so consequently there were more square passes that went nowhere.

Speaking of Song, I kept thinking today how much we need his through balls to forwards that we had last season. Whatever the rationale for selling him, I really miss his presence in the middle of the park.

Dan Hakim wrote:Speaking of Song, I kept thinking today how much we need his through balls to forwards that we had last season. Whatever the rationale for selling him, I really miss his presence in the middle of the park.

Not the forwards we had last season, the through balls.

Michael Foster wrote:
twitter is useless for this kind of thing.....to be honest twitter is shite....

It's not. You just got to get used to it, and it's better than Facebook when it comes to news and information. During matchdays it can be mental though but the rest of the days it's fine.

I enjoy twitter. It's honestly become the place where I get most of my news. But it's awful for having conversations, and following a single topic with multiple people.

Dan Hakim wrote:Speaking of Song, I kept thinking today how much we need his through balls to forwards that we had last season. Whatever the rationale for selling him, I really miss his presence in the middle of the park.

I agree. It's a different formation this year, almost, and I think the plan must have been for Diaby and Arteta to share those through ball duties, or something.
Maybe in a couple of months when players roles and tendencies become more settled, someone will have stepped up to provide that for the team.
Also I think Song was good last year because RVP was great. In the last few games no one is getting on the end of anything.

Michael Schatzky wrote:

Dan Hakim wrote:Speaking of Song, I kept thinking today how much we need his through balls to forwards that we had last season. Whatever the rationale for selling him, I really miss his presence in the middle of the park.

I agree. It's a different formation this year, almost, and I think the plan must have been for Diaby and Arteta to share those through ball duties, or something.
Maybe in a couple of months when players roles and tendencies become more settled, someone will have stepped up to provide that for the team.
Also I think Song was good last year because RVP was great. In the last few games no one is getting on the end of anything.

I think it comes back to movement off the ball. And I think that is down to players having almost no idea what each other is going to do. Until that time, maybe not standing around isn't the best tactic.

I have returned. Have not been posting because I could sign in on here for some reason. Would not be surprised if some others were facing the same problem.

Frustrating game today but the slight positive was that we did dominate possession alot more - as compared to the Norwich and Schalke games.

Positives - 3 points! Good to see Wilshere and Sagna back, both making decent contributions. We were also more dangerous after Walcott came off the bench.

Negatives - Struggling to create proper chances. The left side of defence is obviously a big worry.

Giroud has been working his socks off but hardly seems to be getting any real goal scoring opportunities. Podolski is also somewhat wasted on the left I am beginning to feel.

Usually we have 8-9 pages of a 'Post match' thread, now all we have is 3. I used to enjoy reading this board, now it can go a couple of days with no one talking.

Anyway, finally we got a goal! I am slightly worried though for the game vs united. I really think without Gibbs and Szczesny we have no chance.

How about this crazy idea: back for of sagna - mert - kos - verm, then if we need a goal, bring Santos on for one of the above, and play a back 3? Crazy, I know.

What is the news on our injured players?

Szczesny, Gibbs, Diaby, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain and now Gervinho.

Yeah i think it is better than having Santos out there, especially since united's strength is their wing play.

Szczesny could be back for Manu I heard, Chamberlain could play on tuesday, Gervinho they still don't know. The rest I have no idea:s

For arguments sake, our strongest match day squad would be -

Starting - Szczesny, Gibbs, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Sagna, Wilshere, Arteta, Cazorla, Podolski, Walcott, Giroud.

Bench - Fabianski, Koscielny, Jenkinson, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rocisky & Diaby.

6 of those players are unavailable. 1 we keep on the bench by choice and 1 got injured today.

Arshavin made a difference off the bench today.
He's too hot / cold to be reliable, but in moments his quality can be game changing.

rea.nolan wrote:Arshavin made a difference off the bench today.
He's too hot / cold to be reliable, but in moments his quality can be game changing.

No idea whats going on with Arshavin. Clearly one of our more talented players but Wenger seems to have lost all faith in him.

He is 31 now and none of the clubs in Russia or England seem interested in him either.

I might be wrong, but his contract should be expiring at the end of this season - maybe that will be enough motivation for him to put himself in the shop window and provide some assists / goals off the bench this season?

i know he is frustrating, but I still like him. He has bags of skills, maybe second in the squad behing Santi. I still want to see him play behind the striker before he leaves, even if it means no defensive work, at least against easy oppositions at home. Also, I am quite disappointed in Podolski, he has faded recently.

i know he is frustrating, but I still like him. He has bags of skills, maybe second in the squad behing Santi. I still want to see him play behind the striker before he leaves, even if it means no defensive work, at least against easy oppositions at home. Also, I am quite disappointed in Podolski, he has faded recently.

I think Podolski will come good. He has more determination, more application than Arshavin. He works harder. I'm bothered that he hasn't been scoring lately, but it's still only 9 games into his Arsenal career.
Arshavin probably has more innate talent. Bugger just can't be arsed half the time... his fitness seems lacking, or he was never trained to track back in the manner required in the EPL.
And yes, I think Wenger's plan was to move him on this summer but the right deal didn't materialize. It has been said that Arshavin wants to stay in London, so that makes it more difficult to negociate deals.

well we got away with a win today, but it won't be enough next week against Man U....

If we win next weekend, I am having the celebration of a lifetime.

Very happy with the points but the performance was not very convincing. Ramsey slows the game right down. He had a good header and an excellent half volley, but he takes too long to make a pass. We are supposed to be a flowing, quick passing team and everytime he gets the ball the play slows right down.

I love podolski's work rate and tracking back, but he seems to be tentative about running directly at defenders and getting into advanced positions. I wonder whether Santos' defending is affecting his play.

On a positive note, Jack was great today. You can tell he is excited to be back and he was up for it today. Him and cazorla will be an unstoppable duo!

Podolski relies on Gibbs's overlaps just as much as Theo does on Sagna's. I think that's the thing. Santos now offers less than Gibbs going forward as well. I don't think all of a sudden, both Podolski and Santos became ineffective. It's just that they are cancelling each other's qualities. Someone mentioned our strongest XI, I still think that giving Vermaelen the armband was a mistake. Our strongest XI has to have Koscielny in it with Vermaelen on the bench, but dropping your captain is the silliest idea ever. Next weekend I'd like to see Theo and Podolski starting on the wings and Giroud up top regardless of Gervinho's injury situation. Theo has been great coming on against West Ham, the 3-1 victory in the CL, and yesterday. He is ahead of The Ox right now, let's not kid ourselves. His contract might be an issue, but he is still an Arsenal player and we should use him as much we can. And against tight opposition where we need a goal to win or equalize, if both Theo and Poldi are starters, my first option would surprisingly still be Arshavin. The man has loads of talent and in such cases, the opposition usually sit back and defend so we don't need his tracking back anyway. Yesterday's cross was brilliant with his left foot, imagine Gervinho there instead, he would have tried to dribble the defender, dribble himself, and a few of the supporters and wasted the opportunity. No doubt about our strongest midfield, and with Diaby and Rosicky coming back (I know, they won't), we have quite a good midfield. Ramsey was doing fine at the start of the season when he had less pressure on his back; a few cameos here and a few starts there, now he is starting every game (out of position) with lots of pressure on him and has returned to his old dallying on the ball, slowing down play again. I think he should have a consistent 10 good games before we out pressure on him. It should be said, welcome back Sagna. Jenkinson did well, no doubt about that and has a bright future with us, but Sagna showed yesterday why he should be an automatic starter. His intelligence bailed Vermaelen out, and did very well the whole game I thought. Credit where it's due, Mannone made some good saves late on in the game yesterday, but still i can't wait to see the Pole back in goal. As for midweek, I think Jack and Sagna should play about 60 minutes each to shake some rust off for the United game and be subbed off regardless of the score at that point, same with Santos and Giroud, only they need to complete 90 minutes. I think Gnabry deserves a start, but he really shouldn't, we should use this game to get some of our senior players some game time. My lineup for the game would be:
Martinez
Sagna Koscielny Djourou Santos
Ramsey Coquelin Jack the Lad
Theo Giroud Arshavin
I'd like to see Mannone given some more game time, but Wenger usually gives the second choice a chance, I discussed Sagna's, Jack's, Theo's, and Giroud's cases. Arshavin deserves a start, and it's quite obvious why I had the 2 center backs there.
Subs: Miquel Yennaris Gnabry Chamakh Frimpong Akpom Oxlade Chamberlain(?)

I tweet using my phone during the game, but that doesn't affect anything, I never come here on my phone and post during the game anyway (the PC is always off during games). Not sure why this place is dead, surely we would have known if the others migrated to some other forum or to the old group back.

So, here's an interesting thing: Arsenal have conceded 6 goals in 9 games in the league, the fewest by any team.

That's right, folks, we have the best defense in the league.