Everton vs Arsenal

This Arsenal team is so easy to defend against. Teams have figured out that as long as they close down on our midfield trio and don't allow them time on the ball, we panic and constantly give the ball away. There is not enough pace or fluidity in the team to play on the counter either which means crosses to Giroud is our only viable option. And as good as he is in the air, he can't do it by himself. Worrying times.

We don't have the ability to create goals out of nowhere anymore, and hence our game drops tremendously if things don't go accordingly. Stating the obvious, but technical ability alone is not enough, we need a bit more fight in the team. Not a bad point away to Everton, but looking back at the points which we've dropped and shouldn't have, there was a feeling we should've made up for it tonight. I'll still pretty calm about how things stand, but anything other than 3 points against Swansea and I'll be mightily disappointed.

Bla bla bla just like last year everyone moaning that we are a mid table club and compare us to bolton.

I am 200% sure we will end top 4. Simple as that.

ralph avedikian wrote:Bla bla bla just like last year everyone moaning that we are a mid table club and compare us to bolton.

I am 200% sure we will end top 4. Simple as that.

Hey I want some of whatever's making you so confident about that...

Just look at last season, then look at our first 11 and bench when fully fit.

ralph avedikian wrote:Just look at last season, then look at our first 11 and bench when fully fit.

But do we have the difference maker that we had last season? Obviously we don't have another RVP but can we make up the difference without him this season in games that we are struggling in? Because so far it doesn't look like it. And then there's this:

Arsenal's last 22 Premier League games - Won 8 Drawn 9 Lost 5.

I think what works in our favour is that the rest of the league outside of the Manchester clubs are not *that* great, at least, there's no consistency. Even the top 2 don't look as strong as last season so far. And that should help us in our quest to take 4th (sad as it is that that is our realistic target) and if, IF, we can get to January right in the mix then hopefully (...) we spend some of the money we didn't spend during the summer on strengthening our squad/team. Because we desperately need it.


As for tonight, a draw at Goodison isn't a bad result. It was predictable, as well. The problem was that we drew to a pretty rubbish Villa team. If we had beaten Villa we could have been looking at 4 points and a very good 10 days. But as it is, we have allowed Tottenham to overtake us and have been unable to capitalise on Chelsea, Everton and West Brom's results. Yes, West Brom might not end the season in the top 4, that's pretty much a given, but you don't want to be hanging around 6th-8th for too long.

The performance tonight was pretty average, boring. Going forward we have no identity, a clear method of how to play. No point in going on individuals because the team completely lacks balance regardless of who starts. But it is quite close to our best side which is worrying (and key players looks shattered already). Defensively we improved as the game went on but their goal came from us losing the ball twice in dangerous areas, something we had done earlier and survived. Don't make it easy on ourselves.

We now have a run of games coming up that we must be looking to win. 2 league games in a row at the Emirates = must win. On paper our December looks very good with 4 home games. But as seen above, our form going back to last season has been that of a mid-table side, a lot of those draws and defeats coming against sides below us, so there are no guarantees we will make the most of those fixtures.

We'll be right

ralph avedikian wrote:Just look at last season, then look at our first 11 and bench when fully fit.

Agreed 100%

4th by the end of December.

[quote="Jason Morrison"]

ralph avedikian wrote:Bla bla bla just like last year everyone moaning that we are a mid table club and compare us to bolton.

I am 200% sure we will end top 4. Simple as that.

THANK YOU.

Also, this happened today, so cheer up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSroTuycpFA

Any guesses for how long Kos is out........yup the usual 3 weeks.