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cubeadvance

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toythatkills

toythatkills

Posted
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It's easy to say the changes were ludicrous in hindsight, but they were sensible enough on paper before the game started. It was the perfect game to bring Debuchy back from injury into, Gibbs should have been totally fine, Welbeck earned his place in the last round and resting Giroud before Chelsea wasn't the worst idea.

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toythatkills

toythatkills

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I really can't agree that an FA Cup semi final is the perfect time to bring in a guy who hasn't played in three months. He was predictably rusty and was absolutely shattered by the end.

Fair point, perfect is entirely the wrong word, but it was still a decent game to bring him back in. As much as you can't underestimate lower-league opposition, they're still lower-league opposition, and a player of Debuchy's quality should reasonably be expected to cope fine.

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Radish

Radish

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Surely it's obvious that Reading would up their game for a semi final. If you're taking the competition seriously (and I hope he is) then it's definitely not a decent game to bring him back in for.

I think the post match interview with Wenger explains it though. I'm paraphrasing a bit but he basically said "they showed more motivation than we'd seen in the tapes", so he obviously didn't expect Reading to perform this well and for a semi final they'll clearly give everything in, I think that's a bit naive.

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NexivRed

NexivRed

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I know there was that article posted which suggested that stats don't really do Ozil justice, and it does make sense, but the ones from Saturday seemed decent enough.

- 114 passes

- 90% accuracy

- 9 (!) goalscoring chances created

- 2 assists

Has there been any news on Per's injury?

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The Fox

The Fox

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Özil has been at his Real Madrid level for the most part since coming back from injury, only with superior fitness levels. That assist for the first goal was great - there were like 8-9 defenders behind the ball but it didn't matter.

Edit: shout out to Oli Giroud too - he was excellent when he came on. Hard to fathom how much he's improved this season. Some of the touches against Reading were brilliant and I think he has a better goals/games ratio than anyone bar maybe Aguero?

edit2: Nope he's ahead of Aguero too on league goals/game. Of the top scorers it's Giroud, then Aguero, then Costa, then Kane. Hard to argue that he hasn't been at least as good as Diego Costa overall this season, so fair play to the bloke. Just needs a goal vs Chelsea now, and if he can get it at the weekend when they're presumably going to be playing for a 0-0, it'll be all the more impressive.

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Hass

Hass

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What are people's thoughts on Walcott? I'm struggling to pull together an argument to keep him given that we've got Ox and Welbeck who I personally believe are better utility players. And everyone tends to play deep against Arsenal anyway

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The Fox

The Fox

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Good movement. Good finisher. Tends to perform well in big games. Articulate, pleasant guy who's good at media/image stuff. Useless against a deep defensive block. Offers worse defensive cover and all round play than any other wide option we have (though admittedly he did seem to be putting an effort into helping Debuchy on Saturday). IMO should have played more in Feb/March when Alexis was struggling, and it's possibly telling that he didn't.

Thing is he's going to want an increase and he's already on £100k/week. I'd be happy to keep him because he offers something different, but it seems like he's probably off at this point. Sterling > City and Walcott > Liverpool seems very possible to me.

If we do sell him I'm not sure we'll even replace him, unless we can get Reus. Otherwise I could see us giving the spot to Ox and letting Wilshere have games on the right too (where he's been largely very good previously), along with a possible role for Gnabry.

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Petrousgyre

Petrousgyre

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His movement, for me, is poor - particularly in more central positions where he just seems to follow centre backs around. He'll occasionally make a decent diagonal run starting from out wide but that seems to be the entirety of his repertoire. Perhaps I'm being unkind here, slightly coloured by the fact he's been woeful since coming back from injury.

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Gotters

Gotters

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before his last long term injury against spurs in the cup he was on the best run of consistent form he'd shown, he should never be played as a front man but he was looking very good cutting in off the wing and his decision making was getting far better - he was almost looking like the player it was hoped he could be.

something seems to have gone wrong though recently as Wenger seems very reluctant to play him and the lack of game time makes him appear to have regressed when he does come on (he looks like a player who needs a run of games to get into the swing of things and unfortunately never gets them as he breaks all the time)

patchy form combined with his appalling injury record means I'd move him on reluctantly, but only if a better option is available to replace (and I don't believe that to be Ox or Gnabry)

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The Fox

The Fox

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It's 'renew or sell' time this summer though innit, as I think he's going into the last 12 months of his deal. We won't let him run it down beyond that again, especially as his bargaining position is comparatively poor compared to last time.

I don't think Ox or Gnabry are currently better players overall than a fit and firing Theo, but they are potentially a better fit for this team now we have Alexis. If Gnabry is definitely over his injury then I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Theo go with no direct replacement coming in, as it's obviously not an area we're short in. Alexis, Ox, Welbeck & Gnabry are all specialists, and Ramsey. Ozil & Wilshere can all do a good job there too in certain conditions.

edit: the only way I see us signing a wide forward is if the manager wants to go back for Reus, but I think that boat might have sailed with his ankle problem and the subsequent Alexis signing in all honesty. Other than him who else is there who fits the 'super super quality' template?

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Gotters

Gotters

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like you say we are kind of blessed in the positions Walcott occupies (we have options but I'd love to see an automatic starter who's name is on the team sheet every week) so it does need to be a super high end replacement to justify doing it - I'd be happy to see Walcott & Sterling swap shirts with some cash heading up to the Scousers for Rodgers to waste on Southampton players.

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