Arsenal

[Silent Runner]

That could have been a disaster but with Spurs and City dropping points it worked out pretty well. I hope every cynical tackle like Xhakas brings red from now on.

[The Fox]

That's never a red card in a PL game. 

[Gotters]

very strange but ultimately very enjoyable game

 

the first half hour was the usual attack v defence training exercise as yet another opponent comes to our ground with no ambition or intent to do anything whatsoever

 

every goal was a result of defences errors or lapses, Fabianski rooted to his line in all 3 goals and his teammates inviting Walcott to pop it in. Our best team play didn't result in the actual goals, then we imploded a bit in true arsenal style and were hanging on with them having multiple clearcut chances right in front of goal, particularly after they bought a lump on up front.

 

good win, particularly with other results, but couple of worrying indicators in it.

 

never a red either, in ground it looked stonewall like a full on rear achilles stamp, in reality though it was a full stretch ankle tap.

[Baring]

19 hours ago, The Fox said:

That's never a red card in a PL game. 

I agree but I can see why the ref give it. Usually it's a little trip or pull of the shirt but he wasn't very subtle and just booted the lad and the ref perhaps thought it's dangerous play and could have injured him. 

[Larsen B]

Really shocked, surprised and excited that Kim Little has signed for Arsenal Ladies again.

 

One of the top 3 female players in the world, I'd say.

[Rev]

21 hours ago, Larsen B said:

Really shocked, surprised and excited that Kim Little has signed for Arsenal Ladies again.

 

One of the top 3 female players in the world, I'd say.

 

Why was she on loan last season? Was it just a corporate deal?

 

The Ladies team do need a bit of a kick though, in league position terms they're getting a little...Well, Arsenal.

[Larsen B]

She wasn't on loan, she signed for Seattle Reign in the NWSL about 3 seasons ago (reuniting with Laura Harvey, her longstanding coach at Arsenal). They have shorter seasons like the WSL so you might be thinking of the time she went on loan to Melbourne during their off-season. But she absolutely left the club and is now returning.

 

The ladies team is interesting because a number of the other clubs have invested and really made it competitive. It's not as easy as saying "City have bought the league" (especially when they also haven't won it consistently) but definitely Arsenal aren't clearly ahead of everyone else as they were 5/10 years ago, despite having some very good players.

 

Little is something else though. She was the best player in the league at Arsenal and she's improved in the US because the investment and infrastructure for the sport is way bigger.

[Rev]

14 hours ago, Larsen B said:

She wasn't on loan, she signed for Seattle Reign in the NWSL about 3 seasons ago (reuniting with Laura Harvey, her longstanding coach at Arsenal). They have shorter seasons like the WSL so you might be thinking of the time she went on loan to Melbourne during their off-season. But she absolutely left the club and is now returning.

 

The ladies team is interesting because a number of the other clubs have invested and really made it competitive. It's not as easy as saying "City have bought the league" (especially when they also haven't won it consistently) but definitely Arsenal aren't clearly ahead of everyone else as they were 5/10 years ago, despite having some very good players.

 

Little is something else though. She was the best player in the league at Arsenal and she's improved in the US because the investment and infrastructure for the sport is way bigger.

 

Yeah, I meant on loan from Seattle to Melbourne. I didn't think about hemispheres and closed seasons and such, just saw "recently on loan in...".

 

If the league plays its cards right it could easily end up being as competitive as the Championship. (But Arsenal should still win it every year.)

[Silent Runner]

Amazing what the threat of being loaned out to West Ham has done for Walcotts form.

[g wings]

Two great goals but the rest has been a bit... let's hope for a bit more control in the second half

[Silent Runner]

My word, that first touch from Ozil was incredible. Tasty finish as well. 

[The Fox]

Özil adding a lot of goals to his game already this season, playing slightly higher up the pitch. Very welcome.

[g wings]

1 hour ago, g wings said:

Two great goals but the rest has been a bit... let's hope for a bit more control in the second half

I'm an idiot

[Rev]

23 minutes ago, The Fox said:

Özil adding a lot of goals to his game already this season, playing slightly higher up the pitch. Very welcome.

 

He's still fluffing quite a lot, if not so much today. Normally I wouldn't mind, but since he can put (essentially) every single pass into the right place it's always been slightly more annoying when he misses than it should be.

 

If today and the general trend really is showing he's managed to get the hang of it then we'll win the league. And if so, God bless 4-4-2.

[Larsen B]

I know a large part is because we're winning but being able to enjoy watching us play right now, defensive lapses included, is such a huge difference from the previous few seasons.

[Lucky]

I know we've had a few 'Arsenal' moments of defending recently, a couple in the first half last night and a fair few in the Swansea game, but the Kos and Mustafi CB pairing has been nothing short of fantastic since Mustafi came in.

For me, Kos is the best CB in the PL and show me a better PL CB pairing because I can't think of one.

Also, AW needs credit for adopting the Sanchez up front role as this has obviously been a success so far and has also in my opinion especially helped Ozil, Walcott and Iwobi massively.

[Rocafella]

I think our back five is comfortably the best defence in the league. On paper I'd probably take De Gea over Cech, but that's it. 

 

For me, the main thing this period without Giroud shows, is how important it is in the modern game to have a mobile centre forward. 

[Rev]

We're playing like Arsenal again, basically. We never quite became hoof-it-up-to-the-big-man but it was getting incredibly, incredibly close. I think the thing it shows most is how little faith he had in the players we had available for the last few years, he just didn't trust them to play like this and came up with something built on a firmer platform that was never capable of (or aiming to) win anything.

 

I'm not really sure what happens when we get the inevitable injuries and the contracts of Ozil and Sanchez became even more concerning...But yeah. It's good and it makes chasing Vardy seem a lot less like a bargain-hunt and more like direct cover for Sanchez in this role.

 

I do feel a bit sorry for Giroud, no-one will want him anywhere near the starting 11 now and it's not really his fault. A few barren spells aside he's done an incredibly good job in the role he had.

[Steve007]

3 hours ago, Rev said:

I'm not really sure what happens when we get the inevitable injuries and the contracts of Ozil and Sanchez became even more concerning

 

I'd just give them whatever they want.  They are irreplaceable.

[Gotters]

1 hour ago, Steve007 said:

 

I'd just give them whatever they want.  They are irreplaceable.

 

Its almost got to that point - we have got 2 properly world class forward players in that pair and even if you could pay a huge fee to attract somebody of similar talent, they'd want the same monster money anyway, so really you just need to pay up (as I'm sure their agents know, its not the hardest negotiation ploy to work out)

[Rev]

From paper talk Ozil has said he'll stay if Wenger does. I suspect Ozil is a rllmuk member and wants to make Steve's head explode.

[Gotters]

just received the season ticket members pack in the post this morning, yearbook, some pamphlet about 10 years at the emirates, the romford pele book and most worryingly what I believe is a fleece club snood

 

its not hard to take the piss out of us sometimes and its a very Arsenal gift - most worrying thing though is I just put it on and it feels really nice

[The Fox]

Not ideal playing a side like this without Xhaka and Cazorla available. Gonna be very hard to break them down unless we change up the midfield, maybe move Iwobi more central and bring Ox on.

[Baring]

My heart just sank then Ozil was offside, phew. 

 

Good point but could have had all 3. 

[Jonathan_Kerr]

Bugger. Thought we had it with Ozil but the flag went up.

Oh well. These sorts of results happen, especially when teams set out to defend. 
 

Happy birthday, Arsene.

 

PS - Ox is looking lively again, I thought.

[hauk]

Not the best performance or result, but top of the league, for now at least.

[suzzopher]

Not great, really missed Cazorla.

 

[Gotters]

Cazorla is a big miss in making that fluid movement driven attacking line up tick properly, it looked a lot clunkier yesterday and rarely clicked.

 

It also highlighted the need for Giroud to be an option at least, if not a starter, when facing these zero ambition 10 behind the ball teams as at least with him we have an alternative to threading it through the eye of a needle all the time.

[Professor_k]

Well, every cloud and all that 

[The Fox]

Playing Cazorla against Ludogorets when Xhaka was eligible looks even more stupid after this weekend's result. We need to ensure we have at least one of the two available at all times, otherwise we have real trouble trying to build through the middle.