To be going into yet another "must win by a certain scoreline" Champions League game against opposition that, for once, are not miles better than us
I think we'll do it, wouldn't surprise me if it was fairly comfortable too, even without Sanchez & Theo (on bench again?) surely we've got enough about us to go out and score 3 or 4.
Early-ish goal is absolutely crucial is probably the only caveat, the longer it goes on the more we will panic and abandon our style of play and the more confidence Olympiakos will get.
It must be such a tricky mindset for them, like when we've been in similar situations against Bayern & Barca in the past, they always seem to get caught in between playing their normal attacking game and being tight at the back, and we've taken advantage of that before.
My predo : Oly 1-3 Arsenal
Thoughts?
Strange
posted on 9/12/15
Our youngsters are getting hammered.
posted on 9/12/15
Ron's right. Ibra could have done fine at Barca. Ego and personality (not just his) was more the problem than not being able to play in their system.
Anyway, regarding WB2's quote about Giroud:
"his conversion rate in the air eclipses his rate on the ground."
I don't have the stats to back this up but I really doubt this is true. And if it is then that's probably a statistical quirk and true to all players. Based on anecdotal evidence only (watching him), Giroud isn't the best at finishing with his head, and has missed some fairly straightforward chances that I can remember (as he has with his feet to be fair). That's not to say he's bad with the old nodder, but certainly not good enough to restructure our entire game around.
posted on 9/12/15
comment by Chris H (U15205)
posted 5 hours, 54 minutes ago
Have a day off WNMWhen was the last time you felt anything close to joy regarding Arsenal?
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When we were winning 4-0 in the cup final
posted on 9/12/15
Skins
Not saying he doesn't miss plenty with his head. The "eclipses" could be to big a term. I'm just thinking it's gotta be a good rate for him to be the leading headed goal scorer whilst we put so few balls in the air. Maybe it's the league changing and other teams are as bad but I don't think he could have the same miss rate with his head, he has with his feet and top the league in headed goals. We don't put enough aerial balls in the box for that, nowhere near.
You're thinking like Jenius too. There's no need to restructure the entire game. Just play it the same way we did with Giroud pre Ozil and Sanchez. The flaw at Arsenal was never the style of play. It was lack of marquee players executing it. We now have the marquee players.
Our style of play works for either striker but it has to have different executions for both players. We need a Giroud strategy and a Walcott strategy, within the "Style of play." In Walcott strategy, Theo does the running and in Giroud strategy it's everyone else. It's that simple. Ramsey, Wilshere and Rosicky all know this which is why they never struggle with Giroud due to pace.
As I said Ozil is certainly there and Sanchez following. But the others currently playing seem a bit slow on the uptake. It's as though since Theo became 1st choice, they totally forgot how to be Wenger's Arsenal with Giroud on the pitch.
posted on 9/12/15
If we play well we will do it. The senior players will have to stand up and be counted tonight. United needed that last night and it didn't happen. The likes of Cech, Kos, Per, Flamini, Ramsey, Ozil, Giroud all need to step up
posted on 9/12/15
I rest my case
posted on 10/12/15
Wenger's Bodyguard2
Spot on on Oli.
posted on 10/12/15
comment by Mike London (U8504)
If you're talking about yesterday vs Wolfsburg, their finishing was poorer than yours and could've easily scored a good few more goals. Thought they created plenty more clear chances than you did. You didn't deserve to win the game and definitely didn't dominate by any means.
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I won't be suprised if out of all the teams in the CL this round of fixtures that they had the highest chance conversion rate percentage and we had the lowest chance conversion rate.
posted on 10/12/15
They scored a goal every 3 shots, we scored a goal every 8.5 shots. Put it this way if our finishing was supposedly as poor as what Wolfsburg did yesterday scoring every 3 shots in CL instead of scoring 7 goals we would have scored 27.33 goals so rounded 27 goals in whole group stage of CL.
posted on 10/12/15
Actualy they scored with every 3.33 shots which would have meant if we kept that rate up we would have scored 24.624 goals so rounded 25 goals instead of 7.