✔ Live: West Brom 1-2 Arsenal ✔

As long as you don't plan to say anything nasty about Santi. Some of the people here are a disgrace and, more bafflingly, seem immune to his smile.

Just found an old 606 thread from that Spurs bloke who had a bet with you saying Barça had no chance of winning the CL back in 09, then vanished into thin air. Remember?

I will have nothing but praise for Santi, and in fact will dispel a few myths about small Spanish players not being able to perform in The North (tm) on a cold February night! Santi's been a fascinating player to watch, he's so slow yet doesn't ever seem to get dispossessed when dribbling, and his left foot is out of this world.

Yeah, but he got back to me in the end! Was quite humble as well
http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A52120153

the fact that we've managed to hit top form in the run-in the last couple of seasons - does that mean that we actually have good players who simply have needed time to gel together following summer transfers?

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A bit of that. However in my opinion it is also a lot to do with the style of English football. Generally teams physically dominate us at the beginning of the season. Even Barca don't play with a complete midget team. Their key player of the last few years has been Busquets. He is hardly small or easily bullied. We have a collection of midgets who have misunderstood Barca's style which is very direct with no sideways passing. We don't kill teams of when we are in the ascendancy.

By the end of the season most premiership players are tired. They are not as disciplined nor do they mark as tightly so we play with more fluidity. Nothing to do with players suddenly playing better.

Its no surprise we have won nothing since we sold Vieira (our physicality) and Pires (our directness).

Fair play to him, I thought he'd simply vanished.

I'm not sure I agree about lack of physicality, I think this Arsenal side has managed to overcome that weakness over the last two and a half years and has recorded plenty of battling away victories against supposedly physical sides. I think the team is far more vulnerable to being carved apart due to our failure to press, than it is to aerial bombardment and crosses.

Also, this season the team has generally played very well against the bottom half teams home and away, in fact I'd say title-winning form in that regard. The problem is the form against the top 10 teams has been atrocious and Arsenal have lost all their games to top 4 contenders with the exception of a 5-2 win over Spurs (who were winning before going down to 10).

True, rotation could also be a factor, Arsenal use their squad quite well over the course of a season.

Agreed on both points but I don't think that's been so much a problem the last couple of seasons. We've become far more adept at beating the smaller teams these days and I think our problem is that we don't focus enough attention on defensive shape and pressing, hence the recent poor record in big games where teams tend to be more technical and tactical rather than physical.

Mata and Hazard aren't exactly giants either.

Speaking of which - have you seen much of Marco Verratti (PSG). 1m65 and only 20, but was absolutely immense holding their midfield in Valencia.

Yeah I think it's a lazy cliche which is at least 5 years out of date now. The fact that most of these small technical players come to England and actually perform better than in their native leagues seems to be lost on the doubters.

Only on FIFA I like the way football in general is heading, I'm sure it's probably only a cycle but the increased emphasis on technicality all over the pitch is making for a better spectacle IMO. And I don't agree that it's come at the cost of defending or physical contact, it's just redefined how teams defend (more focus on intercepting rather than ground tackles).

The was an article en El País a couple of months ago on how the no. of total passes this season was higher in the PL this season than in La Liga.

I think this Arsenal side has managed to overcome that weakness over the last two and a half years and has recorded plenty of battling away victories against supposedly physical sides.
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By physicality I am referring to teams who press us with close proximity marking. I don't mean bully us by fouling. So I don't mean the likes of Stoke foul us and we don't respond. So I include teams like Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs in that. They are more interested in physically stopping us play and playing counter attack than actually imposing their style on us. The way to stop that is to have a goal outcome in every attack. We dominated Spurs, Chelsea and Man City away, without creating anything. It was quick tempo passing till we got to the final third and then we started going backwards and sideways so actually created very few chances. Thats what I mean by losing our directness. Giroud, and Podolski are not going to cut the mustard. So they don't help in that this season. I think our directness has been on the downhill since Pires, Bergkamp left but has accelerated without Cesc.

Its quite funny but I believe Barca are very much after a player like Theo and we use his skills so little. For example if you have a player like Arteta in the Pirlo position you expect him to able to disguise balls over the top of the opposing defenses. The only player who has done that a little for us Cazrola. When you have a right back like Danny Alves capable of doing that for Barca shows how much our lack of directness is costing us.

Teams like Spurs, Chelsea, Man Utd can only use counter attack based on physically pressing as a tactic while they are even or ahead. If we go ahead they have to open up and then we can use counter attack our selves by winning the ball early and pressing them.

That I can agree with jenius99