I know it's a only a 1-0 win against Westbrom but we did a lot of things right today. Starting with the manager, there was speculation that he would choose the same starting 11 from the city game so that they can get an opportunity to fix the damage they have done. Kudus to the manager for selecting Gibbs who was a consistent outlet on the left and must be a starter in games against teams that park the bus.
2ndly giroud starting was the right move as it gives us an aerial presence against teams that put 10 men in the box and moves Sanchez to the wing where he is more useful in such games.
3rdly I thought Xhaka was brilliant today, dropping the ball in areas that pulled the Westbrom players out of position to give us an opportunity to create a few chances. He is such an excellent passer of the ball. Once our wingers learn to get into space the way Gibbs and bellerin do then we may take some teams apart.
Our home form has been concerning against teams like Westbrom and we should expect more of the same against palace. This season the teams in the bottom half of the table are so bad if you drop points against them you are in big trouble. Chelsea have made things so difficult such that games away to Mid table teams like saints, Everton are now must wins.
Some concern regarding Ozil who is starting to remind me of Di Maria and the way Wenger keeps starting Iwobi ahead of Perez. It's a pity Wenger is not as good as his contemporaries as we are winning inspire of his poor decisions. He should have been made a football director 4 years back as he still can sign decent players and build decent squads but he is such a handicap management wise.
The players need to figure it out by themselves. Hopefully this is the start of a decent run.
I thought we were decent today
posted on 26/12/16
Didn't watch the game but 20 odd shots on goal must meant we dominated plus we got a clean sheet which is always good.
posted on 26/12/16
It's not about being bullied, as we are a decent bunch now. It's wrong tactics by Wenger that is killing us. Because we have a good squad we will continue to pick up points despite some of his decisions. I have more faith in this team winning the league than the one last season despite the quality of Chelsea, Liverpool e.t.c
There is no doubt the team is stronger, we just need to control games better but that also involves maybe dropping Ozil which Wenger will not do.
He simply doesn't make the difficult decisions.
posted on 26/12/16
How can any west Brom fan be happy with the way pulis set up his team today.
As for us I thought Gibbs was excellent before his injury. He surely has to be starting ahead of nacho now.
Credit to Ozil for the cross but again he was very dissapointing today. If we had everyone fit, Ozil should be dropped but him and Sanchez will never ever be dropped under wenger (not saying Sanchez needs to be dropped)
posted on 26/12/16
West Brom are so hard to beat.
We only beat them through a bit of brilliance from Costa. It may not be pretty to watch, but Pullis has them set up brilliantly.
3 points agst them are a good sign.
posted on 26/12/16
Problem with setting up a team to defend like that is that if you do concede it's very hard to get back into it as you have no momentum going forward
posted on 26/12/16
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 30 seconds ago
Problem with setting up a team to defend like that is that if you do concede it's very hard to get back into it as you have no momentum going forward
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i agree, but when they are not playing top 5 teams they are probably more adventurous.
posted on 26/12/16
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 7 minutes ago
Problem with setting up a team to defend like that is that if you do concede it's very hard to get back into it as you have no momentum going forward
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I agree with this. I have no problem against a team parking the bus but there must be an outlet and an ambition to score.Atletico park the bus against teams that play better football than them but they have a plan on how to attack once they have the ball.
It was embarassing watching Foster try to take quick goalkicks once they conceded.
Having said all that we went to Old Trafford only for a point and united did the same at Anfield so I guess we have no right to complain.
posted on 26/12/16
In the end we were lucky Pulis went with the tactics he did. Gabriel is a massive liability at the back and if West Brom had attacked instead of trying to park the bus we could easily have lost this one
posted on 26/12/16
Only the way we played in the second half was half decent. We had a lot of trouble to break them down but it was a very deserved win in the end that could have been higher if we had a bit of luck.
posted on 26/12/16
comment by trigg_27 - Don't talk to me about suffering - I support Arsenal (U6906)
posted 3 minutes ago
In the end we were lucky Pulis went with the tactics he did. Gabriel is a massive liability at the back and if West Brom had attacked instead of trying to park the bus we could easily have lost this one
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you use the word "easily" loosely here.
There is no doubt Gabriels football IQ is certainly lower than Mustafi which shows how much we have improved in that area this season but we still do not defend well enough as a team hence the cover the CBs get this season is not sufficient