or to join or start a new Discussion

Articles/all comments
These 24 comments are related to an article called:

Dropped points against lesser sides

Page 1 of 1

comment by Tu Meke (U3732)

posted on 1/1/18

We're shiiite away from home.

posted on 1/1/18

You can’t finish top 4 with 13pts from 11 away games.

The away form is killing you, and while some of the defeats may have been unlucky, you have been poor away for a long time now.

You still have to go to Utd, Spurs, Leicester, Brighton, Huddersfield, Newcastle, none of which will be easy as well as a couple of others.

Lack of team spirit tells on the road when you need to dig in to get results. All the other top 4 contenders are more capable of doing that than Arsenal.

posted on 1/1/18

We often played s*** away from home last year, too yet usually found a way to win against lesser opposition.

comment by Verse (U20361)

posted on 1/1/18

If Wenger played Lacazetter and Giroud more regularly,I think Arsenal would have at least 8 more points this season.

comment by BO$$™ (U6401)

posted on 1/1/18

This year the refs have found a new way to do us even more.

Stoke, Watford, City, West B and even United at home all affected by referees poor decisions. We are looking at a potential 12 more points here if not for poor decisions.

posted on 1/1/18

This season is just a warm up for next which will be far worse. Sanchez and Ozil will leave and because we didn't replace them last summer it will be even harder next.

posted on 1/1/18

Yep and Once they leave every club will know we’re desperate to replace and probably up the price of any player we bid for. There’s no way we’ll be getting 2 players of Ozil and Sanchez quality in one summer you’d be looking very least around 50m+ For a player of that standard. Can’t see us willing to spend upwards of 100m, we don’t spend loads without selling. Add that with the likely lack of top 4 again, will mean less money and less of a pull factor.
No doubt Wenger will believe Wilshere reemergence will mean Ozil doesn’t need replacing, and will get some cheaper option to replace Sanchez. We’ll find it very hard competeting with any big club for a quality player, the best hope is we can get a player no one else is in for.

Basically Overall this club has been ran horrendously badly. We could all see this coming years ago, but the club have done Feck all to stop it

posted on 2/1/18

comment by BO$$™ (U6401)
posted 10 hours, 15 minutes ago
This year the refs have found a new way to do us even more.

Stoke, Watford, City, West B and even United at home all affected by referees poor decisions. We are looking at a potential 12 more points here if not for poor decisions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for that Boss. Some are shortminded.

comment by Tu Meke (U3732)

posted on 2/1/18

Let's blame the fact we have 3 league wins away from home all season on refs.

comment by Radical (U8691)

posted on 2/1/18

Refs are just a convenient excuse to disguise our poor displays. In 90 mins of football against the bottom side we created almost nothing, same thing happened against West Ham and Saints, it just isn't good enough. Every team has bad days at the office but we seem to have them every other game.

comment by renoog (U4449)

posted on 2/1/18

Wenger has run out of ideas. Incoherent transfer policy, poor team selections, lack of defensive solidity, yoyo-ing between formations in a desperate attempt to find something that works ... these are all the signs of a relegation-threatened manager fearing for his job and throwing everything at the wall in the hope something will stick. Except his job's not under threat. The game has left him by and no amount of tinkering will ever help Wenger become a relevant force in the game again. He simply doesn't have the foresight or ruthless streak to compete at the highest level.

Seeing this tired old man cling on to refs as a distraction from his own waning managerial abilities is very sad. The excuses for him have worn thin a long time ago - but with this season's favourable fixture list (no European football for first-teamers essentially), allied with all the advances that have been made behind the scenes, the increased cash flow in recent times, the freedom to mould the squad to his every whim and desire ... it is absolutely unacceptable for our club to be going backwards.

Someone should just take the guy out the back and shoot him. Put him out of his misery otherwise he'll keep coming back for more even when we're languishing in mid-table.

comment by Ruiney (U1005)

posted on 2/1/18

Surely you’ll start playing more first teamers in the Europa from now on?

posted on 2/1/18

I still think the biggest problem we need to sort out is midfield and Xhaka in particular. I tend to focus on the weakest link in the team and that is currently him.

He is slow and doesnt play as many chance creating passes as some on here seem to give him credit for. He s very slow at all aspects of the game and that is where I think his problem lies. When he holds the ball up looking for the perfect pass or receives the ball sideways and plays it on sideways both scenarios allow the other team more time to gt back and organised in defence. He is also poor defensively because of his lack of pace and poor positioning.

We are regularly playing with an extra CB to counter his defensive weakness (we didnt try that until he had come into the team and we had started dropping points) which means less attacking players. With 3 at the back Wenger has been playing the second CM as an attacking player so just saying they should drop back is not the answer. That will make us even less effective going forward.

We need to address this in January or we wont even qualify for EL next season.We're dropping points against teams at all levels of the table. The only team above us we've beaten in the league is Tottenham. We still havent recovered from losing Santi who controlled midfield. It is the absolute priority in my mind. Santi not only conntrolled misfield but also brought out the best in the players around him. Both are things we lack at the moment. That will cost though, so I would be happy for us to spend £100m on getting that right even if it means we get no one else.

posted on 2/1/18

I suspect Wenger feels that a resurgent "LANS" Wilshere is the answer to our midfield problems.

posted on 2/1/18

Wenger only seems to look at numbers rather than the quality of player. So Wilshere playing again will mean Ozil leaving isn’t a problem, because we still have a midfield space filled

posted on 2/1/18

We have always been known for free flowing attacking football. That often sweeps away lesser sides. But Wenger never used change our style against the top sides where we used to get spanked. So we were known as flat track bullies. But it always got us a top 4 place.

However ever since we changed formation our style is turgid, full of pointless passes sideways and backwards, even in our own half. I just wonder if Wenger now assesses players based on passing percentage instead of the important things like, goals, assists and clean sheets. There is no incentive to score more goals if you stay in the side because of 'touches of the ball'. Just look at how poorly Iwobi is performing at the moment while we have a more than adequate replacement in Walcott who scored 19 goals last season before being 'benched'. Is Iwobi being taught that you always have receive the ball instead of making selfless runs beyond the opposition because the ball will never be played into space so he won't achieve the acceptable number of touches?

Its easy to defend against us when you are playing one less attacker and looking for another pass instead of shooting or making runs.

posted on 2/1/18

comment by Tu Meke Ainsley (U3732)
posted 2 hours, 55 minutes ago
Let's blame the fact we have 3 league wins away from home all season on refs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah let's do this

posted on 2/1/18

Which people have given this article 1 star

posted on 2/1/18

comment by WOKO - thats Wenger out, Kronke out. Xhaka is crapper (U16927)
posted 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
I still think the biggest problem we need to sort out is midfield and Xhaka in particular. I tend to focus on the weakest link in the team and that is currently him.

He is slow and doesnt play as many chance creating passes as some on here seem to give him credit for. He s very slow at all aspects of the game and that is where I think his problem lies. When he holds the ball up looking for the perfect pass or receives the ball sideways and plays it on sideways both scenarios allow the other team more time to gt back and organised in defence. He is also poor defensively because of his lack of pace and poor positioning.

We are regularly playing with an extra CB to counter his defensive weakness (we didnt try that until he had come into the team and we had started dropping points) which means less attacking players. With 3 at the back Wenger has been playing the second CM as an attacking player so just saying they should drop back is not the answer. That will make us even less effective going forward.

We need to address this in January or we wont even qualify for EL next season.We're dropping points against teams at all levels of the table. The only team above us we've beaten in the league is Tottenham. We still havent recovered from losing Santi who controlled midfield. It is the absolute priority in my mind. Santi not only conntrolled misfield but also brought out the best in the players around him. Both are things we lack at the moment. That will cost though, so I would be happy for us to spend £100m on getting that right even if it means we get no one else.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is spot on. With Cazorla in the team, he could receive the ball comfortably under pressure or facing our keeper and with a quick turn onto either foot, get the ball forward to our attackers.

Our front 3 of Lacazette, Sanchez and Ozil could be lethal if they were receiving the ball more often with space around them to get at a back 4. Instead we're expecting them to create chances once teams are happily organised with 10 men back behind the ball.

posted on 2/1/18

comment by selbstgerechtein (U7048)
posted 19 hours, 44 minutes ago
You can’t finish top 4 with 13pts from 11 away games.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Absolutely true! What is alarming is that many Arsenal fans are delusional in thinking that this team is potentially a "top-4" PL team. Arsenal FC has to undergo a top management(ownership?) overhaul if it is to become a great club again.

The best thing that could happen to Arsenal is that it gets embarrassed by Chelsea this week, and then many of those fans who continually drink the Arsenal "Kool-Aid" will finally get upset about where this club is headed and change might happen!

posted on 2/1/18

There aren’t many arsenal fans left who are that deluded not to see there are big problems at arsenal. The recent trophies have probably helped paper over the big cracks. But it’s mainly been more reason to delude the board owners etc that we are doing well. Had wenger not won the cup when we didn’t get top 4, there’s a high likelihood he would have walked or been replaced

Although I do think we are potential top 4 team this year. A better manager with more ideas to get best out of the squad could get us 4th at least. However unless we change our away form ASAP, top 4 is out of the question. But we are a long way off challenging for the league. Need 4 or so more quality players and better tactics and attitude to get near that. The clubs been managed very poorly, because not long ago you could say we were 1 or 2 quality players away from winning the league. Now there is massive work to be done. It’s due to the clubs lack of direction and ambition, and unwillingness to chance

posted on 3/1/18

The clubs been managed very poorly, because not long ago you could say we were 1 or 2 quality players away from winning the league.
------------------------------------------------

Two words: Leicester City.

posted on 3/1/18

That was 1 in 5000 chance according to the bookies.

posted on 3/1/18

comment by Mr. Eboue Emmanuel (U12374)
posted 5 hours, 4 minutes ago
That was 1 in 5000 chance according to the bookies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. Referencing Leicester City is a bit of a nonsense

Obviously Arsenal aren't being well run though, we can all agree on that

Page 1 of 1

Sign in if you want to comment