Home Tag "Arsenal"

Dinamo Zagreb (a) Thoughts & Line Up: Line up permutations galore, but balance must be found

Champions League football returns for another year, it is quite amazing how we take it for granted these days such is the consistency of our participation in this competition. But participation is not what Arsène Wenger wants I imagine, he wants to win the one competition that has escaped his grasp so far. But this is no Mickey mouse competition and there is a reason why only a handful of clubs have a strangle hold over the trophies for the most part. But regardless of the odds, Arsène Wenger will want his squad to give it there best shot and that starts in Croatia against Dinamo Zagreb who are undefeated in 41 games, that is a hell of a lot of games. Maybe we can end that by kicking the Zagreb players all over the pitch, pulling their forward down when he is running through on goal

West Brom (a) – Thoughts & Predicted Line Up: Rotation, Youthful Defenders & Away Form

Let’s do the Ramsey wide thing (again)

So let me stop reminiscing of days gone by and let me focus on our Welsh wonder. Let me start off by saying that I think it is quite obvious that Aaron Ramsey is better in central midfield. His partnership with Mesut Özil, his running from deep and his underrated ball winning ability makes him a top central midfielder, no question. But the most important thing is the bigger picture and the bigger picture is the team. Arsène tried to fit Ramsey back into the middle against West Ham and pushing Santi Cazorla wider but the balance was not correct. Maybe it would have improved over time, maybe Coquelin and Ramsey could develop together but we did not really have the time or room for error to allow that to play out. The introduction of Francis Coquelin into the side means we

Thoughts on Arsenal’s squad for season 15/16

Stoke City (h) – Home form improves, finishing doesn’t but vital 3 points gained

Whether or not our chances were directly down to Theo's movement, the team looked very creative and inventive. I enjoyed watching Alexis Sanchez, he seemed far more rounded in his performance. His mixture of beating his man and finding the pass seemed far more balanced than usual. His driving runs inside from the left caused Stoke problems for the entire match

Everton (a) – Ignore The Bigger Picture, Just Enjoy The 90 Minutes

Manchester United (a) – Slow starting Gunners find 2nd half gears to earn point / Change is needed

I wasn't too worried about our lack of shots in the first half, we are not a team that take speculative shots, instead preferring to carve out 1 or 2 high percentage chances instead of 8-10 shots straight down the middle into the keepers arms. As bad as we played in that first half we were very close to having a couple of those clear cut chances. Phil Jones producing one amazing bits of improvisation as he fell to the ground heading the ball against Giroud's boot and into the grateful arms of David de Gea, without that intervention, Giroud was clean through against the keeper

Everton (a) – Ignore The Bigger Picture, Just Enjoy The 90 Minutes

Manchester United (a) “Koscielny added Falcao to the list of strikers he put in his pocket” – Q&A

There were quite a few things wrong with our performance for the first two thirds of the game.  Going forward, our build up play was slow, labored, and predictable as it has become over the last few weeks with this lineup.  Along with that, our skillful players were giving the ball away too often, specifically Santi and Alexis, or they couldn’t get into the game in the first place, specifically Ozil and Ramsey

Chelsea (h) “Theo becoming the player nobody thought he’d become” – Q&A

Swansea City (h) Thoughts & Line Up: Will strategic Wenger start Walcott at centre forward tonight?

The squad is pretty much the same from last week's match but Aaron Ramsey is a doubt after taking a whack to his ankle. Initially it looked quite bad and also pretty painful but having just watched the match again for the 3rd time Ramsey didn't look very restricted in his movement in the second half and when he was replaced by Jack Wilshere after 60 minutes, he trotted off the pitch without any obvious problems, or so it seemed from where I was watching. I wouldn't actually be surprised to see Ramsey fully fit and raring to go and his name on the team sheet when the line ups are handed out

West Brom (a) – Thoughts & Predicted Line Up: Rotation, Youthful Defenders & Away Form

Hull CIty (a) Thoughts & Line Up: The Ramsey/Cazorla conundrum & Rediscovering that spark

Needless to say though, if we find our best form then we will have too much for Hull. The slight concern is that in our last two games we've dropped off a little. In our last three games we've only scored 3 goals and two of those were against a Championship side. That being said, I thought we looked pretty sharp against Chelsea in the first half even if we were not able to find a way through. At this stage it doesn't seem as if we will see a great deal of changes, the run in is all about momentum and stability but I wonder if Arsène will continue to use Aaron Ramsey wide on the right. I thought he performed pretty well against Chelsea, he just did not provide us with the outlet that a more natural wide player would. But once more you'd have to drop a player who is in good form and important to the team. I just don't see that happening right about now.

West Brom (a) – Thoughts & Predicted Line Up: Rotation, Youthful Defenders & Away Form

Chelsea (h) Thoughts & Line Up: We owe detestable Chelsea a beating

And of course there is Jose Mourinho, the most arrogant; self important; crass and hypocritical man in the game today. All the talk is of Wenger's record against Mourinho and yes I would say that Arsene will need to look inwards to a point. We have more often than not fallen straight into his trap of being sucked in and then counter attacked after leaving ourselves exposed. A more pragmatic approach may have been more desirable on many occasions but let's not pretend that his team were playing against the invincibles twice a season. Mourinho came to Chelsea in 2005, a year that coincided with Arsenal chopping off our aging high earners and replacing them with cheap young players as the Emirates era began. Meanwhile Mourinho was regularly breaking transfer records, often overpaying to get the exact players he wanted. Even buying players just to prevent them from joining a rival

West Brom (a) – Thoughts & Predicted Line Up: Rotation, Youthful Defenders & Away Form