Arsenal Banter Archive September 14 2016

14 Sep 2016 18:25:35
I was shocked at the team selection last night and somehow we managed to get away with a draw.
I would like to see us adopt a 4-4-1-1 formation away from home in tricky Champions league matches.

Last night, although Ospina had a fine match, we should have played Cech. We desperately need a quality LB and must sign one in the next window.
I would have played Walcott on the right of a 4 man midfield, with Elneny and Xhaka in the middle, Sanchez on the left.

Finally, Ozil, in behind Giroud. The two DM could have protected the two centre backs, whilst Walcott and Sanchez, could provide pace on the counter attack.

14 Sep 2016 20:21:34
Walcott was injured.

14 Sep 2016 22:51:33
Ospina and Cech are well matched but have different styles. Both are great keepers, Ospina even surpasses Cech in certain areas.

Monreal was uncharacteristically poor against PSG but has been one of our most consistent performers over the last 2 seasons. He is a quality left back, a young understudy with potential would should be signed. Hence the sustained interest in Chilwell.

I do agree the formation could be tweaked in order to suit the players at our disposal. There are a few varities that would be extremely interesting to try, depending on the opposition.

14 Sep 2016 13:54:23
The rock bed of any successful team is the centre half pairing and defensive mid working together not letting the opposition have a sniff. we had it with adams keown/ bould with petit, silva with toure and campbell. utd with bruce pallister and keane even leicester with morgan huth and kante. in each team they were the key to their success. playing regularly and not conceding goals doing the donkey work for the others. now at arsenal we have numerous players that can come close but they have to be regulars to achieve this. i would personally have kosci mustafi and xhaka in those roles let them build up an understanding and slot the ozils sanchez's around them.

14 Sep 2016 10:10:25
Well at least for once we get saved by the keeper as that happens a lot against us :) Well played Ospina top class goalie imo, doesn't deserve to be sitting on the bench but there's Cech so he is abit unlucky :) I remember how we used to suffer without one good goalkeeper and now we have two :)

14 Sep 2016 12:25:13
Ospina problem when 1st chioce was he made brilliant stops but only to push the ball back into play forcing a brilliant double save or us to conceed a goal, Cech is so much stronger in a save he invariably pushes the ball well out of the action.
Ospina is unquestionably a fantastic shot stopper though.

14 Sep 2016 13:24:45
Gunner personally i go on what i see, but for all the statos on here, it would be interesting to see their respective stats as regards, goals let in average, win draw loss percentage because i would think they have played a similar amount of games for the club. Both excellent goalies though.

14 Sep 2016 19:31:55
Stats are absolutely worthless imo Steve, Olly has a 1 in 2 strike rate according the the stats which covienently covers up the full story and only someone who hasn't watched him play would be lead into thinking he's a prolific goal scorer, excellent team player but natural finisher he isn't no matter what the stats suggest.

14 Sep 2016 22:43:59
Who made up that stat, his mum.

13 Sep 2016 23:54:46
Very poor performance.

Too many players under performed, same style of footy, too slow and pedestrianised, not enough width.

But, a point at PSG can't be bad.

14 Sep 2016 00:25:56
You forgot, no shape, no direction, usual bad positions and ball watching in defence, no striker, ozil went missing in a big game again and very very very lucky but a great point.

14 Sep 2016 07:24:06
Very lucky against Southampton on Saturday then extremely fortunate last night can Arsenes luck hold until May?
Same old tactics same predictable style of play can they really produce a different outcome this season to the past 7-8 seasons?

14 Sep 2016 09:14:35
They looked like giants compared to our minnows all over the pitch cavani vs koscielny, rabiot vs santi, krychowiak vs ozil, aurier vs iwobi.

14 Sep 2016 09:17:30
If giroud and xhaka had started we would have taken the 3 points. it baffles me that wenger plays the wrong players against a team that was for the taking. giroud would have ruffled the defence and opened the space for ozil and sanchez (who was non existant until he moved to the left) and xhaka would have gave us more reassuarance at the back and kept the ball better than coq. Wenger will probably play giroud against a slow defence when the game is begging for pace upfront. he needs to react to the game faster rather than scraping it. we got lucky.

14 Sep 2016 09:58:39
The Thing about Ozil not turning in big games is a bit a myth. He has had many great games against big sides whether for Arsenal / Real Madrid or Germany. He has been poor is some big games too, but that usually comes with the team being as a whole.

He was fantastic against Bayern at the Emirates, dominated against City and did the same against United at home. He has also scored in the NLD and provided a sumptuous assist for Gibbs last year. The Man has had many great games for us, its just easier to pick apart when he's had a bad game.

Him and Pogba have the same kinda pressure, when they perform people say it expected of them because they are record signings, when they have bad days people will slaughter them because they expect more. Even though he had a bad game, he was still the creator for our goal and i think that's what counts at the end of the day.

14 Sep 2016 09:58:40
I agree we were poor last night, and other than the watford game have not been good so far this season, so why people were expecting us to turn up an play them off the park is strange, its true that they have not started well but let's not kid ourselves they are a decent team, with a very very good home record in the champ league.

and this whole lucky arsenal, if that had Neuer in goal or De gea then there would headlines of, what a great keeper, kept his team in it. lucky is missing open goals.

yes we were not great, actually in that first half very poor, however a point should not be scoffed at and with 4 very winnable games home to PSG to potentially win the group sets us up very nicely.

we often say that when teams play badly but get a result that's when things can really happen for a team, well we did that last night, not through class but through staying in the game and taking the opportunity when it came.

not happy with the performance however work up in a better mood than most it seems regarding last night game.

14 Sep 2016 12:21:42
Cmp I do expect more and so should every one, ozil is one of our better players and these games should be their stage. Yes he has played well in sporadic top games but more often than he should he doesn't. Top players turn up for top games. He wasn't on his own last night so I didn't mean to single him out like that. I just mean, it should be his stage. His lack lustre performance last night was minor compared to some other problems. Another big game where we concede first and early! We can't keep doing that.

14 Sep 2016 13:24:36
To really appreciate what Ozil does you need to have your ozil cam on for 90 minutes, record the next game and whrn you've got time rewatch the match but concentrate on where Mesut is and what he's doing throughout the game, what is it Guardiola said about Mesut " best player in the world without the ball " or something very similar, plus he's pretty hand with the ball too which is a bonus :-)

14 Sep 2016 13:38:28
Gunner guardiola hasn't seen me play without the ball, best player in the universe. Not too good with it though.

14 Sep 2016 14:02:35
Steve it would take me and you a month the cover the ground Mesut covers during 90 minutes mate :-)

14 Sep 2016 14:22:05
Gunner by the way, guadiola said bravos performance on saturday against man u was the best performance by a goalkeeper he had seen for years.

14 Sep 2016 14:37:48
Did he say that exactly Steve? Did he?

14 Sep 2016 14:55:30
Ha ha not when i hàve had my double dose of complan.

14 Sep 2016 15:16:13
Yes tpg he did.

14 Sep 2016 19:08:26
Tpg I do apologise I got it wrong. He said it was the best performance he had seen from a goalkeeper ever.