Arsenal Banter Archive December 21 2016

21 Dec 2016 21:25:33
I Don't See how it's fair to single out Mesut Ozil for criticism. Let Me first state that am a huge Ozil Fan and he is by far my favourite footballer in the World, so this might be more emotional than rational.

The hate Ozil is getting now from our own fans and the media is shocking to me, it's reminiscent of when he first arrived. Yes he has been off form this season, but i feel like he is being made a scapegoat. I don't remember Alexis getting the same treatment last season when he had poor spells and Ozil was far and away our best player. But people tend to shutout what doesn't fit their Narrative.

He has already scored 9 goals this season and he's on course to have his best goal scoring season ever. He is World class to me and tied as our best player with Alexis, Hazard is still considered world class after having a horrendous season, Mesut deserves the benefit of the doubt after having a poor couple of games.

Ozil doesn't dominate games, He creates moments that win games. Last season he created the most chances in the league, the same people who who ridicule that stat used the fact that he created non against City to bash him. He is only behind Messi and Ronaldo in CL assists since he debuted, non WC players don't do that. If the criticism was about current form I'd concur but it has turned into a referendum about his quality.

{Ed025's Note - let me tell you my take on things CMP, when alexis is having a poor game he is still very industrious and works his socks off which endears him to the supporters, when mesut is not firing on all cylinders he seems to go in to his shell and his body language says"this is not going well so why bother", dont get me wrong the guy is world class but if he had a more positive mental attitude it would certainly get the crowd to show him more love..well thats how i see it anyway mate..

21 Dec 2016 22:39:04
Ed,
You are spot on. I love Mesut to bits, but sometimes when things are going awry (Goodison) , you sometimes wonder "Is Ozil playing? "

He does have a tendency to go missing.

{Ed025's Note - cracking player though dags, a bit of a luxury like marks and spencer mince pies...but very tasty mate.. :)

22 Dec 2016 09:46:57
Many players could be criticised for their performances in the last 2 matches. What concerns me in the lack of effort and fighting spirit in this and other Wenger teams for some period. This may be a reflection of Wenger himself, who when the going gets tough rarely shows a fighting spirit on the touchline. We have all seen him, at such times, fiddling with is zip or bent double on the bench clutching his stomach, when he should be on the touchline orchestrating the team. I also believe he doesn't allow players to display their character on the pitch. Imagine the likes of Roy Keane without his fighting spirit and he would have been half the player he was. If Wenger leaves, which he may do (watch the situation at PSG) , I would love to see Simeone arrive.

22 Dec 2016 20:27:23
Ozil is a fine tuned artist - they are moody and their moment ebb and flow from inspiration. Sanchez is a highly skilled lunch pail worker that shows up for an honest days work. For me a team can only have one or two artists and needs a lot more workers. Ozil is a great luxury if you can afford it.

22 Dec 2016 20:31:35
Everyone loves a Klopp type character who wears his heart on his sleeve and gets involved with the players and crowd throughout the game but its not about marks out of 10 for artistic that wins titles it's a results that do that.
I'd be more than Arsene to knit a jumper throughout the 90 minutes if we were still in the running for the title next May.

21 Dec 2016 11:59:25
I was thinking Lucas Perez could do a pretty good job for us. I'm sure he's a resilient player and a hard type. He will be willing to go an extra mile. I can see him immulating the hardwork Sanchez does on the pitch. Your thoughts guys?

21 Dec 2016 12:35:01
Well, in the formation we play the fullbacks need protection from the wide attacking players. last season Sanchez played wide left and worked hard at protecting Monreal and hence some supporters believed Monreal to be a decent LB, whereas this season he has been exposed and looked poor, as Sanchez is playing up top and the likes of Iwobi, Walcott and Ox, simply don't work hard enough defensively to cover the ful backs. This has been highlighted in the defeats away at Everton and City. Perhaps trying Perez and Sanchez wide, with Giroud up top, would provide better cover for the full backs in tough matches, as well as Giroud being able to hold the ball up.

21 Dec 2016 13:56:02
I think its great that spurs reward the fans with great ticket prices, you mock our fan base when spurs have always had a massive following home and away. I just passed that huge monster of a ground they are building next to whl and it's looking lovely, we are building the biggest club ground in London to accommodate our small fan base lol, I bet you want 3 points of Santa for you Christmas R. G. The ravers having an exceedingly good day as I drive up oxford street at 60 mph in the bus lane's.

21 Dec 2016 14:10:52
Oh dear Raver is spouting drivel again. I never mock Toot fans, with one exception. You guessed, Toot the stalker. Building a ground, except it's a decade after the mighty Arsenal built their one. Go on, don't be a coward, list the trophies won by the Toot during your lifetime and those won in the same period by Arsenal or list those won by your manager and compare them to those won by Wenger. As you know Raver, the pain at the lane just goes on, big or small stadium. 1961 and waiting. over 55 years.

21 Dec 2016 15:53:41
Clutching at straws, perez is average at best, he's obviously not shown too much in training and he's had a pretty average career with just one good season in la liga. He hasn't shown me that he's a player who can play a part for us. He obviously has a level of ability but for me its not up to the prem. Please everyone stop trying to put giroud in the team, he's not up to it and he won't improve anything in the team. We can try all sorts but the answer does not lie in the squad we have or the manager.

21 Dec 2016 18:16:09
The odds on us overhauling Chelsea are long so why not give the bloke a go although myself personally the way I would go about covering our full backs would be by playing 3 CBs with Mustafi and Gabriel either side of Kos and then use Belerin and Gibbs to provide the width in a 3 4 2 1 formation.
Think this would sort us getting exposed so easily both on the left and through our soft middle that is there without Caz, Le Coq is brilliant but none of Xhaka Elneny or Ramsey look anything like solid next to him in my opinion.
We are just way to easy to play against as we are and without both Danny on the left and Caz in the middle we just don't have personel to play the way we have and control matches, we've been conceeding lots of chances all season against every one from Bournemouth Southampton Middlesbrough to PSG and the only difference is Everton and City took there chances better than the reset have.
Check out the shots on and off target for both teams in all our games so far this season, the for and against collums are surprisingly close.

21 Dec 2016 18:26:26
Honestly its christmas and youve already given up on the season. Pull your socks up get behind the team. Both times we lost the fans for the opposing team made it difficult for our team. let's begin by turning ip to games and getting behind the team 100%. And giving the oppositions fans and players a time they won't want to return. Manup.

21 Dec 2016 19:06:24
G4E accepting that what your doing isn't working isn't giving up mate pretending that everything is ok is as good as giving up.
For the first time in his career Petr Cech has gone 8 games without a clean sheet, the City and Everton defeats only account for 2 of those 8 games.
If your happy to carry on the same old way fair play to you mate but it's very highly likely we continue to get the same old results if we do, why not at least try and change things and see what happens, What have we got to lose?

21 Dec 2016 21:23:17
I can't see us pulling 9 points back. But I've said I'm going to wait till the next three games have gone till I can give more of an opinion. Chelsea have Liverpool and spurs as well as no costa and Kante for Bournemouth so if we can get the deficit down to 4-5 points then game on! But we have to hope others slip up.

21 Dec 2016 20:48:37
Theres a time and place for everything but your comment about the odds being stacked up against us so its ok to experiment. I agreed with rg69 when he suggested rotation in the team is important yes rotate with the objective of catching up with the leaders not because we have nothing to loose. I for one would love to see perez tried with different positions. let's get behind the team and manager be the 12th man on the pitch help the team put the fear of god in oppositions.