Arsenal Banter Archive October 23 2018

23 Oct 2018 17:34:52
Its funny but i think we look on paper disjointed and out of balance up front but it is working a treat. Maybe we are hard to read in the way we are set up. We don't play with out and out wingers, or strikers (in the old fashioned sense) and we don't seem to have an attacking shape as such. Our pace of play up front under Dick has improved out of all recognition and i think that is key. We were at times previous laboured and unimaginative in our build up, with loads of sideways passing around the box for passing sake. Its refreshing to see the improvement under Dick.

23 Oct 2018 18:20:36
For how good our attack looks we remarkably rank 10th for shots taken, laca ranks 11th and PEA 19th we are not actually creating that many chances, we are just clinical, scoring the second most goals in the league, city have taken 82 more shots than us to score 4 more goals great while it lasts but we really need to be creating more incase our conversion rates dip. Especially because we rank 4th for shots faced and sooner or later lucks going to go against us and they will go if we don't iron that out.

23 Oct 2018 18:21:40
We are a work in progress mate and so far so very very good, I've been marking Dicks progress at the end of each month and I think I gave him 7/ 10 for August and 7.5/ 10 for September, hopefully baring a sudden down turn between now and Sunday I will be marking him even more highy for October:-)

{Ed025's Note - you seem to have played a lot of easy fixtures i feel G62, dont get me wrong dick and the team have done very well mate but i feel you are in a slightly false position, i think that by christmas we will have a better idea of where the team are at which i expect to be around 6th or 7th, mind you i have been wrong before....1978 i think it was.. :)

23 Oct 2018 18:56:40
Ed 025, you may well be right but at the moment i see only two teams we aren't up to yet and that is pool and way ahead citeh, us, chelski, utd, spuds are pretty much capable of improving or going back. Apart from that the rest are not good enough, so the top six are the same, not really a top seven. The position of the 3rd to 6th could be anything and in any place, i at last see us challenging that group and we are as good. I also think we have a lot of improvement to come. We are a different animal than under wenger but we are, i think realistic in our position. At the moment it isn't a false position, any higher would.

{Ed025's Note - i think you have had a little bit of luck you know steve and things have gone really well for you, i think you will always score goals mate but still think the defence is a work in progress, emery has done very well and i did not expect it to be as seamless as it has if im honest, january will be vital to how it pans out for me but if money is made available then there is no reason why arsenal cant be challenging for one of the top 4 places..

23 Oct 2018 19:12:41
Against the better teams leaking goals will be a problem, i see us more capable of picking up points against the lesser than most others because of our brilliant attack. The attack could win the prem, the defending most definitely wont. But i can only see it getting better as time goes on and the faults cut out.

{Ed025's Note - you may well be right steve and i have to admit the attacking side is spectacular..

23 Oct 2018 19:21:52
Hey Ed25 hope you're well? I saw the other day you said you were a closet Utd fan, are tou still a closet arsenal fan, or just a bit of a butterfly? 😉 Is that why you haven't been around as much recently? 😮.

{Ed025's Note - i flit around eden, but i only edit proper teams mate, arsenal, everton, liverpool and united, cant be doing with plastic clubs mate, i am good thanks and hope you and the guys are as well, i will be editing a bit more this season as i will have more time now after a very busy 6 months..

23 Oct 2018 19:27:22
Ed25 do you see united finishing above us?

{Ed025's Note - no browgun i dont, things can change very quickly though mate in this league and i think arsenal may need to strengthen a bit in january, but its all going swimmingly at the moment i must say..

23 Oct 2018 20:25:24
Hi Ed025 mate its really good to hear from you Geeza, you still enjoying goggle box mate :-) .
I totally see why people question who we've played during our 7 premier league wins and why they point out where we've had the rub of the green too ( penalty against us all day long last night)
But we are beating teams we should be beating consistently ( that's new for us against teams who aren't on the beach already) and there are 84 points available against the rest and only 30 available v top 4 rivals so to my very very happy surprise we have a real shout of top 4 are the first time of asking.
I'm my opinion City Liverpool and Chelsea will be top 3 and it's us spuds and of course United as to who grabs 4th, for me Spuds have got it well wrong this summer and I think we will do them this season and while we have a 7pt lead over United I still think they will put a long non losing run together and push us hard for 4th come May.

{Ed025's Note - love gogglebox G62 especially lee and jenny, chelsea are the unknown quantity for me i cant decide if they are good or just punching above their weight, if the arsenal can sort out the defence and replace xhaka in january then you never know mate top 4 could be a possibility..

23 Oct 2018 21:49:32
Love the Siddiqis mate and Giles and the two sisters from Leeds are funny without meaning to be :-)
I thought top 4 would be way to much to expect for this season back in August but Uniteds awful start and Spurs crazy transfer strategy after a world cup year where they had so many players involved for so long has kicked the door wide open and so far Emery has got us nicely positioned to have a real chance of cashing in on the other twos problems.

{Ed025's Note - i cant argue with any of that mate..

24 Oct 2018 00:24:20
I think our performance against Liverpool will tell the real story about us, if we show up and put in a real shift than I think we will make everyone think of us differently.
But as for now we are beating the teams we are playing yes games that should be won but in these game we panicked and lost on previous years.

24 Oct 2018 02:02:02
Hi Ed, it's baffling, having lost the opening 2 matches to top teams we have gone on a 10 match unbeaten run and have scored 2 or more goals for the last 11 matches. We have won 10 very winnable matches, without looking totally convincing in many of them. My own take on it is that the players have bought into Emery's methods and tactics, but are taking time to adapt from Wenger's methods. In addition we have many players that simply cannot defend or tackle. Against Leicester the following players that started are poor defensively: Bellerin, Xhaka. Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Iwobi. Excluding the keeper that's half the team and you may well include Lacazette, although for the main striker he does tend to work defenders hard, but tends to give away fouls when he tracks back. Perhaps the reason we are winning is that the work ethic has increased and the players are closing down quicker than before, which means opponents are having to try and take chances quicker, whilst under pressure and hence miss more often. The proof of the pudding will be how we do against the top teams, although if we continue to consistently beat the other teams, a top four slot is a possibility. My prediction, despite the decent start is 5th or 6th place.

{Ed025's Note - i dont think you are far off there RG, the football has been very good and its only the defence that looks a bit shakey which could scupper that, to be honest i thought the transition from wenger to emery would have taken a lot longer to bed in but i am pleasantly surprised that its gone so smoothly, are you the finished article.. no, but the players look to have bought in to the emery ethos and i think we are all glad about that because the league needs a strong arsenal mate..

24 Oct 2018 11:00:42
Ed025, not seen you kicking about for a while and glad you're back mate.

{Ed025's Note - nice to be back sharpy, i have been celebrating my 60th birthday for 6 months now doing a lot of things on my bucket list mate...only carol kirkwood to go now.. :)

24 Oct 2018 21:45:45
Mate, I had to google Carol Kirkwood. I thought perhaps she was a Bake Off contestant and that she made lovely pies.

You don't come across as 60 mate, you type like someone no older than 45 :)

Glad you're well though mate - now tell us a bit more about the rest of your bucket list.

23 Oct 2018 12:51:54
Hardly any hate aimed at Xhaka for last night. he must have played well.

23 Oct 2018 13:32:32
Apart from being easily dispossessed, giving the ball away in dangerous positions, failing to tackle, fouling because he can’t tackle and incredibly slow he was his usual excellent self mate.

How Xhaka and excellent were ever linked or used in the same sentence in the first place remains a mystery, probably never to be solved.

23 Oct 2018 14:06:17
Xhaka wasn't awful last night but equally he was a long long way from excellent, to be fair people are more resigned to Xhaka than in favour of him starting. I very much doubt he will make the premier league worst 11 this season which in its self is a big improvement on his first two seasons with us but equally I think he will be a long long way away from the premier league top 50 let alone premier league team of the year.

23 Oct 2018 14:47:22
I like most things Dick is doing but xhaka in every time, when he clearly is not capable of doing a job at this level is baffling. What on earth does he see in him, he is like a fish out of water and the one big element of our flimsyness. I think it is going to take a hammering for him to move him out. While we keep winning, he will keep playing. I cringe when i see him in the team and his pathetic performances.

23 Oct 2018 16:07:36
Like I say Steve most fans aren't happy with Xhaka but I think we're all resigned to him playing despite our own personal opinion on his ability.
Last season I couldn't make a case for him being in the premier league at all but now I just don't think he's top 10 material which is improvement how ever you look at it.

23 Oct 2018 17:24:31
Gunner, i think all has been said about xhakas abilities or lack of. He will eventually be ejected, i just think it will mean a few hammerings before that happens. Some people look at him and see a 35mil player and think he must be a good player because he was so much, he will come good. I look at him and all i see is a waste of space and a weight too the team.

23 Oct 2018 18:27:19
Even on his improved performance he doesn't look like a top 5 or 6 player to me Steve in fact I think he would struggle to make any top 10 team, bar ours of course:-)
So far we are getting away with playing him and hopefully that will continue all season but if things do stop going so well for us in think Xhaka will be back at the forefront of people's not happy list.

23 Oct 2018 22:10:18
I get that he's not the most talented player to pull on an arsenal shirt but I don't understand the level of grief he gets yet Guendozi is praised like a saviour when in reality I think has less of a positive impact on the game than Xhaka. There must be something there for both Arsene and Unai to have him in their starting 11 and vice captain.

23 Oct 2018 22:43:12
I’m not giving him grief mate, just saying what I see and you can genuinely put money on him doing all of those things every game he plays.

Don’t dislike the guy and had high hopes for him but he is a bit of a nothing player.

Guendouzi is young and is a great addition to the squad and endeavours to be positive in everything he does and for me, not getting in the slightest carried away with him, has more of a future at Arsenal than Xhaka.

Out of interest, what do you see in Xhaka?

24 Oct 2018 11:03:22
Stoner, I think he has a lovely hairstyle.

23 Oct 2018 07:29:01
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 23rd October 2018

22 Oct 2018 22:16:16
Scary fisry 30 mins but when we th heat is was turned on we turned up. Big shout to tonight’s captain Ozil did brilliantly as well as Iwobi, infact happy woth the whole team and gutted for Lacca for not scoring, Lacca worked really well off the ball, what a team player.
Auba this guy really knows where to be in the right time, Guendouzi did very well when came on and Torreira, love the little guy.

10 win on the bounce happy days gunners.

23 Oct 2018 08:31:35
I think the most impressive thing is Moe that's 7 premier league wins at the beginning of the season when everyone is fighting for every point rather than at the tail end of the season when so many teams are playing in swimming trunks and sombreros.
Like you say the first half was scary watch from behind the couch stuff but the second half was a Mesut Ozil lead joy to from everyone.
We would all love to see that level of performance from Mesut week in week out but there is no player on earth who has ever been able to produce that level consistently, I think we just need to appreciate Mesuts team contribution in most games much more then just sit back and fully enjoy the times he's able to treat us all with the level of performance few players are ever able to produce in their whole career.

23 Oct 2018 11:25:45
Top 4 is definitely a real posibilty for us beacsue there is so many goal threats in the squad. Still issues defensivly especially from set pieces and Xhaka still a liability and can't tackle on the defensive side. Torriria though is making a massive difference to the stability compared to last season and it is vital to our chances that he stays as fit as possible and plays most games. Aubu and Lacazette are developing a great undersanding and for me both must start together up top to put fear into opposition back lines.

23 Oct 2018 14:12:17
Torreira in many ways makes up for Xhaka inclusion but no way could even Torreira have managed that last season, Xhaka is not as bad as he was which is meant as a compliment rather than an insult but Guendouzi should definitely be starting ahead of him still in my opinion.

23 Oct 2018 17:27:16
Its funny as soon as xhaka puts in a 6 out of ten performance, some say he has had a good game and forget the other 20 he has put in a 4 or 5. Lol.