30 Jan 2019 05:02:40
Lacazette may well be our best player. Never hides, always working hard to hold up the ball and make space, never gives up. Guendouzi MOTM but Lacazette maybe my player of the season.

Poor from Ozil, Licht and Elneny. I like Mo but his time with us is surely up.


1.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 07:30:41
Agree about Laca Wire! We are a threat going forward . However 2-0 up less than ten to go we break with Monreal and who is supporting him Kolasinac! Ten to go that’s the left cb and left back furthest forward! No wonder we conceded! Few in at the back ( few out ) but surely Steve Bould out! It’s not even the quality of players it’s doing the basics! Even the Four Horseshoes my old pub team knew when to commit players forward and when to defend! Are we worse than the four horseshoes? Are we the new Farmers Arms? 😂😂 COYG.


2.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 07:54:03
I agree too wire Lacasette is having an excellent season.


3.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 08:42:17
Lacca had a great game, but why ozil was poor? What did he do that wasn’t great, where was he at fault in any play? What did we expect from him he didn’t deliver? He did creat a scoring chances which what was required from him.


4.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 10:47:12
Kolasinac, Lacazette and Guendouzi played well. The defence was suspect, but we have injuries to Bellerin, Holding, Sokratis and Koscielny. We played a left back at CB and a player that is clearly over the hill at RB. We also had Miatland-Niles out. Not many clubs would cope with that amount of injuries to the defence.


5.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 11:06:59
Yes because our defence was so solid before the injures wasn't it :-)
I'm not being deliberately negative but let's not pretend all is well with our squad or team once everyone is fit for another decade when it so clearly isn't.
Pretending our defence is fine has done us no favours in the past and I very much doubt it will in the future either.
Defensive organisation is a much bigger problem than player quality and that's nothing new for us.


6.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 12:21:52
Very flat last night. Ozil was man-marked throughout the game, but still kept the ball well when he had it. However, the energy increased massively when he was replaced by Ramsey, its like chalk and cheese. Agree on Lacca, was superb last night, and very underrated on how well he holds the ball up. However, would love to see us play a game with both our forwards performing as a unit. Unfortunately they seem to take it in turns as Aubang was absolute dross, so much so that i couldn't watch his penalty, I was so sure based on his performance up to that point that he was going to miss! don't get what Elneny did wrong, thought he did OK, with his usual high energy, but the diamond just wasn't working like it did against Chelsea, and the change to a more 4-3-3 worked better in the 2nd half (with Iwobi actually improving us! ) , so again, credit to our manager for the change.


7.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 12:32:55
According to someone who has spoken with him Steve Bould says he is getting more time with the defence.

Clearly he is no defensive coach then.


8.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 13:46:55
How I see it, it doesn’t matter who’s playing in thr back four its always the same worry, its the organisation of the back four. An experienced defensive coach very well required to improve us as well as new CBs.
As for Ozil Cardiff tried too hard to keep him quiet with man marking as you mentioned Epping mate. When he was taking off the player marking ozil didn’t do the same with ramsey which gave him the freedom.


9.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 14:38:41
Wasn't intended to be a slight on Ozil, he was just successfully marked out of the game. He looks like a player with rock bottom confidence. Ditto Elneny, thought he did alright but was just the wrong player to have on the pitch as a CB.

I echo the Bould worries, but at the same time I don't know how much you can really say that he has an input on how we defend. That is ultimately down to the manager barring stuff like offside trap, defending 2v1s, etc.


10.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 16:13:47
I think defending as a unit with everyone knowing thier own job and each team mates job too so when someone is out of position the rest put him right quickly, when you have confidence in knowing exactly what's expected of you and how your expected to achieve it and your team mates do too then you become a very good and difficult to beat outfit.
United exposed us yet again finding time and space for fun and it's impossible to ever challenge for titles playing like that.
If Dick can't do that side of the game fine then bring on an assistant that can, delegation of responsibility is a huge strength not a sign of weakness.


11.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 16:17:55
Our strongest defence is probably Bellerin, Sokratis, Koscielny and Kolasinac. How many times this season has that defence played a complete match? I doubt any!
Last night, our two forst choice RB's, Bellerin and Maitland- Niles, were absent and we ended up playing Lichtsteiner who is clearly well past his best and Jenkinson who should have been moved on ages ago. We had to play Monreal, a left back at CB.
We were without: Bellerin, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Koscielny and Holding.
If all our defenders were fit, we really only need an additional RB.
RB: Bellerin and new player
LB: Kolasinac and Monreal
CB: Sokratis and Holding
CB: Koscielny and Mustafi
CB: Mavrapanos and Chambers (next season)
The defensive problems stem from injuries, never having a settled defence and too many players that add very little defensively.


12.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 17:31:58
Agre RG, as soon as we get mustaffi in with either monreal, xhaka or players just coming back from injuries, we look dire. I thought when the defence you said, i belive they were together in one full game and one half game, were together visually it looked far more like a defence. Not even pep or simeone would have coped with the problems Dick has had, so i don't see how he could either. First and foremost you need a settled defence, then you can actually expect some togetherness.


13.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 18:21:33
I can't help but wonder would the same arguments be made in defence of Arsene given exactly the same result and performances :-)
Dick very honestly admitted are the end of the 22 game unbeaten run that we could have been beaten at any point during that run and because of the chances we have and continue to concede in every single game we are and will continue to be very beatable.
The fact is our defence remains every bit as disorganised as it ever did under Arsene and no matter what reasons or excuses people make for Dick the fact is the exactly same rules should apply when assessing Dick as that applied when assessing Arsene and for me so far it's all very Darsene.


14.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 18:50:48
Gunner, wenger had years to build and "sort" out the defence, the players brought in by wenger to defend were/ are not good enough, we are going through a transition and change of philosophy and our defence is and has suffered more injuries than any part of the team. Even if it hadn't, it was/ is only part of the way through dicks retransformation, it still in the main is still wengers defence. Wenger left us with no quality center backs, except koscelney, who was crocked and is just starting to look half decent again. No proper quality left back, kol is better as a wing back and no proper right back, the same applies to bellerin. Dick i'm sure is finding out for himself we are short at the back to say the least. Our strength is attack, maybe Dick thinks that's our best form of defence until he can actually get the defenders in that he wants. Or maybe he is stupid or blind and can't see how bad our defence are. I would give him the benefit and think he is working on our strengths until he can get the funds to properly sort our weaknesses because that is a much bigger job.


15.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 19:27:23
Steve 30 plus weeks and close to 200 training sessions and what is better mate? I understand it's maimlnly Arsenes team still but Roy Hodgson took over a Palace side that had lost all its opening 7 games without scoring a goal last season but kept them up with the players he inherited, if Arsene was as bad as me and you both said he was and Dick is as good as you say he is then why haven't we seem any improvement yet? Surely we should be seeing some kind of clear and obvious signs by now if Arsene was that bad and Dick that good mate?
The fact is there is no real improvement and while I accept Dick needs 2 years minimum that's not 2 years free ride, he has to show he's on the right track by giving people something to think " I see what he's trying to do to improve us at the back " because going forwards hasn't ever really been a huge problem for us.


16.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 20:16:49
Some of the players that Dick is having to work with are not up to the job. Forget palace or any other mid table team that get 11 players behind the ball and play a totally different style. Ask yourself this, how many full international defenders do we have in our team and then go and look at how many play for citeh, utd, liverpool, chelski and toots. If the standard isn't there to start with, there is only so much you can do. let's start, socratis greece, kos retired, mustaffi not full international, bellerin not full international, monreal not full international, holding, not full international, mavropanos, not full international, ok some where used at full but not any more, they aren't good enough. Like i said pep and simeone couldn't work miracles with some of that lot. It a big job and one transfer window isn't going to sort it.


17.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 20:50:34
With due respect i don't think roy hodson and palace are a good example, they are on minus 8 goal difference and we are on plus 17.


18.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 21:02:06
You can’t always blame the players, someone mentioned a while back on the site, Leicester city were about to get relegated and than one season latet they won the league, how much they changed in there defence.
The point that I’m agreeing with 62, Emery is trying something at arsenal but hasn’t really made any deference especially at the back. We are talking tactics and organisations. And Steve he still picks your favourite player Xhaka.
Let see how this season ends and what happen in the summer signing wise and we will discuss again. I truly hope I’m proven wrong.


19.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 21:03:57
OK Steve if you don't buy the Palace and Roy comparison how about Ole and United who were 8 points behind us when Jose went? :-)
The point is as I'm pretty sure you know really is Roy made a huge difference with the same platers he inherited while so far Dick has made none.
It's not about how high or low we finish this season it's about where we improve on from where Arsene left us.


20.) 30 Jan 2019
30 Jan 2019 21:57:05
Ole are you having a laugh gunner, that is 100 % the players. Eric the seagull could have gone in and had the same effect. Lol.