Olympique de Marseille 0 - 1 Arsenal: Bringing back "one-nil to the Arsenal"... one night only

RealGunner wrote:Wonder who will partner Vermaelen ?

Koscielny without any doubt for me and i think the reason is obvious.. And i saw some1 saying Kos makes mistakes.. Atleast he does something and makes the occasional mistake.. What about Met..?
I think Santos is doing well defensively and i dont think we are missing Clichy this season.. And Arteta is playing too deep while Song is given license to go forward.. I remember the first couple of matches when he took the ball and played.. It looked great.. But he is also defensively very good.. Better than playing Ramsey or Rosicky deep.. So it is really benefiting the team eventhough his assists or goals have come down...

Twoism wrote:4 bad games in a row for Theo now, I know he might drop form but don't you guys think it's time to give some others a chance, Ox, Ryo, Yossi, Park, somebody else?

exactly.. Our attack looked poor with Walcot and Arshavin... And RVP was totally isolated..
The only man who is providing some penetrance is Gervinho.. So we play him on one wing.. And Alex or Benayoun on the other wing...

Wilson37 wrote:

RealGunner wrote:Wonder who will partner Vermaelen ?

Koscielny without any doubt for me and i think the reason is obvious.. And i saw some1 saying Kos makes mistakes.. Atleast he does something and makes the occasional mistake.. What about Met..?
I think Santos is doing well defensively and i dont think we are missing Clichy this season.. And Arteta is playing too deep while Song is given license to go forward.. I remember the first couple of matches when he took the ball and played.. It looked great.. But he is also defensively very good.. Better than playing Ramsey or Rosicky deep.. So it is really benefiting the team eventhough his assists or goals have come down...

we cant forget how boss the verm - kosc partnership was at the beginning of the season. but verm - mertesacker can work too. we can mix and match now

MISSED MUCH?

Djourou at right-back looked much better than in the pace and rain at Ewood Park.

Think we can expect him to start at right-back if Jenkinson is injured, might not be too bad as we can have 3 cbs in backline v stoke in this case (set-pieces) but let's see Jenkinson injury news later today first.

But Djourou made a great tackle (which he was booked! for) and then crossed for the goal. Well played Johan.

lenear1030 wrote:

highburied wrote:We are in desperate situation for a Free Role playmaker.

QUOTED FOR EMPHASIS.



And no, it's not Wilshere.

Everyone has gone crazy for Goetze and Hazard but whats wrong with this dude??

our 1st choice midfield will be Wilshere Arteta and Song. With Wilshere as the most forward player.

we should buy hazard, erikson AND gotze

back four

song
wilshere erikson

hazard rvp gotze

Wowwww ! what a gameeee..what a performances ...DAMNEDDDDD

@sina90..yeahh mateeeeeeee..i have a(tV)! lool u know:oops:

RealGunner wrote:our 1st choice midfield will be Wilshere Arteta and Song. With Wilshere as the most forward player.

i have that feeling as well but im not at all in favor of that. it should be song, wilsher, and new CAM. we can get someone with alot more creativity than jack for that advanced role. he should stay the b2b beast that he is.

highburied wrote:

lenear1030 wrote:

highburied wrote:We are in desperate situation for a Free Role playmaker.

QUOTED FOR EMPHASIS.



And no, it's not Wilshere.

Everyone has gone crazy for Goetze and Hazard but whats wrong with this dude??

if we buy a cam it'll probably be him. doesnt seem to be a lot of competition for him as everyone is enamored with gotze and hazard like you say

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vimeo link

beast

If Koscielny had the physial presence to go with us intelligence and quickness, he'd be a monster of a defender. I can imagine him doing very well in La Liga, or Serie A. In the Premier League he tends to struggle with the physicallity.

Will be interesting to see who Wenger chooses to play alongside Vermaelen.

I watched parts of this match while watching my own Milan game and cannot fully comment but there was enough that I did pick up to give my own personal notes.

Why is it that people have so much negative thoughts to put here and missed on of the biggest points?

I'll start of with the small.

-Santos, as I predicted, once he settles into Wenger's pass and move along with the newly implemented zonal marking, he will and has so far made a solid impact with Arsenal. Yes, in this game he wasn't the best in defense but his attacking threat was excellent and a breath of fresh air from the predictable Cli(cash)chy. What he does need to do is track back and position himself well enough to thwart a counterattack being formed as he is a tad bit to adventurous at times.


-Mertesacker- He has been one of Arsenal's best players since the mercato as his leadership, dominance, assistance in set pieces, and superb discipline has been vital to Arsenal's recent wins and had been against Marsielle. As I predicted, he is a great signing. Yes, he was fooled by Remy once but then again he looked on the verge of slipping due to the dewy pitch beforehand.

-Koscielny- Always been on of my favorites from Arsenal. I see so much potential and intelligence from this man as I feel he can be world class. His reading of the game these days and against Marsielle was textbook, his movement and awareness is just excellent. Only problem which actually gets him criticism is his concetration lapses which is something that can be fixed. He is very similar to Pique in his pros and cons. Also is quite a good passer and crosser.

Kos-Merte-Partnership- The silk n' steel understanding between the 2 individuals, in such a short span of time is world class imo. Its near telepathic as the commanding Per Merte is complamented by the introspective, but intelligent Koscielny.

What I love about this partnership the most is how they cover for each others weakness. Per always seems to be right behind to cover for Koscielny's lapses while Koscielny, always circles among Mertesacker to cover for his dead slow pace. Wonderful.


Arteta: WTF is this stuff I am hearing here? Arteta has not played his natural position of DLP since he came to Everton! Which is why he found so much success in everton due to Moyes putting him in an advanced role to implement his sheer close-control, dribbling, crossing and of course, his killer passes which none of you seem to know about? Who was the one who said he played as a DLP in everton? He simply is not used to playing so incredibly deep as he NEEDs to play in a far more advanced role.

And why the criticism when he is playing DLP? How do you expect him to be creative playing so far behind? Does anyone not notice how well he organizes the midfield with his distribution? his intelligent moment? His playmaking to lead up to the final 3rd? Its common of people to not notice the work of a DLP due to the lack of exposure to what they actually are doing. Arteta has stabalized the midfield with his cool-headed presence and passing skill.

But here is my thesis, Ramsey should play DLP while Arteta should play advanced as I still do not know why this has not been done yet. When or if it is, mark my words it will be a revelation.

Rosicky who was good against Sunderland was sub-par by his standards today as I still would love to see that INCREDIBLE player he was before his injury. Did anyone forget?

Arshavin who is on form for Russia and had a great display against the Black cats should be given 2 choices:

-To actually play and work for the team
-Or to GTFO of Arsenal.

Besides seducing other teams to pick him up, I remember one time in this game where he was offside and was to lazy to get back on as this squandered a build-up in the process.

RVGOD did not score, but his seemingly deeper Berkgamp role did well to create and act as a deep-lying forward similar to Baggio in the box.

-Jenkinson- Told you boys this man is talented. After being destroyed by United, how long do you think it would take to recover confidence from that? He was excellent against Marsielle yet needs to recover his confidence which makes him look hesitant.


-Walcott- Poor, just poor. I mentioned he doesn't have the cutting edge to play wide which is why he should be developed to play a more central role.

Ox should be starting ahead of him for the moment.

Now to my big point, despite being sloppy in possession and lacking some created chances, does anyone actually know when Arsenal actually received a clean sheet away in the CL? It was against MILAN!

How does anyone not see the immense character of the team today? How does not anyone see the clutch ability that was in display today? The supreme fitness level? The discipline? The CHARACTER.

Saying Wenger is a bad tactician is like saying Big sam allardyce plays beautiful football.

His consistent adaptation against Marsielle and patient, calculative tactics to attack was brilliant. Sadly, not many will notice the change and press of formation after the halfway mark.

Only thing AW needs is to apply the tactics to mark out, isolate etc etc from before the game.

Arsenal have shown to be more and more cool-headed as the games go by and have shown something not seen for a long time, a certain character and propensity of direction, GUILE, and know-how on how to adapt to a situation.

Experience seems to be taking effect.

The team and AW's plan is so far incomplete, but with winter transfer in which he is guaranteed to spend with his new-found urgency, AW's plan seems to be coming together.

Yet now, patience is needed more then before. Some bad results will come, but its only inevitable these these trials and tribulations are only adding to the system as great progress has been made and remarkable recovery since the slump.

Bravo Gunners.

Arteta: WTF is this stuff I am hearing here? Arteta has not played his natural position of DLP since he came to Everton! Which is why he found so much success in everton due to Moyes putting him in an advanced role to implement his sheer close-control, dribbling, crossing and of course, his killer passes which none of you seem to know about? Who was the one who said he played as a DLP in everton? He simply is not used to playing so incredibly deep as he NEEDs to play in a far more advanced role.

That was me. I wasn't referring to Arteta as a DLP, just a central midfielder with the ability to go forward as opposed to an actual AMC. Tim Cahill has always been the one AMC Everton have used.

The important to realise now though is that Arteta doesn't have that acceleration anymore to play in an attacking role. Injuries have taken their toll on him.

I'm not really seeing the problem with him playing deeper in midfield as he has been. He obviously is used to the role since he's not put a foot wrong; always ends the game with a high pass completion percentage, and does a good job carrying out the defensive work in midfield. I like him in that role.

Incidentally, I see Ramsey in a similar way. I don't see his future as an attacking midfielder, but rather a CM with the capability to get forward effectively.

How does anyone not see the immense character of the team today? How does not anyone see the clutch ability that was in display today? The supreme fitness level? The discipline? The CHARACTER.

We don't want to get too carried away with the result. We know it was a very good result, but we've had games like that before and have followed it up with a poor display.

The problem in attack is with RVP's movement. Well, not his movement, but how other players move when he does. We all know that RVP drops deep, goes to the wings and is pretty much all over the place in the final third, but the problem is that our other wingers, and midfielders, don't move well with him. When he leaves his CF position, somebody should immediately run there so that the attack can continue moving forward. Instead, what happens is that they all stay back, waiting for him to pass the ball backwards.

If not the midfield, then one of the wingers should tuck in and take the position that is left vacant by RVP when he drops deep or to the wings. We are just too static, and his constant movement opens up spaces that our static midfield and attack (bar Gervinho and Ramsey) are not using.

So many of our attacks fade away, slow down or completely end because of the lack of options to pass to

Arquitecto