Arsenal 0 - 0 Manchester United: Toothless Arsenal

Giroud is the worst 1st choice striker we have ever had. No hyperbole. Plain truth.

Arteta is done. It was obvious enough but hope people see that now.

Ramsey scored 13 goals within 3 months for us. We haven't been a goal threat ever since his injury and then Theo's.

We looked shit half the game. Players didn't even realise we could go top till the 70th minute.

Arsene will play Monreal at LW ahead of Podolski.

Sanogo needs to start over giroud

Rant in peace

This is absolutely f*cking ridiculous.
Do we even want to win something?
F*cking unbelievable.
Giroud is the shittiest first team striker in world football right now.
How the f*ck can you miss chance after chance in big games?

RG   

yeah we might aswell start sanogo ffs, every fcking season our most important players (walcott) get injured in vital times.

I can't help but think Wenger sent the team out tonight to be too much cautious.
Whatever happened to wanting to win a big game. Shit, our mentality should be to play every game at 100% best and to give our all to win every match.

Didn't see any of that tonight.

EL Patron wrote:RG   

No, no, no. RG is right. We all have every right to rant the f*ck out of us.
That was Arsenal - Chelsea 2.0
Absolutely pathetic really. Where the f*ck is the hunger?

Calma, lads, calma

1st half was a who's who of drab bleakness. 2nd half, we bossed it. United were scared shitless of us. We were playing football, they were trying not to lose. Giroud is frustrating, but he got the better of Vidic tonight and should have had a stonewall penalty. Ozil was subtle but effective. What we missed is Walcott tearing up the turf on our counter attacks.

people also forget we were one clearance-off-the-line away from winning it

How have THE GUNNERS turned into such a poor attacking team? There's really little positive today, Özil was good and Cazorla took a few good shots, but that's it. Defence looked shaky, despite keeping a clean sheet.

Lex wrote:Calma, lads, calma

1st half was a who's who of drab bleakness. 2nd half, we bossed it. United were scared shitless of us. We were playing football, they were trying not to lose. Giroud is frustrating, but he got the better of Vidic tonight and should have had a stonewall penalty. Ozil was subtle but effective. What we missed is Walcott tearing up the turf on our counter attacks.

people also forget we were one clearance-off-the-line away from winning it

Did that give us 2 more points?

No, but everyone's acting like we had 0 shots on and off target

Lex wrote:No, but everyone's acting like we had 0 shots on and off target

No hunger to win.

lex what the hell are you talking about? overrall our attack display was poor, yes we miss walcott but thats was jan is for ffs, walcott is out for the SEASON, forget about him.

If you say so, guys. Considering who we have out injured, coupled with the fact that United always seem to pwn us everytime we play, I thought we played ok tonight

Real talk about Giroud: overall he's a good player. As we saw earlier this season, he can go through patches of form where he's simply excellent. The team would not be where they are without his contributions in earlier parts of the season, where he put in some really terrific shifts and scored on a regular basis. Let's not forget that.

But when he's not in that good form, he shows why he's lacking ... and why it's really unfortunate that Arsenal lack so much quality in depth up top in comparison to other teams in contention for the title (or even just European spots). Giroud isn't the kind of player who can make his own goals. He doesn't have pace or trickery. So when he's muffing his chances in front of goal, you start to wonder what he has left to contribute to the team. And that causes all the frustration. He's not a horrible player, not by a long shot. But sometimes he simply isn't good enough to provide what a squad like Arsenal need. Can you imagine if Arsenal had also nabbed Suarez or Higuain this past summer, and played today's match with one of those guys instead of Giroud?

Credit where it's due: Vidic and De Gea both had really strong games today. So did Szczesny ( ). The result, obviously, was super-frustrating. But I actually thought the second half was entertaining enough from a footballing point of view. Özil had a really good match more or less, IMO, and with more players who made runs, he would have looked even better. Rosicky looked very lively, as did the full-backs and Cazorla.

I was really, really hoping for a solid three points of course. But this was at least a major improvement over Saturday, which was the most fundamental achievement needed.

Will we ever have a chance to go back to the top? We have to go to Stamford bridge and Goodison park. Face City at home.Stoke away. Spurs away. All to come without Theo and half of that without Ramsey.

Spurs are 6 points behind us. Liverpool 3.

This ain't no kneejerk.

Ozil was amazing. 5 levels above any other player on the pitch.

Ran his socks off too which he usually does but somehow he is a 60 mins player

Giroud is so frustrating, did he even have a shot on target. In these type of games where the games are so tight, chances are at a premium. You need to be able to take them when they come and Giroud needs about 1000 chances before he scores one.

Ozil was decent but he never has a shot on goal, with Theo and Ramsey off. We need players to take charge in front of goals, I appreciate him being unselfish but there are instances where you have to be selfish. Even Hleb would have a go at goals ffs

Strikers win you games.

It's really bad when you don't expect your main striker to score goals and rather rely on the midfielders.

EL Patron wrote:Even Hleb would have a go at goals ffs

This made me remember back to the Days of Hleb, when a shot at goal was the absolute last resort.

  

Walking the ball in the net was very easy though

ffs guys chill out a bit.

I'm probably the only one who thought Giroud had a decent game overall, for the little he got in the way of service. He got one good chance and he was unfortunate not to get on the end of it; believe me, better strikers can still struggle to get on the end chances like those.

Other than that, it wasn't him that was the problem. It's not his fault he's not blessed with pace, and he's hardly going to take people on with the ball. Clearly, the problem was the same problem we've had for many games this season: no pace + no runners = no penetration. How many times did Ozil get on the ball, run with it up field only to find there's one player and about seven United players with him? Or that everyone else is standing around and not breaking into the box and beyond United's backline?

It's the same old story tonight. The other team comes and sets up defensively and we can't create any decent scoring opportunities because we just don't have the penetration in our team. This is the limpest Arsenal attack I've seen since 08/09 when we were playing Song and Denilson together in midfield and Diaby on the left flank. It sound so contradictory but playing five playmakers is counter-intuitive towards playing good, attacking football.

I don't buy this "no hunger to win" bullshit some people are peddling. A team with no hunger doesn't go on to dominate the 2nd half like we did in this game. If anything, there was a fear of losing the game, just like against Chelsea. I know it's a different situation with United not being title contenders and all, but it's still a big game, and losing two big games on the bounce would have been a major, major blow mentally. I don't like that approach, personally. I want to see Arsenal be brave in these situations and get the win when we need it most, but it's the reason why the first half was such a tense affair, why we simply passed the ball around the back in the final three minutes instead of lumping it long and why Wenger only made one change, and that was after 70 minutes.

It's a major disappointed to only take a point off this United team this season, and a bigger disappointment that we didn't go back top. But there will be other chances. How many of us thought Chelsea would drop points to West Brom last night? How many thought City would drop points against Norwich? There are absolutely no certainties this season. None of the title contenders will run away with it.

Our next three games are Swansea, Stoke and Sunderland in whatever order, two of which are at home. Nine points are an absolute must, and so is finding a way to make our attack more dangerous. If we don't win those games, then I think it'll be fine to freak out. As it is, I'm still fully behind this team.

EL Patron wrote:Ozil was decent but he never has a shot on goal, with Theo and Ramsey off. We need players to take charge in front of goals, I appreciate him being unselfish but there are instances where you have to be selfish. Even Hleb would have a go at goals ffs

Are you saying that Özil should do both the shots AND the passes? He's not a machine, he puts in a plate for you if you get in a good position but the other players have no movement, no ability to get infront of goal, we play with 5 midfielders yet create 2-3 chances per game - it's simply not good enough for a title challenging team.

Thank God you're here, Jay, me shipmates were about to mutiny and make me walk the plank

ffs why so much sense Jay ffs

Edited the title.

disagree about the Giroud bit but you are right with the rest.