Re: Leicester City vs Arsenal 2015/16 PL (Preview/Live Thread)

by Twoism Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:47 pm

Entertaining half, we're playing with cool head

by Sri Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:49 pm

Thanks Rev!

by getdarker Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:15 pm

What a assist from the king . Ozil

by Twoism Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:17 pm

This is the Arsenal I love

by getdarker Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:33 pm

Back four having a solid game.

by Twoism Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:40 pm

Sanchez is back baby

by getdarker Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:40 pm

Top draw

by RealGunner Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:41 pm

SANCEHZZZZZZZZZZZZ

by Twoism Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:46 pm

We got complacent again Sad

nervy last few mins.

by Sri Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:54 pm

We were dominant, so let's not complain about the CS. I am just happy we found our scoring boots.

That said, LEI did allow us to play the way we feel comfortable.

by Twoism Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:55 pm

What a game, motm is Sanchez but Cech is close 2nd. We allowed 2 goals mostly due to dodgy defense but overall everyone did well even Flamini & Arteta.

by Sina Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:59 pm

perfect EPL match i guess
Haha

Get in there Smile

by Raptorgunner Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:00 pm

by Jay29 Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:11 pm

That was a really fun game, both from an Arsenal and neutral perspective. End to end, high tempo stuff all match. Every player from both team left it all on the pitch.

We did feel somebody was due a thrashing and it finally arrived, although "thrashing" doesn't accurately describe how the game went. Leicester really came at us and our defence didn't look comfortable all game, but as a result they left so much space at the back and we just picked them off. Scary thing is that we could have and should have scored more than five.

Walcott was brilliant. It's in these types of games he'll thrive as a forward. He gave Huth and Morgan a torrid time with his movement and took them to places where they were uncomfortable. His finishing could be sharper still but he's done himself no harm with his performance. I don't think we would have exploited the space nearly as well had Giroud started, and you know Huth and Morgan would have had him for lunch.

Alexis... well, it was only a matter of time, wasn't it? Or at least we all hoped it would be. There were no signs of tiredness or predictability from him today. Looked very sharp, creative and dangerous. That third goal suggests the explosiveness is coming back. If he can do that next week against United that'd be beautiful.

I'm delighted with the result, but I won't get carried away. Going forward we looked great but at the back it could be so much better. I'm not trying to rain on our parade, but that first Vardy goal was awful; one long ball caught us out, as we left only two players back against their two forwards and one of them was Mertesacker who was never going to cover the ground quick enough. Nobody closed Vardy down for the second goal. Cech was overworked in the second half. The fact that he had a great game as well doesn't say much for our defending.

Olympiakos on Tuesday then Man United next week, two teams who won't afford as much space in behind as Leicester did. Let's see if we can be as incisive against them.

Only three points off the top of the table btw.

by RealGunner Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:25 pm

Enjoyed watching us after a long time. Great football at times and we looked confident in creating chances and scoring. All of this because we actually had a forward who was moving about and making a difference from the front. It was easy for Ozil/Ramsey/Cazorla to find Walcott and then join in with the play. Hope Walcott builds from this and makes the position his. However as Jay said, Olympiacos and United are two completely different oppositions to Leicester who tried to come at us quite naively.

Expecting us to rotate slightly against Olympiacos.

Sanchez was fantastic. Goals should come to him now. Ozil was involved in every goal and got an assist too. Feel bad for Ramsey at times because we dominated the match whenever he came and played through the middle, but had to switch back to the flank as Bellerin needed help and we had to get our shape right.

Defending could have improved. Mertesacker was a bit shit.

by urbaNRoots Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:36 pm

Fantastic second half from us, we could've scored 8-9 and maybe more if Alexis-Ramsey-Walcott were a bit more unselfish.

3 points away from first placed Man Utd and we play them at the Emirates next, title race is officially on.

by El Gunner Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:19 pm

Would be wonderful if every weaker team plays like Leicester, we would run away with the league Laughing

by urbaNRoots Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:29 pm

El Gunner wrote:Would be wonderful if every weaker team plays like Leicester, we would run away with the league

We won't if we don't play like we did today.

by El Gunner Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:32 pm

urbaNRoots wrote:
El Gunner wrote:Would be wonderful if every weaker team plays like Leicester, we would run away with the league

We won't if we don't play like we did today.

We only played like that because Leicester played like Leicester (:

by urbaNRoots Sat Sep 26, 2015 7:41 pm

Sure we did.

by El Gunner Sat Sep 26, 2015 7:46 pm

Of course we did.

by Jay29 Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:49 am

Some statistical stuff:

So, in Wenger’s dream, his team would shoot mostly inside the box and in reality they do: Arsenal have the most shots in the League from all positions (147) and most critically, they have 92 shots in the penalty area which also leads the League. But what’s astounding is that Arsenal took 22 shots inside the Leicester box today. That’s 24% of the season’s total. If shots are Wenger’s spice blend he has the perfect level of salt and pepper with all those shots in the box and just a dash of chili pepper with Alexis’ goal from 25 yards.

But the menu nearly backfired when Wenger sent out a burnt Flamini as the starter. In the first 83 minutes of the match Leicester only had 10 shots. 3 of those shots were what fans consider “big” shots: the Vardy goal, the header over the bar, and the Vardy shot that hit the post. All three of those shots came in the first 20 minutes with Flamini on the pitch.

Between the moment Flamini came off in the 20th minute and the 78th minute when Ox came on for Rambo, Leicester only had 4 total shots, all from outside the box where players score at about a 3% rate. It was Arteta, the waiter, coming on and shoring things up for Arsenal which allowed Wenger to serve his second, third, and fourth courses.

And what gems those courses were. We’ve all been waiting for Alexis to score and before this match he was 0/31 in League play which included an 0/5 record in big chance situations. The first goal was the very definition of a big chance: wide open in front of goal, ball lands softly at feet, no ‘keeper, just put it in. The second goal was recorded as a big chance but wow, what a ball from Özil and what determination from Sanchez to rise above Schmeichel to score.

But after the feast of goals a weird thing happened when Wenger trotted out the Ox. Maybe he was supposed to be the “wafer thin mint” on top of the delicious meal that Arsenal’s brigade had served up? Maybe Wenger threw him on to get a goal against a leaky Leicester defense? I don’t know, but I do know that from the 78th minute to the end of the game, Leicester took 6 shots: 2 in prime areas, 2 big chances (saved), 1 blocked, 1 regular shot saved, and scored 1 goal when Vardy wasn’t closed down by Mertesacker 10 yards from goal.

That last 15 minutes of the game was as poor a defensive performance as I’ve seen from an Arsenal team. If we keep the restaurant analogy going, it’s like Wenger had shut the doors, closed the kitchen, and just as he was ready to turn out the lights noticed that there was a table full of people. Luckily they didn’t demand a feast and were satisfied with just dessert.

---------------------

18 – Number of “big chances” Arsenal have created this season¹
5 – Number of big chances Arsenal have scored this season
28 – Percent of big chances that Arsenal have converted this season
45 – Percent of big chances that Arsenal have converted in each of the last two seasons
7 – Big chances Arsenal’s defense has allowed the opposition to take this season
4 – Big chances that Petr Cech has saved this season
57 – Percent of Big chances that Cech is saving in this small, tiny, minuscule, Mourinho sized sample (SSS = Small Sample Size)
29 – Percent of big chances that Arsenal’s ‘keepers saved over the last two years

http://news.arseblog.com/2015/09/leicester-2-5-arsenal-wenger-dreams-of-by-the-numbers/

by urbaNRoots Sun Sep 27, 2015 11:32 am

Walcott has proved once again that he is the striker that suits us best from what we have in our squad. Quick, clinical, fearsome and makes our midfielders click.

Giroud on the other hand has once again proved to be an exceptional option against tired CB's in the 2nd half.

Thankfully Wenger has finally seen the light.

by Twoism Sun Sep 27, 2015 11:37 am

The game also shown why Wenger prefer Ramsey on the right, he helps out Bellerin, everyone else left the guy dried. Ox was walking when the whole team defended and waited for balls, that's pretty bad. Ox works ok on the left because of solid Monreal, on the right both Debuchy & Bellerin nees help.

by urbaNRoots Sun Sep 27, 2015 11:47 am

Twoism wrote:The game also shown why Wenger prefer Ramsey on the right, he helps out Bellerin, everyone else left the guy dried. Ox was walking when the whole team defended and waited for balls, that's pretty bad. Ox works ok on the left because of solid Monreal, on the right both Debuchy & Bellerin nees help.

This aswell!

by EL Patron Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:13 pm

about time we showed some efficiency, still think we should have scored more Laughing

We started pretty badly, during the first 15 minutes we struggled with Leicesters tempo. Its like we din't expect them to come at us, very poor from the players. Bellerin was great going forward but defensively he struggled a lot yesterday, everytime Schlup and albrighton came forward he was all at sea. I want to see him improve his defending and not end up like Clichy, for Vardi's second goal he doesn't even close him down Laughing

Overall I am Impressed with our character and the guts we showed to come back, at 1-0 down we could have easily folded but we came back at them straight away, mental strenght:99. It seems like away from home, teams are bolder. they want to attack and have a go. This leaves space for the likes of Theo, Alexis, Ozil to do the damage. I hope every team we play on the road plays like that, we will have some fun. Special mention to Theo, the guy ran them ragged yesterday. That was his best performance in months. Ozil's flick in the build up for Alexis second goal was ridiculously good so was his assist Shocked

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