Arsenal vs Southampton (16/17)

Koscielny is love. Koscielny is life.

Rest of the team should go *bleep* itself.

Kos busting out an overhead kick out of nothing.

If that doesn't inspire us I don't know what will.

Ox .....

Mustafi looking like he was born in this team. Rock solid.

Walcott-Ox with a completely new player up front is not doing anything great, though.

Arsene best be trying to ease Xhaka in and nothing more to it

Xhaka should be starting every game.

Everytime we start with Ox and Theo together, our football is absolutely dog shit. When you add coquelin to the mix as well then you can forget about playing something that resembles decent football

That's because the midfield has been shocking. They're simply not getting the ball into Southampton's third enough. Ozil has to come deep to get on the ball.

This has been a typical Arsenal home game. We look so sluggish with the ball because the central midfield isn't dictating the game. They're running away from the ball and asking the centre backs to play highly difficult passes into midfield.

We brought Xhaka precisely for this purpose but he's on the bench for some bizarre reason while Coquelin continues to contribute nothing because it simply isn't his game. We've got two CMs trying to do the job of one when we could have two CMs who do both roles at the same time.

Ox and Walcott could be dangerous if they get the ball when they're 1v1 against a defender and not surrounded by several players. Lucas might actually get more than scraps to work with if we can get Ozil on the ball on the turn in the half-spaces. But this is impossible if the ball is stuck on the halfway line because nobody is creating angles and trying to drag Southampton players out.

And the attackers will get the blame if it stays like this when the problem is solely down to that CM pairing.

RealGunner wrote:

ffs this is jut not right

A CM should be on the ball in Ozil's position. The other CM should be making an angle. Ozil should be in that space receiving the ball but he has to do Coquelin's job because Coquelin is not good enough to do it.

Spot on Jay

Why has Elneny gotten so little game time? Been pretty solid and can make a pass every game I've seen from him. Plus, his workrate is right on of what should be a CM.

It's a shame that Lucas Perez will be benched immediately after this and will get minutes from the wings from now on.

Jay29 wrote:That's because the midfield has been shocking. They're simply not getting the ball into Southampton's third enough. Ozil has to come deep to get on the ball.

This has been a typical Arsenal home game. We look so sluggish with the ball because the central midfield isn't dictating the game. They're running away from the ball and asking the centre backs to play highly difficult passes into midfield.

We brought Xhaka precisely for this purpose but he's on the bench for some bizarre reason while Coquelin continues to contribute nothing because it simply isn't his game. We've got two CMs trying to do the job of one when we could have two CMs who do both roles at the same time.

Ox and Walcott could be dangerous if they get the ball when they're 1v1 against a defender and not surrounded by several players. Lucas might actually get more than scraps to work with if we can get Ozil on the ball on the turn in the half-spaces. But this is impossible if the ball is stuck on the halfway line because nobody is creating angles and trying to drag Southampton players out.

And the attackers will get the blame if it stays like this when the problem is solely down to that CM pairing.

I agree that CM is part of the problem but OX and Theo struggle to the basics when linking up and interchanging with others around them especially Ox. Mr I don't know what to do with the ball so once i get it I will just try and run past all these players

Because he is not named Coquelin

Let's just win this match and analyse after

wouldn't care at this point if monreal handballs the winner in

Koscielny apparently turning 31 today?

What a goal to celebrate that birthday

RealGunner wrote:Let's just win this match and analyse after

wouldn't care at this point if monreal handballs the winner in

Who do you think he is? Henry?

Even more annoying is that Coquelin is also making runs ahead of the ball but not intelligently, and is actually clogging the centre of the pitch.

It's unfair on him because this isn't his game but for some reason Wenger is asking him to play that way.

Yeah Oxlade-Chamberlain is pissing me off these days. Joel Campbell didn't die for this.

urbaNRoots wrote:It's a shame that Lucas Perez will be benched immediately after this and will get minutes from the wings from now on.

TBH I would not mind giving that a try considering how bland Walcott has been playing.

Walcott has been decent this season tbf

Ox: Runs ahead, steals the ball of a better positioned player, crosses to the stands

Sri wrote:Walcott has been decent this season tbf

No winning no titles with "decent"

Foster

Özil has been horrendous today.