YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Sloppy start to the second half resulted in that penalty, very poor from us. from nothing they come back into it

Expect Arsenal to feck shet up

If Monreal wasn't there .... we are commiting too many men forward at times. Coquelin and Xhaka need to sit for a bit

Need to regain our composure in midfield, ever since that goal has gone in it's gone to shit. On the ball we are rushing things instead of controlling possession and building steadily. Why Has Arsene taken of Theo so early ?, our only threat in behind

This so disappointing, we have completely lost our way. They have frustrated us with ease. Ox with his weekly shit highlight reel to round things up

We are not winning the title

Credit to Tottenham's defence, the amount of successful last ditch efforts was pretty incredible. Didn't think we were bad but lacked the extra quality to make the difference.

Sri wrote:Don't see us winning. Draw would be a likely result, since this is a home game.

Sri wrote:Meh I am not nervous.

I accepted a draw as the most likely result about a week back.

RealGunner wrote:We are not winning the title

Took you this long?

Was obvious a couple of months back.

Weird subs by Arsene

Taking of Coquelin who was probably our best player and then not taking of Iwobi lol.

I am done with Oxlade. He can't fool us with those goals. Shit player. Sell him and cut our losses

We let Joel leave for him

After the first half we were in a good position. Not necessarily playing well but with something to defend and build on.

The second half though was a total shit show, from both teams. Arsenal came out sleeping, Koscielny especially making error after error. We gifted them a goal. After that we really lost our way. All we had were a few dangerous balls into the box that we failed to attack properly.

Koscielny, Mustafi and Iwobi were our poorest performers. Iwobi needs to ride the bench for a bit because his form has dipped considerably since the Chelsea game. Get Ramsey back in on the left.

Ramsey looked decent when he came on. Few more matches and he is back to his best hopefully.

I think we are going to get trashed at OT

Anyways, really happy with Xhaka. One of our best players if not the best.

Would also add that once more against a well structured team our own looks a mess. We're not compact enough, and our attack is way too reliant on individual talent. The game doesn't die the way it did if we're playing with a proper structure in place.

As it is, it's very easy for a team like Spurs to disrupt us.

Was thinking that. Spurs packed the midfield and we struggled immediately. But then, that's been an issue since 2007

Actually thought Ramsey was pretty bad but it's understandable in a big match and with him lacking match fitness.

Giroud is the only option that can improve our attack from the bench. Maybe Elneny if Wenger used him more.

It's very frustrating because we got our self into a good position to win this game. Spurs love to push their fullbacks high up the pitch, with the pace we have upfront we would have more chances to score a second.

Our start to the second half was very sloppy, not surprised that we conceded. You can't switch off like this in these sort of games. I am more surprised in the manner in which we lost our way after they equalised instead of doing what we did against Sunderland. We kept rushing things and giving the ball away cheaply instead of being patient and building steadily. We needed calmer heads but everyone lost their composure and the early subs didn't help

We could have conceded another. We were lucky Alli wasn't playing or Lamela.

Old Trafford will tell us more but at this point if we are still in the title race by Feb, I'd be hugely surprised.

Arsene needs to be ruthless and drop underperforming players.

The defense and Cech did not look too bad today. Bellerin was a beast and Monreal was actually very solid and into the game. The CB pairing had a few lapses, but good CB pairings don't form without time, and as a pair KosMus are still in their toddler phase of a CB partnership. Kos had a pretty bad game. Mustafi was better. Still a lot of work to do, but the quality and class is there, it's only a matter of time and training.

Now, on to midfield, Xhakalin were pretty damn solid. Xhaka was very good today, showing he can be a midfield general all by himself. Only the long range shooting was a little off, but that's a bonus skill. The simple stuff he did well, and he shielded the defense without being reckless. Great game from him. Coquelin was also solid, but I understand Wenger was looking for a more offensive option in Ramsey, which did not do half bad.

Now, the main problems: AM and attack. No, I do not doubt Sanchez' and Ozil's talent. The problem is, Sanchez is not a striker. Sanchez is used to runs from deep and opening up defenses with dribbling/final pass/cross. The problem is, Ozil is already in this role and I felt sometimes they overlapped without having some options. Walcott had an average game and Iwobi was just plan bad. If your two main creative threats need to drop deep to see the ball and to create, then you need someone in the box, or at least making runs into the box. I will give credit to Spurs for defending very well and not misplacing passes, knowing when and how to press, etc.

The main issue is there is no pure striker in the team. We're too busy building from the back and there is no box presence. Probably why we did not have much clear cut chances, the goal came from an own goal and Spurs just looked far more dangerous when attacking. So it's basically down to stuff we already knew, IMO: We still needed a pure striker and a dangerous winger to open up play. Sanchez is world class, but he is not Aguero and has not played striker for decades. I'm sure with time he can adapt to the role, but that will take time. If Wenger really sees a future for him there, then he needs to buff the wings massively, because Iwobi and Walcott are not going to cut it for the big games. Ramsey is not as good out wide, and there is no way in hell he's misplacing Ozil.

Oxlade nothing to say here. Every single touch and play was killed by Oxlade. He's just a frustrating player at the moment. He needs some bench time, but then we don't have Campbell anymore.

I felt that when Giroud came on, our play improved massively, if not at least our goal threat. Having a 9 stuck in the box leaves more freedom for Ozil and Sanchez. Sanchez still was having a frustrating game. It's like if he's stuck between midfield and striker. Clear case of a player still adapting to a role, even one as talented as him.

We all have our doubts with Giroud, but he at least achieves the function he is sent to achieve. By then it was too late: Spurs were only looking to counter and our players tired. They were looking for the draw and the game just stalemated. We could have gotten lucky with one of his headers as we have had before, but Spurs defended well. He's not an impact sub, and any momentum we had from him being in the box was just completely obliterated by Ox .

Deserved draw and if not lucky goal. Lots of work ahead.

I really disagree on Alexis. The guy's been absolutely fine as a striker, and the three behind him were playing very well. Arsenal play a lot better this way than they do with Giroud.

They failed today because the end product wasn't there. We had two very good counter attacks created by these guys in the first half.

If we go back to Giroud up front and Alexis left that'll be a step backwards.

Oh no, don't take it the wrong way, Jay. I'm in no way criticizing Alexis.

My point is that when the midfield is overcrowded, he tends to go deep because he's not a lazy slob, which means our options are limited because, IMO, our wide players are not good enough. Which is why I'm fine with him being turned into a striker, but then you have to replace the quality he left out wide. Iwobi is a work in progress. Walcott is pretty good but he needs service (which he gets from Bellerin). He's probably our best attacking threat out wide after Alexis. Then comes Ox . We need more options.

I am completely confident if we had more quality out wide, the whole system would be ticking.

But as stated, crowding midfields, deep defensive lines and fatigue have always been our Achilles' heel. Pretty much any attacking team has this problem. Hell, even Barca mask this because of their crazy attack.

Monreal was actually are best defender today, so much for the stick we've been giving him

Alexis was poor, Ox was horrendous when he came on, besides that we just looked like a team in the second half that is still suffering with certain tactical inefficiencies - a team that can't go on to win the league. *sigh*