Re: Manchester City vs Arsenal (16/17)

by Jay29 Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:37 pm

Amazing that Wenger has sent the team into two big away games this week with such a shit attitude. Limp and timid in both games.

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:48 pm

Don't think we'll get 4th this season. Being 100% serious.

by Jay29 Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:49 pm

We have horrible fixtures coming up. Spurs away, Liverpool away, Chelsea away, Stoke away, Southampton away Laughing

Comparatively Spurs and United have easier fixtures.

Given our tendency to not even bother in these games, it's going to be a rough ride.

by urbaNRoots Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:52 pm

We lack the fight to seriously challenge for the title, you could see it against Everton but this confirmed it. Ultimately it's the manager's job to make the difference between a good team and a great one. And we are only a good team because Wenger can't make that jump anymore.

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:54 pm

Yea this is 100% on Arsene. He is pretty much finished. He used to be able to put fight in the team but he just can't anymore.

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:03 pm

Is it just a coincidence or Mustafi was that important to us?

by Jay29 Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:03 pm

It's very concerning when the team loses all focus and confidence when it concedes a goal. The response to that sloppy equaliser was to essentially give up and wait for City to score another. They couldn't cope at all with City's intensity, just like they couldn't cope with Everton's. This a team that can only play when the opposition lets them to.

Our players were walking when City got ahead. Literally walking and letting players run past them. Not getting back into shape. Not doing anything on the counter. Not making an effort to support each other in possession. We only started playing again when City dropped off in the final ten minutes to protect their lead.

So much for "new found resilience" Laughing

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:04 pm

Taking the piss pic.twitter.com/lgjJUVCCib
— Sultan (@WMFormation) December 18, 2016

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:06 pm

Coquelin and Xhaka won just 1 of 8 tackles today, and 2 of 15 against Everton

by Raptorgunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:21 pm

Down a goal and Wenger brings on Elneny, why did he buy Perez? :facepalm:

I cant get disappointed anymore.

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:22 pm

Thoughts on Cech?

by El Gunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:29 pm

Still don't understand why sit back when we take a one goal lead Laughing

Anyway, who were we fooling thinking we could mount a title challenge once Santi Cazorla got injured. He was the only one who could have saved Wenger's decrepit ass.

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:30 pm

My love for Coquelin lasted 2 weeks. Back to hating him now.

Xhaka-Ramsey next game please

by Hapless_Hans Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:32 pm

RealGunner wrote:Is it just a coincidence or Mustafi was that important to us?

It's not the whole story but no coincidence either.
Mustafi is a big player and I still thinks it was an incredible coup you got him.

by EL Patron Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:37 pm

This was a carbon copy of the Everton game. We started well, went ahead then failed to kill the game off. This team has a big problem with killing teams off when the opportunity to go for it is there. I have never seen a team so petrified of playing once they have scored. The killer instinct of a top team isn't there and this is a big problem because we are not strong enough at the back to hold one goal leads.

Overall this was the worse technical performance i have seen from us for a long time. We couldn't keep the ball in midfield at all, our game was littered with misplaced passes and long balls to the big man that is Sanchez Suspect

We had no midfield at all in the second half, Xhaka and Coquelin are awful once the opposing team puts a bit of intensity. Xhaka had a game to forget in midfield. Coquelin was hopeless in posession but he at least won some challenges in midfield but Xhaka was inexistant. A little too timid

by Jay29 Sun Dec 18, 2016 8:40 pm

The more I reflect on this the more frustrated I get with Wenger's tactics.

It was clearly an instruction for Cech to kick long if he didn't have a quick throw on. Arsenal didn't try to play out because of City's pressing, and I think it was in response to how we struggled against Everton's press as well.

But Arsenal didn't push up the field to give themselves a chance of winning the second ball or applying a press of their own on City. So when Alexis inevitably failed to get the ball, it came straight back into our half. You would have thought that if this was the plan from the beginning, Giroud should have been on the pitch to at least give ourselves the opportunity to keep the ball in their half.

If Wenger wanted to keep Alexis in the middle to help our pressing, and to not disrupt his form in that position, then he did have the option of playing him behind Giroud, in Ozil's position. I know Ozil is undroppable but looking at his defensive contribution and the way he fades out the game when we don't have the ball, it might be to Arsenal's benefit to not start him in these games.

I think I said something similar after either the United or PSG game. I really believe that, in these games, we need a stronger work ethic, especially in the middle, especially if we're planning to sit deep and not have the ball.

by RealGunner Sun Dec 18, 2016 9:12 pm

Couldn't have said it any better.

I know we all say how bad we have been every week but today's performance was worse than anything I have seen since maybe the Schalke at home match. Not even when we got destroyed 4-0 by Southampton we played THIS bad.

Sanchez's injury in the first half pretty much killed him in the 2nd. He wasn't running or pressing properly. Or that he gave up once he realised no one was doing it.

However the rest of the team. Lord. Seeing them WALKING around and letting runners go past them. That was embarrassing. This is something not even Sunderland would do. We are supposedly a top 4 team in the PL and we could not care less about the match with that performance.

Once again, this is 100% on Arsene. Terrible team selection of the last 15 days. It's bad enough that our fitness is terrible compared to the other teams but we look like our players might just die around 60th minute sometimes. Oxlade was the prime example. Guy came on, walked about and just went off. Waste of everyone's time. It wasn't even that he got injured after coming on but he already looked injured when he came on. Everyone could see that.

Coquelin-Xhaka is a failed partnership. Play ElNeny who is at least a great short passer and can keep the ball.

There were so many little things from today that nearly made me cry.

Lucas Perez must be wondering why he even bothered scoring a hattrick if he was to never play again.

If Wenger is going for the long ball game then at least play Giroud or him upfront. Play Ozil at RW.

Unbelievable.

by Sina Sun Dec 18, 2016 9:27 pm

Fake form,beating Chelsea,unbeaten /winning runs just sold us dreams really

now back to how i felt before start of the season when i wasn't really looking forward to it and expected another repetitive 3rd/4th place finish and CL last 16 exit

would only repeat what has already been pointed
wouldn't discuss individuals,all blame on Wenger

by Jay29 Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:25 am

Defensively, Arsenal have already allowed almost as many Big Chances* this season (27) as they did in all 38 games last season (35). Arsenal are also saving those Big Chances at a lower rate and the opposition have already scored 13 goals from Big Chance opportunities, which was the same number Arsenal conceded all of last season.

Shots in Prime** is a similar story: Arsenal are allowing the opposition to take 3.3 shots in prime per game, where last season the defense limited that number to just 2.5.

Arsenal are allowing fewer overall shots, 10.7 versus last year’s 11.8 but the opposition is converting at a higher rate than last season sinking 9% of their shots where they got just 7% last season. The reason for this is simple: they are getting better shots against Arsenal than ever before. Last season, Arsenal forced the opposition to take 50% of their shots from outside the box, this season, it’s just 37%. And worse, the opponents are taking 31% of their overall shots in Arsenal’s Prime Area, where last year that number was a stingy 21%.

I understand that Arsenal want to play counter attacking football but if you try to do that you have to prevent the opposition from getting so deep into the 18 yard box and getting off great shots. Either that, or you have to have a blood and thunder defensive attitude. Leicester were one of the top shot blocking teams in the League last season with 4.4 per game and Arsenal were a decent 3.4. Arsenal don’t even come close to that this season with a pathetic 2.5 blocked shots per game.

I don’t think it’s a surprise for me to tell you that Arsenal have now dropped points after taking the lead four times this season: Liverpool (4-3 loss), Spurs (1-1 draw), Everton (2-1 loss), Man City (2-1 loss). In those matches Arsenal have been outshot 54-39, out Big Chanced 8-4, and outscored 9-5 (the own goal at Spurs doesn’t count).

There are other stats points that make this run look worse as well: Arsenal have only had five clean sheets this season, we haven’t had a clean sheet since Boro (a run of 8 League games or 12 games in all competitions) which is one of the longest runs without a clean I have ever seen from Arsenal.

If we are trying to be a defense-first team, we aren’t doing a very good job of it.

Ergo, we've become a worse team defensively, Mustafi or no.

http://news.arseblog.com/2016/12/man-city-2-1-arsenal-total-domination-by-the-numbers/?utm_campaign=autotwitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

Also:

In terms of possession, Arsenal only had 47 passes in the City final third and 20 of those were in the second half. Arsenal created just one key pass (a pass that ended with a shot) in the second half and two in the first. Kevin de Bruyne (while not diving around looking for penalties) created SEVEN key passes in this game.

Walcott and Bellerin were the only two Arsenal players to take a shot.

Özil led Arsenal with 41/48 passes and created just one shot for a teammate. Xhaka was 35/44, Coquelin 15/26, and Alexis was 19/26 – though Alexis led all players with 5/7 dribbles and did have the assist for Walcott’s goal (Arsenal’s only shot on goal in the game). Özil also went 0/1 tackles and 0/1 dribbles.

The above shows just how dominated we were.

And there's this:

Coquelin has given away possession 10 times in the last 2 games. 7 times against Everton. Also 7 (both games) have been in our own 1/2
— 7amkickoff (@7amkickoff) December 19, 2016

by Sina Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:55 am

Good observation

before seeing those stats in above post i was thinking this could be one of our worst seasons defensively in wenger era-probably 2nd to 11/12

even in 09/10 with old/injury prone/ past it defenders we werent this bad

so this is only partially on personnel and major blame on failed system

we seem to have become too comfortable playing on counter and cant even pin back lesser opponent with sustained possession

at least in couple of seasons ago we could have short spells like 10-20 minutes in games when we played well and grabbed goal or two and then could bank on that and show some resilience
cant believe even regressed from that

by Sina Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:15 am

3 most frequent pass combination in our team vs city
via stats zone

Bellerín to Gabriel 10
Gabriel to Cech 10
Gabriel to Bellerín 10

and in the end 47/76 passes completed in final 3rd

as bad as some midtable team visiting big ground

by RealGunner Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:23 am

We performed better at Old Trafford and that's our haunted ground. Says it all

by Raptorgunner Mon Dec 19, 2016 3:43 pm

Why is it in big games our players always look mentality drained?

Spoiler:

Manchester City vs Arsenal (16/17) - Page 2 C0DDzATWgAEOdYU

by Jay29 Mon Dec 19, 2016 4:07 pm

Half our problem is a lack of rotation and good physical preparation. The amount of times our key players play 90 minutes in games that have been won or games they're not needed for is staggering. Ozil and Alexis started in the Basel and Stoke games before the Everton and City games - they played four games in two weeks when they weren't needed for the first two.

Those are games for Gibbs, Elneny, Lucas and Giroud to play in. Gibbs and Lucas have been restricted to meaningless cup matches, and Elneny and Giroud get 20 minute sub appearances. Gabriel and Holding wouldn't get games at all if we didn't have injuries to Bellerin and Mustafi. I have no idea what Lucas needs to do to get a start. He seems to be the new Joel Campbell in that sense.

The other half is just tactics, which are influenced by squad fitness. Maybe Arsenal want to be more more aggressive in those game but find they can't because they just don't have the energy.

by urbaNRoots Mon Dec 19, 2016 4:39 pm

I have a lot to say about this team but can't really go through it all again after last night. For some reason, the realization that we're not up for a title challenge even with prime (or near prime) Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Özil, Petr Cech, Bellerin and Koscielny etc... has hit me harder than ever. Before, we always had some kind of excuse, but not now-- we have the quality but lack the mentality. That's the worst.

by Raptorgunner Mon Dec 19, 2016 4:40 pm

I agree Jay.

Just a question, do you guys think we should give Ospina a try at net for the league games?

I love Cech but I think maybe needs some time off.

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