Nice interview w/ Vermaelen on ESPN2. I'm always in awe of the Northern European polyglots. I'm still struggling with English.
Well one more game until the transfer window. Scary thing is that the fans will be somewhat quieted now that we're back to winning ways which means Wenger has more excuses not to buy.
We won ugly lol.. I think Wigan played well, and we defended well. Roberto clearly gave them a game plan, and they got in our faces, but we matched them and didn't really get phased from them. The Ox was our best player, and Santi was quiet, as was Theo. overall, a good win.
totally forgettable match and we were lucky to go home with 3 instead of 1. we were stymied and anaemic and really need to do better. (oh, and that yellow for wilshere was pathetic)
yea, Ox's play really improved in the 2nd half. Im glad because he, like everyone else, wasnt too hot in the first. Wenger needs to find a solution for when Arteta is pressed
it was more than just arteta being pressed though, almost everyone bar wilshere and chamberlain were more or less anonymous.
I think the answer is to sign a better player than Arteta. He's given away the ball cheaply on more than a few occasions this season.
Arteta intiates our attack. When he is closed down, we are handicapped. I agree. The club needs better in that position, but there has to be a tactical answer to it as well. (since we know a replacement wont be bought) Arteta only had 76 passes today. When he is getting under 80 passes, we usually struggle. He is becoming too easy to mark out of a game.
but that's not really arteta's fault. that's down to the manager to rectify the situation so the team doesn't overly rely on 1 single tactic and so falter when that is addressed by the other side.
my number was wrong originally, that was halftime and the first part of my post said that its a tactical issue.
The thing is was need a beast in the Arteta role. Doesn't mean they necessarily put Arteta on the bench every game but at least to have 2 options. Arteta works in some situations, some he doesn't. The problem is having to rely on him every game.
I don't think they had more chances than we did. Apart from a few chances (like Kony or whatever he is called) and in the last ten minutes, they didn't do much.
it could, tbf if you have a player that can create space for himself or have the power to get by those markers, its not as big of an issue. I do believe there has to be a tactical solution though.
i'd say if arteta being marked out of the game means our whole strategy is up in smoke then we shouldn't be relying on 1 single person, no matter who that is, and a set of tactics that allows that. btw. i'm not convinced this is actually the case. we had the ball in attacking positions past arteta numerous times, but did little with it. ps. i do agree that a big physical midfielder would improve our chances, hence my calls for exactly that along with a striker.
The pitch/weather made both sides look bad. Having said that, I did not understand why we did not have Coq, Ramsey, and Gerv on to keep possession after going up 1-0, with Caz going off because he was having a bad day and could not get thru the middle anyway. Aw left caz on and added Kos instead of Gerv which did nothing to get the ball cleared properly out of our own end, which was really what we needed to get done. Ox's work on the right wing showed how much we have been missing there - when he played well. I remain convinced we need to shove our remaining chips onto that spot in Jan, plus buy a young offensive minded fullback for some help in that position if Santa's sleigh has an empty seat. With another striker who can play the game wide right we will have all the options we need in the front line.
I'm beginning to question what Poldi actually does for this team. He was so anonymous offensively today--was great in tracking back, but tbh that's not what we are paying him for