PL Match Day 2: Arsenal @ Stoke City RFC; 26 August 2012

Discussion in 'Arsenal' started by Arsenalkid700, Aug 21, 2012.

  1. Copperhead

    Copperhead Member

    Jan 1, 2011
    Colorado Springs, CO
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Somebody has to have a date with the guillotine. Might I suggest Ivan Gazidis?
     
  2. Super Llama

    Super Llama Member+

    May 21, 2006
    Seattle
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    If there's one thing we've learned, it's that Americans and football don't mix.

    :geek:
     
  3. Copperhead

    Copperhead Member

    Jan 1, 2011
    Colorado Springs, CO
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Try harder
     
  4. SaratogaGooner

    Nov 23, 2009
    Clifton Park NY
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm going to put on my Rose colored glasses for the result today. I thought we looked really pretty fluid. Obviously we had a crap load of possession and didn't produce any joy but.....I'm willing to chalk it up to a maturing chemistry. It was still only game two and we have a mix of players who clearly are getting used to each others playing style. like I said, yeah no joy today, but I do think it's coming P.S. good to see Mers back throwing the elbows at the stoke pieces of shit!
     
  5. Jamooky

    Jamooky Member+

    Mar 24, 2006
    Cleveland, OH USA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A half a dozen times I was expecting an overlap from the right back. Jenks doesn't overlap, he stays put and neuters the offense down his side.
     
  6. mebeSajid

    mebeSajid Member+

    Feb 16, 2009
    Atlanta, GA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Silver lining: I do believe this is the first time we haven't conceded a goal at the Brittania.
     
  7. Lemartes

    Lemartes Member

    Apr 19, 2009
    Toronto, Canada
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Hm I think I'll wait 8 more games and judge things then.
     
  8. charlie15

    charlie15 Member+

    Mar 9, 2000
    Bethesda, Md
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    More than that, first time we have not been bullied there either. I always had the feeling that we were about to break there. Today we dominated, were in control and were rarely under pressure.
    I liked Podolski and Giroud work rate. He was mixing it with the 2 Stoke cavemen at the back.
    Too bad that we don't have the cutting edge upfront yet.
     
  9. KozIsCul

    KozIsCul Member+

    Feb 6, 2005

    We've had three hours of League football and how many chances have we created? One clear chance for Giroud, and a bunch of coulda shoulda woulda. You can't win games without goals and for now at least it's hard to see where our goals are going to come from.
     
  10. lamb

    lamb Member+

    Sep 3, 2004
    Larne, N.Ireland
    (my first reply was bollocks)
    or away to stoke since possibly january 1990?
     
  11. MilesW

    MilesW Member+

    Aug 26, 2010
    Chicago, IL
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Cazorla getting knocked around in the first half and not being very effective in the second hopefully isn't a flag to other teams to lay into him.
     
  12. Papa Burgundy

    Papa Burgundy Member

    Jan 27, 2008
    Dirty Jerz
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    we b0ssed that game. should have won at least 2-0. the goals will come soon, i'm not worried about that. and our defense has looked strong.
     
  13. BVgolski07

    BVgolski07 Member

    Aug 8, 2007
    Milwaukee
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Gervinho beats defenders more consistently than Walcott but obviously has some issues shooting/crossing. Wenger used to talk about Walcott becoming an Henry-like striker. I don't think he has Henry's touch or class, but might be fun to give him a few run outs up top. Might be the spark we need to find the net.

    Lots of varying opinions on Jenkinson. Obviously he's still green but looked pretty good today. Not sure why Santos hasn't been given a crack yet. Like Walcott, he's got that X factor of surprise that could help us bag a few goals.

    Giroud looks pretty good to me. We just need to ship out Arshavin, Park, Bendtner and Chamakh so the Giroud and Podolski have some back ups pushing them in training.
     
  14. darcgun

    darcgun Member+

    Jan 11, 2008
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I think in both Sunderland and Stoke there are positives. we clearly still need refinement offensively, and Arsene says it will come and I agree. The performances in both games so far have been exact.

    I don't think we need to replace Song though, we need another striker.
     
    scruggs45 repped this.
  15. K:thecore

    K:thecore Member+

    May 20, 2002
    Honolulu
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I will neg you. Im not going to sit here and say Ive always been an Arsenal fan but one thing for sure I was never a United fan.
     
  16. K:thecore

    K:thecore Member+

    May 20, 2002
    Honolulu
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Thats debatable. One thing for sure though is that Gervinho has the athleticism to beat his man pretty consistently. I think he's one of the more athletic guys on the pitch, and he makes a lot of nice cuts. Just wish his on ball was as good as his off ball. He has yet to prove that.
     
  17. KozIsCul

    KozIsCul Member+

    Feb 6, 2005

    I'm just not getting this. What chances at goal should we have converted but didn't? For the forseeable future we're playing with players who can't see the flow of the game (Diaby, Gerv and Theo) in positions where we're expecting them to generate offense. And we used to have a Get Out Of Jail Free card to make a goal or two out of nothing that we've since lost.

    There's two ways to look at it: either we had a really bad week for Arsenal, or things were already in sorry shape and we're just seeing it now.
     
  18. daedalus

    daedalus Member+

    Apr 24, 2004
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    i actually think diaby has a terrific shot. he's just absolutely unwilling to shoot. that he snapped one off against sunderland was very encouraging.
     
  19. daedalus

    daedalus Member+

    Apr 24, 2004
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    i thought he looked solid. actually looked forward now and again this game instead of automatically backpassing every time, no glaring defensive errors.

    that said, i still would love to see somebody older/more premiership-ready brought in who could start until sagna is back so jenkinson can be loaned out to the championship. i really like what he seems to bring to the table (even ignorning being a gooner) and would love to see him develop with day-to-day games at a level more suited to his level of readiness.
     
  20. BenP

    BenP Member

    May 23, 2006
    I honestly think you've got to give it some time - our key offensive players haven't played together at all, pre-season wasn't long enough, etc. I'm not 100% confident we're going to score a ton of goals this year, but I think its much too soon to judge.
     
    Jonc30 repped this.
  21. daedalus

    daedalus Member+

    Apr 24, 2004
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    uh, we have not had a defensive problem shown yet because we've played against a team that refused to attack and another that only looked to counter/score on set piece. the situation is going to be much different against the manchester clubs and chelsea.

    okay, you spend 10 on dempsey. where does he play? do you start him ahead of giroud and put podolski up front? do you start him ahead of podolski on the left? do you start him ahead of walcott/gervinho on the right? do you continue to leave oxlade-chamberlain for mr. burton? he sure as heck is not going to be a fix at the pivot. so where?
     
  22. MilesW

    MilesW Member+

    Aug 26, 2010
    Chicago, IL
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    He's Clint Dempsey, he'll score from the ********ing bench.
     
  23. Copperhead

    Copperhead Member

    Jan 1, 2011
    Colorado Springs, CO
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would start him ahead of Giroud and let Giroud settle into the Premier League in his own time by subbing him in consistently. However, I would put Dempsey on the right because even though he prefers the left from playing so often on that side (Demps played on the right until Duff came in and was switched to the left). He can actually play on the right as well. Dempsey can also be a guy who can do a job when you perhaps have a big fixture coming up and you won't to give your guys perhaps an extra period of rest.

    However, Demps can play ST, LW, RW or AM (central, right or left). He really has had to play at least every position that I mentioned for NE Revolution, Fulham or the USMNT. At this rate, I would start him ahead of Gervinho on the right. I don't know how well Podolski can play on the right BUT if Podolski is better than Dempsey on the right than you can put Podolski on the right with Dempsey on the left and Giroud up top. I still think Giroud perhaps on the bench would be the best short term option with Gervinho losing his place as the long term option.

    Wilshere, Koscielny and Sagna will be back and I think the side will be fine. At this point, defense is not a concern. It's the offense. The one thing is that unlike any of the predominantly attacking players this club has. Dempsey has more experience and is proven and that is nearly invaluable in this physical league.
     
    RevPOWA repped this.
  24. Copperhead

    Copperhead Member

    Jan 1, 2011
    Colorado Springs, CO
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    He's done that before as well. Juventus Europa League 2010
     
  25. KozIsCul

    KozIsCul Member+

    Feb 6, 2005

    Maybe, but for me at least I think we've already got to reevaluate, downward, our expectations for the season. Last year we ended up 19 points behind the League champions. My expectations were that if nothing else we'd to better than that, but now I'm not so sure. We're already four points behind Chelsea on points dropped and we've played two games, but to me the reality looks even worse than the numbers.

    From what we've seen so far this year, the future of the League are total fooball winger-midfielders, sorta like "five-tool" baseball players. Ie, Hazard, Cazorla, Mata, Silva. Even Man City, with loads of obvious quality all over the pitch, need David Silva playing to get that "we look like we can score every minute" vibe. We've got Cazorla so good for us, but I'm afraid that we're about to give 100K/wk to Theo Walcott, who is getting better all the time but just doesn't have the brain to play the way those other guys do.

    I guess, the point is, that we have to make our personnel moves (that means moves in and moves out) based on the long-term best interest of the club because I don't think there's anything we can do to make us competitive this year. If this is right we should revise our transfer strategy for the next week to be relatively agnostic of position.

    Guys like Mbiwa can't prob won't help us this year but they could make us a deeper, better squad. We should get whoever makes us better that's available.
     

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