I don't know where we'll finish this season, but I think it will be as entertaining as any season of football for us. Hopefully we can avoid injuries.
good result, although not really a fantastic game. will definitely find it much harder against them in september. nice to see chamberlain score. he could use a good season.
Incidentally, we've now held them from scoring and two consecutive games. It would be nice to build that up to at least four consecutive scoreless games this season . Also of note, Ramsey played in the central midfield role and Santi played out wide. It shows me that since he can still play out wide, despite the age and lack of speed. Ramsey is our best all-around midfielder, people forget what a great tackler he is . I think the manager is going to keep Ramsey and Ozil in their preferred positions this year, because he knows how good they are there.
Actually, Santi played as a nominal No 10 and Ozil was deployed wide on the left. By the way, Santi is 30 yrs old... it is not like the dude is 35 or 37 yrs old...
Thank you for not starting an injury thread. Let's just bury this here rather than starting an avalanche of depressing awareness.
they started out defensive with fabregas the higher of the 3 midfielders and 2 holders - i know that fabregas is a very good 10 but i've always liked him more as the middle of the 3 midfielders - so hazard was limited to sticking outside. he looked better when given more freedom after we scored as fabregas moved deeper and ramires went wide instead.
if suarez's transfer went through, we wouldn't have ozil. and, i believe, suarez's transfer was what made sanchez available. and i'd rather have sanchez any day of the week. bad combination overall, to me. without giroud, long balls forward were almost always lost so i don't understand why they persist in doing so. no, actually i dig why. when arteta-ramsey are in the middle, arteta cycles the ball and distributes. when coquelin-cazorla were in the middle last year, cazorla was responsible for cycling the ball and bringing it out. with coquelin-ramsey in the middle yesterday, nobody was there to take charge and cycle the ball. meh.
van persie also has ridiculous football intelligence and instinct to go with out of this world technique. as much as i am a fan of giroud, there is no point in trying to compare. if you have walcott out wide right making runs outside and cutting in behind giroud, high lines would stop in a heartbeat. ESPECIALLY with ozil, ramsey/cazorla, sanchez, and even giroud being able to release him. in my opinion, it's even better that way because walcott will also pin down the left-side fullback along with the rest of the line while wide.
that's because, when he does it, it's tactical. when other people do it, it's cowardice and negative.
Yeah I'll take Suarez all day over Ssnchez. He is the best number nine in the game -- if we consider Messi and Ronaldo to be categories unto themselves and not purely number nines, which they aren't . He almost single-handedly carried Liverpool to the title. He can score and create by himself and he is a team player. The thing is, even if we signed him a couple years ago during that 40,000,000+ one debacle, it was always going to be temporary. His wife is from Barcelona, and that's where he was always going to wind up, if he proved himself worthy. Which he did in spades .
I take back what I said about Theo playing centrally. This is from statsbomb. Passing is still uninspiring, and this is obviously a very small sample size, but this is the profile of a 35m forward.
At the risk of being cynical, it was a contract year and as good as Theo can be, he's constantly injured. That said, if Arsenal can get a couple years of 20 goals and 10 assists, then the contract will have been worth it.