A lot has been said about the dreadful performances of Gervinho, Walcott, Squillaci, etc yesterday, and that's warranted, but we shouldn't overlook the fact that our central midfield was completely outclassed by Fulham's. In the second half they had I think over 60% possession for a sustained period. Moreover, yesterday wasn't the only occasion when a mid table team has managed to boss possession against us. 5 years ago, teams like Fulham would never have managed so much territorial control against us, even when we had midfield players out. This just shows how poor our midfield has become IMO. I rate Ramsey, but he's out of form and needs to be dropped IMO. I don't rate Arteta at all, and don't see what he's contributing to the side. Some supporters claim he's adding defensive solidarity, but where was he yesterday when Dembele was waltzing through our midfield? He wasn't tracking their midfield runners, and on a few occasions he lost the ball in very dangerous positions. Offensively, he's given us almost nothing this season, which puts a lot of pressure on Song to hold the midfield together.
This is another area that needs rectifying this month. Even Wilshere's return won't cover up the dearth of top quality options in midfield.
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Originally Posted by Terry Tuffnutz
