Match Reaction vs Man City (away).

[JonasTC]

Horrible ref... 2 goals and a penalty he took away from us, on top of that their were a couple of wrong offsides, that would have given us something dangerous (Monreal in the box who could have given a free Giroud the ball for example). Add citys offside goal and the penalty who shouldn't have been given.

Some really bad mistakes defensively, but with a proper ref, it would have been 6-4 for us. We're still top of the league

[Letters]

Giroud ain't clinical enough and that's the difference.

In a game of few chances you need to take your chances but we didn't. A top class striker a must.

Navas was outstanding for them. Came off the bench and ripped us apart.

Agree about Giroud. He's good but he's no Aguero, RvP or Suarez.
Out squad depth up front was rather summed up by Bendtner coming off the bench.

[Edinburgh Gooner]

linesmen were atrocious. Definate pen to us for handball, 2 good goals chalked off for nonoffside. Not much else left to say. Great game of football, city sem to score from any half chance they have. I cannot criticise our players bar wilshere.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Agree about Giroud. He's good but he's no Aguero, RvP or Suarez.
Out squad depth up front was rather summed up by Bendtner coming off the bench.

Who also scored a goal that was *offside*.

[milla]

I have mentioned this like a gazillion times, never starts Wilshere in the flank. Either put him in midfield or bench him, he doesn't give anything from a wide area (defensive or offensive).

Giroud has been shit in a few weeks now, finally reached his ceiling IMO. Good striker for 4th place but you will not win the league with him. I have no problem if we start Bendtner against Chelsea next week. I don't care how but Wenger must bring in a new CF to take over from Giroud, I have enough watching him huffing and puffing in the penalty box.

[Özim]

Chelsea will beat us IMO, that's 3 poorish results on the trot now so confidence will be low and the players all look tired already (didn't see today's game but they've looked tired for a couple matches now).

I never felt we'd get anything against City and thought at best we'd get a point against Chelsea so I felt the Everton game was key, sadly we dropped points in that one.

The lack of a quality striker has become apparent recently, whilst Giroud works hard and makes some nice touches he's just not ruthless in front of goal and against the better teams it will show.


Winning big games aren't the be all and end all but what they do give you is momentum and belief.

[IBK]

I have mentioned this like a gazillion times, never starts Wilshere in the flank. Either put him in midfield or bench him, he doesn't give anything from a wide area (defensive or offensive).

Giroud has been shit in a few weeks now, finally reached his ceiling IMO. Good striker for 4th place but you will not win the league with him. I have no problem if we start Bendtner against Chelsea next week. I don't care how but Wenger must bring in a new CF to take over from Giroud, I have enough watching him huffing and puffing in the penalty box.

You only have to look at Aguero; Negredo; Suarez to see that.

[Letters]

Who also scored a goal that was *offside*.

It was offside wasn't it? Anyway. Bentner is 'ok' too but ok doesn't win you the PL.
It's very hard to compee with squads like City and Chelsea but a top class, clinical striker gives you a chance and we don't have one.

[Özim]

Disappointing performance no doubt about it.

1st Goal - absolute comical error from the immaculate Koscielny - can't stop that.

After that most of the other goals and almost every other chance came from us being ripped apart on that left flank and you have to give Wilshere some stick for adding to that.

Our players were understandable tired. How can they not be after a high energy game on Wednesday night, coming back on Thursday 4am and playing on Saturday morning.

Having said that, we were desperately unlucky with numerous offsides against us, a penalty not given and a disallowed goal.

Our players are looking knackered. We need a top striker in January. Wenger needs to freshen things up.

We can beat almost every other side in this league apart from City and Chelsea.

We've lost today - but its 3 points and we will still be ahead by 2 points even if all other results don't go our way. Wenger needs to remind the players of that.

And the fans need to create one heck of an atmosphere against Chelsea. Win that now and the confidence will be back again in this team.

City are great but we were desperately unlucky.

The most important question now is - hindsight is a great thing. But did we sacrifice midfield security today too much? Wilshere was desperately poor. There's no doubt Walcott should have started as he gives us another striking option and an outlet but should Rosicky have started instead of Wilshere?

Anyway the PL is a marathon and with a weak squad, I suppose we need to give a rest to some players.

Chelsea game crucial now. More for confidence and belief.

Not a fan of Wilshere, he gets a free ride from many because he's English and has come through the ranks, but too often he's poor, he has the odd game where he performs but those are few and far between, I personally believe he believes his own hype.

Barkley guy at Everton looks twice the player he is IMO.

[Globalgunner]

Ozil apparently much passed off after the match. We need to improve our options up front or his signing will have been for nothing, just to keep us basically where we have been for the last 8 seasons, almost there.