Match Reaction vs Newcastle (home).

[Dein-machine]

We're top of the league you silly sod.
Whether we stay there or not, we're hardly mediocre.

When you struggle to beat relegation fodder like Newcastle, Sunderland & Villa whilst getting beaten recently by WBA & thrashed by a Southampton team that everyone else seems to be beating - what do you call it if that's not medoicre - do you think we're playing well. Are we playing better football than 5 or 6 years ago - why do we need to pay Wenger £8 mill a year to achieve results that most other managers could get us.
Being top of a very average league this year may seen wonderful to you but we are a bad weekend away from 3rd place & Wenger doesnt have the ability to stop a Southampton scenario happening again soon. We haven't played well since the 1st half against Utd & thats simply not good enough with the time Wenger has had & the resources he has.

[Letters]

We haven't played well since the 1st half against Utd.

We've won 11 games out of 16 since then, we can't have been that bad.
City at home, Bayen at home, Olympiacos away were all after that and those were all good performances, I'm sure there were others.

[selassie]

Trouble is, actual quality is getting hard to find. So much hype surrounding so many mediocre players just because they have a ludicrous transfer fee attached or are English and average (therefore the next big wonderkid thing). Some of the names thrown about, I doubt they'd make much difference to Arteta or Flamini. So difficult to cut through the hype and take a proper look at a player and try to figure if he would fit in and improve the team. Easy enough if you are talking Suarez and Aguero level, tougher when you take a step down. That's why I was pissed we let Vidal pass without raising an eyebrow. He would have improved us, he didn't cost the earth and his wages were moderate by current loony standards. Got to watch out for crocks too. A lot of these marquee players spend half their time injured which makes them twice as expensive in practical terms. And they'd be even more injured if they joined us. Then you have the problem of availability in January. The mistakes were made in the summer. No cover for Coquelin. Everyone knew that was a crazy risk that had almost no chance of paying off. Now we'll see if we can get by with second stringers. Wenger's way.

I think there is enough quality in the market for us to significantly improve our squad and definitely upgrade Arteta and Flams, I think if we were super ambitious we could have even replaced Giroud with a better striker...we just need to pay the market valuation, the market is the market, it's not going to change for Arsenal or Wenger! We either pay the market rate or refuse and stagnate.

I do agree with your post though, Wenger massively messed up in the summer.

[IBK]

Re the Ox.... sometimes it just takes time. Who'd have thought Coq would have become one of the best DM's in the Prem? Look how long it took him. Ox is only 22 so still very young. If he's still a bit crap by 25/26 then you can probably write him off.

While I agree that the Ox has suffered from the lack of a decent, uniniterrupted spell in the team, I think the problem with him is that he does not seem like the type of player who instinctively knows how to play with maximum effectiveness for us. By all accounts, Coquelin realised that he needed to, and was best at doing the unflashy, simple stuff - and he has honed these skills first and foremost. Oxlade-Chamberlain does not seem to have this self awareness. A similar player was/is Ramsey. When Ramsey had his stand out season he cut out the flashy stuff and concentrated on his running into space and making simple passes (unfortunately, Ramsey now seems to have reverted a bit to trying to force the game).

Some players have talent but not the best football brains. The Ox seems to fit this mould, and I worry a bit about these players under a manager who is well known for allowing his players to express themselves rather than being more regimented with tactical instructions. I can see the Ox thriving more under a Klopp or a Pochettino - managers who play attacking football with more of a rigid and coached system than Wenger. We may just have to accept ultimately that the Ox won't work in our team. But if we want to win things, I would agree that we cannot afford to let him ride for too long. Problem is that ATM he is often the only potential game changer on the pitch.

[IBK]

I think there is enough quality in the market for us to significantly improve our squad and definitely upgrade Arteta and Flams, I think if we were super ambitious we could have even replaced Giroud with a better striker...we just need to pay the market valuation, the market is the market, it's not going to change for Arsenal or Wenger! We either pay the market rate or refuse and stagnate.

I do agree with your post though, Wenger massively messed up in the summer.

Is it my imagination or was Wenger talking a few weeks ago about being very active in the transfer market, but seems now to have flip-flopped?

[Grebbo]

I do agree with your post though, Wenger massively messed up in the summer.

Massively messed up, we're only top of the league.

[selassie]

Is it my imagination or was Wenger talking a few weeks ago about being very active in the transfer market, but seems now to have flip-flopped?

Hey IBK, Not your imagination, it's how I have interpreted the situation too. Wenger seemed very open and bullish about transfers a few weeks back and now he's more or less reverted to type and come out with the "we will only add if we find super quality", I'm sure I read a statement the other day where he was pretty much mocking people for suggesting we make transfers, that statement was along the lines of "players don't grow on trees and land at Arsenal"......

[Dein-machine]

We've won 11 games out of 16 since then, we can't have been that bad.
City at home, Bayen at home, Olympiacos away were all after that and those were all good performances, I'm sure there were others.

City at home seems like a good performance simply because it was City but truth is we were no better against them than we were against Bournemouth & in fact Bournemouth offered more of a threat than City. It was another game where we decided to stop playing at half time, sit back & wait for Yaya to shoot. We actually did the same against Utd after a storming 1st half. Utd were in bits at half time, we could & should have absolutley murdered them. Its the way Wenger wants to play now - get a lead a defend it. Not very Barca is it. When do you see Barca with a 1-0 lead against EL Donkey Utd, 20 minutes left, take Messi off for a terd of a left back playing in midfield & then spend the rest of the game defending in their own area.
85% of goals are scored in the area - if we continue to back off to pub wins better teams than Newcastle will take the chances that come & we will concede goals & drop points.
Yeh Bayern & Olympiacos were decent performances but the lack of consistency under Wenger is proved when I ask you what were the other scores against Bayern & Olypmpiacos.

Too many on here are getting carried away with the top of the league scenario in the same way that you get carried away with the FA cup wins to suggest we're getting better under Wenger. Poor Wenger teams 5 or 6 years ago would have got better results than we have got lately against relegation fodder. If you think we can win a league when we struggling to create chances or score goals against the likes of Newcastle, Sunderland & Villa then you are as delusional as a Leicester fan thinking they can win it. Goals win leagues which is why City will win in this year.

[Heisenberg]

El Burro Unido are no mugs, they're like 4th in La Liga

[Letters]

No-one is getting carried away.
But we're top of the league, we've been a bit patchy but overall we've got results more often than not and deserve to be where we are. Things really aren't that bad, we are NOT a mediocre side.
Whether we stay top remains to be seen but there's no need to start cutting ourselves at how terrible things are.
It seems like you're going to spend your life comparing us to The Invincibles. Look forward to a lifetime of disappointment if so.
You say City will win the league, I agree they are the main rivals but their last 10 league games have been W5 D2 L3, hardly the stuff of Champions elect.
And one of those draws was away at Villa where they failed to score against surely the worst PL side in PL history. Even our 'mediocre' lot won there.