Match Reaction vs Crystal Palace (home).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Well done Arsenal. :bow:

Top of the league. :scarf:

[Power n Glory]

The Ox!

[IBK]

Well done Arsenal. :bow:

Top of the league. :scarf:

Different players stepping up to the plate at different times suggests something is going right (even while we scratch our heads at other things).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Different players stepping up to the plate at different times suggests something is going right (even while we scratch our heads at other things).

This is something that always happens under Wenger, certainly in title chasing seasons. I don't really know why though.

[milla]

Boring boring Arsenal :title:

[Niall_Quinn]

Ox :bow:

Pulis :haha:

The new stoke :haha:

[Marc Overmars]

Not overly impressive but efficient once again. This type of performance is pretty much par for the course now.

Good to see Oxlade stepping up and making some runs rather than sticking to the tippy tappy shit.

Vital 3 points.

Come on you Gunners, big month ahead.

[hobson's choice]

Good win, but they have to start creating more with all the possession they get

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Up the gonnies! Orc master dispatched once more....

If Barkley had a decent game and scored twice people would be hyping up as they have been. Chamberlain is equally as talented.

[Niall_Quinn]

Just need 0-0 tomorrow night with 22 injuries to players after they are all going off from red cards.

[Darknight02]

So proud of the team today.

First up what a performance from the Ox. Fifteen minutes into the game I really felt that with his running and dribbling ability he can hurt them and I was disappointed and stated that I hope he'd make some runs in the second half. And my oh my did he do that. Fantastic performance with two of the best finishes this season.

But credit goes to the defence on a day when our attacking didn't click.

Merts and Kos and Sir Ches were sublime particularly Merts.

And Sir Ches made his quality count when we needed it. His performances are reminding me of Cech where we'd get the odd goal and he'd make the key stops in the game that keep us in it.

It's been a disappointing January window but let's get behind the team
Guys. These are all we have and we need to be right behind them.

Lastly I though Ozil played ever so well.

Just watch the game and look how many times he received passes in difficult places and he not only keeps the ball but makes a decent pass to put the opposition on the back foot.

If only we had rapid flank players to benefit from his laser missiles.

Wenger needs to tell Pod to stay on the flank and not come deep.

Ozil during the game told him as well. And Neville made lots of references to it.

Thought Arteta didn't waste a pass today.

[Darknight02]

The Ox

Total WUM

[fakeyank]

Great win!

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Some don't like Arteta, but for my money he is a very astute footballer. Still very important to our control in midfield.

[Munchies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BffOef-IgAAu0Xs.jpg

[Darknight02]

Some don't like Arteta, but for my money he is a very astute footballer. Still very important to our control in midfield.

Completely agree mate.

In my opinion it depends on the player beside him.

When he's got a pure defensive player who doesn't make runs who doesn't step up with the ball, I think Arteta is in trouble as he can't make runs forward.

Put him beside a player with energy and attacking ability and it's his total comfort zone.

It was crucial we didn't lose the ball today and crucial we held it together with good passing and Arteta is metronomic on that sense and I think he's brilliant if you play him with the right partner.

[JonasTC]

Shit. Wenger out.

[Power n Glory]

Some don't like Arteta, but for my money he is a very astute footballer. Still very important to our control in midfield.

In a game like this, Arteta is great. He raked up the passes along with Ozil and kept it ticking.

[Master Splinter]

2-0 to The Arsenal :bow:.

Ox :bow:. Superb finishing.

Giroud and Cazorla's assists :bow:.

Moments of individual class are required when you've got crucial players missing and you don't have £7698935 billion worth of attackers.

BFG was a colossus.

Arteta looked back to his best after a rusty first game back last week. Hope he hasn't picked up a bastard injury.

Szczesny proving he's the best in the League again. Very little to do, but decisive when called upon.

Hopefully Jack is back for Liverpool and we can continue our excellent League form.

Arsenal :bow:.

[Zak]

Some don't like Arteta, but for my money he is a very astute footballer. Still very important to our control in midfield.

He is occasionally good but he's not a DM and if he wants to play further forward then he needs to be more positive in his passing. Keeps going sideways with his passing.

[I am invisible]

Cakewalk - who's next?

[Niall_Quinn]

LOL - the fake N_Q repeating what Wenger said but as if he's got inside news.

Me :bow:

[Darknight02]

He is occasionally good but he's not a DM and if he wants to play further forward then he needs to be more positive in his passing. Keeps going sideways with his passing.

I don't think he wants to play forward mate. I think he realises we have fitter and more capable players in Ozil, Santi, Rosicky, Ramsey, Wilshere, Ox who can all play that role.

I think he's vital to our team. Particularly with the right player beside him

[Power n Glory]

He is occasionally good but he's not a DM and if he wants to play further forward then he needs to be more positive in his passing. Keeps going sideways with his passing.

It was a very different game compared to Southampton. One team came to play and held possession against us, another came to park the bus. It's fine for Arteta to play when the opposition is like this and trying to soak up the pressure.

The real man of the moment is the Ox because he was brave and tried to make things happen. Even in the first half, he was trying to play the ball forward. Chesney made a key save in the game but other than that, it was a game where we needed someone to step it up another level.

Perfect sort of game to see if Ox can play in the middle. Big games ahead and hopefully he's fit.

[Xhaka Can’t]

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv321/FlameFan21/celebration_zpsefffa2a9.gif

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Some don't like Arteta, but for my money he is a very astute footballer. Still very important to our control in midfield.

This. Such a criminally under rated player on here and I'd take him over Flamini who runs about a lot but loses his discipline and can be too reckless (see Southampton).

However he is getting on in years and there's no question that we need to look for a long term replacement this summer. Lars Bender is that man. Sign him up Arsene.


As for the game, good solid win. Glad to see that other players are prepared to step up when there's an injury crisis.

And personally delighted for The Ox. Didn't have the best of seasons last year and missed the first half of the season but his directness was a breath of joy today. None of the over wrought passing stuff which is ineffective against "park the bus" teams like Pulis' Palace.

[Power n Glory]

This. Such a criminally under rated player on here and I'd take him over Flamini who runs about a lot but loses his discipline and can be too reckless (see Southampton).

However he is getting on in years and there's no question that we need to look for a long term replacement this summer. Lars Bender is that man. Sign him up Arsene.


As for the game, good solid win. Glad to see that other players are prepared to step up when there's an injury crisis.

And personally delighted for The Ox. Didn't have the best of seasons last year and missed the first half of the season but his directness was a breath of joy today. None of the over wrought passing stuff which is ineffective against "park the bus" teams like Pulis' Palace.

Again, it's a very different game to what we played against Southampton. Against teams that come to play and hold possession, you need ball winners like Flamini. Palace aren't a possession based team.

[Ollie the Optimist]

good win after the midweek draw, pressure firmly back on the other two now. if chelsea lose tomorrow, they are five points behind us, 6 behind city.



oh and 15 points ahead of united.

van persie :haha:

[BOBN]

Andros Townsend :rose: Oxlade back

Cazorla > Ozil

[Niall_Quinn]

Cazorla > Ozil

Unfortunately not, but he's still a very good player.

[Master Splinter]

Unfortunately not, but he's still a very good player.

It's BOBN's least attention-seeking controversial statement tbf and based on their respective starts to their Arsenal careers, probably close to the truth. Ozil has a subtle calming effect over the players around him and he helps control games, but Cazorla has the ability to go for broke and score crucial goals.

But we've got two special talents, so it's all rosy.

And I'm not in the business of critisisng one player to praise another.

[Power n Glory]

Would like to see Ozil attempt to take on more players. More driving runs because he is capable. Today he just kept it simple with the passing and only attempted one dribble. It's not bad but in games where teams park the bus we need more players taking risks with dribbling attempts.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I wasn't too worried even at half time, i thought they would tire or switch off and be caught by one of our quicker passing moves, excellent finishing from Ox on both occasions. I hope he doesn't get played in that deep midfield role at Anfield or he will be raped...gives away the ball too much.
The performance wasn't brilliant but it was never going to be in such a bitty match, under Pulis they have been a difficult side to break down they lost 1-0 away at City and 2-1 away at Chelsea so it was never likely to be a hammering....defending was good but the back four got exposed a bit too much for my liking fortunately koscielny, mertesacker and szcesny all performed admirably again.
I don't know why Wenger is insisting on playing Monreal now that Gibbs is fit, he's too slow and one footed and Gibbs could have punished Palace a lot more on the flanks in the first half....and Monreal was made to look a bit silly by Puncheon at times.
Ozil didn't have a brilliant game but i think the 42m tag makes us expect that he will win games for us single handedly where as he did nothing wrong, his passing was competent and he did better in the middle of the park for me than Cazorla.
Rosicky made us more fluid in our passing when he came on, and i would definitley start with him next Saturday if he is fit.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

As for Palace, can't really fault them for defending as deep as they did it worked for West Ham at Chelsea, i resented them breaking up play in the way they did...and i think a stronger referee would have produced more yellow cards for their tackles from behind....and also on two or three occasions the referee stopped play when they had fouled us when he should have let play continue as we'd won back possession.
They weren't time wasting as much as Fulham (and in particular Maarten Stekelenburg) were.

[Power n Glory]

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1945425-arsenal-vs-crystal-palace-6-things-we-learned

Interesting article about the game.

Cazorla for the middle, Ozil under performing, Ox shining!

[Munchies]

http://i.minus.com/iqa6bwjnjifg1.gif

And yeah, I'd move Cazorla in the middle, as our team is right now, he'd be far more effective.

However, as the team is now, Ozil won't be able to have the impact we all want from him. He literally has nothing infront of him, Podolski in the first half kept pushing back into midfield, and Giroud was anonymous for most of the game. He was still able to send over that great pass to Monreal though when the run infront was made.

Either move Ozil out or put him on the bench. Neither of these will happen though.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Just like watching Kolo to Cissokho, that was.

:cloud9:

[milla]

http://i.minus.com/iqa6bwjnjifg1.gif

And yeah, I'd move Cazorla in the middle, as our team is right now, he'd be far more effective.

However, as the team is now, Ozil won't be able to have the impact we all want from him. He literally has nothing infront of him, Podolski in the first half kept pushing back into midfield, and Giroud was anonymous for most of the game. He was still able to send over that great pass to Monreal though when the run infront was made.

Either move Ozil out or put him on the bench. Neither of these will happen though.

Been saying this for months now, Santi should be the one in the middle not Ozil. Both are excellent no 10 but Santi will not hesitate to take a shot at goal or dribble past players, he is so much more of a threat than Ozil. :coffee:

[Niall_Quinn]

Not sure why everyone thinks Santi doesn't play in the middle half the match anyway, or Ozil doesn't play on the flanks for half the game. They drift. Ozil was horribly deep for a lot of the game today and he's wasted there.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

January window letdown :lol:

It's ON! :bow:

[selassie]

Important 3 points ahead of what is destined to be a very brutal period of fixtures. I thought we were efficient as per normal, solid without being spectacular. Really pleased for OX, thought he played very well too.

[Marc Overmars]

Mesut Hleb does need to take more responsibility however there is an obvious lack of movement around him, it's so pedestrian. Half the time Giroud is picking the ball up in wide areas as well which is fairly pointless when there are next to no runners.

Thankfully our defence is quality because this is probably the least creative Arsenal side Wenget has put together.

[KSE Comedy Club]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BffOef-IgAAu0Xs.jpg

Flip Flops :bow:

[GP]

Yeah, I would go barefoot in a shared shower either.

[KSE Comedy Club]

1st half not so good, Palace were very solid and hard to break down so fair play to them.

2nd half, much better although still some way to go yet. They still seem to be playing in 2nd gear when it comes to attacking??

Poldi needs to do something to get into games more. He had 1 shot I think, that's nowhere near good enough.

Giroud wasn't great but again he was doing what he needed to when it counted.

On the whole, great to see us finally breaking down a tough defence.

Ox came on and did what he should be doing so that is good to see.

On the whole, great result, seasons past we would've drawn or lost this type of game.

Also, lastly, gotta say, great subs by Wenger. Much better tactics too. He might be a stubborn old goat but when he gets it right :scarf:

Well done all round :bow:

[Munchies]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emV0SMqaXLA&feature=youtu.be&a

[AFC Leveller]

If anything was gonna break the deadlock it was a run from deep and thankfully The Ox stepped up. The manager has talked about his ability to burst forward and we saw that yesterday for his two goals. I hope we keep the same team against Liverpool (even if we do get Jack back) as confidence should back to normal now and the OX will feel he's getting back to his best.

PLEASE Arsene, no cowardish tactis or defensive approach, we should go there to win. yes they have two lethal strikers and are at home but i always feel confident going to Anfield and our record against them is decent.

[IBK]

If anything was gonna break the deadlock it was a run from deep and thankfully The Ox stepped up. The manager has talked about his ability to burst forward and we saw that yesterday for his two goals. I hope we keep the same team against Liverpool (even if we do get Jack back) as confidence should back to normal now and the OX will feel he's getting back to his best.

PLEASE Arsene, no cowardish tactis or defensive approach, we should go there to win. yes they have two lethal strikers and are at home but i always feel confident going to Anfield and our record against them is decent.

Amen to that, brother!