Match Reaction vs Leicester (away).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Well that was quite entertaining. :lol:

[Heisenberg]

Really good game of football!

Alexis :bow:

[AFC Leveller]

Leicester hadnt lost, they have been one of the best sides this season yet we just took them to the cleaners. we had loads and loads of chances and deserved the win.

Man city, the greatest cluc side to ever exists, are only 2 points off.

[Letters]

:patrice:

Didn't expect that, tbf.

[Kano]

Between us and Spurs for the title.

[hobson's choice]

Very pleasing game to watch, both sides came to play football, and give the fans their moneys worth.

No cynical nonsense, just a good game off football. Much respect to Leicester and Ranieri.

[Niall_Quinn]

Theo has done enough to get a crack at a few games. Alexis is back from hols. Merts looked okay today. Ozil brilliant as usual, though anonymous. Bellerin getting better every game. Still a bit silly at the back from time to time. But a decent game to watch and a good result so all's well.

[Niall_Quinn]

Very pleasing game to watch, both sides came to play football, and give the fans their moneys worth.

No cynical nonsense, just a good game off football. Much respect to Leicester and Ranieri.

Bit disappointing the game wasn't all about the ref, but this was the next best thing. True enough, Leicester played football. We played football. Hence a football match. I wonder will it take on?

[milla]

Ozil was a bit shit IMO, little work rate. :coffee:

[Niall_Quinn]

Ozil was a bit shit IMO, little work rate. :coffee:

Anonymous :coffee:

[Marc Overmars]

Good win against a team in form.

Delighted to see Alexis off the mark.

[Kano]

Ozil was a bit shit IMO, little work rate. :coffee:

Better than Alexis who should've been subbed in the first half.

[Master Splinter]

Football back temporarily. Mike Dean, Mourinho and Platini look on in disgust.

Alexis :bow:.

BFG :bow:. He was playing in second gear and just let his long legs keep Leicester at bay. But how will this immobile, dreadfully slow tall man cope with their pace pace pace pace pace?

Bellerin and Monreal are not letting their levels drop at all.

Great work from Cech after everyone went to sleep.

Arteta looked solid and composed against all that PACE and POWER too.

Theo deserves a run of games now. Expect some momentum-killing from WUMger on Tuesday though.

[LDG]

Ha! What a surprise!! I was expecting us to lose!!!! Well fuck me.

Well done boys.

Well done football.r

[mastermind84]

Boring, boring match

[Syn]

Sanchez waking up is good news. Could destroy this league if he gets going. Fuck Sturridge, Rooney and others. Aguero's the only one to catch. And Sanchez genuinely can. But he needs to get sharper.

[selassie]

Great result! Let's hope we can put a good run together now, massive game next week, need to bring United down to earth because we should be beating that lot at the Emirates.

[Syn]

Bellerin and Monreal are not letting their levels drop at all.


Havent seen the game (because £8m a year) but good that fullbacks are up to the mark. Monreal is solid, has been for a while. But Bellerin really is a proper world class player in the making. It will be like having Ashley Cole all over again. I'll be shocked if Bellerin's not the best in his position by 3 years. He has been learning very fast. Wouldn't swap him for any RB in the league right now.

[milla]

Havent seen the game (because £8m a year) but good that fullbacks are up to the mark. Monreal is solid, has been for a while. But Bellerin really is a proper world class player in the making. It will be like having Ashley Cole all over again. I'll be shocked if Bellerin's not the best in his position by 3 years. He has been learning very fast. Wouldn't swap him for any RB in the league right now.

I don't know how good he will be but if he can keep up like this I will be more than happy. A one man machine on the right flank after Ramsey decided to play in the middle of the pitch today. :coffee:

[alexander]

Have not seen game/highlights yet, but seems we created plenty as well as putting them away this time. Hope Wenger keeps the team together for the CL game, win that and confidence will be high for ManU.
Alexis back is a very good thing, and against a team that have performed very, very well this week.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

The full game is on SS1 now.

[I am invisible]

The sad thing is, we've been creating chances like that all season - just haven't been putting them away until now. Let's hope the finishing has finally clicked for us...

[I am invisible]

Lol at Chelsea, 1 point above Bournemouth. Chortle!

[Power n Glory]

Finally watched the highlights but would have been better to see the full game. Looked like they were all over us in the first half but we fought back hard. Good finish from Walcott. Good counter attack as well. Sounds like he had a good game as striker from what Danny Murphy said and that's good to see. Always said he just needs time to learn the role. Good to see they're highlighting him holding up the ball, playing people in as well as scoring. He knows he needs to work on that side of his game so it shows he is learning quickly. Proving the doubters wrong.

Fantastic to see Sanchez get a hat trick. We need this guy on top for. I was getting worried. Such an important player for us. Hoping that pushes him on.

Can't really judge overall because the highlights were so shit. The press are just raving on about how Sanchez and Walcott change the dynamic of our attack. I didn't look like an easy game and glad we got the victory. Our rivals dropped major points as well. We're still in the race. As long as we keep Giroud as a bench option and maybe bench Ramsey for Ox, we may have a chance of seeing a different beast in Arsenal.

[Letters]

Walcott does show tantalising glimpses of being able to finish like a proper striker but he's never been consistent. If he can get so then we might just have a chance, especially if Sanchez can keep going. We just need to stay in touch for now, and we are. Last season we lost it before we got going. We haven't this year so far, the Utd game is key - that's the sort of game we really need to be winning if we're serious about the title.

[Power n Glory]

We'll see if Wenger plays him or rests him on Tuesday and they're is no doubt he should be starting next Sunday against Utd. I think he'll grow into the role the more he plays. He hasn't stopped since coming back from injury and was on a heck of a run befor getting injured. We need a big performance against Utd from him up front.

[Heisenberg]

The highlights were indeed lacking, I can't speak for the first half but I caught the second. It was frenetic and end to end, but we were definitely on top then. The MOTD package basically just showed the goals, but there were plenty of other chances and shots we created, would have been more if the finishing hadn't been comparatively wasteful, which feels a strange complaint after you score 5, but there you go!

[Syn]

Should consider replacing Ramsey with Dan Biggar.

[alexander]

Theo does seem to be getting better in each game, ok, he is still missing chances galore, but he is putting some away now. A run of games up front will do him the world of good.

[Injury Time]

As mentioned before Theo is good running on to the ball, seemed to have developed a bit of off ball movement / some osmosis from Sanchez perhaps?
Sanchez is alive :bow:
Our defence though is a bit :blink: hope we can settle on a back four we can stick with that refs / injuries don't interfere with. I was hoping Cech would boss the back four around more, maybe Wenger has fines for shouting?
Big game vrs Manure, let's see if we can start playing before we let one in.

[Niall_Quinn]

Leicester came out to play and 9 times out of 10 we'll beat the opposition when they do that. They left all that space behind for Theo to run into and Ozil and Cazorla dutifully obliged with good individual performances. Wenger needs a gameplan for when the opponents won't come out and don't leave the space. 9 times out of 10 that's what we face and that's when Theo can drift out of a game. If he can show improvement in tighter games against a more disciplined defence then we may have a viable striker on our hands. Let's see what happens against Fellaini Utd. van Gaal might be arrogant enough to think he can play us, I hope so. But he'll probably revert to sitting deep, hoofing on the break and hacking the shit out of Ozil and Cazorla. We need a plan to handle that, other than the crappy tippy tappy we usually fall into.

[selassie]

As mentioned before Theo is good running on to the ball, seemed to have developed a bit of off ball movement / some osmosis from Sanchez perhaps?
Sanchez is alive :bow:
Our defence though is a bit :blink: hope we can settle on a back four we can stick with that refs / injuries don't interfere with. I was hoping Cech would boss the back four around more, maybe Wenger has fines for shouting?
Big game vrs Manure, let's see if we can start playing before we let one in.

Apparently Theo held up the ball very well yesterday and his general all round play in the build up was very good, many are saying it was his best performance in an Arsenal shirt. I still think that if Theo is given a solid run of games he is by far and away our best option up front, he brings a different dynamic to our attack and once he improves his build up play which he seems to be improving now we're going to have a very decent striker on our hands.

[AFC Leveller]

Leicester came out to play and 9 times out of 10 we'll beat the opposition when they do that. They left all that space behind for Theo to run into and Ozil and Cazorla dutifully obliged with good individual performances. Wenger needs a gameplan for when the opponents won't come out and don't leave the space. 9 times out of 10 that's what we face and that's when Theo can drift out of a game. If he can show improvement in tighter games against a more disciplined defence then we may have a viable striker on our hands. Let's see what happens against Fellaini Utd. van Gaal might be arrogant enough to think he can play us, I hope so. But he'll probably revert to sitting deep, hoofing on the break and hacking the shit out of Ozil and Cazorla. We need a plan to handle that, other than the crappy tippy tappy we usually fall into.

Being at home, i think this is a must win. We are 3 points behind them (and 4 goals less) so w win would take us level with them and gives us a chance to build some momentum. We havent beaten them at home in years.

[Niall_Quinn]

Being at home, i think this is a must win. We are 3 points behind them (and 4 goals less) so w win would take us level with them and gives us a chance to build some momentum. We havent beaten them at home in years.

Please don't mention the word momentum. Wenger might hear you.

[Syn]

Game plan V Man Utd is easy. Wenger should play for a draw and wait for Van Gaal to be a fucking weirdo and hand us 3 points.

[Niall_Quinn]

Game plan V Man Utd is easy. Wenger should play for a draw and wait for Van Gaal to be a fucking weirdo and hand us 3 points.

He SHOULD. But what about when Wenger tries to be even weirder?

I wonder does the Leicester game mark a change in his thinking? For once, bar the silly subs which we have kind of come to accept, he picked the right team and played the right tactics, almost as if he'd studied the opponent beforehand. Or another false dawn to add to the long, long list of false dawns?

But you are right, surely we have a chance because their manager may well be more fucked up than our manager.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Didn't see the game or even remember we were playing till a friend of mine posted a pic at the game......she's a Leicester fan. Wasn't expecting the scoreline but delighted to see it. It's the sort of goal return we should be getting way more often and I've generally been less worried about Sanchez than a lot of the bloggers as he has been close to scoring in every game he has played.

Up the Arse!

[Globalgunner]

Question: For the United game do we bring back Gabriel or stick with Merts?. Me i would bring Gabriel. his greater speed and aggression will be needed against Martial, Memphis and Rooney

[Penguin]

I didn't watch the whole match but I liked the speed of our attacks. I love watching those quick, fluid counter attacks.

I'm happy for Alexis, he really needed to get off the mark and hopefully the floodgates will open now. I agree with Blink that it has been coming, but it's always in the back of your mind until you actually put one in. His third goal was stunning.

Theo was a constant threat. Really impressive performance and he took his goal well. And I like how his movement opens up space for Alexis and Ozil. Ozil and Santi look like they are enjoying playing with two quick runners in front of them.

The worrying part was how easily they opened us up. Leicester are a good attacking team but we gave them far too much space. I'm not comfortable with Arteta and Cazorla being together in CM, they're both snails and let people go past them too easily. Maybe it's time to give Ramsey a chance in CM, if only to inject a bit of energy in the middle?

[alexander]

He SHOULD. But what about when Wenger tries to be even weirder?

I wonder does the Leicester game mark a change in his thinking? For once, bar the silly subs which we have kind of come to accept, he picked the right team and played the right tactics, almost as if he'd studied the opponent beforehand. Or another false dawn to add to the long, long list of false dawns?

But you are right, surely we have a chance because their manager may well be more fucked up than our manager.

I have heard a fair bit about Wenger and his `just go out there and do what we do` methods. I do find this odd. When you had a team like we did in the invincibles era, that will work, most teams for those few seasons were beaten before we went out on the pitch. Its different now. Even when Im messing about on football manager, I will look how the opponent sets up, and try to match, or counter that. I find it odd that he does not consider doing this!

[alexander]

Question: For the United game do we bring back Gabriel or stick with Merts?. Me i would bring Gabriel. his greater speed and aggression will be needed against Martial, Memphis and Rooney

Same here. I think they will only resort to hoof-ball if they are taking a beating, and Merts in that situation would be a better bet. As a starter, and at home I would go with Gabs. This is the benefit of having more than two good players in defence, means we can chop and change to suit who we are playing. More speed and aggression for Rooney, Martial, as you say is a must. But as we know Wenger dont set up a team to face a certain opponent, he will start with Merts!

[Letters]

Being at home, i think this is a must win. We are 3 points behind them (and 4 goals less) so a win would take us level with them and gives us a chance to build some momentum. We havent beaten them at home in years.

I agree. If we're serious about the title then simply "not losing" isn't good enough in these games.
I saw the Chelsea game as key but the ref basically handed them the 3 points in that one so I'm not sure we can draw any sensible conclusions from it.
This one we really have to take by the scruff of the neck and make a statement. In all the seasons we've won the title we've done well in these sorts of 6 pointers.

[selassie]

Question: For the United game do we bring back Gabriel or stick with Merts?. Me i would bring Gabriel. his greater speed and aggression will be needed against Martial, Memphis and Rooney

Me too. I don't rate United nowhere near as much as I use to but they are still a very good side. They are solid-ish at the back and in Midfield but pretty lethal going forward, especially on the counter attack. I think Gabriel has to come back for this one because the likes of Martial, Memphis and Rooney will tear Merts apart on the counter.

It's a massive game for us next week, I think the result will define our season.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

...I dunno, Gabs can be a bit shirty at times....and Lord knows Manure have been known to take a few tumbles against us.

[GP]

I'm happy with either.

It's nice to have quality depth.

[fakeyank]

It's a massive game for us next week, I think the result will define our season.

So, we can chalk this up as a loss then..

[Letters]

:rolleyes:

[selassie]

So, we can chalk this up as a loss then..

It will probably end up as a score draw, we need to win it though. I dunno...I'm not fully confident we can beat them, we'll score but so will they.

[AFC Leveller]

out of the top 3 teams, Man ure at home (this current man ure) is the one im most confident about.

They are average and give away chances.

[Power n Glory]

Leicester came out to play and 9 times out of 10 we'll beat the opposition when they do that. They left all that space behind for Theo to run into and Ozil and Cazorla dutifully obliged with good individual performances. Wenger needs a gameplan for when the opponents won't come out and don't leave the space. 9 times out of 10 that's what we face and that's when Theo can drift out of a game. If he can show improvement in tighter games against a more disciplined defence then we may have a viable striker on our hands. Let's see what happens against Fellaini Utd. van Gaal might be arrogant enough to think he can play us, I hope so. But he'll probably revert to sitting deep, hoofing on the break and hacking the shit out of Ozil and Cazorla. We need a plan to handle that, other than the crappy tippy tappy we usually fall into.

That's not exactly true anymore. If we'd have gone two down it could have been a different game. It's not as if Zagreb sat back all day against us and if Spurs had more quality up front they could have dumped us out of the league cup. Teams are a lot braver than they were before and they're stopping us from passing without having to kick us off the park. We haven't faced many teams that have tried to lock up shop or we've pinned back for long periods. So far, I can only think of West Ham, Newcastle and Stoke.

[AFC Leveller]

That's not exactly true anymore. If we'd have gone two down it could have been a different game. It's not as if Zagreb sat back all day against us and if Spurs had more quality up front they could have dumped us out of the league cup. Teams are a lot braver than they were before and they're stopping us from passing without having to kick us off the park. We haven't faced many teams that have tried to lock up shop or we've pinned back for long periods. So far, I can only think of West Ham, Newcastle and Stoke.

I disagree.

Zagreb sat back all game, at times we only had the 2 CBs and Cech in our own half and that's why we got caught on the break in the first half. West Ham sat back too.

When you say i haven't seen teams sit back in a long time, you only have to stretch back to April when Swansea, Sunderland and some other team i cant remember came to the Emirates and sat back throughout the game.

[selassie]

out of the top 3 teams, Man ure at home (this current man ure) is the one im most confident about.

They are average and give away chances.

I agree, we really should be beating them at home, whether we will remains to be seen.

[Marc Overmars]

Not confident at all about United and I won't be until we start to beat them with a degree of regularity. You can count on one hand the amount of times we've beaten them in the past 10 years, they always seem to be able to do us even when they're shite. Long overdue a good performance and 3 points against that horrible lot. Come on WUMger.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Leicester game has given us the shot in the arm we needed before going into the Manure game.....Alexis needed a goal, the fact he got three will do him no end of good.......

There is no way we should fear Utd......and three points should be the target.....it's a hard one to call whether they will come to play or park the bus because I never know what the hell their bloody manager is on about most if the time.....can see it being a physical game with Faillini flailing around as per.....

A player I am liking more and more is Vardy.....any thoughts.....I am obviously setting myself up here to receive a barrage of GW mantras that he is not Arsenal quality etc but hell for what is worth....

[Power n Glory]

I disagree.

Zagreb sat back all game, at times we only had the 2 CBs and Cech in our own half and that's why we got caught on the break in the first half. West Ham sat back too.

When you say i haven't seen teams sit back in a long time, you only have to stretch back to April when Swansea, Sunderland and some other team i cant remember came to the Emirates and sat back throughout the game.

That’s not what I remember. Zagreb had 14 shots on our goal. That’s more than what we managed that game. From what I remember, our passing game was really poor and we just couldn’t get going. We gave the ball away cheaply. They didn’t play us off the park but it’s not as if they came to lock up shop and play for a draw. They were threatening at times. Defensively organised but still dangerous coming forward. It’s not the same as the ones where the team has no intention of attacking us and just get lucky hoofing it long or getting a goal from a set piece. What I see more of these days are teams being more organised defensively and willing to hit us on the counter.

Swansea took the game to us in their home tie last season and terrorised Chambers. It was almost 50/50 possession. When they came to the Emirates maybe they locked up shop but that isn’t the norm for them. Sunderland were fighting relegation towards the end of the season so that’s expected. But so far this season, we haven’t met many teams that have decided to park the bus all game. I also think that’s down to us not passing the ball that well and being sloppy. When we start to find our passing stride, that’s when teams start to cower and lock up shop.

[Bumble]

thought it was a very good result. Walcott, ozil and sanchez all looked the part.

[Dein-machine]

Leicester game has given us the shot in the arm we needed before going into the Manure game.....Alexis needed a goal, the fact he got three will do him no end of good.......

There is no way we should fear Utd......and three points should be the target.....it's a hard one to call whether they will come to play or park the bus because I never know what the hell their bloody manager is on about most if the time.....can see it being a physical game with Faillini flailing around as per.....

A player I am liking more and more is Vardy.....any thoughts.....I am obviously setting myself up here to receive a barrage of GW mantras that he is not Arsenal quality etc but hell for what is worth....

I think Vardy is a skank trailer trash scumbag but would prefer him upfront to Giroud.

[Bumble]

I think Vardy is a skank trailer trash scumbag but would prefer him upfront to Giroud.
I think Vardy has similar attributes to Sanchez, good pace, works hard for the team. Doesn't stop running. Obviously not as skill, technique etc.

Still prefer to Giroud though. Hopefully Walcott can continue to play like this against teams who defend deep and don't quite leave as much space in behind.

[Dein-machine]

Not confident at all about United and I won't be until we start to beat them with a degree of regularity. You can count on one hand the amount of times we've beaten them in the past 10 years, they always seem to be able to do us even when they're shite. Long overdue a good performance and 3 points against that horrible lot. Come on WUMger.

You can use the same paragraph when it comes to playing all the top teams. Wenger's lack of tactical nous means we go into these games on the back foot as the opposition already know our line-up & how we'll play. If we take the lead in these games we revert to a defensive game that is not what we do or how we train, so inevitably we concede to either draw or lose these games.
United's weakness is their defence, so we need to press high up & we need to move the ball forward quicker getting Walcot & Sanchez in behind the full-backs. If we play usual tippy tappy in midfield they have the pace & quality upfront to punish us when we give away posession. Far better for Smalling to pick up our poor passes than it is to give Rooney the ball with Depay & Martial making the runs up top.

[selassie]

Not confident at all about United and I won't be until we start to beat them with a degree of regularity. You can count on one hand the amount of times we've beaten them in the past 10 years, they always seem to be able to do us even when they're shite. Long overdue a good performance and 3 points against that horrible lot. Come on WUMger.

Yeah feel the same way. In theory we have more than enough quality to beat them but I fear we will play right into their hands.

Last season was a prime example, we lost at home to them and IMO it was the the worst United side I have seen to date in PL.

We don't even need to be that smart to beat them IMO, but I have this horrible feeling we will just pass it around without really troubling them.

They worry me with their counter attacks too because that's where they can and most likely will really hurt us.

I hope Arsene has them physically and mentally ready for Sunday because a defeat could really damage this team IMO.

[Maestro]

Great win and performance, I thought. Been waiting a while for us to really smash someone and the team done well.

With it now comes a glimmer of hope and a massive obligation to BEAT Utd on Sunday and show real intent for a title push. Can we do it? I don't know but damn it would be great to thump them, for so many reasons COYG!