That was just unfortunate. Could have happened to anybody. Heck, could have been the new signing if we had one knowing our luck.
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Annoying because it clouded a pretty solid second half performance from us
We looked good on the ball, our passing was incisive and we were prepared to actually take shots on goal and were fairly clinical
Defensively we looked a bit suspect, both Monreal and Gibbs let their man get past them far too easily.
Didn't see any positive signs in that match, well maybe Xhaka and El'Neny's pressing. I did see a whole bunch of usual stuff. We know we can score if teams come out to play against us. That's no surprise and even Theo will get a goal every now and then. He looks half the player Iwobi is though and if Wenger expects to get anything out of Theo this season then you can't blame Theo for that, you have to blame the old fool who never learns. Defence was a shambles as is mostly the case. Monreal and Bellerin are good players, but they give their opponents far too much space on the flanks. I know they have been told to do that, and I know the old goat then puts the onus on attacking fucking midfielders to race back as cover, but surely Bould could sneak in some coaching whilst the prehistoric fart was asleep? Ramsey looked way off the pace. Alexis too, he did very little up top but disguised this with a couple of good moments. Not his fault and he was coming back from a nasty ankle injury (amazing he's back at all tbf), it wasn't until El'Neny came on that he had anything to feed from. Which will most likely cost Elmo his place. Wenger doesn't like that, forward passing - very vulgar.
And Santi is a better player than Silva. A considerably better player. If they swapped clubs then the media would be all, Ooooooh Santi! Santi this, Santi that.
So you did see some positives. :lol:
Give Theo some credit after you said we were down to 10 men.. Also, it's good to see that we tried Sanchez up front. Wasn't convinced by Ramsey but it was his first game back.. Elneny is one heck of a player and I hope Wenger starts him. It's down to team selection now. If Wenger starts Xhaka he has to start Elneny. I think Elneny is essential to the way we want to play. More so than Cazorla because he doesn't make as many mistakes. Santi should play higher up field behind the striker.
But again, it's down to Wenger to try something different and I hope he gets the team selection right.
You see the best of Cazorla when he's given licence to play more advanced and that I imagine is the benefit of having three defensive minded types like Coquelin, Elneny and Xhaka to choose from (although I think Elneny is more of a box to box supporting midfielder than a defensive one)
That plus you can only play who you are up against, yes the way we play suits us when we play teams like Man City but at the same time you can't expect us to showcase a different style of play which would be effective against teams that sit deep but totally pointless against City.
The takeaway from today is that we need a centre back and striker, simple as.