Printable View
Our away form is terrible and there is no way we will finish anywhere near the top 4 this season because of it. Last season we finished with 75 points, a point of Liverpool in 4th with 76. We have 45 points and would need to win 10 out of the 11 games left to match last season's tally. Virtually impossible.
That is very depressing.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
with our away form i'm not sure 3 wins out of 5 is realistic - remember Brighton, Newcastle and Huddersfield will be desperate for the points - they will all see us as a possible result and throw a lot into itQuote:
Originally Posted by HCZ
We will finish 6th, that is as good as done unless Chelsea, Liverpool or Spurs collapse which isn’t likely. I couldn’t care less about the league anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
The Europa League is the only thing we need to be focusing on.
Again I could be guilty of trying to transpose what happened in 05/06 with what happened nowQuote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
But had only won three games by this stage then and then beat Fulham, Sunderland and Man City
Bloody hell that's optimistic! I agree on the home games though the City game could potentially be a loss.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ
The away games, nah....we are abysmal away from home this season, I think we'd be lucky to win more than 2 of those games out of the remaining 5.
Aye, we aren't going to finish above 2 of those 3 teams, it's pretty much impossible IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Europa League is the last throw of the dice and that will be extremely difficult to win IMO, it's as much as a challenge as finishing top 4 due to the quality of teams in it this year.
It’s more knowing Arsenal, i think when the pressure is off this team they will perform. I think with two of these games we will be out of the Europa league by then, we will probably make it past Ostersunds but probably go out in the next round.Quote:
Originally Posted by selassie
Plus we haven’t won less than six games away from home since 2000/2001 season
I could of course be wrong, but that’s why it’s a prediction.
Brighton are quite an open team, Newcastle we’ve won our last four league matches there and Huddersfield will as I say either be relegated or safe I think.
The difference between our home form and away form is pretty baffling.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
Home we are 3rd in the table behind City (obvs) but we're only behind Utd on goal difference, we've been good enough at home for a title challenge (if you ignore City but they're doing crazy things this year).
Away from home though...13 points in 14 games :lol: :doh:
It's 9th best and it all adds up to us being rock bottom of the "top 6".
I don’t think it’s that surprising. When you score away from home it’s far more likely to come from counter attacking movements. Our problem is that the creative and attacking players are not getting the ball released to them quickly enough by the likes of Xhaka and Ramsey and then the home side has players back to defend by that time.
We are far more likely to be pressed on the ball by the home side, which again with players like Xhaka and Ramsey leads to giving away possession in silly areas.
It’s more Xhaka than Ramsey in fairness, but actually I think you can attribute most of our dropped points to him. This awful 26 match run began when he started playing in the side more consistently.
Of our 14 defeats in 26, Xhaka played in 13 of them. Now I’m not going to say he was the difference between winning and losing because that’s overly simplistic. But when you’ve got a player on the pitch who is not protecting the defence and not really doing much with the ball going forward it doesn’t help
But it’s definitely a problem in midfield, it’s not to say defence is without its problems but when the midfield is not creating enough for attacking players and is leaving the defence exposed, it’s the reason we have scored 15 goals (which even then is an outlier as a third of those goals were scored in one game) and conceded 22 away from home
Case in point, we had a better defence in 05/06 but still lost 9 on the road because it was our first season without Vieira and we lost that link between defence and attack, and failed to score in 9 out of 19 games.
Spurs away, City away and Liverpool away we were second best on the day and there can be no complaints. However, losses to Stoke, Bournemouth etc were simply unacceptable and are the reason we are so far behind.
Not being funny but it's no wonder we're losing away from home so much when we're playing Xhaka, it's just like playing with 10 men. He offers nothing going forward, can't tackle, but what's worse is he spends most of his time ball watching, I've lost count of the number times the opposition get a goal and he's just jogging around casually not pressing the ball, really that's just not acceptable.
Any normal manager would have spotted this and tried something different in midfield, when you've got a player in CM who just doesn't really work hard or chase the ball you're in trouble, he's a passenger, we should have dropped him and tried a combination of the others, admitedly we don't have the solution in the squad becuse we never signed a decent DM, but anything is better than Xhaka, the sooner we get rid of this chump the better, he's one of Wengers worst signings, to think people thought he was good before he came, he's absolutely horrendous.
cant argue with that, Xhaka is a left footed Denilson (who also, incidentally, stunk up the place for a lot longer than he should before being sold) and is costing us points every other game, esp away from home. Liverpool targeted him back in August and got a lot of joy, other teams have also marked him as our weak link.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
He is slow on the ball, slow without the ball and i cannot remember seeing him sprint during a game.
sweet, sweet consensus
It’s not even really about being slow on the ball, plenty of players have dominated midfields without being particularly quick. It’s about his reading of the game which sucks balls.
I think it’s also lacking the physical strength or the desire to do anything other than the easy short passQuote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
We definitely lack pace in the midfield generally. None of our central midfielders can sprint. Whilst you don’t need everyone to sprint you need someone who can
To add some more light onto our miserable away record. Only twice this season have we scored more than one goal.
This was slightly better from where the away record run started last season where we scored more than once five times from 12 (in those games we won 4 and drew one)
Compare that to the previous 26 away games where we scored on average two goals a game, and found the net more than once on 16 of those 26 games (11 wins, 4 draws and one defeat)
definitelyQuote:
Originally Posted by HCZ
the more i read all this the more i agree re xhaka - i thought he had promise at first but a few early clumsy tackles meant the refs targeted him, so i think he's been neutralised as a tackler, he's not quick and although we should still give him credit for the odd good forward pass we're only getting about 1 per game now from what I've seen
maybe the problem is that xhaka isn't getting booked or sent off anymore so is available for every game. he must be one of the worst £30m+ signings around.... him and Mustafi
Bitter, bitter consensus. Because the one guy who can do anything about this - won't. He won't even listen to moderate and constructive criticism from club legends.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ
Not having beaten a supposed rival away from home since 2015 is the stat that sticks with me. How can you even pretend to be a title challenger with a record like that? And when it goes on for so long without anybody taking action to rectify the main problem, then you know the goal of this club is not to compete at the top. The record tells the truth. Our European records also tell us we aren't serious about competing there either. All we want to do is quality, the coveted Top 4 Trophy. Because that's what gets the money. Look at the pressure Conte is under compared to Wenger. The former will get the chop, the latter will inform us nearer the time whether he has decided to extend his own contract or not.
The only good advice he can follow is go. His reputation is already damaged. The only way to even partially salvage it is to disappear and let water flow under a few bridges.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Take up Golf, shack up in Paris with Sonia Tatar, live on an island somewhere with some other young chocolate face girl he’s taken a fancy to. Get the money come in from pundit appearances on French sports channel, run a football academy in Guadeloupe for young boys with malaria and aids. Do something as long as it’s away from Islington.
Absolutely right, but the stats I highlight mark the difference between being an also ran and having relegation form away from home. Title challenging would require more clean sheets but any manager needs to fix the shit Wenger has left us in before even thinking of a title challengeQuote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Aye, we are a complete mess in Central Midfield. As you and others have rightly stated we lack pace and strength, two things that are pretty much essential for gaining control of midfield in PL. What makes it worse is that aside from Wilshere, our Central Midfielders aren't even that technical. Sure Ramsey and Xhaka can on occasions both pick out a pass but they are both extremely inconsistent and pretty wasteful at times too.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ
I don't get what Wenger is trying to do with Central Midfield because it clearly isn't working and hasn't worked since Santi has been crocked.
Slow off the ball so it's hard for anyone to find him in the middle when we need to zip the ball about quickly. Slow on the ball and with it at his feet so when he comes under pressure he panics. So one footed he can't receive the ball on his right foot or pass it on his right so he's always having to swivel on to his stronger foot for any move....Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
Worst purchase we could have made for the midfield. He embodies the weaknesses of every central midfield player we've had recently 10x and offers none of their strengths.
Just to add, he has ruined Elneny. Totally different player compared to when we signed him.Quote:
Originally Posted by selassie
Agreed. The sad thing is he is Wenger's "Vanity Purchase" so hell will have to freeze over before he is dropped or replaced.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
Yep, I actually thought Elneny looked alright when he first joined but he's just gone backwards, like the others he doesn't seem to really do anything or have a specific defined role.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
I honestly believe Wenger has told the Central Midfielders to just play with freedom and interchange positions as and when necessary, it's like he wants them to have these undefined total football type roles when none of them are suited to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c5_Aj-vhUI
One of my favorite Arsenal podcasts out there. Clive, in the nicest way possible, sums up the cowardly behavior of Granit Xhaka. Around the 33 minute mark. Wilshere shouldn't have been battling with Dembele. Xhaka should have helped out because he should be the physical guy.
well like i said somewhere else, Xhaka got carded out of making any more tackles, call it cowardly but again it's down to the coaching team to teach him how to do it without having the refs on his backQuote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
I listened to that podcast just before lunch it echoed my sentiments about pace and power in midfield and about Xhaka
Not that these are unique or profound observations, apart from to the one man who can actually do anything about it