Match Reaction vs Man City (away).

[Dein-machine]

Quit lying

At 22, Ronaldinho was making Ashley Cole do the chicken dance



and was part of a triumvirate which blasted its way to the World Cup.

If youre saying Ozil has the stats, why are you throwing a tiff about me not liking him because be doesnt have the eye-catching stats? Lets face it, it has nothing to do with stats, right now hes not imposing himself on games the way the very best players do.

Normally the very best players are at the very best clubs and are also surrounded by some of the other very best players in the world. At the moment when we feed Ozil he has nowhere to go & no one to feed unless Ramsey is making a forward run. We need to put some quality around him - Giroud, Whilshere, Santi - not good enough. I'm hoping Theo can benefit from him & vice versa but also that the German bond with Polds can work for us. Will Wumger add more quality in Jan?

[BOBN]

Normally the very best players are at the very best clubs and are also surrounded by some of the other very best players in the world. At the moment when we feed Ozil he has nowhere to go & no one to feed unless Ramsey is making a forward run. We need to put some quality around him - Giroud, Whilshere, Santi - not good enough. I'm hoping Theo can benefit from him & vice versa but also that the German bond with Polds can work for us. Will Wumger add more quality in Jan?

As our only offensive player any real consequence, I do expect Walcott to effectively rescue Ozil from failure. The question is will Walcott be enough.

From now on our training regimes should be based on getting the ball to Walcott at opportune moments. Lets stop indulging these feeble tiki-takers and play to our true strength.

[Dein-machine]

As our only offensive player any real consequence, I do expect Walcott to effectively rescue Ozil from failure. The question is will Walcott be enough.

From now on our training regimes should be based on getting the ball to Walcott at opportune moments. Lets stop indulging these feeble tiki-takers and play to our true strength.

Its worrying that we may need Walcott to be on fire to keep our title challenge going. He's been far too inconsistant in recent years, how many times have we thought he was on the verge of greatness to then be kicked in the bollocks again.

[Power n Glory]

Normally the very best players are at the very best clubs and are also surrounded by some of the other very best players in the world. At the moment when we feed Ozil he has nowhere to go & no one to feed unless Ramsey is making a forward run. We need to put some quality around him - Giroud, Whilshere, Santi - not good enough. I'm hoping Theo can benefit from him & vice versa but also that the German bond with Polds can work for us. Will Wumger add more quality in Jan?

It’s normal now to see such a saturation of talent in one team but it wasn’t always normal. Club football has surpassed international football in that regard. You used to have to wait for International tournaments to see some the finest players in the world assembled in one squad but it’s now common place with modern day super clubs. Things were easier for Ozil at Madrid and he didn’t have as much pressure to be that game changer and focal point. Wenger will have to set him a goal target for next season and challenge him to take on more responsibility. If the pass isn’t there he needs to go looking for the goal. Make something special happen.

I don’t even think we need to spend crazy money to get the best out of his passing. We just have the wrong players. Giroud has stopped making intelligent runs into the box and Walcott has hardly played this season. Santi is a good player and could assist Ozil and free up space for him because he’s another ball carrier. We had the same problem when Cesc and Nasri were here and Cesc just started banging in goals. We need a mix where we can develop Ozil into a better player but also have players on the field that can utilises his passing and movement.

[Letters]

We're top of the league for now yes and we've done well in the league but the signs are when we come up against top sides and sides we historically have struggled against in the last 8-9 years we still lose

Fine, but last year we were struggling against lots of sides, not just the big teams. At this stage last year we'd drawn with Sunderland, Stoke, Fulham, Villa and Everton, lost against Norwich. Those are games a side like Arsenal 'should' be winning and while you're not going to win all of them we were failing in far too many. We picked it up towards the end of the season but as you noted at the time we laboured through a lot of them and there were quite a few 1-0s. A for example I can think of off the top of my head is Norwich at home. Yes, we did beat them last year but man we made a meal of it, we were 1-0 down for quite a while and only rescued it towards the end - IMO we deserved to win that day but we made hard work of it, this year we battered them and haven't been sneaking games 1-0.

All the discussions you mentioned about performances can be had after any result, there's no reason Arsenal have to lose to talk about how well individual players or the team played - you take an overly negative view of Arsenal so you only seem interested in those discussions after a poor result, you can win after playing poorly and those discussions can still be had.

Saturday was a bit of a freak game. Conceding 6 there is bad although they have been scoring silly numbers of goals at home. It's true to say they haven't put 6 past many teams although it's the 3rd time so far they've done so or better and didn't they put 5 past Utd? It's also true to say we scored 3 up there and no teams have done that against them at home, they'd only conceded 2 at home all season before we went there. You can put a positive or negative spin on anything, you always seem to choose the latter.

I agree we should wait till the end of the season before judging where we are, that should always be the measure of a season, but this is the first time for years I've genuinely enjoyed how we're playing and have felt confident in the team winning most games. That confidence has been knocked a bit of late and I'm worried about the Chelsea game. But the improvement so far has been fantastic and it's not just a slight improvement, we're still top of the league. Who seriously thought we'd be there at this stage? I don't think we'll stay there but after last season it's not reasonable to expect us to be champions this year. The fact it's been 8 years is not the reason we should expect to challenge, quite the reverse. The fact it's been that long, and that we haven't had a serious challenge for years, shows there's a lot of improvement to make and unless you have a billionaire funding you it's hard to make that improvement in one season. We could have done more in the summer but we're heading in the right direction.

I don't really accept that this is our chance this year. It's not like we were right on the top sides' heels last year, there was a lot of ground to make up. City have a squad that an educated chimp could get to finish near the top, Chelsea have a good squad too and now have Mourinho who has won the PL and CL both more than once, he's no mug. The only side to be affected adversely by a change is ManYoo. And Liverpool and Everton are suddenly in good form, I didn't see that coming but it's quite a competitive league this year.

There's more work to be done, we need more options up front and although I rate Giroud he's not a striker I can see winning us the title, but we're making progress and that's a good thing.

[Munchies]

Skipping through it, Cazorla at 14:10 with David Silva/Demechelis

Theo and judas lesbo

Kosc getting lesbos shirt at the end

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

3 goals at City and you can really argue it ought to have been 4 if Giroud's wasn't chalked off. Usually if you score 3 goals away from home and come away with nothing, you are dumbfounded, never mind 4.

[Dein-machine]

It’s normal now to see such a saturation of talent in one team but it wasn’t always normal. Club football has surpassed international football in that regard. You used to have to wait for International tournaments to see some the finest players in the world assembled in one squad but it’s now common place with modern day super clubs. Things were easier for Ozil at Madrid and he didn’t have as much pressure to be that game changer and focal point. Wenger will have to set him a goal target for next season and challenge him to take on more responsibility. If the pass isn’t there he needs to go looking for the goal. Make something special happen.

I don’t even think we need to spend crazy money to get the best out of his passing. We just have the wrong players. Giroud has stopped making intelligent runs into the box and Walcott has hardly played this season. Santi is a good player and could assist Ozil and free up space for him because he’s another ball carrier. We had the same problem when Cesc and Nasri were here and Cesc just started banging in goals. We need a mix where we can develop Ozil into a better player but also have players on the field that can utilises his passing and movement.

Someone of Ozil's quality should be central to do what we do but I seem to see him playing in wide positions. We need him central & further up the pitch with pace & quality around him. We'll get away with Flaminin, Whilshere, Cazorla, Giroud in 80% of the P.L games we play but in the other 20% & for C.L we need to add quality. The simple difference between us & Man City in Saturday was quality in the final 3rd, didn't think they were great defensively but Toure, Fernandinio, Nasri, Silva, Negrado & Aguero all seemed to link well & had the same train of thought. The only one on Ozil's level at the moment is Rambo. I'm afraid Santi could turn out to be another Arshavin & Giroud the French Bendtner. Certainly need Theo to spice things up & hope that Podolski comes back a different player especially with his old mate in the team now.

[Power n Glory]

Someone of Ozil's quality should be central to do what we do but I seem to see him playing in wide positions. We need him central & further up the pitch with pace & quality around him. We'll get away with Flaminin, Whilshere, Cazorla, Giroud in 80% of the P.L games we play but in the other 20% & for C.L we need to add quality. The simple difference between us & Man City in Saturday was quality in the final 3rd, didn't think they were great defensively but Toure, Fernandinio, Nasri, Silva, Negrado & Aguero all seemed to link well & had the same train of thought. The only one on Ozil's level at the moment is Rambo. I'm afraid Santi could turn out to be another Arshavin & Giroud the French Bendtner. Certainly need Theo to spice things up & hope that Podolski comes back a different player especially with his old mate in the team now.

Ozil moving out to the flank is how he plays and what he does. He moves wide, he sometimes goes deep or plays as second striker, all in one game. He's never told to stay central or to play wide, he's given freedom and that's how he naturally plays. I think the unorthodox movement means we don't have a talented player in the middle playing on the pivot. Ramsey is a bag of energy and never stays in the centre as the hub so it seems like we're missing a deep laying playmaker.

As for Santi, I think he's having to adjust to life on the left wing. I don't think it suits him in this league even though that's his natural position for Malaga. It's still early though. He's had a slower start than the rest because of injury and fatigue. He won't be an Arshavin. I think he'd be best suited in the middle or when we also have Rosicky playing. It's a hard one because we have so many players that should be playing in the middle.

As for City, their finishing separated us. Very clinical with their chances but a lot of their goals were gifts.