Match Reaction vs Soton (away)

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Thankfully, we’ve ditched the suicidal high backline. Was reading Arseblog today or one of the columns and didn’t we manage to beat Southampton during the home tie because we pressed them when high up the pitch? Goalkeeper mistakes? I thought our defensive tactic was to press within the first few seconds of losing the ball then back off and contain if unsuccessful. We’ve stopped pressing as hard and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this. I remember when we first started playing a 4-3-3 we were pressing hard and as a unit but that stopped as the season went on. We’d also see a high pressing game in odd games like that one game against Chelsea and then we’d abandon that tactic. We’ll see what we do over the next few games.

Yeah the game was in stark contrast to the other game against them. I'm not the biggest fan of high backlines but if we want to press and squeeze the opposition in their own half, then the backline does need to follow suit and play a higher line themselves.

[Power n Glory]

Yeah, that's if we want to contain them for long periods but the rule is we back off if we don't win the ball back in a few seconds and we get into our defensive shape to contain from a deeper position. According to Rosicky, anyway.

I think the main problem we had was Flam and Arteta both sitting too deep and leaving Ozil and Giroud isolated. I don't get why Arteta doesn't push up past Flamini to play as CM in these sort of situations. Adapt your game. He should be capable of playing further up since he's not a natural CDM. Also, Ozil really should look to collect the ball from a deeper position if he's not getting much joy in the final third. If he at least does that, he should be able to find Cazorla and Gnarby further ahead and either side of him. Both players tend to come infield anyway. We shouldn't be struggling to find an outlet.

[Niall_Quinn]

Playing deep is one thing, but giving ground to the opposition midfield and retreating to cover space like a pitch wide zonal system is pants and doesn't suit us at all. We made Southampton look a lot better than they are. Give any professional time and space and he'll be able to play (apart from all of Stoke's players). Sit deep if you want but put some pressure on the ball too. Forwards have to run twice as hard (or some decide not to run at all) if the opponent always has the ball.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

My main bug was Wenger not moving Santi to the centre, dropping Arteta (who clearly wasn't ready) and putting Podolski out wide. We lacked any creativity in the centre despite our squad having the most number of AM's out of anyone around.

Also don't know why Wenger is so reluctant to start Podolski at times. He's such an effective player if used correctly.

[fakeyank]

My main bug was Wenger not moving Santi to the centre, dropping Arteta (who clearly wasn't ready) and putting Podolski out wide. We lacked any creativity in the centre despite our squad having the most number of AM's out of anyone around.

Also don't know why Wenger is so reluctant to start Podolski at times. He's such an effective player if used correctly.

Pretty much

[Fist of Lehmann]

To an extent yes it does highlight how hard it can be at times, but it's not always this way.

Man Utd were 12 points clear this point last season, despite not playing that well and having dropped not that much fewer points than we have this season. It's just that everyone else was crap and no one else was consistent enough to put together a run to challenge for the league. City had thier problems with Mancini, Chelsea had the problems of Benitez/Di Matteo and we were our usual selves. If we were up against similar City and Chelsea teams this year, we've be storming the league right now (assuming the current Utd team with Moyes).

It's just our fucking luck isn't it?

In trying to determine levels of difficulty, I'm not sure it makes sense to transpose two teams results from last year and not do the same for the eventual champions. Ultimately it would have required we overhaul 89 points, beating them would have helped of course, but we well know how easy we find that.

In the last 5 years the League winners have garnered 90, 86, 80, 89 & 89 points respectively, demanding you outlast the 3 richest clubs in league. Chances of success are heavily skewed in favour of one of these 3 and even then it took a manager like Fergie to keep the slightly less monied Utd in the hunt.

They don't always have great seasons but all three underperforming at the same time is unlikely. In this sense we aren't unlucky. This is just the level we have to perform at if we want win the League in any given season, and if everyone else happens to turn out to be crap that season, so much the better, but you couldn't count on it.

So yes, for any club outside those top 3 (albeit top 2 for the time being) winning the League is difficult. For anyone beyond us and Liverpool - extremely difficult to virtually impossible.

[Ollie the Optimist]

this thread is quite funny. talk about premature meltdown. its taken us five days and we are further ahead then we have been since December

[Niall_Quinn]

It was a shit performance against Soton Ollie.

[fakeyank]

this thread is quite funny. talk about premature meltdown. its taken us five days and we are further ahead then we have been since December

Could be 4 points ahead now tbh..

[Letters]

Could be 4 points ahead now tbh..

We could be loads ahead if we'd won every game.
Or we could be well behind the top 2 if we hadn't dug in and won plenty of other games where we've not been great and it's been tight.

You're not going to win every game, you're not going to play well every game.
We're top of the fuckin' league, do we have to wring our hands and over-analyze every game as if Wenger's a c*** because we're not winning every game?

Tell you one thing for free, we'd have lost that game last year. We've become a lot better at getting points in games where we've not played well. We're 2 points above a side who have spunked a billion quid to buy success. I doubt we'll stay there but we're doing well to be anywhere near them let alone above them. Can people not shut up moaning for 5 sodding minutes? Jeez!

</rant>