Match Reaction vs Leicester (away).

[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]

[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.