Match Reaction vs Man Utd (home).

[Power n Glory]

It's the tempo that's so important, no matter who plays. The tempo and the accurate passing. Too many times we play that plodding pace and I think it puts the players off, the get lazy and careless with the passing.

Very true. But I also think the tempo relates to the pace up front and the movement. It goes back to what I've always thought about the balance of the squad. Lack of runners and off the ball movement.

[Letters]

Let's not do this after one game - AGAIN.:

I agree, but people on here over-react after one bad game. Football fans are reactionary.

IMO we're good enough to challenge this year. I've kept saying that because I genuinely believe it but I would agree we've not seen a huge amount of evidence to back that up. We saw it on Sunday though. The trick is to get consistent. I don't expect that level every game, that is unrealistic and no team does that, but we have to stop switching off and thinking we just need to turn up and win.

[Power n Glory]

Is anyone really over board? What are you guys seeing here that I'm not? Nothing wrong with praising the performance of the players and manager without going into the negatives.

[IBK]

Is anyone really over board? What are you guys seeing here that I'm not? Nothing wrong with praising the performance of the players and manager without going into the negatives.

Aye - in fact its only fair to enjoy and praise a good performance when we have been criticising the dross. I used to bang on about this all the time. Football supporting is an emotional business. i donpt think its fair that so many on here are seen as 'over-reacting' to one bad result. The over-reaction from most in these situations is because often a bad performance from us is not a stand alone thing - its a repetition of failings or obvious mistakes that have characterised the team for years - so its criticism born of frustration. Similarly, its been instructive to see that no-one is gettigng carried away with Saturday's win. If we show the same kind of performance over the next half-dozen wins, then the reaction to a disappointing result will become more measured, I am sure.

[Dein-machine]

No - people react on here because we've had a decade of "last weeks". You & I were debating on another thread where I told you whilst I enjoyed the game against Leicester & the way we attacked I wasn't over excited because we have become used to what happens next. Then 3 days later we have the shambles of a performance against the Greeks. Its not just one game, its regularly occurring every year.
Reasons for this weeks rollercoaster of a ride.
1, If we had started all 3 games on the front foot & hungry, aggressive - moving the ball quickly & taking our chances then we would have beaten the Greeks by a few goals aswell.
2, If we had started with Cech in goal for all 3 games there is a very good chance that we wouldn't have given the Greeks the belief they had with a half time lead.
3, If we had players playing with consistency rather than 1 game on 1 game off then we also would be winning all 3 games. In the same way that Bayern won all their 3 games in the same week by convincing margins, consistency with quality players in all positions (none costing more than Ozil cost us).

The key words are quality & consistency. Consistency breads quality but you need the quality in the 1st place to become consistent. We have two many players who's quality will never lead to consistency & we don't deal with these weak links in the transfer window.

[IBK]

Whilst it would be wonderful if we could blow teams away like that week in week out, we won't be quite as lucky with the space we were afforded on Sunday, every week. Leicester also showed they were happy to come out against us rather than sitting, and also got punished. Any manager worth their salt will be looking to sit against us from now on, rather than let us play through the inside channels on the counter attack.

Unfortunately, many of our matches will find us playing with 10 men in front of us, and limited space. This will entirely change the questions asked of us. What we need to know, is does this team have it in them to break teams down week in week out? It's an entirely different game when we end up passing sideways across the pitch....which is why a fit and form Giroud is crucial if we want to push on.....

A fit and in form Giroud would be crucial if we concentrated more on crossing from wide positions rather than the slow build up that tends to happen when players (Ramsey; Ozil) come inside into congestion. I am not a Giroud detractor, and I think that he will respond to healthy competition up front from Walcott - that will also prevent him becoming knackered, which often happens. But Wenger has to learn to play to his strengths, and this means crosses, and runners into the box.

[IBK]

No - people react on here because we've had a decade of "last weeks". You & I were debating on another thread where I told you whilst I enjoyed the game against Leicester & the way we attacked I wasn't over excited because we have become used to what happens next. Then 3 days later we have the shambles of a performance against the Greeks. Its not just one game, its regularly occurring every year.
Reasons for this weeks rollercoaster of a ride.
1, If we had started all 3 games on the front foot & hungry, aggressive - moving the ball quickly & taking our chances then we would have beaten the Greeks by a few goals aswell.
2, If we had started with Cech in goal for all 3 games there is a very good chance that we wouldn't have given the Greeks the belief they had with a half time lead.
3, If we had players playing with consistency rather than 1 game on 1 game off then we also would be winning all 3 games. In the same way that Bayern won all their 3 games in the same week by convincing margins, consistency with quality players in all positions (none costing more than Ozil cost us).

The key words are quality & consistency. Consistency breads quality but you need the quality in the 1st place to become consistent. We have two many players who's quality will never lead to consistency & we don't deal with these weak links in the transfer window.

Not sure why you are disagreeing with my post, given that you agree with my 2 main points

As for your specific observations - we have started quickly in a number of games - including Olympiacos. The difference being that we haven't finished our chances in that opening period - whereas against Manure we converted almost every one. Both Cech, and the players' attitude and commitment in defence are crucial, though - and this attitude and commitment are what we need to see on a consistent basis. The irony is that it should be much easier to ensure that your players are 100% up for each game than it is to ensure that they are on song technically.

[Dein-machine]

Let's not do this after one game - AGAIN.

This - Come on guys, let use the superior brain power than God blessed Arsenal fans with & not sound like the fickle idiots that I see from other teams. It was less than a week ago when most on here we're righting us off as absolute no hopers

[Power n Glory]

Aye - in fact its only fair to enjoy and praise a good performance when we have been criticising the dross. I used to bang on about this all the time. Football supporting is an emotional business. i donpt think its fair that so many on here are seen as 'over-reacting' to one bad result. The over-reaction from most in these situations is because often a bad performance from us is not a stand alone thing - its a repetition of failings or obvious mistakes that have characterised the team for years - so its criticism born of frustration. Similarly, its been instructive to see that no-one is gettigng carried away with Saturday's win. If we show the same kind of performance over the next half-dozen wins, then the reaction to a disappointing result will become more measured, I am sure.

It’s been measured and the praise has been good. But I think it’s about to get ugly. Letters again. The negative outpour doesn’t come from one bad result. We’ve discussed this so many times on here and it’s not worth going over again. We just need to give credit where it’s due when we perform like this without getting carried away.

[Dein-machine]

Not sure why you are disagreeing with my post, given that you agree with my 2 main points

As for your specific observations - we have started quickly in a number of games - including Olympiacos. The difference being that we haven't finished our chances in that opening period - whereas against Manure we converted almost every one. Both Cech, and the players' attitude and commitment in defence are crucial, though - and this attitude and commitment are what we need to see on a consistent basis. The irony is that it should be much easier to ensure that your players are 100% up for each game than it is to ensure that they are on song technically.

No sorry IBk, was responding to Letters but didn't do "reply with quote"!!

Agree with what you say but the reason we aren't finishing the hundreds of chances we create is consistency. We don't have a quality, consistent striker & we haven't had one since RVP. But we continue without, every year & will probably do the same in Jan window aswell as next Summer because our manager continues to argue the obvious. This will mean performamces like West Ham & Olympiakos, plenty of possession & chances but losing games, & the monotonous cycle continues.