Match Reaction: Arsenal 0 Middlesbrough 0

[RomfordPele]

Yet to see the game but why is Elneny taking so much of the blame? He's not our creative player but he had a 95% completion rate, played the ball forward more times than he played it square or backwards and supplied our most creative players more than any other midfielder. Ozil received the ball from MO more than an other player but Ozil didn't create a single chance and actually played the ball backwards more than he did forward.

Mo, in fact, supplied Iwobi and Theo more than any other midfield player. Considering his pass completion rate is so high and he's getting tha ball to our most creative players, shouldn't the burden fall on these guys to create something more? He's no Santi but the bias on here is crazy. The burden has to fall on our most creative players. Ozil, Sanchez, Iwobi and Theo. They have to pick up the slack. Should be no excuses for these guys creating zero or just 1 chance from 90 minutes. No successful takes on and hardly any shots on goal. What the heck are they doing? When we're up against a stubborn defence we need players to take some risks. The problem isn't Elneny because this sounds like the sort of problem we had against Burnley.

I don't think elneny played badly at all yesterday. The problem was that him and coquelin together don't work, and are never going to work, against a team that sits back. We needed someone to carry the ball, break through the first line, disrupt their order and create space for Ozil, Sanchez and Walcott. Neither coquelin or elneny can do that, which is why it was a pretty poor team selection by Le Genius.

That said, I accept the point that the ox wasn't much better when he came on (Perez was anonymous too), which is why it was strange keeping him around this season and loaning out Jack. We could have done with Jack yesterday, I reckon...

[Niall_Quinn]

Elneny was a disaster zone and those stats of 95% pass completion are the main problem. He got a lot of the ball and everything he did was ultra, ultra conservative. He played the same role as Coquelin so you can understand why we had literally nothing creative coming from the middle. You expect this of Coquelin, it is his job. But when Elneny (I bet through no fault of his own) is doing the exact same job then the team is fucked. Every time the ball went into that centre the game was slowed to a crawl and the men ahead of the ball had to either come back or stand around waiting for the pass - the short pass every time and only if the infuriating tip back to Coquelin wasn't on. And that was that, dead attack, nothing created. Either this showed severe limitations in the ability of Elneny where he completely failed to emulate or even approximate the Cazorla or Xhaka role, or Wenger panicked at the loss of those two and shut up shop at home to dog shit Middlesboro. I think it was the latter because I've seen Elneny play far better against better teams.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Elneny is in danger of making a rep as Mr circumspect but saying a disaster zone is too far. He won't lose you the game and he'd never have made the mistake Xhaka did for Swansea's goal the other day.

Ironically it was a good day for Wilshere to come in.

I want the club to come out and just admit they've sold Giroud.

[Niall_Quinn]

Elneny is in danger of making a rep as Mr circumspect but saying a disaster zone is too far. He won't lose you the game and he'd never have made the mistake Xhaka did for Swansea's goal the other day.

Ironically it was a good day for Wilshere to come in.

I want the club to come out and just admit they've sold Giroud.

Meant his role was a disaster zone. He was very solid in what he was asked to do. The problem was what he was asked to do was a joke considering we were playing Middlesboro at home.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

As I said after the Burnley game, we need to stop trying to play the ball into congested middle where invariably we end up passing sideways and backwards

I think our best option is to play the ball in behind the full backs and across the face of goal.

[Power n Glory]

Elneny is an easy target. NQ is ignoring a few facts. Yes, Mo passed the ball to Coquelin 17 times but also played the ball Ozil 15 times and Iwobi 14. That'd his top 3 passing combos. It's not as if he couldn't get the ball to our most creative players. Mo created a good chance for Sanchez but Ozil and Iwobi created zero chances. How? Why? Ozil's assist and chance creation rate has dried up a little and that's being overlooked.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Meant his role was a disaster zone. He was very solid in what he was asked to do. The problem was what he was asked to do was a joke considering we were playing Middlesboro at home.

The negative passing thing was actually levelled at him immediately in his Arsenal career. By neutrals if not always by Arsenal fans, but he came at a time we were just relieved for a competent, reliable hard working player. Not to do him down, it's merely an observation but he has to now realise to be considered more seriously he's going to need to do more. Whether it is his game or not, there's a lot of competition.

[Power n Glory]

As I said after the Burnley game, we need to stop trying to play the ball into congested middle where invariably we end up passing sideways and backwards

I think our best option is to play the ball in behind the full backs and across the face of goal.

Exactly. It's the same issue we had against Burnley. Batter a team in the Champs League followed up by a lacklustre performances. We had Xhaka and Cazorla play that game and we got lucky with our goal.

I think it's a problem with our opposition and our style of play when we're not moving the ball quick enough and the we haven't got the movement in the final third. It's nothing like having Ramsey and Flamini in the middle because in those games we'd struggle to string together an attack and pin our opponents back. Moves would break down after two or three passes and it's like we had no midfield presence at all to mount an attack. Flam or Ramsey would keep giving the ball away and we've have a real problem getting the ball to our creative players.

[Niall_Quinn]

Elneny is an easy target. NQ is ignoring a few facts. Yes, Mo passed the ball to Coquelin 17 times but also played the ball Ozil 15 times and Iwobi 14. That'd his top 3 passing combos. It's not as if he couldn't get the ball to our most creative players. Mo created a good chance for Sanchez but Ozil and Iwobi created zero chances. How? Why? Ozil's assist and chance creation rate has dried up a little and that's being overlooked.

Except if you read what I'm saying you'll see Elneny isn't my target. Wenger's excessive caution and negativity and his seemingly endless desire to do the absolute minimum is my target.

[Power n Glory]

Except if you read what I'm saying you'll see Elneny isn't my target. Wenger's excessive caution and negativity and his seemingly endless desire to do the absolute minimum is my target.

That's another easy target. Do you think Wenger has told them to be more cautious? That makes no sense and we've had this debate before. We have key players out injured and Ozil isn't making assists. He has 1 all season.