I tend to agree about Giroud, but again it's a case of Wenger thinking I can't drop this player because he scored in the last four games rather than thinking how he fits into the team.
He has a good record of scoring against these type of sides but he'd be better off coming from the bench.
Yeah it's because he's British even though it's abundantly clear we have considered Eddie Howe as a replacementOriginally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Yep, this season is like a complete re-run of last season, the comparisons are actually quite scary, the repeat poor performances, the league position, the "passive" title challenge...
There are similarities and differences
By this time last season we had lost eight times in league and cup competitions where as currently we have only lost four times (which could be that we have had easier fixtures this season).
We are still struggling to score goals at home (23 in 11 but better than the 16 in 10 by this point last time)
We are scoring more away from home (27 in 11 compared to 21 in 12 last time but again could be that we've played easier teams).
We have conceded two more goals than at this stage last season (23 rather than 21, but scored 50 rather than 37)
If you are talking generally about how our season will fizzle out in and around the time of our champions league matches like it did last season, I tend to agree.
It's just so boring. We've already seen from last season and the season before that Sanchez wide, Giroud top, Ozil just behind with Ramsey as CM can only take us so far. We've seen the full potential of that team and it's not enough. Introducing Giroud has blunted the influence of Sanchez. He's not as much of goal threat from wide. His movement is more predictable and it doesn't take a managerial genius to figure out that you have to stay compact and stop him from cutting in on his good foot. It's broken up his partnership with Ozil also.
The only team we're failing to compete with right now is Chelsea who, to be fair, have gone pretty mental. If you win 18 out of 22 games then you deserve to be top.
The Invincibles wouldn't be top at this stage if there was a team doing what Chelsea are doing so far this year (although they'd be close, they had 52 points after 22 games).
The next 2 games are key. Chelsea have Liverpool away while we have Watford at home. Chelsea could well drop points and assuming we don't cock that up (I know, but bear with me) we could go there knowing that a win might put us, say 3 points behind them. I have a feeling we'll balls it up but we can live in hope a little longer...can't we?
This statement happens every season. The only thing different is the name of the mental side varies.. the only thing constant is that we are never the 'mental' side. We are always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Arsene Wenger, the only football manager that got paid 8 million quid to do nothing but sit on his arse..
Yeah I honestly thought for once he had decided to stick with Sanchez up front, with Welbeck back especially I think this approach would pay dividends.
I think actually if anything this is about Wengers lack of assertiveness, he's picked Giroud because he's scoring goals and it's him agonising over dropping him and preferring to shoe horn him into the side the way he does with Ramsey
Nope. No-one went mental last year. After 22 games we were top
After leading a lead slip late against liverpool and then only managing to grind out a draw against stoke. Now a draw at stoke isn't in of itself terrible and Leicester had only drawn with Villa the previous day.Nope. No-one went mental last year. After 22 games we were top
However I think letting that 3-2 lead go in the 90th minute was part of a psychological unravelling.
We won on January 2nd 1-0 at home to Newcastle (a game we could have very easily lost) and didn't win again in the league until 7th February away at Bournemouth.
In fact between the beginning of the year and March 5th we won only three times from nine league games.
Last edited by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie; 23-01-2017 at 03:12 PM.
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