Match Reaction v Man City

[Marc Overmars]

I thought we paid the price for having no full backs available.

I thought we'd manage to contain them and we did for a while, but as soon as they started finding gaps our defence was stretched all over the place. Positioning was terrible for most of the 2nd half.

Absolutely cursed with injuries.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Our squad is too thin, which forces us to bring on turds like Chamakh and Arshavin, while they can bring on De Jong, Milner and Dzeko. Those two offer us nothing at the moment, and the fact that they're ahead of Benayoun and Park speaks volumes about how lacking we are in terms of strength in depth.

And I don't know what Oxlade has to do to get into the first team. Walcott and Gervinho are playing very poorly at the moment, and both could be benched.

However, we shouldn't be surprised that this has happened. In the Summer, everyone was saying we needed to supplement the squad with real quality, but Wenger decided to simply add a few journeymen footballers.

Comparing our squad's quality to Citeh's is a bit silly. We aren't going to have one better than them. It's true that we could have better options, I won't argue with that but using Citeh as some kind of example of where we're going wrong is wholly unfair.

[hobson's choice]

Was disappointed with Gervinho today, played hard and all, but he looked like he was scared when he had a one on one with Toure and Richards

[Cripps_orig]

I thought we paid the price for having no full backs available.

I thought we'd manage to contain them and we did for a while, but as soon as they started finding gaps our defence was stretched all over the place. Positioning was terrible for most of the 2nd half.

Absolutely cursed with injuries.

This

Lack of a full back lost us the goal today.

[Joker]

Comparing our squad's quality to Citeh's is a bit silly. We aren't going to have one better than them. It's true that we could have better options, I won't argue with that but using Citeh as some kind of example of where we're going wrong is wholly unfair.

Fair enough, but as you also say the gap could have been smaller between the benches if we were a bit bolder and decided to spent a bit more to get higher quality players in.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fair enough, but as you also say the gap could have been smaller between the benches if we were a bit bolder and decided to spent a bit more to get higher quality players in.

I don't disagree with that.

[Marc Overmars]

I'm just happy we made a real go of it. Far too often in the past we've just looked powderpuff away to a rival and slumped to a typical defeat. City know they were in a game and you can tell how much it meant to them to get the points.

Biggest thing for us is to bounce back ASAP and not get down about this.

[AKBapologist]

To be perfectly honest, city where shit today compared to the best teams in the world. A better forward line would have dominated city's back line. Given how poor they were keeping posesion or controlling the tempo of the game, it's only a matter of time before they get found out this season. Mancini is a shocking manager.

[Master Splinter]

I think Wenger should be involving Ju and AOC more, but having four full-backs, Wilshere and Diaby out severely hampers our options.

As ever, injuries are our main problem.

The fact that a small group of players has performed consistently and has had to put up with constant changes at the back deserves praise.

There's very little to complain about today.

If we don't respond in the next few games, then a volcano of vitriolic criticism would be understandable. At the moment, it seems unjustified and petty.

[Dennis Bendtner]

I thought we were containing them effectively until half-time. The lack of natural full-backs wasn't hampering us greatly, other than in the final third.

It went downhill when Miquel came on. I'm not sure why the back four was shuffled so much. Koscielny was doing well in the first half, but had a shocker at right-back in the second. Indecision was quite likely after they all changed position. We see enough of that from game to game, let alone half to half.