Match Reaction v Man City

[Özim]

Dixon and co analysed the performance thought we were decent and a bit unlucky, got to agree but think Man City edged in in terms of quality...they played some greast stuff.

Our attacking was pretty decent as was our effort, Vermaelen with a couple belters late on. Gervinho was busy and did well bar a few poor decisions, Arteta was solid and unlike many I thought Ramsey was excellent. I think most of the players were excellent today though Walcott was non existent and the right side of the defence was average in the 2nd half, Dixon thinks Mertersacker has added some experience though he's not sure he's the answer.....got to agree on that....he's decent but has an error of some sort in almost every game we play, Vermaelen has been great recently and it would be good to find someone of his quality to play alongside him....like Merts, Koscielny also has an error in him.

[Cripps_orig]

Not me today. I thought he tried to let the game go and didn't make any serious errors. RvPs was offside, Silva was onside and the ball was hit at Richards for the penalty decision, Richards had his arms by his side.They managed to get ahead of us a few times today, we didn't manage to get on top of them, otherwise it was a very even game and on another day we could have won that. City were stretched even though they're the ones with all the resources, we had to patch together a team after yet more injuries to the defence. When we needed to bring quality off the bench we didn't have any. You have to wonder how much impact Ox might have had coming off the bench today into a game where everyone else was tiring. We got Arshavin and Chamack and the pair of them have been useless all season.

Apart from Oxface, the bench is pretty much the best of the rest. The likes of Park etc are worse than Chamakh so makes no sense having them on the bench. Arshavin was poor tonight when he came on. Chamakh had a few minutes though in which he won the free kick that Arteta took to Vermaelen who had his shot tipped over. Best player in the world would struggle to make much impact in a game playing for only few minutes. Not worried about Chamakh. More than capable back up for RVP as we saw when RVP had his last major injury but could be the end of the road for Arshavin

[Marc Overmars]

Dixon and co analysed the performance thought we were decent and a bit unlucky, got to agree but think Man City edged in in terms of quality...they played some greast stuff.

Our attacking was pretty decent as was our effort, Vermaelen with a couple belters late on. Gervinho was busy and did well bar a few poor decisions, Arteta was solid and unlike many I thought Ramsey was excellent. I think most of the players were excellent today though Walcott was non existent and the right side of the defence was average in the 2nd half, Dixon thinks Mertersacker has added some experience though he's not sure he's the answer.....got to agree on that....he's decent but has an error of some sort in almost every game we play, Vermaelen has been great recently and it would be good to find someone of his quality to play alongside him....like Merts, Koscielny also has an error in him.

I thought City were pretty good, they reminded me of us in years gone by, moving the ball around at every opportunity, they really exploited the fact we had no natural full backs on the pitch. They're easily the best side in the league IMO, only thing that will stop them is themselves.

We certainly matched them at times but you always felt they had a little bit of extra quality.

[Ollie the Optimist]

city were good but then when you buy billions pounds worth of talent then you expect them to be. the whole team stood up to the test and although they lost, did fucking well. look at spurs or united, they were thrashed at home by city, we went to city and made them work hard. this team is improving, as i said earlier, conceded 3 goals in the last 6 games. wenger pulled it out the bag in the summer and now we need to kick. win the games that we should and then when the big boys turn up, see what happens

[Marc Overmars]

The frustrating thing is, although we're obviously a much stronger outfit these days, given the nature of the league at the moment there is every chance we may miss out on 4th. Long way to go though and we have every reason to think we can bounce back in style over the coming Xmas period.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Numbers wise we are fine in every position.

Quality wise, its another matter

To be honest Wenger gave a fair assessment, we were diddled out of a PK that they would have got had it been the other way round but thats life. . .

Wenger does however need to face reality that we need to spend in January. . .the squad needs to be stronger and I say a first team level striker should be top of the list, if we are bargain hunting then go for Henry on loan as he would be a better option than 'Cham'

[Japan Shaking All Over]

apparently city gave nasri MOTM? funny didnt realise he was playing. he did fuck all

Yeah by the sponsors of the stadium?

Wonder who they are? Defo WUMming on behalf of the Arab mafia!

[Japan Shaking All Over]

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-we-got-encouragement-but-we-needed-points-

Wow, expected Wenger to be more upbeat about the performance than that. Sounds gutted

Seems like he really thought we had a shot at the title if we won the game.

The full-back situation is genuinely unlucky - even by our ridiculous injury proneness - but the defence was ok, we just needed a goal. We're not going to buy anyone good in January so that depth problem will remain. Need the midfielders, Gerv and Walcott to start netting more. Ramsey, in particular, has to start sorting his feet out because he cannot keep missing the chances he has been.

The 16 games we've played this season have involved a disproportionate number of difficult away games. The teams above us - Tottenham, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea we have all played away. We'll have some very good chances to claw some points back in the second half of the season. A win against Villa would be fantastic because the next 2 are home bankers.

True. . .we seem to have got a few difficult games out the way and should be looking to squaring thingd up when we play host to those same times.
Citeg attimes we amazingly fluid and we were caught out by their movement, but a draw would not have been totally injust. . .we need to bring the same intensity to all the games that follow. . .we are behind them but not by a million miles

[Power n Glory]

We've missed Wilshere. We're getting no joy from the middle of the park and everything depends on wing play. When up against teams with strong wing backs and tricky wingers, we're going to struggle to get our wingers into the game. Theo and Gervinho work hard on defence a tracking back but we also depend heavily on their creativity and carrying the ball forward. When teams clamp down on them, we're in trouble because Ramsey and Arteta aren't creative enough.

Ramsey has hustle and gets about the pitch, but he's sloppy sometimes and lacks the vision and skill to play that killer pass. Arteta just isn't mobile enough. His off the ball movement is slow and he struggles to find space at times. I thought Ramsey worker his socks off and was all over the pitch in the first half but all that wok rate translates to very little creatively. Song has been our best provider this season out of the middle three and I thought it was a mistake to shift him to CB. Also thought it was a mistake taking Theo off. A very quiet game for Theo but he put in a brilliant cross for Ramsey and forced a good save from Hart. He's another one of our most creative players with a good partnership with RVP. I can't see why Wenger would take him off for Arshavin at that point.

Anyway, we battled hard but I think the middle is a key area thy needs working on. For years it was our strongest area and I kept on saying we needed wingers to compliment that and stretch play, but now it seems we have the wingers but have lost the middle. Where the heck is Rosicky? is he still injured? He was having a good run of games until the international break and now he's AWOL.

[Boss]

Quite happy with the overall performance, don't think we deserved to lose. Defended pretty well despite the reshuffled side and then the injury.

Theo, Gervinho were complete garbage, Chamakh nonexistant as usual and think I've finally had it with Arshavin after that wasteful performance today.

Coin flip between Ramsey / Arteta for who Wilshere replaces, think Ramsey has a far better potential (even at the moment) but wastes his play trying silly flicks and needs to learn how to finish. Arteta is solid but nothing more than that.

Quite impressed with Vermaelen's two shots, unlucky... play him up front tbh.