Match Reaction v Spurs (Home - PL 16/17)

[Power n Glory]

You really have to work hard to be a sub and still garner the most criticism but the Ox outdone himself. Sickening showing from him. Xhaka has obviously never headed a ball in his life the way he went at that chance which leaves me wondering what on earth he's doing in Arsenal's midfield.

Clatternburg was a dipshit, missing the blatant pen from Vertonghen pulling Alexis' shirt as well as the obvious fouls on Theo. Trying to 'let the game flow'. Preening prick.

It was a bad cameo appearance from Ox but he's the least of our worries. First team starters first.

Coquelin and Xhaka aren't a good a combination. We didn't get any rash challenges from either but they did a poor job when it came to marking and pressing. It's even worse when it comes to dictating the tempo and controlling the midfield. It took us a long time to mount a decent attack and we really missed the distribution of Santi or Elneny. Spurs had more possession than us and we struggled to get the ball to our most dangerous players.

Xhaka was only able to find Ozil on 4 occasions. Sanchez 3. Walcott 3. Iwobi 5. That's really not good enough and I said it in the match thread, we've paid too much for him.

Iwobi probably needs to hit the bench. He had a poor game too. There was one moment where he could have played the ball inside to Sanchez that would have put us clean through on goal but he played it outside to Walcott who put in a tame cross. A month or two ago, Iwobi would have made that pass with ease. Maybe he has the jitters. Needs a bench but it doesn't help when you see what Ox has to offer.

A drew isn't a bad result. Poor penalty to give away. Coquelin should have done better to take the foul before that ever happened and Kos should have done better with his tackle.

Ref was awful as well. A real shit performance from him too.

[Niall_Quinn]

You really have to work hard to be a sub and still garner the most criticism but the Ox outdone himself. Sickening showing from him. Xhaka has obviously never headed a ball in his life the way he went at that chance which leaves me wondering what on earth he's doing in Arsenal's midfield.

Clatternburg was a dipshit, missing the blatant pen from Vertonghen pulling Alexis' shirt as well as the obvious fouls on Theo. Trying to 'let the game flow'. Preening prick.

The ref was either incompetent or he was cheating. But the same can be said for every ref really. None of them are up to reffing a PL game, not with all the snidey cheating and diving and the rest of it. The spuds are particularly good at breaking up the play without picking up the whole heap of yellows and reds they deserve for persistent fouling. Refs just aren't smart enough or bothered enough to let it go and pundits view it all as the rough and tumble of the PL which is fine, but not when we don't get the same benefits ourselves. Players like Dier and Wanyama are virtually talentless pubbers who secure a starting spot for their ability to run for 90 mins and fould without attracting cards for 90 mins. If the spuds players had been picking up cards like Kos' then they'd have ended up with 6 or 7 sent off. This is the dirty little secret of the PL, pub teams are given a free pass to do their stuff and make the league "exciting". That Xhaka red becomes more ludicrous as the weeks roll on and the lack of any other instance occurring becomes ever more conspicuous. There's certainly one rule for Arsenal and one rule for the rest. Don't know why it's that way - maybe it goes back to a general dislike for the club stirred up by comments from Neanderthals like Fat 'Crooked' Sam and Tony Putrid. I think the common "wisdom" that [they] "don't like it up 'em" has caused many a ref to look the other way.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

It was a bad cameo appearance from Ox but he's the least of our worries. First team starters first.

Coquelin and Xhaka aren't a good a combination. We didn't get any rash challenges from either but they did a poor job when it came to marking and pressing. It's even worse when it comes to dictating the tempo and controlling the midfield. It took us a long time to mount a decent attack and we really missed the distribution of Santi or Elneny. Spurs had more possession than us and we struggled to get the ball to our most dangerous players.

Xhaka was only able to find Ozil on 4 occasions. Sanchez 3. Walcott 3. Iwobi 5. That's really not good enough and I said it in the match thread, we've paid too much for him.

Iwobi probably needs to hit the bench. He had a poor game too. There was one moment where he could have played the ball inside to Sanchez that would have put us clean through on goal but he played it outside to Walcott who put in a tame cross. A month or two ago, Iwobi would have made that pass with ease. Maybe he has the jitters. Needs a bench but it doesn't help when you see what Ox has to offer.

A drew isn't a bad result. Poor penalty to give away. Coquelin should have done better to take the foul before that ever happened and Kos should have done better with his tackle.

Ref was awful as well. A real shit performance from him too.

Disagree about Clattenburg, it was a typical performance for a shit referee

I think Xhaka is a top draw player but has only shown it in spells this season, but no he and Coquelin are not a good combination. He isn't worth 34 million or whatever we played about half that as he's good but far from being world class.

That pair in front of the defence should be Cazorla and Xhaka, Elneny and Xhaka, Coquelin and Cazorla and Cazorla and Elneny....shouldn't play Elneny and Coquelin or Coquelin and Xhaka.

Not sure about Cazorla and Coquelin either, didn't work at all against high pressing PSG

[Özil's Panoramic View]

And the purgatory continues under the old fraud, his little lovies on the pitch and his legions of window lickers who back him to the hilt.

Nothing will change as long as the clueless looney remains at the helm. An ordinary spuds team under an ordinary manager come here for the 3rd season in a row and nullify us. The clown sets up his team the same way regardless of opponent; same timed subs, compounded by zero in game management.

Just fuck off wenker, and take Ramsey along with the tourists, that cram the bowl on match days, with you.

[Goonermerree]

Who would you get in to manage now?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

And the purgatory continues under the old fraud, his little lovies on the pitch and his legions of window lickers who back him to the hilt.

Nothing will change as long as the clueless looney remains at the helm. An ordinary spuds team under an ordinary manager come here for the 3rd season in a row and nullify us. The clown sets up his team the same way regardless of opponent; same timed subs, compounded by zero in game management.

Just fuck off wenker, and take Ramsey along with the tourists, that cram the bowl on match days, with you.

We should have won but it's ridiculous to call Spurs ordinary and their manager less so

This is a team that is incredibly hard to beat, they aren't scoring many but they sure as hell aren't conceding many. The team performance wasn't great but neither was it terrible.

[Chippy]

In fairness they drew a lot of errors out of us. Everything we did felt so rushed, I guess that's why they've become a very difficult team to play against.

Mustafi was all over the place today.

I said the other day that Mustafi is not much better than Merts! He was a panic buy in my opinion. Wenger cannot buy a decent defender unfortunately.

[Power n Glory]

Mustafi had a bad game but he's not worse than Merts. His bad game didn't costs us the game.

[Chippy]

Mustafi had a bad game but he's not worse than Merts. His bad game didn't costs us the game.

I said that "He is not much better than Merts".

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Coquelin and Xhaka aren't a good a combination. We didn't get any rash challenges from either but they did a poor job when it came to marking and pressing. It's even worse when it comes to dictating the tempo and controlling the midfield. It took us a long time to mount a decent attack and we really missed the distribution of Santi or Elneny. Spurs had more possession than us and we struggled to get the ball to our most dangerous players.

Completely baffling team selection from Wenger.

I mean he buys Elneny last January because he most likely saw how badly we fell apart once Santi got injured and he knew he needed to bring a long term replacement and yet when the time comes to play him when Santi inevitably gets injured he keeps him on the bench and the end result is the game against Ludograts where we just managed to get over the line after an appalling start and today's lethagic performance.

There's no defending it either. I just can't get what he was thinking ...... surely he must have known that Xhaka & Coquelin would struggle together.

I said that "He is not much better than Merts".

Definitely had a shocker by his standards today but he's a lot better than Merts. We can actually play a high line know which closes the gap to the midfield and pushes them further forward into the other team's half.