Match Reaction: Hull City 1 Arsenal 4

[Power n Glory]

I have always felt that if his finishing were better Wenger would seldom have taken him out since he first came into the team. Excellent use of the ball.....in fact so much so that I initially thought, surely Iwobi is a central midfielder and what on earth are we playing him wide for. He is actually looking like the non conventional playmaking wide player Wenger likes to balance out a more traditional wide player on the opposite wing.

Boom. I seldom bother with stats but happy to have them reinforce what my eyes were simply telling me on this occasion!


I was going to say exactly that but saw that you have. Even when he does well he is slaughtered or ironically / sarcastically commended.

Where I am quite critical of Theo and not a single person has mentioned it (I am quite the pedant) is that on Alexis' second Theo did not actually show for the ball (as an outlet) with any real conviction but just basically waited for Sanchez to score. Sanchez is gravy but he is certainly human. People suggested Sanchez ignored him and he may well have done so, but Theo never really game him an alternative that was inviting enough.

I feel we could just be far more systematic with good habits and doing the things we should be doing so we don't leave getting results when we really should a matter of chance or likely to be screwed by a plucky opponent / ref.

Iwobi definitely looks like he has the tools to play in the advanced midfield role but I'm sure he'll continue to find himself in those dangerous central positions. Wenger loves the interchanging and total football stuff. Well, total football in the attacking sense but not covering for defence. Wenger forgets that part of it. If Iwobi starts scoring goals he'll be a beast. But the weak area is his defending. We'll see how that develops. It gets exposed even more when playing on the flanks.

That was a really good finish from Sanchez. He had a lot of work to do. Theo should have made himself available because it wasn't an open net. I thought Sanchez pulled off a good finish against PSG as well.

It's an odd game. I saw the result and thought we had put them to the sword but that wasn't the case. Tougher test against Chelsea. They haven't won their last two games but look dangerous enough to do some damage. We have to step it up.

[Power n Glory]

I would drop Ozil for the Chelsea game and go with a midfield three of

-----Elneny---------Xhaka------

------------Carzola-------------

It's a massive call but we won't do it. The media circus would run a mile with that story. Wenger would definitely get slated if went on to lose that game. I think we have to pick Ozil for that game and hope he steps up.

[Power n Glory]

So has everybody made their peace with Sanchez being the sort of striker that drops deep quite often? When we get a bad result that is usually complained about and used as a reason he is unsuited to the role.

I should say I am still undecided about it but I distinctly remember it being something RvP made an art form of. Dropping deep that is.

On a side note I have the feeling Iwobi and Perez may have quite some chemistry.

I'm prepared to give Sanchez or Perez the time up front. Going back to Giroud will just paper over the cracks. It's a damn shame we don't have Henry or Wright in our coaching setup just to give Sanchez a few pointers on what he should be doing. That's all he needs. It's a case of learning and adapting. I don't see a huge problem with Sanchez dropping deep. It can work if we have players willing to drop into the spaces he vacates. We had that during the Highbury days with Dennis and Henry but it worked because of players like Pires, Wiltord and Ljungebrg advancing forward. Yesterday's game, it looked like we had players willing to do that.

[AFC Leveller]

[selassie]

Offensively Iwobi was amazing. A step up from the likes of Ox and Theo in terms of intelligence, vision and just footballing ability. Mentioned it in the match thread at the time but you could see how comfortable and trusting the likes of Alexis, Santi and Ozil were with using him as an outlet for attacking moves.

However defensively he left a lot to be desired and he left Monreal exposed too many times by often not tracking the runner. This wasn't a one off either as PSG had a field day last Tuesday down his side.


As for Alexis, scored a goal (or two) and was his usual busy dangerous self but he missed the pelanty and a sitter (by his standards) near the start when Theo cut back to him in the box. Still, he's starting to rack up the goals and assists again so you can't complain too much.

Fair play to Wenger for unearthing Iwobi, he looks to be improving from his really promising run last season. I really like Iwobi as a player, I don't really think he has any evident weaknesses, the boy has it all IMO. He should be a nailed on starter for now, he has most definitely earnt his spot.

Like you stated, I have also noticed Iwobi's sloppy defensive work, he either neglects or doesn't seem aware of the need to trackback, he has to cut that out and start helping out Monreal.

The future bodes well for this boy though, I think we have the makings of a gem here.

[Marc Overmars]

"It's pass pass pass not Xhakaboom."

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

"It's pass pass pass not Xhakaboom."

Xhakaboom sounds like a combination button special move on Street Fighter

[fakeyank]

He does do some odd things at times granted, but...I'm going on the basis he works with these players every single day, yet we think we know more by watching them for 90 mins twice a week.

(I'm still ready for a change of manager, but I can't not help but enjoy a 4-1 win)

Some odd things?

I dont need to be a football manager to see a decade of fuck ups and see what is the one single constant in all of them. I dont know more than Arsene Wenger but I sure do know that there are other people who know more than him, and should have been in his job many years ago.

However lets enjoy the win for now. It was our best performance of the season. I am sure we will go on an unbeaten run shortly and challenge for the title till February.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Boomxhakalaka.

[GP]