EPL: Arsenal v West Ham - 9/8/15, 13:30 - SS1

[Liam Spencer]

Walcott is hopeless against anything other than a high line and Ox needs to be loaned or something, his touch is bloody atrocious

We don't have enough bodies to loan him out, but we need to stop pretending that he is something special. He's not a patch on someone like Sterling, and probably never will be.

Let not the wonder strike vs. Chelsea delude you, he has too many shortcomings and does nothing exceptionally well.

It has been 4 years but his development has been poor.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Don't get the hate on Ox after today. He was clearly our most dangerous player. Run them ragged at times. Should have cleared it for their second goal but what followed from Santi, Kos and Cech was even worse.

 

[stiiphunn]

I'm still not at all convinced by our midfield despite all the fancy names.

I am. We have a fantastic midfield. Then we have OX and Alexis on the wings and both of them are amazing players. The one position where we're still lacking is upfront. If we can't get sign a WC striker we'll have to make do with Giroud/Theo/Wellbeck. It won't be pretty but with a bit of luck the other players can offset the lack of quality we have upfront.

 

[David Smith]

I'm surprised Wenger started Coquelin as DM instead of Arteta.

 

[celestis]

I can't ****ing believe that Giroud and Tomkins were allowed to come back into the game after they were left motionless on the ground.

I couldn't believe it either , needs to be an investigation after that . Suprised Girould knew which box he was standing in at corners .

 

[Dokaka]

Don't get the hate on Ox either. He looked pretty good today.

Not a good sign that I felt oddly comfortable every time Giroud was on the ball. It felt like a clearance, no joke.

 

[This_is_The_Year]

Nope didn't matter what line up he put out , we should have had more shots on target , more passing options and basically a lot more desperation .

I really dont get this - it didnt matter which lineup we put out ? how can you say this with a straight face ?

ofcourse it matters - thats the ****ing point in having a manager - Slaven Bilic won the game for West Ham. it wasnt luck or because of poor individual displays from us - it was him owning Wenger.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Can't even bring myself to check twitter for Benzema rumours anymore for the fear of seeing the amount of abuse Arsenal will get from other fans on there.

We are the laughing stock of world football. Once again.

 

[Salieri]

If Wenger thinks that he can continue dismissing teams like this with playing midfielders on the wing then we'll never win the league with him again. The PL is getting stronger from this year on and even mid table teams are spending big on good players. Just like last year, I guarantee we will lose points vs Soton, Swansea, Stoke, Everton, & Leicester. Well you can add clubs like West Ham & CP to that list.

Buckle up boys, we'll see a similar situation against many other teams with the level of the competition raised after the TV money.

Chamberlain. This is the 3rd goal that I can remember we conceded after he lost the ball.

Cech could have done better with the 2 goals, but it wasn't entirely his fault. His defense was awful on the free kick for the first and left him in no mans land for the second.

 

[Ramzil]

Well, this was a massive reality cech for us.

 

[stiiphunn]

Don't get the hate on Ox after today. He was clearly our most dangerous player. Run them ragged at times. Should have cleared it for their second goal but what followed from Santi, Kos and Cech was even worse.

I don't get it either. Although tbh it's just a few individuals who think OX is ****.

 

[David Smith]

Absolute lies. Stop chatting ****. We had 2 good games when Ramsey was RW with Giroud up top. Pool at home and Hull away. It's one of the main causes for our predictable, toothless attack. And that is an absolute FACT.

Yet we finished 3rd and won the FA Cup. A highly successful season.
So you think having a winger on the left instead of a midfielder today meant we would have won?

 

[My_Two_Cents]

We don't have enough bodies to loan him out, but we need to stop pretending that he is something special. He's not a patch on someone like Sterling, and probably never will be.

Let not the wonder strike vs. Chelsea delude you, he has too many shortcomings and does nothing exceptionally well.

It has been 4 years but his development has been poor.

Aye true. Also, don't think his control or touch will improve drastically over time. Seems to be something you develope and hone a lot during your teen years, i.e. if you don't have it by your early twenties, you're unlikely to develope it later on in your career.

 

[Jae]

It's not knee jerk when wenger is using the same tactics that cost us a title shot last year in a 2-0 defeat on the opening day at home to a mid table side.

Zero balance.

Nope not at all, but it is when people are making out like our season is over after one poor performance on the first game of the season.

 

[North5]

Nope not at all, but it is when people are making out like our season is over after one poor performance on the first game of the season.

It's not because of the performance, it's far more based on wengers insistence to stick to redundant tactics when all options are available to him. It's an alarming trend.

 

[Hegemony]

Don't get the hate on Ox after today. He was clearly our most dangerous player. Run them ragged at times. Should have cleared it for their second goal but what followed from Santi, Kos and Cech was even worse.

100% agree with this. If everyone had put in a performance similar to Ox, we probably would have won. He showed heart, initiative and desire (at least for the first 60 minutes, anyway). What cost us was our sloppy passing and midfield. Woeful to watch at times. Also Cech turned into Woj for some reason. If that wasn't enough, Giroud stunk up the joint so bad, one of the worst performances from a striker I've even seen

 

[My_Two_Cents]

Thank feck for people posting those links to that South American Jenny lass; a furious wanking session usually helps with the frustration after a ****ty result like that

 

[SA Gunner]

We probably needed this reality Cech. Everyone, from Wenger to the fans was so confident we could win the league

I think you mistake the media coverage and sentiment to mean that of the club's.

Wenger did indeed mention the title but that we want to challenge for it, not that we are winning it.

Be careful of the media and their agenda, and them wanting to set the tone. If what they say, is the case, we should have been in League 2 by now.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Yet we finished 3rd and won the FA Cup. A highly successful season.
So you think having a winger on the left instead of a midfielder today meant we would have won?

We finished last season with less points than the previous season..No improvement there. We won the F.A cup by having an incredibly easy run. United away being the only challenge. Let's not get carried away with last season now.

I think playing one more guy in our front 3 with pace, directness and with ability to run in behind their defence, would certainly have made our attack better. I've no doubt about it. With the personnel we played today everyone's passing basically has to be perfect for us to tiki-taka our way through a very resilient defence. Even when we did create chances we had no killer instinct and finishing ability.

Our line-up today wasn't the only problem but it was a major factor.

 

[Dokaka]

Yet we finished 3rd and won the FA Cup. A highly successful season.
So you think having a winger on the left instead of a midfielder today meant we would have won?

Yes, 99% sure of it. We specifically planned for you lining up playmakers out wide. We played a narrow 4-3-1-2 and packed the middle with far superior players physically, making it an absolute nightmare for your playmakers to operate. Sure, we got a few fouls in and it didn't look very pretty, but we basically disrupted everything and your wide play was reduced to Monreal/Debuchy getting isolated and desperately crossing into a box occupied by Ogbonna, Reid and Oxford.

Had you played with more width, our tactic would've fallen apart. I'm beyond surprised that Wenger didn't make any changes at half-time.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Don't think the performance was that bad if I'm honest. They defended well, Cech made a couple of **** ups and we looked too rusty to put our chances away. Not worried at all, just annoyed at the result.