EPL: Arsenal vs. Manchester United - 4/10/15 - 4:00pm

[MaraDon]

Genuinely do not understand people slating Wenger for not signing Martial. He's 19 now. There are very, very few teams in world football who can afford to spunk close to £40 million on teenagers with barely a season's first team football.

i just cant believe people still in the topic, even if he becomes messi, the risk involved its just too much, we dont have united revenue and even if we do i would not be happy with it,

 

[pikey2000]

Good piece by Gary Neville here, worth a read

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11907814/Arsenal-need-to-make-one-big-change-to-win-the-Premier-League.html

Personally I like Neville, he talks sense, doesn't sensationalise stuff all of the time and gives insight into what it is to be a player approaching these games, you can see he has been shaped massively by Ferguson, it will be interesting should he ever go into management of a premier league team to see how he gets on.

Only problem with that article is that its pure conjecture on his part about how Arsenal players approach a game, nobody knows Wengers approach to each game and we no even less about how the players communicate with each other.

I could have bought into the fact we weren't preparing right when we had a team of jokers and youth projects a few years back but now we have a lot of top pro's with bags of experience like Cech, Merte, Kos, Arteta, Özil, Sanchez, Monreal, champions league winners, world cup winners, I just can't believe that they all sit on all of that combined experience and choose not to communicate with each other or discuss the challenges of the upcoming match???

I think we fail after we step over the white line, when "our game" doesn't work and its all going visibly tits up like Olympiacos, Monaco, Anderlecht, THAT precise moment where our side seems to retreat into its shell and turn into a clusterfuck - THAT is when we need the types of leaders Neville refers to, our Cech's, Mertesackers, Kos to fire some ****s into the team and get some discipline, shape and concentration back!
Was hoping Cech would do more of this with our back four, haven't seen it yet, perhaps the time is now.

 

[onetowatch]

I think the Ospina selection is completely besides the point and deflects from the actual issue. Which was our general team performance.

Ospina was at fault (horrendously) for just 1 goal. Even if he hadn't dropped that clanger it would have been a draw which still isn't good enough.

We would've won the game without that clanger

 

[RandyMarsh]

Worried for Mertesacker in this game. Got a strange feeling he's going to be at fault for a goal. He's looked off the pace so far.

I just hope Theo and Alexis can do the business at the other end, because i'm not confident in our defence atm.

 

[kopzilla]

I'll bet my house on us losing or drawing...we have seen these kind of games all too often..the midweek loss has dented our confidence.Utd are in the ascendancy with Martial scoring in every game like its some practice game...

 

[tap-in]

FYP.

Ha, took me a while to see what had changed, thought you meant my link wasn't working If its a goal like that then I really dont care who scores it. The funniest would be Per!

 

[TriniGunner]

Obviously want us to win but I want Martial to make Wenger realised that he's gotten too complacent in terms of transfers.

A few years ago we would have been signing Martial for less than 20 mil before anyone had even got a whiff of him.

In regards to the game it seems that we've forgotten how to defend. We're going to have to dominate possession and be clinical. I actually think the * LVG will out-tactic Wenger.

Signing Martial would have hardly fixed our problems this season if we can't defend well. We're looking horrible at the back since the first game of the season. Added to that our be seem to be goal shy a the moment. Can't say I feel confident about Sunday but I really do hope we stuff them.

 

[juice man]

All doom and gloom on here. How about this - we're potentially top of the league if we beat United. Come on you Gunners!

 

[Santi's Left Foot]

97 facking quid it cost me for a seat, so looking forward to it though.

I can only hope the fans get behind the team and we give a fully professional performance.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Signing Martial would have hardly fixed our problems this season if we can't defend well. We're looking horrible at the back since the first game of the season. Added to that our be seem to be goal shy a the moment. Can't say I feel confident about Sunday but I really do hope we stuff them.

The thing is though, hardly anybody was calling for defensive reinforcements during the summer. I'm pretty sure most people are happy with a Bellerin-Gabriel-Koscielny-Monreal back 4 aren't they? It's just these constant brain farts and slackness at set pieces which let them down. Not sure i'd want to replace any of them really but something's not right.

 

[Santi's Left Foot]

Martial would have been an infinite improvement. No idea why we wasn't all over it.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Most were calling for some sort of holding midfielder/deep lying playmaker though. Which I thought if were to sign either a holding player or a forward then the holding player was far more important. The reason people wanted a forward was because Giroud isn't fashionable and people didn't believe Theo could be a CF (in spite of all prior evidence). But make no mistake about it with Arteta's legs gone and Flamini being useless, that area was far more important in my eyes than a forward. It's always the case though, our attack rarely ever lets us down over the course of a season, "world class striker" or not, we've got tonnes of goalscoring capabilities in this team, yet again it's our defence that's the issue. Scoring 2 goals vs Olympiacos at home should really be curtains, we should not be conceding 3 at home.

Besides I'd still rather Walcott and Giroud over Martial at this moment. Martial's still very young and will be more prone to long blips during the season, I think the experience of Walcott and Giroud means they're not likely to go more than 2/3 games without scoring if during their bad spells.

 

[Bashii]

The thing is though, hardly anybody was calling for defensive reinforcements during the summer. I'm pretty sure most people are happy with a Bellerin-Gabriel-Koscielny-Monreal back 4 aren't they? It's just these constant brain farts and slackness at set pieces which let them down. Not sure i'd want to replace any of them really but something's not right.

It's not just the back 5 that are responsible for defending though, last season we defended with a much higher tempo with Alexis running round like a madman. He looks uninterested this year, defensively. We are letting teams walk into our half with ease right now.

Maybe missing Jack and Danny in the squad to add some more tempo has something to do with it?

Not to mention our wide players leaving our fullbacks out to dry fairly often.

I like the look of our back 6 (LeCoq inc.), there's no reason it shouldn't be working. maybe Gabriel is a bit more reckless than we first thought and that could prove an issue.

For me, the team just needs a kick up the arse and stop walking around like they couldnt give a f*ck! Play with passion and we got this!

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Didn't we start last season with a high tempo pressing that quickly faded away? In this case I think your point about missing Wilshere and Welbeck could have a lot of substance. Personally I prefer defending from the front and winning the ball high up the pitch because I think it suites the majority of our players.

 

[Santi's Left Foot]

**** I actually forgot we had Welbeck.

Martial is everything we wanted Welbeck to become.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Among everything, this has become a massive fixture once again with both teams seemingly firmly in the title race at this stage.

 

[juice man]

Martial would have been an infinite improvement. No idea why we wasn't all over it.

Because he was the most expensive teenager of all time? We all laughed at United for paying the fee they did for a 19 year old. Let's not pretend now that it was bleeding obvious that we should have signed him.

 

[RandyMarsh]

Didn't we start last season with a high tempo pressing that quickly faded away? In this case I think your point about missing Wilshere and Welbeck could have a lot of substance. Personally I prefer defending from the front and winning the ball high up the pitch because I think it suites the majority of our players.

Yeah we did. We pressed United really really well in the home fixture last year. That's what having Welbeck and Alexis in your front 3 does for you. They are tireless.

 

[Vinci]

Stop the Martial circle jerk ffs.

The kid has played five games for them, proven jackshit up to now.

 

[Gooner n Proud]

Most were calling for some sort of holding midfielder/deep lying playmaker though. Which I thought if were to sign either a holding player or a forward then the holding player was far more important. The reason people wanted a forward was because Giroud isn't fashionable and people didn't believe Theo could be a CF (in spite of all prior evidence). But make no mistake about it with Arteta's legs gone and Flamini being useless, that area was far more important in my eyes than a forward. It's always the case though, our attack rarely ever lets us down over the course of a season, "world class striker" or not, we've got tonnes of goalscoring capabilities in this team, yet again it's our defence that's the issue. Scoring 2 goals vs Olympiacos at home should really be curtains, we should not be conceding 3 at home.

Besides I'd still rather Walcott and Giroud over Martial at this moment. Martial's still very young and will be more prone to long blips during the season, I think the experience of Walcott and Giroud means they're not likely to go more than 2/3 games without scoring if during their bad spells.

I wanted a DLP Midfielder too to balance out the squad but you also have to think about the defending as a collective not just the defensive players individually.