EPL | Manchester City vs Arsenal | 14/12/13 | 12:45 PM

[TheLoneFalcon]

Can't be bothered to look up who was spouting the **** about Arteta being a better option for this game, but **** me how short-term are people's memories. Yaya and co. running at him would have been much more ugly than what transpired with Flamini.

We were overran in midfield for much of the game, sorry don't see how it could have been much worse. You must see how Arteta controls our tempo and is the most disciplined, Flamini was so poor that Wenger shouted at him after the second goal and was later substituted even though he is a defensive player.

Missed the Everton game did you? And what exactly happened when he was subbed? We went from being vulnerable yet creating chance after chance to getting Ivorian junk rammed up our collective buttholes without any kind of fight. Flamini wasn't really helped by the fact that so many of our players were piss poor and left him exposed time and time again. He was poor, but saying Arteta would have done better is wishful thinking at best.

 

[Inthe blood]

Missed the Everton game did you? And what exactly happened when he was subbed? We went from being vulnerable yet creating chance after chance to getting Ivorian junk rammed up our collective buttholes without any kind of fight. Flamini wasn't really helped by the fact that so many of our players were piss poor and left him exposed time and time again. He was poor, but saying Arteta would have done better is wishful thinking at best.

If the Everton game is your basis than your thinking is flawed, Arteta is no where near as bad as a DM than Flamini has shown himself to be... Flamini wasn't getting any help He set the president for a piss poor performance and has been one our the worse players in all the big games.

Instead of being exposed himself he was too busy exposing our back four with his lack of closing down and applying pressure when needed and bolting forward with disregard for the space he had left behind.

 

[TheLoneFalcon]

I don't feel like going round in circles in this debate, let's just say I disagree.

Set the president, teehee.

 

[eye4goal]

I thought Mertesacker struggled, but no one is talking about it after that show of leadership at the end. We were a shambles in midfield though, so its no surprise, but I thought we were far too deep at times, and you can't do that against City.

We need to up our work-rate for those games. Özil plays the same in every game in terms of defensive effort. I'll cut him some slack for this one, but I'd like to see him working harder in the next one(Walcott too). Wenger said we didn't defend well from the front, so he'll have to do something about that.

 

[infineon]

Fact is they are the one team who you can legitimately say has a better midfield than us. If they play well, there isn't a lot we can do about it.

 

[Big Poppa]

After having some more time to think about it I think they were just fresher than us, and have been prolific at home against every kind of opposition in the league. Every goal conceded came from individual errors, and at 4-2 we sacrificed any defensive intentions and played kamikaze football. The result was inevitable, and I don't think the team selection was necessarily wrong.

This time last week, Wenger was already moaning about the schedule of our games (did he not know this at the start of the season) so our excuses were ready made. Man City were always going to exploit us in the form they're in, and having just beaten the European champions away without Aguero, Negredo, Nasri, Toure and Kompany (Navas only started on the bench).

The league is theirs to lose.

 

[eye4goal]

We didn't look far of them once we got to the final third, but they had the better system on the day, and did more to stop us playing. I think Wenger picked the wrong team in the last 3 games.

 

[boyinneedofhumor]

We didn't look far of them once we got to the final third, but they had the better system on the day, and did more to stop us playing. I think Wenger picked the wrong team in the last 3 games.

To me it looks more of a case of not designating more than one "DM" in front of the back 4 to shield them, irrespective of whom was in the midfield starting lineup.
(I honestly felt that we did have time during the game to consider re-adapting our approach.
1st when we went into half-time at 2-1. 2nd when we just clawed back to 3-2, with half an hr more to search for the equalizer).

 

[blaze_of_glory]

After having some more time to think about it I think they were just fresher than us, and have been prolific at home against every kind of opposition in the league. Every goal conceded came from individual errors, and at 4-2 we sacrificed any defensive intentions and played kamikaze football. The result was inevitable, and I don't think the team selection was necessarily wrong.

This time last week, Wenger was already moaning about the schedule of our games (did he not know this at the start of the season) so our excuses were ready made. Man City were always going to exploit us in the form they're in, and having just beaten the European champions away without Aguero, Negredo, Nasri, Toure and Kompany (Navas only started on the bench).

The league is theirs to lose.

The league is theirs to lose, I agree. It has been for the last 3 years. So far they've only managed to sort it out once however, and they are prone to underperforming against teams they should be destroying. That could easily cost them again.

 

[HollandGooner]

I was absolutely stunned by our defensively performance, we were all over the place the game could have ended 6-6 which could have been a great score for the fans but its not a scoreline you would expect for teams who should be challenging for the EPL title.


I thought our midfield was bad the distance was to far between the lines, our defenders didn't coped well with the movement of Aguero and Negredo.



To add my final conclusion a team who concede 6 goals cannot be described as title challengers in my opinion, I hope we can prove everyone we can win the title but conceding 6 goals is to much.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Kos played less than half the game. Four of the six goals were conceded when he wasn't there.

 

[kopzilla]

How didn't MOTD or even Henry bring up the refereeing decisions...

 

[Penn_]

To add my final conclusion a team who concede 6 goals cannot be described as title challengers in my opinion, I hope we can prove everyone we can win the title but conceding 6 goals is to much.

<a class="postlink" href="http://espnfc.com/gamecast?id=317936&cc=5739" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://espnfc.com/gamecast?id=317936&cc=5739</a>

Did you even watch the game? Your posts reads as if you've only seen MOTD highlights.

 

[HollandGooner]

To add my final conclusion a team who concede 6 goals cannot be described as title challengers in my opinion, I hope we can prove everyone we can win the title but conceding 6 goals is to much.

<a class="postlink" href="http://espnfc.com/gamecast?id=317936&cc=5739" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://espnfc.com/gamecast?id=317936&cc=5739</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Did you even watch the game? Your posts reads as if you've only seen MOTD highlights.

I have seen the whole game at my own tv, Its my opinion of the game defensively we should have done better, and I know the appeal for a penalty en two disallowed goals which weren't working in our favor.

 

[Penn_]

I have seen the whole game at my own tv, Its my opinion of the game defensively we should have done better, and I know the appeal for a penalty en two disallowed goals which weren't working in our favor.

Didn't deny we weren't poor defensively but Koscienly played less than half the game so you can't point to him as you did. My grievance was more to do with fact that you said we couldn't be called title challengers because we let in six goals. As the link I provided shows Man Utd lost 6-1 to City at home the year that the title was decided on goal difference in the final few seconds.

 

[General]

Koscienly was having an equally poor game till he went off and went to bed for their first so I'm not sure why he's suddenly being used as an excuse. His absence did very little to hide the fact that we were all over the place, both tactically and in terms of discipline. It was the most disorganised and disorderly performance I've seen since the 5-4 against Tottenham circa 04. What made it even worse was that Wenger had several opportunities to make the necessary adjustments at critical stages of the game(1-1, 2-1, 3-2) but somehow allowed the game to descend into further chaos. When substitutions came it was too late and upset the balance even further. This game had all the elements of why we are always treated with suspicion every time people talk up our title chances. The team may well have a high ceiling but our floor is possibly lower than everyone around us at it's very worst.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Koscielny was not having a bad game really. City were simply overwhelming with their pressure for periods in the first half and all our defenders were having to scramble around. I can't recall him being poor individually to any great extent.

The real disorganization at the back happened in the last 30 min of the game. After both Kos and Flamini were taken off. Kos not being there is not an excuse, but he was hardly to blame for any of it.

 

[General]

So how do you explain his role in the first goal which was quite frankly poor by his standards. Could be argued he failed to track his man for the second goal too.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

First goal he could probably have done better, though any player other than Aguero probably would not have been able to score there. Second one he was right there with his man, which is actually how he got injured. The breakdown was on the flank for that one.

I'm not trying to say he was flawless. But our defensive issues only got worse once he was gone. He was the least of our worries tbh. The left flank constantly getting raped was a much bigger issue, and led to most of the other problems.

 

[kopzilla]

Unsurprisingly, the media bias continues on Al Jazeera with the mugs Richard Keys and Andy Gray not even bringing up the disallowed goals or the penalty appeal.

Its pretty clear that Wenger was talking about the disallowed goals when he was complaining about the wrong offside decisions.

Guess what, they talk about the two goals from Negredo and Aguero instead which were legitimate and surely what Wenger wasn't referring to.