EPL - Manchester City vs Arsenal - 4:10pm - 18/12/11 - SS1

[Glovegun]

People are over-analysing things. From what I could see the only difference between ourselves and a team that cost hundreds of millions was a lack of someone to actually stick the ball in the net. Because when van Persie doesn't then we look pretty toothless in front of goal.

If, for argument's sake, we brought on Podolski and Gotze today instead of Arshavin and Chamakh, I think we get a result at Eastlands today.

On the plus side, we've had our four hardest games of the season - Old Trafford, White Hart Lane, Eastlands and Stamford Bridge.

 

[ebouenolike]

Had work so missed this one - was obviously disappointed, but a tight 1-0 loss with no full backs or Wilshere really isn't THAT bad.

 

[Airknight]

I don't get why people wanted Theo to keep playing, he was easily the worst player on the pitch and was rightly subbed.. Same about Arsha replacing Ramsey, when was the last time we saw a good through ball from Arsha?

Bottomline, Rozza or Benayoun would have been better options, but oh well.

We can still enter the top 4 easily and we need to remain calm, there are still a lot of matches to play, of course we need to wait a bit to see if we can have a shot to the title in later stages, COYG

 

[Bossa]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/18/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/18/</a> ... l-tactics/

This is worthy of a read.

 

[Y va marquer]

A lot to be proud of in that performance.
No fear, and we fought hard to the end.
I still can't handle defeat though.
Losing just brings me down.

Need to get a win on Wednesday and face into Christmas fixtures on a proper positive note.

 

[redanddread]

City were the better team today and are a much better equipped team to tackle the EPL head on. we showed great courage and grit and if we had gotten something from the game, no one would have said we were lucky. However, make no mistake about it, our squad does NOT match up with theirs. our 1st team showed we can slug it out face to face but their bench overwhelms ours. We bought on miguel, Arshavin and Chamakh and they can bring on Dzeko, Milner & De Jong. Our squaddies needs to be upgraded or step up to the plate.

Arshavin is really shot IMO and we miss that creative element that we had for years in Cesc and latterly with Nasri but most importantly Jack Wilshere.

We miss our fullbacks and our attacking has been less potent without them.

Arteta is a great buy and he played great today.

The whole team performed pretty well but a bigger, stronger, more talented team beat us. However, we do have the ability to beat them at home.

Now we must win at Villa and banish this loss ASAP.

 

[yuvken]

Much expectations were pumped going into this because we were "the form team", the contrast with august, and citeh were shaking for the first time. It was exaggerated. City has more quality in their team, they were and still are clear favs to win it. so much for "surprise" and "huge disappointment".

But having said all that, it is true that we were unlucky to come out with nothing, and that ultimately the lack of FBs hurt us - it is not unreasonable to think we could match them, perhaps beat them in their own ground, if only we had our regular FBs. Not even mentioning Jack.

So proud we should be, and I hope the players will feel the same. we'll have to catch Chelsea and Sp**s, and to do that we need to continue in the same path we were on prior to this game.

And we need to do something serious in January. Just like "we couldn't afford to lose", and "we need points as well as encouragement", the boss must know we don't have enough in attack, Arsha being still with us is simply outrageous, Chamakh cannot help us even if he finds the form of his life (and he won't) - and on top of all of that Gervinho's gone to ACN. IT JUST MUST HAPPEN NOW - no two ways about it. And we need to find a solution for the FB situation - not a Flamini type solution, but a real one.

So - really not the end of the world, but that bitter taste must remind us we should act, or else we might as well get used to it.

 

[RUS arsenal]

The only reason I can find as to why Wenger keeps giving Chamakh chances this month is because this is his final opportunity. If he doesn't find form before ACN then it is probably 'goodbye' Chamakh.

 

[celestis]

I am pretty sure that Wenger is not hugely dissapointed . Considering we were playing with 4 centre backs it was to be expected that we would not be as fluent as normal . Santos and Sagna , especially Santos is a big part us being fluent with our passing .

Not even going to bring up Wilshere , Diaby and Rosicky .

What disturbed me , and I know Walcott did not have his best game but there seemed a reluctance from his team mates to pass it to him when he was in good positions .

 

[sammy89]

@celestis that's a fairly normal occurrence when a player is having a crap game.

 

[Anzac]

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/18/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... l-tactics/

This is worthy of a read.

From a tactical point of view the accompanying article of Barca v Santos is also a good read.

As much as the team can mainly hold their heads high regarding the effort,
it's times like this that AW's tactical inflexibility hurt us. I'd like to have seen him adjust the shape to get the best from our available resources & at least try something like this 3142.

All his talk about having 4 strikers on the pitch looking to score means little when they are utilised in the same positions and roles as the players they replaced. Likewise it also means little if those players are not genuine strikers by nature & are only playing in an advanced position in a 424 shape. In both instances it's still another case of square pegs etc.

 

[Rain Dance]

What disturbed me , and I know Walcott did not have his best game but there seemed a reluctance from his team mates to pass it to him when he was in good positions .

Pretty sure there was only 1 or two moments when he was in a good position, he is not gonna get a pass if he didn't work his socks off

even Kos got into a very dangerous position

 

[bojed]

Wenger is playing with the unlucky card again.

He's half-correct when he's referring to our fullback situation but when you have money and capable players on the bench, and still play arshavin and chamakh to get a positive result, it seems rather f*cking sh*t than unlucky.

Of course it's unlucky for us fans to witness that dross.

 

[mistaT]

The positives are the team battled, for the most part we looked defensively solid, and we could have nicked a point had Vermalean's shot(s) been a little to either side.

The negatives:

Desperately missing our fullbacks, Djourou/Vermalean/Miquel all looked lost going forward and defending out wide. As a result Theo/Gervinho were pulled too deep, our CM's had no one to play it wide too, and our crosses from our 'FB's were atrocious.

Ramsey - he continues to disappoint and while many here are rightfully criticizing Gervinho and Walcott what chances did Ramsey create? He was anonymous in the second half and I honestly believe Rosicky could do his job better at this point.

Gervinho - His team play (passing/vision) is atrocious, and aside from setting up RVP once he was poor....very poor. Constantly breaking down moves, slow, afraid to take on Toure 1v1, and spurned a 4 on 2 by playing a terribly weighted pass to Theo.

Today I think we got what we deserved as City were better (barely).

 

[Glovegun]

City probably were worthy of the win in all honesty. Szczesny kept us in it.

Our clearest cut chance fell to Robin, surprised not to see him score. The offside 'goal' was close as well, some linesmen might see that as level.

But you shouldn't expect to create four or five chances away from home at a title contender. You need to make sure that you take the chances you do get. Our problem is that when Robin doesn't have his shooting boots on we've got no-one else to step up. We desperately need that alternative.

Looked decent defensively. Can't really complain about conceding when you're up against Aguero, Balotelli and Silva. I'd love to clone Vermaelen. Not a fan of Miquel though, I don't think he'll make it at Arsenal. Just seems far too soft, probably better off playing bass guitar in an emo band. I'd much rather see Bartley given a chance.

 

[Kroket]

City probably were worthy of the win in all honesty. Szczesny kept us in it.

Our clearest cut chance fell to Robin, surprised not to see him score. The offside 'goal' was close as well, some linesmen might see that as level.

But you shouldn't expect to create four or five chances away from home at a title contender. You need to make sure that you take the chances you do get. Our problem is that when Robin doesn't have his shooting boots on we've got no-one else to step up. We desperately need that alternative.

Looked decent defensively. Can't really complain about conceding when you're up against Aguero, Balotelli and Silva. I'd love to clone Vermaelen. Not a fan of Miquel though, I don't think he'll make it at Arsenal. Just seems far too soft, probably better off playing bass guitar in an emo band. I'd much rather see Bartley given a chance.

This is key for me. Man City away has become the single most difficult fixture of the calendar, and to come so close to getting a hard-fought result from the game is pretty decent, especially seeing how their inferior neighbours trashed us 8-2 not even four months ago. Plenty of positives to take from this game, although the injuries at the back and the inconsistency shown by some of our attacking players do worry me.

 

[fabo]

How **** was Nasri again btw, so happy watching him fail. He can win whatever medals at City, he'll always be a bottler, one of the supporting cast. He's the worst kind of choker too, there's alot of people stealing a living in the PL but Nasri actually has talent, just lacks balls and heart. Shockingly bad set of teeth for a pro footballer aswell.

He shirks responsibility when it matters, contrast that to people like Vermaelen and Arteta yesterday who were driving us on 'til the last kick. The team is far more likeable this season, more professional and workmanlike, lacking quality in attack though.

 

[goonerwarsh]

City probably were worthy of the win in all honesty. Szczesny kept us in it.

Our clearest cut chance fell to Robin, surprised not to see him score. The offside 'goal' was close as well, some linesmen might see that as level.

But you shouldn't expect to create four or five chances away from home at a title contender. You need to make sure that you take the chances you do get. Our problem is that when Robin doesn't have his shooting boots on we've got no-one else to step up. We desperately need that alternative.

Looked decent defensively. Can't really complain about conceding when you're up against Aguero, Balotelli and Silva. I'd love to clone Vermaelen. Not a fan of Miquel though, I don't think he'll make it at Arsenal. Just seems far too soft, probably better off playing bass guitar in an emo band. I'd much rather see Bartley given a chance.

Ai gree with every word of your post Glovegun and the bit highlighted really stood out.

What a player that guy is. I wish all of our players had his desire, heart, bravery and application. We'd we walking the league if that were the case. There was one moment when I watched Miquel flinch and duck out of a 50/50 challenge and I don't want to be too harsh on the guy because he's young adn shouldn't be anywhere near the first team at the moment but I just thought to myself if that was Vermaelen going for that there is no way the other guy would be coming away with the ball.

In fairness, Kos has been a great competitor this year too.

I did notice that in the first half all the problems were coming down Djourou's side with him misplacing passes and playing hospital balls and yet Vermaelen was just swallowing up everything coming down the left - just a superior footballer in every way

 

[Enfield]

All in all I don't think yesterday was a disaster. We are down our best CM and four FB's. We were away to the biggest squad in the league and faced an attack of Balotelli, Silva and Aguero. Those three stack up against any other attack in world football. We also hung in there and at least made a genuine effortto get back into the game after we conceeded. There were times when we would have crumbled and we'd be watching Wenger do his Basil Fawlty impersonation. With a little luck we could have drawn, with a little less Zabaletta could have scored. The next step inour development has to be to put away the big teams on our patch. If we can start getting consistent points against the big teams it will close a lot of the gap between us and them

 

[outlaw_member]

How **** was Nasri again btw, so happy watching him fail. He can win whatever medals at City, he'll always be a bottler, one of the supporting cast. He's the worst kind of choker too, there's alot of people stealing a living in the PL but Nasri actually has talent, just lacks balls and heart. Shockingly bad set of teeth for a pro footballer aswell.

He shirks responsibility when it matters, contrast that to people like Vermaelen and Arteta yesterday who were driving us on 'til the last kick. The team is far more likeable this season, more professional and workmanlike, lacking quality in attack though.

Forgoing his purple patch last season, Nasri's qualities does seem of a player who is better placed as one the supporting cast. An offensive water carrier, if you will. His link up play is his best quality without a doubt, but it seems to end there. His vision is atrocious, he loves the ball too much, and the weight of his passing is always inconsistent. How he misplaced a simple side pass yesterday, I don't know. I can see why Wenger thought of him as a DCM, because he really does look like a player who excels at keeping things ticking. I think Mancini is actually using him correctly, by not giving him a major offensive role to fulfil.

On a different note, for all the criticism that Gervinho and Walcott faced in the post-match discussion, and it was substantiated, particularly in regards to the latter. The Man City attackers weren't really any better. Aguero missed some incredible chances, likewise Balotelli, and both were kept relatively quite.

By the way, I think Gervinho has improved considerably in the middle third of the pitch since earlier in the season. He's no longer as reckless in possession, and it's only his final product which is now lacking.