EPL | Sunderland vs Arsenal | 14/09/13 | 3:00PM

[G0D]

If John Terry, David Luiz, Nemanja Vidic and Vincent Kompany are hailed as "great" defenders, then Koscielny is definitely up there and at LEAST on par with them. Brainfarts happen regardless of how good you are, they're just so much more obvious than the numerous other brilliance.
(can't compare with thiago silva cause never watched him before)

However in this day and age, we don't have the Maldinis or Baresis anymore, and those would be worth in the hundreds of millions in this day and age.

And theres only one Tony Adams.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14pucf_motd4t4t_sport" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14pucf_motd4t4t_sport</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Watch MOTD video from the 7:20 mark. Notice Koscielny's reaction. He should have been running towards the goal line long before Altidore shot the ball past Chesny because our GK had to close the angle the Sunderland striker are coming from.

Maybe he switches off at moments which causes these brainfarts. But 4 games into the season, he cost us few penalties and potentially an easy goal if Atkinson hadn't blown his whistle!

We have a good team. But you can clearly see the level we can reach. And our cieling is short of greatness. With TW14 & LK6 wasting chances and causing penos respectively, we will never win the PL or CL. Our limit is a cup or two imo. Consistency is the biggest, most important factor in winning a league. And while we are leaking unnecessary goals and failing to score chances on a plate we won't have this consistency.

Both Theo and Koss are very good players, and occasionally be in a beast mode. But I do not see any other top 3 team players waste as much chances or cause a penalty every other game.

Who knows though. They might iron out those flaws through out the season if they hit a top form. :roll:

Such hyperbole. In TW14 you are talking about our top goalscorer last season, a player that generally speaking most people judge to have good finishing. In LK6 we have one of the key defenders in a team that conceded the 2nd least goals of every team in the EPL last season. Both players have undeniable quality, but both players clearly are not in the best of form right now, which is unfortunate. That said, do you honestly expect every player in the team to be on song at once?

Title winning teams have the quality all over the pitch to make up for times when members of the team are essentially passengers... we just beat Sunderland because we had too much quality in other areas of the pitch.

As for no other top 3 team having wasteful players and not taking chances... yesterday Chelsea lost 1-0 to Everton with Samuel Eto'o missing a fair few chances. Oh and Man City with their plethora of attacking talent failed to score a single goal against Sunderland. EVERY club has times when things just don't go their way, including the best ones.

 

[thedon5]

So I missed the game due to work, how accurate was MOTD representation of the game? I know they like to screw us. First half looked great, second not so much.

Take a look for yourself, should be up on Arsenal.com now.

Second was OK, first was domination though Theo fluffed a lot of chances.

 

[Mitch]

Özil, Wilshere, Ramsey and Giroud's link up play was a joy to watch - I honestly can't remember the last time we passed the ball around so well (although granted Sunderland's 4-4-2 formation gave us a hell of a lot of space).

Again people with knee jerk OTT reactions on Kos (for me it shouldn't have been a penalty) and Walcott ( didn't have his scoring boots on yesterday and wasted a lot of chances but its still 1 match, he can go on and get a hattrick on Wednesday).

 

[tap-in]

Özil, Wilshere, Ramsey and Giroud's link up play was a joy to watch - I honestly can't remember the last time we passed the ball around so well (although granted Sunderland's 4-4-2 formation gave us a hell of a lot of space).

Again people with knee jerk OTT reactions on Kos (for me it shouldn't have been a penalty) and Walcott ( didn't have his scoring boots on yesterday and wasted a lot of chances but its still 1 match, he can go on and get a hattrick on Wednesday).

Just watched in on MOTD, is was a penalty without a doubt. Kos needs to learn when to tackle and when to shepherd the player away. He always jumps in like there is no other alternative. The player was moving wide, he only needed shepherding away. These incidents with Kos happen too often and he needs to improve this side of his game.

 

[rich 1990]

In fairness to Koscielny, he made minimal to no contact on Johnson who dropped to the ground worse than Ashley Young. Doesn't excuse diving in but it shouldn't actually have been a penalty.

 

[tap-in]

In fairness to Koscielny, he made minimal to no contact on Johnson who dropped to the ground worse than Ashley Young. Doesn't excuse diving in but it shouldn't actually have been a penalty.

He made clear contact, more than minimal, and he didnt get the ball. Its a penalty!

 

[rich 1990]

I've seen it 3 or 4 times and i completely disagree with you.

 

[Anzac]

I've seen it 3 or 4 times and i completely disagree with you.

The contact on their player may have been minimal,
but he got NONE of the ball,
and went to ground in the area in making a tackle on a player in possession when he was in a poor position to get the ball.
Anytime you go to ground in any tackle you are asking for trouble,
doing so in your area even more so.
Minimal contact is still contact & for mind it's more their player going down easy as opposed to a 'dive'.

 

[celestis]

He made virtually no contact with Johnson . Referee was in a bad position and made a guess. Kos should not have dived in though no need .

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

I think there was a minimal contact but kosh need to stop doing that inside the box bouldy need to talk with kosh about that.

 

[MaestroCesc]

Clear dive by Johnson and it wasnt a pen but Koscienly shouldnt have dived in.

 

[Jkreffer]

It wasn't the best decision making in the world regardless of contact. Why give the ref a decision to make? I thought Sagna had another fantastic game by the way.

 

[Jkreffer]

It wasn't the best decision making in the world regardless of contact. Why give the ref a decision to make? I thought Sagna had another fantastic game by the way.

 

[fabo]

Stonewall.

 

[Caz19]

It wasn't the best decision making in the world regardless of contact. Why give the ref a decision to make? I thought Sagna had another fantastic game by the way.

If Sagna plays CB though, in my opinion it should be next to Mertesacker. You can't have one CB who's 5"9 and than have next to him a CB who is just barely 6 foot. Mertesacker can make up for Sagna's lack of height, Koscielny can't.

 

[jmsmtthw28]

Kos dived in and failed to win the ball even if it was minimal contact it was a penalty, Kos has to win the ball if he dives in the penalty box

 

[jmsmtthw28]

It wasn't the best decision making in the world regardless of contact. Why give the ref a decision to make? I thought Sagna had another fantastic game by the way.

I still can't believe Altidore outmuscled Sagna

 

[ArsenalDNA]

Gotta feel for Sunderland.

They got fckd big time by Atkinson.

It was justice for us after the Villa game so hopefully something goes their way at some stage. Preferably against Sp**s.

 

[ArsenalDNA]

It wasn't the best decision making in the world regardless of contact. Why give the ref a decision to make? I thought Sagna had another fantastic game by the way.

I still can't believe Altidore outmuscled Sagna

Why is that so unbelievable?

Altidore's a monster.

 

[Jkreffer]

It was until yesterday I realised how big Altidore, Diakite and even Wickham were.