PL | Arsenal vs Swansea | Mon 11th May | 20.00

[hydrofluoric acid]

60% of the time, it works every time.

Reckon a new GK is certain now, if it wasn't before the game.

60% is not every time. 60% is 60 times out of 100.

Anyway you can't just be one moment "what this game need is Wilshere" who was on the bench and the next one "we need to sign players". We have so many good players and we can only play 11 of them. Signing a new player in our attacking force means you are leaving one of Walcott, Chamberlain or Wilshere out of the squad.

 

[Hunta]

60% is not every time. 60% is 60 times out of 100.

Anyway you can't just be one moment "what this game need is Wilshere" who was on the bench and the next one "we need to sign players". We have so many good players and we can only play 11 of them. Signing a new player in our attacking force means you are leaving one of Walcott, Chamberlain or Wilshere out of the squad.

 

[Jury]

Please mate don't compare our style to Manure if we play like Manure I will give up watching football.

To fair, we haven't been quite as clueless. Our play has looked slicker. I'll give that to Yousif

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

I think what we are seeing here is typical after losing game negativity. Thankfully this is not often.

 

[Jury]

Alright, time for the upside to this clusterfuck of a result.

Having scraped a few games lately, and now finally run out of luck, there may be a chance of Wenger possibly realising that we're going wrong somewhere. It doesn't have to be this difficult with the quality we have at our disposal. It just doesn't.

So, better to get any complacency out of the system NOW, than to flatter ourselves all the way to Wembley and get served up by Benteke.

2nd would have been nice, but I'll take 3rd and an FA Cup, if losing today helps our focus to achieve it.

 

[US_Gooner]

I think what we are seeing here is typical after losing game negativity. Thankfully this is not often.

So wrong.


The negativity began looong before we were losing.

 

[Jury]

The problem for me lately is the tireness of Giroud and Cazorla. They need a little break. Wenger is not using his squad enough.

Giroud, tired? He's played 3 months less than anyone else. I wont be buying that one. Caz was great the other night too. Not sure how fatigue is evident here.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Wenger at home games need to stop playing Central midfielder as winger just start with real winger. Also I think we seriously missing Ox hope he be fit next week.

 

[remains]

I thought we would slip up in this game tbh. The result still pissed me off massively though. Swansea fast becoming our bogey team.

I didn't think our performance was that bad in fairness, it was always going to be difficult to break down a team that set up like Swansea did. However we should have put them under more pressure in the first half, all felt a bit passive until we started pushing in the second. Other criticisms would be not using the wings very effectively and obviously poor finishing. I also thought Ospina should have done better with that goal. As others have said, taking Giroud off was a strange decision. He did take a few knocks during the game so perhaps Wenger was being careful.

Getting sucker punched like that is the worst way to lose a football game. Take it on the chin and move on.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Giroud, tired? He's played 3 months less than anyone else. I wont be buying that one. Caz was great the other night too. Not sure how fatigue is evident here.

Giroud tireness started after around four or five months into last season. Maybe I'm wrong on this one but I would like to see him have a little breather. He's not been to much involved in last two games.

Don't agree with you on Cazorla. Only one great game in last six in my opinion.

 

[Beany]

It's no biggie in the context of the season and whilst the first half was terrible, the second was pretty entertaining, actually.

I'm pissed we've made it tough for ourselves to take 2nd but third is very much in our hands and I was concerned we'd begin to suffer some pre cup final lag, along the way.

But whilst Flappy deserved MOTM because everyone else was, well, crap, we made him look like a cross between Banks and Dr Octopus. And he's really, really not. And needless to say, the Chavs would have won that game, which is why we'll continue to make minimal impression on th title race, till we strengthen our spine.

My main concern is the cup final; I think it will be a bit like tonight, with our having most the posession and a good number of openings but if we finish like tonight, Benteke will mug us off.

 

[Rex Stone]

It's no biggie in the context of the season and whilst the first half was terrible, the second was pretty entertaining, actually.

I'm pissed we've made it tough for ourselves to take 2nd but third is very much in our hands and I was concerned we'd begin to suffer some pre cup final lag, along the way.

But whilst Flappy deserved MOTM because everyone else was, well, crap, we made him look like a cross between Banks and Dr Octopus. And he's really, really not. And needless to say, the Chavs would have won that game, which is why we'll continue to make minimal impression on th title race, till we strengthen our spine.

My main concern is the cup final; I think it will be a bit like tonight, with our having most the posession and a good number of openings but if we finish like tonight, Benteke will mug us off.

Nah Gooner Tim can't do defensive backs to the wall. He'll probably line up 4-4-2 and play open against us.

 

[Beany]

Nah Gooner Tim can't do defensive backs to the wall. He'll probably line up 4-4-2 and play open against us.

Yeah, but Tactics Timmy will have been watching tonight and even he knows he can't play open against us; it didn't work out too well for him at the spuds. Whether he can do it as effectively as Gary Monk, well, that's another matter...

 

[Bigbludfire]

60% is not every time. 60% is 60 times out of 100.

This post is almost as bad as Ramsey's performance.

Ramsey was awful today, the worst I've ever seen him play. This is the second time I've watched him play on the right live and we literally played without a right winger. It was Mesut filling in occasionally.

 

[celestis]

Some people just dont see past results. It's like they're scared to scratch the precious surface.

We've been unconvincing for the most part for a looong time, bar the odd game where we scored some great individual goals. How many shoddy 2-1's have we had? How many games have we toiled in? People say we've looked solid, but we've looked all over the place at the back during for the 25% of the time where we havent got the ball.

This has been a Man Utd-esque 'run' we've been on. Carbon ****ing copy! But Sshhhh, keep it quiet.

So why were you predicting a thrashing before the match ?
Our level of play has definitely gone up a notch no problem about that and yeah as with all growing teams it's going up and down . Think you have pointed out before , the goals we have scored have been more to do with individual brilliance rather than team play which to me is true . Could have scored 4-5 in the 2nd half with with better basic decicsion making . Didn't help that we took off Giroud for Walcott and all of a sudden the ball is being crossed into his areas .

Ingredients are definitely there but they need to fine tune that decision making in the final third . It isn't as easy as it sounds otherwise they would have done it by now obviously. Some hard truths need to be told in the dressing room .

Oh and Ramsey on the wing is like when we played Arteta and Flamini against Napoli .Worked once but should have been shelved after that . Very very stale .

 

[celestis]

60% of the time, it works every time.

Reckon a new GK is certain now, if it wasn't before the game.

Cech rumours don't go away do they ?

 

[Edson]

First off, IF the players was tired they wouldnt Have the energy we had in the last 30. Özil has Been playing good recently. And coq on the field might might not Have made any difference, IT was a Cross and header.

Subs were good in My opinion. Goal seemed a fluke more than a change in the flow of the game.

Yea we buzzed the last 30 mins and had 3 great chances. Wilshere brought good energy.
I know the goal was completely against the run of play that's why I said " we were unlucky".
First half we were flat, no harm to change the starting 11, rotate, prevents fatigue and injuries.
Özil showed well for the ball the last 15 mins because he had a lot of space as he dropped deep. When was his last assist? He's hardly setting the league alight.
Carzola, Giroud looked tired.
Ramsey on the right is unbalanced, as with Özil and Carzola.
Coquelin has been doing a great job at DM and sometimes that goes unnoticed because he's not going forward or scoring. Coq's there to do a disciplined job and does it well.
If he was there he could of prevented the build up to the goal.

 

[Token Yank]

Yea we buzzed the last 30 mins and had 3 great chances. Wilshere brought good energy.
I know the goal was completely against the run of play that's why I said " we were unlucky".
First half we were flat, no harm to change the starting 11, rotate, prevents fatigue and injuries.
Özil showed well for the ball the last 15 mins because he had a lot of space as he dropped deep. When was his last assist? He's hardly setting the league alight.
Carzola, Giroud looked tired.
Ramsey on the right is unbalanced, as with Özil and Carzola.
Coquelin has been doing a great job at DM and sometimes that goes unnoticed because he's not going forward or scoring. Coq's there to do a disciplined job and does it well.
If he was there he could of prevented the build up to the goal.

Players have to be able to finish in order for Özil to register an assist tbf. Our finishing recently has been awful. I must be the only poster on here who thinks this but Ramsey frustrates me more than any player. He thinks he is Ronaldo and is so wasteful. Same lineup but with Wilshere on the other wing for United hopefully. Also, picking hairs here because he is a great player, but Sanchez takes the worst corners I have seen in top leagues. He rarely clears the first man. All in all, mediocre performance and unlucky result. Might be a silver lining as we will go to Manure game with something to prove instead of that laid back top of the world attitude which always kills us.

Edit: read some posts and saw others dogging Ramsey so I am not the only one, but 8 times outta 10 he frustrates me to death. Will play like **** then score some crazy goal and his erratic positioning, selfish long range shots, and wayward passes go unnoticed.

 

[GunnerBP]

I think most of the players out there played well, and Swansea were very well disciplined. Gary Monk is a top coach.

Our weaknesses today were the same as always. Ospina should have made that save, and despite how good his reflexes are, he just isn't getting any taller. Szczesny would have gotten a hand to that and pushed it our for a corner kick. He's made much harder saves than that for us.

Giroud did look a little tired, but this type of game is supposed to be perfect for him. He is the striker in our squad who is supposed to excel in this match. Swansea sat deep and Giroud should have used his physicality to create space down the middle. He didn't really do any of that all game, and that is a big concern. I think Giroud has had a really good season, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Too often I think he plays like a small player in a big player's body. He tries to make space through creative runs, and that is good, but sometimes you make space by being physical. Today's game was the type of game to use that skill set.

Last season, we would have subbed of Giroud and brought in Sanogo, and even though he is a less skilled player, the fact that he would rough up defenses created space and scoring opportunities.

Giroud is taylor made to play this way, yet he still wants to act like he is a faster and more technical player than he is.

Apart from that I think pretty much everyone else played well, and were just a bit unlucky. Alexis and Theo should have had goals, but they shot it a bit too close to Fabianski. Sometimes that just happens, and you're unlucky. Theo looks a bit rusty and we clearly aren't going to see the best of him until next season.

 

[North5]

It was just a typical wengerball clusterfuck really. We've all seen it before. Nothing new here. Hopefully we smash the Mancs next week.