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UCL – Arsenal vs Olympiacos – 7:45pm – 3/10/12 - SS4

phenn

Well-Known Member
I thought Ox and Coquelin were horrendous, especially in the first half. I like a lot about Ox's game but man, his touch doesn't seem there at the moment. The first half in general was just a train wreck with lots of unpunished mistakes and then one punished; thankfully Gervinho got a decent effort on frame and it went in.

I want Mertesacker to come back into the team and just scream "NEIN!" every time Verm wants to venture forward. Good grief. I watched the game on delay here and I had to restrain myself more than once from just checking the score. That was unnecessarily stressful. Olympiacos came out hard to break down and did well tactically but my word, they were missing half their squad including a lot of important players and we still struggled like hell.

HOWEVA, 3 points for Arsenal so job done!
 

RUS arsenal

Established Member
My thoughts:

Verms....absolutely criminal stuff with giving away the ball in our half and for the goal as well, don't see Kos' fault here at all. Great player when he plays with intensity, but as soon as he loses focus (happens way too much considering the arm band), he turns into a liability, needs to shape up.

Kos was solid, not great but did his job. He is looking better and better with every game and IMO should be played ahead of Verms on current form. I don't agree with those saying that Kos/Verms partnership doesn't work though. What we saw today was Kos who is one game away from full match sharpness and Verms who needs to get his act together because we know he can if he plays with intensity. We are paying for not playing Kos at all early in the season, constant rotation needed.

Gervinho was a delight. Shone along with Jenks like beacons of light on a gray stormy day. Took his chance well, sidefooter from outside the box no less and a sweet assist. Jenks' backhill was something else, a whole different animal when he plays with confidence like that, keep it up lad!

Thought Coquelin grew into the game and his role the longer it went on. If he is not hurt, should provide good enough cover for Diaby for the time being.
 

evoh_1

Established Member
steve bould being frank and on point, absolutely love it no washing over the fact that we weren't great but got the result and honest about the players without arrogance that we sometimes hear after a weak result.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-we-did-great-and-have-got-back-on-track-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... -on-track-</a>
 

VancouverCanuck

Well-Known Member

Country: Canada
Frank assessments from Steve Bould.

BTW, great performance from Gervinho. But I thought he was guilty for not closing down the Olympiakos player who crossed the ball which resulted in the tying goal. But he sure made up for it from his offensive contribution.
 

VAVAVOOM 14

Active Member
Coquelin is far too limited offensively. I'd prefer Ramsey starting.

Scrappy game, those errant passes from Verms are very disconcerting, as was the mix up between him and Mannone. All that needs to be cut out immediately. If we were playing any decent side that's two goals we've given away.

Gervinho is starting to look lovely, I have no problem with him starting as long as he keeps this up.

I have the utmost respect for Podolski, the best work ethic of any forward I've seen at Arsenal. Makes defending his duty rather than a chore. Others should take note.

Great Cameo from Ramsey, nice to see him get a goal.

Walcott put in some nice balls, looked lively when in possession, but off the ball he looked disinterested.

The Gods continue to frown on Giroud, he does have an innate sense for being in the right place though. All signs are encouraging, nice to see him smiling even after his first chance was saved.

Chamberlain was pretty atrocious, still is far too uninvolved in games for the most part. He needs to make an imprint on matches, as of now, he usually drifts in and out in spurts. Lost the ball far too often in the 1st half.

Jennkinson continues his ascendancy.

Great win in the end. 6 points from 2 games. Although I was hoping to see Santos play.
 

Airknight

Established Member
Can't blame Coquelin for not knowing what to do at times, looked like he wanted Arteta to go up for a bit while he covered but Arteta kept neglecting the offers... Still a poor game by what i want to see from him, and an awful first half like pretty much everyone.

I wonder if Arsène/Bould fancy dropping Vermaelen for a match, i know we all think he's undroppable due to his captain status but could be worth a gamble, given that the one with the worst performances recently wasn't actually Koscielny.
 

blrgooner

Established Member
VAVAVOOM 14 said:
The Gods continue to frown on Giroud, he does have an innate sense for being in the right place though. All signs are encouraging, nice to see him smiling even after his first chance was saved.

Exactly. He played for 15-20 mins. In that he had two good chances(Was a bit unlucky with one of them) and got an assist. You can see that he doesn`t hide in the football pitch. He doesn`t look awful with his feet either.
 

KY

Established Member
was a bit unlucky with both of them me thinks. One, the keeper just so happened to be in the right place, and two the defender.
 

Mastadon

Established Member
Delighted that we have 6 points from 2 games now its always best to win the early games and rest players later on. Kos will get better with game time and he will benefit from it. I wish Wenger had started Giroud for this one. Games against easy(ish) opposition surely give him the best chance to play well and build confidence.
 

redwhiteAustrian

Tu Felix Austria
Administrator
If we don't lose any of our next two CL home games, we'll be without defeat to a foreign side for 50 games.

Stunning record.

Last defeat was against Inter Milan in 2003. Just survive this season without a home defeat, and it'll be a whole decade.
All in all just two defeats at home over the last decade, both to fellow PL sides.
 

Rain Dance

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
redwhiteAustrian said:
If we don't lose any of our next two CL home games, we'll be without defeat to a foreign side for 50 games.

Stunning record.

Last defeat was against Inter Milan in 2003. Just survive this season without a home defeat, and it'll be a whole decade.
All in all just two defeats at home over the last decade, both to fellow PL sides.

Hark... Milestones, there's nothing making me feel more nervous about Arsenal than milestones




except Howard Webb... in Old Trafford
 

VAVAVOOM 14

Active Member
redwhiteAustrian said:
If we don't lose any of our next two CL home games, we'll be without defeat to a foreign side for 50 games.

Stunning record.

Last defeat was against Inter Milan in 2003. Just survive this season without a home defeat, and it'll be a whole decade.
All in all just two defeats at home over the last decade, both to fellow PL sides.

That Wayne Bridge goal still haunts me to this day.

Although it may sound pathetic, my biggest regret will always be that we never won the treble in 2003/2004.... imagine that, an unbeaten treble.
 

Braydz

Active Member
Pleasing result, starting to think we'll walk this group, hope i don't eat my words though... I would love a good a run in the champions league this year.

Podolski scoring again is great, along with Ramsey's delightful finish. Worth getting up at nearly 3 in the morning to watch this anyway.
 

G0D

Almighty
Airknight said:
Can't blame Coquelin for not knowing what to do at times, looked like he wanted Arteta to go up for a bit while he covered but Arteta kept neglecting the offers... Still a poor game by what i want to see from him, and an awful first half like pretty much everyone.

I wonder if Arsène/Bould fancy dropping Vermaelen for a match, i know we all think he's undroppable due to his captain status but could be worth a gamble, given that the one with the worst performances recently wasn't actually Koscielny.
Koscielny was by far the worst of the two of them against Chelsea, whereas Vermaelan was clearly the worst against Olympiacos. The only one that should be dropped is Koscielny, because before he came back the combination of Vermaelan and Mertesacker was clearly working for us.

If Koscielny had been playing significantly better than Vermaelan then I could see the sense in it, but they've both been atrocious.
 

VAVAVOOM 14

Active Member
G0D said:
Airknight said:
Can't blame Coquelin for not knowing what to do at times, looked like he wanted Arteta to go up for a bit while he covered but Arteta kept neglecting the offers... Still a poor game by what i want to see from him, and an awful first half like pretty much everyone.

I wonder if Arsène/Bould fancy dropping Vermaelen for a match, i know we all think he's undroppable due to his captain status but could be worth a gamble, given that the one with the worst performances recently wasn't actually Koscielny.
Koscielny was by far the worst of the two of them against Chelsea, whereas Vermaelan was clearly the worst against Olympiacos. The only one that should be dropped is Koscielny, because before he came back the combination of Vermaelan and Mertesacker was clearly working for us.

If Koscielny had been playing significantly better than Vermaelan then I could see the sense in it, but they've both been atrocious.

They're too similar. We need Mertesacker in to provide balance.

Mertesacker is the Yin to Vermaelen/Koscielny's Yang.
 

fabo

6.51 / 10
Would like to see Podolski get more goalscoring chances, basically be higher up the pitch. Right now he's done pretty well to score 4 goals as he's barely getting one chance per game given the shift he puts in and how deep he tends to be helping Gibbs.

Surprised by how well-rounded his game is tbh, not elite standard in a technical sense as we all knew but his touch, link-up, vision is all to a good standard.

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tumblr_mbcmun1uEg1qi532yo5_250.gif
 

kenya

Well-Known Member
Finally got to watch the game. Some of you guys seriously need to stop misleading people. After reading comments here I thought Kos must have been absolutely rubbish. Then I watch the game and I see nothing. He just makes one rash tackle and gets a yellow for it and that's normal for a defender. It can happen. He generally doesn't do anything wrong all game. In fact TV made several blunders in this game and had very poor passing. I still think TV shouldn't just get shielded because he's captain. Kos and Per for me make our best defensive pairing.
 

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