Positives & negatives

[Dorset Gooner]

We were as good as a team that has cost a fortune to assemble & we are not far behind them.
Walcott, Wilshere, Ox etc committing for the next few years.
We have a good keeper.
Negatives
We are miles behind Man City & Man U. We are behind Chelsea. We are on a par with Tottenham, Everton & Liverpool.
Positive, we are rebuilding so can only get better.
Negative if we miss out on the CL will big name players want to join us? If one of our close competitors gets our spot will we fall futher behind them?
Chilling times really.

[East Upper for Supper]

Since when did we ever sign a "big" name anyway? cue shezzer jokes.

[Dorset Gooner]

[PSRB]

[Norn Iron]

Actually that might be negative given our home form.

We could do with 13 points from 15 going into Tottenham away.

[The A*ntöniö]

[Classic Jorge]

[Classic Jorge]

[Dorset Gooner]

anywhere near £22m for one player

[Curly]

In Johnny Foreigner's eyes

[Classic Jorge]

point taken about the fee though

[Dorset Gooner]

when they weren't in the CL, players wanted to join them because they pay them crazy money. Same applied to Chelsea when the Russian took over.

[Classic Jorge]

[Monty91]

Suarez still view Liverpool as a massive club, unless he's a real football history buff? They've been pretty ****e since he was a kid.

[Curly]

Liverpool and Juve spring to mind.Inter before the special one?

[Monty91]

though he may end up one (and then will he stay at Pool?)

No indication of them being able to sign a player from the top tier.

[Pat Vegas]

[The Tony]

11 letters infact although he's no Sczesney...less letters but max pointage if you hit the ol' triple word score.

[Supermac1976]

[PSRB]

particularly when compared to the money they paid for Carroll

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Unfortunately as we all know a game lasts twice that.

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Billy Goat Sverige]

time as they want with the ball? I can't think of any other top team that does it.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[The Tony]

But when you boil it all down its just same old Arsenal from last season.

Leaky Defence (this time Sagna's the culprit but it could've been any one of them).

Midfield disorganised and the opposition running through them at will.

Strikers still missing important goals...they can score goals just not the important ones.


____


Needs to clean up the defence.

Needs to have a defensive base in midfield and give it more structure and rigidity.

Needs the strikers to start taking their chances.


He's got the players to do it but seems to be finding it difficult....he's massively infavour of this whole Barcelona format of attacking midfielders doing everything and its not working.

[Monty91]

often you just need to weather the storm and not give away soft goals. We give away a lot of soft goals.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

I would proceed with caution if I were you. You don't want to be shouted at by rude people.

Second week in a row the game bypassed Diaby I thought. Almost a man down in a crucial area of the field.

Not his fault I should add, given his lengthy absence and inevitable rustiness throwing him into games with City and Chelsea from the off is to be questioned. Given that Wenger would have wanted him for yesterday then perhaps sitting out Swansea would have been appropriate.

[Curly]

Quicker in their play etc etc.
I just don't understand it.There must be something fundamentally wrong with the pre-game motivation as it has happened nearly every game this season.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Monty91]

[Curly]

[Peter]

And do it properly.

We dont. It is the same lack of organisation that leads to the soft goals.

A coaching issue.

[Curly]

They deffo planned to play on the break in the second half.It worked fairly well for them,luckily Torres is a shade of what he once was

[Luis Anaconda]

[Monty91]

[Peter]

[Peter]

[Peter]

[wibble the lobster]

not sure we are on a par with spurs this year - particularly in the striker dept - and looking at the way the clubs are now run......

reality is we look nowhere like replacing van persie.wenger says the players arent out there who can improve the squad. Yet both chelsea (ba) and utd (if zaha rumour true) have managed to buy.

and if our squad is that great, then presumably the results are down to the managerial and coaching staff?

sunday wasnt unusual. Most first halves this season have been shocking and most second halves have been better. even in the last week (city, swansea and chelsea). Basically the team is going out either under-prepared or over-confident and I for one cant tell which

[Ashberto]

[Luis Anaconda]

[Peter]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

collectively we had no idea what to do for 45 minutes. We weren't pressing the ball, nor were we sitting deep. Runs weren't being tracked and challenges were being lost.

Diaby being out for the best part of 5 years can never help him. Jack was poor, Giroud was isolated, Per was poor, Sagna was awful, Cazorla ws lost and Theo was everywhere except where he needed to be, in that 1st half

[Luis Anaconda]

Santa Claus is coming to town springs to mind

[Bergkamp's Brain]

when players put pressure on themselves some will tighten up, or freeze. When the game is effectively over, the self created pressure goes and they are freed up to play. Just a theory, mind.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Our best player on the pitch last season at OT and in the last few games has been excellent, provided balance.

Thing is we both know that as soon as Arteta is fit again we won't see him until Barnet away in the summer.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

I like him and thought he was, by some distance, our best player in the first half. In fact I'd go as far as to say that he was our only performer in that 45 minutes.

[1 up 2 down]

we are rebuilding?

haven't we been doing that for the past 8 yrs :rubchin: