I was not overly critical last week; so, this week, I am not overly praisegiving.

[eastgermanautos]

Sessegnon should have had them up by two goals. Glaring glaring problems. Kos could not catch the speedy African for the first. You could tell he wasn't going to go all out, not that he would have caught him anyway. Still careful after his injury I expect. The second miss will keep Sessegnon up at night for years to come.

[IUFG]

Sessegnon should have had them up by two goals. Glaring glaring problems. Kos could not catch the speedy African for the first. You could tell he wasn't going to go all out, not that he would have caught him anyway. Still careful after his injury I expect. The second miss will keep Sessegnon up at night for years to come.

All about taking your chances, innit.

Sessegnon and Mitrovic didn't. Liverpool's lot did.

In any case, the result against Liverpool was as a direct result of The Arsenal playing that dreadful Mariah Carey Christmas song at half-time versus Burnley.

There are Christmas songs, which are all shÃ*t, and then Mariah takes that particular one to the next level of shÃ*tness.

Karma what done it.

[WES]

All about taking your chances, innit.

Sessegnon and Mitrovic didn't. Liverpool's lot did.

In any case, the result against Liverpool was as a direct result of The Arsenal playing that dreadful Mariah Carey Christmas song at half-time versus Burnley.

There are Christmas songs, which are all shÃ*t, and then Mariah takes that particular one to the next level of shÃ*tness.

Karma what done it.

Hard to believe but I actually attended a football match yesterday. An Arsenal won. Quite pleasant really.

And loath as I am to comment on tactics as we all know pretty much f*ck all about them, there was a clear theme to us getting opened up at the back in the first half. Three at the back with Sokratis in the middle, no holding midfield as there was no Lucas, both wing backs up the pitch so the three were fairly isolated.

At which point Sokratis steps up and tries to win a tackle instead of keeping the defensive line, he fails to win the ball, and then we're f*cked as 3 or 4 of them run at Kos and Mustafi. Happened 3 or 4 times.

Second half playing Lucas and 433 it seemed much better with the main issue being that as good as the Bosnian is going forward, he is never, ever a left back. So basically what I'm saying is that Sokratis needs some discipline and we really don't have the players we need to play 343 which Unai seems to prefer.

[Alberto Balsam Rodriguez]

Hard to believe but I actually attended a football match yesterday. An Arsenal won. Quite pleasant really.

And loath as I am to comment on tactics as we all know pretty much f*ck all about them, there was a clear theme to us getting opened up at the back in the first half. Three at the back with Sokratis in the middle, no holding midfield as there was no Lucas, both wing backs up the pitch so the three were fairly isolated.

At which point Sokratis steps up and tries to win a tackle instead of keeping the defensive line, he fails to win the ball, and then we're f*cked as 3 or 4 of them run at Kos and Mustafi. Happened 3 or 4 times.

Second half playing Lucas and 433 it seemed much better with the main issue being that as good as the Bosnian is going forward, he is never, ever a left back. So basically what I'm saying is that Sokratis needs some discipline and we really don't have the players we need to play 343 which Unai seems to prefer.

I think Emery is a 433 or 4231 type manager. The only reason I can see for him playing 343 is to get the best out of the wide players. Kolasinac appears to be the only player who can consistently deliver a final ball and this may be part of the thinking

[Pokster]

Hard to believe but I actually attended a football match yesterday. An Arsenal won. Quite pleasant really.

And loath as I am to comment on tactics as we all know pretty much f*ck all about them, there was a clear theme to us getting opened up at the back in the first half. Three at the back with Sokratis in the middle, no holding midfield as there was no Lucas, both wing backs up the pitch so the three were fairly isolated.

At which point Sokratis steps up and tries to win a tackle instead of keeping the defensive line, he fails to win the ball, and then we're f*cked as 3 or 4 of them run at Kos and Mustafi. Happened 3 or 4 times.

Second half playing Lucas and 433 it seemed much better with the main issue being that as good as the Bosnian is going forward, he is never, ever a left back. So basically what I'm saying is that Sokratis needs some discipline and we really don't have the players we need to play 343 which Unai seems to prefer.

I thought he favoured 4 at the back from previous teams, but with no fit full backs he went 5 at the back to cover this... problem is we don't really have the quality in any defensive position to play either at the moment

[IUFG]

Hard to believe but I actually attended a football match yesterday. An Arsenal won. Quite pleasant really.

And loath as I am to comment on tactics as we all know pretty much f*ck all about them, there was a clear theme to us getting opened up at the back in the first half. Three at the back with Sokratis in the middle, no holding midfield as there was no Lucas, both wing backs up the pitch so the three were fairly isolated.

At which point Sokratis steps up and tries to win a tackle instead of keeping the defensive line, he fails to win the ball, and then we're f*cked as 3 or 4 of them run at Kos and Mustafi. Happened 3 or 4 times.

Second half playing Lucas and 433 it seemed much better with the main issue being that as good as the Bosnian is going forward, he is never, ever a left back. So basically what I'm saying is that Sokratis needs some discipline and we really don't have the players we need to play 343 which Unai seems to prefer.

I've noticed that when we play 3 at the back (or, if you like, with 'wing backs) we always appear to be undone by a long diagonal ball, either in the air or on the ground, seemingly because the wide players offer little in defensive discipline.

Whether this is a tictac that the other clubs have worked out or just happens during the run of play, we cannot handle it.

Liverpool exploited it brilliantly imo.

That said, we still appear to be undone by a straight long ball too.

[Tony C]

First noticed this when Wenger switched to a 4141 with Coqblock sitting deep to protect Koscielny and Mertaslacker who were getting roasted by players running through our midfield lines straight at them.

Worked for a time until people figured out they could just go wide or behind our full backs making Coqblock redundant.

Real shame Unai has lost so many players. Thought he was making real progress with some of them.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

I've noticed that when we play 3 at the back (or, if you like, with 'wing backs) we always appear to be undone by a long diagonal ball, either in the air or on the ground, seemingly because the wide players offer little in defensive discipline.

Whether this is a tictac that the other clubs have worked out or just happens during the run of play, we cannot handle it.

Liverpool exploited it brilliantly imo.

That said, we still appear to be undone by a straight long ball too.

We basically get undone when the opposition attack.

It dosn't really make much difference how they do it, if they keep trying to move the ball towards our goal, it will eventually go in. Kola's great going forward but can't defend and Hector works best with a wide forward ahead of him to play 1-2s and cut the ball back from the by-line.

And none of the CHs can defend.

It' just a pity that when we had Per and Kos at their peak, and Nacho too, with Santi, Ozil and Alexis on fire, we didn't have Torreira and Auba (or Laca) as well.

Kronke's not gonna spend what's required, so we'll basically be hoping we'll find a young CH who ends up much better than his price would have suggested, like Kos. An anti-Mustafi, as it were. But by the time that happens, if it ever does, our strikers will be passed it and we won't be able to pay for or attract the lies of Auba or Laca again.

I hate the Septic. He'll be quite happy with us in mid-table as long as the tv money keeps coming in.