I think everyone likes to play well, but we want success as well.
Ah, I didn’t cotton on to that. As you were… 
I find having the same defensive failings every season for a decade fairly boring, but each to their own I suppose.
Lol at the “Back 3” talk. If Conte were the manager sure but no one else understands it besides him. It would be like telling Wenger to figure out how to mark set pieces it just can’t be done.
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My bad, I got the wording wrong there, didn’t intend to sound that pompous. Of course there’s no such thing as a ‘proper fan’ and we all experience football differently. I ought to have stuck with expressing my own feelings without generalizing them.
I’m with you on the score that attacking football is usually a lot of fun, and don’t get me wrong I like watching Arsenal at their fluid best more than anything. But I can think of a couple 1-0 wins that felt so, so good. There was that one at home against City during their first Premier League title winning season, where it was honestly quite a shit game, and to be honest a bit boring. Until something like the 83rd minute when Arteta’s shot from outside the box took one bounce and settled into the bottom right corner. Felt brilliant. Another very memorable 1-0 for me was away to Dortmund in the Champions League a couple seasons back. It was not a fun game at all, and they were much better as an attacking side than us, but we showed some true defensive grit in that game, which was both nerve-wracking and satisfying to see at the same time. Then on perhaps our first real attack of the game (midway through the second half), Ramsey seemed to hyperextend his upper body to head the ball into their net. And we held on for the win. That was a really great night.
I like to see Arsenal play attacking football. But I’d like to see it complemented with some defensive steel, because as a defensive-minded player on my weekend 5-a-side games that’s a part of the game I can really appreciate. The season before last we were actually doing really well on the defensive side of things, Mertescielny was solid and largely on the base of that we were churning out results in a promising way until inevitablty we fell away.
Perhaps too much reminiscence in this post.
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Not seen a paragraph that big since BradyMagic days.
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So… he did it then.
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Yeah. Can’t polish a turd though, we play this formation against City and we’ll be ripped apart just the same as any other way.
GFI for manager 
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Absolutely. We looked so awkward and were getting pulled apart by an incredibly average team. Sane, Sterling and Aguero would have a field day.
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I am surely better than Wenger. Still need to learn how to defend, but an extra CB on the field helps.
The new tactic exposed the LM (Monreal) to be under pressure many times. How you can fix that and have more protection on the flanks?
We don’t know if Arsène will use the back 3 again, but next week Arsenal will play against wingers as Sanè, KDB, Sterling and Navas as RB.
Who should help the wingers, exposed to be attacked by two players? One of the players behind the striker or one of the two midfielders?
best just making bellerin a sweeper and throwing everyone else up front.
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Wenger already more or less said he wouldn’t play this way much in the future, all this “We are a team that wants to have the ball” crap.
I say we should go for it. What do we have to lose? We have been absolute shit playing four at the back for months.
Our personnel is not quite right for 3-4-2-1 but at least it gives the opponent something new to think about, rather than lining up with the same stale tactics and challenging opponents to stop what they know is coming (surprise, they’ve become pretty good at that)
We can easily switch between 3-4-2-1 and a more conventional 4-2-3-1 with the personnel we fielded against Boro. A creative manager might even plan to start with the former to force City out of their expected approach to playing us, then change to the more conventional formation based on match situation. But I’m not holding my breath.
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Mustafi Bellerin Koscielny
And then Ox as our RWB.
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ox and bellerin as RWB options is kinda sexy.
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My ideal back line:
Koscielny - Giroud - Mustafi
With Bellerin and Ox as wing backs.
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With Giroud to step forward as a Beckenbauer type libero and dribble the ball into attack when we are in possession.
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My ideal back line:
Young Holding Koscielny Mustafi Bellerin.
The only obstacle is we must sign Ashley Young.
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I’d rather Valencia in that case.
5-3-2 could be interesting to try.