Arsenal - West Brom (Premier League)

[quote=“Calum, post:100, topic:1055”]
Won’t be watching but least I get to see the goals as they go in!
[/quote]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KJPP7GkuPU

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The fuck? Banned from MDC :joy:

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Me, too.

:wink: Told You

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Yes. A skank 1-0 win. The result of champions :grin:

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Typical game against Pulis. They did absolutely nothing and we struggled to create chances, albeit Foster was outstanding in the second half. Only an header like that one could have saved us. In fact it went in that way.
Xhaka is getting on my nerves because i can’t see what he adds to our team. Basically, Coquelin is doing everything by himself: tackling, defending and passing. Ozil good, but still not enough. Sanchez god mode again, instead.

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They play the usual piss poor anti-football and almost get away with it. We’re almost there a couple of times (Sanchez in the post etc) and finally get one in, glad for the 3pts.

Frustrating though that we struggle to break them down as individually they’re not great. Since this is is the type of football we face many times during a season we need to be more assertive and successful in breaking them down (which we have been this season at times tbf, over all we’re getting better at it), we need to regularly piss all over teams like these.

Nearly 900 passes, 11 attempts, 76% possession, we need to more convincingly convert. Glad the Özil -> Giroud weapon solved it for us this time.

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How can we struggle to win these games every week? So poor. Showing no improvements or progress.

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We all knew it was going to be like this. Did you watch the Chelsea V WBA match? Carbon copy of us today. Tbf Pulis’ sides do the park the bus thing better than anyone bar maybe Mourinho.

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Xhaka did pass the ball a couple of times though

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I meant decisive passing, what he supposed to do now that Santi is out.

It’s ever hard to beat a rugby team with 11 men behind the midfield line, with a GK who wastes time since the first minute and try to emulate the best skills of Gigi Buffon.

Good job, despite some problems who need to be solved ASAP.

The first is on midfield. Probably I have overrated Granit Xhaka. He has good technique, good vision and he is capable to recover the ball, but he is a static player, is slow, and in the Premier League a slow player becomes predictable and not a factor for the squad he plays. The partnership with Coquelin isn’t helping Granit to become a key player for us, because Francis (unfortunately) isn’t only a ball recovery midfielder for us, but much more. He is playing like a box to box midfielder despite he hasn’t any qualities to play in this position. He tends to pass the ball to Xhaka and run outside the opponents area, forming a line composed by 4 players (the wingers + him and Ozil) behind Giroud. When he receives the ball in this position (and not only in this position) he pass the ball on the right to Bellerìn, stopping any chance to creare an attempt. The opponents don’t mark him because they know how isn’t good to keep the possession and to create anything. If Arsène wants to play with Xhaka as starter, Coquelin should be our last option to be a starter, behind Cazorla, Elneny, Ramsey and Iwobi.

Giroud scored a great goal, but his contribution is minor when he plays since the start of the game. He is the typical “ace in the hole” to keep on the bench at the start of the game and to show around the 60° minute.

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What’s happened?! :xhaka:

Meh, he played enough good passes. Maybe not too many killer balls, but that could be said about everybody else too. No reason to single out the player with the most passes in a single game all season for his passing of all things.

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Exactly what we needed now.

Well at least someone seems to give a shit about not tracking back. Makes me think there’s little to no instructions given when a player comes on as an attacking sub.

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If you are a pro football player and you don’t know you should be tracking back in a 1 nil game, you are probably in the wrong business. It’s a pretty basic thing. Why does every little story have to become an attack against Wenger?

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Yeah I didn’t have a problem with Xhaka today and I have been one of his primary detractors… I actually thought we played pretty darn well today bar a little bit of creativity and incisiveness in the final 3rd - was frustrating, but I always felt we would take the 3 points somehow… weird game.

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Gab demanding Lucas tracks back is the kind of in game management from the players we been lacking and what we desperately need within the 11. Good on Gab for showing leadership

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