It would seem that Moyes wasn't in fact doing a great job at Everton, but actually holding them back /troll
Some incredible goals this weekend... most of them scored by Arsenal. I haven't checked in here for a while. Is DM at least showing a tiny bit of optimism?
Yes, and no, today was a mostly fantastic performance bar Sagna at 2-1 I think(maybe 3-1) doing what Kos did last game in that he just rammed someone going for a header inside the box, clear as day penalty, he missed the ball, kneed him in the back and maybe caught him in the head as well. That's about the 4th penalty/stupid card he should have got and didn't this season. Complete liability, his delivery was poor.
People should be likely won't notice the significant difference in Arsenal in the past few games and earlier in the season. There were closer games, we dominated less and the play was significantly different.
I said ALL last season there were basically two Arsenal's, games where Giroud played with Podolski and Santi, and players played off Giroud. Pass to Giroud who was in good positions and played throughballs, flicked it over the top, did some great things. Other games we either played Gervinho upfront or on the wing and GIroud was being used differently, trying to get in behind, crossing the ball more, we were significantly less good.
The problem is we have a fractured team, Walcott/Gervinho, Rosicky want to play people in behind the defence, aren't great at passing and the 1-2's are usually non existent, though Rosicky had his moments. Another team, which is now Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshire, Caz, Giroud who play yesterdays style of football. Having 5 guys in offence all playing the same style of football has had a monumental effect in quality of our play. We may have won games all season but make absolutely no mistake, we haven't looked as good as yesterday really at any stage all season but the last few games we've been building towards this.
I've said for god knows how many years, Walcott is utter turd, completely, you get 5 mins of useful football(if lucky) a game, you win titles with guys who have 5 bad minutes but 85 useful minutes of movement, work, effort. We've looked a much much MUCH more linked up and complete team in offence since he got injured. Caz wasn't brilliant yesterday neither did I expect it first game back, but he was effective, in space, making passes and linking well and a million times better than Walcott.
Defensively.... Sagna should have conceded a penalty at a difficult time and Gibbs "attempt" to block the shot that was a goal was frankly pathetic.
This year we're attacking more and having less overall possession, the opposition is having more shots, we're conceding quite a lot and not looking solid against anyone defensively. Gibbs and Sagna are still huge weak points, Kos is still prone to ridiculous mistakes and Mert's clearance was woeful, 99% of CB's would have put that behind for a corner rather than swing with the wrong foot at that ball trying to put it down the field.
What Arsenal need, is to continue playing people who play the same way in the same team. The offence as was yesterday was fantastic, the defence wasn't. Ramsey was great later in the game much further forward but when he came on playing deeper he was conceding possession and Norwich were getting back in the game. There is a reason he looks so much better this year, completely different role, helped by playing the right holding midfield players and relieving Ramsey of that responsibility. Any time he's had to drop deeper he's looked meh, offensively he's been brilliant.
Where I'm not optimistic is, will we whack Walcott back in the team, will we fix the fullback problem, or will Wenger continue his shoving favourites into the team when others are playing miles better.
Arsenal for the past what 5 years, up the wing, stop pass back to defence, get stuck outside the box. Wingers, particularly Walcott, who have no idea how to break down teams, have woeful movement and poor passing. There was a complete absence of that yesterday, when in tight spots, Ozil/Caz/Wilshire had no problem being in space, making the passes.
If we keep the team as is and improve at fullback this could be a push back to a title winning team. If we once again(like we have every year for 6-7 years) push Walcott back into the team, Diaby when fit... who knows.
I said as much when we bought Monreal, and was mocked for being negative then low and behold, Monreal was dropped for Gibbs who still is rather rubbish.
Our big issue is defensive solidity, we gave Norwich 11 shots and 6 on target, a nailed on penalty wasn't given, and this is a team that can't score to save their lives. If you look at how many shots the opposition has had this year, how often we've conceded, we're not dominating the same way and conceding shots all over the place. Fulham had 16 shots with 7 on target compared to our 19, almost the only team to have significantly less possession and shots than us was Villa
We even let Stoke have 10 shots and half the possession. If we're going to play this way, which I encourage, we also need MUCH better fullbacks and in the future one much more mobile CB than Mert and one much less brain farty CB than Kos.
