Arsenal 3 - 1 Olympiakos: Not the best display, but a good win in the end

Discuss away. Actually can't be arsed to type anything tonight.

So, now who is going to die?

Average performance but 3 points are important.

Got the job done.. but not in a convincing way..
just focusing a more on the negatives..
Wenger played the fulll first team.. and inspite of dominating possession Arsenal struggled to create any chances in the first half... We could not play through the centre and was forced to play wide and tried to cross.. the sad thing is we never do this when Giroud comes.. And they had the better chances.. our defence i mean the centre-backs looked shaky.. some questionable tackling and decision making.. In the second half we saw a better Arsenal creating more chances.. especially after the 2nd goal which made the game more open... Cazorla was set free and chances came on..

Mannone - 6 good positioning and clean catching.. shaky in the air.. came out for an unchallenged take and caught it at his knee height only to fumble.. .. this guy is a professional...
Jenkinson - 7 solid.. keeping the consistency.. nee more of his crosses when Giroud plays upfront..
Koscielny - 6 not convincing enough... some questionable positioning and challenges..
Vermaelen - 6 he is not in good form atm.. i have never seen him being below par except for some offdays.. he used to bounce back the next game.. and charging forward at 2-1 in the 84th min should be answerable...
Gibbs - 7 great game at both ends.. but even at good positions he never cuts in or tries to shoot.. he reaches there and puts a cross without looking around..
Arteta - 6 kept things simple..
Coquelin - 6 i thought he was not upto the level.. we could have been better served if he played the deep role and sending Arteta more forward.. or we could have started Ramessi...
Ox - 6 tried hard.. decent crossing.. better player on the wings..
Podolski -6 anonymous except for the goal..
Cazorla - 6 marked out of the game in the first half. later he came deep and took the ball.. and great second half..
Gervinho - 7 good game.. didnt see the frustrating side of him today as he didnt have much of the ball.. seems to have more options when played at centre rather than at the wings..
Walcott 6 put in some decent crosses...
Giroud - 7 some good efforts.. he is so unlucky.. looked good.. i'm sure that he would have been in the score sheet if he started..
RAMESSI - 7 classy finish... CL suits him better.. should start next game instead of Coquelin..

2nd half was brilliant. 1st half was really shit

Gervinho was fantastic. Tried really hard and got the reward. Poor game by Ox. Podolski worked all night, great finish.

but our Fullbacks

Gibbs n Jenkinson take a bow


Less said about our CBs the better

Mannone - Ok
Jenkinson - Great
Koscielny/Vermaelen - Average
Gibbs - Great
Coquelin - Ok
Arteta - Average
Oxlade - Horrible
Cazorla - Average
Podolski - Average
Gervinho - Great

Overrall: Average performance, but happy with the result. We don't create as much as we used to create, that makes me sad but aslong as we get results I wont complain much even if it's frustrating.

Good game, I think the rain effected the game and the result that's matter. Diaby is missed very much and I hope Wenger stops with no striker bullshit and starts Giroud from now on.

Raptorgunner wrote:Good game, I think the rain effected the game and the result that's matter. Diaby is missed very much and I hope Wenger stops with no striker bullshit and starts Giroud from now on.

nice touch of Wengeritis, raptor

gunnerlistick wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:Good game, I think the rain effected the game and the result that's matter. Diaby is missed very much and I hope Wenger stops with no striker bullshit and starts Giroud from now on.

nice touch of Wengeritis, raptor

I don't see how Gervinho can be left out of the starting XI now. He's been on point all season. I'd take a few frustrating moments a game for his goals and assists.

MJGunner wrote:I don't see how Gervinho can be left out of the starting XI now. He's been on point all season. I'd take a few frustrating moments a game for his goals and assists.

I dont think anyone wants Gervinho out, I just want us to have a proper striker.

Theo and Giroud.

Olivier Giroud is currently leading the way in assists for us, with 3 to his name.

Giroud the playmaker.

Jokes aside, he did look impressive in the time he was on the pitch. I think he and Gervinho should start on Saturday for numerous reasons.

Theo made some good crosses we should start Theo also.

Theo and Giroud are made for each other.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2212571/Steve-Bould-compares-Gervinho-Thierry-Henry-Arsenal-win.html

Bould, talk about pressure

Once I've finished uploading pictures/videos, I'll talk about the game

Mannone 6 - I'm told he rolled the ball straight to an Olympiakos player early on, but I missed it as I was in the toilet but from what I actually saw did ok. Made one good save early on and did ok in the air (an unnecessary punch aside). Really want Szczesny and Fabianski back fit though.

Jenkinson 7 - Nothing spectacular tonight, but his rapid development continues. Notice the cheeky back-heels in defence now. This guy actually has all the attributes a top-class full back needs - Pace, crossing, tackling, heading, determination. Huge fan of CJ now, what a difference 12 months makes.

Koscielny 6.5 - Improved performance tonight, albeit against much weaker opposition. However, made one crunching tackle which was fortunate the ref only gave a yellow for and was partly at fault for Olympiakos' goal - lack of communication with Vermaelen was horrid. Needs to up his game overall to last season's level.

Vermaelen 5.5 - Captain? Not on this evidence. Unlike Koscielny, Vermaelen could see Mitroglou infront of him, and decided to do nothing but let the striker get ahead of him and head past Mannone. No speaking with Koscielny on the goal at all it seems. Another poor incident was when Vermaelen strode out from the back four and passed straight to an Olympiacos player. Also, Walcott late on a counter attack crossed for....Vermaelen! What was he doing there? 2-1 up in Champions League dying minutes and he is up the other end. Madness. He is turning into the defender version of Alex Song - can't defend and loves going forward. Per, please come back.

Gibbs 7.5 - Excellent. Stamina is amazing. Over-lapping great. Defensively, like CJ, improving. Must stay fit. Thought Santos might have got a start tonight though.

Arteta and Coquelin 6.5 - Thought both were off the pace in the first half, lots of misplaced passes, especially from the latter, but improved in the second half to dominate midfield by and large. Arteta's lack of training, injury and need for a fitness test on Wednesday morning was probably evident at times. Will be back to his best for West Ham I imagine (and hope). Coquelin is a player I like a lot, but failed to take real advantage of a chance tonight with Diaby, Wilshere, Ramsey and Frimpong left out or injured.

Chamberlain 5 - Poor. Seems like his career is stagnating. Good goal against Coventry aside, has he done much this season? Can't really remember anything!

Cazorla 7 - Not at his ultra-best, but what he did do, he did with brilliance. Technically on another level to his team-mates. Unlucky with early free-kick effort.

Podolski 6.5 - Quiet night, but put in so much effort, particularly defensively helping out Gibbs. Scored the second goal - his 4th goal in 8 games for the club, very impressive figures.

Gervinho 7.5 - Our best player tonight. A goal and an assist, and lots of movement, passing and chance-creating. His goal was probably average goalkeeping too, but he did what he had to do, a nice hit. The assist was sweet too, a nice pull-back. Quickly turning into an important player for Arsenal - 5 goals in 7 appearances this season.

That was the first game ive seen cazorla live, great player.

Anyway, the first half was a bit of a struggle. Oly were very compact and made it very dificult to play through them. The only player that was comfortable at playing in the tight spaces between their defensive lines was cazorla and he wasnt really making himself available much for the ball, so we tended to pass the ball out wide where the space was and tried to play down the channels which wasnt very productive for us. Eventually when we got the goal it was due to cazorlas close control in a tight space opening more space for podolski who centred the ball and gerv struck him with the goalkeepers help. For their goal i thought it was kos' fault, hes in a funk atm and he needs to get out of it or we will have to bench him.
Second half was more open, we played better, passed the ball better, cazorla got on the ball more and did his thing, albeit he missed a sitter. When pod got his chance it never seemed in doubt, hes the only player we have that when he gets in a goalscoring position your confident hes going to bang it into the net. 3 points, top of the group

A number of people have started to say arteta isnt great when opponents press high up. I noticed this a long time ago and it was evident again today, his problem imo, is that he makes it obvious what hes going to do and he cant then quickly change direction and play a different direction, he seems to lack the mobility, or awareness, or both even, to disguise his game and play around intsense pressure. That makes it easier for opponents to press him, if they can tell what hes going to try and dont have to worry about getting outfoxed

ps jenkinson has improved a lot, but he overcommits a bit at times

Chamberlain 5 - Poor. Seems like his career is stagnating. Good goal against Coventry aside, has he done much this season? Can't really remember anything!

I agree with you here. The actual good things Chamberlain has produced in his Arsenal career thus far has been sporadic. He has the ability to do very good things and it does show - be it a dribble, a good shot, pass, cross, etc. He can do all that, but he fades out of games too often, hardly has any effect on others and often times tries to do much when on the ball.

For now, at least, he shouldn't be starting games. I think he still has a lot to learn and improve on before he can be a regular starter in the side.

I was sat right next to the away fans



Cazorla



This wanker steward wouldn't let me film with my HD camera (but allowed everyone else to film with their phones )



Poor Francis

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Chamberlain 5 - Poor. Seems like his career is stagnating. Good goal against Coventry aside, has he done much this season? Can't really remember anything!

I agree with you here. The actual good things Chamberlain has produced in his Arsenal career thus far has been sporadic. He has the ability to do very good things and it does show - be it a dribble, a good shot, pass, cross, etc. He can do all that, but he fades out of games too often, hardly has any effect on others and often times tries to do much when on the ball.

For now, at least, he shouldn't be starting games. I think he still has a lot to learn and improve on before he can be a regular starter in the side.

as the lol.com artcle said.. lots of empty seats..
we sold out 60,000 tickets for our League cup match against Coventry when we are sure that we will play the kids and win..
but few viewers for a CL home tie which we were almost sure to win with a first team..
so Gooners prefer to the watch the youngsters more than the first team..
Arsenal ways...

Wilson37 wrote:as the lol.com artcle said.. lots of empty seats..
we sold out 60,000 tickets for our League cup match against Coventry when we are sure that we will play the kids and win..
but few viewers for a CL home tie which we were almost sure to win with a first team..
so Gooners prefer to the watch the youngsters more than the first team..
Arsenal ways...

selling tickets and number of people watching is not the same.

Alot of tickets are bought by third party sites who sell them

it's the only place here where I can post this, so here it goes.
Olympiakos did a great job defensively, dispite conceding 3. If you guys saw our games from the begining of the season till now you would have expected a 5-0 or something. We put up a good fight and Mitroglou's goal was just awesome.
As for Arsenal, I was particulary impressed with Jenkinson. I've seen the guys in some games last year and he seemed nothing special. In this game though he was great. A true fighter. Zervinho did whatever he wanted in our box and Cazorla is a maestro

First 15 minutes and second half in general was not Extraordinary but enough to win us the game.

A couple points in tactics...

Our full backs still cross the ball to nowhere.... Stop it!

When our central midfielders are overcrowded, our wingers only watch... This leads to losing possession and probably losing the game as well. I wish they had more freedom to operate in final third.

A couple points on individuals...

In Chamberlain's defense, he seemed to not understand instructions from the coach... I dont know what the hell he was told but he looked Lost and out of the game... Atm, Gervinho is the main man and wingers are just protecting.

Coquelin not tracking back when the greek player almost scored. Dont remember which minute. His overall game is good but not outstanding. He played better in 2nd half.

Happy with the result.

This is what I had to put up with for 90 minutes