Emirates Cup 2013 Preview

Wenger is such a WUM  

Interesting game. The old cliche of 2 halves, I think.

Two dreadful goals to concede - we really need to cut them out this season, silly mistakes. Jenkinson (1st goal) and Mertesacker/Fabianski (2nd) all indecisive. The Ramsey-Wilshere pivot didn't work, imo.

Introductions of Arteta, Sagna, Chamberlain, Walcott helped changed the game, albeit against a Napoli side two weeks behind us in pre-season terms.

Loved the fact we continue to fight back when behind - the current squad have a strong mentality to come from behind, I must say, saw that in last two seasons on many occasions.

Fabianski 6; Jenkinson 5 Mertesacker 5 Koscielny 8 Gibbs 7; Ramsey 7 Wilshere 6; Gnabry 6 Rosicky 8 Podolski 6; Giroud 6

urbaNRoots wrote:

The reporter was being an ass trying to force Arsene into talking about Suarez

Dat interview.

Been watching Wenger for years. I also used to play poker. I wasn't too bad to be honest.

Wenger would win any poker comp going.

However, I can read him a little.

That smile. The cat that got the cream smile. He ran away. He was smiling too much.

Anyone notice the emphasis on the 's' in the word 'signings'.

Yes, we've got Suarez. And Cesc. And Fellaini.

Don't spoil it, guys.

Realguuner: I thought the interviewer did a great job. He was like a dog with a bone! I like interviewers like that. It's got us talking, put it that way.

It's scary how important Arteta is to us. Those 31 year-old legs are one injury away from ruining our fourth place trophy. With that kind of importance and people said he's not Arsenal quality

Well worth investing in a DM or holding midfielder or his mold.

Please let this be the year of the Giroud. Finally.

MJGunner wrote:It's scary how important Arteta is to us. Those 31 year-old legs are one injury away from ruining our fourth place trophy. With that kind of importance and people said he's not Arsenal quality

Well worth investing in a DM or holding midfielder or his mold.

Please let this be the year of the Giroud. Finally.

Yeah, Arteta will go down as one of the most important, under-rated players of the Wenger era in my book. I love him. I admit, at the highest level in the Champions League - the first legs v Bayern & Milan in the knock-outs in the last two seasons, he was very poor (though not alone).

He's vital now. Signing someone like Gustavo is imperative imo - to play alongside him and push Wilshere forward with Cazorla wide. That's what I'd do anyhow;


Would allow us to rotate Arteta more as he gets older. Rosicky, Ramsey & Oxlade-Chamberlain provide very good back-up to the midfield too.

I've taken a look at Napoli's second goal, and it's a bit of a mess...



You can't see it very well from the TV camera perspective, but there was a yawning gap between our midfield and defenders. Hamsik, the one about to receive the pass, was the one who made a move towards that space.

Ramsey's positioning there wasn't the greatest since it neither allowed him to cut out the pass into Hamsik or drop deep a couple of yards to block the run. He lacked pace, so even if he had tried to block the run, chances were that Hamsik would have still gotten to the ball first. So Ramsey ended up doing neither and Hamsik was away.



Then there were several problems. Gibbs and Jenkinson had been caught high up the pitch, so Pandev could have made a run behind any of them and Hamsik would've been able to find him easily. Mertesacker and Koscielny playing an offside trap would have been extremely risky due to the amount of the time and space Hamsik had to pick out a pass. Koscielny couldn't come and out and engage Hamsik since it would have left room for Pandev to move into.

The most sensible thing they could have done is back off. This is what Arsenal usually do now when faced in these situations, except usually both fullbacks are in line with the two centre backs, and there's a midfielder protecting that back four. In this situation, Mertesacker and Koscielny didn't have that level of protection.



Koscielny then stopped backing off to front up Hamsik, but didn't engage him. If he had done so, then Hamsik would have simply lobbed a pass into the space behind for Pandev.

As it was, Pandev was aware of the space behind Gibbs and made a move towards it. Mertesacker went with the run, but didn't have the pace to keep up. All Hamsik had to do here was roll the ball into the space and Koscielny would be taken out of the game.

Now, I'm wondering if Koscielny made the right decision to stop backing off. If he had continued to back off, he would have given time and space for Hamsik to have a shot on goal, so it's easy to see why he did it, but at the same time I think if he had done so, Pandev might not have made that run. Instead, he might have made a move in behind Jenkinson, where there would have been a greater chance of cover.

Having said that, Pandev might have still made that run in order to take Koscielny away with him and open up more room for Hamsik to run into or have a shot from.

So many decisions... let's move on.



Pandev got in behind and Fabianski decided to come out and meet him, probably because he didn't think Mertesacker would get across in time. I believe he should have stayed on his line, though. Pandev is a very left footed player and would have taken an extra touch to get the ball onto his left foot, and that might have given Mertesacker time to get across and hold him up or even get a recovery tackle in. And even if Pandev still managed to get a shot away, Fabianski would have been in goal and would have had a chance to save it.

So all in all, while it was a complete mess at the back, the biggest problem we faced during the move was the space between our backline and midfield. The Arsenal of a few years ago constantly had that problem, and you can easily see the value of having a decent defensive midfielder or an athletic midfielder who can cover group quickly. Unfortunately, Ramsey is neither.

I watched the Pandev goal like 3 times to see what went wrong. The first thing i noticed was that it was A LOT like Arsenal 08/09 where all of our mids would be up and the cover would be non existent.

I don't think Ramsey was playing the Arteta role. Neither was Wilshere. They both were playing without any specialist defensive role. It looked like the midfield trio were asked to press back defensively together. You can see the midfield hurrying back when Pandev broke forward. No one actually took notice of Hamsik. It's something Arteta would have done 10/10. Ramsey will learn that in time if he is to play there but his only thought around that time was to quickly close down Pandev. Specially when Mertesacker couldn't follow him through.

The pivot of Ramsey-Wilshere is aesthetically pleasing to watch, while also providing the technique in midfield and surety in possession. But they don't have the brains of Arteta. Can't blame either since Arteta is almost Gilberto'esque in that regard.

Arsene for sure must have learnt a lot from this. I wonder if that is our backup plan in case Arteta gets injured and we don't buy a DM. But, i think Arsene will sign a DM. He isn't playing fifa.

Who missed the penalty?

^Poldi

Nice work Jay. Good editing.  

The gap between midfield and defence was alarming - even if Arteta was absent for the second goal.

Are you guys all equally desperate to see Luis Gustavo arrive? Reminds me of Gilberto so much.

Arsenal team: Szczesny, Jenkinson, Sagna, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Walcott, Sanogo

Sanogo

Wilshere misses today's game with a small ankle injury. Should be ok for City Via @DLDN22

Sanogo is showing nothing, no energy no effective nothing at all.  

Ramsey's pass to Theo was Fabregas-esque

Raptorgunner wrote:Sanogo is showing nothing, no energy no effective nothing at all.  

Just joined last week.

urbaNRoots wrote:Ramsey's pass to Theo was Fabregas-esque

ramsey needs to be more consistent with his through balls, they suck most of the time.

RealGunner wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:Sanogo is showing nothing, no energy no effective nothing at all.  

Just joined last week.

I know but, this was a great chance for him to show something.

loool drogba man, the tame of arsenal

God. I Hate That Man So Much.

My God, we are such a disappointing club

Drogba