Swansea 2 - 1 Arsenal

Arsenal in throwing a lead shocker.

Arsenal in not learning their lessons shocker.

A performance and game that could be best described as complete garbage where we got everything we deserved. The team is in disarray right now and not just because of our make-shift backline. Throughout the whole team there is a lack of discipline and a lack of tactical understanding and nobody has a clue, not even the manager apparently, about how to manage a game.

Perhaps we were overly cautious in the first half which was why we didn't offer much going forward. That was fine and expected after the Anderlecht game. We were defending okay, except for down our right hand side where Chambers was being roasted time and time again by Montero. That wasn't even a tactical problem; that was just an inexperienced defender struggling big time against a player quicker than he was.

We get the lead through a very good counter and Swansea aren't threatening our goal too much, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look to play it safe, anyway. Look at both the Swansea goals and there are so many problems it's ridiculous.

Sigurdsson scores a world class free-kick but look at how that free-kick was won. Burrow, some random kid, turns on the halfway line and all of a sudden he's got about 40 yards worth of space to run into. Where are Ramsey and Flamini? Who knows. The guy runs at our defence, and Gibbs has to stop him somehow and it's from that free-kick that they equalise.

Their winner comes from our right hand side, where Chambers was still getting ruined by Montero. Do Arsenal send someone out there to protect Chambers and double on Montero? No, they just leave Chambers alone against him. And guess what? Montero beats Chambers, gets the ball in, and Gomis outjumps the fullback playing centre back to score the winner.

We've got problems. We're not exactly cohesive when we attack, and have several midfielders and attackers struggling for form. Defensively we're short (literally) and the way we're defending as a team has been terrible; there are Conference teams with better defensive organisation than us. The attitude of the team is crap, with the players thinking that they can keep playing as they're playing when they get a lead. You don't always need your manager to tell you what to do (thought it does help). Maybe some of our players should wake up and realise they've got put a shift in defensively if they want to win games.

I could go on all day about Wenger at the moment, but I won't bother because I'll just be saying the same things over and over. What I will say is that it's incredible how he's somehow made this team worse than last year's team in just about every department despite keeping the majority of the squad together. Defensively, offensively, tactically, mentally... all trash at the moment. I feel for Alexis, who's carrying the team on his back, and I felt sorry for Chambers today, in desperate need of help but left on his own by a manager who's looking more and more incompetent.

Man Utd to come after the break. When's the last time we beat them?

Carragher: "How do you get counter-attacked when you're 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go?"

He does have a point...

We're playing some of the worst football in the last 9 years, no shit about it. Like you said everything is wrong and I really doubt that we could fix it somehow, there will be wins sure, we might even make it top 4 but after all it's just paper over crack.

Completely agree about the lack of defensive organisation at the moment. Do we even have a strategy or a plan when we are leading ? Do we defend what we have and see the game out or do we just attack attack attack

We were extremely naive once we went in front, instead of getting men behind the ball and protecting the lead especially with what happened on against Anderlecht we kept committing men forward. In the build up to the free kick which led to the goal, you have both full back, Ramsey and Flamini both looking to attack then we lose the ball the defence is in trouble.

You can't be this naive at this level, any other normal team would have shut up shop and got men behind the ball but for some reason we feel the need to attack and get another one. The likes of Ox, Ramsey should all be getting a bollocking from the manager and Mert not to overcommit but at Arsenal its up to the players figure to this out themselves. It's ok when you have experienced players but the likes of Gibbo,Ox,Ramsey, Chambers are still young. They need guidance and a bollocking once in a while. Despite the awful result, there was some good performance in attack. Ox had a blinder, Welbeck was a threat and set up the goal. I feel sorry for Ox, everytime he plays well there is an awful result so he doesn't get the credit he deserves. He was probably our most dangerous player today, take him out of the line up today and we don't score.

The difference between this season and last season is that this season Wenger has decided that we need to be more dangerous in attack and score more goals. He's gone out and signed new attackers and has tried three different formations to get his best attackers in the team and in doing so he's wrecked the balance the side had last season.

Without that balance, we've played some crap football and have had some poor results. The confidence of the team decreases, which means they make more mistakes and don't play to their best standards. The changing of formations leads to uncertainty as to the players' role in the team. Just look at Ramsey, suddenly being asked to go back to being a disciplined CM after starting the season as our furthest forward midfielder. Look at Ozil, going from being the hub of the team's play to playing left midfield and having to do much more defensive work.

Wenger wants us to score more but I don't think he's quite sure how to do it: he's tried putting all our playmakers in the same team, he's tried playing Alexis through the middle, he's tried asking the fullbacks to be more attacking... everything he does hasn't quite worked, and it's simply because he's not giving enough attention to how we defend.

Nothing's going to get better until he sorts the team's defending out. He has to compromise on some things. If we're going to play 4-4-2 and Ramsey doesn't play as disciplined as he should do, then drop him. Play Arteta-Flamini together instead. Tells the fullbacks to stay back more and not leave their centre backs all alone. Tell the team to play more on the counter attack when they're leading in games, especially away from home. And don't stop doing that, even after you've got some wins together.

It's basic stuff but it's what needs to happen.

Tired of repeating the same thing after ever pathetic draw/defeat.

I'll just say this. This club would rather play a defender on injections WITH KNOWING he has a serious Achilles injury than invest in another defender.

That's the new Arsenal.

Lol

I feel for Chambers, we have a rb who holds our 0-20m record sitting on the bench watching Chambers getting roasted

Chambers didn't even play poorly but there is nothing you can do when you come up against a winger who is faster than you and is not interested in cutting inside

Montero went down the line...... that was the story of his and Chambers day, there was no disguise about it, he didn't Arjen Robben. He dummied and went down the line EVERY TIME

I lol'd when that winner went in, any fool with eyes and a few brain cells could see what was gonna happen.

The irony was our lb playing cb failing to win the header whilst our 6ft ish reserve cb was getting roasted on the wing

We all saw chambers was struggling but the good but the genius blind manager didn't see that. There is not much to say, every game is the same but trust me when I say this, the worst is yet to come.

Wenger only made the sub after we went down, I was laughing so predictable.

on making changes earlier…

Wenger,I feel that it's always difficult at 1-0 because we were quite solid defensively and we didn't look in the need to change. We were struggling a bit on the right side but I have no experienced players on the bench. It was unfortunate and I didn't think there was a need to change.

on why Chelsea are so far ahead…
There’s no obvious reason. They had a good start and we have gone through that too. As long as we don’t lose, you don’t question yourself. There’s a little bit extra spirit in the team that gets them through when it’s tight.

on whether it’s more damaging than the Anderlecht draw…
I don’t know how damaging the result is but in the table, certainly. It’s very disappointing. Today we had an opportunity to come back into the topfour in a bit more of a comfortable way and the fact we didn’t take it is disappointing.

on Flamini missing challenges...
No I mean it’s not necessarily midfielders. It’s strikers, it’s defenders - I mean in the middle of the park. I think he had a decent game but we were in a position where we had to go forward and he was there to protect the team when we were 1-0 up. When we needed to attack I took him off because he’s a defensive midfielder.

.

This is just facepalm worthy:

"I feel that it's always difficult at 1-0 because we were quite solid defensively and we didn't look in the need to change. We were struggling a bit on the right side but I have no experienced players on the bench. It was unfortunate and I didn't think there was a need to change."

He says, after watching his right back get skinned repeatedly.

He could have brought Bellerin at RB and keep Chambers as a RCB in a 5-3-2. Could have switched Gibbs at RB, Monreal LB and Chambers CB. I am not saying it would have worked, but it was better than watching Chambers getting ripped apart every 2 minutes.

Wenger said we had the correct balance between defense and attack.

wish we could at least go back play like last 10 or so games of 12/13
not pretty but effective and solid
impossible with all these injuries though ;(

kos/debuchy pls comeback

On the bright side Arsenal Fan TV is comedy gold tonight

1-0 up in the 74th minute and this is how we're set up:



@ the cretins that STILL support this guy.

When you have a weak, stubborn and clueless manager who is afraid to make changes, nothing will surprise us. Wenger doesn't know any better and the players do what they want and they know they would start next game.

You got to fell sorry for Sanchez, wenger will turn him in to loser soon.

1991 wrote:1-0 up in the 74th minute and this is how we're set up:



@ the cretins that STILL support this guy.

RealGunner wrote:Could have switched Gibbs at RB, Monreal LB and Chambers CB.

Any one of those would have worked. Or Monreal at RB, Gibbs at LB and Chambers at CB

RealGunner wrote: it was better than watching Chambers getting ripped apart every 2 minutes.

Or Monreal get outjumped and outmuscled by 5'11" Bafetimbi Gomis

I never thought I could say this...but I truly miss Giroud.

Was hoping welbeck would be better tbh.

Pretty much everyone is shite now so I'll hold off on judging him because amongst the crap this year he's atleast been mediocre

He does get into positions and have chances giroud would never have thanks to his speed.. But he doesn't finish them or he just lays it out to someone else for no reason to someone in a worse position to score

Our midfield doesn't create anything now despite them all bombing forward. Cazorla, flamini and arteta have been wasted roster spots this season.. Give us nothing going forward and little to no defensive stability. We need to create more chances while committing less.

Play rosicky and podolski and tell Ramsey to do some ****ing defending again


---------------welbeck---------
---------------Sanchez---------
Podolski--Ramsey---Rosicky--Ox
Gibbs--Mert---Chambers---bellerin

Play something like that until we get healthy or others stop being shit. Whatever comes first

I think Wellbeck has done well, just that watching Wenger send out Sanogoal out there in the 90th min was the saddest part of the game yesterday. Giroud would start or even come on earlier and not wait till last min. Wenger should apologies to all Arsenal fans, bringing on Sanogoal instead of Podolski.  

I just dont know why, Wenger is so afraid of subs or rotating players. We have the players who can make the defernce but for some reason Wenger sticks with the players and with the same result.
Look at out next 10 games, I just dont believe we could win any of them.

Arsenal's next 10 games:
Man U H -- will lose.
Dortmund H will lose.
West Brom A- tie or lose.
Southampton H -lose
Stoke City A -lose
Galatasaray A lose
Newcastle H tie.
Liverpool A lose.
QPR H tie.
West Ham A lose.

We just a mid-table team with 200m in the bank and have the highest paid manager.

Bellerin as RM and Chambers RB, doubling Montero wouldn't be a bad idea either after we scored. The worst was that Chambers couldn't commit himself because he was booked, any other top manager or average manager could see this. Wenger just showing him ineptitude, nothing new here.

Also feeling sorry for Monreal, winning headers so close to the goal isn't a job for fullbacks to do (well unless you're Sagna )

It's time to start one of our young CB's alongside Mertesacker, even if they lack experience they know the role better than Monreal and can deal better with long balls and they have Merte to cover for them when they are caught out of position.

Wenger wasn't like this. He took out Koscielny/Djourou from RB and put NICO YENNARIS at RB against UNITED. He put Coquelin at LB when he had to despite being inexperienced.

I don't know why he is doing this now. All of his decisions are questionable for the last 2-3 years.

The reason, Wenger is doing what he wants is that he does not answer to anyone. Wenger has more power than Ivan Gazidis would ever have.

Ian Wright: “Bould isn’t allowed much say in training. I know he has recommended defenders to Wenger, but they haven’t been signed.”

if this is true?  we all know its true.