Yet again...

Arsene Wenger uses a 4-1-4-1 formation against a team which they can easily beat or rather "should" easily beat. How can formation be same against Chelsea, Man City, Anderlecht and Hull City??? Please explain me...they are 4 different types of team and Arsenal plays with the same formation against everyone. I am beginning to lose my patience with their sh%t.

Last minute goals save Arsenal again and guess who scored? Podolski! I in my previous post mentioned it too that Podolski has one of the highest goals/appearances ratio in the Arsenal squad. He should play every time on the left wing or in 4-4-2 formation.

Now that Ozil is out injured too BUT Ramsey and Walcott are back, (Walcott is semi back i guess, I strongly suspect he will be used only as a substitute for next 5 -10 matches) the team should be:
Goalkeeper
Mertesacker
Monreal
Chambers
Gibbs  
Rosiscky - yes use him as a DM instead of Arteta or Flamini (Flamini is actually doing a good job but he is too defensive, doesn't link up play forward at all)
Cazorla
Ramsey
Sanchez
Podolski - he can be substituted by Oxlade if needed
Welbeck - he should most definitely be substituted by Walcott. I would start Walcott in case he is fit

Wilshere should be on bench every match, each day, each time. He is an over rated player and does not produce any assists / goals to make a case for his inclusion.

MA

Another injury-

in the Arsenal camp. What a disaster this time! Mesut Ozil gone for 12 weeks atleast. There is something wrong with the medical team at Arsenal. How come these guys get injured so much at Arsenal?

I am not hopeful on the 4th place anymore. The January transfer window can't seem to come any sooner, we need atleast 3 more players now - 1 central defender, 1 central attacking midfielder (Cazorla is not enough) and 1 striker (Danny Welbeck can't score to save his life!)

Which brings me to this another thing I read - Arsene Wenger keeps on repeating that he has enough attacking midfielders in the form of Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Carzola and Oxlade. Fair enough but then why is Rosiscky not getting named in this list? If he is not an attacking midfielder then what the fuck is he? A defensive one? Ok, if he is a defensive one then doesn't it solve a huge problem at Arsenal? Why is he not getting played at the holding fielder position when Arteta is injured?? Why is Flamini getting played? (I actually think he is better than both of them).

Instead Wenger keeps on saying that he will convert Diaby into a holding midfielder??!! Why is there a need to do that? If anything, Diaby needs to be sold now and done with that chapter once and for all. Diaby is not his son or brother or anything, I don't understand, why is Arsene taking it as a personal challenge to bring him back into the team?

There are atleast 5 people in the current squad which are there to just make up numbers. Except Walcott who is coming back from injury, I doubt people like Gnabry etc can bring any real value. Yes they might make up the playing XI but so can the reserve team. Who will score the goals??!!

MA

Team set up for tomorrow-

Arsenal is playing Chelsea tomorrow. In all likelyhood, it will be an Arsenal bashing UNLESS they use the 2 holding midfielder formation. I think the team set up should be:
                              Schezcny
Chambers  Mertesacker Kochlieny Gibbs
            Rosicky                          Flamini
    Oxlade    Ozil        Wilshere       Sanchez
                                 Welbeck

Substitutes should be:
Oxlade or Rosicky gives place to Monreal in case left looks open.
Wilshere gives place to Cazorla in case offensive looks less penetrating.
Welbeck gives place to Podolski for better finishing.

Please just use 2 holding midfielders! Plzzz

MA

Arsenal - new season

So the new season is underway. Quite a slow start, i thought it would be exact opposite with couple of new players coming in. But the new players are proving to be pretty average except sanchez, he looks strong.

What is most striking is the number of injuries in just 10 matches so far in the season (out of a potential 50 plus). And yet again Wenger showed he is a genius or not. He thankfully only added to midfielders and not sold any. Ramsey, wilshere and arteta are gone for atleast 10 more games. I think 2 are blessing in disguise!

The best team for arsenal if everyone is fit is:
Scheszny- gk
Gibbs - lb
Mertesacker -cb
Kochielny -cb
Debuchy - lb
Ramsey - dm
Podolski - lf
Carzola - lm
Ozil - cm
Walcott - rf
Sanchez - cf

Now that debuchy is gone, obviously chambers replaces him.
Ramsey gets replaced by flamini
Walcott by Oxlade chamberlain

I think Chelsea is going to win the league this year comfortably with ManCity a distant 2nd. 3rd and 4th spots are open and though Arsenal might make it again in top 4, the distance from the winners keeps on increasing. They need to improve drastically on a few things-
1) Focal point striker - Giroud is replaced by Welbeck and I think both are muppets!
2) Why does Arsenal play more on right than on left? They need to make it more even
3) Set pieces - time and again I have mentioned this, they need a specialist free kick taker, corner taker. They just can't have dinkers lobbying the ball in the area with no bite /speed / accuracy on it!

MA

Another post on Arsenal-

So now that the season is about to come to a close and everyone (various websites, fans, news channels, press conferences etc) has started discussing how Arsenal has seemed to miss the plot again and might go trophy less for another season and finish out of the top 4 (so no champion league spot), I think Arsenal actually did well given the circumstances.

They didn't do what Liverpool might do but they are so much better off than say Man United, Spurs, Man City and the likes (Chelsea can get included in that list btw). As i wrote in my last post, the season basically got decided by injuries to Walcott and Ramsey (add Wilshere, Ozil to that list towards the end) and the season is practically over.

For the coming season, I think Arsenal (and hopefully Arsene Wenger) need to do a few things according to me which will improve them dramatically-
1) Go for an out and out striker - Rudd Van Nistelroy types, a poacher, someone who can get those obvious goals which Giroud misses time and again
2) Play a 4-4-2 formation. The defense looks fine now with Mertesacker and Laurent, they don't always need Arteta sitting in front of them, especially given the fact that guys like Wilshere and Rosicky more often than not are not that creative but try to keep the ball longer and play possession game. If at all Arteta and Flamini should be used as substitutes to consolidate during winning positions. Podolski and Walcott have proved that they both are more than worthy to be central strikers and much better than Giroud in terms of conversion rate%
3) Buy a dead ball specialist. Seriously! Enough of those really silly dinky corners and free kicks from Cazorla and Ozil. They are never a threat and should be used much better
4) This one is I think may be not so obvious but some substitutions look stupid to me, they come way too late. The "paper" boys need to be protected more I think - Walcott, Ramsey, Wilshere have a history to get injured so why use them over especially when you are winning by a margin!

Liverpool - They might win the league this year which is great achievement but the credit goes to Suarez who singlehandedly won them the league. And guess which player did Arsene Wenger put fight in the beginning of the season?! Even if they don't, they will qualify for UCL spot which is good, hopefully keeps ManU out

Chelsea - They haven't won anything yet, they might win both UCL and the league but frankly even if they don't, they have Jose Mourinho. That guy has a hand of gold, he is like Dhoni, whatever he touches turns into gold. He is also tactically a genius, they were my pick at the start of the season to win the league

ManCity - They won the league cup (who cares!) and will NOT win the league. Again a mix of injury (Aguero) factor and just plain stupidity, but makes Arsenal look not so bad!

ManU - hahaha...kat gaya unka to is saal. RV Persie went missing, Rooney extracted the maximum he could in terms of his pay cheque, they are in DEEP SHIT!

Arsenal - can turn into a disaster of a season (according to pundits) if they finish outside top 4 and not win FA cup, but if they achieve both THEN it is just superb!

Spurs, Everton - not worth discussing unless Everton finish 4th

Now which brings me to a rather important point - when people go gaga about not winning a trophy, I think it is SILLY! League cup and FA cup are a joke. Who cares about them? What do they do? Do they bring $$$ - no, do they bring a bump up in league position - no, do they qualify you for a better league - no! then why is it important to win those random trophies? and here is what i suggest-
-Play the winner of the league cup against FA cup and who ever wins, bump up their league i.e. If a Championship side wins, bump them up to premier league and the bottom 4 are relegated
-If a league 1 side wins, bump them up to Championship and same as above
-If a premier league side wins then, in case they are not in top 4 (UCL spots), they play a playoff against the 4th rank for the last spot and the 4th place side bumps down to Europa league

I think what this will achieve is a massive change in the sides some of the top clubs field in some of these competitions. Also for a winner like Wigan (who won FA cup last year beating ManCity last year in final and semi final this year), they could have a chance of staying up in the premier league which has huge financial implications. They are right now 5th in Championship and might miss the cut again this year btw to reach premier league which is just silly tbh!

MA