But last year saw the Gunners get some silverware in the cabinet and spend more time at the the top of the Premier League
table than any other team, so there is a lot of confidence among us that Arsenal are on the up, especially after some quality business done in the summer transfer window.
Not exact matches
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we have at most 4 real quality outfielders i.e. players that
other top european
teams would take... ozil sanchez santi and kos... in my books you need 6... we are two short but worse the quality of
others is lower
than needed... only bellerin coq and wilshere have that potential... and there are problems with each still... we should have put in bids in june for griezman kondogbia and the Burussia striker as all could have been prized away with right bid plus players thrown in IMO... now its too late and wenger is in some weird gallic world of existential hope and denial and fans are just praying we do nt lose opening 2 matches for first time in over two decades... but no one is really confident against a
team which is sure to finish around mid
table...
Typically these periods in past few seasons has seen us chasing the top
table team with average of 10 points, then comes our end of season charge which has seen us having more points
than any
other epl
team in the final two months of the season over the past few years as well.This is mostly due to injuries plaguing key members our
team around this period every year, apparently we've gone through our rough mid season patch again or might still be going through seeing as we have list some key players like carzola, bellerin to injuries again.
If we're out of the title race not to say we'll win it, how are the
other teams better off
than us looking at the
table?
Can not get much worse
than teams at the bottom of the
table comfortably thrashing us, and our own fans fighting each
other.
we were middle of the
table when AW came, we have been no lower
than since, not one
other team in the prem can claim this, if the criteria by these fickle fans was to only be top one or two, without any regard for winning FA cup, then who would support Fulham?
This is an incredibly difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons, most importantly because over the years our once vaunted «beautiful» style of play has become a shadow of it's former self, only to be replaced by a less
than stellar «plug and play» mentality where players play out of position and adjustments / substitutions are rarely forthcoming before the 75th minute... if you look at our current players, very few would make sense in the traditional Wengerian system... at present, we don't have the personnel to move the ball quickly from deep - lying position, efficient one touch midfielders that can make the necessary through balls or the disciplined and pacey forwards to stretch defences into wide positions, without the aid of the backs coming up into the final 3rd, so that we can attack the defensive lanes in the same clinical fashion we did years ago... on this current squad, we have only 1 central defender on staf, Mustafi, who seems to have any prowess in the offensive zone or who can even pass two zones through so that we can advance play quickly out of our own end (I have seen some inklings that suggest Holding might have some offensive qualities but too early to tell)... unfortunately Mustafi has a tendency to get himself in trouble when he gets overly aggressive on the ball... from our backs out wide, we've seen pace from the likes of Bellerin and Gibbs and the spirited albeit offensively stunted play of Monreal, but none of these players possess the skill - set required in the offensive zone for the new Wenger scheme which requires deft touches, timely runs to the baseline and consistent crossing, especially when Giroud was playing and his ratio of scored goals per clear chances was relatively low (better last year though)... obviously I like Bellerin's future prospects, as you can't teach pace, but I do worry that he regressed last season, which was obvious to Wenger because there was no way he would have used Ox as the right side wing - back so often knowing that Barcelona could come calling in the off - season, if he thought otherwise... as for our midfielders, not a single one, minus the more confident Xhaka I watched played for the Swiss national
team a couple years ago, who truly makes sense under the traditional Wenger model... Ramsey holds onto the ball too long, gives the ball away cheaply far too often and abandons his defensive responsibilities on a regular basis (doesn't score enough recently to justify): that being said, I've always thought he does possess a little something special, unfortunately he thinks so too... Xhaka is a little too slow to ever boss the midfield and he tends to telegraph his one true strength, his long ball play: although I must admit he did get a bit better during some points in the latter part of last season... it always made me wonder why whenever he played with Coq Wenger always seemed to play Francis in a more advanced role on the pitch... as for Coq, he is way too reckless at the wrong times and has exhibited little offensive prowess yet finds himself in and around the box far too often... let's face it Wenger was ready to throw him in the trash heap when injuries forced him to use Francis and then he had the nerve to act like this was all part of a bigger Wenger constructed plan... he like Ramsey, Xhaka and Elneny don't offer the skills necessary to satisfy the quick transitory nature of our old offensive scheme or the stout defensive mindset needed to protect the defensive zone so that our offensive players can remain aggressive in the final third... on the front end, we have Ozil, a player of immense skill but stunted by his physical demeanor that tends to offend, the fact that he's been played out of position far too many times since arriving and that the players in front of him, minus Sanchez, make little to no sense considering what he has to offer (especially Giroud); just think about the quick counter-attack offence in Real or the space and protection he receives in the German National
team's midfield, where
teams couldn't afford to focus too heavily on one individual... this player was a passing «specialist» long before he arrived in North London, so only an arrogant or ignorant individual would try to reinvent the wheel and / or not surround such a talent with the necessary components... in regards to Ox, Walcott and Welbeck, although they all possess serious talents I see them in large part as headless chickens who are on the injury
table too much, lack the necessary first - touch and / or lack the finishing flair to warrant their inclusion in a regular starting eleven; I would say that, of the 3, Ox showed the most upside once we went to a back 3, but even he became a bit too consumed by his pending contract talks before the season ended and that concerned me a bit... if I had to choose one of those 3 players to stay on it would be Ox due to his potential as a plausible alternative to Bellerin in that wing - back position should we continue to use that formation... in Sanchez, we get one of the most committed skill players we've seen on this squad for some years but that could all change soon, if it hasn't already of course... strangely enough, even he doesn't make sense given the constructs of the original Wenger offensive model because he holds onto the ball too long and he will give the ball up a little too often in the offensive zone... a fact that is largely forgotten due to his infectious energy and the fact that the numbers he has achieved seem to justify the means... finally, and in many ways most crucially, Giroud, there is nothing about this
team or the offensive system that Wenger has traditionally employed that would even suggest such a player would make sense as a starter... too slow, too inefficient and way too easily dispossessed... once again, I think he has some special skills and, at times, has showed some world - class qualities but he's lack of mobility is an albatross around the necks of our offence... so when you ask who would be our best starting 11, I don't have a clue because of the 5 or 6 players that truly deserve a place in this side, 1 just arrived, 3 aren't under contract beyond 2018 and the
other was just sold to Juve... man, this is theraputic because following this
team is like an addiction to heroin without the benefits
Typically these periods in past few seasons has seen us chasing the top
table team with average of 10 points, then comes our end of season charge which has seen us gaining more points
than any
other EPL
team in the final two months of the season, over the past few years at least.
I hate Chelsea more
than any
other team and would love nothing more
than to see them further drop in points /
table.
simple, we were top of
table more
than any
other team last year, only loss in back that started was sagna, we managed last year w arteta & flamini, of course I want to strengthen there, but the glaring issue to me is at striker, we have a full complement of good to mediocre strikers, adequate but not going to compete season long against city and chelsea, in my opinion, back line fine, DM needs upgrading, attacking midfield strongest in EPL, central striker??? put a thierry henri on this squad in his prime, we win the league,
But no
other team has scored more
than five against them this season and in another article this week he praised his beloved United for «comfortably «beating bottom of the
table Leicester by 3 - 1.
No
other top PL
team are so light and some mid
table teams are in much better condition
than us.
It's still Juventus vs. Inter Milan, still Serie A's top dog against the
team that was atop the
table just two months ago like we had on Sunday night, but all the
other intricacies are just a little bit different
than a few days ago.
CDT continues its Know Your Enemy series with Milan's
other team, Inter, which poses more of a threat in the
table than AC Milan does, especially after an impressive transfer market this summer.