The Arsenal - Related News and Development for 2017/2018

[Gooner1]

quite pathetic that wenger is crying that he needs to trim the squad ......i thought he was all about being proactive when balancing the books?
.....now all of a sudden it has dawned on him that he needs to trim the squad before buying anyone else?
....what has he been doing all summer?
afc are taking the fans for mugus

[anikulapo]

it must have been a classic game sha even for a U-23 game ....Wilshere managed to get himself red carded but it seems young guns Nketiah and Reiss were in form as Arsenal held on for a 4-3 win ....Make this City-Everton game finish make i go watch the highlights

[Cally]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

[Chief Ogbunigwe]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

We don get Sancho from Man City? Waffi promised us that boy o.

[anikulapo]

You will need to probably sign up to Arsenal.com to view these highlights

https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/under-2 ... tch-report

[bouncino]

http://kwese.espn.com/football/club/ars ... to-contend

This article captures my views.

Arsenal need more signings before transfer deadline closes

It was inevitable that Arsenal's first defeat of the season would prompt an immediate review of their transfer business. Defeat at Stoke has led fans and pundits alike to question whether this Arsenal squad is strong enough to achieve their stated goals.

Having narrowly scraped by Leicester in their opening fixture, Arsenal don't exactly look like title challengers. If Arsene Wenger is serious about mounting a credible challenge for the Premier League, he'll need to add more quality to his squad before the transfer deadline passes.

Arsenal's transfer window got off to a strong start. The signings of Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette were completed unusually efficiently and seemed to suggest a pragmatism and ruthlessness about the way Wenger was prepared to do business this summer.

Unfortunately, he has not been able to make any further additions. A couple of bids for Thomas Lemar of Monaco were turned away, and Wenger has since seemed more focused on streamlining his squad than recruiting new signings.

In the immediate aftermath of the Stoke game, Wenger insisted that his mind was not on possible acquisitions: "I am not in transfer mode after a game like that. We are more disappointed at the moment, rather than thinking about buying players straight away tonight."

"I expect to sell players first, that is all. I expect some players to go because we have too many players, and it is not manageable. We have 33 players at the moment, and that is too many players."

Wenger talks up the number of players he has available to him. However, he would do well to remember the old saying: It's quality rather than quantity that counts. Arsenal might have a big squad, but too many of them are perennial underachievers.

Arsenal don't need any more squad players. They need players who can step straight into the first team and make an immediate improvement.

Kolasinac and Lacazette are both in that category and have started well enough. However, while both look like smart signings, neither player is the kind of extraordinary talent who can single-handedly transform Arsenal from also-rans to title-contenders. More is required.

The areas for improvement are clear. Wenger is unconvinced about his options at centre-half, as evidenced by the fact that full-backs Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal have been pressed into action in each of Arsenal's competitive fixtures thus far.

Per Mertesacker was reportedly fit for both league games yet did not play. Rob Holding was dropped from the squad to face Stoke, while Calum Chambers is yet to make the bench. If Wenger cannot rely on the central defenders that he has at his disposal, he must attend to that situation in the transfer market -- especially if he remains committed to playing three at the back.

Arsenal also require a central midfielder to restore some balance to their team. Neither Granit Xhaka nor Aaron Ramsey seem particularly comfortable with the defensive side of the game, and it's relatively easy for the opposition to bypass them. Arsenal need someone with the tenacity and technique to plug the yawning gap in the heart of their team.

Arsenal have finally begun to trim their playing staff. Gabriel Paulista and Carl Jenkinson have left the club in recent days, and more are set to follow. The cash received for fringe players must be reinvested in strengthening the first XI.

It shouldn't be forgotten what a big task Arsenal face this season. Arsenal finished fifth last season, 18 points off the champions. That's a huge gap to make up, and expecting the same manager and largely the same squad to improve that much seems unrealistic.

Wenger has 10 days to ensure that Arsenal are strong enough to compete. Otherwise, the current crop look destined to disappoint once again.

[Waffiman]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

[wanaj0]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

That will be IMPERSONATION. Why do you want Arsenal to impersonate a club that is serious about winning something

[Waffiman]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

That will be IMPERSONATION. Why do you want Arsenal to impersonate a club that is serious about winning something

3 major trophies in 4 years and I want more.

Like we whoop your team in the FA Cup final, I now want us to beat them to everything. You dey fear. No worry, we don arrive, small money wey we get now don show una pepper, as you know only too well. I complain because I want more. Get use to it, it is what winning brings. More expectations.

[Cally]

Well articulated, Waffi. That game left me speechless per Wenger's selections. Adding to your points, why sub Sead and leave off color bellerin at LB? Why remove Lacazette and leave Welbeck on? As far as I'm concerned right now, it's either Danny goes for deliverance, or he should be sold. No use making wonderful runs without any production.

Why leave Ozil on the pitch after that performance? Then, Xhaka and Ramsey were simply having a laugh. If Xhaka gives away the ball to any opponent again, he should be dropped. It's frustrating.

[anikulapo]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

Did someone steal Waffis handle Slow Learner

[Tunisian Gooner]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

Well said waffi.

This has been an issue for AW for sometime, he just assumes Arsenal are always good for at least 2 goals per game, that he will get away with a lackadaisical set up defensively against inferior opposition. If Arsenal were playing @ Spurs, @ Man Utd, @ City, @ Everton, simply no chance AW opts for that type of line up.

8 days post Leicester victory to prepare for Stoke and that's the strategy AW implements....

[bk-one]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

Well said waffi.

This has been an issue for AW for sometime, he just assumes Arsenal are always good for at least 2 goals per game, that he will get away with a lackadaisical set up defensively against inferior opposition. If Arsenal were playing @ Spurs, @ Man Utd, @ City, @ Everton, simply no chance AW opts for that type of line up.

8 days post Leicester victory to prepare for Stoke and that's the strategy AW implements....

Players like all the other human beings(and coaches to a certain extent) are creatures of habit and once you let them get away with it against the likes of stokes the likelihood of them doing it again against bigger teams is increasing.

[balo]

Did Ox tell Wenger he won't resign?

[kajifu]

Well articulated, Waffi. That game left me speechless per Wenger's selections. Adding to your points, why sub Sead and leave off color bellerin at LB? Why remove Lacazette and leave Welbeck on? As far as I'm concerned right now, it's either Danny goes for deliverance, or he should be sold. No use making wonderful runs without any production.

Why leave Ozil on the pitch after that performance? Then, Xhaka and Ramsey were simply having a laugh. If Xhaka gives away the ball to any opponent again, he should be dropped. It's frustrating.

Well said Oga Cally,i blame the result on Wenger poor selection.I notice when Giroud is on the bench,they cross balls and when he comes on they stop doing that.We always look serious chasing game why not start the game with that positive way?If Wenger is been honest likes of Welbeck should not be in this team period,Lucas Perez was fantanstic a ny time he play for us but how he is been ship out but likes of Welbeck stay and earn more is something its had to understand Wenger.Welbeck playing and you take out Lacazetter.Danny don't need not deliverance he is just not good enough period.

[bouncino]

This was not just about team selection but also of a behavioral trait.

Arsene is rigid and has refused to be adaptive or change in his ways. He will never make changes until 65-70 mins even when it is clear some players are struggling.
Most good coaches will pull out a player when it is obvious he is not coping. But Arsene will wait and be praying to almighty God that the player starts to play well.

[Waffiman]

Well articulated, Waffi. That game left me speechless per Wenger's selections. Adding to your points, why sub Sead and leave off color bellerin at LB? Why remove Lacazette and leave Welbeck on? As far as I'm concerned right now, it's either Danny goes for deliverance, or he should be sold. No use making wonderful runs without any production.

Why leave Ozil on the pitch after that performance? Then, Xhaka and Ramsey were simply having a laugh. If Xhaka gives away the ball to any opponent again, he should be dropped. It's frustrating.

My brother abeg nor mention the subs. Dat na wen you want make my blood boil.

Wenger was truly a mad professor that became clueless last Saturday.

[Chief Ogbunigwe]

Well articulated, Waffi. That game left me speechless per Wenger's selections. Adding to your points, why sub Sead and leave off color bellerin at LB? Why remove Lacazette and leave Welbeck on? As far as I'm concerned right now, it's either Danny goes for deliverance, or he should be sold. No use making wonderful runs without any production.

Why leave Ozil on the pitch after that performance? Then, Xhaka and Ramsey were simply having a laugh. If Xhaka gives away the ball to any opponent again, he should be dropped. It's frustrating.

My brother abeg nor mention the subs. Dat na wen you want make my blood boil.

Wenger was truly a mad professor that became clueless last Saturday.

Stop thinking like CE Natives. AW knows!

[Waffiman]

I watched the U-23 game. Wilshere looked quite sharp, and laid a nice assist for Reece. Nelson and Nketiah both got 2 goals each. Both are super talented youngsters that are on the fringes of the main team. Holding played OK in defence as well. Willock played as an unorthodox deep lying mid, and played very well. City have got 2 naija boys that can ball.

Spot on analysis. As with London, Manchester has a large Naija community, City and ManU have riches in talent from there.

I obviously do not know how Holding came out of the Leicester game and Wenger has all the information so I temper my criticisms accordingly, but I am still frustrated with Wenger for not playin Holding (he was not even in the squad) or even Chambers against Stoke.

Why? Playing one of them in their natural position would have been far better than playing 5 of your back line out of position and giving a better balance to our defence. I cannot understand why Wenger would go to a ground as difficult as Stoke playing 5 players out of position in defence. Why try to fit 5 square pegs in 5 round holes?

Are we that desperate to keep the Ox that we shift the whole back line to accommodate him? He was the only one who played where he has been playing of late and it is arguable if it is his right position. I argue Wenger played Ox there to protect him cos he has been poor and inconsistent but shifted the rest out of position as a consequence.

If my guess is correct, why not bench the player and if he is not happy, get rid. We have decent money now, we no longer need to keep inconsistent players happy, we need to move on and start behaving like a club that wants to win at any cost. Surely we can do better or we will just mess up the squad rebuilding process with politics and economics. But then, I could be wrong. Maybe Wenger was just arrogant and felt he will win no matter who plays in defence.

The choices in the back line was the main reason we lost. Wenger got away with makeshift back lines against Chelsea and Leicester. But against Stoke he took the unnecessary decision to make the backline worse than when we played the first 2 games and we paid the price. Every player in that backline was played out of position. That was barmy - madness of a mad and arrogant professor with no respect for the opposition cos he had an air of superiority in the playing abilities of his players and football brought him down to earth with a dirty slap by issuing him a loss and serious grief.

Wenger gave a poor Stoke team a chance by playing that ridiculous backline and they took it. Look at the winning goal. Xhaka (who now thinks he is Zidane or something is letting the praising of his recent performances get to his head) stupidity (for the 3rd time in the game) gave the ball away needlessly without pressure. The positions of key Arsenal players including the defence was not hopeless when the ball was given away. The goal was preventable if the players did their jobs properly.

First Ozil did not do enough (that is not acceptable and I am glad he was called out by Keown and Gerrard) to try and stop the counter initially. Then Montreal playing hoplessly out of position was exposed. He hesitated instead of matching Jesse's run, that was key. A proper CD in that position by instinct knows to follow the run looking to block the angle of the shot towards goal. If Mustafi was in the middle, the chances are Jesse does not score. But Monreal is no CD and he defended accordingly.

Wenger's talked about the quality of our game and he looked to use this quality to defend by keeping possession but we all know, you still need defend cos all it takes is one moment of ill discipline or lack of concentration. We paid when this moment came.

But as football has its way of paying you back when you arrogant, not take heed and respect your opposition, events can conspire to go against you. Wenger would have been confident of his team scoring at least 2 goals and on any other day, they should have scored 2 or more goals. But Arsenal did not play as well as they have done in the opposition's final 3rd in that game?

When they put it together, the officials made sure they did not score with some terrible decisions. But that's the way the cookie crumbles at times in this game and the Manager must take the majority of responsibility for the Stoke loss.

The moral of the story Arsene is, if you played Kolasinac at LB, Monreal at the left side if the 3, Mustafi in the middle of the 3, Holding or Chambers on the right of the 3 with Bellerin at RB. We had a great chance of winning or getting a draw. I am not saying we would not have lost but we will never know.

Well said waffi.

This has been an issue for AW for sometime, he just assumes Arsenal are always good for at least 2 goals per game, that he will get away with a lackadaisical set up defensively against inferior opposition. If Arsenal were playing @ Spurs, @ Man Utd, @ City, @ Everton, simply no chance AW opts for that type of line up.

8 days post Leicester victory to prepare for Stoke and that's the strategy AW implements....

Spot on with regards to team selection for the top teams. Since he changed to 3 at the back, just watch how pragmatic he has been with team selection and tactics against the top team and teams in the higher parts of the table. He has won every game since bar one till the Stoke game.

The frustration is we know he can get his team to be pragmatic and better balanced doing the job defensively and offensively as any Coach out there but he has to go on ego trip. He has to show his attacking way is the moral football way. Wenger is still the football idealist even in his old age, he wants to put one over Managers like Mark Hughes who he regards as anti-football and below him.

I have read books and studied Wenger physiologically, the man is intensely a man with burning fighting spirit who is obsessed with winning with Wengerball. Easy to forget how he scoffs and look down on coaches he regards as anti-football. These Coaches are wounded with how Wenger arrogantly dimisses and disrespects them. Many say he has mellowed and only now subjects a few coaches to his wrath and Hughes is one of them. Even Wenger admits far Eastern cultures, esp Japanese has helped him to control his inner self but he can still lose it and let his ego get the better of him.

His team selection for the Stoke game was that of hubris borne out of a superior football ideology and faith in his player's ability to deliver bereft of reality of what surprises the game can hit you with over 90 minutes. To Wenger, any problem will be solved by us scoring more goals. He was exposed again.

Let's be fair, most of the time, he is not exposed but when faced with situations. But situations like Stoke Away, is when he is prone to being most exposed. What is most annoying and frustrating is the stubborn man has refused to compromise even in his older age. Wenger just use the tactics you used against Chelsea, you win easily. But Wenger ego cannot allow himself to be seen as winning against low life Stoke by compromising on his football principles.

What is really frustrating is we saw Arsenal at Wembley only 2 weeks earlier that was full of football savy and pragmatism, when we saw a team with shape, structure, discipline, strong and organised. Tactically they were well drilled and played it to a tee. We know he can do it easily, so Wenger, what the f*#k?

I can understand as the home team, you change it but why change it for a tough Stoke away game? Why not use the same that beat Chelsea to beat Stoke? I love the man for what he has done for Arsenal but I know things are different now and I must call it as I see it.

[anikulapo]

Waffi let's be honest and I was the one screaming the most at wengers selection and cluelessness, yet if Welbeck buries three sitters that were given to him or the ref gives Arsenal just one PK and the goal scored by Laca, we are singing a different tune .

Hopefully this knocks some sense into that old brain but sadly I'm not holding out hope

[Waffiman]

Waffi let's be honest and I was the one screaming the most at wengers selection and cluelessness, yet if Welbeck buries three sitters that were given to him or the ref gives Arsenal just one PK and the goal scored by Laca, we are singing a different tune .

Hopefully this knocks some sense into that old brain but sadly I'm not holding out hope

My bro, when you are arrogant and disrespectful, football sabi bite you for yansh. Arsenal did not deserve to lose, they really should have won when you look at the chances created. But, all it does is make it more frustrating cos we lost a game we had no business losing. A game we should have won.

Why? You have to look at Wenger and say, he messed up big time. He gave Stoke hope with that ramshackle backline.

[anikulapo]

Waffi let's be honest and I was the one screaming the most at wengers selection and cluelessness, yet if Welbeck buries three sitters that were given to him or the ref gives Arsenal just one PK and the goal scored by Laca, we are singing a different tune .

Hopefully this knocks some sense into that old brain but sadly I'm not holding out hope

My bro, when you are arrogant and disrespectful, football sabi bite you for yansh. Arsenal did not deserve to lose, they really should have won when you look at the chances created. But, all it does is make it more frustrating cos we lost a game we had no business losing. A game we should have won.

Why? You have to look at Wenger and say, he messed up big time. He gave Stoke hope with that ramshackle backline.

Hey if you follow the game thread I said once I saw the lineup and throughout the thread that Wenger had botched it .... the guy just never learns ... it's like he has this obsession to complicate simple things ... smh

[Siddonlook11]

Waffi let's be honest and I was the one screaming the most at wengers selection and cluelessness, yet if Welbeck buries three sitters that were given to him or the ref gives Arsenal just one PK and the goal scored by Laca, we are singing a different tune .

Hopefully this knocks some sense into that old brain but sadly I'm not holding out hope

My bro, when you are arrogant and disrespectful, football sabi bite you for yansh. Arsenal did not deserve to lose, they really should have won when you look at the chances created. But, all it does is make it more frustrating cos we lost a game we had no business losing. A game we should have won.

Why? You have to look at Wenger and say, he messed up big time. He gave Stoke hope with that ramshackle backline.

He is arrogant and sometimes does not respect the oppostion.