Official Gooners Thread - A New Hope

[ONeill]

No exaggeration. I watched the whole game and from 25 mins in and up until the last 20 Norwich were the more dangerous side.

Arsenal didn't look organised at all - players were leaving the Norwich player with the ball to each other, especially in that hole in front of the German.

They were really crap for a long spell.

[Dinny Breen]

And what chances did they create? Arsenal are allowing teams the ball more and hitting on the break, Norwich played well for sustained periods so why not give them credit rather than saying Arsenal crumbled. In fact if they really crumbled would not have drawn or even lost the game, they won the game 4-1 so yes you are exaggerating.

[ONeill]

That's an opinion, Dinny - people don't need to force theirs on others. In my opinion, from the way they played in the opening 15 mins and against a side in the relegation positions, they crumbled - badly. That was NOT a 4-1 game for anyone who watched it.

They weren't allowing Norwich possession - Arsenal were being dispossessed. Ozil, Cazorla and Wilshere couldn't hold the ball. Twice Norwich were 5 on 4 but due to the lack of quality they fcuked up. Their goal was coming as was another until that fine breakaway. Arsenal were not even contesting headers around the middle but it wasn't because they had men in place behind the ball - our midfield just stopped for 45 mins.

Arsenal have a lot of quality and that they can score at any time but have conceded more than any side in the top 5 against crap opposition. They'd conceded 6 after 9 games last season. This year it's 9 from 8 games.

[Dinny Breen]

Course it's about opinions, we are allowed disagree you know. Arsenal have changed their set-up this season and are quite willing to allow teams possession and no other team has conceded as many shots on goal as Arsenal. The key though is the vast majority of these shots like yesterday are from a distance. So even before Flamini took a knock to his head Norwich were imposing their game on Arsenal but I never thought they were that threatening, their goal came from a poor clearance but was still an excellent finish. Flamini has a lot of game time and his role is clearly defined in the team, that type of clarity doesn't exist for the team when he had to be replaced because how many minutes have Wilshere, Ramsey and Arteta played together but as the game progressed Arteta and Wilshere became more disciplined. So you say Arsenal crumbled, I disagree Arsenal played the way they have all season allowing the opposition possession but their defensive shaped looked off due to lack of understanding in the midfield three.

[ONeill]

But I don't necessarily think they're defensively better. One clean sheet in the league so far. I'm still worried about that.

[Main Street]

I thought you guys would be cracking open champagne bottles by now.

[ziggy90]

If you think the Arsenal defence is dodgy you want to watch what I'm looking at now.

[ONeill]

Eh.....Jamie Oliver in the buff?

[ziggy90]

Eh.....Jamie Oliver in the buff?

Might as well be 11 of 'em!!

[maddog]

Eh.....Jamie Oliver in the buff?

Might as well be 11 of 'em!!

Bad day for the peaky blinders. Ah well hopefully you will cheer up within an hour or so. SOTV

[ziggy90]

Cheers "Our Kid".

[ONeill]

Arsenal weren't too far away. Still too brittle defensively against the best sides.

[Captain Obvious]

Napoli,Dortmund to face away that could be a real damaging defeat for Arsenal tonight.

[ONeill]

I'm not overly worried about the CL this year but wouldn't surprise me to see Arsenal pick up 4 away from home.

[Dinny Breen]

I'm not overly worried about the CL this year but wouldn't surprise me to see Arsenal pick up 4 away from home.

Aye - suckered punched but tremendous away record so no panic yet.