Only watched the first half, but oh god did we get it oh so right. Amazing first half performance. The finish from Ozil was out of this world.

Far and away our best and most impressive performance of the season. Gave Napoli absolutely no chance. The first 15 minutes was just complete and utter domination, beautiful to watch.

Was hilarious seeing us destroy Napoli out wide with no wingers :lol:

Anyone seen Ken around lately?

So weird you said that, I was thinking the exact same thing this morning!

Ken's lurking , he'll be back when we start losing a lot ala piers :lol:

Someone made a good point, it feels really weird watching this Arsenal side. We've become so used to watching pretty football and not doing anything, I'd almost forgotten what clinical Arsenal looks like :lol:

I think its got to do with our self belief and the fact we have flamini back. Everyone loves a player who will do anything to win . Just love watching giroud prove some doubters wrong

I know there's a massive gulf in quality, but the first half this morning reminded me of our 2nd half performance against West Ham earlier in the year, we definitely have the ability to play like this when it suits.

[youtube]68ZmTjDSUWs[/youtube]

But I need my shot of pessimism now!

Yep, remember that game, regardless of the opponent some of the football we played in that 10-15 after HT was ridiculous. People talk about the 2-0 against Bayern being the start of this run but it wasn't, that West Ham game was. We'd just come off consecutive losses to City and Chelsea and were looking in real trouble.

Since then, in all competitions, we've played 29 games, won 21, lost 4 and drawn 4. Can't put my finger on it but something just clicked into gear and it's not like it was some short term thing we've continued it into another season, save for the Villa game which feels like years ago :lol:

Here you go :d

[youtube]vHlDLg3gxmY[/youtube]

"Defensive midfielder is the easiest position to play in football, all you gotta do is block a few passes and pass to the closest player" :lol:

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 2/10/2013 07:36:21 PM

:lol:

I saw the talk about playing a decent team on the guardian this morning aswell. If we keep beating teams below us then who is considered decent?

Sagna out for 3 weeks according to Arsene, which of course means it's at least 5 weeks :lol:

If I didn't already have Giroud, Ozil and Ramsay I'd consider getting in for Jenkinson - 3-4 weeks is sure to increase his value and our opponents (WBA, Norwich and Palace) are good options considering our fairly generous defence (Napoli aside) this season.

Back to reality it is good for Jenkinson to get some game time and the home match v Dortmund will be an excellent test of how far he's come.

Confident Jenks will step up, lad is full of confidence and will take it with both hands imo.

Jack played well... one might say he was 'smokin'!

Disapponted to not have extended our away wins record (then again we lost it at the Hawthorns a week and a half ago) but please with the fightback from conceding just before half time.

Head into the Oct int'ls break top of the league - would've taken that at season's start! Here's hoping they all return injury free.

Thought Jack was very poor in the first half, but decent in the second.

Yeah pretty much when he shifted back into the centre, which isn't a huge surprise. The most disappointing by far was jenkinson, he was quite poor I thought. He just doesn't even seem physically strong enough to defend...

All in all, you can't win every match and a draw is better than a loss.

Ramsey was a little flat. Maybe because of whatever injury he was carrying.

Not too disappointed with the draw, yeah of course we'd rather win, but we didn't play well, it keeps our run going and was proud of the way the guys fought in the end. Plus a draw away at West Brom isn't the worst result.

Jenks, I love the guy, but fuck me did he prove last night just how badly we need to re-sign Sagna.

I think we'd do better to just sign a new top class right back and keep Jenkinson as back up.
Sagna isn't the same player he was before the last injury.

I'd rather re-sign Sagna. He's been back to his best in this run of ours since the back end of last season. Re-signing him also means we have a more than decent CB option.

Last night showed just how massively we miss him when he's out.

I agree with re-signing him. But also signing a top class RB and maybe using Sagna more so as CB depth.
He just never goes into tackles any more. He's made 2 tackles this entire premier league season. Not acceptable for a fullback. He used to make more than that per game. Also may have lost some pace.

Wow, 2 tackles (i doubled checked the statistics website I use). That is dreadful. Sagna has very limited attacking abilities so you expect him to put in a strong defensive shift at least! I very much like him, but maybe you're right and it's time to buy a new top level RB

Yes I certainly do.
Centerbacks aren't expected to make as many tackles as fullbacks. It's often too risky going in for them when you're the last man between the attacker and the keeper. Requires a more intelligent player rather than an aggressive one.

If he's losing a little pace and the aggression to go into tackles then CB would be perfect for him.
I'd hazard a guess that's why Wenger has increasingly been using him there.

Edited by neanderthal: 7/10/2013 10:30:51 PM

Sagna's made 2 tackles this season, Jenkinson has made 9 and yet Sagna is 1000% more solid there. Don't really care how many tackles he makes, bottom line is we are much much much stronger with him at RB than we are without him and would rather we keep him than sign another RB because he will not want to hang around as a back up CB

It is interesting if you look further into it, bot of our full backs don't make a hell of a alot of tackles. Gibbs who has played every league game this season has only made 15 tackles. That's less than most fullbacks in the league who have played regularly this season.



Edited by sydneycroatia58: 7/10/2013 11:25:13 PM

I agree Sagna has been better than Jenkinson despite less tackles. But neither are playing particularly well so we should be after a new first choice right back.
Have to line up a replacement eventually and it might as well be now since he's really started to decline.

Edited by neanderthal: 7/10/2013 11:42:00 PM

That comes down to situational awareness, familiarity with the position and just general footballing smarts. Yeah, most fullbacks are going to have a higher number of tackles in a game but you have to ask yourself whether Sagna as he loses pace is the kind of guy you want being in defensive 1-on-1 scenarios. Switching from fullback to centerback like Maldini did is definitely a more difficult prospect in England than it is in Italy.