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Senegal's Arsenal Thread 2012/2013 : featuring positive negativity


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Gervinho is such an average average player for a UCL club. Now that his overachieving form is over, lets get back the real players like Walcott and Podolski into the side. Our 3 attacking midfielders against Everton have to be 3 of Cazorla/Rosicky/Walcott/Podolski.

The difference between Rosicky and Jack was massive. Hopefully the Mozart will return for our game against the in-form Everton.

Just a word on Giroud. It's always tough coming to a new club and country, especially considering he was playing third tier in France not so long ago. He's been on a pretty rough patch, but I thought he did well today. Things don't always work out for him, but I like what he brings to the team. He does his job well as a target man by holding the ball, bringing others into play, and providing actual threat for our crossers. For our 3rd goal, although Walcott was offside, Giroud proved his worth by winning that flick-on header for Walcott. His presence in our box when we defend corners is also very valuable. We'll still need better than him if we want to move forward, but after what I've seen in this season, I think he's definitely a useful player to have at our club.

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His hold up play is truly excellent. Probably the best striker I can remember us having at that. However he can sometimes be too intricate. He needs to keep working on his goal scoring but he has a decent record this season

Regarding Gervinho the player is in there it is just about getting him to not panic or whatever he does to ruin the great opportunities he creates with his wonderful movement and sometimes excellent dribbling

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Some people see Gervinho as a good player who needs to be nurtured so he reaches his potential. All I see is an average player occasionally overachieving. The former tag, I'd more readily put on Arshavin.

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Just seen the penalty award... wtf is Tony Gale watching? So what if the lino was further away? I would have been furious if that wasn't given and we lost, tbf on the replay the ref might not have seen the shirt being pulled but that's why you consult your assistant and he's the one who saw a stretched red shirt and gave it. Refs that "don't give those" bottle it since there would be multiple penners in every game, but a foul in the box is just that.

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yeah the commentators made it sound like it wasn't a penalty because the referee didn't give it and the linesman who was further away did give it, wouldn't say I'd have been majorly pissed off if we hadn't got given it because it's not like a proper nailed on penalty, but obviously pleased we did get given it and Arteta didn't bottle the pen etc.

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It was maybe a bit of a soft penalty, but it probably was just about a penalty. I agree about the commentator. So what if the Refs 10 yards away and hasn't given it, hes seen it and judged it wrong. But the lino's seen it and judged it right, its as simple as that!

About Giroud, I know some didn't come off today, but his little touches and build up play is really good, it shows his intelligence and awareness.

Overall, not a great performance. We lacked cohesion and sharpness in our play but we kept going and got the win, (I don't mean to sound like Wenger, but its true :p) It was one of those typical Arsenal off days for 75 minutes. If we can beat Everton on Tuesday we're in a great position, C'MON!!!!!!!!!!

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game against Everton is massive, if we can win that I'll be a lot lot more positive about us grabbing top four. draw it and will be a bit pessimistic, lose it and we're in a shambles again.

Well I don't no about a shambles if we lose. In theory spurs could go 2 points ahead and still have to play City and Chelsea. But I know what you mean. We're on a good run at the moment and have somehow found ourselves with a great chance despite numerous slip ups, so we MUST be ruthless now, we've had enough warnings.

Not only that, I want us to be aiming for third now, let alone 4th

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Personally, all I care is that

1. We get top 4

2. We finish above Spurs

Coming 3rd and Spurs finishing 5th would be very sweet and ideal (and quite unbelievable) but I'd settle for 4th and Spurs 5th.

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I just put on Facebook a second before you got that pen "If they pull this off I'll buy all of Delia's cookbooks" - what a muppet, should never jinx it!!! Grrrr :mad:

I have a few, quite good actually and it'll come as no surprise that most of her recipes contain booze!!!

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I'm not saying Mignolet isn't better than what we have, I just think that with limited resources, there are other areas we should invest on before the goalkeeping department.

Like, I'd rather we invest a lot of money on a star striker.

2nd priority for me would be another midfielder. Since we've lost Diaby, there is really only Arteta, Wilshere, and Ramsey who are considered as our midfield duo.

At the end of the day, it comes down to priorities. Some will think a new goalkeeper is needed, but I think we can all agree on the striker need.

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Great, successful teams always have at least one top striker and a top keeper. Lets nail those positions down first.

It's all about opportunity cost though. If we can get those 2 within budget, then yes, of course any fan would be all for it. Our last decent keeper, Lehmann, only cost like 2.5m, is it is possible.

However, given how tight we've been with our spending, I just think we're better served investing in a striker and a midfielder right now.

Woj and Fab aren't great, but I think they're both young and getting better. Most importantly, I don't think goalkeeper is the reason we have poor defense. It's more to do with our training, organization, and discipline.

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Which seems to have improved recently. I think Woj will become good but he is very young for a GK and I wouldn't be surprised if he was our starter at the beginning of next season having recovered some form.

Last season we had that player who could get the goals when really needed them but we didn't have a good spread. Now we have a superb spread all we need is someone who can score the goals on a consistent basis when we need them. What we have is some players whose goal scoring tally is inflated by scoring a lot in big wins

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The Arteta/Ramsey combo has been crucial in our defensive improvements. They've provided better protection than even when Song was with us, and for the first time in a long time, we have midfielders who actually track runs. Our defense is still full of holes though, but at least it's still a bit more patched up than before.

Fun Fact, of the EPL players who have registerd 50+ tackles this season, Ramsey has the highest success rate at 90.74%.

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Well, big big big game today. Rosicky could make a return, especially with Jack looking a bit off pace. Personally, I prefer the experienced Czech at the moment. However, if he's not starting, then I still wouldn't start Jack. I'd move Cazorla back into the middle, and start Podolski on the left. Walcott should return to the right, because Gervinho overachieving form looks like its come to an end. Wenger has been talking up about Podolski as a striker though, so we could see him start in place of Giroud who has had to play a lot of minutes lately.

Mertesacker has also served his suspension so it's interesting to see which pair Wenger goes for. Vermaelen didn't do too much wrong against Norwich, but I think currently, Per and Kos are still out best duo. Having said that, Anichebe is not only big, but also fast, so that might be a problem not suited for Per.

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Podolski needs to play tonight,it baffles that a plater like gervinho can start ahead of him and from the outside looking in his attitude has been great and he's always thinking positively.

We have a good record at home to Everton and I dont think its unfair to expect a win, though winning six on the trot is practically unheard of with the Arsenal of the last few years!

I expect a far more open game providing Everton dont take the lead as they are less inclined to get everyone behind the ball than a team like Norwich. Hopefully the fact that Everton will have a go at us might play into our hands!

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Well, big big big game today. Rosicky could make a return, especially with Jack looking a bit off pace. Personally, I prefer the experienced Czech at the moment. However, if he's not starting, then I still wouldn't start Jack. I'd move Cazorla back into the middle, and start Podolski on the left. Walcott should return to the right, because Gervinho overachieving form looks like its come to an end. Wenger has been talking up about Podolski as a striker though, so we could see him start in place of Giroud who has had to play a lot of minutes lately.

Mertesacker has also served his suspension so it's interesting to see which pair Wenger goes for. Vermaelen didn't do too much wrong against Norwich, but I think currently, Per and Kos are still out best duo. Having said that, Anichebe is not only big, but also fast, so that might be a problem not suited for Per.

I don't buy this gervinho over achieving since he is actually quite good as shown by his performances for Ivory Coast and Lille. It is just his confidence was killed by the Arsenal fans. Regarding TV when Howson went through on goal he was sucked into I think Holt when Koscielny was the one challenging him for the ball.

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If Vermalen starts I'll cry. He was completely caught under the ball for Nowrich's goal and SJ says he was sucked in for the Howson chance. Anichebe has all the tools to destroy our defence. Big, strong, fast and not that good. I expect him to cause us plenty of problems but starting Vermalen is far from an answer to any of them.

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I've never seen Gervinho play for Ivory Coast or Lille, so I can't comment, but in the words of Rhett Butler, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

The Gervinho I see play for Arsenal has looked, at least to me, very average for a top four club. Even when he's on one of his "good form," he isn't all that great.

He isn't some super talent who should require us nurturing his goddamn mind. That tag would be more Arshavin, whose failure is a mix bag of his own failings and Wenger mismanagement. Now that's a talent worth nurturing because when he's on fire, he's probably more dynamite than anyone we have at the club.

If you're only average, which I think Gervinho is, you shouldn't also be high maintenance. If every player require such attention every time fans give them stick, we'd fall apart. Look at how Ramsey has bounced back. The manager has given Gervinho all the backing one can expect (at least in the media,) and has also shown faith by giving him playing time. Yet Gervinho, for the most case, has repaid that with mediocrity.

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I suppose was always gonna be a tough games, Everton defended really well, didn't do much else.

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but soo frustrating. We didn't play that great again, especially first half. I think Wenger could have had more of a say tactically tonight. Why does he bother starting Cazorla on the left??

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What? :D Mental thing to say.

Time to cut our losses with Giroud. Had enough of him.

Depends what you mean by cut our losses? We certainly need a top striker as our no 1, with Giroud as another option, in my opinion. Wonder what Wenger's thinking......

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