Something fundamental that we seem to have forgotten. We have easily the worst line-up of wingers/wide forwards in the top 6, and arguably a number of teams outside the big 6. Ridiculously, I was seriously arguing last week with the likes of DJ about whether Iwobi is good enough for our ambitions in that position: a totally absurd argument.
Within a year, we lost Alexis, Ox and Walcott and brought no one in to replace what they offer on the wings. We lack sufficient players that can win one-on-one duels, or who can be sprung behind the opposition on the counter and can really put them on the backfoot. I believe this imbalance also affects us defensively. We concede far more chances on our goal than other big 6 teams (and teams below) partly because we can't keep teams on the backfoot who would be otherwise terrified of being isolated one-on-one with dynamic attackers. The 30 minute siege that Crystal Palace laid on our area recently before they won a penalty was due to them being completely contemptuous of our attacking threat. They knew we didn't have the dynamism to hurt them on the counter, and they pushed their defensive line 30 yards up the pitch to squeeze us.
Xhaka gave away a goal. Aubameyang had a miss-of-the-season contender at a crucial stage. But a key reason we have been struggling in these games is our inability to create real discomfort for the opposition defence through good, ol' fashioned dynamism on the wings. I wouldn't mind if we didn't spend one penny on the many problem areas in the squad in the next 2 transfer windows as long as we can sign a couple of wide players of real quality who can stretch the opposition and create for our strikers.
Wingers are important in football
posted on 11/11/18
Dembele has serious off field dicipline problems at Barca. Dont want a trouble make at Arsenal. Would prefer Malcom.
posted on 11/11/18
Didn't Malcom only join them this summer? What happened, he's not playing?
posted on 11/11/18
comment by Chris H (U15205)
posted 41 seconds ago
Didn't Malcom only join them this summer? What happened, he's not playing?
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He played today for the first time. Not best friend with their manager.
posted on 11/11/18
comment by Gunnerthru (U6675)
posted 30 minutes ago
Dembele has serious off field dicipline problems at Barca. Dont want a trouble make at Arsenal. Would prefer Malcom.
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Auba had off field issues at Dortmund too, didn’t stop us signing him
posted on 11/11/18
GT, why do you keep making excuses for Xhaka?
He's 26 years old, one of our most experienced midfielders and he's making mistakes that you'd get rinsed for in a Sunday league game, let alone the Premier League.
Here's a statistic for you GT:
"Arsenal midfielder Xhaka has made five errors leading to goals since his Premier League debut in August 2016. No other outfield player in the competition has made more in that time."
I thought Xhaka had turned a corner ever since he'd been partnered with Torreira, but he still has these errors of judgement which end up costing us. In fact, he's made mistakes like he did today in other games (Fulham comes to mind) and we got away with it because the opposition failed to punish us. Today we didn't get away with it. It's not as if this is a new thing for him. He does it a lot.
posted on 12/11/18
comment by Samir (U2630)
posted 6 hours, 52 minutes ago
GT, why do you keep making excuses for Xhaka?
He's 26 years old, one of our most experienced midfielders and he's making mistakes that you'd get rinsed for in a Sunday league game, let alone the Premier League.
Here's a statistic for you GT:
"Arsenal midfielder Xhaka has made five errors leading to goals since his Premier League debut in August 2016. No other outfield player in the competition has made more in that time."
I thought Xhaka had turned a corner ever since he'd been partnered with Torreira, but he still has these errors of judgement which end up costing us. In fact, he's made mistakes like he did today in other games (Fulham comes to mind) and we got away with it because the opposition failed to punish us. Today we didn't get away with it. It's not as if this is a new thing for him. He does it a lot.
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Given his price and how crucial his position is Xhaka has to be our worst signing of the last 10 years
posted on 12/11/18
comment by 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (U18355)
posted 7 hours, 57 minutes ago
comment by Gunnerthru (U6675)
posted 30 minutes ago
Dembele has serious off field dicipline problems at Barca. Dont want a trouble make at Arsenal. Would prefer Malcom.
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Auba had off field issues at Dortmund too, didn’t stop us signing him
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yeah right before we signed him.....otherwise he was the fans favourite.
posted on 12/11/18
comment by Samir (U2630)
posted 7 hours, 42 minutes ago
GT, why do you keep making excuses for Xhaka?
He's 26 years old, one of our most experienced midfielders and he's making mistakes that you'd get rinsed for in a Sunday league game, let alone the Premier League.
Here's a statistic for you GT:
"Arsenal midfielder Xhaka has made five errors leading to goals since his Premier League debut in August 2016. No other outfield player in the competition has made more in that time."
I thought Xhaka had turned a corner ever since he'd been partnered with Torreira, but he still has these errors of judgement which end up costing us. In fact, he's made mistakes like he did today in other games (Fulham comes to mind) and we got away with it because the opposition failed to punish us. Today we didn't get away with it. It's not as if this is a new thing for him. He does it a lot.
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I dont make excuses for him. I said he wasnt alone at this mistake.
Overall we had some bad performers against Wolverhampton.
posted on 12/11/18
GT, if Xhaka doesn't let the ball roll across his body carelessly, the mistake doesn't happen and you can argue we win that game (even though we wouldn't have deserved it).
If this was the only time he'd been guilty of doing this, I' be willing to cut him some slack. But even the statistics of him making errors directly leading to goals doesn't do it justice, as he has made plenty of errors in similar fashion where we've been lucky the opposition haven't punished us.
As mentioned above, we spent £35m on this bloke and it's taken us to buy Torreira to hold his hand to get the best out of him.
He's been decent recently, but he still isn't good enough to be starting for us if we want to be competing for major honours.
Emery needs to find a way of flogging him off next Summer. Although it may be difficult as he signed a new contract a few months ago (fking stupid decision).
posted on 12/11/18
comment by Samir (U2630)
posted 54 minutes ago
GT, if Xhaka doesn't let the ball roll across his body carelessly, the mistake doesn't happen and you can argue we win that game (even though we wouldn't have deserved it)..
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Agree, Xhaka has to shoulder a lot of blame for failing to control that pass. I think part of it was his surprise at the ball being played into him there when he had 2 Wolves players breathing down his neck though.
Whoever played that pass, was it Ozil or Kolasinac (can't remember)? Made a pretty poor decision to do so. We seem to be very prone to playing passes that leave a player isolated and under pressure this season.