By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal starting with: Cech, Bellerin, Chambers, Holding, Monreal, Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Iwobi, Walcott, Alexis.
On the beach: Ospina, Gibbs, Cazorla, Wilshere, Xhaka, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Akpom.
The first shot on goal came from Arsenal when Alexis laid the ball off to Ramsey but his left footed shot was straight at Mignolet. Both teams starting rather slowly in the build up in the opening 10 minutes. After 12 minutes a first shot from Liverpool but no problem for Cech as it was also straight at him. The ball then almost falling nice for Ramsey but a last ditch tackle from a defender saves for a corner.
Arsenal building up patiently and rather slowly trying to build in a lot of safety I think. Ramsey trying to lob Mignolet. Monreal being fouled but nothing given leads to Liverpool winning the ball back but Bellerin with a good interception to prevent any danger. Liverpool get a free kick after a foul from Theo but Arsenal can clear. Llalana going in with two foot towards Ramsey gets him a yellow card. Walcott winning the ball first and Alberto Moreno chops Walcott down and the ref gives a penalty! The assistant signaling it also. Theo behind the ball but Mignolet goes the right way and stops the effort. Moreno got a yellow card for his foul by the way.
But Coquelin wins the ball back seconds later, gives it to Iwobi who finds Theo unmarked at his right wing and this time his Theo’s shot goes in. GOAL! 1 – 0 to the Arsenal after 31 minutes. Coquelin gets a yellow card for a foul in midfield. Monreal with a good interception but then Alexis was offside or he would have been away. Chambers with a sloppy pass giving the ball away but Cech with a good save on the low shot from Wijnaldum. Liverpool again with a counter but Arsenal can clear. Lovren then shops Alexis down when Arsenal try to counter and he gets a yellow card. Match much more open now. Cech with a good catch on a Coutinho cross. Iwobi being brought down by Henderson after stealing the ball, but the free kick is deflected by the wall in to a corner. Chambers heads it wide. Liverpool get a soft free kick in the extra time and Coutinho curls it in the top corner. 1-1 after 45 minutes. A very soft free kick for Liverpool it was.
Liverpool with the better start in the second half and a cross from Wijnaldum goes to Llalana who scores for Liverpool. 1-2 after 49 minutes. Clyne going past Monreal on the flank and his low cross is put in by Coutinho. 1-3 after 55 minutes. Iwobi goes in the book after pulling back Clyne after he lost the ball. Cech then with an amazing safe on another attempt from Coutinho. Iwobi then on the floor needing treatment. Oxlade-Chamberlain preparing coming on for Iwobi after 59 minutes.
Ramsey also on the floor then and Santi Cazorla entering the field after 60 minutes. Mane on the flank escaping everyone and shooting the ball in the top corner. 1-4 after 63 minutes.
The Ox going between two defenders from the left flank, past a third and then a shot that goes in. GOAL 2-4 after 65 minutes. Elneny goes off and Xhaka makes his Arsenal debut after 66 minutes.
Emre Can comes on for Liverpool, the man who injured Welbeck two seasons ago with a stupid tackle in the place of Coutinho who came off with cramps. After a period with more treatments a shot from Santi goes over. Clyne fouls The Ox and Santi takes the free kick and Chambers his glancing header goes in. GOAL 3-4 after 75 minutes.
A misunderstanding between The Ox leads to a Liverpool shot that is deflected in to a corner. Xhaka get his first yellow card when he loses the ball and makes a foul to make up for it. Liverpool now winning lots of time when they have to take a corner or throw in. 5 minutes of extra time. But Arsenal cannot get any goal in this or look close to scoring.
The penalty miss in the end cost us one point. The inexperience at the back also cost us in this match and getting Özil, Giroud and Kos back in good shape will be important.
Arsenal start the season with a defeat and that has been the norm most of the time in the last seasons.
I hate any loss we have, ther more so against Pool!
Yet all was not black.
Now just sit back, relax and watch the internetsphere, bloggosphere, twittersphere get into in full bedlam.
We lost…but the boys are professionals and they DIDN’T GIVE UP. Next week 3 points.
Thanks for the write up Walter. Thanks for trying Gunners!
No, I am not going to watch the meltdown. I have work to do outside. I expect there will be 932 aaa types stopping by to offer “good wishes”.
See you tomorrow, or the next day.
Well, great game for the gunners even though they lost they played good football.Expect new signings and hard training
Last season we complained about not getting any penalty. This season first match and we get a penalty and it does not get converted which may have changed the game play completely and if the game ran the same course it took today, we would have got a point. Our season has started the same way as last year except against a top team. We fought well, superb. But our defense just went through a baptism by fire and hope they adjust asap. I am sure by next week they will have corrected any lapses. COYG.
We have a big defending issue we seriously need koscienly and mustafi but credit to coutinho as well # gunner 4 life
it’s all good, up next! wounded leicester vs battered arsenal. lets hope our pre-season is over by then.
Same poo ? different season. Roll on the fight for top six.
Poor TV viewing due to the shadow across the pitch. Looking forward to winter with no sun and the lights on!
The only meagre consolation is that in future we will rarely score 3 goals and lose.
It’s the first game of the season though, seventeen days to the closure of the current transfer window and a day closer to the return of Ozil, Koscielny, Giroud and Welbeck
(plus our new signings!). 😉
It just hit me, but when was the last time we had three english players scoring in the same PL match? Must have been a while
Walter – a nice write up; but in this match we were at times very disfunctional.
Overall a very disappointing start to what will be a difficult campaign.
Crowd got a bit ugly at 4-1 but back on side after the Ox’s goal. Hope Iwobi and Aaron aren’t out for long!
Referees same old story!
Llana foul looked like a straight red to me
All top quality goals from both teams, that’s how football should be, disappointed that we lost though, match deserved a draw imo. I had all the emotion – excitement, jubilation, nervousness, anger, dispair, and hope. Now I’m emotionally tired.
Its going to be a long long season, and yes we will improve.
We will improve, but I sincerely hope work is being done behind the scenes to bring in Wenger’s successor. This has to be his last season.
Poor start to a hard season but we almost made it back and had Walcott scored his penalty, well a tie might have been fair. Considering we were missing 50% of our starting defensive crew and breaking in two new players as well, in defense, we can hope that this side of our game will tighten up.
Anyway we all know its Wenger’s fault AND that we are bound to get 1 million injuries this year so our season starts as usual, a loss and then a resurgence to take us to the title?
-30 years as a manager.
-20 consecutive (!) years with Arsenal.
-One of the highest paid managers in the game.
-£200m cash reserves.
-Cannot find better players than e.g. walcott, debuchy, mertesacker, Joel campbell, giroud, ospina.
-Thus thinks club wouldnt be improved with hummels, draxler, griezman, douglas costa, aubemayng, etc
-While lacazette just scored a hat-trick for lyon.
-Instead buys a championship player for £2,5m who’s never played in the PL – and starts hi- against Liverpool.
-HOME game against Liverpool – loses, and concedes 4 (!!) goals.
-2 new injuries. Added to 3 long-term injuries going into the season.
I’m drained.
The same mistakes on repeat for 12 years now.
The only thing left to see is:
come May, will Wenger have managed to improve on his record over the last 12 seasons to finish 13,57 points on average off the league winner?
A few points regarding the game
Needed 2 goals for our dominance in the first half
Liverpool had a 15/20 minute spell where the did’nt put a foot wrong and scored 4 great goals
They broke the game up every time we had any momentum also time taken with every goal kick , free kick , throw in and corners .Maybe a big part of the game now .
We played a bit too long
Protected well straight down the middle
Fullbacks no protection
Really missed Giroud
Full squad no problem for the season
A decent,fair & honest report Walter. Thank you.
I was going to say nobody blamed the referee, but the Crawshaw person has fucked me over on that.
How many is that to add onto the mythical 31?
Leon, let’s just agree to differ.
All four of Liverpools goals were excellent, as were ours. For the rest you saw one thing, I saw another. We probably never will agree. For the record, I have never ‘fucked you over’ as you so delicately put it and never will.
Ps: buys a £35m DM stalwart, captain of his previous club and national team with massive experience even of the Champions league, yet – leaves him on the bench!!
Steve, you make it sound as though these things are mere coincidences.
-it was a coincidence that Arsenal didnt score the two “needed” Goals?
-it was a coincidence that Liverpool had an excellent 20-min spell and always broke up our momentum?
A better way of saying this is:
-Arsenal didnt score the second lead goal because we’re not good enough
-Liverpool managed to stop our attacks etc because this is what better teams do
The truth to the matter is Arsenal have began this season BPL campaign on a back foot as they’ve lost all 3 points at home to Liverpool which no true Arsenal supporter like myself had expected to happen.
Why did it happen in the bad way it has happened for us? I think the penalty miss by Theo Walcott ignited the bad omen for us despite his redeeming himself with the 1st goal for Arsenal after he has just missed the penalty. With his senior team experience, I had expected him to convert the penalty but he failed to do that.
The CB duo of Chambers and Holding are not to blame for the 4 goals Liverpool scored against us. They had no proper defensive base cover from the Coquelin and Elneny CDMF’s base protection to protect them efficiently. Not until the Boss brought on Xhaka for Elneny was the Gunners base became efficient and protected our defense-line properly than the Coquelin and Elneny axis which had failed to jell. And Iwobi was missing in effective action for Arsenal in this match. Cech goalkeeping capability is also called into question. Shouldn’t he had tipped over that Coutinoh’s free kick that gave Liverpool a 1-2 lead in the game?
This is my own match review of the match.
Nice to have Arsenal back in our lives, and nice to see it’s the same old Arsenal! 😉
I guess Wenger & Co were waiting to get a better deal on a new defender (Mustufi?), but now selling clubs will raise their prices as they know how desperate Arsenal are.
Predict Mane will have a monster season and jumping on Klopp’s back shows spirit Arsenal not having for years. All about experience and Liverpool had more. Writing good now with nephew help. Little spud.
Ajay
[blockquote]But our defense just went through a baptism by fire[/blockquote]
I was just thinking this myself.
A bad start for the lads, but this should dampen any over-confidence and show them that only working together will they succeed.
It was exactly when Arsenal stopped working together that pool gained the upper hand, although they have been playing a little possum, waiting, then pounced at the first sign of Arsenal weakness.
The goals from pool were classy and shows their marksmanship today but we should not have allowed them to win at our home, no matter what.
Did i do that wrong?
Ajay
[blockquote]
But our defense just went through a baptism by fire
[/blockquote]
I was just thinking this myself….
1. So how much do you think lacazette’s price has risen after his latest league hat-trick? Lyon more willing to sell?
2.mertesacker got injured on july 26 (approx).
3 week’s later and no replacement!
While at Everton: sell Stones and have the replacement in a week later.
3.sagna and clichy played for city, but giroud, özil and kos had to be rested??
Wenger, you’re AGAIN not prepared for the season!
The bad luck from the pre-season cost us I’m afraid, and there’s nothing anyone could have done about that, including Wenger. I don’t think he really planned to have Chambers and Holding as our midfield pair from the get-go, but there weren’t a lot of alternatives left – and besides it’s not like any new defender would have magically slotted in and solved all the problems. But the fighting spirit is there, something that wasn’t so obvious last season.
Looking at the stats, it’s interesting to see that we scored 3 goals from 5 shots on target, including the missed penalty (they had 4 goals from 7 shots on target), we won more duels, had more interceptions and more corners. They had to make a lot of clearances (25 to our 10), so those who think we were outplayed need to put their glasses on. We were the better team, even so understrength, and I would put the defeat down to their direct counterattacking style of play – they scored 2 goals on the counter, notably the last 2, when we were pushing men forward and leaving open spaces for them to exploit, which they did. We just didn’t bomb their goal as much as they did ours, and that’s the only obviously imbalanced stat that I can see.
Andrew
Sorry, just me over-reacting as usual. You didn’t fuck me over.
Please Florian! clearly, there’s a whole range of alternatives out there, and plenty of cash in the Arsenal inc. bank vault. He could have gotten at least one top class CB in ready to face Lyon!
Subtly, one gets the sense Wenger is distraugth, sensing the end drawing nearer. He looks dejected.
And there can be little doubt that özil’s and Alexis’ – the figureheads of his latest project – reluctance to sign new contracts is weighing heavily on him. As we know, they are waiting for ambition in the transfer market before they put pen on paper.
IF they wont sign the new contracts – and that’s a big IF – then that can only mean the end of Wenger. I dont think he would survive that. Let alone find any plausible ways to rationalize the immense blow levelled at him personally and the club.
I hope it doesn’t come to this, but i’m deeply concerned. there’s been little activity on wenger’s part so far to persuade özil and sanchez that things are improving.
*i mean … “to face Liverpool”
(How very freudian…)
I mean, do you think Mourinho will leave pogba on the bench?
Did klopp leave sadio mane on the bench?
One arsene Wenger.
Someone just observed: It’s 10 years since Arsenal moved to Emirates to be able to compete with the biggest clubs. We’ve gone backwards in playing terms since then…
Yawn……quitters having too much say on here this evening
Ok last post, some Wenger hermeneutics (all quotes from arsenal.com):
1. Liverpool’s equalizer “was a big shock for us because we didn’t see that coming in the first half and maybe we didn’t recover from that”
Seriously?!? Senior professionals who cannot cope with a goal being scored against them?!
Shouldnt you as the manager have prepared them 24/7 for that?!?
2.”We lost this game for many reasons and one of them is [the psychological impact] of Liverpool making it 1-1 just before half-time.”
And the real reason is of course that you havent strenghtened the squad properly.
3. “The second one is that physically we are not capable of maintaining the level, because not all the players have the same level of preparation.”
Seriously?!? Yet Liverpool were, somehow, able to maintain that level?! Out of all your 25 first team players, you hadnt been able to muster 11 physically capable enough to play competitively today?
Isn’t it your job to do everything you can to make sure that you have enough players at their optimal fitness levels when the season starts?!?
You do make £8m per year you know!
4. “Maybe we lacked a bit of experience” [defensively].
Master of understatements! You play a new CB with ZERO PL games under the belt against firminho – coutinho – lallana – mane!!! You just dont do that!!
And you call it lacking “a bit” of experience?!?
5. –Interviewer: “How long will it take to get everyone ready?”
–arsene Wenger: “I dont know.”
Again, seriously?!? You dont know?!? You’re supposed to be in charge of this club, you’re the manager!! You need to know when your players are ready to play after their vacations!!!
//absolutely shocking words by Wenger. In any other job, the head of the organisation/corporation offering such responses would very likely be sacked
It makes me so sad to see what he is now doing to our club 🙁
.
To everyone who booed at the end of the game shame on you it was only the first game .
What did we learn or confirm from today’s 3-4 defeat?
1. We have a very good midfield.
2. Theo is a very good winger.
3. Sanchez is a brilliant winger but doesn’t quite look like a central striker.
4. We dominated the first half but just couldn’t score to capitalize on our dominance.
5. The Arsenal team played as though it didn’t have a striker. We played with Sanchez being what he really is ie an attacking midfielder.
6. Liverpool is not better than Arsenal but they have strikers e.g. Saido Mané.
Arsenal could do with such a player (unfortunately Liverpoo got him before we acted on him or got another similar or better striker).
6. The two young central defenders (Holding and Chambers) have a bright future. They are good but lack experience.
Question:
Do any of my fellow Gunners still think that Arsenal doesn’t need another striker to add to our squad to play when Giroud is off-form or injured?
I think those of us who ask for our great manager to get a brilliant striker to add to this wonderful squad are right. All great title winning teams have great strikers leading the line … Barcelona, Arsenal Invincibles, Real Madrid, Barcelona, the Man Utd of the Fergie years, Mourinho’s title-winning Chelsea teams, etc. etc. etc.
Tony likes evidence but this striker issue is backed by evidence. We all saw today (again) that Liverpool only won the game today because they had strikers in their team, we didn’t. We had just midfielders upfront.
Let’s hope this defeat is just a minor setback and we quickly recover and get back to winning ways.
Gunners for ever.
paid for the lack of experience at the back and the fact that some players are not ready physically to last 90 minutes at that level.
===
And that’s all on you, Wenger. Unprepared as usual. Yeah, transfers are difficult, we get it, and yet our rivals have no trouble strengthening well BEFORE the first game of the season. No strategy, no plan, no urgency
We were certainly missing a striker today…..Giroud cannot come back soon enough
Giroud to save the day..You couldnt make it up
Wenger is clearly making it up as he goes along. I’ve rarely seen such abject lack of readiness for a season. Our manager spends most of his summer commenting for French TV at the Euros instead of doing the job he should be doing. He has never won major European honours and it is abundantly clear why that hasn’t happened. ‘Nice football but no end product’ will ultimately be the epitaph of Wenger’s career, which will be a real shame.
no end product…….really……Wengers epitaph will include the unique word in the modern era of top flight English football, the word “Invincibles”
The sky is falling
Moan moan bloody moan! How predictable! We lost by one goal against one of our top competitors in the Premier League. As Arsene Wenger says, we played very well in the first half and it is disappointing, but there is a lot more to come from this team.
The return of Sammy the Snake et al.
How can any sensible person draw an entire set of negative conclusions from one match?
But never mind, it’s what we expect.
By the way, someone’s been manipulating the dislikes again.
Walter,
Could you please give me an info.
Klopp running onto the field and celebrating with his players
Is that allowed ?
I did not see him get a warning or sent off the field.
Thanks for your input
Mr Wenger,,, Theo suppose to be in Brasil with the likes of Mo Farah
But
Mr Wenger decides Walcot take the peno when Sanchez is there ???
Untold will remember this in their history collection.
Actually we looked quite reasonable going forward but defensively we haven’t got a clue. You can’t blame the two kids at the back when the collective is not doing it’s job. Lallana ran 25 yards for his goal absolutely no-one anywhere near him . You can’t put all the blame on the back four if the ones in front are not doing their share.
porter,
That looks like a valid point. It might explain how they got into shooting positions so often, even though we blocked 6 of their shots – the rest of 10 still went through, 7 on goal, 4 in. By all means, their shooting was off the charts. We missed Ozil’s creativity and ability to place through balls, and we seemingly tried to compensate that by rebalancing the midfield, which didn’t really work.
Oh, and the boo boys, you’re so quick at pointing fingers, but your expert minds have no clue as to what it actually takes to run a team, let alone win a match, so do us a favor and butt of to Le Graon, where your negativity has elephant ears (sorry elephants).
Jeez, you’d think an asteroid driven by Wenger had struck the earth. Yes, the result was disappointing. Frankly, it wasn’t that unexpected given circumstances. But one swallow does not a summer make.
Rob is on day release from legrove
While it was disappointing to lose , and a draw would have been fair , I thought that we fought well for the most part , other than that 20 minutes or so of Liverpool’s dominance either side of half time .
We should have scored more in the first half . And the young defensive partnership will get better with time .The injuries did disrupt our play , but scoring 3 goals and our willingness to fight back gives me hope that we will improve .
After all this team recently smashed 4 goals past Barca with Mess, Suarez & co ; And without reply !
Up the Gunners !
And a LIKE for Walter’s article and every of the regulars’ posts . The LIKE button doesn’t work while the dislike is running crazy !
First game, first lost and the season is over, seriously relax.
@ Rob, didn’t Mourinho left Mkhitaryan on the bench? You say not prepared, did you watch the first half? Liverpool was all over the place. They had a period of domination after the break and was clinical with it, remember this is the team that beat Barcelona 4-0 in pre-season.
On a different note: In the past the English media moan that big clubs don’t provide young English players many opportunities to play at top level matches, but when a club provide opportunities for not one but two young English players, the manager instead of getting praised, he gets vilified for doing so. Then you wonder why top level managers don’t do it often.
In addition, why do English clubs have to buy players from other leagues and not try to develop their own into top class talent? If the fans keep demanding to buy established players, when will the youngsters get the opportunity to shine? Surely, all the top class players in other leagues started to do well because they were given opportunities to shine, Pogba and Griezmann is an example. Who to say that Holdings and Chambers won’t turn into top class CB if they were given more game times?
@ Polo -August 15, 2016 at 5:26 am – My fear is that both CBs will be called up by the new England manager for some meaningless friendly and they promptly get injured.
And ‘them’ fools will come on here and start blaming AW for not buying even more CBs !
Well said Polo
Cast your mind back to the early years of Arsene, when the team was full of foreign players. we were constantly reminded by the Media that our team was full of foreign players.
Ever since the inception of limitless money by billionaire owners, Football has changed from being a form of entertainment, to purely supporting a team for bragging right reasons.
I personally would accept our youngster come through and develop together as a team rather then spend crazy money for players. These days the word “Patience” is slowly vanishing from society.
I believe by all accounts that we’ll have a very good season., but if it doesn’t happen, its not the end of the world as the Media would have you believe.
Please note, Wenger after the recent Man City friendly (which we won):
“We could see that we have played together for a while now, so there’s a good
fluidity and understanding in our game … PHYSICALLY WE LOOK READY.”
But after yesterday’s loss — Wenger singles out the team’s lack of physical preparation
as a key factor of the loss.
The self-contradictions are becoming very sad to observe, I have to say.
I see the ostriches are sticking their heads in the sand as usual
Well I liked our pairing at center back
And for those who forget it, maybe they should recall the first time they cooked, dated, rode a bike or made love….
Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment
Please explain to me how 2 youngsters are supposed to get experience if they are not put into situations where they can get experience.
reading so many comments, AW should have bought half of Barcelona, half of Madrid, half of Bayern and half of PSG.
Piece of advice : become a Madrid, Barcelona, MU, Pool! or City fan. Or if it is too far away, go next door. They are a great team, they just bought half the best players in the world, their stadium will be the greatest one on earth and they have a new coach every few years, so you get lots of changes regularly.
This way you won’t have to bitch about AFC, it’s young players and lazy foreigners.
And hopefully you’ll live happily ever after.
@ Rob, I guess you don’t understand public relations. Look at how public relations people and people who work in top level jobs responds when they talk to the media about bad situations, they always try to stay positive, regardless of the situations. It is also called ‘media spin’.
@ Zuruvi, AW is looking for a striker hence why there are bids made for Vardy and Lacazzette, Vardy decided to stay and Lyon don’t want to sell their best player unless the bid is something they can’t refuse, that’s only mean ridiculous price, I mean if Everton want £65 million for Lukaku, I can’t imagine what Lyon wants for Lacazzette. It be good to get another striker in but no big deal if can’t. The forward line is strong, it just need to be more clinical with chances, which it can be. My hope is the coaching staff somehow find a way to address it if no new striker comes in.
@ Benne, well said. I agree the problem with society these days there are lack of patience and everybody is an expert ( I’m right and you’re wrong mentality)
@ Chris, well said and totally agree with you. People who keep whining about other teams buying this player and that player, they should go support that club.
Polo “It be good to get another striker in but no big deal if can’t…. My hope is the coaching staff somehow find a way to address it if no new striker comes in.” – since they couldn’t address it last season, I am not sure why you think it is likely to be addressed this season. Wenger obviously felt it was enough of a ‘big deal’ and that the coaching staff couldn’t address it, hence making bids for Vardy etc. Issue is not wanting to pay market price for a striker despite 200m sitting in the bank.
@Chris, “Piece of advice : become a Madrid, Barcelona, MU, Pool! or City fan.”
–Again, you’re shutting down the debate by being tendentious. To criticize perennial shortcomings of AFC is
not to want AFC to become Man C nor to be “bitching”. We simply want Wenger to address the weak spots everyone discerns.
If you want to compare clubs, and if you ask me, what I find truly admirable is Atletico under Simeone (very little transfer money, yet hugely successful), Dortmund under Klopp, and Leicester’s last season.
@ Polo, “I guess you don’t understand public relations … they always try to stay positive, regardless of the situations.”
Or to put this differently, you’re saying the principle is: Don’t speak the truth. Never admit your mistakes and shortcomings. I absolutely do not want to live in a Public relations world! But rather in one in which we can honestly and accurately assess situations and events, and speak our minds
Honestly I struggle to understand the moaning, arsenal lost a game ,just a game for crying out loud. Are these people saying that if we signed the players that had been mentioned,we won’t lose to Liverpool again or any other team for that matter.It seems these moaners were simply waiting for an opportunity to drive home there point which is buy buy buy, because they are not analysing the game. If the team that played yesterday is to be arsenals full team, am sure these moaners will be ecstatic if they hear that arsenal have signed Ozil,Koscilny and mertesacker. That would been seen as good transfer business but since they are arsenal players already, there absence is not getting an ordinary mention. Yes arsenal need to strengthen , but every team in the world can be strengthened too. Barcelona’s defence, Madrid’s DM and attack and these are two of the best teams in the world. The only problems I have with Wenger concerning this game is one , not playing Koscielny. I know he played in euro final but so did Sagna and Evra .Two, not bringing in mustafi as soon as mertesacker got injured to give him a chance of playing yesterday. So guys, take a chill pill ,we are not in crisis. And stop buying the agenda of the media
@Ben,
I totally concurr. Why in the world must they spend their time contemplating the doom and gloom of the coming of the end of the world ? barcelona were unable to score a single goal, we sinked 3.
As for Mustaif, do remember that :
– we don’t know if this is a real deal being worked out or some press agenda. After all, we already are supposed to have bought 100 players or almost
– he played Ramsey (we have a big midfield) and everyone is screaming that it was too early). He rested Kos I imagine just because we have no options and an injury there would be real bad. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
– if I were Valencia, I’d drag the negotiation out hoping AFC lose yet another game, because at each loss, I can get a few million more. And the more time it takes, the better chance they have at finding a suitable replacement, because, does anybody believe they would part with a good player in days not having an alternative as good as he is ?
AFC wanting to buy a player does not mean any club must sell him.
And just look at how long the Pogba affair dragged on this summer.
@Chris
I understand, but after the injury to merts,
the kos should have started training for the game. Injury can occur at any time and to any player whether he went to the euros or not eg Iwobi. Again he could have signed another defender , mustafi or not. I think instead Liverpool should be worried because they played their full team against an arsenal team without four first eleven players and can still buy players
@ Rob, yes that’s how it is in the world, you know of any politician, CEO’s, or anyone in public life that are always truthful? Even the religious institutions are not always truthful. The media can make or break you if you say something wrong, hence why many opt not to speak the truth and go with prepared or vague statements.
@ Ben, I listened to Talksport earlier, they were criticizing why Kos wasn’t part of the team when he’s needed, saying the Euro excuses is wrong blah blah blah even though Kos had a slight injury in the final match, then they started criticising Wenger for bringing back Ramsey early and hence why he got injured blah blah blah. See the difficulties? If AW played Kos and then he get a long term injury, can you imagine the up roar? People then say why AW played Kos knowing he’s still recovering from Euro etc. Another example was Alexis last season after the Copa America, when he came back and was in ‘the red zone’ AW played him, he got injured, and what happened after? AW got vilified for playing him.
@ Col, I believe the team is putting away more of the chances, if it was say last season that Walcott goal would have either hit the post or went wide, I can see some improvement so far. You are partially correct about the market price, it is one of the major factor in the decision to buy a player, AW pointed out one of the criteria when looking at a player is the players resale value, should Arsenal spend £50 million on a player when the player is worth only £30 million in a normal ( not over inflated) market? If the player under-perform can Arsenal sell the player at break even. It’s a £20 million gamble and that’s just the transfer fee then you add the players wages, you pretty much knocked out about one quarter of the bank balance. A case in point is Benteke, Liverpool is desperately trying to sell him but they can’t because of his high wage, and other clubs not willing to pay, so they are stuck paying him £X million until his contract ends.
AW consistently said he will pay if the right player is found, he spent £42 million on Ozil, £35 million on Alexis, £35 million on Xhaka.
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Can the ref review for this match have a look, if possible, at a numbr of v.close offside calls in both halves.
We know the pgMOB routine these past few seasons e.g: the season of offsides favouring City was a just a bit obvious, so I’ll be interested to see how many of these calls yesterday were errors, not forgetting the offside call in the corresponding fixture last season.
Surely out of all of the teams at the top, we should be the one who is most ready. Same manager, no major outgoings, no amount of incoming players to bed in, no CL qualifiers to worry about. I don’t understand it. I notice an earlier poster (@Robert) saying the result “wasn’t that unexpected given the circumstances” as if that’s alright. The question is, WHY did the circumstances exist? Why wasn’t the team physically ready?
Matthew, the answer has been given. We had 3 players in the Euro finals. The manager took the decision to give them a full month’s rest rather than the 3 week’s statutory minimum, in order to reduce the chances of an early injury.
@Tony Attwood
I know we had 3 players going to near the end of the Euros (and Ozil actually finished in the semis not the final) but what about the rest of the team?
@polo
I understand that the media is terrible, but we just have to do the right thing regardless of what anyone including the press might say . I don’t believe that what might be said will affect Wenger’s decision. Unfortunately the media is influencing the fans
2-0 was a credible outcome until a spoft foul by Mr85/15 against the home side stepped in and Coutinho hits a contender for goal of the season and likely goal of the month.
Couquelin booked, but no card for the same action by the opposing side?????
Amid all the supposed corruption inquests, nothing much seems to have changed. We were lightweight, I think I can hold my head high in regards to the suggestion Ox should have started, but sometimes you write one off, 37 games to go, this was a head to head. Monreal exposed for his lack of pace, vindication for the signing of a left back?
We are playing kids again 8-2, but many positives, Xaka rested, Ramseys injury, is it not proof that the current schedule is adverse to the protection of players?
You groan at missed opportunities, but fans never boo! The ticket prices mean we are rife with upper-middle class snobbery in the stands, concessions please.
Giroud left out, telling of an incoming and outgoing?
You learn more from the battles you lose than those you win, our start to the campaign, may as well get some of the harder games out of the way.
we lost to some great play from a now injured player, it’s not won by a single game but a total points haul.
Well done lads, now let this be a lesson to you, get up, dust yourseves down and we go again, much harder.
COYG IWIT YNWA Gooner for life, My first wife can piss me off, but true love never dies.
13 is the lucky number
Yes losing was a disappointment and very frustrating. What I found more frustrating is the fact these players don’t seem to have a hard nose edge. With Moreno in book after his foul on Moreno no runs were made at him most of the attacks then came from central or wide left .why not keep attacking his flank and see if you can get a second yellow and get him dismissed. This happens plenty of times the opposition get yellows and we then attack other wing and ignore attacking that position.
Dwany Kaye – your observations on the PGMO rep are spot on. Soft foul is not what it was. It was a pseudo foul for an elbow that seemed to be only used by Arsenal player in free kick area. There were several fouls on Alexis none seen nor given – selective blindness.
The Liverpool goals were ruthless finishes. They showed a hunger that Arsenal don’t seem to have. We don’t need additional players. We need some aggression & hunger to force our pace & quick offensive transitions.
Our left defence was awol & allowed a lot of passes to be delivered. Gibbs would have been useful as he keeps his wing well.
Many of our forward movements were spoiled by pulls & fouls that were not given & when given were not carded. The cards against Arsenal players were very obvious in their softness. The crowding by Liverpool players on the PGMO rep after the award of the penalty was not punished as per the pre-season bullshit.
Shame on bringing wenger out banners to the first match of the season.