ARSENAL v SPURS: Match Thread

[akie]

This time last year we had 2 points from Norwich H, WBA H and Newcastle A

Now 6 points from Palace A, Swansea H Scum A

Could be worse, the team will gel

 

[Wick3d]

Fairplay to Souness - exactly how I feel.

What did he say?

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Not aimed at any particular post or poster, but the football expertise on here is, well.... astonishing.

Think I'll take a break for a couple of hours to avoid a bloodied keyboard and a sore head.

You're calling out a player for doing something he's not in the team to do. Dembele and Capoue were holding deep in there today, to give us a base, Paulinho further forward. but obviously as a football expert you would have seen that. Yet you're saying Dembele wasn't creating the chances he's in the team to do. Again not calling out Holtby and I hope he will go on to be a decent player for us but can anyone honestly say he's shown anything special apart from against that extremely poor side on Thursday.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

We will miss Bale

 

[thejames]

Annoyed, but not worried.

Just a shame Holtby didn't get a look in, IMO. In the absence of Eriksen, he's exactly the kind of player our team needs.

Far too early for writing people off, FFS.

 

[Syn_13]

Hey, remember the days when going away to Arsenal was an automatic nil pointer?

Yeah, those days were fun...

 

[Black]

We won't win nothing under avb bale made him look soooo good last season and now we are going to see how much of a tactical dunce he really is.

Dembele played as a SS for more than 60 minutes lmao

Dembele Second striker

Holtby didn't even come on, we could all see we lacked creative spark apart from avb, so then he throws on Defoe lmao

 

[Legend10]

I don't think either of them can play in either formation. Dembele is alright in the 2 of a 4231 but even then he is a poor midfielder intelligence wise, he has all the attributes but the brain of a striker and consistently misses simple passes and doesn't track his man.

I don't have a clue about Chadli, he doesn't look quick enough for a winger in this league imo, he needs to beat his man more often, it seems he can only ever do anything when he has time, space and is already near the box, at which point he can put a good cross in but give him it anywhere else on the pitch and he either runs into somebody or gets outpaced. Pretty much just a target man for Dawson/Hugo. Mertens for the same price was far, FAR more suited to 433.

It was evident today that Dembele was missing and Chadli did little to nothing after our early spell of domination where he had all the time and space to cross it in. Holtby should easily start ahead of Dembele and Townsend ahead of Chadli on the left. Eriksen can fill either of those slots as well depending where Andre wants him.

Also, why we took Townsend off, our only threat, for Lamela instead of Chadli is beyond me. I won't even bother going into the 442 Defoe for Dembele decision except for to say it cost us the game.

How did bringing on Defoe for Dembele cost us the game exactly?

All of our chances or half chances come after this change! Didn't they?

 

[Kingstheman]

They still got good purchase attacking the channel between the centre half and the full back.

We have to learn some 'proper' defending at times, I feel.

 

[DanNolan]

i like the lad but, Chadli isnt a left winger.Its a shame because first half he did a few little tricks and looked good at the odd point he was wide. Only he and Dawson disappointed me today. Walker does things wrong and frustrates, however its due to him being the most involved player all the time. He demands the ball and tries to make things happen. I think he gets a lot of undue stick tbh.
Lloris is world class what a great player.

 

[guiltyparty]

Not quite sure we was as bad as some are making out to be frank ... They parked the bus and were under the cosh for long periods of the game ... Can't say we've always gone to the emirates and controlled the game like today. I'm still crazy excited about who we've brought in, we have a hell of a squad, roll on next weekend.

I'm excited about our squad too

But today, for all our possession, we rarely threatened.

Under the cosh? Thought they handled us fairly well. Never looked too stressed

They were well up for it, fighting for every ball. Our lot weren't and that's what disappoints me more than anything

 

[Syn_13]

We won't win nothing under avb bale made him look soooo good last season and now we are going to see how much of a tactical dunce he really is.

Dembele played as a SS for more than 60 minutes lmao

Dembele Second striker

Holtby didn't even come on, we could all see we lacked creative spark apart from avb, so then he throws on Defoe lmao

Is that you 'Arry?

 

[yojambo]

Walker can be frustrating but at least he was giving it a go, we may have won if some others showed his level of desire.
Thought Rose played well.
More disappointed in Dawson and Verts then Walker and Rose.

 

[quackers]

Annoyed, but not worried.

Just a shame Holtby didn't get a look in, IMO. In the absence of Eriksen, he's exactly the kind of player our team needs.

Far too early for writing people off, FFS.

Think capoo injury forced hand. Otherwise would expect Lewis to have come on did well midweek and would have created chances.

 

[The Spurs Lad]

Lamela to come in for Townsend
Eriksen to come in for Dembele
Fine.
But who will come in for Chadli? In my opinion he should be a squad player, not a starter.

Holtby for Dembele, Eriksen for Chadli. If not then Townsend or Lennon for Chadli and have pace on both sides.

 

[Joely410]

Most of you are echoing a lot of what I am thinking.

Like 20% of you are vacuous morons. You know who you are.

 

[chris_theo]

For the goal - Rose was forced to come out because Capoue was just daydreaming, otherwise he could have tracked Walcott.

Worrying that I can't think of one decent chance created in the whole match.

And getting really fucking tired of Walker/Dawson casually spraying the ball straight off the fucking pitch.

Holtby should've come on instead of Defoe. Adebayor was the one to come on if we were gona go with two up front (where the hell is he?!)

Hopefully between Holtby/Lamela/Eriksen and a few games to find some rhythm we can get Soldado the service he needs.

What is with both of them? Dawson continually tries the punt up the field and it just doesn't work. It was fine for Martin Jol's tactics but not in this day and age. As much as i love Dawson, think its time to warm the bench. Im stuck on Walker, he shows so much energy and will to win but he just makes some awful decision at times. I'm hoping with age he'll acquire common sense like Glen Johnson.

 

[Thetmc]

Our bubble has burst and we are brought back down to earth with a bang. i think this performance was similar to our previous 2, failed to create any real chances, and were slow and ponderous in the build up and become easy to defend against. the reasons for this is that our midfield 3, are far too similar and defensive minded. i think capoue is a great ball winner, but offers nothing going forward, he slowed down our attack and lacked some serious ambition. i like the 4 3 3 formation, but it may only work when one of the middle three is a creative minded player, an eriksen hotlby or a siggy at a stretch. the midfield today will not blow teams off park, but may grind out a hard fought one nill or 0 0 draw.

dawson has cemented his place as our 4th choice centre back. i did not expect much today but i am optimistic that when eriksen gets going, or holtby starts upping his game that we will be alrite. im on a train now, heading back to up to dublin to start a new job , deppressed off my tits after today, but think we do have reasons to be optimistic,.COYS

 

[Blackcanary]

Well, disappointing, but not too unexpected. They are good and incisive going forward and we definitely look like a team still getting to know each other.

Poor Capoue though...

And you know what? I'm not going to point anybody out to criticise. Nobody apart from Hugo had a good game, apportioning blame and pointing the finger at this early stage - or writing players off - is ridiculous.

Was a strange one today though - oddly muted and dull for an NLD...

 

[Reclamation Project]

We will miss Bale

Today would be a bad day to announce his departure........ better left to tomorrow!