In the end a frustrating game where Arsenal couldn’t beat a newly promoted Leicester City side.
Having lost to Chelsea and drawn to Everton, Leicester were not intimidated by the arrival of Arsenal and a draw was probably a fair result – although it could be argued that the home team had the clearer chances on goal.
Arsenal looked lively at times and but the home team were content (and quite rightly so) to sit back and hit us on the break. Just like at home to Crystal Palace and away to Everton, we struggled to get our passing game going and we greatly missed the presence of Olivier Giroud in the side.
With various options in the squad, Arsene opted to start Yaya Sanogo and his inexperience showed. His touch was poor, and he couldn’t hold the ball up and bring others into play.
And if you were connected to Twitter during the game, you would know that the majority of Arsenal fans were not happy with the fact Arsene decided to miss out on Remy, who ended up going to Chelsea.
It is clear that even against a side such as Leicester City, we struggled to take our chances and you wonder how we are going to fair leading up to Christmas without a decent striker.
The fact is, we desperately need a top class centre forward.
But what are we going to do? Falcao is off to Real Madrid, we’ve missed out on Remy… Our options are quickly dwindling and the number of decent strikers available must be into the single figures. The sad thing is, we have a decent defence and midfield, but not top striker. With one in the squad, we could probably do great things this season.
As ever, Arsene is being extremely stubborn and it’s clear we’ve made our one marquee signing per summer with the arrival of Alexis Sanchez. The Chillean was excellent today, and by far our best player – he showed fight, desire and determination throughout the 90 minutes and tried to make things happen.
The other players however, were poor. Ramsey tried but couldn’t get his passing going, as did Cazorla, while Özil looks like he’s still suffering from a World Cup hangover. Flamini is not the defensive midfielder we need and Yaya Sanogo had a glorious chance to put us ahead but shot straight at Baby Schmeichel.
Chambers was excellent when he came on for Koscielny, and Per, Debuchy and Monreal all had solid games. But the problem was in the final third where Arsene decided not to use Podolski or Campbell.
Sanogoals is not the answer and it’s unfair to have him as the scapegoat for Arsene’s inability to see that we need to bring in a top striker. Chelsea already have Diego Costa and what do they do? They strengthen as they obviously have aspirations to win something this season and bring in Remy, who is a decent player. We desperately need a striker and don’t get one, it really is mind baffling.
So where do we go from here? Without a decent striker we struggled against Leicester City, and that does not bode well for the rest of the season.
The excellent Sanchez got us out of jail today in a game we could have conceivably lost. Without a new striker, we could struggle to get 4th place this season.
Sanogo had a very good game today, and he wasn’t the problem. The commentators climbed into him for the one offside, which happened because Ramsey delayed his pass.
He did loads of good stuff and we were worse when he was off:
– assist
– aerial balls won
– defensive clearances
– dribbles
– accurate passes
– ball trapping and shielding
– great runs off the ball, not used by the mids
The problem today was *NOT* signing a Remy – it was the lack of understanding in our attack play. We sign a 32million world class star and our game understanding is worse. We’ll be better than this once we’ve established roles and Sanchez integrates better. I’m certain of it.
Given Wenger’s interesting confidence in Sanogo, and watching him closely today, I’m starting to think we could have a real player on our hands. Physique, pace, shots on target, teamplay – he’s looking like the complete package.
What the f*ck are you smoking?
well said….kind of! sanogo does have great positional awareness and makes those great runs off the ball, but our midfielders kinda suck. not re-signing fabregas was a huge cockup…what we have now is nowhere near as good. lastly……ozil sucks lately!!!!!!
Arsenal very need to sign worldclass striker like falcao/cavani/benzema,otherwise they cannot hope to win the title
I can’t understand Wenger sometimes, he himself said that a striker matures around 26-27 and that’s where he’s at his best, the only striker we got there is Podolski now Giroud is injured.
Whe cant rely on Sanogo, Campbell and Walcott (who is out until the end of September). We have missed out on Lewendowski, Mandzukic, Remy and Balotelli and that’s just a few names. We need to get either Falcao, Jackson Martinez or Cavani, there are no other tough world class finishers out there.
In my opinion we need to offload Podolski and Rosicky, send Gnabry and Sanogo out on loan and sign Sokrates, Carvarlho, Marco Reus, Falcao or Cavani.
We are sooo close we can’t throw it away for the sake of pride. We have spent around 20mil when you factor in sales as well as what we have bought. We have the money we have the name now get the players in
wenger is a futbol racist y always sanogo is he beta than campel? We nid a first klas strika n a defensiv midfield b4 da sunsets athawise we r no beta than man u
Arsenal need not only striker, but also defensive midfield
Arsene wenger isnt the same manager he was after the departure of thiery henry and patric viera.
Mourinho said he need a striker and he got diego costa.
Mourinho said he need a midfielder and he got fabregas
Mourinho said he need a goal keeper and he got his goal keeper back from athletico madrid.
What kind of manager wenger is ?
Why cant wenger sees what others are seeing ?
Why cant wenger see we need a world class striker, a centre back and a defensive midfielder to make us a title~ contender ?
You cant win a title without a proven goal scorer.