In all seriousness though I know Xhaka would have been able to make some forward passes through the press, I’ve seen him do it a lot this season. He gets his head up and picks a pass. Elneny was just taking the piss today, only looking to pass backwards or sideways.
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Any particular reason he only got 10 mins this game?
Feel like the things we were badly calling out for by the spunds of things, could have been rectified by a guy on our bench. Made ne wonder why he isn’t getting more playing time. Dodgy tackles? Not used to the pace?
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Yeah he doesn’t seem like he’s got the most intelligence when he’s out there. I mean he picked up a yellow card within like 2 minutes of coming off the bench lol. Wenger probably doesn’t trust him in these big matches yet. Wenger the last couple years has opted for two more defensive types at the back in these away matches. With our record against the top teams I guess you can’t blame him for being happy with a point away.
I think Wenger just opted for the most conservative pairing in the hope of keeping it nil, nil, and snatching a winner. Bit of a poor plan really because with no discernible striker, and no pace on the left flank, meant that there was no counter attacking threat. Simply starting Giroud would have at least made his plan somewhat logical.
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Anyone got a clip of his challenge in the box? He literally stole the ball from his opponent.
haha this was my post when I saw the lineup:
Sadly I think my hope was in vain.
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Both was right. We played fucking crap, but we still came away with one point.
He definitely put the most defensive line up in. Coq/Elneny cover the most ground in the middle. Ramsey covers the most ground on the flanks (usually). Alexis presses most up top. And we sat deep. He played for the point and got it.
Tactics were well adjusted given we took off the 2 DMs and a defensive RB, put on a striker, winger and a DLP.
I suppose how good of a point is it at OT ? That remains to been seen as all we know at the moment is Man City have won there.
Nice read. Clearly loves the Arsenal! Hope he gets his wish of a France call up soon
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Isn’t easy with players like Pogba, Kante, Matuidi, Diarra, Sissoko and Rabiot in the squad. Is too soon to take the english nationality to play for the Three Lions?
That midfield partnership last night.
Coquelin - Ventures forward when he should be the furthest back.
Ramsey - Stays back when he should be the furthest forward.
Coquelin the creator 
Coquelin probably sees Ramsey and Elneny playing backwards and sideways constantly and then takes it on himself to try and get things going and create a goal but that’s unfortunately not really his skill set.
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I’ve seen this before where he pushes forward
Coq + Xhaka is the way going forward. We didn’t make shit happen until Xhaka appeared and by then it was too late. Elneny is our most frustrating player for me, as he’s average in everything he does. We know Coq isn’t going to score goals or run our midfield but at least he’s exceptional at his defensive duties. I can’t count the amount of times he broke up their counters with good tackles.
Ramsey might be a mess but I would like to see Ramsey - Xhaka as a partnership. Maybe the only way to plaster the mass Cazorla loss
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What I witnessed yesterday was a very shit Ramsey either losing possession because he sucks ass or because he was trying unnecessary back heels ect. Coq was scrambling to recover from those situations. Nothing has changed since Ramsey was doing the same shit last season, the only difference is that Coq is a lot of times good enough to save our ass, as opposed to Flamini. Xhaka will be in deep trouble alongside Ramsey IMO. He’s slow(er) than Coq, and he’s always diving in late and going to ground unnecessarily.
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I really am enjoying the improvements in Coquelins build up play and it was encouraging to see him take responsibility to drive forward.
Positionaly he was a little off at times and wasn’t creating enough passing opportunities for his colleages. This doesn’t matter much when the players around him have an exceptional talent for movement and an eye for a pass, but an uninspiring Elneny and an unco-ordinated Ramsey require a little more care and elegance in order to function.
All that aside going forward I would really like to see him granted more opportunities to do what he does best, break up play and offer balance to the delicate mastermind that is Mesut Ozil.
Christ alive, games like yesterday really make you marvel at Ozil. The guy is just next level, can we clone him?
Some fucking good footwork and tackles from him tonight. Becoming such a good midfielder.
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Since his return in the squad, Francis improved his technical qualities. Still don’t understand the stupidity to receive the yellow card…
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