re: Arsenal 2014/15 Season Long Thread

Some thoughts on yesterday's games after watching last night.

Love Debuchy's work rate, but God he and Per are going to be a heart attack pairing. Debuchy gets in really high positions and leaves his center back exposed. Callum got caught out a couple of times because of this. I hope we can get him a little more disciplined defensively. He's very good going forward.

It's weird how much balance we have with that three man midfield. I wonder if we'll try it with Mesut. He did a lot of defensive work at the WC this summer, though that was mostly tracking back wide. We could play him wide with a Ramsey-Wilshere-Arteta group, which would give us a ton of versatility, but that would be at the expense of Santi, Theo, Alexis, Giroud, etc, and take him out of his best spot. It may be something we try against the teams that cut us up in the midfield last year. Jack and Aaron really overran Yaya and Fernando because of Arteta's protective presence behind them.

I think Giroud is in for a big year. He'll have more rest. He's just so good back to goal, and when he's fresh he does make runs behind, at least enough to keep a defense honest.

I've been really impressed with Gibbs over the last few months. He's looking physically dominant, bigger than I thought he'd be. He's become a really good defender, IMO.