re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

Sure and I see your point about selling to direct rivals. I think we need to finish third, though I won't complain about fourth. We have to strike while City and United find their feet under new coaches. We also are more physically prepared to deal with a Mourinho coached team. Also this is our deepest team in a decade. We have to take advantage of that.

1. City
2. Chelsea
3. United
4. Arsenal
5. Spurs
6. Liverpool

As I currently see it

Giroud is a good target man who is slow as shite and terrible at finishing chances. He is good at linking play, runs all day, provides a physical presence and is willing to run the channels and play beyond the CB. He's just not great in front of goal. We created something like 25 clear cut chances for him last season and he converted only 5 (or less). If he can improve on his finishing he'll be a solid buy. He's more a cog in the machine than an out and out match winner. I like him though. He's better than any of our recent targetmen.

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Arsenal went through a dark phase last season where they would play the ball to Sagna and just let him cross it into the box.

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I like to call this 'Our Spanish playmaker is cold' phase. Cazorla played well on either side of Winter, but he was relatively anonymous for a couple of months.

He might not be as good as he should be, but we are awful playing the ball anywhere other than on the ground. Sagna can cross but that's pretty much the only player in our team who can do it at a high level. Theo's crossing has improved tremendously, but that just means he doesn't sky crosses anymore. At Montpellier Giroud had better service to his head so he's not the worst.

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At Montpellier Giroud had better service to his head so he's not the worst.

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this is what I understood (that he did play a lot of headers).

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Wenger bought Giroud for his feet, I would imagine. Wenger has always played on the floor.

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Is he Higuaín bad with his feet?

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this is what I understood (that he did play a lot of headers).

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He didn't. I remember reading when Arsenal bought him that he won a decent percentage of his aerial challenges, but that he only scored 2 headed goals his last season at Montpellier.

For a big man he's quite graceful. He's not going to dribble someone but he can play well with his back toward goal, and he can turn fairly well. Some of his one touch flicks are lovely. Again, the biggest downside of his game is his woeful finishing. Other than that he's a great targetman. I think Wenger likes Higuain because of his higher chance conversion rate, perhaps surmising that with the number of clear cut opportunities we create Hoguain would be better able to finish them. Giroud can improve on this too, but we need someone to push him.

Yes I know, but for the six seasons he's played with us his service has mostly been superb. Hopefully last season was an outlier.