re: Arsenal Football Club 2011-2012 Season Thread

Last thought. We are not as talented of a team as we were last year, no doubt in my mind. HOWEVER, I think this should be a grittier, more experienced, and better defensive team which are all things we have been crying out for. Even Fabregas, God knows how much I love him and wish he was still here, did some pretty screwy things from time to time (see: Backheel around our own box against Barcelona). When the vast majority of the team is healthy (Inshallah), we should be a pretty competitive team this season.

And maybe Wenger has figured out you can have veteran players without "killing" the young ones careers.

I'd rather have all these guys AND Cesc, but alas...

Is it just me or is Cesc tweeting more about Arsenal now than he ever did when he was an Arsenal player? He doesn't think we need to replace him because we already have Jackie boy.

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Is it just me or is Cesc tweeting more about Arsenal now than he ever did when he was an Arsenal player? He doesn't think we need to replace him because we already have Jackie boy.

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Funny how he was still using "we."

I was just thinking he wasnt playing at a level like the other barca players were. That could be because of no trophies though. Near the end of season he wasnt. Thats why i just figure we get it over wit. Now if we didnt get any players i would have been pissed. But we need defense even with vermaelan back. We needed it bad with or without fabregas. I mean we will still score goals, but it was obvious against pool and man u we neded a cb.

I think midfield will be fine. But these guys cant get suspended. We need song , gerv, and frimprong. Frim is young, but i love his inensity. And jack and ramsey should only get better.

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His love for Arsenal has been seriously underrated throughout this whole saga. Sure, Barca is where he grew up, but the whole thing was more about trophies than anything else. If he had grown up in Bilbao's set-up, he wouldn't have had the urge to return there. I don't think Cesc ever gave up on us or lost the desire to play for us.

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I'm absolutely sure that it has everything to do with Pep. Pep was his idol, but Wenger made him (and Nasri for that matter) the players they are today.

There may be a slight genetic worry for Arteta

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I think this should be a grittier, more experienced, and better defensive team which are all things we have been crying out for.

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I hope so, but I saw some positives during the Udinese game. We are actually playing better as a team when not trying to play through Fabregas. Nasri was a bad fit centrally because he held onto the ball far too much. Now we are passing and moving, but our play isn't as expansive as it was with Fabregas.

We have to focus on the short passing game more than ever. Our chances will be created wide, probably on the left side. I'd love for us to let VP play behind Theo, and let Theo attack from all sorts of positions on the field. Our front three against Udinese was so fluid that it made it difficult for Udinese to deal with it. If we can get that kind of dynamic movement, we can rely on our midfield to supply balls rather than run into the box to try to score, which will improve our defensive balance. Hopefully.

Looking at the roster, this is the first time in quite a while that we don't have a truly elite player, like top ten or fifteen in the world. Van Persie is very good, but I'm not sure he's one of the top fifteen players in the world right now. We'll have to be more of a team than ever before.

The more I think about this team at full strength, the more confident I become that we will at least finish top 5 by the end of the season. I know that's not guaranteed CL football, but before our additions and added depth, I was worried that a couple serious injury blows could see us finishing around 10th or worse. Now I don't have that shaky feeling.

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yeah, we're going to have to play like Everton and punch above our weight for sure.

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It's actually a really solid squad with good depth everywhere. Wenger has to be more tactically flexible. He's a brilliant tactician, but he often is stubborn. We need to take advantage of Theo and Gervinho's pace at the wings and really use it. That might involve playing a deeper line, and inviting teams to attack more. The compact system we have doesn't really seem to work very well, especially when we don't press consistently. It might involve playing VP in a withdrawn role, but telling him to work between the lines rather than coming past the second defensive line to receive the ball. It might involve counter-attacking. It really annoys me when players like Nasri and Adebayor leave because they would be perfect for the system we are trying to play without Cesc. Adebayor, if he stayed, could have been elite. Nasri as a winger is better than Nasri as a AM.

We also need to redo our wage strucutre. I hope to frick Stan realizes that his investment will fall by the wayside if he doesn't put some money into it. If he buys off our stadium debt, and allows us to use the gate receipts for transfers, we can still be competitive. He just needs to do something, which I'm afraid he won't do.