re: Arsenal's "Things Are Gonna Change, I Can Feel It! (lol, nope)" Summer Thread

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I wonder what kind of lineup we're going to play in our cup ties these next two matches.

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Wenger - “We will rotate,” said Wenger. “There are going to be changes, many changes.”

I expect to see about the same lineup as the one vs. Wigan. Gibbs is set to return as well. I wonder how long he will last this time.

Here is a decent Leeds preview

I though Robin played decently last night. There's not much more you can ask of him based on the defense we were faced with. He had 2 shots that were excruciating to watch in that luck/woodwork stopped one and Joe Hart's fingertip parry diverted the other. Since it was impossible to pass in the 18 yard box or make very many good space creating runs, I thought he did as best as he could.

This game was very much like the 2nd Inter-Barca game from last year when Inter were just content to not even try to attack. Instead they just booted all attacks away and defended for their lives. Not really much you can logically work out to say that we should have won. Yes, we had opportunities that we could have put away. But in the end how can you expect to break down a team who has been instructed to keep a clean sheet rather than to organize a threatening offense. Even the best attacking teams will struggle against that philosophy.

I expect Leeds to put up more of a fight than City did.

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Need more shots from the outside.

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That kept being repeated in the game thread yesterday, notably byt ATL, but I was sort of confused, I thought we took several chances outside of the 18, or at least smart chances. This chalkboard says we had a 6:8 ratio of long range vs. inside the 18 shots. It's a very low percentage chance of scoring several yards outside of the 18, especially when City's disciplined, lattice-like defense is there to absorb all angles and trajectories.

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Idk why Wenger subbed in Bendtner and put him out wide

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I think because RVP was making his runs at the back four, rather than his usual drop deep and link-up method, so that diagonals would open up for other players to sop up the space he created. So Bendtner's role, presumably, was to make those diagonals. And then Sammy was pushed to the right where he's seen quite a bit of success this season. Problem is there wasn't a lot of time for any of the subs to make impact with that strategy, which requires more time and patience than just 10 minutes.

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That kept being repeated in the game thread yesterday, notably byt ATL

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I would point it out in frustration, notably when namely Jack would constantly attempt to string together passes in very small windows on the edge of the box. It got frustrating seeing a shooting window close due to a player opting to force passes to a heavily guarded teammate. I'd rather them take a shot than flick/back heel to a teammate at the edge of the box.

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One of the very practical complications about a 10 man wall

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lol, this was mostly before City dropped 8 back and made it evident they didn't want to attack. At that point my complaint was we didn't have a target man up top, and Beowulf was playing wing.

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Good thing AA only played for about 10 minutes

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Goodness, how he continues his backheels straight into defenders is beyond me.

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I'd like to see us trying to cross more or to use diagonal runs much earlier.

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This was my one complaint early. Despite Arsenal being on the attack full throttle there wasn't really much movement away from the ball. It was mainly play the ball toward the endline for Theo, or have Cesc and Nasri do some dribbling and quick 1-2's together. They couldn't really cross with just RVP up top, no real target man, and just one person in the box for Theo's crosses.

They had City on their heels, but it was mainly due to Nasri and Cesc's straight forward dribbling attacks to their backline.

to his credit, his has gotten a heck of a lot better, but it still needs some fine tuning.

There was notably one 1 v 1 he had to go to goal where he made a muck of it, and another chance he could have done better to get around Zabaleta, but other than that Zabaleta did a fair job forcing him endline or staying goalside.

Theo isn't a winger, and we should stop pretending that he is. He's a wide forward. He can't cross, his dribbling is fairly average, but he can finish fairly well. I don't think we've ever played with a real winger to be honest.

Rambo back in the squad for the FA Cup match with Leeds!

Great news. Hope he can log a few mop-up minutes at the end of a big win.

Lots of players being rested. Nasri, RvP, Wilshere, and Kos will be held out for sure. Vela is in the squad, but I'd doubt he'll start.

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Eboue

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I've seen rumors of this for awhile and those have only increased the past 15 days. With these latest revelations I really feel we might splash the cash (around 15 mil pounds) to get him. With Arshavin's ever decreasing form, I really think we need another top class winger (actually I guess he'd be our only one) if we're going to compete for any sort of non-Carling Cup trophy this season. He isn't cup-tied, so he could help us against Barca.

To me, this would be a positive sign that AW is actually making a push for trophies.

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I really think we need another top class winger (actually I guess he'd be our only one) if we're going to compete for any sort of non-Carling Cup trophy this season.

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I don't understand your distaste for Theo. He might be the fastest player in the EPL and his ball skills are improving. Also, he's still only 21 years old. I'm not concerned about his crossing because Sagna overlaps and takes care of that usually. Why Wenger has given Arshavin 19 EPL appearances and Theo only 12 is beyond me.