On a somewhat positive note - how good has Chamberlain been his last couple of games? Walcott is going to find it tough to get into the team if he keeps playing this well, I reckon.

Stick Walcott up front. Bench both Giroud and Welback.

Chamberlain is probably suffering from others fluffing their lines in front of goal, but he's been as ineffectual as the rest this season. He can beat a man, which I love to see, but after that his return has been dire. Walcott won't struggle to replace anyone who isn't scoring (assuming he hasn't caught the same no-scorey-itis the rest of them have)

For me, Chamberlain was our best player today by an absolute street. I certainly would have him on the pitch if he plays like this. Looks an absolute nightmare to play against too.

Personally, I'd get Walcott in the team asap too.

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Stick Walcott up front. Bench both Giroud and Welback.

Pretty much this.

Rex wrote:

For me, Chamberlain was our best player today by an absolute street. I certainly would have him on the pitch if he plays like this. Looks an absolute nightmare to play against too.

Personally, I'd get Walcott in the team asap too.

Chamberlain seems able to go past anyone now. I completely agree with you. Sanchez too is a nightmare to play against. Walcott, while sometimes frustrating for us, is feared by opposition players. We need players like these three.

I mentioned it a couple of months back, that Chamberlain would reach a new level once he realized that the change of tempo is his best weapon. Before, he wanted to do everything at full pelt; he often mis-controlled quite easy passes to him because he wanted to receive the ball and be off at full speed in the same motion for instance. Now, he seems to have got there; slowing play down, and THEN making his move.

We were never going to beat them, we never do. Had to score when we dominated that first 30 minutes or so but as we well know, goals win matches not possession. When it was 0-0 at half time I knew we'd lost. They were always going to be better in the second half and we were never keeping a clean sheet. Guess there's a January panic buy to look forward to now 4th is in doubt.

Hard to argue with Alan Davies on the Tuesday Club the other day when he said "I don't know how Wenger can look Sanchez in the eye with the shower of shit he's put him with." No way he'll still be here next season.

invisibleman18 wrote:

We were never going to beat them, we never do. Had to score when we dominated that first 30 minutes or so but as we well know, goals win matches not possession. When it was 0-0 at half time I knew we'd lost. They were always going to be better in the second half and we were never keeping a clean sheet. Guess there's a January panic buy to look forward to now 4th is in doubt.

Hard to argue with Alan Davies on the Tuesday Club the other day when he said "I don't know how Wenger can look Sanchez in the eye with the shower of shit he's put him with." No way he'll still be here next season.

I'd add Ozil to that list, either of which should be reason for AW to depart at any other club.
I know he's previously survived the departures of the likes of AA, Hleb, Fabregas & RVP etc - even going back to he likes of PV & TH, but I wonder if AW is capable of surviving the potential departures of our 2 most expensive signings?

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

How poor was van Persie by the way?!

He was both insignificant and irrelevant,
and I care not.

Being beaten by the worst united team in a decade or two.. should be shocking but nothing suprises me any more about this team.. same shit, different day until that man is gone.

Sanchez was playing way to deep for my liking.. He is our only real goal threat atm. Needs to stay in advanced position, we already have enough player capable of making useless passes around the centre ccircle

Yet again we pushed all the outfield into their half when 0-1 down.
The only reason Monreal was in our half for their 2nd was because he'd just retrieved a ball to start the move off.

Same lessons not learned re Anderlecht and Swansea.
AW will live and die by his sword.

So disappointed with the result, somewhat glad that I missed the majority of the match in the end.

asajoseph wrote:

Which is worse - failing to beat the worst Spurs side I've seen in years, or failing to beat the worst Utd side since before the Ferguson era?

I think this was worse, but I'm still trying to decide.

We got beaten by United so I'd argue this was worse.

I still can't believe we failed to score against a team with Tyler Blackett at the heart of their defence.

Their defence was/is terrible. We made De Gea look much better than he is too, shooting straight at him the second we got the chance.

Yeah, this raving about Da Gea's performance is nonsense.
Quite a few of those shots were glorified passes right into his hands.

Our shooting was incredibly poor. How has Wenger gone from Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, etc to this shower of feebs?

Ramsey's goal scoring got Wenger out of gaol last season, that and his great luck that Sagna, Per, Kos and Gibbs were fit for pretty much the whole season.