That Sanchez header was an easy enough save. I don't think any PL keeper would've let that past them.

The time he came out early to Ox I felt he was very lucky. Chamberlain seemed to be taken by surprise but if he'd had any composure he'd easily have scored there.

I'll have to look at it again. I thought it was a good save at the time though. It was from a relatively close distance, it caught him with the weight on the wrong leg and it went close to him which made it difficult to get down in time.

There was a man guarding the near post behind him when he came out for Chamberlain too. Even if Ox had gotten the shot past him I think it would have been saved.

Anzac wrote:

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Shit result, shit performance (flatters to deceive as always), shit player and a shit manager. Fucking hate our midfield. Wilshere was our best midfielder today and he was damn near abysmal. There is no thought or plan behind the way we play. We pressed fairly decent today and created a few chances against a piss poor man u side, but couldn't score goals. I fucking hate this current side. I would sell every player except for Sanchez. Get rid of Wenger, sell 8-10 players and start over. This team is a mess.

You're not alone in feeling that way - Yuvken's said much the same earlier in this thread.
At this rate with another 2 seasons of more of the same shite I dare say that it may well be the case that the squad is beyond salvation.
In which case why not go for revolution rather than evolution?

Been saying this for ages. Sell most of the squad.

The midfield especially sucks. 

Amazingly, I thought at the start of the season that midfield might be our strength. Got that wrong.

I don't actually think we need a massive clear-out though - almost none of our players are playing anywhere near their best. What we need is a rebalancing & a new manager.

You don't need Mourinho to get a whole lot more out of this squad. Our absurd defensive personnel issues would be a problem for any manager, but our midfield & attack could do a whole lot more under most managers IMO.

I'm sorry, but Mourinho won't make our defence any better, unless he brings Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Courtois and Luis with him. His teams always defend better, because his teams always have great defenders.

We had Szczesny, Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal and Gibbs out there. That's a bog standard defence.

Don't think there's much to extract from this lot. Sanchez is playing just fine in this very same setup. The rest are simply just not very good.

Our midfielders are useless. Can't create, nor can they defend. Good for nothing except 5 yard passes and running out of position.

There's a general recurring thought process that a team simply requires the correct instructions and they will perform. For instance, get Bould to run his Graham offside traps with the defence and they will eventually be able to successfully implement it.

Coaching can make a difference, but it's all about ability. Doesn't matter how much training you do, ultimately it boils down to the ability of the team. The team can't defend, because the players aren't good enough defenders?

When will it all end?

Partly you could blame the defensive issues to injuries to Koscielny and Arteta then the loss of Sagna, last year we were quite solid defensively. But Mourinho would not have Monreal as CB cover.

Chelsea had Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry/Luiz Cole/Azpilicueta in 12/13 the year before Mourinho came and they conceded 39 goals that season in the league. Next season Mourinho comes in, same defenders and they concede 27 league goals. He made a huge difference defensively and has reformed Terry who looked like he was finished in 2012.

I know - he tinkered for the first few months of the season and has now settled on a losing formula. Weird.

asajoseph wrote:

How many of the current lot are playing at their best? How many have we seen play a lot better than they have this season?

Chambers, Monreal, Szczesny, Gibbs, Wilshere, Welbeck, Giroud, Oxlade and many others haven't performed at a higher level to conclude that more can be brought out of them. 

Ramsey, Ozil, Cazorla, Mertesaker have played better in the past, but they all have major reasons why they aren't performing at their best. 

Koscielny, Walcott and Sanchez usually play their best in this same setup, and they are arguably our best players.

Klaus wrote:

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.

I figured you would faint from this result. After laughing at United all season long with their defence being dogshite, they proceeded to put out an even worser defence than imaginable against us, with their worst formation where Leicester scored 5 and MK fucking Dons scored 4 past and won.

This is by far the shittiest result against United in Wenger's era.

And this season to me is the worst in Wenger's era too because on paper it is one of the strongest and he could still screw it up this badly. We have only managed 1 win per month on average this season, so this season we have already met our quota with the Burnley victory. December can't come quick enough.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

I said two players and he'd fix us

GK, CB, DM, WF and CF should do it.

Those 4 (in the second paragraph) have at various times been our most important attacking players (apart from Özil, who should have been but has largely been disappointing).

Welbeck is doing significantly better for England than he is for us, and to a lesser extent Wilshere too. Chamberlain isn't getting anything like the kinds of results his general play SHOULD give.

These are all things that I'd expect to see any half decent manager do something about, but fact is almost none of our payers are really performing.

ultimate_warrior wrote:

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

I said two players and he'd fix us

GK, CB, DM, WF and CF should do it.

Honestly speaking, I know we are missing a proper DM and another CB. So what?

Any decent manager would have at least had a quality team like us in 2nd place right now considering how shit the rest is.