hard to say anyone outside of alexis in this squad has been excellent all season.

Koscielny has been superb. Gibbs has been hit and miss. He was a hit today though.

Missed the game. I understand that Giroud played as CF and Welbeck as WF, how this worked out?

Klaus wrote:

Koscielny has been superb. Gibbs has been hit and miss. He was a hit today though.

In recent weeks he has come into form Gibbs.  In an interview a few weeks ago he said he feels like he is playing more freely now.  Whereas before he was always worried about the next injury

I don't get the Gibbs talk. It's OK for people to have opinions, and when it doesn't work to go all "I told you so".
But when you just see you were wrong about someone - just zip it, be happy about the positive surprise and move on. 

Gibbs has not only been good all year, he's been much better than he was credited with in previous years, and those who didn't have any agenda (croc, no attack sense, etc.) could see he was improving steadily all the time. The only times his form dropped were directly related with injuries - of course it was a big issue with him, but it is so with Jack and several others.

About a year ago it became clear as day he was our better LB, and that does not say Nacho is poor - he's not. To me Gibbs is one of the best LBs in the league, and certainly the best english one (yes, I know who the others are). The added confidence helped him going forward, but there's nothing new here - his talent was easy to spot a long time ago.

You seem particularly interested in repeating that point in every thread, Yuv. It'd be easier to just accept that some have a differing opinion when it comes to what Gibbs has accomplished so far. People have given their reasons for not rating him as highly as you.

Klaus wrote:

You seem particularly interested in repeating that point in every thread, Yuv. It'd be easier to just accept that some have a differing opinion when it comes to what Gibbs has accomplished so far. People have given their reasons for not rating him as highly as you.

Didn't notice I was doing that   . Thing is Gibbs just is terribly underrated, and he's been underrated for 2-3 years now. It now seems like the time to just accept it - he's a good LB, period. You don't need to agree with me on him being the best in England, but notice he's been playing for England recently   .

That point early in the game when Nacho seemed to have an off day (that's the other thread you meant?   ) - enter Gibbo, no more heart attacks, hoofing the ball for no reason, and IMO he actually helped us get a firm hold on the game (it looked quite shaky at the start).

But I'll leave it be, I promise (can I keep the Kos and Ramsey drums, please?    )

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Rex was right, should have rested Sanchez. Didn't serve us to have him out there running on fumes. Can't see that we wouldn't have won with Ox on the pitch instead.

:gape:  Was that the case? :angry:
Missed the match as i had to take the brats shopping. :john:

Good win that. Players are visibly putting in a better defensive shift, and it certainly benefits our rookie goalkeeper.

Cazorla was excellent in everything but his finishing, but that is a real issue since so many of our chances fall to him when played at 10. 2 years ago he would have scored about 4 goals in our last 3 games I reckon.

Giroud had a good comeback.

Welbeck was ok. Thumping header from a massive jump too! Still too hesitant, and passes when he should look to finish himself. I am not sure I like what his goal today will bring going forward though; for me, the most likely scenario is Wenger seeing him as a valid option out wide, and I don't think he should be considered as such. The whole point, the way I see it, of having Giroud back is that we can rotate the CF position and avoid running one player into the ground. Welbeck has player a LOT of football lately, both for club and country, and was obviously coming back from some sort of minor injury. Why play him at all today then, when there are other options?

Yeah, personally I think we got away with one today regarding Alexis. I was dead worried all game that he'd pull up suffering from a muscle tear. When he is this jaded he also isn't even close to his best. I certainly stand by what I said prior to the game that he should have been rested today.
Knowing Wenger though, I think he will play Alexis both mid-week and next weekend too. Seems utterly stupid to me.

Wenger is weird, is all. Welbeck playing non-stop since we bought him, injured for the midweek game against Dortmund, Wenger desperate to play him today. On the wing...

And why the F*** did he have Alexis at CF when Eeyore went off??!!

I'd be frustrated as hell if I was Podolski or Campbell.

It is pretty ironic that we have these players who don't play - Podolski, Rosicky, Campbell in particular - had we sold them in the summer and taken Cesc back at £27m, which we obviously could have, it probably would have cost us about the same money. Meanwhile, Cesc is tearing the league up for that lot.

Having watched the extended highlights on Arse.com, I have to say I missed how very poor Chambers was for Berahino's header off the bar. Chambers knew it was his man to mark, and he knew where he had him moments before the ball was played out for the cross. Then, when it is obvious there is going to be a cross coming in, he STILL manages to lose him with just a little movement from Berahino.

Also, Ramsey was involved in a LOT that we created, and he was in a good defensive position every time West Brom had something at our end.

I thought that both Rambo & Cazorla both had good games, if for no other reason than Cazorla moved the ball quicker and Rambo was free to move with more space in the middle as a result.

I didn't catch the last 20 minutes - is that when Chambers game went to shit?

Thought he had played quite well prior.....