totally missed the alarm clock. how's the game? any improvements made by the new formation?

not that andre santos offers us anything spectacular in the attack, too. dropping him altogether from the squad is fairly justified. tho from all the reviews i've been reading, vermy was terrible on LB. tho he has been out of sorts lately. pleased to hear kosc had a good game tho. giroud is a target man, we cant expect him to do what rvp did. he's practically scoring to survive now with all the burden on him

yea, city is in a much deeper cesspool than we are. really unlucky for the champs to be put in a group full of champs. it's like playing the quarters and semis earlier

most giroud goals seems to be one touch finishes right in front of the goal, which means he's adept positionally, like a poacher. remains to be seen if he has the technique to get past a man and score, or curl one in from outside the box. but as long as he scores goals no one's gonna complain

well with our central strikers not scoring much, and with gervinho enjoying a spell in the center, of course other flankers want a try in the center too. walcott has been asking for it a long time now, but i'm not sure about lukas. hasnt he been playing that position for a long time for germany?

he does have a point that he's not a classical winger. he's a goal scorer that's pushed wide. tbh we have a lot of central players pushed wide (arshavin, ramsey, poldi). and for the sake of argument, walcott and podolski(?) all outscored giroud. this is very irrelevant, but in my FIFA the main lineup was arsha/poldi/gerv. poldi ended up the 3rd top scorer of the season, and arshavin won top assist. giroud left the club the next season citing home sickness. totally irrelevant i know XD

^ like juve? i can see the three CBs, andre santos and sagna playing wing backs, arteta and wilshere in CM, santi as AM and walcott/giroud playing forward. the thing is i'm not convinced our wing backs are class. sagna is a classy full back yeah but can he do a winger's job? andre santos well we know how much trouble he's giving marcelo and dani alves in the brazil squad for places.

poldi n giroud are too bros i think for poldi to actually challenge giroud for the top spot. but at least, he shouldnt be over burdened with defensive duties which the left back is supposed to be mainly doing.

why? just getting a rest or something worse?

oh okay, phew

^ i was about to argue that with other RWs gervinho and oxlade out, walcott is sure to start. then i thought of last week...

... oh yeah, ramsey. the central midfielder.

hopefully the CL game is enough to convince both arsene and walcott that he has a future and more to offer for the club.

realistically, all the talk of new formations and partnerships are futile. we know it's gonna be ramsey playing RW.

oh hey, you're right. looks like alex has a better chance of playing

i still remember the fulham game years ago when vito mannone announced his name to the league. well we'll need something like that to keep out bryan ruiz and berbatov, those 2 are starting to forge a partnership. plus we always seem to struggle against fulham. i'm just hoping that their terrible away form is relevant today

clearly a confidence player, this guy. keep that confidence up n he be bangin goals in!

this is like watching man utd. ultra efficient in the final third, dismal defending at the back.

i see we are starting to put in crosses and playing a much more direct game. whenever sagna n walcott gets to the flank they would cross more often than do a back pass a la ramsey.

i realize giroud and poldi interchange positions sometimes. there was one moment when giroud was actually the guy putting in a cross, and he was the one tracking back to help out. a surprising sight to see the big man defending the flanks.

our passing has been better from last week, but still quite atrocious. we tend to deliberate too long on the ball, resulting in a tackle in. maybe there's a lack of runners in front, because fulham surely is not playing park the bus. this is a game where we can win, it's just the matter of outscoring the opponent.

i like the team how it is, no substitutions please.

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Added on November 10, 2012, 11:55 pmjust realized szc is on the bench. scratch that, i'd like mannone out for szc please.

This post has been edited by Thumpy Ick: Nov 10 2012, 11:55 PM

bryan ruiz is class, expected no less from the man. berbatov is his usual classy but arrogant self.

i got one bone to pick with the team. why the h would you hand arteta, who conceded the penalty, who had a terrible game, the penalty task? GIROUD SHOULD HAVE TAKEN IT! the man is on a hat trick, has beaten schwarzer twice! i would understand not giving it to giroud IF arteta had a better game, but he had a stinker! heck even santi wouldve been a better option than arteta at the time, he was under no confidence to tuck in a penalty.

but look. we play direct, we get 3 goals. santi is our plan A, and he was dismal today. when plan A fails, you go to plan B which is walcott n sagna. and that has worked fantastically. when that happens, teams open up, stretches their backline. and when that happens, plan A can be used too. it's the variety of options in attack strategy that opens team up. not the same predictable old arsenal. even the passing game of arsenal has deteriorated terribly. we kept back passing and putting pressure on players, when a quick release wouldve been easier. i notice no one's offering a short pass option too. it's like no one wants the ball. i say we stick to crossing until we get some confidence to start playing the beautiful game again.

i have a positive thing to say. we developed a plan B. and teams know we have a plan B. that means we're not that predictable anymore. albeit just a little bit less predictable.

tho the negative thing is, we lost whatever defence we had in the earlier days. and mannone is fastly becoming the new almunia. get out son. szc deserves a place

berbatov's a diva. he needs the team to rely on him. and he has a very good playmaker and partner in bryan ruiz. but would he be a fit here? i cannot imagine a picture of arsene and berbatov smiling to each other, i just cant

well i said it at half time, this game was like seeing a man utd game. we're scoring and we're conceding, it's a race between the two. sadfully unlike man utd who tends to end up 3-2, we conceded one more.

fulham pressed us all over the pitch, and we resorted to passing in our own half. meanwhile, when fulham had the ball they were leisurely passing the ball around at the center. it's like playing at craven cottage!

tho tbh, with the home fans like that, it's like playing away every week.

and i cannot believe i forgot to mention the other french guy.

LE KOSC IS LE BOSS TODAY. if giroud got us two goals, he prevented two goals leaking in. vital that these two frenchmen are high on confidence, they seem to thrive with it.