Our Inexperience at a Title Fight

[WengerFaithful]

I suppose now is a good time to start this tread while we are Top as if done after a bad week-end it would be seen as knee-jerk.

Two games in particular gave me great concern regarding the squad and managements inexperience at a title charge. The match against Newcastle for me really highlighted something that was worrying me; the way we surrendered possession for the last 12-15 minutes including extra time and just sat deep defending without any ambition to secure a second goal. It was frightening to see the team become paralysed like that – nobody wanting to take responsibility.

The same happened again last night along with the team again becoming paralysed by their natural game. From the start of the second half we played cautiously, safely without being dynamic – now I know 2-0 is said to be the worse score line for giving up points but we stopped playing our offensive game with 45 minutes to go with the mentality of keeping what we have.

This is where Wenger/Bould have to earn their corn you cannot let your midfield drop on to your back line inviting pressure ensuring that we continue to play our natural game.

The squad bar Özil have not been in a Title Race. I will nod a hat also to the Metz and Poldolski who have experience with Germany at the latter stages of big International Tournaments. Flamini though on the fringes at AC Milan will have experience but that is about it – this has to have an effect on the pitch.

Even Wenger has not been in this position since 2008 and Bould with his Management cap on – has none.

The defensive shape of this team and confidence to see out a lead is very reassuring but we have to have a functioning offensive team during these pressure moments to ensure unnecessary points are not dropped.

With Man City and Chelsea picking up speed in the title race and only under extreme circumstances will drop points – as for us we look like each game takes its toll just that little bit more and sooner rather then later mentally it will have an impact. Both their Managers and Squads have the experience edge over Arsenal when it comes to this type of match by match challenge. Fighting for a Champions League spot and fighting to be Champions are completely different.

Can this squad continue to gain experience without dropping points I am not so sure.

 

[GoonerBoy19]

Feb-March will be huge for the club. Any potential upset will put the team in tremendous pressure. Hopefully we will get a positive result against Bayern which will lift the team up.

 

[ArsenesNO1Fan]

Wenger certainly has the title race experience. Being able to defend a lead is 1 of the most important attributes for a team and this team has done it through 2013 and still into 2014.

City and Chelsea are on good runs now but if the goals dry up so will their points.

 

[celestis]

Listen if we did not have enough experience and maturity for a title fight we would not be in the position we are in . We Have the experience , composure and the ability to grind out results .it's whether that is enough to combat the quality and depth of City and Chelsea .

 

[Jury]

We've got bits of experience in the side; management has plenty all round. We need to keep learning and keep evolving. Doing what we did last night wont work every time. Wenger and Bould need to look at that and find another way, because Per wont be there every game and we're just putting too much faith in sh!t we have no control over.

 

[say yes]

Two games in particular gave me great concern regarding the squad and managements inexperience at a title charge. The match against Newcastle for me really highlighted something that was worrying me; the way we surrendered possession for the last 12-15 minutes including extra time and just sat deep defending without any ambition to secure a second goal. It was frightening to see the team become paralysed like that – nobody wanting to take responsibility.

The same happened again last night along with the team again becoming paralysed by their natural game. From the start of the second half we played cautiously, safely without being dynamic – now I know 2-0 is said to be the worse score line for giving up points but we stopped playing our offensive game with 45 minutes to go with the mentality of keeping what we have.

Those two games did the opposite of worry me to be honest, didn't feel like we were going to concede in either of them. Been a while since I've felt so comfortable when the team is ahead.

If we do win the league title this season it will be because of our defence.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

We have the experience in my opinion we have experience players like Sagna Mertesacker in defense Arteta Flamini Rosicky in midfield Podolski Cazorla in attack and our young players have a really good mental strength. in some games you have just to set deep and defend your lead if you see Man City they did that against Newcastle cuz they learnt from their mistakes in early days this season they were play open the whole game and get punished and drop points.

if Cazorla didn't make this mistake against Villa we could come out with clean sheet. Aston Villa didn't create nothing at 2nd half until we gift them the goal. i'm sure we will do the same against Southampton if we are winning.

 

[GoonerBoy19]

As Wenger said no one will believe until they win it. I feel they are determined and have the hunger to win it this time. Only time will tell how they will deal with tougher challenges. We dint do that bad during the busy festive schedule. The points dropped in Everton and Chelsea games at home was the only low point. Hope we will improve even further in the second half of the season. It's been a decade, we all want it desperately and i am sure Wenger want it even more.

 

[Wouterus]

Rosicky won the title with Dortmund in 2002 and we have several players who were there during the fight for the title in 2008. Giroud and Arteta won titles in weaker leagues. It's been a long time since we had this many experience. If we don't win the title in the end I don't think it will have anything to do with a lack of experience at a title fight.

 

[tap-in]

Two games in particular gave me great concern regarding the squad and managements inexperience at a title charge. The match against Newcastle for me really highlighted something that was worrying me; the way we surrendered possession for the last 12-15 minutes including extra time and just sat deep defending without any ambition to secure a second goal. It was frightening to see the team become paralysed like that – nobody wanting to take responsibility.

The same happened again last night along with the team again becoming paralysed by their natural game. From the start of the second half we played cautiously, safely without being dynamic – now I know 2-0 is said to be the worse score line for giving up points but we stopped playing our offensive game with 45 minutes to go with the mentality of keeping what we have.

Those two games did the opposite of worry me to be honest, didn't feel like we were going to concede in either of them. Been a while since I've felt so comfortable when the team is ahead.

If we do win the league title this season it will be because of our defence.

I think Ramsey, Özil & Wilshere may have something to say about that

tbh yes the back 5 have been great but as they say, its a team effort

 

[GoonerBoy19]

Very true back 5 have been great, but its a team game. Even the Nicklas Bendtner goal was as important as any defensive performance by the Back 5 :bounce

 

[CurryFlavoured]

I agree with say yes. The defence gets overlooked but they've won us several games particularly the tricky away ones like last night. I'd say it would be difficult to find a game where none of Bac, Kos or Per were one of the best players on the pitch, because we generally have at least one of them putting in a standout defensive performance.

 

[WengerFaithful]

I agree with nearly all that has been said regarding our defense and being able to hold on to a lead - which I did mention in the opening post - the point I am trying to have evolved is how we have approached the full 90 minutes in these games.

We have in all purposes put intense pressure (unneccesarily) on the defence for large portions of these games. Pressure that wont be held back each and everytime. Benteke had a bad headed miss with 3 minutess to go to equalise for Villa - Newcastle didn't have the guile to break through - but this isnt always going to be case.

But for both of these games we abandoned our Offensive game and surrendered the ball - not our natural game. We had scored the highest amount of goals in the last 10 minutes of matches last season while having a sound shape at the back esp in the last 10-15 games we need to find that part of our game back.

I believe it is a title fight mentalitly now to do just enough on the scoreline and then play it safe - run dowm the clock etc. It is not a natural way for this team to play and it is being spawned by the fact that their is so much at stake.

I for one am not asking for Full Backs to live in the oppostion half but their is a pattern developing.

Yes we have experience (Age) as mentioned but very few recent title fighting experience.

 

[Crooner]

But for both of these games we abandoned our Offensive game and surrendered the ball - not our natural game. We had scored the highest amount of goals in the last 10 minutes of matches last season while having a sound shape at the back esp in the last 10-15 games we need to find that part of our game back.

This is important.

Surrendering the ball against teams with players that can hurt you has cost us points and will cost us points this season. We should have pressed on against Everton when we went one-up a few weeks back (the measly two points that it cost us) taking the wind out of our sails before Napoli and City. The team needs to find it's attacking mojo back, the only way for that to happen is to drop Cazorla and bring in Poldi to do some footwork behind defences. Look at how fluent we were when Ramsey was in the side to make runs. His partnership with Özil earned the points that kept us top for a long part of the season.

The good thing is that the team is having a dip in form across the board at the moment, performances like the Napoli game will come again this season. If we can get some fluency and rhythm in the middle again before Ramsey's return, we'll be in good shape before the big run of games in late February to March.

 

[Inthe blood]

It is not a natural way for this team to play and it is being spawned by the fact that their is so much at stake.

It's pretty much been that way for going on a year now, I would say it is a part of our game and tactics. I would much rather our current set up than go looking for a third and concede, we have been very naive in the past... working on the counter after a two goal lead with our defense is the right way to approach games especially away from home.

This current team can not be labelled inexperienced imo, we have great mix of players which has helped build a winning mentality. We have played with our backs against the wall for a while, it can only reinforce the unity we have shown on the pitch.

 

[CurryFlavoured]

Ramsey's return will be big. I know Wilshere is playing well and is obviously a great player to fill in but Ramsey was performing on a different level, if he comes back in the player he was in the first half we'll be adding one of the the best midfielders in the league to our starting 11. He isn't as guaranteed to keep his form as others though, he's still young and is having his first standout season for us. If he comes back into the team playing like he was at the start of the season it will be a huge boost to our title run.

The big games are key, we'll continue to do very well in the tricky games against mid table opposition where our opponents might drop points but games like City and Utd at home and Chelsea away could really prove crucial. I know people will say 'You don't have to win the big games' but if we go on a slump in that difficult run of fixtures we might not get another opportunity to catch City the way they've/the refs have been performing lately.

 

[WengerFaithful]

Lets see how the Fulham and Southampton Fixtures play out and see if this 'concern' of mine has legs.

Winning ugly does give a team character and belief - but we could have won a couple of these games without the pressure we have brought on to ourselves in those games by just being ourselves.

Just to repeat to those who are mixing up my statement - Title Fighting Experience is different to players with Experience. Terry, Vidic, Lampard, Yaya Toure etc will all testify to this.

 

[Chappers]

What many fail to realise is we are going through a bad injury situation with both Özil and Ramsey out injured in recent weeks. We dealt with it as well as could be hoped taking a maximum amount of points during that time. Now Theo is out for the rest of the season but we continue to grind out results. Arteta and Gibbs have been out as well for a couple of games recently but we've stood firm. We are certainly fighting more than playing atm but we get the results and when we get Ramsey back we can rotate more and stay more fresh in central midfield.

 

[SA Gunner]

Our so called inexperience is what most pundits and opposition fans are holding onto now, after passing so many "tests".

That being said, I would like us to introduce more of a balance into our side, and that involves rediscovering our ability to get out of sight and then introduce defensive structure. This of course with the ability to kill teams on the counter attack as well.

We have done well this year, and the statistics show that we are able to do this over a 38 game period, so from an ability and experience point of view we have the ingredients to surprise many this year. We just need to do things better.

 

[Floating]

Two games in particular gave me great concern regarding the squad and managements inexperience at a title charge. The match against Newcastle for me really highlighted something that was worrying me; the way we surrendered possession for the last 12-15 minutes including extra time and just sat deep defending without any ambition to secure a second goal. It was frightening to see the team become paralysed like that – nobody wanting to take responsibility.

The same happened again last night along with the team again becoming paralysed by their natural game. From the start of the second half we played cautiously, safely without being dynamic – now I know 2-0 is said to be the worse score line for giving up points but we stopped playing our offensive game with 45 minutes to go with the mentality of keeping what we have.

Those two games did the opposite of worry me to be honest, didn't feel like we were going to concede in either of them. Been a while since I've felt so comfortable when the team is ahead.

If we do win the league title this season it will be because of our defence.

Exactly. Surrendering possession late in the game has been a purposeful, tactical decision from Wenger, because of the faith he has in our defense.

This isn't necessarily our team showing our inexperience, it's Wenger making tactical subs, intentionally changing the shape of the team, and encouraging the opponent to come at us while we soak up the pressure. And it has worked.