Will The New Pitch Size Benefit Us?

[Legend#1]

Of course it'll suit us.

Just like it suits Barca playing at the big Camp Nou.

 

[Ricky_AFC]

With all our pace and make teams chase us when we play keep ball it'll definitely benefit us. The dimensions for the pitch were Wenger's idea so naturally he has picked the best size for us to take advantage of.

 

[flaunt]

Hell yeah.

After all, many newspeople in the past have remarked about just how quick and how much stamina our players have (playing 70 minutes with 10 men aside).

Unfortunately, it will be a little harder to defend - so much width to stretch our defense - but I think as long as we have a team with pace after the Wenger years, we'll still be in good shape.

 

[Anonymous]

lets not forgett


this will also improve/benifit teams that come here, not just us

 

[jester]

lets not forgett


this will also improve/benifit teams that come here, not just us

thats true, most teams were not used to highbury's size.
that said, on an even basis, we're better than most teams anyway, and it'd give us a better chance away from home, in places like the reebok

 

[Tony Montana]

I can remember reading or hearing somewhere that the actual pitch playing size at the emirates stadium, will be bigger than highbury, but not actually as big as some people think. Im pretty sure its going to be smaller than old trafford etc. So basically its going to be a Medium - Large playing surface.

I've heard that it will be the biggest pitch in the premier league.

 

[Number8]

The pitch at the Grove will be 113 × 76 metres. Whereas Old Trafford is 105 x 68 metres.

 

[jester]

The pitch at the Grove will be 113 × 76 metres. Whereas Old Trafford is 105 x 68 metres.

which means alot of holes in between defenders for our runners. gives the likes of hleb and cesc more room.

 

[Number8]

The pitch at the Grove will be 113 × 76 metres. Whereas Old Trafford is 105 x 68 metres.

which means alot of holes in between defenders for our runners. gives the likes of hleb and cesc more room.

Exactly

And with King Kolo in defence, we have nothing to fear

 

[ashwin_eats]

the bigger pitch should definately help us. like it did agaisnt real madrid. plus the team we have now with all the youth in it preffer playing on a bigger pitch. probabely the arsenal of 4 or 5 years back would have really suffered because they didnt have the same pace as they do now. this will totally benifit us and help us on the road too.

smaller pitches could sometimes work against us too. like agaisnt villa real we had a tough time scoring at highbury and it was terrible at the el madrigal. a team which plays with thier backline litrelly sticking to each other caused us problems.

but i personally feel with all the pace we have got , it would really benifit us more than causing us problems.

 

[jester]

alot of teams went to highbury to sit behind the ball and beat us on the break, with a huge pitch defending for 90 will be alot harder

 

[Uri]

When I asked the very same question few months ago people told me I'm nuts...

Well, I think it's a great issue to discuss. And I'm afraid it could effect us badly.
A part of our soccer's magic was the Highbury pitch (including it's size) and I'm afraid it could be changed now...

 

[Number8]

When I asked the very same question few months ago people told me I'm nuts...

Well, I think it's a great issue to discuss. And I'm afraid it could effect us badly.
A part of our soccer's magic was the Highbury pitch (including it's size) and I'm afraid it could be changed now...

It shouldn't play too big a role, end of the day its the quality of football that counts. And we definetely do have quality players. 11 against 11 on the same pitch, I just hope our Arsenal 11 are better. By the looks of things, they are far better than most Premiership sides.

 

[Kraig]

wow, im shocked my thread got this much response. people are forgetting that we had one thing with us when we played at highbury, and thats a damn good crowd base. now it will be even bigger and louder!! This will be to our advantage at home, and like others have said, it will suit us at the bigger grounds in the league too.

 

[RC8]

It is complicated, but I think that the bigger pitch will suit us very well against average teams. Think about Reyes' second goal at the city of manchester stadium, that wouldn't have been possible at highbury.

Even if it was to hurt us (which I don't think will be the case), the team will adapt with time, so I can't see it being a negative thing under any circumstances on the medium term.

 

[LostAndFound]

wow, im shocked my thread got this much response. people are forgetting that we had one thing with us when we played at highbury, and thats a damn good crowd base. now it will be even bigger and louder!! This will be to our advantage at home, and like others have said, it will suit us at the bigger grounds in the league too.

It'll be bigger, for sure.

Louder?

Depends who gets those additional season tickets, you know? :twisted:

All I can say is that Highbury has been a fortress for the past years, and I remember people saying it was due to pitch size. I think, in the end, Ashburton will still be a fortress simply because its OUR ground... (and having that beautiful turf certainly doesn't hurt, you'll never see our groundsman pouring sand on the turf a la Chelsea...)

 

[Dougan17]

with Fabregas and Rosicky being far more direct than our central midfields of old who struggled at Wembley, I don't foresee a problem. Vieira has never been a terribly direct player and compared to the passes that a Rosicky or Fabregas will pick out, his passes slowed out counterattacks consiberably on the bigger pitch which will no longer be a problem as he plies his trade in serie b. The problem I see would be in there being much more space in front of our back line for Gilberto to worry about. He's not a very mobile DMF/HM and having so much space around him will be problematic.

 

[biglunn]

Im going to stick my neck out and say that size of pitch is almost insignificant compared with other factors.

There ARE pros and cons, but remember that there are pros and cons for the opposition too. Every single away ground has a bigger pitch than Higbury - some grounds the pitch is significantly bigger. Yet look at our away record last season - pretty crap eh?

Look at our 2001-02 season.... where we were unbeaten AWAY from home but losing a few games at home. And our 2003-04 season where again we were unbeaten away from home. In both cases the teams played a superb counter-attack game. If we can play like that then yes, bigger pitches are an advantage. But if we played like we did away last season then its a disadvantage.

So... pitch size is insignificant - tactics are far more important.

And one BIG factor is how the fans respond in the new stadium. Are they gonna make it feel like home? New stadiums are notorious for subduing home fans.

 

[Arsenal_FAN1983]

I'm confident we can adapt to the pitch size pretty quick.
Wembley? If we had played at Wembley it was in a final, so 1 game there every few seasons would have hardly benefited our adaptability to that kind of size.

 

[wingontravel]

yes it will. pires and bergkamp were the masters of highbury. now we have a new erawith the 4-5-1 formation. bigger pitch will give our midfielders more room to support Henry.

---------------------Lehmann

Eboue--------Toure---------Senderos------Cole

----------------------Gilberto
-------------Fabregas-------Rosicky
Hleb--------------------------------------Ljungberg
-----------------------Henry

Subs: Almunia, Djourou, Diaby, Walcott, VanPersie