Arsenal v West Ham

Giroud is no Lewandoski or Ibrahimovich, but he's a decent striker and definitely somebody to keep in the squad. He used to be criticised for taking 5 or 6 chances to score one goal, but these days coming from the bench, he seems to have a pretty sudden impact more often than not.

 

I think it's because he offers something different, as well as the fresh legs thing.
Most of your attacking players are quick, skillful and tricky, while he's more direct and offers an aerial threat.
Tired defenders struggle to switch up their game when he's introduced.

 

True, but that goal last night was straight out of the Ronaldo / Bale school of shooting

 

Not sure I'd say that:

It was a bit delicate for their finishes, which tend to be bloody spiteful. Not a criticism, mind.

It shows what I was talking about, though.
Essentially wins an aimless hoof from the back in a physical battle with a big centre-half, near the halfway line.
You're not going to get that from any of your other attackers, in my opinion, and there's a time and a place for it.

 

He definitely adds that part about winning the ball and being able to hold it up and bring others into play. That finish was top drawer though

 

He was given far too much space, but he put it away well. Keeper had no chance.

For a former defender, Slaven Bilic doesn't seem to have put much steel into that back line, does he?
I think his days are numbered, to be honest.

 

Yep, can't see him lasting. They looked really good under Bilic for a while, but moving to the OS they look like a shell of their former selves.
Hopefully the same will happen to Spurs when they play at Wembley

 

It's nothing to do with the stadium, in my opinion.
They made a mess of the summer window, treated their fans like ****, didn't prepare for the extra long Europa qualifiers and they've paid the price.
It's not a great ground, by any means, but they turned it into a toxic environment for their team.
They expect to lose there and so do the fans, so they're ready to turn almost as soon as they start.

 

Was very interesting watching the spurs players after they equalised against Swansea last night in the 88th minute...no celebrating just legging back to get the game underway again. I commented on our match thread how different it was to what Arsenal did in the Bournemouth game.

 

It's the kind of thing that is instilled by the manager. Poch is a no nonsense manager. Wenger is the opposite, relaxed and trusting of his players and it's reflected in the players sometimes casual approach.

 

Think spurs have learned a couple of lessons like ensuring there is a known end for noisy fans to go to and it'll be different cos we ain't been ripped out of our home and dumped in a not fit for football stadium.
There are issues with wembley which we suffered from (think Arsenal did too back in the day but I might be wrong) but I think that was mostly because we were out of our depth in the CL tbh.

 

@remembercolinlee stop being lazy, we are waiting on you for the arsenal palace thread.