Bailey

McCarthy and Barry were still full of running at the end, it was just Osman.

Plus points, Baines and Barry were excellent.

Watching the first goal for them back, Jags and Distin have to do better too. They all switched off.

Osman was playing in an inside left channel so Besic would have been my man.

I cant believe that. We looked fairly comfortable, we had weathered the storm and I actually thought we were going to score again but the first goal was a shocker. What the fuck Coleman and McCarthy were doing I dont know. They had excelled defensively down that side all game and then they both looked like they had done their job and let Cazorla cross. We should have done better to track Ramsey but Osman doesnt have any legs as I mentioned before and in truth it was a matter of time before he was caught out. Its not his fault and IMO he shouldnt have been on the pitch because at the end of the game it was going to cause us problems and it did. The second goal wasnt much better, McGeady couldnt be arsed to track back, Osman couldnt cover because he doesnt have the legs leaving Baines overrun. The first cross was crap but Jags misjudges the header dreadfully which should have been bread and butter and Distin isnt anticipating that Jags will miss it. McGeady let his man run again later in the game as well and he really fucks me off. I almost dont care how many chances he creates because he fucks up twice as much. He isnt a player we can rely on IMO. Its those moments that his fresh legs should be so important to us and in some fairness he was doing alright on the right but bringing Atsu right and McGeady left alongside Osman fucked us over. I do think Martinez dropped a bollocks in the subs department but not for the reasons mentioned by others. Osman did alright early on but you just knew the game would pass him by in the last 20-30 and it might have even been earlier than that. Besic surely must be a better option. The second issue was bringing Mirallas off. He was a little frustrating but he should have stayed on ahead of switching McGeady because he was doing his job, even though he was knackered. Its so frustrating seeing more individual fuck ups costing us points. Its a shocker. We had done a lot well without being brilliant and we should have been home and hosed.

Fucking appalling.

Lazy from Coleman and McCarthy and Osman didn't have the legs to keep up with Ramsey.

I love Osman, he has been great for us but his legs have gone. The little pace he had has left him now and he doesn't have the reactions of someone like Barry.

Osman's lack of pace is causing us problems. I would swap him for Besic.

In all honesty we havent been that great and to be average and 2 up against Arsenal just shows that we can mix it with the top 4 teams. Other than Baines and Barry, I dont think anyone has stood out. Mirallas and Naismith have been guilty of wasting great opportunities (why Kev took the shot on from half way when we were 3 vs 2 I never know and I also dont think it was a pen). Naismith finished his chance well at the end though and it was great work from Rom in the build up showing good intelligence because I had my money on him shooting! On the ball Jags has worried me but he is reading he defensive game really well and him and Distin with Barry and especially McCarthy dropping in have done well. We have to start the second half with energy though otherwise we will be on to another Leicester. I am hoping to see us pop a couple of crisp passes forward and get into the Arsenal players faces. With Mirallas and Lukaku on the counter we can make them pay as they will pour forward. I do think the Osman switch might hurt us late in the game because a tiring Ossie could cause us an issue but he has done well enough so far.

We are a sub short! Strong starting 11 and bench (so far) though! Fear Ox starting for Arsenal.

Im not forgetting his mistakes at all but they have mainly been mistakes have been in the same areas. Generally claiming the ball from crosses and clearances. Im pretty sure he has a pretty big boot on him but he tries to place the ball as opposed to launch it but he has had varied success to say the least! For me his shot stopping and reflexes are good. He stays big in 1 v 1 situations and he has a great reach. His distribution at Wigan was pretty good (bar one mistake against Spurs) and he does try and play from the back as opposed to launch it straight down the middle. His positioning is good too. I admit that if I had only seen him for us, I would be pretty worried, because he certainly hasnt inspired confidence but I am hoping that the promise he showed at Wigan will come through. Im pretty sure we will be seeing him in various comps this season so lets bloody hope so!

Robles has disappointed me in his command of his area and his inability to catch the ball from crosses. He needs to sort that out urgently but his all round game is pretty solid for a keeper that age and his shot stopping is pretty good. He managed to replace Al Habsi AT Wigan when he was in the form of career so he definitely has the ability in him. I think some of the stick he does get is a little unnecessary because Howard makes the same mistakes and it barely gets mentioned, but then again he has earned or trust and proven his quality.

I don't think I saw Sanchez complete a pass/dribble. Ox was far more productive when he came on.

I bet that under Moyes you were moaning that we didn't get enough information as well.

Yeh they have looked leaky all game. Sanchez, Ramsey, Giroud all poor. Chamberlain looks sharp since he came on but that's it.

I dont remember it being any different, its probably just that Martinez is more open with the media so you hear more quotes. I dont see how not giving any dates its better than giving some sort of rough time-frame? Your just moaning for the sake of moaning.

Rojo is poor from what I have seen of him so thats good news!

Maybe its because every person is different and every players body will react in different ways to different injuries? 2 players wont recover in the same time frame so I dont see why everyone is bitching and moaning that the prognosis isnt exactly right. Even if the same player went to 3 different doctors they are likely to get 3 different time frames.

I agree. He still has no idea what really went wrong and he took no steps to address those issues. Even if you gave him 10 season's and all the money in the world they wouldn't have won the league.

That second goal was brilliant.

Iv only heard the one story. Learn more after the scan and it could be from 6 weeks to 5-6 months.

They do which is why I said his build up play is excellent but there are so many times (including against Leicester) when he has a few options and he picks the worst one. If he had that final ball though, he wouldnt be playing for us!

Why are we saying back to high tempo? We played pretty high tempo in the first half against Leicester! Just a shame about the second!

Oh and Paddock, Martinez conceeded goals for fun at Wigan because he had god awful defenders and when he brought them in (especially in the later years) they got injured. I watched plenty of Wigan games where they were excellent defensively and sides barely had a sniff. I have also seen them play really well as a team defensively only for some idiot (yes I am pointing at the Caldwells!) to do something stupid. Our defence creaks when our tempo drops and a lot of that comes from the midfield. We didnt give them a sniff first half (which seems to have been forgotten) and we also didnt give them a sniff when the tempo increased after we conceded. We let Leicester dictate and paid the price.